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THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

GIFT  OF 

PROFESSOR 
GEORGE  R.  STEWART 


D 


£ 


7?. 


THE   WORKS    OF   TENNYSON 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK    •    BOSTON   •    CHICAGO  •    DALLAS 
ATLANTA   •    SAN   FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  Limited 

LONDON  •    BOMBAY  •    CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE  MACMILLAN  CO.  OF  CANADA,  Ltd. 

TORONTO 


THE 

WORKS  OF  TENNYSON 

WITH   NOTES    BY   THE   AUTHOR 


EDITED   WITH    MEMOIR 

BY 

HALLAM,    LORD    TENNYSON 


Ifcfo  got* 
THE    MACMILLAN   COMPANY 

1913 

All  rights  reserved 


Copyright,  1892,  1893, 
By  MACMILLAN  &  CO. 

Copyright,  1897,  1907,  1908, 
By  THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY. 

Copyright,  1913, 
By  THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY. 


Set  up  and  electrotyped.     Published  October,  1913. 


HUMANITIES 
GRADUATE 

SERVICE 


got 


NorfoootJ  $regg 

J.  S.  Cushing  Co.  —  Berwick  &  Smith  Co. 

Norwood,  Mass.,  U.S.A. 


fK5550 
F3ef 


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HUMANITIES 
GRADUATE 

sttvtce 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

Life     and     Work     of     Alfred     Lord 

Tennyson xi 

To  the  Queen  ......  i 

Notes 879 

Juvenilia 2 

Claribel 2 

Notes 879 

Nothing  will  Die     .....  2 

Notes  .                 879 

All  Things  will  Die          ....  3 

Notes 880 

Leonine  Elegiacs 3 

Notes 880 

Supposed  Confessions  of  a  Second-rate 

Sensitive  Mind 3 

Notes 880 

The  Kraken 5 

Notes 880 

Song .  6 

Lilian 6 

Notes 880 

Isabel      .......  6 

Notes 880 

Mariana 7 

Notes 880 

To 8 

Notes 880 

Madeline 8 

Notes 881 

Song  — The  Owl 9 

Notes 881 

Second  Song  —  To  the  Same  ...  9 

Recollections  of  the  Arabian  Nights      .  9 

Notes 881 

Ode  to  Memory 11 

Notes 881 

Song       .        .        .        .        .        .        .12 

Notes 882 

A  Character            13 

Notes 882 

The  Poet 13 

Notes 882 

The  Poet's  Mind 14 

Notes 882 


page 
Juvenilia  continued  — 

The  Sea-Fairies 14 

Notes 882 

The  Deserted  House       .        .        .        .15 

Notes 882 

\*>The  Dying  Swan 15 

Notes 882 

A  Dirge 16 

Notes 883 

Love  and  Death 17 

Notes 883 

The  Ballad  of  Oriana      .        .        .         .17 

Notes  .        .        .        .         .        .883 

Circumstance 18 

Notes 883 

The  Merman 18 

Notes 883 

The  Mermaid 19 

Notes .883 

Adeline 20 

Notes .883 

Margaret 20 

Notes 883 

Rosalind 21 

Notes 883 

Eleanore 22 

Notes 883 

'My  life  is  full  of  weary  days'      .         .  23 

Notes 884 

'  When  in  the  darkness  over  me '     .         .  24 

Notes 884 

Early  Sonnets 24 

1 .  Sonnet  to  — ■ —        ....  24 

Notes 884 

2.  Sonnet  to  J.  M.  K.          .         .        .  24 

Notes 884 

3.  'Mine    be    the    strength    of 

spirit' 24 

4.  Alexander 24 

Notes 884 

5.  Buonaparte 25 

Notes 884 

6.  Poland 25 

Notes 884 

7.  ' Caress 'd  or  chidden'      .        .        .25 

Notes 884 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

Juvenilia  —  Early  Sonnets  continued  — 

8.  'The  form,  the  form  alone  is  elo- 

quent'        25 

Notes 884 

9.  'Wan  sculptor,  weepest  thou'        .  26 

Notes 884 

10.  'If  I  were  loved,  as  I  desire  to  be'  26 

Notes 884 

11.  The  Bridesmaid    ....  26 

Notes 884 


The  Lady  of  Shalott,  and  other  Poems  : 

The  Lady  of  Shalott       .        .        .        .27 

Notes 885 

Mariana  in  the  South     ....  29 

Notes 885 

N^The  Two  Voices 30 

Notes 885 

The  Miller's  Daughter    ....  36 

Notes 886 

Fatima 38 

Notes 887 

(Enone    .         .         .  .         .         .39 

Notes 887 

The  Sisters 43 

Notes 888 

To 43 

The  Palace  of  Art            ....  43 

V/  Notes 888 

Lady  Clara  Vere  de  Vere        ...  48 

Notes  . 891 

The  May  Queen 49 

Notes 891 

New  Year's  Eve 50 

Notes 891 

Conclusion 51 

Notes 891 

^T4ie  Lotos-Eaters 53 

V  Notes 891 

Choric  Song 53 

Notes 891 

A  Dream  of  Fair  Women        .        .        .55 

Notes           892 

The  Blackbird 60 

Notes 894 

The  Death  of  the  Old  Year    ...  60 

Notes 894 

To  J.  S 61 

Notes 894 

On  a  Mourner 62 

Notes 895 

'You  ask  me,  why,  tho'  ill  at  ease'      .  63 

•     Notes 895 

.  'Of  old  sat  Freedom  on  the  heights'      .  63 

Notes 895 

'Love  thou  thy  land'      .         .         .         .63 

Notes 895 


TAGE 

The  Lady  of  Shalott,  etc.,  continued  — 

England  and  America  in  1782       .         .  65 

Notes 895 

The  Goose 65 

Notes 895 

English  Idyls  and  other  Poems: 

The  Epic 66 

Notes 895 

Morte  d'Arthur 67 

v   Notes 896 

The  Gardener's  Daughter;    or,  the  Pic- 
tures          71 

Notes 897 

Dora                75 

Notes  .         .        .        .  .898 

Audley  Court 78 

Notes 898 

Walking  to  the  Mail        ....  79 

Notes 898 

Edwin  Morris;   or,  the  Lake            .         .  81 

Notes 898 

St.  Simeon  Stylites          ....  83 

Notes 898 

The  Talking  Oak 86 

Notes 898 

Love  and  Duty 90 

Notes 899 

The  Golden  Year 91 

/  Notes 899 

>^Ulysses 93 

J  Notes 899 

^Tithonus 94 

Notes 900 

Locksley  Hall 95 

Notes 900 

Godiva 101 

Notes          ......  901 

The  Day-Dream 102 

Notes 902 

Prologue 102 

The  Sleeping  Palace    ....  102 

The  Sleeping  Beauty            .        .        .  103 

The  Arrival 103 

The  Revival 104 

Notes       .        .        .  •       .        .        .  90  2 

The  Departure 104 

Notes 902 

Moral 104 

L'Envoi 105 

Notes       .  " 902 

Epilogue 105 

Notes 902 

Amphion 105 

Notes 902 

St.  Agnes'  Eve        .        .        .        ,         .107 

Notes 902 

Sir  Galahad 107 

Notes 902 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

Edward  Gray 108 

Notes 902 

Will  Waterproof's  Lyrical  Monologue       .  108 

Notes 902 

Lady  Clare         .        .        .  '  .        .111 

Notes 903 

The  Captain 112 

Notes 903 

The  Lord  of  Burleigh  .        .        .        .113 

Notes 903 

The  Voyage 114 

Notes 904 

Sir  Launcelot  and  Queen  Guinevere    .        .115 

Notes 904 

A  Farewell 116 

Notes 904 

The  Beggar  Maid 116 

Notes      .         . 904 

/The  Eagle 116 

Notes 904 

'Move  eastward,  happy  earth,  and  leave'  116 

Notes 904 

'  Come  not,  when  I  am  dead '      .        .        .119 

Notes 904 

The  Letters 117 

Notes      .......  904 

The  Vision  of  Sin 117 

Notes 904 

To ,  after  reading  a  Life  and  Letters  120 

Notes 905 

To  E.  L.,  on  his  Travels  in  Greece     .        .  121 

Notes 905 

'Break,  break,  break'                            :  121 

Notes 905 

The  Poet's  Song 121 

Notes 905 

Enoch  Arden,  and  other  Poems: 

Enoch  Arden 122 

Notes 905 

The  Brook               136 

Notes 906 

Aylmer's  Field 139 

Notes 906 

Sea  Dreams 152 

Notes 908 

Lucretius 157 

Notes 908 

The  Princess;  a  Medley       .        .        .161 

Notes gog 

Ode  on  the  Death  of  the  Duke  of  Wellington  212 

Notes 919 

The  Third  of  February,  1852      .        .         .216 

Notes 920 

The  Charge  of  the  Light  Brigade        .    \     .  217 

Notes      .         .        ,        ,        .        .    . ■     .  921 


/I  page 
/Ode  sung  at  the  Opening  of  the  Interna- 
tional Exhibition 217 

Notes 92  r 

A  Welcome  to  Alexandra   .        .        .        .218 

Notes 921 

A  Welcome  to  Her  Royal  Highness  Marie 

Alexandrovna,  Duchess  of  Edinburgh     .     219 

Notes 921 

The  Grandmother 220 

Notes 922 

Northern  Farmer.     Old  Style     .        .        .223 

Notes 922 

Northern  Farmer.     New  Style  .        .225 

Notes 922 

The  Daisy 227 

Notes 922 

To  the  Rev.  F.  D.  Maurice        .        .        .229 

Notes 922 

Will 229 

Notes 922 

In  the  Valley  of  Cauteretz  .         .         .229 

Notes 922 

In  the  Garden  at  Swainston       .        .        .230 

Notes      .         .         .         ...         .         •     922 

The  Flower 230 

Notes      .......     922 

Requiescat 230 

Notes 923 

The  Sailor  Boy 230 

Notes 923 

The  Islet 231 

Notes 923 

Child-Songs 231 

Notes 923 

1.  The  City  Child  .        .        .        .     231 

Notes 923 

2.  Minnie  and  Winnie    .        .        .        .231 

Notes 923 

The  Spiteful  Letter    .        .        .        .        .     232 

Notes 923 

Literary  Squabbles 232 

Notes 923 

The  Victim 232 

Notes 923 

Wages 233 

Notes  .  .  .  .  * .  •  .923 
The  Higher  Pantheism       .         .         .         .234 

Notes 923 

The  Voice  and  the  Peak     .         .         .         .234 

Notes      .        .        .  .        •        -923 

' Flower  in  the  crannied  wall'     .         .         .235 

Notes 923 

A  Dedication 235 

Notes •     923 

Experiments  : 

Boadicea         .        «        .        .        •        .235 
Notes 923 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

Experiments  continued  — 

In  Quantity 237 

Notes                   .                 .                 .  924 
Specimen  of  a  Translation  of  the  Iliad  in 

Blank  Verse 238 

Notes 925 

The  Window;    or,   the   Song   of   the 

Wrens: 

The  Window 239 

Notes 925 

On  the  Hill 239 

At  the  Window 239 

Gone 239 

Winter 239 

Spring 240 

The  Letter 240 

No  Answer 240 

The  Answer 240 

Ay 241 

When 241 

Marriage  Morning          ....  241 

UiH  Memoriam  A.  H.  H 241 

Notes 925 

Maud  :  A  Monodrama     .        .        .        .281 

Notes             940 

Idylls  of  the  King.    In  Twelve  Books : 

Dedication 302 

Notes 945 

The  Coming  of  Arthur    ....  303 

Notes 946 

The  Round  Table  .        .  .311 

Notes 948 

Gareth  and  Lynette  .        .        .311 

Notes 948 

The  Marriage  of  Geraint         .        .        .335 

Notes                   .        .        .        .        .  951 

Geraint  and  Enid 347 

Notes 953 

Balin  and  Balan 362 

Notes 954 

Merlin  and  Vivien 373 

Notes 955 

Lancelot  and  Elaine        .        .        .        .388 

Notes 9S6 

The  Holy  Grail 4IO 

Notes 9S7 

Pelleas  and  Ettarre         .        .        .        .425 

Notes 961 

The  Last  Tournament    .        .        .        .435 

Notes g6i 

Guinevere 447 

Notes Q63 

The  Passing  of  Arthur        ....  458 

Notes 964 

To  the  Queen 466 

Notes     .......  965 


The  Lover's  Tale 
Notes      . 


page 
467 
965 


To  Alfred  Tennyson,  my  Grandson      .  490 
Ballads  and  other  Poems: 

The  First  Quarrel 490 

Notes ,  .  966 

Rizpah 492 

Notes 966 

The  Northern  Cobbler    ....  494 

Notes 966 

The  Revenge :  A  Ballad  of  the  Fleet      .  497 

Notes 966 

The  Sisters 499 

Notes 967 

!    The  Village  Wife;    or,  the  Entail      .     .  504 

Notes 968 

In  the^Children's  Hospital      .         .         .  507 

Notes 968 

Dedicatory  Poem  to  the  Princess  Alice  .  508 

Notes 968 

The  Defence  of  Lucknow        .         .         .  509 

Notes 968 

Sir  John  Oldcastle,  Lord  Cobham            .  511 

Notes 968 

Columbus 514 

Notes 969 

The  Voyage  of  Maeldune        .        .        .518 

Notes 969 

De  Prof  undis : 

The  Two  Greetings     .         .        .        .521 

Notes 970 

The  Human  Cry          ....  522 

Notes 972 

Sonnets  : 
Prefatory    Sonnet    to    the    'Nineteenth 

Century' 522 

Notes 972 

To  the  Rev.  W.  H.  Brookfield         .        .522 

Notes 972 

Montenegro 523 

Notes 972 

To  Victor  Hugo 523 

Notes 973 

Translations,  etc.  : 

Battle  of  Brunanburh     ....  523 

Notes 973 

Achilles  over  the  Trench         .        .        .525 

Notes 973 

To  the  Princess  Frederica  of  Hanover  on 

her  Marriage 526 

Notes 973 

Sir  John  Franklin 526 

Notes           .         .         .        .        .        .  973 

\ /To  Dante 526 

»     Notes 973 


CONTENTS. 


TlRESIAS,   AND   OTHER   POEMS : 

Notes 973 

To  E.  Fitzgerald     .         .         .        .        .526 

Notes 974 

[/Tiresias 527 

'        Notes 974 

The  Wreck 530 

Notes 974 

Despair 533 

Notes 975 

The  Ancient  Sage            ....  536 

Notes 975 

The  Flight 540 

Notes 976 

To-morrow 543 

Notes 976 

The  Spinster's  Sweet-Arts       .         .         .  545 

Notes 976 

Locksley  Hall  Sixty  Years  after      .         -548 

Notes 977 

Prologue  to  General  Hamley           .         .  556 

Notes 977 

The  Charge  of  the  Heavy  Brigade  at 

Balaclava 556 

Notes 977 

Epilogue 557 

y  Notes 978 

(/To  Virgil 558 

Notes 978 

The  Dead  Prophet  .         .         .        -559 

Notes 978 

Early  Spring 560 

Notes 979 

Prefatory  Poem  to  my  Brother's  Sonnets  560 

Notes 979 

Frater  Ave  atque  Vale    .        .        .         .561 

Notes 979 

Helen's  Tower 561 

Notes 979 

Epitaph  on  Lord  Stratford  de  Redcliffe  .  562 

Notes          .."....  979 

Epitaph  on  General  Gordon    .        .         .  562 

Notes           .        .         .        .        .        .  979 

Epitaph  on  Caxton         .         .         .         .562 

Notes 979 

To  the  Duke  of  Argyll    .        .        .        .562 

Notes 979 

Hands  all  Round 562 

Notes 980 

Freedom 563 

Notes 980 

To  H.  R.  H.  Princess  Beatrice      .        .  563 

Notes 980 

The  Fleet 564 

Notes           ......  980 

Opening  of  the  Indian  and  Colonial  Ex- 
hibition by  the  Queen .        .        .        .564 

Notes 988 


PAGE 

Tiresias,  and  other  Poems,  continued  — 
Poets  and  their  Bibliographies        .        .565 

Notes 980 

To  W.  C.  Macready        .         .         .         .565 

Queen  Mary 569 

Notes 981 

Harold      . 636 

Notes              984 

Becket 676 

Notes 986 

The  Cup  .......  730 

Notes 990 

The  Falcon 746 

Notes      .......  991 

The  Promise  of  May      .        .        .        .756 

Notes 991 

Demeter,  and  other  Poems: 

To  the  Marquis  of  Dufferin  and  Ava     .  781 

Notes 993 

On  the  Jubilee  of  Queen  Victoria    .  782 

Notes 993 

To  Professor  Jebb 783 

Notes 993 

Demeter  and  Persephone        .        .        .  783 

Notes 993 

Owd  Roa 785 

Notes 994 

Vastness 788 

Notes 994 

The  Ring                 .         .        .        .        .  790 

Notes 994 

Forlorn            797 

Notes 994 

Happy 798 

Notes 994 

To  Ulysses      .         .         .        .         .         .802 

Notes 994 

To  Mary  Boyle 803 

Notes 995 

The  Progress  of  Spring   ....  804 

Notes 995 

Merlin  and  The  Gleam  .         .         .         .806 

Notes 995 

Romney's  Remorse          .         .         .         .  807 

Notes 996 

Parnassus 810 

Notes 996 

By  an  Evolutionist  .         .         .         .810 

Notes 996 

Far  —  far  —  away  .        .         .        .811 

Notes 997 

Politics 811 

Notes 997 


CONTENTS. 


Demeter,  and  other  Poems,  continued  — 
Beautiful  City         .... 

Notes 

The  Roses  on  the  Terrace 

Notes 

The  Play 

Notes 

On  One  who  affected  an  Effeminate 

Manner 

Notes 

To  One  who  ran  down  the  English 

Notes 

The  Snowdrop        .... 

Notes 

The   Throstle         .... 

Notes 

The  Oak 

Notes 

In  Memoriam  —  William  George  Ward 

Notes 

The  Foresters 814 

Notes 997 


811 
997 
812 
997 
812 
997 


812 
997 
812 
997 
812 
997 
812 
997 
812 
997 
813 
997 


The  Death  of  (Enone,  and  other  Poems 
June  Bracken  and  Heather     . 

Notes 

To  the  Master  of  Balliol 

The  Death  of  (Enone      .... 

Notes 

St.  Telemachus 

Notes 

Akbar's  Dream 

Notes 

The  Bandit's  Death        .... 

Notes 

The  Church-warden  and  the  Curate 

Notes 


Charity 

Notes 
Kapiolani 

Notes 
The  Dawn     . 

Notes 
The  Making  of  Man 

Notes 
The  Dreamer 

Notes 


851 
1000 

851 
851 

1000 
853 

1001 

854 

IOOI 

859 

1002 

860 

1002 

862 

1002 

863 

1002 

864 

1003 
865 

1003 
865 

1003 


The    Death    of    (Enone,    and    other 

Poems,  continued  — 
Mechanophilus 

Notes         .         .         .        .        • 
Riflemen  form !     . 

Notes 

The  Tourney 

Notes 

The  Bee  and  the  Flower      . 

The  Wanderer 

Poets  and  Critics  .... 

Notes 

A  Voice  spake  out  of  the  Skies     . 

Notes 

Doubt  and  Prayer         .... 

Notes 

Faith 

Notes 

The  Silent  Voices  .... 

Notes 

God  and  the  Universe 

Notes         .         .         . 
The  Death  of  the  Duke  of  Clarence  and 

Avondale 

Notes 

Crossing  the  Bar         .... 
Notes  


Additional  Poems  : 
•  'I,  Loving  Freedom  for  Herself' 
'Life  of  the  Life  within  my  Blood ' 

To 

The  Hesperides     . 

Song  of  the  Three  Sisters 
The  Statesman 
The  Little  Maid 
The  Ante-Chamber 
Three  Poems  omitted    from  '  In 
moriam ' 

The  Grave 

To  A.  H.  H.       . 

The  Victor  Hours 
Havelock 
Jack  Tar 


Me- 


865 
1003 

866 
1003 

866 
1003 

867 

867 

867 
1003 

867 
1003 

867 
1003 

868 
1003 

868 
1003 

868 
1003 

868 
1003 

869 
1003 


873 
873 
873 
873 
873 
875 
875 
876 

876 
876 
877 
877 
877 
877 


Notes       .... 
Index  to  the  First  Lines 
Index  to  'In  Memoriam' 
Index  to  Songs 


879 
1011 
1015 
1017 


LIFE   AND   WORK 

OF 

ALFRED    LORD    TENNYSON.1 

SOMERSBY. 

My  father  was  born  on  August  6,  1809,  at  the  Rectory  of  Somersby 
in  Lincolnshire,  the  fourth  son  of  a  family  of  eight  sons  and  four  daughters. 
The  parish  doctor  said  of  him  when  a  week  old  — 

Here's  a  leg  for  a  babe  of  a  week  !  and  he  would  be  bound 
There  was  not  his  like  that  year  in  twenty  parishes  round. 

The  Tennysons  trace  their  descent  through  a  long  line  of  Yorkshire 
and  Lincolnshire  squires  and  yeomen  from  John  Tenison  of  Holderness 
(1343),  and  according  to  Burke  are  the  co-representatives  with  the  Lords 
Scarsdale  of  the  ancient  family  of  d'Eyncourt.  My  father's  grandfather 
and  two  of  his  uncles  sat  in  Parliament.  His  father.  Dr.  Tennyson,  Vicar 
of  Somersby,  was  a  distinguished-looking  man,  cultivated,  and  fond  of 
languages  and  science.  He  was  a  competent  scholar  in  Latin,  Greek, 
and  Hebrew  and  Syriac,  and  something  of  a  poet,  a  painter,  and  a 
musician.  By  the  right  of  primogeniture  he  ought  to  have  inherited 
a  considerable  fortune,  but  his  father  disinherited  him  in  favour  of  his 
younger  son  Charles  Tennyson,  and  made  him  take  Holy  Orders,  for 
which  he  had  no  vocation,  and  this  unfitness  plunged  him  at  times  into 
deep  fits  of  melancholy.  He  was  a  man  of  the  highest  truth  and  honour, 
and  inspired  his  neighbours  with  a  certain  sense  of  fear,  though  he  was  a 
genial  and  brilliant  conversationalist.  His  children  were  all  by  nature 
poets,  and  Leigh  Hunt  aptly  described  them  as  "a  nest  of  nightingales." 
When  Alfred  was  a  boy,  one  of  his  earliest  recollections  was  his  grand- 
mother reading  to  him  "The  Prisoner  of  Chillon."  She  used  to  say,  "All 
Alfred's  poetry  comes  from   me."     This   brood   of   "nightingales"  lived 

1  [This  preface  to  the  poems  is  naturally  an  abridgment  of  my  Memoir  of  my 
father,  with  here  and  there  some  few  facts  added,  illustrating  his  character  or  the 
methods  of  his  work.  The  commentaries  and  notes  are  for  the  most  part  those  which, 
he  himself  jotted  down  or  bade  me  jot  down  for  posthumous  publication,.  —  T.J 

xi 


xii  LIFE  AND   WORK  OF  ALFRED  LORD   TENNYSON 

remote  from  towns  in  the  lonely  heart  of  the  country.  It  was  a  time 
of  storm  and  stress  in  Europe,  but  they  only  caught  dim  echoes  of  the 
great  storm,  and  "that  world-earthquake,  Waterloo." 

"According  to  the  best  of  my  recollection,"  writes  my  father,  "when 
I  was  about  eight  years  old,  I  covered  two  sides  of  a  slate  with 
Thomsonian  blank  verse  in  praise  of  flowers  for  my  brother  Charles,  who 
was  a  year  older  than  I  was,  Thomson  then  being  the  only  poet  I  knew. 
Before  I  could  read  I  was  in  the  habit  on  a  stormy  day  of  spreading  my 
arms  to  the  wind,  and  crying  out,  'I  hear  a  voice  that's  speaking  in  the 
wind,'  and  the  words  'far,  far  away'  had  always  a  strange  charm  for 
me.  About  ten  or  eleven  Pope's  Homer's  Iliad  became  a  favourite  of 
mine,  and  I  wrote  hundreds  and  hundreds  of  lines  in  the  regular  Popeian 
metre,  nay  even  could  improvise  them,  so  could  my  two  elder  brothers, 
for  my  father  was  a  poet  and  could  write  regular  metre  very  skilfully." 

The  note  continues  —  "My  father  once  said  to  me,  'Don't  write  so 
rhythmically,  break  your  lines  occasionally  for  the  sake  of  variety.' 

"'Artist  first,  then  Poet,'  some  writer  said  of  me.  I  should  answer, 
' Poeta  nascitur  non  fit' ;  indeed,  'Poeta  nascitur  et  fit.'  I  suppose  I  was 
nearer  thirty  than  twenty  before  I  was  anything  of  an  artist.  At 
about  twelve  and  onwards  I  wrote  an  epic  of  about  six  thousand  lines 
a  la  Walter  Scott,  —  full  of  battles,  dealing  too  with  sea  and  mountain 
scenery,  —  with  Scott's  regularity  of  octosyllables  and  his  occasional 
varieties.  Though  the  performance  was  very  likely  worth  nothing,  I 
never  felt  myself  more  truly  inspired.  I  wrote  as  much  as  seventy  lines 
at  one  time,  and  used  to  go  shouting  them  about  the  fields  in  the  dark. 
All  these  early  efforts  have  been  destroyed,  only  my  brother-in-law, 
Edmund  Lushington,  begged  for  a  page  or  two  of  the  Scott  poem.  Some- 
what later  (at  fourteen)  I  wrote  a  Drama  in  blank  verse,  which  I  have 
still,  and  other  things.     It  seems  to  me  I  wrote  them  all  in  perfect  metre." 

These  poems  of  uncommon  promise  made  my  grandfather  say  with 
pardonable  pride,  "If  Alfred  die  one  of  our  great  poets  will  have  gone," 
and  at  another  time,  "I  should  not  wonder  if  Alfred  were  to  revive  the 
greatness  of  his  relative,  William  Pitt." 

When  Alfred  was  seven  he  went  to  the  grammar  school  at  Louth, 
the  little  township  on  the  banks  of  the  river  Ludd,  but  he  hated  the 
constraint.  He  left  school  in  1820  and  returned  to  Somersby,  where  his 
father  taught  him  and  his  brother  Charles  until  they  went  to  Cambridge. 
They  read  the  great  authors,  —  the  ancient  classics,  and  Chaucer, 
Shakespeare,  Milton,  Dryden,  Bacon,  Hooker,  Bunyan,  Addison,  Burke, 
Goldsmith,  The  Arabian  Nights,  Malory's  Morte  D' Arthur.  The  earliest 
letter  from  him  that  has  survived  was  addressed  to  his  Aunt  Marianne 
Fytche.  It  is  an  amusing  piece  of  precocity  for  a  boy  of  twelve 
years  old. 


LIFE  AND   WORK   OF  ALFRED  LORD    TENNYSON  xiii 

SOMERSBY. 

My  dear  Aunt  Marianne  —  When  I  was  at  Louth  you  used  to  tell  me 
that  you  should  be  obliged  to  me  if  I  would  write  to  you  and  give  you  my  remarks 
on  works  and  authors.  I  shall  now  fulfil  the  promise  which  I  made  at  that  time. 
Going  into  the  library  this  morning,  I  picked  up  "Sampson  Agonistes,"  on  which  (as 
I  think  it  is  a  play  you  like)  I  shall  send  you  my  remarks.  The  first  scene  is  the 
lamentation  of  Sampson,  which  possesses  much  pathos  and  sublimity.     This  passage, 

Restless  thoughts,  that  like  a  deadly  swarm 
Of  hornets  arm'd,  no  sooner  found  alone, 
But  rush  upon  me  thronging,  and  present 
Times  past,  what  once  I  was,  and  what  am  now, 

puts  me  in  mind  of  that  in  Dante,  which  Lord  Byron  has  prefixed  to  his  "Corsair/' 
"Nessun  maggior  dolore,  Che  ricordarsi  del  tempo  felice,  Nella  miseria."  His 
complaint  of  his  blindness  is  particularly  beautiful, 

O  loss  of  sight,  of  thee  I  most  complain  ! 

Blind  among  enemies  !     O  worse  than  chains, 

Dungeon  or  beggary,  or  decrepit  age  ! 

Light,  the  prime  work  of  God,  to  me  is  extinct, 

And  all  her  various  objects  of  delight 

Annulled,  which  might  in  part  my  grief  have  eased 

Inferior  to  the  vilest  now  become 

Of  man  or  worm ;  the  vilest  here  excel  me  : 

They  creep,  yet  see ;  I,  dark  in  light,  exposed 

To  daily  fraud,  contempt,  abuse,  and  wrong, 

Scarce  half  I  seem  to  live,  dead  more  than  half. 

O  dark,  dark,  dark,  amid  the  blaze  of  noon, 

Irrecoverably  dark,  total  eclipse 

Without  all  hope  of  day  ! 

O  first  created  beam,  and  thou  great  Word, 

"Let  there  be  light !"  and  light  was  over  all.  — 

I  think  this  is  beautiful,  particularly 

O  dark,  dark,  dark,  amid  the  blaze  of  noon. 

After  a  long  lamentation  of  Sampson  the  Chorus  enters,  saying  these  words : 

This,  this  is  he.     Softly  awhile ; 

Let  us  not  break  in  upon  him : 

O  change  beyond  report,  thought,  or  belief  ! 

See  how  he  lies  at  random,  carelessly  diffused. 

If  you  look  into  Bp.  Newton's  notes,  you  will  find  that  he  informs  you  that 
"this  beautiful  application  of  the  word  'diffused'  is  borrowed  from  the  Latin." 
It  has  the  same  meaning  as  temere  in  one  of  the  Odes  of  Horace,  Book  the  second, 

Sic  temere,  et  rosa 
Canos  odorati  capillos, 


xiv  LIFE  AND  WORK   OF  ALFRED  LORD   TENNYSON 

of  which  this  is  a  free  translation,  "Why  lie  we  not  at  random,  under  the  shade  of 
the  platain  (sub  platano) ,  having  our  hoary  head  perfumed  with  rose  water  ?  "  To  an 
English  reader  the  metre  of  the  Chorus  may  seem  unusual,  but  the  difficulty  will 
vanish,  when  I  inform  him  that  it  is  taken  from  the  Greek.  In  line  1333  there  is 
this  expression,  "Chalybean  tempered  steel."  The  Chalybes  were  a  nation  among 
the  ancients  very  famous  for  the  making  of  steel,  hence  the  expression  "  Chalybean," 
or  peculiar  to  the  Chalybes  :  in  line  147  "the  Gates  of  Azzur"  ;  this  probably,  as 
Bp.  Newton  observes,  was  to  avoid  too  great  an  alliteration  which  the  "  Gates  of 
Gaza"  would  have  caused,  though  (in  my  opinion)  it  would  have  rendered  it  more 
beautiful :  and  (though  I  do  not  affirm  it  as  a  fact)  perhaps  Milton  gave  it  that 
name  for  the  sake  of  novelty,  as  all  the  world  knows  he  was  a  great  pedant.  I 
have  not,  at  present,  time  to  write  any  more ;  perhaps  I  may  continue  my  remarks 
in  another  letter  to  you,  but  (as  I  am  very  volatile  and  fickle)  you  must  not  depend 
upon  me,  for  I  think  you  do  not  know  any  one  who  is  so  fickle  as  —  Your  affectionate 
nephew,  A.  Tennyson. 

Byron,  who  is  mentioned  in  this  letter,  was  worshipped  by  my  father  in 
his  boyhood.  He  told  me  that  when  Byron  died  he  felt  stunned  and  "as 
if  the  world  had  been  darkened  "  for  him ;  and  he  could  only  rush  out 
into  the  wood  and  carve  on  the  sandstone  rock,  "Byron  is  dead."  In  his 
old  age  he  used  to  say,  "Byron  is  too  much  depreciated  now,  but  he  has 
such  force  that  he  will  come  into  his  own  again."  Through  these  early 
years  my  father  made  many  friends  among  the  Lincolnshire  farmers, 
labourers,  and  fisher  folk.  "Like  Wordsworth  on  the  mountains,"  said 
FitzGerald,  "Alfred  too,  when  a  lad  abroad  on  the  wold,  sometimes  of 
a  night  with  the  shepherd,  watched  not  only  the  flock  on  the  greensward, 
but  also  'the  fleecy  star  that  bears  Andromeda  far  off  Atlantic  seas.' 
Two  of  his  earliest  lines  were 

The  rays  of  many  a  rolling  central  star 

Are  flashing  earthward,  have  not  reached  us  yet." 

The  Lincolnshire  folk  were  apt  in  the  early  part  of  the  nineteenth 
century  to  be  uncouth  and  mannerless.  A  type  of  rough  independence 
was  my  grandfather's  coachman,  who,  blamed  for  not  keeping  the  harness 
clean,  rushed  into  the  drawing-room,  flung  the  whole  harness  on  the  floor, 
and  roared  out  "Clean  it  yourself,  then."  Again,  the  Somersby  cook  was 
a  decided  character,  and  "Master  Awlfred"  heard  her  in  some  rage 
against  her  master  and  her  mistress  exclaim:  "If  you  raked  out  Hell 
with  a  small-tooth  comb,  you  weant  find  their  likes,"  a  phrase  which  long 
lingered  in  my  father's  memory. 

In  the  poem  of  "Isabel"  he  more  or  less  described  his  mother,1  "a 
remarkable  and  saintly  woman."  She  devoted  herself  entirely  to  her 
husband  and  children,  and  to  the  poor  of  the  parish. 

1  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  the  Rev.  Stephen  Fytche. 


LIFE  AND   WORK   OF  ALFRED  LORD   TENNYSON  xv 

Sweet  lips  whereon  perpetually  did  reign 
The  summer  calm  of  golden  charity, 

The  intuitive  decision  of  a  bright 
And  thorough-edged  intellect  to  part 
Error  from  crime. 

She  earnestly  looked  forward  to  the  time  when  Alfred  would  become  "not 
only  a  great  poet  but  a  great  and  good  man." 

He  inherited  from  her  a  spirit  of  reverence,  humour,  love  of  animals,  and 
extreme  sensitiveness.  This  sensitiveness  contrasted  remarkably  with  his 
great  physical  strength  and  his  downright  bluntness.  "All  the  Tennysons 
are  black-blooded,"  he  would  say,  for  his  father's  melancholy  preyed  upon 
them  all  more  or  less  through  life.  As  a  child,  in  the  middle  of  the  black 
night  he  would  rush  forth,  fling  himself  on  the  graves  in  the  little  church- 
yard —  asking  God  to  let  him  soon  be  beneath  the  sod.  But  his  strongest 
characteristic  was  his  love  of  Nature,  to  which  he  always  turned  for 
comfort.  Everywhere  in  Nature  he  heard  a  voice  —  he  saw  everywhere 
above  Life  and  Nature  "the  gleam." 

Over  the  mountain, 
On  human  faces, 
And  all  around  me, 
Moving  to  melody, 
Floated  the  Gleam. 

The  charm  and  beauty  of  the  brook  at  Somersby  haunted  him.  He 
delighted  to  recall  the  rare  richness  of  the  bowery  lanes;  the  wooded 
hollow  of  Holy  Well;  the  cold  springs  flowing  from  the  sandstone  rocks, 
the  flowers,  the  mosses,  and  the  ferns.  He  loved  this  land  of  quiet 
villages,  "ridged  wolds,"  large  fields,  gray  hill-sides,  "tufted  knolls," 
noble  ash-trees.  He  had  a  passion  for  the  "waste  enormous  marsh,"  the 
"heaped  hills  that  bound  the  sea,"  the  boundless  shore  at  Mablethorpe, 
and  the  thunderous  breakers.  FitzGerald  writes:  "I  used  to  say  Alfred 
never  should  have  left  old  Lincolnshire,  where  there  were  not  only  such 
good  seas,  but  also  such  fine  Kill  and  dale  among  'the  Wolds'  which  he 
was  brought  up  in,  as  people  in  general  scarce  thought  on."  My  Uncle 
Charles  told  how,  on  the  afternoon  of  the  publication  of  the  Poems  by 
Two  Brothers  in  1826,  my  father  and  he  hired  a  carriage  with  some  of  the 
money  earned,  and  driving  along  fourteen  miles  over  the  wolds  and 
the  marsh  to  Mablethorpe,  "shared  their  triumph  with  the  winds  and 
waves." 

The  following  fragment,  written  on  revisiting  Mablethorpe,  is  a  notable 
sample  of  his  descriptive  style  :  — 


xvi  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ALFRED  LORD   TENNYSON 


Mablethorpe. 

Here  often  when  a  child  I  lay  reclined : 

I  took  delight  in  this  fair  land  and  free ; 
Here  stood  the  infant  Ilion  of  the  mind, 

And  here  the  Grecian  ships  all  seem'd  to  be. 
And  here  again  I  come,  and  only  find 

The  drain-cut  level  of  the  marshy  lea, 
Gray  sand-banks,  and  pale  sunsets,  dreary  wind, 

Dim  shores,  dense  rains,  and  heavy-clouded  sea. 

And  this  simile  in  The  Last  Tournament  is  also  taken  from  what  he 
often  saw  there : 

as  the  crest  of  some  slow-arching  wave, 
Heard  in  dead  night  along  that  table-shore, 
Drops  flat,  and  after  the  great  waters  break 
Whitening  for  half  a  league,  and  thin  themselves, 
Far  over  sands  marbled  with  moon  and  cloud, 
From  less  and  less  to  nothing. 

Cambridge  and  Arthur  Hallam. 

In  1827  Frederick  Tennyson,  the  eldest  brother,  went  to  Trinity 
College,  and  was  joined  there  in  the  following  year  by  Charles  and  Alfred. 
My  father  felt  the  confinement  of  his  life  after  the  free  country,  and  a 
want  of  inspiration  and  sympathy  in  the  teaching  provided  by  the  college 
authorities.     He  writes : 

I  am  sitting  owl-like  and  solitary  in  my  rooms  (nothing  between  me  and  the 
stars  but  a  stratum  of  tiles).  The  hoof  of  the  steed,  the  roll  of  the  wheel,  the 
shouts  of  drunken  Gown  and  drunken  Town  come  up  from  below  with  a  sea-like 
murmur.  I  wish  to  Heaven  I  had  Prince  Hussain's  fairy  carpet  to  transport  me 
along  the  deeps  of  air  to  your  coterie.  Nay,  I  would  even  take  up  with  his 
brother  Aboul-something's  glass  for  the  mere  pleasure  of  a  peep.  What  a  pity  it 
is  that  the  golden  days  of  Faerie  are  over  !  What  a  misery  not  to  be  able  to  con- 
solidate our  gossamer  dreams  into  reality  !  .  .  .  When,  my  dearest  Aunt,  may  I 
hope  to  see  you  again  ?  I  know  not  how  it  is,  but  I  feel  isolated  here  in  the  midst 
of  society.  The  country  is  so  disgustingly  level,  the  revelry  of  the  place  so 
monotonous,  the  studies  of  the  University  so  uninteresting,  so  much  matter  of  fact. 
None  but  dry-headed,  calculating,  angular  little  gentlemen  can  take  much  delight  in 
A  +  B,  etc. 

I  have  been  seeking  "Falkland"  here  for  a  long  time  without  success.  Those 
beautiful  extracts  from  it,  which  you  showed  me  at  Tealby,  haunt  me  incessantly ; 
but  wishes,  I  think,  like  telescopes  reversed,  seem  to  get  their  objects  at  a  greater 
distance. 

"  I  can  tell  you  nothing  of  his  college  days,"  writes  Edward  Fitz- 
Gerald  to  a  friend,  "  for  I  did  not  know  him  till  they  were  over,  though  I 


LIFE  AND   WORK  OF  ALFRED  LORD   TENNYSON  xvii 

had  seen  him  two  or  three  times  before :  I  remember  him  well,  a  sort  of 
Hyperion.' 

With  his  poetic  nature  and  warmth  of  heart,  he  soon  made  his  way. 
Fanny  Kemble,  who  used  to  visit  her  brother  John,  said  of  him  when  at 
college,  "Alfred  Tennyson  was  our  hero,  the  great  hero  of  our  day." 
Another  friend  describes  him  as  "six  feet  high,  broad-chested,  strong- 
limbed,  his  face  Shakespearian,  with  deep  eyelids,  his  forehead  ample, 
crowned  with  dark  wavy  hair,  his  head  finely  poised,  his  hand  the  admira- 
tion of  sculptors,  long  fingers  with  square  tips,  soft  as  a  child's  but  of 
great  size  and  strength.  What  struck  one  most  about  him  was  the  union 
of  strength  with  refinement." 

In  later  years  he  confessed  that  he  owed  much  to  Cambridge.  At 
Somersby  he  had  studied  nature,  there  he  was  able  to  study  his  fellow- 
men.  His  friends  were  many,  scholars  and  poets,  Arthur  Hallam,  Trench, 
Brookfield,  Milnes,  Spring-Rice,  Merivale,  Lushington,  Blakesley,  Spedding, 
Thompson,  and  others.  When  my  father  first  came  into  the  dining-hall  at 
Trinity,  Thompson  said  at  once,  "That  man  must  be  a  poet !"  There  was 
in  all  these  young  fellows,  keen  intellectual  energy,  imaginative  generosity, 
and  public  spirit.  They  called  aloud  for  liberty  and  toleration.  The  star 
of  Byron,  which  had  shone  brightly  in  my  father's  boyhood,  had  set ;  Keats, 
Shelley,  Coleridge,  and  Wordsworth  were  in  the  ascendant.  "Byron 
and  Shelley,"  my  father  wrote,  "however  mistaken  they  were,  did  yet  give 
the  world  another  heart  and  new  pulses"  by  their  fiery  lyrical  genius. 
"If  Keats  had  lived,"  he  added,  "he  would  have  been  the  greatest  of  us." 
Wordsworth  he  looked  on  "as  the  greatest  poet  on  the  whole  since 
Milton.  Blank  verse,  indeed,  is  the  finest  possible  vehicle  for  thought  in 
Shakespeare  as  well  as  in  Milton," 

Whose  Titan  angels,  Gabriel,  Abdiel, 
Starr'd  from  Jehovah's  gorgeous  armouries, 
Tower,  as  the  deep-domed  empyrean 
Rings  to  the  roar  of  an  angel  onset. 

A  society  of  young  Cambridge  men,  to  which  my  father  and  most  of 
his  friends  belonged,  called  "The  Apostles,"  was  then  said  to  be  "waxing 
daily  in  religion  and  radicalism."  They  not  only  debated  on  politics  but 
read  Hobbes,  Locke,  Berkeley,  Butler,  Hume,  Bentham,  Descartes  and 
Kant,  and  discussed  such  questions  as  the  Origin  of  Evil,  the  Derivation  of 
Moral  Sentiments,  Prayer,  and  the  Personality  of  God.  Among  the  Cam- 
bridge papers  I  find  a  remarkable  sentence  on  "Prayer"  by  Hallam : 

With  respect  to  prayer,  you  ask  how  I  am  to  distinguish  the  operations  of  God 
in  me  from  motions  in  my  own  heart  ?  Why  should  you  distinguish  them  or  how 
do  you  know  there  is  any  distinction  ?  Is  God  less  God  because  He  acts  by  general 
laws  when  He  deals  with  the  common  elements  of  nature  ?  .  .  .     That  fatal  mistake 


xviii  LIFE  AND   WORK  OF  ALFRED  LORD   TENNYSON 


which  has  embarrassed  the  philosophy  of  mind  with  infinite  confusion,  the  mistake 
of  setting  value  on  a  thing's  origin  rather  than  on  its  character,  of  assuming  that 
composite  must  be  less  excellent  than  simple,  has  not  been  slow  to  extend  its 
deleterious  influence  over  the  field  of  practical  religion. 

My  father  —  after  perhaps  reading  Cuvier,  or  Humboldt  —  seems  to 
have  propounded  in  some  college  discussion  the  theory  that  "the  develop- 
ment of  the  human  body  might  possibly  be  traced  from  the  radiated, 
vermicular,  molluscous  and  vertebrate  organisms."  The  question  of 
surprise  put  to  him  on  this  proposition  was,  "Do  you  mean  that  the 
human  brain  is  at  first  like  a  madrepore's,  then  like  a  worm's,  etc.  ?  but 
this  cannot  be,  for  they  have  no  brain." 

At  this  time,  with  one  or  two  of  his  more  literary  friends,  he  took  a 
great  interest  in  the  work  which  Hallam  had  undertaken,  a  translation 
from  the  Vita  Nuova  of  Dante,  with  notes  and  prefaces.  For  this  task 
Hallam,  who  in  1827  had  been  in  Italy  with  his  parents,  and  had  drunk 
deep  of  the  older  Italian  literature,  says  that  he  was  perfecting  himself  in 
German  and  Spanish,  and  was  proposing  to  plunge  into  the  Florentine 
historians  and  the  medieval  Schoolmen.  He  wrote  to  my  father:  "I 
expect  to  glean  a  good  deal  of  knowledge  from  you  concerning  metres 
which  may  be  serviceable  as  well  for  my  philosophy  in  the  notes  as  for 
my  actual  handiwork  in  the  text.  I  purpose  to  discuss  considerably  about 
poetry  in  general,  and  about  the  ethical  character  of  Dante's  poetry." 
My  father  said  of  his  friend:  "Arthur  Hallam  could  take  in  the  most 
abstruse  ideas  with  the  utmost  rapidity  and  insight,  and  had  a  marvellous 
power  of  work  and  thought,  and  a  wide  range  of  knowledge.  On  one 
occasion,  I  remember,  he  mastered  a  difficult  book  of  Descartes  at  a 
single  sitting." 

On  June  6,  1829,  the  announcement  was  made  that  my  father  had 
won  the  Chancellor's  prize  medal  for  his  poem  in  blank  verse  on 
"Timbuctoo."  Out  of  his  "horror  of  publicity,"  as  he  said,  he  gave  it 
to  his  friend  Merivale  for  declamation  in  the  Senate  House.  To  win  the 
prize  in  anything  but  rhymed  heroics  was  an  innovation.  My  grandfather 
had  desired  him  to  compete,  so  unwillingly  he  patched  up  an  old  poem 
on  "The  Battle  of  Armageddon,"  and  came  out  prizeman  over  Milnes, 
Hallam,  and  others. 

His  friends  remarked  that  he  had  from  the  first  a  deep  insight 
into  character,  and  would  often  turn  upon  them  with  a  terse  and  some- 
times grim  criticism  when  they  thought  him  far  away  in  the  clouds,  as 
for  instance:  "There  is  a  want  of  central  dignity  about  him,  he  excuses 
himself,"  or  "That  is  the  quick  decision  of  a  mind  that  sees  half  the 
truth."  They  also  pronounced  him  to  be  an  unusually  fine  literary  critic, 
and  a  man  of  deep  thought  and  infinite  humour.  His  first  volume  of 
Poems,  chiefly  Lyrical  was  published  in  1830.     Arthur  Hallam  criticised 


LIFE  AND   WORK  OF  ALFRED  LORD    TENNYSON  xix 

it  in  the  Englishman's  Magazine,  and  his  enthusiasm  was  worthy  of 
his  true  and  unselfish  friendship.  Hallam  was,  according  to  my  father, 
"as  near  perfection  as  mortal  man  can  be."  "If  ever  man  was  born  for 
great  things,"  Kemble  wrote  to  his  sister  Fanny,  "he  was.  Never 
was  a  more  powerful  intellect  joined  to  a  purer  and  holier  heart ;  and  the 
whole  illuminated  with  the  richest  imagination,  with  the  most  sparkling 
yet  the  kindest  wit."  In  this  connection  I  may  quote  the  following  note 
received  by  me  (June  19 13)  from  the  present  Master  of  Trinity : 

It  must  have  been  early  in  1886  that  I  was  a  guest  at  Trinity  Lodge.  After 
breakfast,  one  Sunday,  Dr.  Thompson  and  I  were  talking  about  the  very  distin- 
guished group  of  his  contemporaries,  and  in  particular  of  the  Arthur  Hallam  of 
"In  Memoriam."  I  remember  saying  to  Dr.  Thompson  in  substance  —  I  cannot 
recall  my  exact  words —  "Are  you  able  to  say,  not  from  later  evidence,  but  from 
your  recollection  of  what  you  thought  at  the  time,  which  of  the  two  friends  had 
the  greater  intellect,  Hallam  or  Tennyson?"  "Oh,  Tennyson  !"  he  said  at  once 
with  strong  emphasis,  as  if  the  matter  was  not  open  to  doubt. 

Arthur  Hallam  was  often  at  Somersby  and  became  engaged  to  my 
father's  sister  Emily.  Together  my  father  and  he  visited  the  Pyrenees, 
and  held  a  secret  meeting  with  the  leaders  of  a  conspiracy  against  the 
tyrant,  King  Ferdinand  of  Spain.  It  was  there  in  the  Pyrenees  that  my 
father  wrote  part  of  "CEnone." 

Such  descriptive  lines  as  these  are  based  upon  the  Pyrenean  scenery : 

There  lies  a  vale  in  Ida,  lovelier 
Than  all  the  valleys  of  Ionian  hills. 
The  swimming  vapour  slopes  athwart  the  glen, 
Puts  forth  an  arm,  and  creeps  from  pine  to  pine, 
And  loiters,  slowly  drawn.     On  either  hand 
The  lawns  and  meadow-ledges  midway  down 
Hang  rich  in  flowers,  and  far  below  them  roars 
The  long  brook  falling  thro'  the  clov'n  ravine 
In  cataract  after  cataract  to  the  sea. 

"Before  I  pass  on  from  'CEnone,'"  Arthur  Sidgwick  writes,  "I  may 
add  a  word  or  two  on  Tennyson's  classical  poetry  generally,  and  his  debt 
to  the  great  ancient  masterpieces.  He  was  perhaps  not  exactly  a  scholar 
in  what  I  may  call  the  narrow  professional  sense;  but  in  the  broadest 
and  truest  sense  he  was  a  great  scholar.  In  all  Tennyson's  classic  pieces, 
'CEnone,'  'Ulysses,'  'Demeter,'  'Tithonus,'  the  legendary  subjects,  and 
in  the  two  historic  subjects,  'Lucretius'  and  'Boadicea'  the  classical 
tradition  is  there  with  full  detail,  but  by  the  poet's  art  it  is  transmuted. 
'CEnone'  is  epic  in  form,  the  rest  are  brief  monodramas:  the  material 
is  all  ancient,  and  in  many  subtle  ways  the  spirit ;  the  handling  is  modern 
and  original.  In  translations,  too  few,  Tennyson  can  only  be  called 
consummate." 


xx  LIFE  AND   WORK  OF  ALFRED  LORD   TENNYSON 

In  February  1831  Dr.  Tennyson  fell  ill  and  summoned  my  father 
home  from  Cambridge,  and  in  March  he  was  found  leaning  back  in  his 
chair,  having  passed  away  suddenly  and  peacefully.  The  Tennysons, 
however,  did  not  leave  Somersby  Rectory  until  1837.  Hallam  still 
continued  to  visit  them  and  read  Dante,  Tasso,  and  Petrarch  with  my 
father  and  his  sister  Emily.  My  father  managed  all  the  affairs  of  the 
family.  His  extraordinary  common-sense  was  notable  throughout 
his  life,  and  was  frequently  commented  on  by  his  Cambridge  con- 
temporaries. In  1832  Hallam  and  he  went  a  tour  up  the  Rhine,  and  my 
father  published  his  second  volume,  Poems  by  Alfred  Tennyson.  Some 
critics  saw  that  a  new  and  true  poet  had  come  among  them,  and  Emerson 
praised  the  volume  in  America.  Of  "The  Lady  of  Shalott,"  which  is 
"not  far  below  the  high-water  mark  of  symbolic  poetry,"  1  Hallam  wrote, 
"The  more  I  read  it  the  more  I  like  it."  Of  the  "Lotos-Eaters"  Merivale 
said  to  Thompson,  "I  have  converted  by  my  readings  both  my  brother 
and  your  friend  Richardson  to  faith  in  the  'Lotos-Eaters.'"  "Mariana 
in  the  South,"  written  in  the  South  of  France,  especially  delighted  Hallam. 
"The  Palace  of  Art,"  my  father  notes,  "is  the  embodiment  of  my  own 
belief  that  the  godlike  life  is  with  man  and  for  man,  and  that  Beauty, 
Good,  and  Knowledge  are  three  sisters  that  never  can  be  sundered 
without  tears." 

Among  the  poems  often  quoted  by  Trench  and  his  other  friends  at 
this  time  was  "Anacaona,"  which,  however,  was  not  published  by  him  in 
his  collected  works. 

Anacaona. 

A  dark  Indian  maiden, 

Warbling  in  the  bloom'd  liana, 
Stepping  lightly  flower-laden, 

By  the  crimson-eyed  anana, 
Wantoning  in  orange  groves 

Naked,  and  dark-limb 'd,  and  gay, 
Bathing  in  the  slumbrous  coves, 
In  the  cocoa-shadow'd  coves, 

Of  sunbright  Xaraguay, 
Who  was  so  happy  as  Anacaona, 

The  beauty  of  Espagnola, 

The  golden  flower  of  Hayti  ? 

In  the  purple  island, 

Crown'd  with  garlands  of  cinchona, 
Lady  over  wood  and  highland, 

The  Indian  queen,  Anacaona, 

»  Sir  Alfred  Lyall. 


LIFE  AND  WORK   OF  ALFRED  LORD   TENNYSON  xxi 

Dancing  on  the  blossomy  plain 

To  a  woodland  melody  : 
Playing  with  the  scarlet  crane, 
The  dragon-fly  and  scarlet  crane, 

Beneath  the  papao  tree  ! 
Happy,  happy  was  Anacaona, 

The  beauty  of  Espagnola, 

The  golden  flower  of  Hayti ! 

Naked,  without  fear,  moving 

To  her  Areyto's  mellow  ditty, 
Waving  a  palm  branch,  wondering,  loving, 

Carolling  "Happy,  happy  Hayti !" 
She  gave  the  white  men  welcome  all, 

With  her  damsels  by  the  bay ; 
For  they  were  fair-faced  and  tall, 
They  were  more  fair-faced  and  tall, 

Than  the  men  of  Xaraguay, 
And  they  smiled  on  Anacaona, 

The  beauty  of  Espagnola, 

The  golden  flower  of  Hayti ! 

Following  her  wild  carol 

She  led  them  down  the  pleasant  places, 
For  they  were  kingly  in  apparel, 

Loftily  stepping  with  fair  faces. 
But  never  more  upon  the  shore 

Dancing  at  the  break  of  day, 
In  the  deep  wood  no  more,  — 
By  the  deep  sea  no  more,  — 

No  more  in  Xaraguay 
Wander'd  happy  Anacaona, 

The  beauty  of  Espagnola, 

The  golden  flower  of  Hayti ! 

Christopher  North  criticised  the  volume  of  1832  sharply  in  Blackwood: 
"Alfred  is  the  greatest  owl  ..."  The  Quarterly  ridiculed  the  poems 
pitilessly.  My  father  was  depressed  by  these  unfavourable  reviews.  As 
Jowett  notes:  "Tennyson  experienced  a  great  deal  of  pain  from  the 
attacks  of  his  enemies.  I  never  remember  his  receiving  the  least  pleasure 
from  the  commendation  of  his  friends."  Of  flatterers  he  used  to  say, 
"Flattery  makes  me  sick."  Friendly  criticism  of  a  sane  critic  like 
Spedding  or  Hallam  was  much  more  to  him  than  the  praise  or  dispraise 
of  the  multitude.  "I  think  it  wisest,"  he  writes  to  Henry  van  Dyke, 
"for  a  man  to  do  his  work  in  the  world  as  quietly  and  as  well  as  he 
can,  without  much  heeding  the  praise  or  dispraise."  Hallam  urged 
him  to  rind  amusement  in  those  "hair-splitting  critics  who  are  the  bane 


xxii  LIFE  AND   WORK   OF  ALFRED  LORD   TENNYSON 

of  good  art."  "To  raise  the  many,"  he  continued,  "to  his  own  real 
point  of  view,  the  artist  must  employ  his  energies  and  create  energy  in 
others."  The  general  estimation  in  which  the  Quarterly  was  then  held 
was  echoed  by  an  old  Lincolnshire  squire  who  assured  my  father 
that  "the  Quarterly  was  the  next  book  to  God's  Bible."  His  friends 
felt  that  he  had  begun  to  base  his  poetry  more  on  the  broad  and  common 
interests  of  the  time  and  of  universal  humanity,  but  their  commendation 
did  not  much  comfort  him,  and  he  thought  of  leaving  England  to  live 
in  Jersey,  Italy,  or  the  South  of  France.  Hallam  urged  him  to  publish 
"The  Lover's  Tale,"  !  which  had  been  written  in  1828,  but  he  thought  it  had 
too  many  crude  thoughts  and  lines.  Of  this  poem  and  "Timbuctoo"  my 
father  said,  "Neither  is  imitative  of  any  poet,  and  as  far  as  I  know  nothing 
of  mine  after  'Timbuctoo'  was  imitative.  As  for  being  original,  nothing 
can  be  said  which  has  not  been  said  before  in  some  form  or  another." 
Then  came  a  crushing  grief,  the  death  of  Hallam  at  Vienna  on  September 
J5?  ^SZ-  "The  Two  Voices"  or  "Thoughts  of  a  Suicide"  was  begun 
under  the  cloud  of  this  overwhelming  sorrow.  But  such  a  great  friendship 
and  such  a  loss  helped  to  reveal  him  to  himself.  "Alfred,"  writes  one 
of  his  friends,  "although  much  broken  in  spirits,  is  yet  able  to  divert  his 
thoughts  from  gloomy  brooding,  and  keep  his  hand  in  activity." 

A  still  small  voice  spake  unto  me, 
"Thou  art  so  full  of  misery, 
Were  it  not  better  not  to  be?" 

Then  to  the  still  small  voice  I  said, 
"Let  me  not  cast  in  endless  shade 
What  is  so  wonderfully  made." 

"My  poem  of  'Ulysses,'"  so  his  own  words  tell  us,  "gives  my  thought 
more  simply  than  'In  Memoriam'  of  the  need  of  going  forward  and  brav- 
ing the  difficulties  of  life."  His  belief  in  God,  his  strong  sense  of  duty, 
and  his  own  power  made  him  devote  himself  to  work.  The  following  is  a 
list  of  the  week's  work  which  he  drew  up:  Monday  —  History,  German. 
Tuesday  —  Chemistry,  German.  Wednesday — Botany,  German.  Thursday 
— Electricity,  German.  Friday — Animal  Physiology,  German.  Saturday  — 
Mechanics.  Sunday  —  Theology.  Next  week  —  Italian  in  the  afternoon. 
Third  week  —  Greek ;  and  in  the  evenings  Poetry,  Racine,  Moliere,  etc. 
"Perpetual  idleness,"  he  would  say,  "must  be  one  of  the  punishments 
in  Hell."  Now  and  then,  when  he  could  save  a  little  hoard,  he  went  to 
London  to  visit  his  friends  in  their  homes.  One  of  his  troubles  at  this 
time  was  that  he  was  pestered  by  applications  from  the  editors  of  magazines 
and  annuals  for  poems.     For  example,  Milnes  wrote  to  him  in  1835  asking 

1  This  poem,  founded  on  one  of  Boccaccio's  tales  (1827),  was  pirated  in  1879,  and 
s  >  he  published  it  with  a  sequel  "The  Golden  Supper." 


LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ALFRED  LORD   TENNYSON  xxiii 

for  a  contribution  to  an  annual  edited  by  Lord  Northampton.  He  sent  the 
following  answer : 

December  1836. 

Dear  Richard  —  As  I  live  eight  miles  from  my  post-town  and  only  correspond 
therewith  about  once  a  week,  you  must  not  wonder  if  this  reaches  you  somewhat 
late.  Your  former  brief  I  received,  though  some  si*  days  behind  time,  and  stamped 
with  the  post-marks  of  every  little  market-town  in  the  country,  but  I  did  not  think 
it  demanded  an  immediate  answer,  hence  my  silence. 

That  you  had  promised  the  Marquis  I  would  write  for  him  something  exceeding 
the  average  length  of  "Annual  compositions" ;  that  you  had  promised  him  I  would 
write  at  all :  I  took  this  for  one  of  those  elegant  fictions  with  which  you  amuse 
your  aunts  of  evenings,  before  you  get  into  the  small  hours  when  dreams  are 
true.  Three  summers  back,  provoked  by  the  incivility  of  editors,  I  swore  an  oath 
that  I  would  never  again  have  to  do  with  their  vapid  books,  and  I  brake  it  in  the 
sweet  face  of  Heaven  when  I  wrote  for  Lady  What's-her-name  Wortley.  But  then 
her  sister  wrote  to  Brookfield  and  said  she  (Lady  W.)  was  beautiful,  so  I  could  not 
help  it.  But  whether  the  Marquis  be  beautiful  or  not,  I  don't  much  mind;  if  he 
be,  let  him  give  God  thanks  and  make  no  boast.  To  write  for  people  with  prefixes 
to  their  names  is  to  milk  he-goats ;  there  is  neither  honour  nor  profit.  Up  to  this 
moment  I  have  not  even  seen  The  Keepsake:  not  that  I  care  to  see  it,  for  the  want 
of  civility  decided  me  not  to  break  mine  oath  again  for  man  nor  woman,  and  how 
should  such  a  modest  man  as  I  see  my  small  name  in  collocation  with  the  great 
ones  of  Southey,  Wordsworth,  R.  M.  M.,  etc.,  and  not  feel  myself  a  barndoor  fowl 
among  peacocks  ?     Good-bye.  —  Believe  me  always  thine,  A.  T. 

Milnes  was  angry  at  the  refusal,  and  my  father  answered  him  banter- 
ingly  again : 

Jan.  10,  1837. 

Why  what  in  the  name  of  all  the  powers,  my  dear  Richard,  makes  you  run  me 
down  in  this  fashion  ?  Now  is  my  nose  out  of  joint,  now  is  my  tail  not  only  curled 
so  tight  as  to  lift  me  off  my  hind  legs  like  Alfred  Crowquill's  poodle,  but  fairly 
between  them.  Many  sticks  are  broken  about  me.  I  am  the  ass  in  Homer.  I 
am  blown.     What  has  so  jaundiced  your  good-natured  eyes  as  to  make  them  mistake 

harmless  banter  for  insolent  irony :  harsh  terms  applicable  only  to who,  big  as 

he  is,  sits  to  all  posterity  astride  upon  the  nipple  of  literary  dandyism,  and  "takes 
her  milk  for  gall"  ?  "Insolent  irony"  and  "piscatory  vanity,"  as  if  you  had  been 
writing  to  St.  Anthony,  who  converted  the  soft  souls  of  salmon;  but  may  St. 
Anthony's  fire  consume  all  misapprehension,  the  spleen-born  mother  of  fivefold  more 
evil  on  our  turnip-spheroid  than  is  malice  aforethought. 

Had  I  been  writing  to  a  nervous,  morbidly-irritable  man,  down  in  the  world, 
stark-spoiled  with  the  staggers  of  a  mismanaged  imagination  and  quite  opprest  by 
fortune  and  by  the  reviews,  it  is  possible  that  I  might  have  halted  to  find  expressions 
more  suitable  to  his  case ;  but  that  you,  who  seem  at  least  to  take  the  world  as  it 
comes,  to  doff  it,  and  let  it  pass,  that  you,  a  man  every  way  prosperous  and  talented, 
should  have  taken  pet  at  my  unhappy  badinage  made  me  lay  down  my  pipe  and 
stare  at  the  fire  for  ten  minutes,  till  the  stranger  fluttered  up  the  chimney  !  You 
wish  that  I  had  never  written  that  passage.     So  do  I,  since  it  seems  to  have  given 


xxiv  LIFE  AND   WORK  OF   ALFRED  LORD   TENNYSON 

such  offence.  Perhaps  you  likewise  found  a  stumbling-block  in  the  expression 
"vapid  books,"  as  the  angry  inversion  of  four  commas  seems  to  intimate.  But  are 
not  Annuals  vapid?  Or  could  I  possibly  mean  that  what  you  or  Trench  or  De 
Vere  chose  to  write  therein  must  be  vapid  ?  I  thought  you  knew  me  better  than 
even  to  insinuate  these  things.  Had  I  spoken  the  same  things  to  you  laughingly 
in  my  chair,  and  with  my  own  emphasis,  you  would  have  seen  what  they  really 
meant,  but  coming  to  read  them  peradventure  in  a  fit  of  indigestion,  or  with  a 
slight  matutinal  headache  after  your  Apostolic  symposium,  you  subject  them  to  such 
misinterpretation  as,  if  I  had  not  sworn  to  be  true  friend  to  you  till  my  latest  death- 
ruckle,  would  have  gone  far  to  make  me  indignant.  But  least  said  soonest  mended ; 
which  comes  with  peculiar  grace  from  me  after  all  this  verbiage.  You  judge  me 
rightly  in  supposing  that  I  would  not  be  backward  in  doing  a  really  charitable 
deed.  I  will  either  bring  or  send  you  something  for  your  Annual.  It  is  very 
problematical  whether  I  shall  be  able  to  come  and  see  you  as  I  proposed,  so  do  not 
return  earlier  from  your  tour  on  my  account ;  and  if  I  come,  I  should  only  be  able 
to  stop  a  few  days,  for,  as  I  and  all  my  people  are  going  to  leave  this  place  very 
shortly  never  to  return,  I  have  much  upon  my  hands.  But  whether  I  see  you  or 
no  —  Believe  me  always  thine  affectionately,  A.  Tennyson. 

I  have  spoken  with  Charles.  He  has  promised  to  contribute  to  your  Annual} 
Frederick  will,  I  daresay,  follow  his  example.  See  now  whether  I  am  not  doing 
my  best  for  you,  and  whether  you  had  any  occasion  to  threaten  me  with  that  black 
"Anacaona"  and  her  cocoa-shod  coves  of  niggers.  I  cannot  have  her  strolling 
about  the  land  in  this  way.  It  is  neither  good  for  her  reputation  nor  mine.  When 
is  Lord  Northampton's  book  to  be  published,  and  how  long  may  I  wait  before  I 
send  anything  by  way  of  contribution  ? 

In  the  end  "O  that  'twere  possible"  (on  which  "Maud"  was  after- 
wards founded)  was  sent  to  Lord  Northampton.  FitzGerald  also  notes 
that  in  this  year  Alfred  wrote  a  poem  on  the  Queen's  accession,  "the 
burden  being  'Here's  a  health  to  the  Queen  of  the  Isles.'"  One  stanza  I 
have  heard  my  father  repeat : 

That  the  voice  of  a  satisfied  people  may  keep 
A  sound  in  her  ears  like  the  sound  of  the  deep, 
Like  the  sound  of  the  deep  when  the  winds  are  asleep ; 
Here's  a  health  to  the  Queen  of  the  Isles. 

London  and  Emily  Sellwood. 

Some  time  about  1835  he  had  written  the  following,  hitherto  unpub- 
lished, fragment  on  "Semele," 2  which  seems  to  me  too  fine  to  be  lost : 

1  The  Tribute. 

2  Semele  was  beloved  by  Zeus.  Hera  (Juno),  being  jealous  of  her,  visited  her  in 
the  guise  of  her  old  nurse,  and  persuaded  her  to  ask  Zeus  to  appear  to  her  in  the  same 
majesty  as  he  appeared  to  Hera.  Zeus  warned  Semele  of  the  danger  of  her  request. 
But  she  insisted  on  seeing  him  in  the  majesty  of  his  godhead.  He  accordingly  came  to 
her  as  the  god  of  thunder,  and  she  was  burnt  up  by  his  lightnings.      Zeus,  however, 


LIFE  AND   WORK  OF  ALFRED  LORD   TENNYSON  xxv 


Semele. 

I  wish'd  to  see  Him.     Who  may  feel 

His  light  and  love  ?     He  comes. 

The  blast  of  Godhead  bursts  the  doors, 

His  mighty  hands  are  twined 

About  the  triple  forks,  and  when  He  speaks 

The  crown  of  sunlight  shudders  round 

Ambrosial  temples,  and  aloft, 

Fluttering  thro'  Elysian  air, 

His  green  and  azure  mantles  float  in  wavy 

Foldings,  and  melodious  thunder 

Wheels  in  circles. 

But  thou,  my  son,  who  shalt  be  born 

When  I  am  ashes,  to  delight  the  world  — 

Now  with  measured  cymbal-clash 

Moving  on  to  victory ; 

Now  on  music-rolling  orbs, 

A  sliding  throne,  voluptuously 

Panther-drawn, 

To  throbbings  of  the  thunderous  gong, 

And  melody  o'  the  merrily-blowing  flute ; 

Now  with  troops  of  clamorous  revellers, 

Merrily,  merrily, 

Rapidly,  giddily, 

Rioting,  triumphing 

Bacchanalians, 

Rushing  in  cadence, 

All  in  order, 

Plunging  down  the  viney  valleys  — 

In  1837  the  Tennyson  family  left  Somersby  and* established  themselves 
at  High  Beech  in  Epping  Forest.  A  little  later  a  life-like  portrait  is 
drawn  of  my  father  by  Carlyle,  with  whom  he  was  particularly  intimate, 
and  of  whom  he  said  once  to  Gladstone,  "  Carlyle  is  a  poet,  to  whom  Nature 
has  denied  the  faculty  of  verse  "  : 

Alfred  is  one  of  the  few  British  and  foreign  figures  (a  not  increasing  number,  I 
think)  who  are  and  remain  beautiful  to  me,  a  true  human  soul,  or  some  authentic 
approximation  thereto,  to  whom  your  own  soul  can  say  "Brother  !"  However, 
I  doubt  he  will  not  come  (to  see  me) ;  he  often  skips  me,  in  these  brief  visits  to 
town ;  skips  everybody,  indeed ;  being  a  man  solitary  and  sad,  as  certain  men  are, 
dwelling  in  an  element  of  gloom,  carrying  a  bit  of  Chaos  about  him,  in  short, 
which  he  is  manufacturing  into  Cosmos.  ...     He  had  his  breeding  at  Cambridge, 

saved  her  child,  Dionysus  (Bacchus),  with  whom  she  was  pregnant.  After  a  while  this 
son  of  hers  took  her  from  the  lower  world  up  to  Olympus,  where  she  became  immortal, 
and  was  named  Thyone. 


xxvi  LIFE  AND   WORK  OF  ALFRED  LORD   TENNYSON 

as  if  for  the  Law  or  the  Church ;  being  master  of  a  small  annuity  on  his  father's 
decease,  he  preferred  clubbing  with  his  mother  and  some  sisters,  to  live  unpromoted 
and  write  poems.  In  this  way  he  lives  still,  now  here,  now  there;  the  family 
always  within  reach  of  London,  never  in  it ;  he  himself  making  rare  and  brief  visits, 
lodging  in  some  old  comrade's  rooms.  I  think  he  must  be  under  forty,  not  much 
under  it.  One  of  the  finest-looking  men  in  the  world.  A  great  shock  of  rough, 
dusky  hair ;  bright,  laughing,  hazel  eyes ;  massive  aquiline  face  —  most  massive, 
yet  most  delicate;  of  sallow  brown  complexion,  almost  Indian-looking,  clothes 
cynically  loose,  free  and  easy,  smokes  infinite  tobacco.  His  voice  is  musical, 
metallic,  fit  for  loud  laughter  and  piercing  wail,  and  all  that  may  lie  between; 
speech  and  speculation  free  and  plenteous;  I  do  not  meet  in  these  late  decades 
such  company  over  a  pipe  !     We  shall  see  what  he  will  grow  to. 

Among  his  friends  were  now  numbered  Rogers,  Carlyle,  Thackeray, 
Dickens,  Savage  Landor,  Maclise,  Leigh  Hunt,  Tom  Campbell,  Forster, 
W.  E.  Gladstone. 

Of  all  London  he  liked  Fleet  Street  most.  He  delighted  in  "the  central 
roar."  "This  is  the  place  where  I  should  like  to  live,"  he  would  say, 
infinitely  preferring  it  to  the  stuccoed  houses  of  the  West  End.  One  day 
in  1842  FitzGerald  records  a  visit  to  St.  Paul's  with  him,  when  he  observed : 
"Merely  as  an  inclosed  space  in  a  huge  city  this  is  very  fine,"  and  when 
they  got  out  under  the  heavens  into  the  midst  of  the  "central  roar,"  "This 
is  the  Mind,  that  is  a  mood  of  it."  While  in  London  he  often  lodged 
in  60  Lincoln's  Inn  Fields,  or  at  2  Mitre  Court  in  the  Temple,  dining 
out  at  the  Cock  Tavern.  From  High  Beech  the  Tennysons  migrated 
to  Tunbridge  Wells,  thence  to  Boxley,  Maidstone,  near  his  favourite  sister 
Cecilia,  who  married  a  year  later  the  great  Greek  scholar,  Edmund 
Lushington.  In  1838  he  took  a  tour  to  Torquay,  where  he  wrote  "Audley 
Court."  In  1839  he  visited  Wales,  Mablethorpe,  Aberystwith,  Bourne- 
mouth—  in  1840  Warwick,  and  Coventry,  where  "Lady  Godiva"  was  written. 
In  1840  he  also  went  to  Mablethorpe  and  Yorkshire.  Nature  in  her 
different  aspects  in  these  and  other  different  places  gave  him  inspiration, 
as  shown  again  and  again  in  the  poems  themselves.  The  years  spent  in 
strenuous  labour  and  self-cultivation,  and  his  quasi-engagement  to  Emily 
Sellwood,  daughter  of  Henry  Sellwood  of  Berkshire,  and  niece  of  Sir  John 
Franklin,  had  braced  him  for  the  struggle  of  life.  He  would  arrange  his 
material  which  he  had  "in  profusion,  and  give  as  perfect  a  volume  as  he 
could  to  the  world."  "I  felt  certain  of  one  point,"  he  said;  "if  I  meant 
to  make  any  mark  at  all  it  must  be  by  shortness,  for  the  men  before  me 
had  been  so  diffuse,  and  most  of  the  big  things  except  King  Arthur  had 
been  done."  "One  night,"  writes  Aubrey  de  Vere,  "after  he  had  been 
reading  aloud  several  of  his  poems,  all  of  them  short,  he  passed  one  of 
them  to  me  and  said,  'What  is  the  matter  with  that  poem?'  I  read 
it  and  answered,    'I  see  nothing  to  complain  of.'     He  laid  his  ringers 


LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ALFRED  LORD   TENNYSON         xxvii 

on  two  stanzas  of  it,  the  third  and  fifth,  and  said,  'Read  it  again.' 
After  doing  so  I  said,  'It  has  now  more  completeness  and  totality  about 
it,  but  the  two  stanzas  you  cover  are  among  the  best.'  'No  matter,' 
he  said,  'they  make  the  poem  too  long-backed,  and  they  must  go  at 
any  sacrifice.  Every  short  poem,'  he  remarked,  'should  have  a  definite 
shape  like  a  curve  —  sometimes  a  single,  sometimes  a  double  one  —  assumed 
by  a  severed  tress  or  the  rind  of  an  apple  when  flung  on  the  floor.'" 

The  first  time  he  had  met  Emily  Sellwood  was  at  Somersby  in 
1830,  when  he  saw  her  suddenly  in  Holy  Well  Wood  walking  with 
Arthur  Hallam,  and  said  to  her,  "Are  you  a  Dryad  or  an  Oread  wandering 
here?"  But  the  "eternal  lack  of  pence"  prevented  them  marrying  until 
1850.  Up  to  1840,  however,  they  corresponded,  and  subjoined  are  some 
fragments  of  the  beautiful  letters  which  he  wrote  to  her :  — 

"The  light  of  this  world  is  too  full  of  refractions  for  men  ever  to  see  one 
another  in  their  true  positions.  The  world  is  better  than  it  is  called,  but  wrong 
and  foolish.     The  whole  framework  seems  wrong,  which  in  the  end  shall  be  found 

right." 

"Bitterness  of  any  sort  becomes  not  the  sons  of  Adam,  still  less  pride,  for  they 
are  in  that  talk  of  theirs  for  the  most  part  but  as  children  babbling  in  the  market- 
place." 

"The  far  future  has  been  my  world  always." 

"I  shall  never  see  the  Eternal  City,  nor  that  dome,  the  wonder  of  the  world;  I 
do  not  think  I  would  live  there  if  I  could,  and  I  have  no  money  for  touring." 

"Mablethorpe.  I  am  not  so  able  as  in  old  years  to  commune  alone  with  Nature. 
I  am  housed  at  Mr.  Wildman's,  an  old  friend  of  mine  in  these  parts :  he  and  his 
wife  are  two  perfectly  honest  Methodists.  When  I  came  I  asked  her  after  news, 
and  she  replied:  'Why,  Mr.  Tennyson,  there's  only  one  piece  of  news  that  I 
know,t  that  Christ  died  for  all  men.'  And  I  said  to  her:  'That  is  old  news,  and 
good  and  new  news ' ;  wherewith  the  good  woman  seemed  satisfied.  I  was  half- 
yesterday  reading  anecdotes  of  Methodist  ministers,  and  liking  to  read  them  too  .  .  . 
and  of  the  teaching  of  Christ,  that  purest  light  of  God." 

"That  made  me  count  the  less  of  the  sorrows  when  I  caught  a  glimpse  of  the 
sorrowless  Eternity." 

"A  good  woman  is  a  wondrous  creature,  cleaving  to  the  right  and  the  good  in 
all  change ;  lovely  in  her  youthful  comeliness,  lovely  all  her  life  long  in  comeliness 
of  heart." 

"London.  There  is  no  one  here  but  John  Kemble,  with  whom  I  dined  twice; 
he  is  full  of  burning  indignation  against  the  Russian  policy  and  what  he  calls  the 
moral  barbarism  of  France;  likewise  he  is  striving  against  what  he  calls  the 
'mechanic  influence  of  the  age,  and  its  tendency  to  crush  and  overpower  the 
spiritual  in  man,'  and  indeed  what  matters  it  how  much  man  knows  and  does  if  he 
keep  not  a  reverential  looking  upward  ?     He  is  only  the  subtlest  beast  in  the  field." 


xxviii        LIFE  AND  WORK   OF  ALFRED  LORD    TENNYSON 


"We  must  bear  or  we  must  die.  It  is  easier  perhaps  to  die,  but  infinitely  less 
noble.  The  immortality  of  man  disdains  and  rejects  the  thought,  the  immortality 
of  man  to  which  the  cycles  and  the  aeons  are  as  hours  and  as  days." 

Throughout  his  life  he  always  held  up  this  ideal  of  true  love  — 

To  love  one  maiden  only,  cleave  to  her, 
And  worship  her  by  years  of  noble  deeds, 
Until  they  won  her ;  for  indeed  I  know 
Of  no  more  subtle  master  under  heaven 
Than  is  the  maiden  passion  for  a  maid, 
Not  only  to  keep  down  the  base  in  man, 
But  teach  high  thought,  and  amiable  words 
And  courtliness,  and  the  desire  of  fame, 
And  love  of  truth,  and  all  that  makes  a  man. 

The  Two  Volumes  of  1842  and  "The  Princess" 

The  year  1842  saw  the  publication  of  two  volumes  of  poems,  some  old 
and  re-touched,  some  new,  among  them  several  English  Idylls  which  im- 
mediately raised  him  to  the  front  rank  of  poets.  Among  the  new  poems 
were  "The  Gardener's  Daughter,"  "Dora,"  "Locksley  Hall,"  "The  Morte 
d' Arthur,"  "Love  and  Duty,"  "St.  Agnes'  Eve,"  "Sir  Galahad," 
"Launcelot  and  Queen  Guinevere,"  "The  Vision  of  Sin,"  "Break, 
Break. n  The  handling  of  these  later  poems  is  much  lighter  and  freer, 
the  interest  more  varied,  deeper  and  purer ;  there  is  more  humanity  with 
less  imagery,  a  closer  adherence  to  truth,  a  greater  reliance  for  effect  upon 
the  simplicity  of  Nature.  The  Quarterly  Review  passed  from  its  mood  of 
hostility  to  one  of  admiration.  Rogers  sent  his  blessing.  Of  all  the 
criticisms  that  which  pleased  him  most  was  a  letter  from  Carlyle : 

Cheyne  Road,  Chelsea, 

December  7,  1842. 

Dear  Tennyson  —  Wherever  this  find  you,  may  it  find  you  well,  may  it  come 
as  a  friendly  greeting  to  you.  I  have  just  been  reading  your  Poems ;  I  have  read 
certain  of  them  over  again,  and  mean  to  read  them  over  and  over  till  they  become 
my  poems :  this  fact,  with  the  inferences  that  lie  in  it,  is  of  such  emphasis  in  me,  I 
cannot  keep  it  to  myself,  but  must  needs  acquaint  you  too  ,with  it.  If  you  knew 
what  my  relation  has  been  to  the  thing  called  English  "poetry"  for  many  years 
back,  you  would  think  such  fact  almost  surprising !  Truly  it  is  long  since  in  any 
English  Book,  Poetry,  or  Prose,  I  have  felt  the  pulse  of  a  real  man's  heart  as  I  do 
in  this  same.  A  right  valiant,  true  fighting,  victorious  heart;  strong  as  a  lion's, 
yet  gentle,  loving,  and  full  of  music :  what  I  call  a  genuine  singer's  heart !  There 
are  tones  as  of  the  nightingale ;  low  murmurs  as  of  wood-doves  at  summer  noon ; 
everywhere  a  noble  sound  as  of  the  free  winds  and  leafy  woods.  The  sunniest  glow 
of  life  dwells  in  that  soul,  chequered  duly  with  dark  streaks  from  night  and  Hades : 


LIFE  AND   WORK   OF   ALFRED  LORD   TENNYSON  xxix 


everywhere  one  feels  as  if  all  were  filled  with  yellow  glowing  sunlight,  some 
glorious  golden  Vapour,  from  which  form  after  form  bodies  itself ;  naturally,  golden 
forms.  In  one  word,  there  seems  to  be  a  note  of  "The  Eternal  Melodies  "  in  this 
man,  for  which  let  all  other  men  be  thankful  and  joyful !  Your  "  Dora  "  reminds  me 
of  the  Book  of  Ruth;  in  the  "Two  Voices,"  which,  I  am  told,  some  reviewer  calls 
I  trivial  morality,"  I  think  of  passages  in  Job.  For  truth  is  quite  as  true  in  Job's 
time  and  Ruth's  as  now.  I  know  you  cannot  read  German  :  the  more  interesting 
is  it  to  trace  in  your  "Summer  Oak"  a  beautiful  kindred  to  something  that  is  best 
in  Goethe;  I  mean  his  "Miillerin"  (Miller's  Daughter)  chiefly,  with  whom  the 
very  Mill-dam  gets  in  love,  though  she  proves  a  flirt  after  all,  and  the  thing  ends  in 
satirical  lines !  Very  strangely,  too,  in  the  "Vision  of  Sin"  I  am  reminded  of  my 
friend  Jean  Paul.  This  is  not  babble,  it  is  speech ;  true  deposition  of  a  volunteer 
witness.  And  so  I  say  let  us  all  rejoice  somewhat.  And  so  let  us  all  smite 
rhythmically,  all  in  concert,  "the  sounding  furrows,"  and  sail  forward  with  new 
cheer  "beyond  the  sunset,"  whither  we  are  bound  — 

It  may  be  that  the  gulfs  will  wash  us  down, 
It  may  be  we  shall  touch  the  happy  Isles 
And  see  the  great  Achilles  whom  we  knew. 

These  lines  do  not  make  me  weep,  but  there  is  in  me  what  would  fill  whole 
Lachrymatories  as  I  read.  But  do  you,  when  you  return  to  London,  come  down 
to  me  and  let  us  smoke  a  pipe  together.  With  few  words,  with  many,  or  with 
none,  it  need  not  be  an  ineloquent  pipe  ! 

Farewell,  dear  Tennyson;  may  the  gods  be  good  to  you.  With  very  great 
sincerity  (and  in  great  haste),  I  subscribe  myself  —  Yours,  T.  Carlyle. 

During  the  period  preceding  the  publication  of  these  volumes  he  saw 
many  old  and  made  many  new  friends  —  among  them  Charles  Kingsley, 
Frederick  Robertson,  Aubrey  de  Vere,  Coventry  Patmore,  Robert  Brown- 
ing, Frederick  Pollock.  Aubrey  de  Vere  gives  an  account  of  a  visit  made 
at  that  time  to  Wordsworth : 

Alfred  Tennyson's  largeness,  of  mind  and  of  heart  was  touchingly  illustrated  by 
his  reverence  for  Wordsworth's  poetry,  notwithstanding  that  the  immense  merits 
which  he  recognised  in  it  were  not,  in  his  opinion,  supplemented  by  a  proportionate 
amount  of  artistic  skill.  He  was  always  glad  to  show  reverence  to  the  "old  poet," 
not  then  within  ten  years  of  the  age  at  which  the  younger  one  died.  "Words- 
worth," he  said  to  me  one  day,  "is  staying  at  Hampstead  in  the  house  of  his 
friend  Mr.  Hoare;  I  must  go  and  see  him;  and  you  must  come  with  me.  Mind 
you  do  not  tell  Rogers,  or  he  will  be  displeased  at  my  being  in  London  and  not 
going  to  see  him."  We  drove  up  to  Hampstead  and  knocked  at  the  door,  and  the 
next  moment  it  was  opened  by  the  poet  of  the  world,  at  whose  side  stood  the  poet 
bf  the  mountains.  Rogers'  old  face,  which  had  encountered  nearly  ninety  years, 
seemed  to  double  the  numbers  of  its  wrinkles  as  he  said,  not  angrily,  but  very 
drily:  "Ah,  you  do  not  come  up  the  hill  to  see.  me  !"  During  the  visit  it  was 
with  Tennyson  that  the  bard  of  Rydal  held  discourse,  while  the  recluse  of  St. 
James'  Place,  whom  "that  angle"  especially  delighted,  conversed  with  me.     As 


xxx  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ALFRED  LORD   TENNYSON 

we  walked  back  to  London  through  grassy  fields  not  then  built  over,  Tennyson 
complained  of  the  old  poet's  coldness.  He  had  endeavoured  to  stimulate  some 
latent  ardours  by  telling  him  of  a  tropical  island  where  the  trees,  when  they  first 
came  into  leaf,  were  a  vivid  scarlet;  —  "Every  one  of  them,  I  told  him,  one  flush 
all  over  the  island,  the  colour  of  blood  !  It  would  not  do.  I  could  not  inflame  his 
imagination  in  the  least  !"  During  the  preceding  year  I  had  had  the  great  honour 
of  passing  several  days  at  Rydal  Mount  with  Wordsworth,  walking  on  his 
mountains,  and  listening  to  him  at  his  fireside.  I  told  him  that  a  young  poet  had 
lately  risen  up.  Wordsworth  answered  that  he  feared  from  the  little  he  had  heard 
that  if  Crabbe  was  the  driest  of  poets,  the  young  aspirant  must  have  the  opposite 
fault.  I  replied  that  he  should  j  udge  for  himself,  and  without  leave  given,  recited 
to  him  two  poems  by  Tennyson,  viz.  "You  ask  me,  why,  tho'  ill  at  ease,"  and 
"Of  old  sat  Freedom  on  the  heights."  Wordsworth  listened  with  a  gradually 
deepening  attention.  After  a  pause  he  answered,  "I  must  acknowledge  that  these 
two  poems  are  very  solid  and  noble  in  thought.  Their  diction  also  seems 
singularly  stately." 

The  new  publications,  however,  did  not  bring  him  wealth.  In  1844  a 
physician  near  Beech  Hill,  Dr.  Allen,  with  whom  the  Tennyson  family 
had  become  acquainted,  either  conceived  or  adopted  the  idea  of  wood- 
carving  by  machinery.  He  inspired  the  Tennysons  with  so  great  an: 
enthusiasm  for  it,  that  by  degrees  he  persuaded  my  father  to  give  him  the 
money  for  which,  wearied  by  a  careless  agent,  he  had  sold  his  little  estate; 
in  Grasby,  Lincolnshire,  and  even  the  £500  left  him  as  a  legacy  by] 
Arthur  Hallam's  aunt.  Not  merely  this,  however,  —  since,  but  for  my 
father's  intervention  apparently,  all  the  property  of  such  of  the  family  as 
were  at  Beech  Hill  would  have  merged  in  this  philanthropic  undertaking; 
so  fascinating  was  the  prospect  of  oak  panels  and  oak  furniture  carved  by 
machinery,  thus  brought  by  its  cheapness  within  the  reach  of  the; 
multitude.  The  confidence  my  father  had  placed  in  the  "earnest-frothy" 
Dr.  Allen  proved  to  be  misplaced.  The  entire  project  collapsed ;  my 
father's  worldly  goods  were  all  gone,  and  a  portion  of  the  property  of  hil 
brothers  and  sisters.  Then  followed  a  season  of  real  hardship  and  self-j 
sacrifice  and  many  trials  for  my  father  and  mother,  since  marriage  seemed 
to  be  farther  off  than  ever.  So  severe  a  hypochondria  set  in  upon  him] 
that  his  friends  despaired  of  his  life.  "I  have,"  he  writes,  "drunk  one  ol 
those  most  bitter  draughts  out  of  the  cup  of  life,  which  go  near  to  makd 
men  hate  the  world  they  move  in."  My  uncle,  Edmund  Lushington,  inj 
1844  generously  insured  Dr.  Allen's  life  for  part  of  the  debt  due  to  nrd 
father;  the  Doctor  died  in  January  1845. 

His  friends  procured  my  father  a  civil  list  pension,  chiefly  through  thd 
intervention  of  Carlyle  and  Henry  Hallam.  He  recovered  his  health  and 
set  to  work  again,  and  in  1847  published  "The  Princess,"  the  "heralJ 
melody"  of  the  higher  education  of  women,  although  perhaps  in  this; 
progressive  age  the  then  progressive  views  expressed  there  may  seem  to 


LIFE  AND   WORK  OF  ALFRED  LORD    TENNYSON  xxxi 

some  now  somewhat  old-fashioned.  Andrew  Lang  writes:  "On  reading 
'The  Princess'  afresh  one  is  impressed,  despite  old  familiarity,  with  the 
extraordinary  influence  of  its  beauty.  Here  are,  indeed,  the  best  words 
best  placed,  and  that  curious  felicity  of  style,  which  makes  every  line  a 
marvel,  and  an  eternal  possession.  It  is  as  if  Tennyson  had  taken  the 
advice  which  Keats  gave  to  Shelley,  'Load  every  rift  with  ore.'"  As  for 
the  various  characters  of  the  poem,  they  give  all  possible  views  of  women's 
higher  education,  and  as  for  the  Princess  Ida,  the  poet  who  created  her 
considered  her  as  one  of  the  noblest  of  his  creations.  Woman  must  train 
herself  to  do  the  large  work  that  lies  before  her  even  though  she  may 
not  be  destined  to  be  wife  or  mother,  cultivating  her  understanding,  not 
her  memory  only,  her  imagination  in  its  highest  phases,  her  inborn 
spirituality  and  her  sympathy  with  all  that  is  pure,  noble,  and  beautiful, 
rather  than  mere  social  accomplishments ;  then  and  then  only  will  she 
further  the  progress  of  humanity,  then  and  then  only  will  men  continue 
to  hold  her  in  reverence.  For  simple  rhythm  and  word  and  vowel  music 
flbie  considered  his  "Come  down,  O  Maid,"  mostly  written  in  Switzerland 
(1846),  as  among  his  most  successful  blank  verse : 

Come  down,  O  maid,  from  yonder  mountain  height : 

What  pleasure  lives  in  height  (the  shepherd  sang) 

In  height  and  cold,  the  splendour  of  the  hills  ? 

But  cease  to  move  so  near  the  Heavens,  and  cease  • 

To  glide  a  sunbeam  by  the  blasted  Pine, 

To  sit  a  star  upon  the  sparkling  spire ; 

And  come,  for  Love  is  of  the  valley,  come, 

For  Love  is  of  the  valley,  come  thou  down 

And  find  him ;  .  .  . 

...  let  the  torrent  dance  thee  down 

To  find  him  in  the  valley ;  let  the  wild 

Lean-headed  Eagles  yelp  alone,  and  leave 

The  monstrous  ledges  there  to  slope,  and  spill 

Their  thousand  wreaths  of  dangling  water-smoke, 

That  like  a  broken  purpose  waste  in  air : 

So  waste  not  thou ;  but  come ;  for  all  the  vales 

Await  thee ;  azure  pillars  of  the  hearth 

Arise  to  thee  ;  the  children  call,  and  I 

Thy  shepherd  pipe,  and  sweet  is  every  sound, 

Sweeter  thy  voice,  but  every  sound  is  sweet ; 

Myriads  of  rivulets  hurrying  thro'  the  lawn, 

The  moan  of  doves  in  immemorial  elms, 

And  murmuring  of  innumerable  bees. 

i wo  versions  of  "Sweet  and  Low"  were  made  and  were  sent  to  Emily 
illwood  to  choose  which  should  be  published.  The  unpublished  version 
Sins  thus : 


xxxii         LIFE  AND   WORK  OF  ALFRED  LORD   TENNYSON 

Bright  is  the  moon  on  the  deep, 
Bright  are  the  cliffs  in  her  beam, 

Sleep,  my  little  one,  sleep  ! 
Look,  he  smiles,  and  opens  his  hands, 
He  sees  his  father  in  distant  lands, 
And  kisses  him  there  in  a  dream, 
Sleep,  sleep. 

Father  is  over  the  deep, 
Father  will  come  to  thee  soon, 
Sleep,  my  pretty  one,  sleep  ! 
Father  will  come  to  his  babe  in  the  nest, 
Silver  sails  all  out  of  the  West, 
Under  the  silver  moon, 
Sleep,  sleep  ! 

The  letters  which  he  received  then  show  that  these  songs  added  in  1850I 
—  "As  thro'  the  land  at  eve  we  went,"  "Sweet  and  low,"  "The  splendour' 
falls,"  "Tears,  idle  tears,"  "Thy  voice  is  heard  thro'  rolling  drums, 
"Home  they  brought  her  warrior  dead,"  "Ask  me  no  more"  —  had] 
especially  moved  the  great  heart  of  the  people.  The  following  notes  onj 
the  poem  were  left  by  my  father :  — 

,  In  the  Prologue  the  "Tale  from  mouth  to  mouth"  was  a  game  which  I  have] 
more  than  once  played  when  I  was  at  Trinity  College,  Cambridge,  with  my  brother 
undergraduates.  Of  course,  if  he  "that  inherited  the  tale"  had  not  attended  very 
carefully  to  his  predecessors,  there  were  contradictions ;  and  if  the  story  werq 
historical,  occasional  anachronisms.  In  defence  of  what  some  have  called  the  too 
poetical  passages,  it  should  be  recollected  that  the  poet  of  the  party  was  requestec 
to  "dress  the  tale  up  poetically,"  and  he  was  full  of  the  "gallant  and  heroic 
chronicle."  Some  of  my  remarks  on  passages  in  the  "Princess"  have  beei 
published  by  Dawson  of  Canada,  who  copied  them  from  a  letter  which  I  wrote  t< 
him  criticizing  his  study  of  the  "Princess."  The  child  is  the  link  through  the  parti 
as  shown  in  the  songs  which  are  the  best  interpreters  of  the  poem.  Before  th 
first  edition  came  out,  I  deliberated  with  myself  whether  I  should  put  songs  betwc 
the  separate  divisions  of  the  poem ;  again  I  thought  that  the  poem  would  explaii 
itself,  but  the  public  did  not  see  the  drift.  The  first  song  I  wrote  was  naraei 
"The  Losing  of  the  Child."  The  child  is  sitting  on  the  bank  of  the  river  an< 
playing  with  flowers ;  a  flood  comes  down ;  a  dam  has  been  broken  thro'  —  thi 
child  is  borne  down  by  the  flood ;  the  whole  village  distracted ;  after  a  time  thj 
flood  has  subsided ;  the  child  is  thrown  safe  and  sound  again  upon  the  bank ;  an( 
there  is  a  chorus  of  jubilant  women. 

After  the  publication  of  "The  Princess"  he  went  for  tours  in  Cornwal 
and  Ireland.     He  mixed  with  many  classes  of  Irish,  and  often  spoke 
them  "as  not  only  feudal  but  oriental,  loving  those  in  authority  to  ha^ 
the  iron  hand  in  the  silken  glove." 


LIFE  AND   WORK  OF  ALFRED  LORD   TENNYSON        xxxiii 


Marriage,  "In  Memoriam,"  and  Farringford. 

The  year  1850  was  the  golden  year  of  my  father's  life.  He  published 
"In  Memoriam,"  at  which  he  had  worked  through  seventeen  years.  He 
had  written  the  following  section  within  two  months  of  Arthur  Hallam's 
death:  "Fair  ship,  that  from  the  Italian  shore."  The  poem  appeared 
without  his  name.  The  critics  blundered.  One  declared  that  "much 
shallow  art  was  spent  on  the  tenderness  shown  to  an  Amaryllis  of  the 
Chancery  Bar."  Another  that  "these  touching  lines  evidently  come 
from  the  full  heart  of  the  widow  of  a  military  man."  Throughout  "In 
Memoriam"  my  father  muses  on  the  problems  of  Life,  Death,  Knowledge, 
and  Religion,  and  expresses  his  firm  faith  in  the  love  of  God,  in  the 
"Christ  that  is  to  be,"  in  Free-will,  and  in  the  life  after  death  of  the 
human  soul.  On  such  high  subjects  as  "the  blessing  of  honest  belief, 
the  blessing  also  of  'honest  doubt,'  the  supreme  majesty  of  veracity  and 
every  form  of  truth,  the  grandeur  of  the  Creator's  living  energy  in  the 
Universe,  as  part  by  part  revealed  by  science,  in  whose  multiplied  and 
advancing  triumphs  the  poet  personally  exulted ;  again,  in  the  sacredness 
and  the  perfect  beauty  of  human  love,  wedded  and  unwedded,  brotherly 
and  sisterly,  filial  and  parental,  on  such  high  themes  —  who,  I  ask,  since 
Dante,  has  written,  I  do  not  say  with  more  piety  or  more  tenderness,  but 
with  more  manliness  and  more  power  ?  " 1  He  once  said  to  Tyndall,  who 
agreed  with  him.  "No  evolutionist  is  able  to  explain  the  mind  of  man,  or 
I  how  any  possible  change  of  physiological  tissue  can  produce  conscious 
thought."  As  to  the  different  forms  of  Christianity,  he  observed  with 
Sara  Coleridge  that  "the  whole  logical  truth  is  not  the  possession  of  any 
one  party,  that  it  exists  in  fragments  among  the  several  parties,  and  that 
:much  of  it  is  yet  to  be  developed."  "Forsitan  uno  itinere  non  protest 
perveniri  ad  tarn  grande  secretum."  He  expressed  his  conviction  that 
"Christianity  with  its  divine  Morality,  without  the  central  figure  and  life 
of  Christ,  the  Son  of  Man,  would  become  cold";  that  this  passionate 
"creed  of  creeds  had  done  infinitely  more  for  our  poor  common  humanity 
than  any  preceding  religion  or  philosophy."  According  to  Jowett  "it  was 
|n  the  spirit  of  an  old  saint  or  mystic,  and  not  of  a  modern  rationalist,  that 
Tennyson  habitually  thought  and  felt  about  the  nature  of  Christ.  Never 
did  the  slightest  shadow  of  ridicule  or  profaneness  mix  itself  up  with  the 
applications  which  he  made  of  Scripture,  although  he  was  quite  aware  that 
Sthere  were  many  points  on  which  he  differed  widely  from  the  so-called 
Evangelical,  or  High-Church  world,  and  he  always  strove  to  keep  religion 
free  from  the  taint  of  ridicule."  "What  'In  Memoriam'  did  for  us," 
writes  Professor  Henry  Sidgwick,  "for  me  at  least,  was  to  impress  on 

1  The  Master  of  Trinity  (April  1913)- 


xxxiv        LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ALFRED  LORD   TENNYSON 

us  the  ineffaceable  and  ineradicable  conviction  that  humanity  will  not 
and  cannot  acquiesce  in  a  godless  world.  If  the  possibility  of  a 
godless  world  is  excluded,  the  faith  thus  restored  is  for  the  poet  un- 
questionably a  form  of  Christian  faith :  there  seems  to  him,  then,  no  reason 
for  doubting  that  'the  sinless  years  that  breathed  beneath  the  Syrian 
blue,'  and  the  marvel  of  the  life  continued  after  the  bodily  death,  were  a 
manifestation  of  the  'immortal  love'  which  by  faith  we  embrace  as  the 
essence  of  the  Divine  Nature."  "I  do  not  know,"  Stopford  Brooke  says, 
"in  any  of  the  earlier  poems,  not  even  in  'Maud,'  anything  on  a  higher 
range  of  passionate  imagination  and  breathing  more  of  youthful  ardour 
weighted  with  dignity  of  thought  than  a  song  like  this : 

Wild  bird,  whose  warble,  liquid  sweet, 
Rings  Eden  thro'  the  budded  quicks. 

Or  take  this  other  where  the  loveliness  of  Nature  is  met  and  received  with 
joy  by  that  receptive  spirit  of  delight  in  a  sensuous  impression  which  a 
young  man  feels;  and  where  the  depths  of  the  feeling  has  wrought  the 
short  poem  into  an  intensity  of  unity :  each  verse  linked  like  bell  to  bell  in 
a  chime  to  the  verse  before  it,  and  all  swinging  into  a  triumphant  close ; 
swelling  as  they  go  from  thought  to  thought,  and  finally  rising  from  the 
landscape  of  the  earth  to  the  landscape  of  infinite  space.  Can  anything 
be  more  impassioned  and  yet  more  solemn  !  It  has  the  swiftness  of  youth, 
and  the  nobleness  of  manhood's  sacred  joy : 

Sweet  after  showers,  ambrosial  air, 

That  rollest  from  the  gorgeous  gloom 

Of  evening  over  brake  and  bloom 
And  meadow,  slowly  breathing  bare 

The  round  of  space,  and  rapt  below 

Thro'  all  the  dewy-tassell'd  wood, 

And  shadowing  down  the  horned  flood 
In  ripples,  fan  my  brows  and  blow 

The  fever  from  my  cheek,  and  sigh 

The  full  new  life  that  feeds  thy  breath 
Throughout  my  frame,  till  Doubt  and  Death, 

111  brethren,  let  the  fancy  fly 

From  belt  to  belt  of  crimson  seas 

On  leagues  of  odour  streaming  far, 

To  where  in  yonder  orient  star 
A  hundred  spirits  whisper  'Peace.' 

"Vision  after  vision  of  Nature,  each  of  a  greater  beauty  and  sentiment 
than  its  predecessor,  succeed  one  another,  and  each  of  them  is  fitted  to  a 
corresponding  exaltation  of  the  emotions  of  the  soul.      Take   'Calm  and 


LIFE  AND   WORK   OF   ALFRED   LORD   TENNYSON         xxxv 

still  night  on  yon  great  plain,'  'By  night  we  linger'd  on  the  lawn,'   and 
the  storm  (he  loved  tempestuous  days) : 

The  forest  crack'd,  the  waters  curPd, 

The  cattle  huddled  on  the  lea; 

And  wildly  dash'd  on  tower  and  tree 
The  sunbeam  strikes  along  the  world." 

"It  must  be  remembered,"  my  father  notes,  "that  'In  Memoriam'  is  a. 
poem,  not  an  actual  biography.  It  is  founded  on  our  friendship,  on  the 
engagement  of  Arthur  Hallam  to  my  sister,  on  his  sudden  death  at 
Vienna,  just  before  the  time  fixed  for  their  marriage,  and  on  his  burial  at 
Clevedon  Church.  The  poem  concludes  with  the  marriage  of  my  youngest 
sister  Cecilia.  It  was  meant  to  be  a  kind  of  Divina  Commedia,  ending 
with  happiness.  The  sections  were  written  at  many  different  places,  and 
as  the  phases  of  our  intercourse  came  to  my  memory  and  suggested  them. 
I  did  not  write  them  with  any  view  of  weaving  them  into  a  whole,  or  for 
publication,  until  I  found  that  I  had  written  so  many.  The  different 
moods  of  sorrow  as  in  a  drama  are  dramatically  given,  and  my  conviction 
that  fear,  doubts,  and  suffering  will  find  answer  and  relief  only  through 
faith  in  a  God  of  love.  'If  ig  not  always  the  author  speaking  of  himself, 
but  the  voice  of  the  human  race  speaking  through  him.  After  the 
death  of  A.  H.  H.  the  divisions  of  the  poem  are  made  by  First  Xmas 
Eve  (Section  xxvih.),  Second  Xmas  (lxxviii.),  Third  Xmas  Eve 
(civ.  and  cv.,  etc.).  I  myself  did  not  see  Clevedon  till  years  after 
the  burial  of  A.  H.  H.  Jan.  3,  1834,  and  then  in  later  editions  of 
'In  Memoriam'  I  altered  the  word  'chancel,'  which  was  the  word  used  by 
Mr.  Hallam  in  his  Memoir,  to  'dark  church.'  As  to  the  localities  in 
which  the  poems  were  written,  some  were  written  in  Lincolnshire,  some 
in  I^ondon,  Essex,  Gloucestershire,  Wales,  anywhere  where  I  happened  to 
be.  "And  as  for  the  metre  of  'In  Memoriam'  I  had  no  notion  till  1880 
that  Lord  Herbert  of  Cherbury  had  written  his  occasional  verses  in  the 
same  metre.  I  believed  myself  the  originator  of  the  metre,  until  after  'In 
Memoriam'  came  out,  when  some  one  told  me  that  Ben  Jonson  and  Sir 
Philip  Sidney  had  used  it." 

With  this  year  of  1850  came  to  him  at  once  glory,  fame,  and  competence, 
and  the  joy  and  peace  of  marrying,  at  Shiplake  on  the  Thames  (June  13),  the 
wife  for  whom  he  had  so  long  waited.  "The  peace  of  God  came  into  my 
life  when  I  married  her."  And  let  me  quote  here  from  my  Memoir  about 
her,  although  as  a  son  I  cannot  allow  myself  full  utterance.  "It  was  she 
who  became  my  father's  adviser  in  literary  matters;  'I  am  proud  of  her 
intellect,'  he  wrote.  With  her  he  always  discussed  what  he  was  working 
at ;  she  transcribed  his  poems ;  to  her  and  to  no  one  else  he  referred  for  a 
final  criticism  before  publishing.     She,  with  her  'tender,  spiritual  nature,' 


xxxvi        LIFE  AND   WORK   OF  ALFRED  LORD   TENNYSON 

and  instinctive  nobility  of  thought,  was  always  by  his  side,  a  ready, 
cheerful,  courageous,  wise,  and  sympathetic  counsellor.  It  was  she  who 
shielded  his  sensitive  spirit  from  the  annoyances  and  trials  of  life, 
answering  (for  example)  the  innumerable  letters  addressed  to  him  from 
all  parts  of  the  world.  By  her  quiet  sense  of  humour,  by  her  selfless 
devotion,  by  'her  faith  as  clear  as  the  heights  of  the  June-blue  heaven,' 
she  helped  him  also  to  the  utmost  in  the  hours  of  his  depression  and  of 
his  sorrow;  and  to  her  he  wrote  two  of  the  most  beautiful  of  his  shorter 
lyrics,  'Dear,  near  and  true,'  and  the  dedicatory  lines  which  prefaced  his 
last  volume,  'The  Death  of  CEnone.'" 

Five  months  after  his  marriage  my  father  was  offered  the  poet-laureate- 
ship  by  the  Queen,  for  the  Prince  Consort  had  read  "In  Memoriam" 
and  delighted  in  it.  Curiously  enough  the  night  before  the  offer  came  he 
dreamt  that  the  Prince  had  kissed  him  on  the  cheek,  and  that  he  had 
remarked,  "Very  kind,  but  very  German."  He  took  a  day  to  consider  the 
offer,  and  at  the  last  wrote  two  letters,  one  accepting  and  one  refusing, 
and  determined  to  make  up  his  mind  after  consulting  with  his  friends. 
He  hated  being  thrust  forward  before  the  public.  One  evening  at  Bath 
House  Milnes  had  wished  to  introduce  him  to  the  Duke  of  Wellington. 
"No,"  said  he,  "why  should  the  great  Duke  be  bothered  by  a  poor  poet 
like  me?"  When  he  had  been  officially  proclaimed  poet-laureate  he 
complained  that  he  was  thenceforward  inundated  with  letters,  that  he 
could  not  possibly  answer  them  all,  but  at  any  rate,  in  many  an  instance, 
his  correspondence  bears  witness  to  his  open-hearted  kindness  and  liberality. 
Moxon  asked  him  to  publish  a  fresh  volume  of  poems.  The  seventh  edition 
of  collected  poems  appeared  in  1851  with  the  dedication  to  the  Queen : 

Rever'd,  beloved  —  O  you  that  hold 
A  nobler  office  upon  earth 
Than  arms  or  power  of  brains  or  birth 

Could  give  the  warrior  Kings  of  old. 

A  little  later  were  published  National  Songs,  "Rise,  Britons, 
Rise,"  "The  Third  of  February,"  "Hands  all  Round."  One  of  the 
deepest  desires  of  his  life  was  to  help  the  realisation  of  the  ideal  of 
an  Empire  by  the  most  intimate  union  of  every  part  of  our  British 
Empire.  He  believed  that  every  part  so  united  would,  with  a  heightening 
of  individuality  to  each  member,  give  such  strength,  greatness,  and  stability 
to  the  whole  as  would  make  our  Empire  a  faithful  and  fearless  leader  in 
all  that  is  good  throughout  the  world.     Dr.  Warren  writes  : 

English  of  the  English,  emphatically  a  national  poet,  he  was  at  the  same  time 
cosmopolitan  in  his  sympathies,1  and  no  modern  English  poet  is  so  well  known 

1  For  example  he  felt  deep  sympathy  with  Poland  and  Montenegro.  His  sonnets 
entitled   "Poland"  and  "Montenegro"  have  been  translated  over  and  over  again     in 


LIFE  AND   WORK  OF  ALFRED  LORD   TENNYSON       xxxvii 

abroad,  as  the  translations  of  Morel,  of  Freiligrath,  Strodtmann,  Feis  and  others,  of 
Saladino  Saladini  and  D.  Vicente  De  Arana,  or  the  remarkable  recent  book  of  Dr. 
Roman  Dyboski  on  Tennyson's  Language  and  Style,  may  testify.  At  his  centenary, 
his  work  received,  in  such  articles  as  those  of  M.  Emile  Faguet,  M.  Firmin  Roz, 
and  M.  Auguste  Filon,  a  recognition  in  France  yet  more  striking  than  that  in 
England.  So,  again,  no  English  poet  of  recent  times  has  met  with  so  much 
attention  across  the  seas,  notably  from  writers  like  Stedman,  Genung  and  Van  Dyke 
in  the  United  States,  and  Dr.  S.  Dawson  and  others  in  our  own  colonies. 

Husband  and  wife  set  up  housekeeping  at  Warninglid,  Sussex,  looking 
on  the  South  Downs ;  next  year  they  went  to  Chapel  House,  Twickenham, 
where  I  was  born.  Their  first  child  had  been  born  dead.  At  the  time 
my  father  wrote : 

It  was  Easter  Sunday,  and  at  his  birth  I  heard  the  great  roll  of  the  organ,  of  the 
uplifted  psalm  (in  the  chapel  adjoining  the  house) .  Dead  as  he  was  I  felt  proud  of 
him.  To-day  when  I  write  this  down  the  remembrance  of  it  rather  overcomes  me  : 
but  I  am  glad  that  I  have  seen  him,  dear  little  nameless  one  that  hast  lived  tho' 
thou  hast  never  breathed,  I,  thy  father,  love  thee  and  weep  over  thee,  tho'  thou 
hast  no  place  in  the  Universe.  Who  knows?  It  may  be  that  thou  hast.  .  .  . 
God's  will  be  done. 

My  father  and  mother  later  took  a  tour  in  Italy,  and  the  poem  of  the 
" Daisy"  was  written  to  commemorate  it.  In  1852  he  published  his 
great  "Ode  on  the  Death  of  the  Duke  of  Wellington."  He  also  attended 
a  levee  at  Court  in  the  Court  suit  that  Wordsworth  wore,  and  first  became 
acquainted  with  his  true  friend  of  later  years,  the  Duke  of  Argyll.  "I  am 
so  glad  to  know  you,"  said  the  Duke.  "You  won't  find  much  in  me  after 
all,"  was  the  blunt  rejoinder. 

In  1853  they  entered  into  the  occupation  of  Farringford  in  the  Isle  of 
Wight  as  their  permanent  home.  When  they  had  first  "gazed  from  the 
drawing-room  window  out  through  the  distant  wreath  of  trees  towards  a 
sea  of  Mediterranean  blue,  with  rosy  capes  beyond,  the  down  on  the  left 
rising  above  the  foreground  of  undulating  park,  golden-leaved  elms  and 
chestnuts,  and  red-stemmed  pines,"  they  agreed  that  they  must  if  possible 
have  that  view  to  live  with.  On  taking  up  their  abode  there  they  at 
once  settled  to  a  country  life,  looking  after  their  farm  and  garden,  and 
tending  the  poor  and  sick  of  the  village. 

His  Love  of  Children.    "Maud." 

The  years  spent  at  Farringford  were  the  happiest  of  my  father's  life. 
In  March  1854  another  son,  Lionel,  was  born.     Of  babies  he  would  say: 

different  languages,  and  have  been  published  and  republished  in  these  two  countries; 
and  the  Montenegrins  have  more  than  once  placed  wreaths  on  his  grave  in  Westminster 
Abbey.  For  a  Polish  appreciation  see  Mine.  Modjeska's  Memories  and  Impressions, 
pp.  397-8. 


xxxviii      LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ALFRED  LORD   TENNYSON 

"There  is  something  gigantic  about  them.  The  wide-eyed  wonder  of  a 
babe  has  a  majesty  in  it  which  as  children  they  lose.  They  seem  to  be 
prophets  of  a  mightier  race."  To  his  own  children  he  was  devoted,  took 
part  in  their  pastimes  and  amusements,  and  was  their  constant  companion. 
I  remember  his  emphatic  recitation  in  those  far-off  years  of 

"Malbrouck  s'en  va-t-en  guerre, 
Mironton,  mironton,  mirontaine," 
of 

"  Si  le  roi  m'avait  donne 
Paris  sa  grand'  ville," 
of 

"Ye  Mariners  of  England," 
and  of 

"The  Burial  of  Sir  John  Moore," 

and  my  father's  words  spoken  long  ago  still  dwell  with  me,  "A  truthful 
man  generally  has  all  virtues." 

He  taught  us  to  appreciate  beauty  in  Nature  and  in  Art.  Drama, 
simple  music,  painting,  sculpture,  and  architecture,  all  had  their  message 
for  him.  The  first  Latin  I  learned  from  him  was  Horace's  O  fans 
Bandusiae,  and  the  first  Greek  the  beginning  of  the  Iliad.1  Before  this 
he  liked  to  make  us  learn  and  repeat  ballads,  and  simple  poems  about 
Nature,  but  he  would  never  teach  us  his  own  poems,  or  allow  us  to  get 
them  by  heart.  In  the  summer  as  children  we  generally  passed  through 
London  to  Lincolnshire,  and  he  would  take  us  for  a  treat  to  Westminster 
Abbey,  the  Zoological  Gardens,  the  Tower  of  London,  the  Elgin  Marbles  at 
the  British  Museum,  or  the  National  Gallery.  The  last  he  much  delighted 
in,  and  would  point  us  out  the  various  excellences  of  different  masters; 
he  always  led  the  way  first  of  all  to  the  "Raising  of  Lazarus"  by  Sebastian 
del  Piombo,  and  to  Titian's  "Bacchus  and  Ariadne."  A  favourite  saying 
of  his  was,  "Make  the  lives  of  children  as  beautiful  and  happy  as 
possible." 

He  occasionally  travelled  in  the  summer,  visited  his  friends  or  enter- 
tained them  in  his  own  house.  With  FitzGerald  he  began  to  learn  Persian 
in  order  to  read  Hafiz  in  the  original.  F.  D.  Maurice  among  others  came, 
and  my  father  welcomed  him  to  his  home  in  the  well-known  poem : 

Come,  when  no  graver  cares  employ, 
Godfather,  come  and  see  your  boy  : 

Your  presence  will  be  sun  in  winter, 
Making  the  little  one  leap  for  joy. 

1  See  article  by  H.  G.  Dakyns  in  Tennyson  and  His  Friends. 


LIFE  AND   WORK   OF  ALFRED  LORD    TENNYSON         xxxix 

Should  all  our  churchmen  foam  in  spite 
At  you,  so  careful  of  the  right, 

Yet  one  lay-hearth  would  give  you  welcome 
(Take  it  and  come)  to  the  Isle  of  Wight : 

Where,  far  from  noise  and  smoke  of  town, 
I  watch  the  twilight  falling  brown 

All  round  a  careless-order'd  garden 
Close  to  the  ridge  of  a  noble  down. 

The  first  important  poem  which  was  written  at  Farringford  was  "The 
Charge  of  the  Light  Brigade,"  then  (1855)  "Maud,  or  the  Madness"  — 
called  now  the  most  passionate  of  love  poems,  although  at  first  denounced 
as  too  morbid  and  too  melancholy  to  be  tolerated. 

"This  poem  is  a  little  Hamlet,  the  history  of  a  morbid  poetic  soul, 
under  the  blighting  influence  of  a  recklessly  spectdating  age.  He  is  the 
heir  of  madness,  an  egotist  with  the  makings  of  a  cynic,  raised  to  sanity  by 
a  pure  and  holy  love  which  elevates  his  whole  nature,  passing  from  the 
height  of  triumph  to  the  lowest  depths  of  misery,  driven  into  madness  by 
the  loss  of  her  whom  he  has  loved,  and,  when  he  has  at  length  passed 
through  the  fiery  furnace,  and  has  recovered  his  reason,  giving  himself  up 
to  work  for  the  good  of  mankind  through  the  unselfishness  born  of  his 
great  passion."  My  father  pointed  out  that  even  Nature  at  first  presented 
itself  to  the  man  in  sad  visions. 

And  the  flying  gold  of  the  ruin'd  woodlands  drove  thro'  the  air. 

The  "blood-red  heath,"  too,  is  an  exaggeration  of  colour,  and  his  suspicion 
that  all  the  world  is  against  him  is  as  true  to  his  nature  as  the  mood  when 
he  is  "fantastically  merry."  "The  peculiarity  of  this  poem,"  my  father 
added,  "is  that  different  phases  of  passion  in  one  person  take  the  place  of 
different  characters." 

The  writing  of  "Maud"  was  largely  due  to  that  friend  of  friends,  Sir 
John  Simeon.  Looking  through  a  volume  of  manuscripts  one  day  at 
Farringford  Sir  John  came  upon  the  lyric : 

O  that  'twere  possible 

After  long  grief  and  pain 

To  find  the  arms  of  my  true  love 

Round  me  once  again  ! 

When  I  was  wont  to  meet  her 

In  the  silent  woody  places 

By  the  home  that  gave  me  birth, 

We  stood  tranced  in  long  embraces 

Mixt  with  kisses  sweeter  sweeter 

Than  anything  on  earth. 


xl  LIFE  AND   WORK  OF  ALFRED  LORD   TENNYSON 

"Why  do  you  keep  those  beautiful  lines  unpublished?"  he  said.  My 
father  told  him  that  the  poem  had  appeared  years  before  in  The  Tribute, 
but  that  it  was  really  intended  to  be  part  of  a  dramatic  poem.  Sir  John 
gave  him  no  peace  until  he  had  woven  a  story  round  these  lines,  and  so 
"Maud"  came  into  being.  I  shall  never  forget  his  last  reading  of  it  at 
Aldworth  on  August  24,  1892.  He  was  sitting  in  his  high-backed  chair, 
fronting  a  southern  window,  which  looks  over  the  groves  and  yellow 
corn-fields  of  Sussex  toward  the  long  line  of  south  downs  that  stretches 
from  Arundel  to  Hastings  (his  high-domed  Rembrandt-like  head  outlined 
against  the  sunset-clouds  seen  through  the  western  window).  His  voice, 
low  and  calm  in  every-day  life,  capable  of  delicate  and  manifold  inflection, 
but  with  "organ  tones"  of  great  power  and  range,  thoroughly  brought 
out  the  drama  of  the  poem. 

From  the  proceeds  of  the  sale  of  "Maud"  he  was  enabled  to  com- 
plete the  purchase  of  Farringford.  In  1854  he  visited  Glastonbury  and 
Wells,  in  1855  the  New  Forest  and  Oxford  where  he  was  made  a  D.  C.  L., 
in  1856  Wales,  in  1858  Norway,  in  1859  Portugal,  in  i860  Cornwall, 
and  in  1861  the  Pyrenees,  where  he  wrote  "All  along  the  Valley,"  in 
memory  of  his  sojourn  in  the  Valley  of  Cauteretz  with  Arthur  Hallam  more 
than  thirty  years  before. 

"The  Idylls  of  the  King." 

In  1859  he  brought  out  his  first  four  "Idylls  of  the  King"  —  "Enid," 
"Vivien,"  "Elaine,"  and  "Guinevere,"  —  which  aroused  as  much  enthusiasm 
as  "Maud"  had  provoked  resentment.  Ten  thousand  copies  were  sold 
in  the  week  of  publication.     Thackeray  sends  a  letter  to  him : 

Reading  the  lines  ("Blow,  bugle,  blow")  which  only  one  man  in  the  world  could 
have  written,  I  thought  about  the  horns  of  Elfland  blowing  in  full  strength,  and 
Arthur  in  gold  armour  and  Guinevere  in  gold  hair,  and  all  those  heroes  and  knights 
and  beauties  and  purple  landscapes  and  misty  gray  lakes  in  which  you  have  made  me 
live.  They  seem  like  facts  to  me,  since  about  three  weeks  ago  (three  weeks  or  a 
month  was  it  ?)  when  I  read  the  book.  It  is  on  the  table  yonder,  and  I  don't  like 
somehow  to  disturb  it,  but  the  delight  and  gratitude  ! 

Some  of  his  friends,  however,  like  Ruskin,  complained  that  "so  great 
power  ought  not  to  be  spent  on  visions  of  things  past  but  on  the  living 
present,"  and  that  they  felt  "the  art  and  the  finish  a  little  more  than  they 
liked  to  feel  it."  Swinburne,  himself  "a  reed  through  which  all  things  blow 
into  music,"  although  dissatisfied  with  the  "  scheme  "  of  the  "  Idylls,"  admired 
their  "exquisite  magnificence  of  style."  And  Edward  FitzGerald  wrote: 
"I  feel  how  pure,  noble,  and  holy  your  work  is,  and  whole  phrases,  lines, 
and  sentences  will  abide  with  me,  and,  I  am  sure,  with  men  after  me." 
"I   believe,"   my  father  said   to   me,   "the   existence  of   King  Arthur  ■ 


LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ALFRED  LORD   TENNYSON  xli 

(500  a.d.)  is  more  or  less  mythical."  He  is  mentioned  in  the  Welsh 
Bards  of  the  seventh  century  as  "the  leader."  In  the  twelfth  century 
Geoffrey  of  Monmouth  collected  the  legends  about  him  as  a  European 
conqueror  in  his  History  of  the  Britons,  and  translated  them  from 
Celtic  into  Latin.  Wace  translated  them  into  French,  and  added  the 
story  of  the  Round  Table.  "My  meaning  in  the  'Idylls  of  the  King' 
was  spiritual.  I  took  the  legendary  stories  of  the  Round  Table  as 
illustrations.  Arthur  was  allegorical  to  me.  I  intended  to  represent  him 
as  the  Ideal  of  the  Soul  of  Man  coming  in  contact  with  the  warring 
elements  of  the  flesh."  He  continued,  "Poetry  is  like  shot  silk  with  many 
glancing  colours.  Every  reader  must  find  his  own  interpretation  accord- 
ing to  his  ability,  and  according  to  his  sympathy  with  the  poet."  He 
notes,  "The  personal  drift  of  the  Idylls  is  clear  enough.  The  whole  is  a 
dream  of  man  coming  into  practical  life  and  ruined  by  one  sin  (the  guilty 
love  of  Launcelot  and  of  Guinevere).  Birth  is  a  mystery  and  Death  is  a 
mystery,  and  in  the  midst  lies  the  table-land  of  life,  and  its  struggles  and 
performances.  It  is  not  the  history  of  one  man  or  of  one  generation,  but 
of  a  whole  cycle  of  generations.  The  vision  of  Arthur  as  I  have  drawn 
him  came  upon  me  when  while  little  more  than  a  boy  I  first  lighted  upon 
Malory."  He  has  made  the  old  legends  his  own,  restored  the  idealism, 
and  infused  into  them  a  spirit  of  modern  thought  and  an  ethical  signifi- 
cance, setting  his  characters  in  a  rich  and  varied  landscape;  as  indeed, 
otherwise,  these  archaic  stories  would  not  have  appealed  to  the  modern 
world  at  large.  There  is  no  more  reason  why  he  should  follow  Malory's 
version  than  that  Malory  should  be  true  to  Walter  Map.  He  felt  himself 
justified,  in  always  having  pictured  Arthur  in  his  parable  as  the  ideal  man, 
by  such  passages  as  this  from  Joseph  of  Exeter:  "The  old  world  knows 
not  his  peer,  nor  will  the  future  show  us  his  equal :  he  alone  towers  over 
other  kings,  better  than  the  past  ones  and  greater  than  those  that  are 
to  be." 

"Undoubtedly,"  Sir  Alfred  Lyall  writes,  "the  figure  of  Arthur  —  representing 
a  warrior-king  endowed  with  the  qualities  of  unselfishness,  clemency,  generosity, 
and  noble  trustfulness,  yet  betrayed  by  his  wife  and  his  familiar  friend,  forgiving  her 
and  going  forth  to  die  in  a  last  fight  against  treacherous  rebels  —  has  a  grandeur  and 
a  pathos  that  might  well  affect  a  gravely  emotional  people.  Moreover,  the  poem  is 
a  splendidly  illuminated  Morality." 

The  coming  of  Arthur  is  on  the  night  of  the  New  Year :  when  he  is 
wedded  "the  world  is  white  with  May":  on  a  summer  night  the  vision 
of  the  Holy  Grail  appears:  and  the  "Last  Tournament  is  in  the 
following  autumn-tide."  Guinevere  flies  through  the  mists  of  autumn, 
and  Arthur's  death  takes  place  at  midnight  in  midwinter.  The  form 
of  the  "Coming  of  Arthur"  and  of  the  "Passing"  is   purposely  more 


xlii  LIFE  AND   WORK  OF  ALFRED  LORD   TENNYSON 

archaic  than  that  of  the  other  Idylls.  In  1832  had  appeared  the  first  of 
the  Arthurian  poems  in  the  form  of  a  lyric,  "The  Lady  of  Shalott" 
(another  version  of  the  story  of  Launcelot  and  Elaine),  and  this  was  followed 
in  184.2  by  the  other  lyrics  "Sir  Launcelot  and  Queen  Guinevere,"  "Sir 
Galahad."  The  1842  volume  also  contained  the  "Morte  d' Arthur," 
written  about  1835.  In  1869  my  father  published  the  "Coming  of 
Arthur,"  "The  Holy  Grail,"  and  "Pelleas  and  Ettarre,"  the  volume 
containing  also  the  well-known  poems,  "Lucretius,"  "a  masterly  study 
of  the  great  Roman  sceptic,"1  and  the  second  "Northern  Farmer";  in 
1871  "The  Last  Tournament,"  in  1872  "Gareth  and  Lynette,"  and  in 
1885  "Balin  and  Balan."  Thus  he  completed  the  "Idylls  of  the  King" 
in  twelve  books.  The  poem  regarded  as  a  whole  gives  his  innermost 
being  more  fully  perhaps,  though  not  more  truly,  than  "In  Memoriam." 

In  "Gareth"  the  "joy  of  life  in  steepness  overcome,  And  victories  of 
ascent "  lives  in  the  eternal  youth  of  goodness.  But  in  the  later  "Idylls "  the 
allowed  sin  not  only  poisons  the  spring  of  life  in  the  sinner,  but  spreads  its 
poison  through  the  whole  community.  In  some  natures,  even  among  those 
who  would  "rather  die  than  doubt,"  it  breeds  suspicion  and  want  of  trust  in 
God  and  man.  Some  loyal  souls  are  wrought  to  madness  against  the 
world.  Others,  and  some  among  the  highest  intellects,  become  the  slaves 
of  the  evil  which  is  at  first  half-disdained.  Tender  natures  sink  under  the 
blight,  that  which  is  of  the  highest  in  them  working  their  death.  And  in 
some,  as  faith  declines,  religion  turns  from  practical  goodness  and  holiness 
to  superstition : 

This  madness  has  come  on  us  for  our  sin. 

These  seek  relief  in  selfish  spiritual  excitement,  not  remembering  that 
man's  duty  is  to  forget  self  in  the  service  of  others,  and  to  let  visions  come 
and  go,  and  that  so  only  will  they  see  "The  Holy  Thing."  In  the  Idyll 
of  "Pelleas  and  Ettarre,"  selfishness  has  turned  to  open  crime;  it  is  "the 
breaking  of  the  storm  " ;  nevertheless  Pelleas  still  honours  his  sacred  vow 
to  the  King  and  spares  the  wrong-doers.  Whereas  in  "The  Last  Tourna- 
ment" the  wrong-doer  "suffers  his  doom,"  and  "is  cloven  thro'  the 
brain."  We  have  here  the  deadly  proof  of  the  kinship  of  all  wilful  sin, 
murder  following  adultery  in  closest  relation  of  cause  and  consequence,  —  the 
prelude  of  the  final  act  of  the  tragedy  which  culminates  in  the  temporary 
triumph  of  evil,  the  confusion  of  the  moral  order,  closing  in  the  great 
"Battle  of  the  West."  When  my  father  wrote  the  dedication  of  "The 
Idylls  or  Epylls  of  the  King"  to  the  Prince  Consort  after  his  death,  the 
Queen  invited  him  to  visit  her.  He  was  much  affected  by  his  interview. 
He  told  how  she  stood   pale  and  statue-like   before    him  speaking  in  a 

1  Andrew  Lang. 


LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ALFRED  LORD   TENNYSON  xliii 

quiet,  unutterably  sad  voice.  "There  was  a  kind  of  stately  innocence 
about  her."  She  said  many  kind  things  to  him,  such  as:  "Next  to 
the  Bible  'In  Memoriam'  is  my  comfort."  She  talked  of  Hallam,  and 
of  Macaulay,  of  Goethe,  and  of  Schiller  in  connection  with  the  Prince, 
and  observed  that  he  was  so  like  the  picture  of  Arthur  Hallam  in 
"In  Memoriam,"  even  to  his  blue  eyes.  My  father  suggested  that  he 
thought  that  the  Prince  would  have  made  a  great  King ;  she  answered, 
"He  always  said  that  it  did  not  signify  whether  he  did  the  right  thing 
or  did  not,  so  long  as  the  right  thing  was  done." 

As  will  be  seen  from  the  letters  between  my  father  and  the  Queen  in 
my  Memoir  of  my  father  there  was  a  very  real  friendship  between  them. 
After  another  interview,  November  1883,  he  wrote  to  her  Majesty, 
"During  our  conversation  I  felt  the  touch  of  that  true  friendship  which 
binds  human  beings  together,  whether  they  be  Kings  or  cobblers." 

"Enoch  Arden,"  Ald worth,  and  the  Plays. 

My  father  now  wrote  more  English  Idylls,  "The  Idylls  of  the  Hearth." 
The  story  of  Enoch  Arden  the  fisherman,  who  after  years  of  exile  comes 
home  to  find  his  wife  married  to  another,  was  given  him  by  the  sculptor 
Woolner.  At  one  time  of  his  life  he  lodged  for  many  months  with  fisher- 
men in  their  cottages  by  the  sea.  He  loved  the  sea  as  much  as  any 
sailor,  and  knew  all  its  moods  whether  on  the  shore  or  in  mid-ocean. 
Hence  some  of  his  most  successful  poems  were  "Enoch  Arden,"  "The 
Revenge,"  "Break,  Break,"  "The  Sailor  Boy,"  "The  Voyage,"  "Sea 
Dreams."  "Enoch  Arden"  is  the  most  popular  of  his  poems  on  the 
Continent.  In  the  volume  of  1864  were  included  "Aylmer's  Field," 
"Tithonus,"  "The  Northern  Farmer,"  "The  Flower,"  "The  Grandmother." 
Edward  FitzGerald,  after  reading  "The  Northern  Farmer,"  wrote: 

I  read  on  till  the  "Lincolnshire  Farmer"  drew  tears  to  my  eyes.  I  was  got 
back  to  the  substantial  rough-spun  Nature  I  knew ;  and  the  old  brute,  invested  by 
you  with  the  solemn  Humour  of  Humanity,  like  Shakespeare's  Shallow,  became  a 
more  pathetic  phenomenon  than  the  knights  who  revisit  the  world  in  your  other 
verse. 

It  may  be  noted  that  this  study  of  character  set  the  fashion  throughout 
Great  Britain  and  America  of  drawing  character-sketches  in  rough-hewn 
ballads. 

During  the  summer  of  1864  he  visited  Brittany.  In  1865  he  visited 
Waterloo  and  Weimar  and  Dresden,  in  1866  Marlborough,  in  1867  Dorset- 
shire and  South  Devon,  in  1868  Tintern  Abbey  and  South  Wales.  In 
1869  he  took  a  tour  in  Switzerland.  In  1871  he  went  to  North  Wales, 
in  1872  to  Paris  and  Grenoble,  in  1873  to  the  Italian  Lakes,  and  in  1874 


xliv  LIFE  AND   WORK  OF  ALFRED  LORD   TENNYSON 

to  the  Pyrenees,  which  he  had  last  seen  in  1861.  These  tours  spurred 
him  on  to  work,  as  is  shown  by  the  numerous  poems  written  during  those 
years.  Meanwhile,  he  received  numberless  guests,  Garibaldi,  Owen, 
Tyndall,  Huxley,  Tourgenieff  the  Russian  novelist,  Queen  Emma  of  the 
Sandwich  Islands,  Longfellow,  George  Eliot,  Gladstone,  Jenny  Lind, 
Bradley,  Montagu  Butler,  Lady  Franklin,  Palgrave,  Jowett,  and  the  Duke 
of  Argyll.  Of  Garibaldi  he  spoke  with  enthusiasm:  "He  is  marvellously 
simple,  but  in  worldly  matters  he  seems  to  have  the  divine  stupidity 
of  a  hero."  He  wrote  his  impressions  of  the  man  as  follows  to  the  Duke 
of  Argyll :  — 

Did  you  hear  Garibaldi  repeat  any  Italian  poetry  ?  I  did,  for  I  had  heard  that  he 
himself  had  made  songs  and  hymns ;  and  I  asked  him,  "Are  you  a  poet  ?  "  "Yes," 
he  said  quite  simply,  whereupon  I  spouted  to  him  a  bit  of  Manzoni's  great  ode, 
that  which  Gladstone  translated.  I  don't  know  whether  he  relished  it,  but  he 
began  immediately  to  speak  of  Ugo  Foscolo,  and  quoted,  with  great  fervour,  a 
fragment  of  his  "I  Sepolcri,"  beginning  with  "II  navigante  die  veleggio,"  etc. 
and  ending  with  "Delle  Parche  il  canto,"  which  verses  he  afterwards  wrote  out 
for  me :  and  they  certainly  seem  to  be  fine,  whatever  the  rest  of  the  poem  may  be. 
I  have  not  yet  read  it  but  mean  to  do  so,  for  he  sent  me  Foscolo's  Poesie  from 
London;  and  in  return  I  sent  him  the  "Idylls  of  the  King,"  which  I  do  not 
suppose  he  will  care  for.  What  a  noble  human  being !  I  expected  to  see  a  hero 
and  I  was  not  disappointed.  One  cannot  exactly  say  of  him  what  Chaucer  says  of 
the  ideal  knight,  "As  meke  he  was  of  port  as  is  a  maid";  he  is  more  majestic 
than  meek,  and  his  manners  have  a  certain  divine  simplicity  in  them,  such  as  I 
have  never  witnessed  in  a  native  of  these  islands,  among  men  at  least,  and  they  are 
gentler  than  those  of  most  young  maidens  whom  I  know.  He  came  here  and 
smoked  his  cigar  in  my  little  room  and  we  had  a  half  hour's  talk  in  English,  tho'  I 
doubt  whether  he  understood  me  perfectly,  and  his  meaning  was  often  obscure  to 
me.  I  ventured  to  give  him  a  little  advice :  he  denied  that  he  came  with  any 
political  purpose  to  England,  merely  to  thank  the  English  for  their  kindness  to  him, 
and  the  interest  they  had  taken  in  himself  and  all  Italian  matters,  and  also  to 
consult  Ferguson  about  his  leg.  Stretching  this  out  he  said,  "There's  a  campaign 
in  me  yet."  When  I  asked  if  he  returned  thro'  France,  he  said  he  would  never  set 
foot  on  the  soil  of  France  again.  I  happened  to  make  use  of  this  expression, 
"That  fatal  debt  of  gratitude  owed  by  Italy  to  Napoleon."  "  Gratitude,"  he  said ; 
"hasn't  he  had  his  pay?  his  reward?  If  Napoleon  were  dead  I  should  be  glad, 
and  if  I  were  dead  he  would  be  glad."  These  are  slight  chroniclings,  but  I 
thought  you  would  like  to  have  them.  He  seemed  especially  taken  with  my  two 
little  boys. 

He  now  began  to  study  Hebrew  with  a  view  to  making  a  metrical 
version  of  "Job."  One  day  he  asked  Jowett  to  give  him  a  literal  transla- 
tion of  one  of  the  verses.  "But  I  can't  read  Hebrew,"  said  Jowett. 
"What!"  he  exclaimed,  "you  the  Priest  of  a  great  religion  and  can't 
read    your    own    sacred    books."      On    April    23,    1868,    Shakespeare's 


LIFE  AND   WORK   OF  ALFRED  LORD   TENNYSON  xlv 

birthday,  he  and  his  friend,  Sir  John  Simeon,  laid  the  foundation  of  his 
house,  Aldworth,  in  Sussex,  which  he  afterwards  always  inhabited  in  the 
summer  to  avoid  the  stream  of  tourists  who  invaded  him  in  the  Isle  of 
Wight.  We  read  in  my  mother's  Journal  his  expression  of  a  wish  that, 
if  ever  the  shields  on  the  mantelpiece  in  his  study  were  emblazoned,  they 
should  be  emblazoned  with  arms  or  devices  representing  the  great 
modern  poets,  Dante,  Chaucer,  Shakespeare,  Milton,  Goethe,  and  Words- 
worth, and  if  there  had  been  another  shield  he  would  have  added  Moliere. 
Aubrey  de  Vere  wrote  of  the  new  home : 

The  second  home  was  as  well  chosen  as  the  first.  It  lifted  England's  great 
poet  to  a  height  from  which  he  could  gaze  on  a  large  portion  of  that  English  land 
which  he  loved  so  well,  see  it  basking  in  its  most  affluent  summer  beauty,  and 
only  bounded  by  the  "inviolate  sea."  Year  after  year  he  trod  its  two  stately 
terraces  with  men  the  most  noted  of  their  time,  statesmen,  warriors,  men  of  letters, 
science  and  art,  some  of  royal  race,  some  famous  in  far  lands,  but  none  more 
welcome  to  him  than  the  friends  of  his  youth.  Nearly  all  of  those  were  taken  from 
him  by  degrees ;  but  many  of  them  stand  successively  recorded  in  his  verse.  The 
days  which  I  passed  there  yearly  with  him  and  his  were  the  happiest  days  of  each 
year.  They  will  retain  a  happy  place  in  my  memory  during  whatever  short  period 
my  life  may  last ;  and  the  sea  murmurs  of  Freshwater  will  blend  with  the  sighing 
of  the  woods  around  Aldworth,  for  me,  as  for  many  more  worthy,  a  music,  if 
mournful,  yet  full  of  consolation. 

In  1872  some  prominent  politicians  were  advocating  the  breaking  of  the 
connection  between  Great  Britain  and  Canada.  My  father  was  roused 
to  indignation,  and  wrote  in  his  " Epilogue  to  the  Idylls  of  the  King": 

And  that  true  North,  whereof  we  lately  heard 
A  strain  to  shame  us  "keep  you  to  yourselves; 
So  loyal  is  too  costly  !  friends  —  your  love 
Is  but  a  burthen;  loose  the  bond,  and  go." 
Is  this  the  tone  of  empire  ?  here  the  faith 
That  made  us  rulers  ?  this,  indeed,  her  voice 
And  meaning,  whom  the  roar  of  Hougoumont 
Left  mightiest  of  all  peoples  under  heaven  ? 

The  following  letter  from  Lord  Dufferin  (February  25,  1873)  tells  of 
the  happy  effect  these  words  had  in  Canada :  — 

The  assertion  that  their  connection  with  Great  Britain  weakens  their  self- 
confidence  or  damps  the  ardour  of  Canadian  Nationality  is  a  pure  invention. 
Amongst  no  people  have  I  ever  met  more  contentment  with  their  general  condition, 
a  more  legitimate  faith  in  all  those  characteristics  which  constitute  their  nationality, 
or  a  firmer  faith  in  the  destinies  in  store  for  them.  Your  noble  words  have  struck 
responsive  fire  from  every  heart;  they  have  been  published  in  every  newspaper, 
and  have  been  completely  effectual  to  heal  the  wounds  occasioned  by  the  senseless 
language  of  the  Times. 


xlvi  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ALFRED  LORD   TENNYSON 

In  1874  he  and  Sir  James  Knowles  founded  the  Metaphysical  Club, 
the  object  of  the  Society  being  that  those  who  were  ranged  on  the  side  of 
Faith  should  meet  and  discuss  with  those  ranged  on  the  side  of  Unfaith. 
During  one  of  the  preliminary  meetings,  d  propos  of  some  angry  discussion, 
my  father  said  humorously,  "Modern  science  at  all  events  ought  to  have 
taught  men  to  separate  light  from  heat/'  and  this  was  adopted  as  the 
rule  of  the  Society.  At  this  time  he  was  elected  an  Honorary  Fellow  of 
Trinity  College,  Cambridge. 

"Queen  Mary,"  the  first  play  of  what  he  called  his  "historical  trilogy" 
("Harold,"  "Becket,"  and  "Queen  Mary"),  was  begun  about  1873  and 
published  in  1875.  "This  trilogy  of  plays,"  he  noted,  "portrays  the  making 
of  England."  In  "Harold"  (1876),  that  "Tragedy  of  Doom,"  we  have  the 
great  conflict  between  Danes,  Saxons,  and  Normans  for  supremacy,  the 
awakening  of  the  English  people  and  clergy  from  the  slumber  into  which 
they  had  for  the  most  part  fallen,  and  the  forecast  of  the  greatness  of 
our  composite  race.  In  "Becket"  (printed  1879,  published  1884)  the 
struggle  is  between  the  Crown  and  the  Church  for  predominance,  a  struggle 
which  continued  for  many  centuries.  In  "Mary"  are  described  the  final 
downfall  of  Roman  Catholicism  in  England,  and  the  dawning  of  a  new 
age ;  for  after  the  era  of  priestly  domination  comes  the  era  of  the  freedom 
of  the  individual.  "In  'The  Foresters'"  (1892),  he  notes,  "I  have 
sketched  the  state  of  the  people  in  another  great  transition  period  of  the 
making  of  England,  when  the  barons  sided  with  the  people  and  eventually 
won  for  them  the  Magna  Charta." 

To  begin  publishing  plays  for  the  stage  after  he  was  sixty-five  years 
of  age  was  thought  to  be  a  hazardous  experiment.  He  had,  however, 
always  taken  the  liveliest  interest  in  the  theatre ;  and  he  bestowed 
infinite  trouble  on  his  dramas.  He  was  quite  alive  to  the  fact  that  for  him 
to  attempt  dramatic  work  would  be  at  first  unpopular,  since  he  was  then 
mainly  regarded  as  an  Idyllic,  or  as  a  Lyric,  poet.  But  Spedding,  a  first- 
rate  Shakespearian  scholar,  George  H.  Lewes,  George  Eliot,  and  Irving 
admired  his  plays  and  encouraged  him  to  persevere  in  spite  of  all  dis- 
couragement, especially  praising  the  faithful  and  subtle  delineation  of 
character  and  the  "great  dramatic  moments."  He  felt  that  he  had  the 
power;  and  even  at  the  age  of  fourteen  he  had  written  plays  which  were 
extraordinary  for  a  boy,  full  of  vivid  contrasts  and  striking  scenic  effects. 
To  meet  the  conditions  of  the  modern  theatre  my  father  studied  many 
modern  plays.  He  had  also  refreshed  his  mind  with  reading  "Job"  in 
the  Hebrew,  for  which  he  had  the  highest  admiration,  and  the  dramas  of 
Aeschylus  and  Sophocles,  which  were  to  him  full  of  reality  and  moral 
beauty.  All  his  life  he  enjoyed  discovering  the  causes  of  historical  and 
social  movements,  and  had  a  strong  desire  to  reverse  unfair  judgments, 
and  an  eager  delight  in  the  analysis  of  human  motive.     "Queen  Mary," 


LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ALFRED  LORD   TENNYSON  xlvii 

"The  Cup,"  "The  Falcon,"  "Becket,"  and  "The  Foresters"  were  all 
more  or  less  successful  on  the  stage,  and  it  seems  to  me  that  some  of 
his  finest  work  is  to  be  found  in  them.  "Becket"  is,  as  my  father 
recognised,  "loosely  constructed,"  but  Irving  wrote  that  it  was  "a  finer 
play  than  '  King  John/  "  and  said  that  it  was  a  mistake  to  imagine  that  he 
"had  made"  "Becket,"  for  this  drama,  especially  the  closing  act,  was 
"an  inspiration."  That  and  "The  Cup"  were  two  of  Irving's  four 
great  popular  triumphs.  For  a  while,  indeed,  original  poetic  drama  was 
restored  by  the  poet  and  the  actor  to  the  English  stage. 

It  was  interesting  to  my  father  to  learn  the  impression  made  by 
"Becket"  upon  Roman  Catholics.  He  first  asked  the  opinion  of  his 
neighbour  at  Freshwater,  W.  G.  Ward.  He  could  not  have  asked  a 
more  candid,  truth-speaking  critic  than  this  "most  generous  of  all  Ultra- 
montanes,"  who  was  deeply  versed  not  only  in  the  spirit  and  doctrine  of 
his  own  Church,  but  also  in  the  modern  French  and  English  drama. 
Ward  listened  patiently,  though  convinced  "that  the  whole  play  would 
be  out  of  his  line."  At  the  end  of  the  play  he  broke  out:  "Dear  me  ! 
I  did  not  expect  to  enjoy  it  at  all.  It  is  splendid  !  How  wonderfully 
you  have  brought  out  the  phases  of  his  character  as  Chancellor  and 
Archbishop!  Where  did  you  get  it  all?"  Struggle  for  power  under  one 
guise  or  another  has  doubtless  been  among  the  most  fruitful  sources 
of  theme  for  tragedy.  During  many  centuries,  as  we  know,  "spiritual 
power,"  clothed  in  earthly  panoply,  seemed  to  most  men  to  be  the  one 
embodiment  of  the  Divine  Power.  What  struck  those  who  saw  the  play 
on  the  stage  was  the  clear  and  impressive  manner  in  which  he  had 
brought  out  Becket's  feeling  that  in  accepting  the  Archbishopric  he  had 
changed  masters,  that  he  was  not  simply  advanced  to  a  higher  service  of 
the  same  liege  lord,  but  that  he  had  changed  his  former  lord  paramount, 
whose  fiery  self-will  made  havoc  of  his  fine  intellect,  for  one  of  higher 
degree ;  and  had  become  a  power  distinct  from,  and  it  might  be  antago- 
nistic to,  the  king. 

His  Life  in  the  Country. 

At  this  period  of  his  life  my  father  would  tramp  over  hill  and  dale,  with 
his  crook-handled  stick,  accompanied  by  my  brother,  myself,  or  a  friend,  and 
by  a  dog,  not  caring  if  the  weather  were  fair  or  foul,  every  now  and  then 
stopping  in  his  rapid  walk  to  give  point  to  an  argument  or  to  an  anecdote. 
When  alone  with  me  he  would  often  chant  a  poem  that  he  was  composing, 
and  add  fresh  lines.  There  was  the  same  keen  eye  as  of  old  for  strange 
birds  or  flowers,  and,  as  of  old,  the  same  love  of  fair  landscape.  If 
a  tourist  were  seen  coming  towards  him  he  would  flee ;  for  many  would 
recognise  from  a  distance  his  broad-brimmed  wide-awake  (the  kind  of  hat 
that  Carlyle,  Sir  Henry  Taylor,  and  others  of  his  contemporaries  wore) 


xlviii         LIFE  AND   WORK  OF  ALFRED  LORD   TENNYSON 

and  his  short  blue  cape  with  velvet  collar,  and  would  deliberately  make 
for  him  in  order  to  put  some  question.  His  hours  were  quite  regular. 
He  breakfasted  at  eight,  lunched  at  two,  dined  at  seven.  At  dessert,  if 
alone,  he  would  read  to  himself,  or  if  friends  were  in  the  house  he  would 
sit  with  them  for  an  hour  or  so,  and  entertain  them  with  varied  talk. 
He  worked  chiefly  in  the  morning  over  his  pipe,  or  in  the  evening 
after  his  pint  of  port,  also  over  his  pipe.  Rare  books  or  books  with 
splendid  bindings  he  never  cared  for;  yet  he  treasured  his  first  edition  of 
Spenser's  Faerie  Queene,  and  his  second  edition  of  Paradise  Lost.  He 
would  read  over  and  over  again  his  favourite  authors,  and  his  delight  was 
genuine  when  he  came  across  a  new  author  who  "seemed  to  have  some- 
thing in  him."  He  was  fond  of  simple  music  —  Beethoven's  songs,  and 
English,  Scotch,  and  Irish  ballads.  He  was  not  unfrequently  abstracted 
in  mood  for  days  while  he  was  composing,  which  made  him  appear  brusque 
to  strangers,  but  alone  with  his  family  he  was  never  so  happy  as  when 
engaged  on  a  great  subject.  'His  very  directness  and  simplicity,  moreover, 
caused  him  sometimes  to  be  misunderstood.  With  strangers,  doubtless, 
he  was  shy  at  first,  owing  mostly  to  his  short-sight,  though  none  could  be 
more  genial  when  he  thawed.  No  one  could  have  been  more  tolerant  cf 
or  more  gracious  to  dull  people ;  and  out  of  his  imaginative  large-hearted- 
ness  he  usually  invested  every  one  with  higher  qualities  than  he  or  she 
possessed.  As  Jowett  observed,  "He  would  sit  by  a  very  commonplace 
person,  telling  stories  with  the  most  high-bred  courtesy,  endless  stories 
not  too  high  or  too  low  for  everyday  conversation."  Frederick  Locker 
thus  describes  the  lighter  side  of  his  nature:  "Balzac's  remark  that 
1  dans  tout  homme  de  genie  il  y  a  un  enfant '  may  find  its  illustration  in 
Tennyson.  He  is  the  only  grown-up  human  being  that  I  know  of  who 
habitually  thinks  aloud.  His  humour  is  of  the  dryest,  it  is  admirable.  .  .  . 
He  tells  a  story  excellently,  and  has  a  catching  laugh.  There  are  people 
who  laugh  because  they  are  shy  or  disconcerted,  or  for  lack  of  ideas  .  .  . 
only  a  few  because  they  are  happy  or  amused,  or  perhaps  triumphant. 
Tennyson  has  an  entirely  natural,  and  a  very  kindly  laugh."  He  had 
the  passion  of  a  scientist  for  facts.  His  talk  travelled  over  a  vast  range 
of  subjects,  his  dignity  and  repose  of  manner,  his  low  musical  voice,  and 
the  power  of  his  magnetic  eye  keeping  the  attention  riveted.  With  the 
country-folk  he  loved  to  converse  ;  especially  seeking  out  the  poor  old  men, 
from  whom  he  always  tried  to  ascertain  their  thoughts  upon  death  and 
the  future  life. 

His  afternoons  he  generally  spent  on  one  of  our  smaller  lawns,  sur- 
rounded by  birch  and  different  sorts  of  pine  and  fir  and  cypress,  after  the 
fashion  of  separate  green  parlours.  Here  he  would  read  the  daily  papers 
or  some  book  to  my  mother  lying  out  in  her  sofa  chair,  or  would  receive 
friends  from  the  neighbourhood,  or  would  talk  to  guests  staying  in  the  house. 


LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ALFRED  LORD   TENNYSON  xlix 


Friends,  the  Peerage,  Lionel's  Death. 

My  mother  was  seriously  ill  in  1875,  and  I  was  summoned  home  from 
Cambridge.  I  became  my  father's  secretary,  and  stayed  with  him 
continuously  until  his  death.  In  1876  we  visited  Edward  FitzGerald  at 
Woodbridge,  and  Gladstone  at  Hawarden.  We  found  Edward  FitzGerald 
in  his  garden  at  Little  Grange  among  his  papers,  and  he  and  my  father 
talked  of  the  old  days.  They  reverted,  of  course,  to  their  favourite 
Crabbe,  my  father  laying  stress  on  his  "sledge-hammer  lines,"  and  Fitz- 
Gerald telling  how  he  (Crabbe),  when  a  chaplain  in  the  country,  felt  an 
irresistible  longing  to  see  the  sea,  mounted  a  horse  suddenly,  rode  thirty 
miles  to  the  coast,  saw  it,  and  rode  back  comforted.  They  also  referred  to 
Thackeray,  whose  work  my  father  called  "so  delicious,  so  mature" ;  while 
Fitz  said  of  him,  "I  hardly  dare  take  down  Thackeray's  early  books, 
they  are  so  great,  it  is  like  waking  the  thunder."  At  Hawarden  the 
conversation  between  my  father  and  Gladstone  ranged  over  Dante, 
"Harold,"  Gladstone's  late  speech  about  remitting  the  income-tax, 
modern  morality,  the  force  of  public  opinion,  the  evils  of  materialism,  and 
the  new  Biblical  criticism.  When  we  were  in  London,  Ruskin,  Browning, 
and  Renan  visited  us,  and  we  paid  a  visit  to  Lord  Russell  at  Pembroke 
Lodge.  "The  craven  fear  of  being  great"  my  father  felt  was  among  the 
besetting  sins  of  certain  English  statesmen,  and  in  reply  to  this  Lord 
Russell  cried  aloud  that  there  must  be  no  niggardliness  with  regard  to 
armaments.  They  were  both  convinced  that  "if  our  colonies  could  be 
welded  with  the  United  Kingdom  into  one  Imperial  whole,  we  should  be  able 
to  stand  alone."  General  Gordon,  to  whom  my  father's  poems  were  after- 
wards a  comfort  and  delight  in  those  last  days  at  Khartoum,  came  to  lunch 
with  us.  Having  learnt  that  we  had  no  guests  he  glided  spirit-like  into  the 
dining-room  where  we  were  already  seated.  Going  up  straight  to  my  father 
he  said  in  a  solemn  voice,  "  Mr.  Tennyson,  I  want  you  to  do  something  for 
the  young  soldiers.  You  alone  are  the  man  who  can  do  it.  We  want  train- 
ing-homes for  them  all  over  England."  In  consequence  the  Gordon  Home 
\;is  initiated  by  my  father  after  Gordon's  death  and  in  his  memory.  Two  or 
three  times  we  met  George  Eliot  in  town,  and  my  father  told  her  that  the 
flight  of  Hetty  in  Adam  Bede  and  Thackeray's  gradual  breaking  down  of 
Colonel  Newcome  were  the  two  most  pathetic  things  in  modern  prose 
fiction.  We  often  saw  Carlyle.  My  father  would  observe,  "Carlyle  and 
Mrs.  Carlyle  on  the  whole  enjoyed  life  together,  else  they  would  not  have 
chaffed  one  another  so  heartily."  One  day  I  remember  Carlyle  putting 
his  hands  on  Alfred,  my  brother  Lionel's  son,  and  saying  solemnly  "Fair 
fall  thee,  little  man,  in  this  world  and  the  next."  During  1877  my  brother 
visited  Victor  Hugo  in  Paris,  and  my  father  addressed  to  him  the  sonnet 
"Victor  in  Drama,  Victor  in  Romance."1     To  which  Hugo  replied,  "I 

1  He  admired  Alfred  de  Musset  as  an  artist  more  than  Victor  Hugo. 


1  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ALFRED  LORD  TENNYSON 

believe  in  Divine  Unity.  I  love  all  the  peoples,  and  admire  your  noble 
poetry."  In  1878  my  father  renewed  his  acquaintance  with  Ireland, 
going  to  Westport,  Galway,  and  Killarney.  In  1879  my  uncle,  Charles 
Tennyson  Turner,  died.  The  death  of  this  favourite  brother  profoundly 
affected  my  father;  he  began  to  hear  ghostly  mysterious  voices  all  round 
him.  Dr.  Andrew  Clark  ordered  him  abroad,  so  we  journeyed  in  June 
1880  to  Venice,  and  the  journey  did  in  effect  restore  his  health:  while  at 
Sirmio,  Catullus's  "  all-but-island,"  he  wrote  the  touching  lines  "Frater 
Ave  atque  Vale."  At  the  close  of  1880  he  published  Ballads  and 
Other  Poems,  which  had  a  large  sale,  "Rizpah"  and  "The  Revenge"  and 
"The  Defence  of  Lucknow"  being  among  the  most  popular  of  his  poems. 
Then  came  in  1881  and  1883  the  deaths  of  his  old  friends  Spedding  and 
Fitz  Gerald. 

Gone  into  the  darkness,  that  full  light 
Of  friendship  !     Past  in  sleep  away 

By  night  into  the  deeper  night ! 

The  deeper  night  ?     A  clearer  day 

Than  our  poor  twilight  dawn  on  earth. 

In  1 88 1  he  strongly  advocated  the  federation  of  Australia,  and  wrote 
to  the  Australian  statesman,  Sir  Henry  Parkes :  "I  always  feel  with  the 
Empire,  and  I  read  with  great  interest  of  these  first  steps  in  Federation." 
He  looked  forward  to  Australian  Federation  as  the  prelude  to  some  sort 
of  Imperial  Federation.  Previously  he  had  written  to  Mr.  Dudley  Adams 
of  Sydney:  "Perhaps  some  day  one  of  the  dreams  of  my  life  may  be 
realised,  and  England  and  her  colonies  be  as  truly  one  Empire  as  the 
counties  of  England  are  one  kingdom,  the  aims  of  the  Empire  still  higher 
than  those  of  the  kingdom.  But  this  will  not  be  in  my  own  time,  I  fear. 
The  strife  of  party  must  have  outworn  itself,  and  the  faith  of  the  world 
have  shaped  itself  into  one  great  simple  creed  before  the  Great  Sequel." 

In  1883  we  cruised  with  Gladstone  in  the  Pembroke  Castle  to  Copen- 
hagen —  thousands  of  people  lining  the  shore  as  we  steamed  off  from  Barrow, 
and  cheering  for  "Gladstone"  and  "Tennyson."  The  friends  agreed  not 
to  talk  on  politics,  about  which  they  disagreed,  and  the  conversation  often 
fell  on  Dante,  Goethe,  Milton,  Shakespeare,  and  the  English  poets  and 
prose  writers.  "No  one,"  said  Gladstone,  "since  ^schylus  could  have 
written  The  Bride  of  Lammermoor"  My  father  was  inclined  to  think 
Old  Mortality  Scott's  greatest  novel.  Goethe's  songs  in  Wilhelm 
Meister  he  would  recite  with  highest  admiration.  "Read  the  exquisite 
songs  of  Burns,"  he  would  say,  —  "in  shape  each  of  them  has  the  perfec- 
tion of  the  berry,  in  light  the  radiance  of  the  dewdrop."  Of  Gray  he 
said:  "Gray  in  his  limited  sphere  is  great,  and  has  a  wonderful  ear." 
The  following  he  held  to  be  "among  the  most  liquid  lines  in  any 
language": 


LIFE  AND   WORK   OF  ALFRED  LORD   TENNYSON  li 

Though  he  inherit 
Nor  the  pride,  nor  ample  pinion 
That  the  Theban  eagle  bear, 
Sailing  with  supreme  dominion 
Through  the  azure  deep  of  air. 

During  the  voyage  Gladstone  urged  upon  him  to  accept  a  peerage,  laying 
stress  on  the  nobility  and  insight  of  his  political  and  historical  poems, 
and  on  the  greatness  of  "Guinevere"  and  of  "In  Memoriam."  He 
was  very  unwilling  to  do  so.  In  the  end  he  consented  for  the  sake  of 
literature.  Moreover,  he  was  grateful  to  the  Queen,  who  desired  that  he 
should  belong  to  what  he  regarded  as  "the  greatest  Upper  Chamber  in 
the  world."  He  looked  upon  it  as  foremost  in  debating  power,  a  stable, 
wise,  and  moderating  influence  in  these  changeful  democratic  days.  He 
wrote:  "By  Gladstone's  advice  I  have  consented  to  take  a  peerage,  but 
for  my  own  part  I  shall  regret  my  simple  name  all  my  life."  On  March 
ii,  1884,  he  took  his  place  on  the  cross-benches,  for  he  said  he  "could 
not  pledge  himself  to  Party,  which  is  made  too  much  of  a  god  in  these 
days."  He  was  in  favour  of  reasonable  innovation,  and  there  was  no  really 
Liberal  movement  in  which  he  was  not  in  the^  forefront.  Like  Burke,  he 
had  a  strong  belief  in  the  common-sense  and  political  moderation  of  the 
British  people,  but  he  did  not  hesitate  to  express  his  opinion  that  "stagna- 
tion is  more  dangerous  than  revolution."  Mr.  Arthur  Sidgwick  notes 
about  his  political  views : 

It  is  easy  to  idealize  freedom,  revolution,  or  war;  and  the  ancients  found  it  easy 
to  compose  lyrics  on  kings,  athletes,  warriors,  or  other  powerful  persons.  From 
the  days  of  Tyrtaeus  and  Pindar  to  Byron,  Shelley,  and  Swinburne,  one  or  other  of 
these  themes  has  been  the  seed  of  song.  But  the  praise  of  ordered  liberty,  of 
settled  government,  of  political  moderation,  is  far  harder  to  idealize  in  poetry.  It 
has  been  the  peculiar  aim  of  Tennyson  to  be  the  constitutional,  and  in  this  sense  the 
national,  poet :  and  it  is  his  peculiar  merit  and  good  fortune  to  have  succeeded  in 
giving  eloquent  and  forcible  expression  to  the  ideas  suggested  by  these  aims. 

Oh  yet,  if  Nature's  evil  star 

Drive  men  in  manhood,  as  in  youth, 

To  follow  flying  steps  of  Truth 
Across  the  brazen  bridge  of  war  — 

If  New  and  Old,  disastrous  feud, 

Must  ever  shock,  like  armed  foes, 

And  this  be  true,  till  Time  shall  close, 
That  Principles  are  rain'd  in  blood ; 

Not  yet  the  wise  of  heart  would  cease 

To  hold  his  hope  thro'  shame  and  guilt, 

But  with  his  hand  against  the  hilt 
Would  pace  the  troubled  land,  like  Peace ; 


lii  LIFE  AND   WORK  OF  ALFRED  LORD   TENNYSON 

Not  less,  tho'  dogs  of  Faction  bay, 

Would  serve  his  kind  in  deed  and  word, 

Certain,  if  knowledge  bring  the  sword, 
That  knowledge  takes  the  sword  away. 

The  last  couplet  seems  to  me  —  where  all  is  powerful  and  imaginative  —  to  be  a 
master  stroke  of  terse  and  pointed  expression.  It  would  be  hardly  an  exaggeration 
to  say  that  it  sums  up  human  history  in  regard  to  one  point  —  namely,  the  disturb- 
ing and  even  desolating  effect  of  the  new  Political  Idea,  until  its  triumph  comes, 
bringing  a  higher  and  more  stable  adjustment,  and  a  peace  more  righteous  and 
secure. 

His  first  vote  was  given  for  the  Extension  of  the  Franchise.  He 
writes  to  Gladstone : 

Ald worth,  July  1884. 

I  did  not  write  more  fully  knowing  how  overwhelmed  you  are  with  business 
and  anxiety,  but  you  have  found  time  to  write  to  me  notwithstanding,  and  I  must 
answer,  and  you  must  read  my  answer  or  not  as  you  can  and  will.  Here  is  some- 
thing of  my  creed. 

The  nation  is  one  and  includes  all  ranks  of  people. 

I  take  for  granted  that  botfi  Houses  are  equally  anxious  to  do  justice  to  all. 

Certainly  the  House  of  Peers  has  the  prior  claim  to  confidence,  being  the  older 
of  the  two,  and  it  would  be  a  base  abdication,  if  it  forewent  its  right  and  its  duty  to 
reconsider  an  all-important  question. 

The  Extension  of  Franchise  I  hold  to  be  matter  of  justice ;  the  proper  time  for 
bringing  forward  the  question,  matter  of  opinion. 

Whether  this  was  the  proper  time  or  not  —  Extension  I  now  hold  to  be  an 
accomplished  fact.  But  I  think  that  at  this  time,  and  at  all  times,  redistribution  is 
necessarily  an  integral  part  of  a  true  Franchise  Bill. 

For  instance,  whether  the  towns  are  to  dominate  and  absorb  the  country  votes, 
or  the  country  votes  to  have  their  due  weight,  whether  loyal  North  Ireland  is  to  be 
overridden  by  disloyal  South,  seem  to  me  all-important  facts  in  the  true  representa- 
tion of  the  country. 

(A  Franchise  Bill,  I  take  it,  is  intended  to  facilitate  the  choice  of  those  supposed 
to  be  best  fitted  to  understand  the  needs  and  the  claims  of  the  people,  and  to  devise 
means  for  satisfying  them.) 

If  you  solemnly  pledge  yourselves  that  the  Extension  Bill  shall  not  become  law 
before  redistribution  has  been  satisfactorily  settled,  I  am  quite  willing  to  vote  with 
you,  and  in  proof  I  come  up  to  town  notwithstanding  gout.  My  wife  is  very 
grateful  for  your  letter,  but  will  not  of  course  trouble  you  with  a  reply.  —  Ever 
yours,  Tennyson. 

.  I  am  oppressed  with  gout,  and  therefore  beg  you  will  excuse  my  employing  my 
daughter-in-law's  hand. 

On  November  14  he  forwarded  the  following  lines  to  the  Prime 
Minister :  — 


LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ALFRED  LORD   TENNYSON  liii 

Steersman,  be  not  precipitate  in  thine  act 
Of  steering,  for  the  river  here,  my  friend, 
Parts  in  two  channels,  moving  to  one  end  — 

This  goes  straight  forward  to  the  cataract : 
That  streams  about  the  bend ; 

But  tho'  the  cataract  seem  the  nearer  way, 

Whate'er  the  crowd  on  either  bank  may  say, 

Take  thou  the  "bend,"  'twill  save  thee  many  a  day. 

Gladstone  eventually  acted  in  accordance  with  the  hopes  my  father  had 
expressed,  and  the  Franchise  Bill  was  read  a  second  time  without  a 
division. 

He  published  his  volume,  Tiresias  and  Other  Poems,  at  the  end  of 
1885.  Of  his  autobiographical  poem,  "The  Ancient  Sage,"  dealing,  like 
the  "De  Profundis,"  with  the  deeper  problems  of  human  life,  he  wrote: 
"The  whole  poem  is  very  personal.  Those  passages  about  'Faith'  and 
the  'Passion  of  the  Past'  were  more  especially  my  own  personal  feelings." 
The  reception  of  his  poem,  "To  Virgil,"  gratified  him  much,  as  he  liked 
it  himself.  The  year  1886  brought  on  us  a  great  grief  in  the  death  of 
my  brother  Lionel  on  his  voyage  home  from  India.  He  said,  "The 
thought  of  Lionel's  death  tears  me  to  pieces,  he  was  so  full  of  promise, 
and  so  young."  December  of  this  year  also  saw  the  publication  of  "The 
Promise  of  May,"  and  of  the  second  part  of  "Locksley  Hall"  (dated 
1887).     The  following  lines  were  written  about  my  brother  Lionel:  — 

Truth,  for  Truth  is  Truth,  he  worshipt,  being  true  as  he  was  brave; 

Good,  for  Good  is  Good,  he  follow'd,  yet  he  look'd  beyond  the  grave  ! 

Truth  for  Truth,  and  Good  for  Good  !    The  Good,  the  True,  the  Pure,  the  Just  — 

Take  the  charm  "For  ever"  from  them,  and  they  crumble  into  dust. 

His  MS.  note  on  the  poem  is : 

A  dramatic  poem,  and  the  Dramatis  Personse  are  imaginary.  Since  it  is  so 
much  the  fashion  in  these  days  to  regard  each  poem  and  story  as  a  story  of  the 
poet's  life  or  part  of  it,  may  I  not  be  allowed  to  remind  my  readers  of  the  possi- 
bility, that  some  event  which  comes  to  the  poet's  knowledge,  some  hint  flashed  from 
another  mind,  some  thought  or  feeling  arising  in  his  own,  or  some  mood  coming  - — 
he  knows  not  whence  or  how  —  may  strike  a  chord  from  which  a  poem  evolves  its 
life,  and  that  this  to  other  eyes  may  bear  small  relation  to  the  thought,  or  fact,  or 
feeling  to  which  the  poem  owes  its  birth,  whether  the  tenor  be  dramatic,  or  given  as 
a  parable  ? 

Such  lines  as  these,  however,  gave  his  own  belief : 

Plowmen,  Shepherds,  have  I  found,  and  more  than  once,  and  still  could  find, 
Sons  of  God,  and  kings  of  men  in  utter  nobleness  of  mind. 


liv  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ALFRED  LORD   TENNYSON 

In  1888  he  had  a  serious  attack  of  gout,  from  which  he  recovered 
with  difficulty.  On  his  eightieth  birthday  (1889)  he  received  numberless 
congratulatory  letters  and  telegrams.  "I  don't  know  what  I  have  done," 
he  said,  "to  make  people  feel  like  that  towards  me,  except  that  I  have 
kept  my  faith  in  Immortality."  Speaking  of  Alexander  Smith's  line 
"Fame,  fame,  thou  art  next  to  God,"  he  would  observe,  "Next  to  God  — 
next  to  the  Devil,  say  I.  Fame  might  be  worth  having  if  it  helped 
us  to  do  good  to  a  single  mortal,  but  what  is  it  ?  merely  the  pleasure 
of  hearing  oneself  talked  of  up  and  down  the  street."  During  this  year 
he  published  his  Demeter  and  Other  Poems.  The  general  tone  of 
criticism  was  to  the  effect  that  "Merlin  and  the  Gleam,"  and  "Demeter," 
and  above  all  "Crossing  the  Bar,"  were  wonderful  productions  for  a  man  of 
fourscore  years,  and  rivalled  some  of  the  best  of  his  older  poems.  "Who 
is  the  Pilot  in  *  Crossing  the  Bar'?"  my  father  was  repeatedly  asked. 
"The  Divine,"  he  answered.  "The  Pilot  has  been  on  board  all  the 
time,  but  in  the  dark  I  have  not  seen  Him."  He  was  inclined  to  think 
that  the  seven  of  his  own  best  lyrics  were,  "All  along  the  Valley," 
"Courage,  poor  Heart  of  Stone,"  "Break,  Break,  Break,"  "The  Bugle 
Song,"  "Ask  me  no  more,"  "Crossing  the  Bar,"  and  the  blank-verse 
lyric,  "Tears,  idle  Tears"  ;  and  that  his  finest  simile  was  — 

Love  took  up  the  harp  of  Life,  and  smote  on  all  the  chords  with  might, 
Smote  the  chord  of  Self,  that,  trembling,  pass'd  in  music  out  of  sight. 

"In  his  latest  poems,"  writes  Henry  Butcher,  "we  may  miss  some- 
thing of  the  early  rapture  of  his  lyric  songs,  but  he  is  still  himself  and 
unmistakable,  and  had  he  written  nothing  but  the  lines  'To  Virgil'  and 
'Crossing  the  Bar,'  he  would  have  surely  taken  rank  among  the  highest. 
Towards  the  end  of  his  life  the  moral  and  religious  content  of  the  poems 
becomes  fuller  with  his  deeper  sense  of  the  grandeur  and  pathos  of  man's 
existence." 

Death  of  Browning.    My  Father's  Last  Work  and  Days. 

On  the  day  of  the  publication  of  Demeter  and  Other  Poems  my 
father  heard  of  the  death  of  Robert  Browning :  "so  loving  and  appreciative 
that  one  cannot  but  mourn  his  loss  as  a  friend  and  as  a  poet,  and  one 
feels  that  one  has  lost  a  mine  of  great  thoughts  and  pure  feelings,  and 
much  else  besides."  My  father  said  something  of  this  sort  about  his  poetry  : 
"He  never  greatly  cares  about  the  glory  of  words  or  beauty  of  form.  He 
seldom  attempts  the  marriage  of  sense  with  sound,  although  he  shows  a 
spontaneous  felicity  in  the  adaptation  of  words  to  ideas  and  feelings." 
My  father  loved  Browning  and  was  loved  by  him.  They  have  now 
emerged    from    the    inevitable    posthumous    eclipse.     They    were    both 


LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ALFRED  LORD   TENNYSON  lv 

imaginative  thinkers  and  creators,  noble  teachers,  holding,  in  the  estimation 
of  their  contemporaries,  high  and  honoured  rank  in  the  glorious  company 
of  great  English  poets.  I  never  heard  talk  so  brilliant,  so  deep,  so  full  of 
imagery  as  when  these  two  friends  talked  together.  Each  had  a  noble  faith 
in  God,  and  in  the  purpose  of  life ;  and  in  each  this  faith  finds  a  great  utter- 
ance. Their  poetic  methods,  however,  were  widely  different.  For  example, 
"Tennyson,"  Sir  Alfred  Lyall  says,  " employed  his  wonderful  image-making 
power  to  illustrate  some  mental  state  of  emotion,  availing  himself  of  the 
mysterious  relation  between  man  and  his  environment,  whereby  the  outer  in- 
animate world  is  felt  to  be  the  resemblance  and  reflection  of  human  moods." 
Browning,  on  the  other  hand,  was  constantly  propounding  moral  and 
intellectual  riddles  on  these  " human  moods"  and  the  human  environ- 
ment. As  my  father  expressed  it,  "Browning  has  a  great  imagination. 
He  has  a  genius  for  an  intricate  sort  of  dramatic  composition,  and  for 
analyzing  the  human  mind  in  intricate  situations."  Unlike  Browning  my 
father  acted  strictly  on  his  rule  that  "the  artist  is  known  by  his  self- 
limitation."  "Only  the  concise  and  perfect  work,"  he  thought,  "would 
last."  He  was  sometimes  in  the  habit  of  chronicling  in  four  or  five  words 
or  more  whatever  might  strike  him  as  a  picture,  and  weaving  a  poem 
about  this,  carrying  this  poem  in  his  head  until  it  was  perfect  —  or  some- 
times "the  poem  would  come"  —  his  words  —  in  one  breath  of  inspiration. 
"Hundreds  of  lines,"  as  he  said,  "  have  been  blown  up  the  chimney  with 
my  pipe  smoke,  or  have  been  written  down  and  thrown  into  the  fire  as 
not  being  perfect  enough."  He  delighted  in  throwing  off  impromptu 
verses  in  various  metres.  Sir  Richard  Jebb  writes  a>  follows  about  his 
metrical  power :  — 

As  a  metrist,  he  is  the  creator  of  a  new  blank  verse,  different  both  from  the 
Elizabethan  and  from  the  Miltonic.  He  has  known  how  to  modulate  it  to  every 
theme,  and  to  elicit  a  music  appropriate  to  each;  attuning  it  in  turn  to  a  tender 
and  homely  grace,  as  in  "The  Gardener's  Daughter";  to  the  severe  and  ideal 
majesty  of  the  antique,  as  in  "Tithonus";  to  meditative  thought,  as  in  "The 
Ancient  Sage  "  or  "Akbar's  Dream";  to  pathetic  or  tragic  tales  of  contemporary 
life,  as  in  "Aylmer's  Field"  or  "Enoch  Arden";  or  to  sustained  romantic 
narrative,  as  in  the  "Idylls."  No  English  poet  has  used  blank  verse  with  such 
flexible  variety,  or  drawn  from  it  so  large  a  compass  of  tones;  nor  has  any 
maintained  it  so  equably  on  a  high  level  of  excellence.  In  lyric  metres  Tennyson 
has  invented  much,  and  has  also  shown  a  rare  power  of  adaptation.  Many  of  his 
lyric  measures  are  wholly  his  own;  while  others  have  been  so  treated  by  him  as  to 
make  them  virtually  new. 

At  the  Tennyson  centenary  celebration  by  the  British  Academy  (1909) 
Lord  Curzon  said  of  him:  "He  (Tennyson)  is  at  least  these  things  —  a 
great  artist,  a  great  singer,  a  great  prophet,  a  great  patriot,  and  a  great 
Englishman."     If  I  may  venture  to  speak  of  his  special  influence  upon  the 


lvi  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ALFRED  LORD   TENNYSON 

world,  my  conviction  is  that  its  main  and  enduring  qualities  are  his 
power  of  expression,  his  range  of  imagination,  the  perfection  of  his  work- 
manship, his  strong  common-sense, 'the  high  purport  of  his  life  and  work, 
his  truthfulness,  his  humility,  his  humour,  and  his  broad,  open-hearted, 
and  helpful  sympathy. 

The  death  of  the  Irish  poet  Allingham  took  away  from  us  yet  another 
friend.  My  father  often  repeated  Allingham's  last  words:  "I  see  such 
things  as  you  cannot  dream  of." 

In  1890  the  great  portrait  of  my  father  which  hangs  in  the  hall  of 
Trinity  College,  Cambridge,  was  painted  by  G.  F.  Watts  at  Farringford ; 
and  in  June  of  that  year  he  worked  at  his  Lincolnshire  poem  "The  Church- 
warden and  the  Curate,"  heartily  laughing  over  the  humorous  passages. 
Sir  Norman  Lockyer  visited  us,  and  he  said  of  my  father,  "His  mind  is 
saturated  with  astronomy ;  since  Dante  there  has  never  been  so  great  a 
scientific  poet."  In  1891  he  was  working  at  his  "Akbar,"  and  wrote  his 
majestic  hymn  to  the  Sun  while  cruising  in  a  friend's  yacht.  The  philo- 
sophers of  the  East  had  a  great  fascination  for  him,  and  he  felt  that  the 
Western  religions  might  learn  much  from  them  of  spirituality.  He  took 
much  interest  in  preparing  his  "Foresters,  or  Robin  Hood"  for  the  stage. 
It  proved  to  be  a  great  success  in  America  —  an  old-world  woodland  play, 
"a  pastoral  without  shepherds,"  and  was  published  in  April  1892. 

In  1 89 1  and  1892  he  still  took  long  walks  at  Farringford  and 
Aldworth  with  the  President  of  Magdalen,  Jowett,  the  Bishop  of  Ripon, 
Arthur  Coleridge,  Stanford,  Dakyns,  Henry  Butcher,  Jebb,  and  others, 
talking  to  them  vigorously  on  all  sorts  of  topics,  but  I  heard  him  quote 
more  than  once,  "The  wan  moon  is  setting  behind  the  white  wave,  and 
time  is  setting  for  me,  oh  !"  On  a  day  in  June  (1892),  on  one  of  his  daily 
walks  at  Farringford,  he  suddenly  felt  very  tired,  a  thing  unusual  with  him, 
and  sat  down.  It  was  one  of  the  first  signs  of  his  failing  strength,  though 
as  he  walked  up  the  garden  he  cheered  up  again,  and  pointed  out  the 
splendour  of  the  flowers.  On  June  29  he  partook  of  the  Communion  with 
my  mother  and  said : 

It  is  but  a  communion,  not  a  mass ; 
No  sacrifice,  but  a  life-giving  feast  — 

impressing  upon  the  rector  (Dr.  Merriman)  that  he  could  not  partake  of 
it  except  in  that  sense.  He  said:  "My  most  passionate  desire  is  to 
have  a  clearer  vision  of  God,"  and  "It  is  impossible  to  imagine  that  the 
Almighty  will  ask  you,  when  you  come  before  Him  in  the  next  life,  what 
your  particular  form  of  creed  was:  but  the  question  will  rather  be,  'Have 
you  been  true  to  yourself,  and  given  in  My  Name  a  cup  of  cold  water  to 
one  of  these  little  ones  ?  '  " 

On  June  30  we  left  Farringford  for  Aldworth.     My  father  at  first  took 


LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ALFRED  LORD  TENNYSON  lvii 

his  regular  walks  of  two  or  three  miles  over  Blackdown,  but  the  walks 
dwindled  gradually,  and  he  sat  more  and  more  in  his  summer-house. 
On  his  eighty-third  birthday  he  quoted  from  Bacon,  "It  is  Heaven  upon 
earth  to  have  a  man's  mind  move  in  Charity,  rest  in  Providence,  and  turn 
upon  the  poles  of  Truth."  In  September  he  looked  over  the  proofs  of  his 
last  volume  The  Death  of  (Enone  and  Other  Poems,  many  of  which  had 
been  written  during  this  last  year,  and  which  my  wife  had  copied  out  for 
the  press.  On  the  28th  he  complained  of  great  weakness.  He  read  Job 
and  St.  Matthew. 

On  Tuesday,  October  4,  he  called  out,  "Where  is  my  Shakespeare? 
I  must  have  my  Shakespeare."  Then  he  said,  "I  want  the  blinds  up, 
I  want  to  see  the  sky  and  light."  He  repeated,  "The  sky  and 'light!" 
He  asked  me,  "Have  I  not  been  walking  with  Gladstone  in  the  garden, 
and  showing  him  my  trees?" 

On  the  day  before  his  death  he  talked  to  the  doctor  about  death:  "What  a 
shadow  this  life  is,  and  how  men  cling  to  what  is  after  all  but  a  small  part  of  the 
great  world's  life."  Then  the  doctor  told  him  (for  his  interest  was  always  keen 
"  in  the  lot  of  lowly  men  ")  of  an  incident  that  had  happened  lately.  "A  villager, 
ninety  years  old,  was  dying,  and  had  so  much  pined  to  see  his  old  bed-ridden  wife 
once  more  that  they  carried  her  to  where  he  lay.  He  pressed  his  shrunken  hand 
upon  her  hand,  and  in  a  husky  voice  said  to  her,  'Come  soon,'  and  soon  after 
passed  away  himself."  My  father  murmured  "True  Faith";  and  the  tears  were 
in  his  voice.  Suddenly  he  gathered  himself  together  and  spoke  one  word  about 
himself  to  the  doctor,  "Death?"     The  doctor  bowed,  and  he  said,  "That's  well." 

Later  he  exclaimed,  "I  have  opened  it."  I  cannot  tell  whether  he  spoke 
to  my  mother,  referring  to  the  Shakespeare  opened  by  him  at 

Hang  there  like  fruit,  my  soul, 
Till  the  tree  die, 

which  he  always  said  were  among  the  tenderest  fines  in  Shakespeare ;  or 
whether  these  lines  from  one  of  his  own  last  poems  of  which  he  was  fond 
were  running  through  his  head  — 

Fear  not  thou  the  hidden  purpose  of  that  Power  which  alone  is  great, 
Nor  the  myriad  world,  His  shadow,  nor  the  silent  Opener  of  the  Gate. 

During  the  evening  the  full  moon  flooded  the  room  and  the  great 
landscape  outside  with  light ;  and  we  watched  in  solemn  stillness.  He 
passed  away  at  1.35  a.m.  on  Thursday,  October  6,  his  hand  resting  on 
his  Shakespeare,  and  I  spoke  over  him  his  own  prayer,  "God  accept  him  ! 
Christ  receive  him  !"  because  I  knew  that  he  would  have  wished  it. 
•  He  was  laid  to  rest  in  Westminster  Abbey  on  October  12,  next  to 
Robert  Browning  and  in  front  of  the  Chaucer  monument.     The    great 


lviii  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  ALFRED  LORD  TENNYSON 

crowd  round  the  Abbey  and  the  funeral  service  with  its  two  anthems, 
" Crossing  the  Bar"  and  "The  Silent  Voices,"  rising  above  the  vast 
congregation,  will  be  long  remembered.  Every  day  for  weeks  after 
multitudes  thronged  by  the  new-made  grave  in  a  never-ceasing  proces- 
sion. The  tributes  of  sympathy  which  we  received  from  many  countries 
and  from  all  classes  and  creeds  were  not  only  remarkable  for  their 
universality,  but  for  their  depth  of  feeling.  Against  the  pillar  near  his 
grave  has  been  placed  the  fine  bust  of  him  by  Woolner. 

His  wife  survived  him  four  years,  and  is  buried  in  the  quiet  church- 
yard at  Freshwater. 

Dear,  near  and  true,  no  truer  Time  himself 
Can  prove  you,  tho'  he  make  you  evermore 
Dearer  and  nearer. 

TENNYSON. 

(The  best-known  portraits  of  my  father  are  by  Laurence,  Watts, 
Herkomer,  and  Millais.  The  best  photographs  are  a  half-length  by 
Mayall,.  a  profile  by  Mrs.  Cameron,  and  two  three-quarters  by  Barraud 
done  in  his  eightieth  year.) 


TO    THE    QUEEN. 


Revered,  beloved —  O  you  that  hold 

A  nobler  office  upon  earth 

Than  arms,  or  power  of  brain,  or  birth 
Could  give  the  warrior  kings  of  old, 


Take,  Madam,  this  poor  book  of  song; 
For  tho'  the  faults  were  thick  as  dust 
In  vacant  chambers,  I  could  trust 

Your  kindness.     May  you  rule  us  long, 


Victoria,  —  since  your  Royal  grace 
To  one  of  less  desert  allows 
This  laurel  greener  from  the  brows 

Of  him  that  uttered  nothing  base  ; 


And  leave  us  rulers  of  your  blood 
As  noble  till  the  latest  day  ! 
May  children  of  our  children  say, 

*  She  wrought  her  people  lasting  good ; 


And  should  your  greatness,  and  the  care 
That  yokes  with  empire,  yield  you  time 
To  make  demand  of  modem  rhyme 

If  aught  of  ancient  worth  be  there  ; 


1  Her  court  was  pure  ;  her  life  serene  ; 

God  gave  her  peace  ;  her  land reposed '; 

A  thousand  claims  to  reverence  closed 
In  her  as  Mother,  Wife,  and  Queen  ; 


Then  — while  a  sweeter  music  wakes, 
And  thro*  wild  March  the  throstle  calls, 
Where  all  about  your  palace-walls 

The  sun-lit  almond-blossom  shakes  — 


'  And  statesmen  at  her  council  met 
Who  knezv  the  seasons  when  to  take 
Occasion  by  the  hand,  and  make 

The  bounds  of  freedom  wider  yet 


March,  1851. 
B 


1  By  shaping  some  august  decree, 

Which  kept  her  throne  unshaken  still, 
Broad-based  upon  her  people's  will, 
And  compassed  by  the  inviolate  sea.' 


JUVENILIA 


CLARIBEL. 

A  MELODY. 
I. 

Where  Claribel  low-lieth 
The  breezes  pause  and  die, 
Letting  the  rose-leaves  fall : 
But  the  solemn  oak-tree  sigheth, 
Thick -leaved,  ambrosial, 
With  an  ancient  melody 
Of  an  inward  agony, 
Where  Claribel  low-lieth. 


II. 

At  eve  the  beetle  boometh 

Athwart  the  thicket  lone  : 
At  noon  the  wild  bee  hummeth 

About  the  moss'd  headstone : 
At  midnight  the  moon  cometh, 

And  looketh  down  alone. 
Her  song  the  lintwhite  swelleth, 
The  clear-voiced  mavis  dwelleth, 

The  callow  throstle  lispeth, 
The  slumbrous  wave  outwelleth, 

The  babbling  runnel  crispeth, 
The  hollow  grot  replieth 

Where  Claribel  low-lieth. 


NOTHING  WILL  DIE. 

When    will    the  stream   be   aweary  of 
flowing 

Under  my  eye? 
When  will  the  wind  be  aweary  of  blowing 

Over  the  sky? 


When    will    the    clouds    be    aweary   of 

fleeting? 
When    will    the    heart    be    aweary    of 
beating? 

And  nature  die? 
Never,  oh !  never,  nothing  will  die; 
The  stream  flows, 
The  wind  blows, 
The  cloud  fleets, 
The  heart  beats, 
Nothing  will  die. 

Nothing  will  die; 
All  things  will  change 
Thro'  eternity. 
'Tis  the  world's  winter; 
Autumn  and  summer 
Are  gone  long  ago; 
Earth  is  dry  to  the  centre, 
But  spring,  a  new  comer, 
A  spring  rich  and  strange, 
Shall  make  the  winds  blow 
Round  and  round, 
Thro'  and  thro', 

Here  and  there, 

Till  the  air 
And  the  ground 
Shall  be  fill'd  with  life  anew. 

The  world  was  never  made; 

It  will  change,  but  it  will  not  fade,    j 

So  let  the  wind  range; 

For  even  and  morn 

Ever  will  be 

Thro'  eternity. 
Nothing  was  born; 
Nothing  will  die; 
All  things  will  change. 


ALL    THLNGS    WLLL  DLE  —  LEONLNE  ELEGLACS. 


ALL  THINGS   WILL  DIE. 

Clearly  the   blue  river   chimes   in  its 
flowing 

Under  my  eye ; 
Warmly  and  broadly  the  south  winds  are 
blowing 

Over  the  sky. 
One  after  another  the  white  clouds  are 

fleeting; 
Every  heart  this  May  morning  in  joyance 
is  beating 

Full  merrily; 
Yet  all  things  must  die. 
The  stream  will  cease  to  flow; 
The  wind  will  cease  to  blow; 
The  clouds  will  cease  to  fleet; 
The  heart  will  cease  to  beat; 
For  all  things  must  die. 
All  things  must  die. 
Spring  will  come  never  more. 

Oh !  vanity ! 
Death  waits  at  the  door. 
See  !  our  friends  are  all  forsaking 
The  wine  and  the  merrymaking. 
We  are  calPd  —  we  must  go. 
Laid  low,  very  low, 
In  the  dark  we  must  lie. 
The  merry  glees  are  still; 
The  voice  of  the  bird 
Shall  no  more  be  heard, 
Nor  the  wind  on  the  hill. 

Oh !  misery ! 
Hark  !  death  is  calling 
While  I  speak  to  ye, 
The  jaw  is  falling, 
The  red  cheek  paling, 
The  strong  limbs  failing; 
Ice  with  the  warm  blood  mixing; 
The  eyeballs  fixing. 
Nine  times  goes  the  passing  bell: 
Ye  merry  souls,  farewell. 
The  old  earth 
Had  a  birth, 
As  all  men  know, 
Long  ago. 
And  the  old  earth  must  die. 
So  let  the  warm  winds  range, 
And  the  blue  wave  beat  the  shore 
For  even  and  morn 
Ye  will  never  see 
Thro'  eternity. 


All  things  were  born. 
Ye  will  come  never  more, 
For  all  things  must  die. 


LEONINE  ELEGIACS. 

Low-flowing  breezes  are  roaming  the 

broad  valley  dimm'd  in  the  gloaming  : 

Thro'  the  black-stemm'd  pines  only  the 

far  river  shines. 
Creeping  thro'  blossomy  rushes  and  bowers 

of  rose-blowing  bushes, 
Down  by  the  poplar  tall  rivulets  babble 

and  fall. 
Barketh  the  shepherd-dog  cheerly;    the 

grasshopper  carolleth  clearly; 
Deeply  the  wood-dove  coos;   shrilly  the 

owlet  halloos; 
Winds  creep;    dews  fall  chilly:    in  her 

first  sleep  earth  breathes  stilly : 
Over  the  pools  in  the  burn  water-gnats 

murmur  and  mourn. 
Sadly  the  far  kine  loweth :  the  glimmer- 
ing water  outfloweth  : 
Twin  peaks  shadow'd  with  pine  slope  to 

the  dark  hyaline. 
Low-throned  Hesper  is  stayed  between 

the  two  peaks;   but  the  Naiad 
Throbbing    in    mild    unrest    holds    him 

beneath  in  her  breast. 
The  ancient  poetess  singeth,  that   Hes- 
perus all  things  bringeth, 
Smoothing  the  wearied  mind :  bring  me 

my  love,  Rosalind. 
Thou    comest    morning    or    even;     she 

cometh  not  morning  or  even. 
False-eyed  Hesper,  unkind,  where  is  my 
sweet  Rosalind? 


SUPPOSED   CONFESSIONS 

OF  A   SECOND-RATE   SENSITIVE   MIND. 

0  God  !  my  God  !  have  mercy  now. 

1  faint,  I  fall.     Men  say  that  Thou 
Didst  die  for  me,  for  such  as  me, 
Patient  of  ill,  and  death,  and  scorn, 
And  that  my  sin  was  as  a  thorn 
Among  the  thorns  that  girt  Thy  brow, 
Wounding  Thy  soul.  —  That  even  now, 
In  this  extremest  misery 


CONFESSIONS   OF  A   SENSITIVE  MIND. 


Of  ignorance,  I  should  require 

A  sign  !  and  if  a  bolt  of  fire 

Would  rive  the  slumbrous  summer  noon 

While  I  do  pray  to  Thee  alone, 

Think  my  belief  would  stronger  grow ! 

Is  not  my  human  pride  brought  low? 

The  boastings  of  my  spirit  still? 

The  joy  I  had  in  my  freewill 

All  cold,  and  dead,  and  corpse-like  grown  ? 

And  what  is  left  to  me,  but  Thou, 

And  faith  in  Thee?     Men  pass  me  by; 

Christians  with  happy  countenances  — 

And  children  all  seem  full  of  Thee  ! 

And  women  smile  with  saint-like  glances 

Like  Thine  own  mother's  when  she  bow'd 

Above  Thee,  on  that  happy  morn 

When  angels  spake  to  men  aloud, 

And  Thou  and  peace  to  earth  were  born. 

Goodwill  to  me  as  well  as  all  — 

I  one  of  them :  my  brothers  they : 

Brothers  in  Christ  —  a  world  of  peace 

And  confidence,  day  after  day; 

And  trust  and  hope  till  things  should  cease, 

And  then  one  Heaven  receive  us  all. 

How  sweet  to  have  a  common  faith ! 

To  hold  a  common  scorn  of  death  ! 

And  at  a  burial  to  hear 

The  creaking  cords  which  wound  and  eat 

Into  my  human  heart,  whene'er 

Earth  goes  to  earth,  with  grief,  not  fear, 

With  hopeful  grief,  were  passing  sweet ! 

Thrice  happy  state  again  to  be 
The  trustful  infant  on  the  knee  ! 
Who  lets  his  rosy  fingers  play 
About  his  mother's  neck,  and  knows 
Nothing  beyond  his  mother's  eyes. 
They  comfort  him  by  night  and  day; 
They  light  his  little  life  alway; 
He  hath  no  thought  of  coming  woes; 
He  hath  no  care  of  life  or  death; 
Scarce  outward  signs  of  joy  arise, 
Because  the  Spirit  of  happiness 
And  perfect  rest  so  inward  is; 
And  loveth  so  his  innocent  heart, 
Her  temple  and  her  place  of  birth, 
Where  she  would  ever  wish  to  dwell, 
Life  of  the  fountain  there,  beneath 
Its  salient  springs,  and  far  apart, 
Hating  to  wander  out  on  earth, 
Or  breathe  into  the  hollow  air, 
Whose  chillness  would  make  visible 


Her  subtil,  warm,  and  golden  breath, 
Which  mixing  with  the  infant's  blood, 
Fulfils  him  with  beatitude. 
Oh  !  sure  it  is  a  special  care 
Of  God,  to  fortify  from  doubt, 
To  arm  in  proof,  and  guard  about 
With  triple-mailed  trust,  and  clear 
Delight,  the  infant's  dawning  year. 

Would  that  my  gloomed  fancy  were 

As  thine,  my  mother,  when  with  brow: 

Propt  on  thy  knees,  my  hands  upheld 

In  thine,  I  listen'd  to  thy  vows, 

For  me  outpour'd  in  holiest  prayer  — 

For  me  unworthy  !  —  and  beheld 

Thy  mild  deep  eyes  upraised,  that  knew 

The  beauty  and  repose  of  faith, 

And  the  clear  spirit  shining  thro'. 

Oh !  wherefore  do  we  grow  awry 

From  roots  which  strike  so  deep?  why 

dare 
Paths  in  the  desert?     Could  not  I 
Bow  myself  down,  where  thou  hast  knelt 
To  the  earth  —  until  the  ice  would  melt 
Here,  and  I  feel  as  thou  hast  felt? 
What  Devil  had  the  heart  to  scathe 
Flowers  thou  hadst  rear'd —  to  brush  the 

de-.v 
From  thine  own  lily,  when  thy  grave 
Was  deep,  my  mother,  in  the  clay? 
Myself?     Is  it  thus?     Myself?     Had  I 
So  little  love  for  thee?     But  why 
Prevail'd   not   thy  pure   prayers?     Why 

pray 
To  one  who  heeds  not,  who  can  save 
But  will  not?     Great  in  faith,  and  stron| 
Against  the  grief  of  circumstance 
Wert  thou,  and  yet  unheard.     What  if 
Thou  pleadest  still,  and  seest  me  drive 
Thro'  utter  dark  a  full-sail'd  skiff, 
Unpiloted  i'  the  echoing  dance 
Of  reboant  whirlwinds,  stooping  low 
Unto  the  death,  not  sunk !     I  know 
At  matins  and  at  evensong, 
That  thou,  if  thou  wert  yet  alive, 
In  deep  and  daily  prayers  would'st  strive 
To  reconcile  me  with  thy  God. 
Albeit,  my  hope  is  gray,  and  cold 
At  heart,  thou  wouldest  murmur  still  — 
1  Bring  this  lamb  back  into  Thy  fold, 
My  Lord,  if  so  it  be  Thy  will.' 
Would'st  ..v.11  me  I  must  brook  the  rod 
And  chastisement  of  human  pride; 


CONFESSIONS    OF  A   SENSITIVE   MIND— THE  KRAKEN. 


That  pride,  the  sin  of  devils,  stood 

Betwixt  me  and  the  light  of  God ! 

That  hitherto  I  had  defied 

And  had  rejected  God  —  that  grace 

Would  drop  from  his  o'er-brimrning  love, 

As  manna  on  my  wilderness, 

If  1  would  pray  —  that  God  would  move 

And   strike    the   hard,    hard    rock,   and 

thence, 
Sweet  in  their  utmost  bitterness, 
Would  issue  tears  of  penitence 
Which   would   keep   green   hope's   life. 

Alas! 
I  think  that  pride  hath  now  no  place 
Nor  sojourn  in  me.     I  am  void, 
Dark,  formless,  utterly  destroyed. 

Why  not  believe  then?     Why  not  yet 
Anchor  thy  frailty  there,  where  man 
Hath  moor'd  and  rested?     Ask  the  sea 
At  midnight,  when  the  crisp  slope  waves 
After  a  tempest,  rib  and  fret 
The  broad-imbased  beach,  why  he 
Slumbers  not  like  a  mountain  tarn? 
Wherefore  his  ridges  are  not  curls 
And  ripples  of  an  inland  mere? 
Wherefore  he  moaneth  thus,  nor  can 
Draw  down  into  his  vexed  pools 
All   that   blue   heaven  which  hues  and 

paves 
The  other?     I  am  too  forlorn, 
Too  shaken :  my  own  weakness  fools 
My  judgment,  and  my  spirit  whirls, 
Moved  from  beneath  with  doubt  and  fear. 

'Yet,'  said  I,  in  my  morn  of  youth, 
The  unsunn'd  freshness  of  my  strength, 
When  I  went  forth  in  quest  of  truth, 
|  It  is  man's  privilege  to  doubt, 
If  so  be  that  from  doubt  at  length, 
Truth    may    stand    forth     unmoved    of 

change, 
[  An  image  with  profulgent  brows, 
I  And  perfect  limbs,  as  from  the  storm 
|  Of  running  fires  and  fluid  range 
j  Of  lawless  airs,  at  last  stood  out 
This  excellence  and  solid  form 
Of  constant  beauty.     For  the  Ox 
Feeds  in  the  herb,  and  sleeps,  or  fills 
The  horned  valleys  all  about, 
And  hollows  of  the  fringed  hills 
In  summer  heats,  with  placid  lows 
Unfearing,  till  his  own  blood  flows 


About  his  hoof.     And  in  the  flocks 
The  lamb  rejoiceth  in  the  year, 
And  raceth  freely  with  his  fere, 
And  answers  to  his  mother's  calls 
From  the  flower'd  furrow.     In  a  time, 
Of  which  he  wots  not,  run  short  pains 
Thro'  his  warm   heart;    and  then,  from 

whence 
He  knows  not,  on  his  light  there  falls 
A  shadow;    and  his  native  slope, 
Where  he  was  wont  to  leap  and  climb, 
Floats  from  his  sick  and  filmed  eyes, 
And  something  in  the  darkness  draws 
His  forehead  earthward,  and  he  dies. 
Shall  man  live  thus,  in  joy  and  hope 
As  a  young  lamb,  who  cannot  dream, 
Living,  but  that  he  shall  live  on? 
Shall  we  not  look  into  the  laws 
Of  life  and  death,  and  things  that  seem, 
And  things  that  be,  and  analyse 
Our  double  nature,  and  compare 
All  creeds  till  we  have  found  the  one, 
If  one  there  be? '     Ay  me  !  I  fear 
All  may  not  doubt,  but  everywhere 
Some  must  clasp  Idols.     Yet,  my  God, 
Whom  call  I  Idol?     Let  Thy  dove 
Shadow  me  over,  and  my  sins 
Be  unremember'd,  and  Thy  love 
Enlighten  me.     Oh  teach  me  yet 
Somewhat  before  the  heavy  clod 
Weighs  on  me,  and  the  busy  fret 
Of  that  sharp-headed  worm  begins 
In  the  gross  blackness  underneath. 

O  weary  life !     O  weary  death  ! 
O  spirit  and  heart  made  desolate ! 
O  damned  vacillating  state  ! 


THE  KRAKEN. 

BELOW'the  thunders  of  the  upper  deep; 
Far,  far  beneath  in  the  abysmal  sea, 
His  ancient,  dreamless,  uninvaded  sleep 
The  Kraken  sleepeth :   faintest  sunlights 

flee 
About  his  shadowy  sides :  above  him  swell 
Huge  sponges  of  millennial  growth  and 

height; 
And  far  away  into  the  sickly  light, 
From  many  a  wondrous  grot  and  secret 

cell 
Unnumber'd  and  enormous  polypi 


SONG  —  LILIAN—  ISABEL. 


Winnow  with  giant  arms  the  slumbering 

green. 
There  hath  he  lain  for  ages  and  will  lie 
Battening   upon  huge   seaworms   in  his 

sleep, 
Until  the  latter  fire  shall  heat  the  deep; 
Then  once  by  man  and  angels  to  be  seen, 
In  roaring  he  shall  rise  and  on  the  sur- 
face die. 


SONG. 

The  winds,  as  at  their  hour  of  birth, 
Leaning  upon  the  ridged  sea, 

Breathed  low  around  the  rolling  earth 
With  mellow  preludes,  '  We  are  free. 

The  streams  through  many  a  lilied  row 
Down-carolling  to  the  crisped  sea, 

Low-tinkled  with  a  bell-like  flow 
Atween  the  blossoms,  '  We  are  free.' 


LILIAN. 


Airy,  fairy  Lilian, 

Flitting,  fairy  Lilian, 
When  I  ask  her  if  she  love  me, 
Claps  her  tiny  hands  above  me, 

Laughing  all  she  can; 
She'll  not  tell  me  if  she  love  me, 

Cruel  little  Lilian. 

II. 

When  my  passion  seeks 
Pleasance  in  love-sighs, 
She,  looking  thro'  and  thro'  me 
Thoroughly  to  undo  me, 

Smiling,  never  speaks  :  • 
So  innocent-arch,  so  cunning-simple, 
From  beneath  her  gathered  wimple 

Glancing  with  black-beaded  eyes, 
Till  the  lightning  laughters  dimple 
The  baby-roses  in  her  cheeks; 
Then  away  she  flies. 


Prythee  weep,  May  Lilian ! 

Gaiety  without  eclipse 
Wearieth  me,  May  Lilian: 


Thro'  my  very  heart  it  thrilleth 

When  from  crimson-threaded  lips 

Silver-treble  laughter  trilleth : 
Prythee  weep,  May  Lilian. 


Praying  all  I  can, 
If  prayers  will  not  hush  thee, 

Airy  Lilian, 
Like  a  rose-leaf  I  will  crush  thee, 

Fairy  Lilian. 


ISABEL. 


Eyes  not   down-dropt    nor   over-bright, 
but  fed 
With  the  clear-pointed  flame  of  chastity, 
Clear,  without  heat,  undying,  tended  by 
Pure  vestal  thoughts  in  the  trans- 
lucent fane 
Of  her  still  spirit;  locks  not  wide-dispread, 
Madonna-wise    on   either    side   her 

head; 
Sweet  lips  whereon  perpetually  did 
reign 
The  summer  calm  of  golden  charity, 
Were  fixed  shadows  of  thy  fixed  mood, 

Revered  Isabel,  the  crown  and  head, 
The  stately  flower  of  female  fortitude, 
Of  perfect  wifehood  and  pure  lowli 
head. 

II. 

The  intuitive  decision  of  a  bright 

And  thorough-edged  intellect  to  part 
Error  from  crime;    a   prudence   to 

withhold ; 
The  laws  of  marriage  character' d  in 
gold 
Upon  the  blanched  tablets  of  her  heart ; 
A  love  still  burning  upward,  giving  light 
To  read  those  laws;   an  accent  very  low 
In  blandishment,  but  a  most  silver  flow 

Of  subtle-paced  counsel  in  distress, 
Right  to  the  heart  and  brain,  tho'  unde- 
scried, 
Winning  its  way  with  extreme  gentle- 
ness 
Thro'   all   the    outworks    of    suspicious 
pride; 


ISABEL — MARIANA. 


A  courage  to  endure  and  to  obey; 
A  hate  of  gossip  parlance,  and  of  sway, 
Crown'd  Isabel,  thro'  all  her  placid  life, 
The  queen  of  marriage,  a  most  perfect 
wife. 

in. 

The  mellow'd  reflex  of  a  winter  moon; 
A  clear  stream  flowing  with  a  muddy  one, 
Till  in  its  onward  current  it  absorbs 
With  swifter  movement  and  in  purer 
light 
The  vexed  eddies  of  its  wayward 
brother: 
A  leaning  and  upbearing  parasite, 
Clothing  the  stem,  which  else  had 
fallen  quite 
With    cluster'd   flower-bells   and  am- 
brosial orbs 
Of    rich    fruit-bunches    leaning    on 

each  other  — 
Shadow  forth  thee:  —  the  world  hath 
not  another 
(Tho'  all  her  fairest  forms  are  types  of 

thee, 
And  thou  of  God  in  thy  great  charity) 
Of  such  a  finish'd  chasten'd  purity. 

MARIANA. 

'  Mariana  in  the  moated  grange.' 

Measure  for  Measure. 

With  blackest  moss  the  flower-plots 
Were  thickly  crusted,  one  and  all: 
The  rusted  nails  fell  from  the  knots 

That  held  the  pear  to  the  gable-wall. 
The  broken  sheds  look'd  sad  and  strange: 
Unlifted  was  the  clinking  latch ; 
"  Weeded  and  worn  the  ancient  thatch 
Upon  the  lonely  moated  grange. 

She  only  said,  '  My  life  is  dreary, 

He  cometh  not,'  she  said; 

She  said,  '  I  am  aweary,  aweary, 

I  would  that  I  were  dead ! ' 

Her  tears  fell  with  the  dews  »t  even; 

Her  tears  fell  ere  the  dews  were  dried; 
She  could  not  look  on  the  sweet  heaven, 

Either  at  morn  or  eventide. 
After  the  flitting  of  the  bats, 

When  thickest  dark  did  trance  the  sky, 

She  drew  her  casement  curtain  by, 
And  glanced  athwart  the  glooming  flats. 


She  only  said,  '  The  night  is  dreary, 
He  cometh  not,'  she  said; 

She  said,  '  I  am  aweary,  aweary 
I  would  that  I  were  dead ! ' 

Upon  the  middle  of  the  night, 

Waking  she  heard  the  night- fowl  crow: 
The  cock  sung  out  an  hour  ere  light: 
From  the  dark  fen  the  oxen's  low 
Came  to  her :  without  hope  of  change, 
In  sleep  she  seem'd  to  walk  forlorn, 
Till  cold  winds  woke  the  gray-eyed  morn 
About  the  lonely  moated  grange. 

She  only  said,  '  The  day  is  dreary, 

He  cometh  not,'  she  said; 

She  said,  '  I  am  aweary,  aweary, 

I  would  that  I  were  dead  !  ' 

About  a  stone-cast  from  the  wall 

A  sluice  with  blacken'd  waters  slept, 
And  o'er  it  many,  round  and  small, 

The  cluster'd  marish-mosses  crept. 
Hard  by  a  poplar  shook  alway, 
All  silver-green  with  gnarled  bark: 
For  leagues  no  other  tree  did  mark 
The  level  waste,  the  rounding  gray. 
She  only  said,  '  My  life  is  dreary, 

He  cometh  not,'  she  said; 

She  said,  '  I  am  aweary,  aweary, 

I  would  that  I  were  dead ! ' 

And  ever  when  the  moon  was  low, 

And  the  shrill  winds  were  up  and  away, 
In  the  white  curtain,  to  and  fro, 

She  saw  the  gusty  shadow  sway. 
But  when  the  moon  was  very  low, 

And  wild  winds  bound  within  their  cell, 
The  shadow  of  the  poplar  fell 
Upon  her  bed,  across  her  brow. 

She  only  said,  '  The  night  is  dreary, 

He  cometh  not,'  she  said; 

She  said, '  I  am  aweary,  aweary, 

I  would  that  I  were  dead ! ' 

All  day  within  the  dreamy  house, 

The  doors  upon  their  hinges  creak'd ; 

The  blue  fly  sung  in  the  pane;  the  mouse 
Behind     the      mouldering      wainscot 
shriek'd, 

Or  from  the  crevice  peer'd  about. 
Old  faces  glimmer'd  thro'  the  doors, 
Old  footsteps  trod  the  upper  floors, 

Old  voices  called  her  from  without. 


MARIANA—  MADELINE. 


She  only  said,  '  My  life  is  dreary, 
He  cometh  not,'  she  said; 

She  said,  ■  I  am  aweary,  aweary, 
I  would  that  I  were  dead ! ' 

The  sparrow's  chirrup  on  the  roof, 

The  slow  clock  ticking,  and  the  sound 
Which  to  the  wooing  wind  aloof 

The  poplar  made,  did  all  confound 

Her  sense;  but  most  she  loathed  the  hour 

When  the  thick-moted  sunbeam  lay 

Athwart  the  chambers,  and  the  day 

Was  sloping  toward  his  western  bower. 

Then,  said  she,  '  I  am  very  dreary, 

He  will  not  come,'  she  said; 

She  wept,  '  I  am  aweary,  aweary, 

Oh  God,  that  I  were  dead !' 


TO 


Clear-headed  friend,  whose  joyful  scorn, 
Edged  with  sharp  laughter,  cuts  atwain 
The  knots  that  tangle  human  creeds, 
The  wounding  cords   that  bind  and 
strain 
The  heart  until  it  bleeds, 
Ray-fringed  eyelids  of  the  morn 

Roof  not  a  glance  so  keen  as  thine  : 
If  aught  of  prophecy  be  mine, 
Thou  wilt  not  live  in  vain. 

ii. 

Low-cowering  shall  the  Sophist  sit; 

Falsehood  shall  bare  her  plaited  brow: 

Fair-fronted  Truth  shall  droop  not  now 
With  shrilling  shafts  of  subtle  wit. 
Nor  martyr-flames,  nor  trenchant  swords, 

Can  do  away  that  ancient  lie; 

A  gentler  death  shall  Falsehood  die, 
Shot  thro'  and  thro'  with  cunning  words. 

III. 

Weak  Truth  a-leaning  on  her  crutch, 
Wan,  wasted  Truth  in  her  utmost  need, 
Thy  kingly  intellect  shall  feed, 
Until  she  be  an  athlete  bold, 

And  weary  with  a  ringer's  touch 

Those  writhed  limbs  of  lightning  speed ; 

Like  that  strange  angel  which  of  old, 
Until  the  breaking  of  the  light, 


Wrestled  with  wandering  Israel, 

Past  Yabbok  broke  the  livelong  night, 
And  heaven's  mazed  signs  stood  still 
In  the  dim  tract  of  Penuel. 


MADELINE. 


Thou  art  not  steep'd  in  golden  languors, 

No  tranced  summer  calm  is  thine, 

Ever  varying  Madeline. 

Thro'    light   and    shadow   thou    dost 
range, 

Sudden  glances,  sweet  and  strange, 
Delicious  spites  and  darling  angers, 

And  airy  forms  of  flitting  change. 

n. 

Smiling,  frowning,  evermore, 
Thou  art  perfect  in  love-lore. 
Revealings  deep  and  clear  are  thine 
Of  wealthy  smiles  :  but  who  may  know 
Whether  smile  or  frown  be  fleeter? 
Whether  smile  or  frown  be  sweeter, 

Who  may  know? 
Frowns  perfect-sweet  along  the  brow 
Light-glooming  over  eyes  divine, 
Like  little  clouds  sun-fringed,  are  thine, 
Ever  varying  Madeline. 
Thy  smile  and  frown  are  not  aloof 
From  one  another, 
Each  to  each  is  dearest  brother; 
Hues  of  the  silken  sheeny  woof 
Momently  shot  into  each  other. 
All  the  mystery  is  thine; 
Smiling,  frowning,  evermore, 
Thou  art  perfect  in  love-lore, 
Ever  varying  Madeline. 

in. 

A  subtle,  sudden  flame, 

By  veering  passion  fann'd, 

About  thee  breaks  and  dances : 

When  I  would  kiss  thy  hand, 
The  flush  of  anger'd  shame 

O'erflows  thy  calmer  glances, 
And  o'er  black  brows  drops  down 
A  sudden-curved  frown  : 
But  when  I  turn  away, 
Thou,  willing  me  to  stay, 

Wooest  not,  nor  vainly  wranglest; 


SONG:    THE    OWL— THE  ARABIAN  NIGHTS. 


But,  looking  fixedly  the  while, 
All  my  bounden  heart  entanglest 

In  a  golden-netted  smile; 
Then  in  madness  and  in  bliss, 
If  my  lips  should  dare  to  kiss 
Thy  taper  fingers  amorously, 
Again  thou  blushest  angerly; 
And  o'er  black  brows  drops  down 
A  sudden-curved  frown. 

SONG  — THE  OWL. 


When  cats  run  home  and  light  is  come, 

And  dew  is  cold  upon  the  ground, 

And  the  far-off  stream  is  dumb, 

And  the  whirring  sail  goes  round, 

And  the  whirring  sail  goes  round; 

Alone  and  warming  his  five  wits, 

The  white  owl  in  the  belfry  sits. 

II. 

When  merry  milkmaids  click  the  latch, 
And  rarely  smells  the  new-mown  hay, 
And   the   cock   hath   sung  beneath  the 
thatch 
Twice  or  thrice  his  roundelay, 
Twice  or  thrice  his  roundelay; 
Alone  and  warming  his  five  wits, 
The  white  owl  in  the  belfry  sits. 

SECOND   SONG. 

TO   THE   SAME. 


Thy  tuwhits  are  lull'd,  I  wot, 

Thy  tuwhoos  of  yesternight, 
Which  upon  the  dark  afloat, 
So  took  echo  with  delight, 
So  took  echo  with  delight, 

That  her  voice  untuneful  grown, 
Wears  all  day  a  fainter  tone. 


I  would  mock  thy  chaunt  anew; 

But  I  cannot  mimic  it; 
Not  a  whit  of  thy  tuwhoo, 
Thee  to  woo  to  thy  tuwhit, 
Thee  to  woo  to  thy  tuwhit, 

With  a  lengthen'd  loud  halloo, 
Tuwhoo,  tuwhit,  tuwhit,  tuwhoo-o-o. 


RECOLLECTIONS   OF  THE 
ARABIAN   NIGHTS. 

When  the  breeze  of  a  joyful  dawn  blew 

free 
In  the  silken  sail  of  infancy, 
The  tide  of  time  flow'd  back  with  me, 
•  The  forward-flowing  tide  of  time; 
And  many  a*  sheeny  summer-morn, 
Adown  the  Tigris  I  was  borne, 
By  Bagdat's  shrines  of  fretted  gold, 
High-walled  gardens  green  and  old; 
True  Mussulman  was  I  and  sworn, 
For  it  was  in  the  golden  prime 
Of  good  Haroun  Alraschid. 

Anight  my  shallop,  rustling  thro' 
The  low  and  bloomed  foliage,  drove 
The  fragrant,  glistening  deeps,  and  clove 
The  citron-shadows  in  the  blue  : 
By  garden  porches  on  the  brim, 
The  costly  doors  flung  open  wide, 
Gold  glittering  thro'  lamplight  dim, 
And  broider'd  sofas  on  each  side  : 
In  sooth  it  was  a  goodly  time, 
For  it  was  in  the  golden  prime 
Of  good  Haroun  Alraschid. 

Often,     where      clear-stemm'd     platans 

guard 
The  outlet,  did  I  turn  away 
The  boat-head  down  a  broad  canal 
From  the  main  river  sluiced,  where  all 
The  sloping  of  the  moon-lit  sward 
Was  damask-work,  and  deep  inlay 
Of    braided     blooms    unmown,     which 

crept 
Adown  to  where  the  water  slept 
A  goodly  place,  a  goodly  time, 
For  it  was  in  the  golden  prime 
Of  good  Haroun  Alraschid. 

A  motion  from  the  river  won 
Ridged  the  smooth  level,  bearing  on 
My  shallop  thro'  the  star-strown  calm, 
Until  another  night  in  night 
I  enter'd,  from  the  clearer  light, 
Imbower'd  vaults  of  pillar'd  palm, 
Imprisoning     sweets,     which,    as     they 

clomb 
Heavenward,   were    stay'd   beneath   the 

dome 


RECOLLECTIONS   OF   THE  ARABIAN  NIGHTS. 


Of  hollow  boughs.  —  A  goodly  time, 
For  it  was  in  the  golden  prime 
Of  good  Haroun  Alraschid. 

Still  onward;   and  the  clear  canal 
Is  rounded  to  as  clear  a  lake. 
From  the  green  rivage  many  a  fall 
Of  diamond  rillets  musical, 
Thro'  little  crystal  arches  low 
Down  from  the  central  fountain's  flow 
P'all'n  silver-chiming,  seemed  to  shake 
The  sparkling  flints  beneath  the  prow. 
A  goodly  place,  a  goodly  time, 
For  it  was  in  the  golden  prime 
Of  good  Haroun  Alraschid. 

Above  thro'  many  a  bowery  turn 
A  walk  with  vary-colour'd  shells 
Wander'd  engrain'd.     On  either  side 
All  round  about  the  fragrant  marge 
From  fluted  vase,  and  brazen  urn 
In  order,  eastern  flowers  large, 
Some  dropping  low  their  crimson  bells 
Half-closed,  and  others  studded  wide 
With  disks  and  tiars,  fed  the  time 
With  odour  in  the  golden  prime 
Of  good  Haroun  Alraschid. 

Far  off,  and  where  the  lemon  grove 
In  closest  coverture  upsprung, 
The  living  airs  of  middle  night 
Died  round  the  bulbul  as  he  sung; 
Not  he :  but  something  which  possess'd 
The  darkness  of  the  world,  delight, 
Life,  anguish,  death,  immortal  love, 
Ceasing  not,  mingled,  unrepress'd, 
Apart  from  place,  withholding  time, 
But  flattering  the  golden  prime 
Of  good  Haroun  Alraschid. 

Black  the  garden-bowers  and  grots 
Slumber'd  :     the    solemn     palms    were 

ranged 
Above,  unwoo'd  of  summer  wind  : 
A  sudden  splendour  from  behind 
Flush'd   all   the   leaves   with  rich  gold- 
green, 
And,  flowing  rapidly  between 
Their  interspaces,  counterchanged 
The  level  lake  with  diamond-plots 
Of  dark  and  bright.     A  lovely  time, 
For  it  was  in  the  golden  prime 
Of  good  Haroun  Alraschid. 


Dark-blue  the  deep  sphere  overhead, 
Distinct  with  vivid  stars  inlaid, 
Grew  darker  from  that  under-flame : 
So,  leaping  lightly  from  the  boat, 
With  silver  anchor  left  afloat, 
In  marvel  whence  that  glory  came 
Upon  me,  as  in  sleep  I  sank 
In  cool  soft  turf  upon  the  bank, 

Entranced  with  that  place  and  time, 
So  worthy  of  the  golden  prime 
Of  good  Haroun  Alraschid. 

Thence  thro'  the  garden  I  was  drawn  — 
A  realm  of  pleasance,  many  a  mound, 
And  many  a  shadow-chequer'd  lawn 
Full  of  the  city's  stilly  sound, 
And  deep  myrrh-thickets  blowing  round 
The  stately  cedar,  tamarisks, 
Thick  rosaries  of  scented  thorn, 
Tall  orient  shrubs,  and  obelisks 
Graven  with  emblems  of  the  time, 
In  honour  of  the  golden  prime 
Of  good  Haroun  Alraschid. 

With  dazed  vision  unawares 
From  the  long  alley's  latticed  shade 
Emerged,  I  came  upon  the  great 
Pavilion  of  the  Caliphat. 
Right  to  the  carven  cedarn  doors, 
Flung  inward  over  spangled  floors, 
Broad-based  flights  of  marble  stairs 
Ran  up  with  golden  balustrade, 
After  the  fashion  of  the  time, 
And  humour  of  the  golden  prime 
Of  good  Haroun  Alraschid. 

The  fourscore  windows  all  alight 
As  with  the  quintessence  of  flame, 
A  million  tapers  flaring  bright 
From  twisted  silvers  look'd  to  shame 
The  hollow-vaulted  dark,  and  stream'd 
Upon  the  mooned  domes  aloof 
In  inmost  Bagdat,  till  there  seem'd 
Hundreds  of  crescents  on  the  roof 

Of  night  new-risen,  that  marvellous  time 
To  celebrate  the  golden  prime 
Of  good  Haroun  Alraschid. 

Then  stole  I  up,  and  trancedly 
Gazed  on  the  Persian  girl  alone, 
Serene  with  argent-lidded  eyes 
Amorous,  and  lashes  like  to  rays 
Of  darkness,  and  a  brow  of  pearl 


ODE    TO  MEMORY. 


ii 


Tressed  with  redolent  ebony, 
In  many  a  dark  delicious  curl, 
Flowing  beneath  her  rose-hued  zone; 
The  sweetest  lady  of  the  time, 
Well  worthy  of  the  golden  prime 
Of  good  Haroun  Alraschid. 

Six  columns,  three  on  either  side, 
Pure  silver,  underpropt  a  rich 
Throne  of  the  massive  ore,  from  which 
Down-droop'd,  in  many  a  floating  fold, 
Engarlanded  and  diaper'd 
With  inwrought  flowers,  a  cloth  of  gold. 
Thereon,  his  deep  eye  laughter-stirr'd 
With  merriment  of  kingly  pride, 
Sole  star  of  all  that  place  and  time, 
I  saw  him  —  in  his  golden  prime, 
The  Good  Haroun  Alraschid. 


ODE  TO   MEMORY. 

ADDRESSED   TO   . 

I. 

Thou  who  stealest  fire, 
From  the  fountains  of  the  past, 
To  glorify  the  present;   oh,  haste, 

Visit  my  low  desire  ! 
Strengthen  me,  enlighten  me  ! 
I  faint  in  this  obscurity, 
Thou  dewy  dawn  of  memory. 

ii. 

Come  not  as  thou  earnest  of  late, 
Flinging  the  gloom  of  yesternight 
On  the  white  day;   but  robed  in  soften'd 
light 

Of  orient  state. 
Whilome  thou  earnest  with  the  morning 
mist, 
Even  as  a  maid,  whose  stately  brow 
The  dew-impearled  winds  of  dawn  have 
kiss'd, 

When  she,  as  thou, 
Stays   on  her   floating   locks   the  lovely 

freight 
Of  overflowing  blooms,  and  earliest  shoots 
Of  orient  green,  giving  safe  pledge  of  fruits, 
Which  in  wintertide  shall  star 
The  black  earth  with  brilliance  rare. 


Whilome  thou  earnest  with  the  morning 
mist, 
And  with  the  evening  cloud, 
Showering  thy  gleaned  wealth  into  my 

open  breast 
(Those    peerless   flowers    which    in    the 
rudest  wind 

Never  grow  sere, 
When  rooted  in  the  garden  of  the  mind, 
Because  they  are  the   earliest  of  the 
year). 
Nor  was  the  night  thy  shroud. 
In  sweet  dreams  softer  than  unbroken  rest 
Thou  leddest  by  the  hand  thine  infant 

Hope. 
The  eddying  of  her  garments  caught  from 

thee 
The  light  of  thy  great  presence;   and  the 
cope 
Of  the  half-attain'd  futurity, 
Tho'  deep  not  fathomless, 
Was  cloven  with  the  million  stars  which 

tremble 
O'er  the  deep  mind  of  dauntless  infancy. 
Small  thought  was  there  of  life's  distress; 
For  sure  she  deem'd  no  mist  of  earth 

could  dull 
Those  spirit-thrilling  eyes  so  keen  and 

beautiful : 
Sure  she  was  nigher  to  heaven's  spheres, 
Listening  the  lordly  music  flowing  from 
The  illimitable  years. 

0  strengthen  me,  enlighten  me  ! 

1  faint  in  this  obscurity, 
Thou  dewy  dawn  of  memory. 


Come  forth,  I  charge  thee,  arise, 

Thou  of  the  many  tongues,  the  myriad 

eyes! 
Thou  comest  not  with  shows  of  flaunting 
vines 

Unto  mine  inner  eye, 
Divinest  Memory ! 
Thou  wert  not  nursed  by  the  waterfall 
Which  ever  sounds  and  shines 

A  pillar  of  white  light  upon  the  wall 
Of  purple  cliffs,  aloof  descried  : 
Come  from  the  woods  that  belt  the  gray 
hill-side. 


12 


ODE    TO  MEMORY— SONG. 


The  seven  elms,  the  poplars  four 
That  stand  beside  my  father's  door, 
And  chiefly  from  the  brook  that  loves 
To  purl  o'er  matted  cress  and  ribbed  sand, 
Or  dimple  in  the  dark  of  rushy  coves, 
Drawing  into  his  narrow  earthen  urn, 

In  every  elbow  and  turn, 
The  filter'd  tribute  of  the  rough  woodland, 

O !  hither  lead  thy  feet ! 
Pour  round  mine  ears  the  livelong  bleat 
Of  the  thick-fleeced  sheep  from  wattled 
folds, 

Upon  the  ridged  wolds, 
When  the  first  matin-song  hath  waken'd 

loud 
Over  the  dark  dewy  earth  forlorn, 
What  time  the  amber  morn 
Forth  gushes  from  beneath  a  low-hung 
cloud. 

V. 

Large  dowries  doth  the  raptured  eye 
To  the  young  spirit  present 
When  first  she  is  wed; 

And  like  a  bride  of  old 
In  triumph  led, 

With  music  and  sweet  showers 
Of  festal  flowers, 
Unto  the  dwelling  she  must  sway. 
Well  hast  thou  done,  great  artist  Memory, 
In  setting  round  thy  first  experiment 
With  royal  frame-work  of  wrought 
gold; 
Needs   must   thou  •  dearly  love   thy  first 

essay, 
And  foremost  in  thy  various  gallery 
Place  it,  where  sweetest  sunlight  falls 
Upon  the  storied  walls; 

For  the  discovery 
And  newness  of  thine  art  so  pleased  thee, 
That  all  which  thou  hast  drawn  of  fairest 

Or  boldest  since,  but  lightly  weighs 
With  thee  unto  the  love  thou  bearest 
The  first-born  of  thy  genius.     Artist-like, 
Ever  retiring  thou  dost  gaze 
On  the  prime  labour  of  thine  early  days : 
No  matter  what  the  sketch  might  be; 
Whether  the  high  field  on  the  bushless 

Pike, 
Or  even  a  sand-built  ridge 
Of  heaped  hills  that  mound  the  sea, 
Overblown  with  murmurs  harsh, 
Or  even  a  lowly  cottage  whence  we  see 


Stretch'd  wide  and  wild  the  waste  enor- 
mous marsh, 
Where  from  the  frequent  bridge, 
Like  emblems  of  infinity, 
The  trenched  waters  run  from  sky  to  sky; 
Or  a  garden  bower'd  close 
With  plaited  alleys  of  the  trailing  rose, 
Long  alleys  falling  down  to  twilight  grots. 
Or  opening  upon  level  plots 
Of  crowned  lilies,  standing  near 
Purple-spiked  lavender : 
Whither  in  after  life  retired 
From  brawling  storms, 
From  weary  wind, 
With  youthful  fancy  re-inspired, 

We  may  hold  converse  with  all  forms 
Of  the  many-sided  mind, 
And  those  whom  passion  hath  not  blinded, 
Subtle-thoughted,  myriad-minded. 

My  friend,  with  you  to  live  alone, 
Were  how  much  better  than  to  own 
A  crown,  a  sceptre,  and  a  throne  ! 

0  strengthen  me,  enlighten  me ! 

1  faint  in  this  obscurity, 
Thou  dewy  dawn  of  memory. 


SONG. 


A  spirit  haunts  the  year's  last  hours 
Dwelling  amid  these  yellowing  bowers: 

To  himself  he  talks; 
For  at  eventide,  listening  earnestly, 
At  his  work  you  may  hear  him  sob  and 
sigh 
In  the  walks; 

Earthward  he  boweth  the  heavy 
stalks 
Of  the  mouldering  flowers : 

Heavily  hangs  the  broad  sunflower 
Over    its   grave    i'   the   earth   so 
chilly ; 
Heavily  hangs  the  hollyhock, 
Heavily  hangs  the  tiger-lily. 

II. 

The  air  is  damp,  and  hush'd,  and  close, 
As  a  sick  man's  room  when  he  taketh 
repose 


A    CHARACTER— THE  POET. 


13 


An  hour  before  death  ; 
My  very  heart  faints  and  my  whole  soul 

grieves 
At  the   moist  rich  smell  of  the  rotting 
leaves, 
And  the  breath 

Of  the  fading  edges  of  box  be- 
neath, 
And  the  year's  last  rose. 

Heavily  hangs  the  broad  sunflower 
Over   its   grave    i'    the    earth   so 
chilly; 
Heavily  hangs  the  hollyhock, 
Heavily  hangs  the  tiger-lily. 


A  CHARACTER. 

With  a  half-glance  upon  the  sky 
At  night  he  said,  '  The  wanderings 
Of  this  most  intricate  Universe 
Teach  me  the  nothingness  of  things.' 
Yet  could  not  all  creation  pierce 
Beyond  the  bottom  of  his  eye. 

He  spake  of  beauty :  that  the  dull 

Saw  no  divinity  in  grass, 

Life  in  dead  stones,  or  spirit  in  air; 

Then  looking  as  'twere  in  a  glass, 

He   smooth'd   his   chin  and  sleek'd  his 

hair, 
And  said  the  earth  was  beautiful. 

He  spake  of  virtue :  not  the  gods 
More  purely  when  they  wish  to  charm 
Pallas  and  Juno  sitting  by : 
And  with  a  sweeping  of  the  arm, 
And  a  lack-lustre  dead-blue  eye, 
Devolved  his  rounded  periods. 

Most  delicately  hour  by  hour 
He  canvass'd  human  mysteries, 
And  trod  on  silk,  as  if  the  winds 
Blew  his  own  praises  in  his  eyes, 
And  stood  aloof  from  other  minds 
In  impotence  of  fancied  power. 

With  lips  depress'd  as  he  were  meek, 
Himself  unto  himself  he  sold : 
Upon  himself  himself  did  feed  : 
Quiet,  dispassionate,  and  cold, 
And  other  than  his  form  of  creed, 
With  chisell'd  features  clear  and  sleek. 


THE  POET. 

The  poet  in  a  golden  clime  was  born, 

With  golden  stars  above; 
Dower'd    with    the    hate   of    hate,   the 
scorn  of  scorn, 
The  love  of  love. 

He  saw  thro'  life  and  death,  thro'  good 
and  ill, 
He  saw  thro'  his  own  soul. 
The  marvel  of  the  everlasting  will, 
An  open  scroll, 

Before   him   lay :   with  echoing  feet  he 
threaded 
The  secretest  walks  of  fame  : 
The   viewless    arrows    of    his    thoughts 
were  headed 
And  wing'd  with  flame, 

Like  Indian  reeds  blown  from  his  silver 
tongue, 
And  of  so  fierce  a  flight, 
From  Calpe  unto  Caucasus  they  sung, 
Filling  with  light 

And  vagrant  melodies  the  winds  which 
bore 
Them  earthward  till  they  lit; 
Then,  like  the  arrow-seeds  of  the  field 
flower, 
The  fruitful  wit 

Cleaving,  took  root,  and  springing  forth 
anew 
Where'er  they  fell,  behold, 
Like  to  the  mother  plant  in  semblance, 
grew 
A  flower  all  gold, 

And  bravely  furnish'd  all  abroad  to  fling 

The  winged  shafts  of  truth, 
To  throng  with  stately  blooms  the  breath- 
ing spring 
Of  Hope  and  Youth. 

So  many  minds  did  gird  their  orbs  with 
beams, 
Tho'  one  did  fling  the  fire. 
Heaven   flow'd  upon  the  soul   in  many 
dreams 
Of  high  desire. 


THE  POET'S  MIND  — THE   SEA-FAIRIES. 


Thus  truth  was  multiplied  on  truth,  the 
world 
Like  one  great  garden  show'd, 

II. 

Dark-brow'd  sophist,  come  not  anear; 

And  thro'   the  wreaths  of  floating  dark 

All  the  place  is  holy  ground; 

upcurl'd, 

Hollow  smile  and  frozen  sneer 

Rare  sunrise  flow'd. 

Come  not  here. 

Holy  water  will  I  pour 

And  Freedom  rear'd  in  that  august  sun- 

Into every  spicy  flower 

rise 

Of  the  laurel-shrubs  that  hedge  it  around. 

Her  beautiful  bold  brow, 

The   flowers  would   faint   at   your  cruel 

When  rites  and  forms  before  his  burning 

cheer. 

eyes 

In  your  eye  there  is  death, 

Melted  like  snow. 

There  is  frost  in  your  breath 

Which  would  blight  the  plants. 

There  was  no   blood  upon  her  maiden 

Where  you  stand  you  cannot  hear 

robes 

From  the  groves  within 

Sunn'd  by  those  orient  skies ; 

The  wild-bird's  din. 

But    round    about    the    circles    of   the 

In  the  heart  of  the  garden  the  merry  bird 

globes 

chants. 

Of  her  keen  eyes 

It  would  fall  to  the  ground  if  you  came 

And  in  her  raiment's  hem  was  traced  in 

in. 
In  the  middle  leaps  a  fountain 

flame 

Like  sheet  lightning, 

Wisdom,  a  name  to  shake 

Ever  brightening 

All   evil    dreams   of    power — a    sacred 

With  a  low  melodious  thunder; 

name. 

All  day  and  all  night  it  is  ever  drawn 

And  when  she  spake, 

From  the  brain  of  the  purple  moun- 

Her words  did  gather  thunder  as  they 

tain 
Which  stands  in  the  distance  yonder : 

ran, 

It  springs  on  a  level  of  bowery  lawn, 

And  as  the  lightning  to  the  thunder 

And  the  mountain  draws  it  from  Heaven 

Which  follows  it,  riving  the  spirit  of  man, 

above, 

Making  earth  wonder, 

And  it  sings  a  song  of  undying  love; 

And  yet,  tho'  its  voice  be  so  clear  and 

So  was  their  meaning  to  her  words.     No 

full, 

sword 

You  never  would  hear  it;   your  ears  are 

Of  wrath  her  right  arm  whirl'd, 

so  dull; 

But  one  poor  poet's  scroll,  and  with  his 

So  keep  where  you  are  :  you  are  foul  with 

word 

sin; 

She  shook  the  world. 

It  would  shrink  to  the  earth  if  you  came 
in. 

THE  POET'S  MIND. 

THE  SEA-FAIRIES. 

i. 

Slow   sail'd    the    weary    mariners    and 

Vex  not  thou  the  poet's  mind 

saw, 

With  thy  shallow  wit : 

Betwixt  the  green  brink  and  the  running 

Vex  not  thou  the  poet's  mind; 

foam, 

For  thou  canst  not  fathom  it. 

Sweet  faces,  rounded  arms,  and  bosoms 

Clear  and  bright  it  should  be  ever, 

prest 

Flowing  like  a  crystal  river; 

To  little  harps  of  gold ;   and  while  they 

Bright  as  light,  and  clear  as  wind. 

mused 

THE  DESERTED  HOUSE— THE  DYING   SWAN. 


H 


Whispering  to  each  other  half  in  fear, 
Shrill  music  reach'd  them  on  the  middle 


Whither   away,   whither   away,   whither 

away?  fly  no  more. 
Whither  away  from  the  high  green  field, 

and  the  happy  blossoming  shore? 
Day  and  night  to  the  billow  the  fountain 

calls : 
Down  shower  the  gambolling  waterfalls 
From  wandering  over  the  lea : 
Out  of  the  live-green  heart  of  the  dells 
They  freshen  the  silvery-crimson  shells, 
And  thick  with  white  bells  the  clover-hill 

swells 
High  over  the  full-toned  sea : 
O    hither,    come    hither    and    furl   your 

sails, 
Come  hither  to  me  and  to  me  : 
Hither,  come  hither  and  frolic  and  play; 
Here  it  is  only  the  mew  that  wails; 
We  will  sing  to  you  all  the  day : 
Mariner,  mariner,  furl  your  sails, 
For  here  are  the  blissful  downs  and  dales, 
And  merrily,  merrily  carol  the  gales, 
And   the   spangle  dances  in  bight  and 

bay, 
And  the  rainbow  forms  and  flies  on  the 

land 
Over  the  islands  free; 
And  the  rainbow  lives  in  the  curve  of  the 

sand; 
Hither,  come  hither  and  see; 
And  the  rainbow  hangs  on  the  poising 

wave, 
And  sweet  is  the  colour  of  cove  and 

cave, 
And  sweet  shall  your  welcome  be : 
O  hither,  come  hither,  and  be  our  lords, 
For  merry  brides  are  we  : 
We   will   kiss   sweet   kisses,  and   speak 

sweet  words : 
O  listen,  listen,  your  eyes  shall  glisten 
With  pleasure  and  love  and  jubilee : 
O  listen,  listen,  your  eyes  shall  glisten 
When  the  sharp  clear  twang  of  the  golden 

chords 
Runs  up  the  ridged  sea. 
Who  can  light  on  as  happy  a  shore 
All  the  world  o'er,  all  the  world  o'er? 
Whither  away?  listen  and  stay :  mariner, 

mariner,  fly  no  more. 


THE  DESERTED   HOUSE, 
i. 

Life  and  Thought  have  gone  away 

Side  by  side, 

Leaving  door  and  windows  wide : 
Careless  tenants  they ! 

II. 

All  within  is  dark  as  night : 
In  the  windows  is  no  light; 
And  no  murmur  at  the  door, 
So  frequent  on  its  hinge  before. 

III. 

Close  the  door,  the  shutters  close, 

Or  thro'  the  windows  we  shall  see 
The  nakedness  and  vacancy 

Of  the  dark  deserted  house. 

IV. 

Come  away :  no  more  of  mirth 

Is  here  or  merry-making  sound. 

The  house  was  builded  of  the  earth, 
And  shall  fall  again  to  ground. 


Come  away :  for  Life  and  Thought 

Here  no  longer  dwell; 
But  in  a  city  glorious  — 
A  great  and  distant  city  —  have  bought 

A  mansion  incorruptible. 
Would  they  could  have  stayed  with  us ! 


THE  DYING  SWAN. 


The  plain  was  grassy,  wild  and  bare, 
Wide,  wild,  and  open  to  the  air, 
Which  had  built  up  everywhere 
An  under-roof  of  doleful  gray. 
With  an  inner  voice  the  river  ran, 
Adown  it  floated  a  dying  swan, 

And  loudly  did  lament. 
It  was  the  middle  of  the  day. 
Ever  the  weary  wind  went  on, 

And  took  the  reed-tops  as  it  went. 


Some  blue  peaks  in  the  distance  rose, 
And  white  against  the  cold-white  sky, 


16 


THE  DYING   SWAN— A   DIRGE. 


Shone  out  their  crowning  snows. 

One  willow  over  the  river  wept, 
And  shook  the  wave  as  the  wind  did  sigh; 
Above  in  the  wind  was  the  swallow, 
Chasing  itself  at  its  own  wild  will, 
And  far  thro'  the  marish  green  and 

still 
The  tangled  water-courses  slept, 
Shot  over  with  purple,  and   green,  and 
yellow. 


The  wild  swan's  death-hymn  took  the  soul 
Of  that  waste  place  with  joy 
Hidden  in  sorrow :   at  first  to  the  ear 
The  warble  was  low,  and  full  and  clear; 
And  floating  about  the  under-sky, 
Prevailing   in   weakness,    the    coronach 

stole 
Sometimes  afar,  and  sometimes  anear 
But  anon  her  awful  jubilant  voice, 
With  a  music  strange  and  manifold, 
Flow'd  forth  on  a  carol  free  and  bold 
As  when  a  mighty  people  rejoice 
With   shawms,   and    with    cymbals,   and 

harps  of  gold, 
And  the  tumult  of  their  acclaim  is  roll'd 
Thro'  the  open  gates  of  the  city  afar, 
To  the  shepherd  who  watcheth  the  even- 
ing star. 
And  the  creeping  mosses  and  clambering 

weeds, 
And  the  willow-branches  hoar  and  dank, 
And   the    wavy   swell   of   the   soughing 

reeds, 
And  the  wave-worn  horns  of  the  echoing 

bank, 
And     the     silvery    marish-flowers     that 

throng 
The  desolate  creeks  and  pools  among, 
Were  flooded  over  with  eddying  song. 


A  DIRGE. 


Now  is  done  thy  long  day's  work; 
Fold  thy  palms  across  thy  breast, 
Fold  thine  arms,  turn  to  thy  rest. 

Let  them  rave. 
Shadows  of  the  silver  birk 
Sweep  the  green  that  folds  thy  grave. 

Let  them  rave. 


Thee  nor  carketh  care  nor  slander; 
Nothing  but  the  small  cold  worm 
Fretteth  thine  enshrouded  form. 

Let  them  rave. 
Light  and  shadow  ever  wander 
O'er  the  green  that  folds  thy  grave. 

Let  them  rave. 

III. 

Thou  wilt  not  turn  upon  thy  bed; 
Chaunteth  not  the  brooding  bee 
Sweeter  tones  than  calumny? 

Let  them  rave. 
Thou  wilt  never  raise  thine  head 
From  the  green  that  folds  thy  grave. 

Let  them  rave. 


Crocodiles  wept  tears  for  thee  ; 

The  woodbine  and  eglatere 

Drip  sweeter  dews  than  traitor's  tear. 

Let  them  rave. 
Rain  makes  music  in  the  tree 
O'er  the  green  that  folds  thy  grave. 

Let  them  rave. 

v. 

Round  thee  blow,  self-pleached  deep, 
Bramble  roses,  faint  and  pale, 
And  long  purples  of  the  dale. 

Let  them  rave. 
These  in  every  shower  creep 
Thro'  the  green  that  folds  thy  grave. 

Let  them  rave. 

VI. 

The  gold-eyed  kingcups  fine  ; 
The  frail  bluebell  peereth  over 
Rare  broidry  of  the  purple  clover. 

Let  them  rave. 
Kings  have  no  such  couch  as  thine, 
As  the  green  that  folds  thy  grave. 

Let  them  rave. 

VII. 

Wild  words  wander  here  and  there: 
God's  great  gift  of  speech  abused 
Makes  thy  memory  confused : 
But  let  them  rave. 


LOVE  AND  DEATH— THE  BALLAD    OF  ORIANA. 


17 


The  balm-cricket  carols  clear 
In  the  green  that  folds  thy  grave. 
Let  them  rave. 


LOVE  AND   DEATH. 

What  time  the  mighty  moon  was  gather- 
ing light 

Love  paced  the  thymy  plots  of  Paradise, 

And  all  about  him  roll'd  his  lustrous  eyes; 

When,  turning  round  a  cassia,  full  in  view, 

Death,  walking  all  alone  beneath  a  yew, 

And  talking  to  himself,'  first  met  his 
sight : 

y  You  must  begone,'  said  Death,  '  these 
walks  are  mine.' 

Love  wept  and  spread  his  sheeny  vans 
for  flight; 

Yet  ere  he  parted  said,  'This  hour  is 
thine : 

Thou  art  the  shadow  of  life,  and  as  the 
tree 

Stands  in  the  sun  and  shadows  all  be- 
neath, 

So  in  the  light  of  great  eternity 

Life  eminent  creates  the  shade  of  death; 

The  shadow  passeth  when  the  tree  shall 
fall, 

But  I  shall  reign  for  ever  over  all.' 


THE   BALLAD   OF  ORIANA. 

My  heart  is  wasted  with  my  woe, 

Oriana. 
There  is  no  rest  for  me  below, 

Oriana. 
When  the  long  dun  wolds  are  ribb'd  with 

snow, 
And  loud  the  Norland  whirlwinds  blow, 

Oriana, 
Alone  I  wander  to  and  fro, 

Oriana. 

Ere  the  light  on  dark  was  growing, 

Oriana, 
At  midnight  the  cock  was  crowing, 

Oriana : 
Winds  were  blowing,  waters  flowing, 
We  heard  the  steeds  to  battle  going, 

Oriana ; 
Aloud  the  hollow  bugle  blowing, 

Oriana. 


In  the  yew-wood  black  as  night, 

Oriana, 
Ere  I  rode  into  the  fight, 

Oriana, 
While  blissful  tears  blinded  my  sight 
By  star-shine  and  by  moonlight, 

Oriana, 
I  to  thee  my  troth  did  plight, 

Oriana. 

She  stood  upon  the  castle  wall, 

Oriana : 
She  watch'd  my  crest  among  them  all, 

Oriana : 
She  saw  me  fight,  she  heard  me  call, 
When  forth  there  stept  a  foeman  tall, 

Oriana, 
Atween  me  and  the  castle  wall, 

Oriana. 

The  bitter  arrow  went  aside, 

Oriana : 
The  false,  false  arrow  went  aside, 

Oriana : 
The  damned  arrow  glanced  aside, 
And   pierced   thy   heart,   my   love,   my 
bride, 

Oriana ! 
Thy  heart,  my  life,  my  love,  my  bride, 

Oriana ! 

Oh  !  narrow,  narrow  was  the  space, 

Oriana. 
Loud,  loud  rung  out  the  bugle's  brays, 

Oriana. 
Oh  !  deathful  stabs  were  dealt  apace, 
The  battle  deepen'd  in  ics  place, 

Oriana; 
But  I  was  down  upon  my  face, 

Oriana. 

They  should  have  stabb'd  me  where  I  lay, 

Oriana ! 
How  could  I  rise  and  come  away, 

Oriana? 
How  could  I  look- upon  the  day? 
They  should  have  stabb'd  me  where  I  lay 

Oriana  — 
They  should  have  trod  me  into  clay, 

Oriana. 

O  breaking  heart  that  will  not  break, 
Oriana ! 


iS 


CIRCUMS TANCE  —  THE  MERMAN. 


0  pale,  pale  face  so  sweet  and  meek, 

Oriana ! 
Thou  smilest,  but  thou  dost  not  speak, 
And  then  the  tears  run  down  my  cheek, 

Oriana : 
What   wantest   thou?   whom   dost   thou 
seek, 

Oriana? 

1  cry  aloud  :  none  hear  my  cries, 

Oriana. 
Thou  comest  atween  me  and  the  skies, 

Oriana. 
I  feel  the  tears  of  blood  arise 
Up  from  my  heart  unto  my  eyes, 

Oriana. 
Within  thy  heart  my  arrow  lies, 

Oriana. 

O  cursed  hand  !     O  cursed  blow ! 
Oriana ! 

0  happy  thou  that  liest  low, 

Oriana ! 
All  night  the  silence  seems,  to  flow 
Beside  me  in  my  utter  woe, 

Oriana. 
A  weary,  weary  way  I  go, 

Oriana. 

When  Norland  winds  pipe  down  the  sea, 
Oriana, 

1  walk,  I  dare  not  think  of  thee, 

Oriana. 
Thou  liest  beneath  the  greenwood  tree, 
I  dare  not  die  and  come  to  thee, 

Oriana. 
I  hear  the  roaring  of  the  sea, 

Oriana. 


CIRCUMSTANCE. 

Two  children  in  two  neighbour  villages, 

Playing  mad  pranks  along  the  heathy  leas; 

Two  strangers  meeting  at  a  festival; 

Two  lovers  whispered  by  an  orchard 
wall; 

Two  lives  bound  fast  in  one  with  golden 
ease; 

Two  graves  grass-green  beside  a  gray 
church -tower, 

Wash'd  with  still  rains  and  daisy  blos- 
somed ; 


Two   children   in  one  hamlet  born  and 

bred; 
So  runs  the  round  of  life  from  hour  to 

hour. 


THE   MERMAN. 


Who  would  be 
A  merman  bold, 
Sitting  alone, 
Singing  alone 
Under  the  sea, 
With  a  crown  of  gold, 
On  a  throne  ? 

II. 

I  would  be  a  merman  bold, 
I  would  sit  and  sing  the  whole  of  the 

day; 
I  would  fill  the  sea-halls  with  a  voice  of 

power; 
But  at  night  I  would  roam  abroad  and 

play 
With  the  mermaids  in  and  out   of  the 

rocks, 
Dressing  their  hair  with  the  white  sea- 
flower; 
And  holding  them  back  by  their  flowing 

locks 
I  would  kiss  them  often  under  the  sea, 
And  kiss  them  again  till  they  kiss'd  me 

Laughingly,  laughingly; 
And  then  we  would  wander  away,  away 
To   the    pale-green   sea-groves    straight 

and  high, 
Chasing  each  other  merrily. 

in. 

There  would  be  neither  moon  nor  star; 
But  the  wave  would  make  music  above 

us  afar  — 
Low   thunder   and   light   in   the    magic 

night  — 
Neither  moon  nor  star. 
We    would    call    aloud    in    the    dreamy 

dells, 
Call  to  each  other  and  whoop  and  cry 

All  night,  merrily,  merrily; 
They  would  pelt  me  with  starry  spangles 

and  shells, 


THE  MERMAID. 


19 


Laughing  and  clapping  their  hands  be- 

Would slowly  trail  himself  sevenfold 

tween, 

Round  the  hall  where  I  sate,  and  look  in 

.    All  night,  merrily,  merrily: 

at  the  gate 

But  I  would  throw  to  them  back  in  mine 

With  his  large  calm  eyes  for  the  love  of 

Turkis  and  agate  and  almondine :    ' 

me. 

Then  leaping  out  upon  them  unseen 

And  all  the  mermen  under  the  sea 

I  would  kiss  them  often  under  the  sea, 

Would  feel  their  immortality 

And  kiss  them  again  till  they  kiss'd  me 

Die  in  their  hearts  for  the  love  of  me. 

Laughingly,  laughingly. 

Oh  !  what  a  happy  life  were  mine 

ill. 

Under  the  hollow-hung  ocean  green ! 

Soft  are  the  moss-beds  under  the  sea; 

But   at    night    I   would    wander   away, 

We  would  live  merrily,  merrily. 

away, 

I   would   fling  on  each  side  my  low- 

flowing  locks, 

THE  MERMAID. 

And  lightly  vault  from   the  throne  and 
play 

L 

With  the  mermen  in  and  out  of  the 
rocks; 
We  would  run  to  and  fro,  and  hide  and 

Who  would  be 

A  mermaid  fair, 

seek, 

Singing  alone, 

On  the  broad  sea-wolds  in  the  crimson 

Combing  her  hair 

shells, 

Under  the  sea, 

Whose  silvery  spikes  are  nighest  the 

In  a  golden  curl 

sea. 

With  a  comb  of  pearl, 

But  if  any  came  near  I  would   call,  and 

On  a  throne? 

shriek, 

And    adown   the   steep   like  a   wave    I 

11. 

would  leap 

From  the  diamond-ledges  that  jut  from 

I  would  be  a  mermaid  fair; 

the  dells; 

I  would  sing  to  myself  the  whole  of  the 

For  I  would   not  be  kiss'd  by  all  who 

day; 

would  list, 

With  a  comb  of  pearl  I  would  comb  my 

hair; 
And  still  as  I  comb'd  I  would  sing  and 

Of  the  bold   merry  mermen   under   the 

sea; 
They  would  sue  me,  and  woo  me,  and 

say, 

flatter  me, 

'  Who   is   it  loves  me  ?  who  loves  not 

In  the  purple  twilights  under  the  sea; 

me? ' 

But  the  king  of  them  all  would  carry 

I  would  comb  my  hair  till  my  ringlets 

me, 

would  fall 

Woo  me,  and  win  me,  and  marry  me, 

Low  adown,  low  adown, 

In    the    branching    jaspers    under    the 

From  under  my  starry  sea-bud  crown 

sea; 

Low  adown  and  around, 

Then  all  the  dry  pied  things  that  be 

And  I  should  look   like   a   fountain  of 

In  the  hueless  mosses  under  the  sea 

gold 

Would  curl  round  my  silver  feet  silently, 

Springing  alone 

All  looking  up  for  the  love  of  me. 

With  a  shrill  inner  sound, 

And  if  I  should  carol  aloud,  from  aloft 

Over  the  throne 

All  things  that  are  forked,  and  horned, 

In  the  midst  of  the  hall; 

and  soft 

Till  that  great  sea-snake  under  the  sea 

Would  lean  out  from  the  hollow  sphere 

From  his  coiled   sleeps   in   the    central 

of  the  sea, 

deeps 

All  looking  down  for  the  love  of  me. 

20 


ADELINE  —  MARGARE  T. 


ADELINE. 


Mystery  of  mysteries, 

Faintly  smiling  Adeline, 
Scarce  of  earth  nor  all  divine, 

Nor  unhappy,  nor  at  rest, 

But  beyond  expression  fair 
With  thy  floating  flaxen  hair; 

Thy  rose-lips  and  full  blue  eyes 

Take  the  heart  from  out  my  breast. 
Wherefore  those  dim  looks  of  thine, 
Shadowy,  dreaming  Adeline  ? 


Whence  that  aery  bloom  of  thine, 

Like  a  lily  which  the  sun 
Looks  thro'  in  his  sad  decline, 

And  a  rose-bush  leans  upon, 
Thou  that  faintly  smilest  still, 

As  a  Naiad  in  a  well, 

Looking  at  the  set  of  day, 
Or  a  phantom  two  hours  old 

Of  a  maiden  past  away, 
Ere  the  placid  lips  be  cold? 
Wherefore  those  faint  smiles  of  thine, 

Spiritual  Adeline  ? 


What  hope  or  fear  or  joy  is  thine? 
Who  talketh  with  thee,  Adeline? 
For  sure  thou  art  not  all  alone. 

Do  beating  hearts  of  salient  springs 
Keep  measure  with  thine  own? 

Hast  thou  heard  the  butterflies 
What  they  say  betwixt  their  wings? 
Or  in  stillest  evenings 
With  what  voice  the  violet  woos 
To  his  heart  the  silver  dews? 
Or  when  little  airs  arise, 
How  the  merry  bluebell  rings 
To  the  mosses  underneath? 
Hast  thou  look'd  upon  the  breath 
Of  the  lilies  at  sunrise? 
Wherefore  that  faint  smile  of  thine, 
Shadowy,  dreaming  Adeline  ? 


Some  honey-converse  feeds  thy  mind, 
Some  spirit  of  a  crimson  rose 


In  love  with  thee  forgets  to  close 
His  curtains,  wasting  odorous  sighs 
All  night  long  on  darkness  blind. 
What  aileth  thee?  whom  waitest  thou 
With  thy  soften'd,  shadow'd  brow, 
And  those  dew-lit  eyes  of  thine, 
Thou  faint  smiler,  Adeline? 


Lovest  thou  the  doleful  wind 

When  thou  gazest  at  the  skies? 
Doth  the  low-tongued  Orient 

Wander  from  the  side  of  the  morn, 
Dripping  with  Sabsean  spice 
On  thy  pillow,  lowly  bent 

With  melodious  airs  lovelorn, 
Breathing  Light  against  thy  face; 
While  his  locks  a-drooping  twined 

Round  thy  neck  in  subtle  ring 
Make  a  carcanet  of  rays, 

And  ye  talk  together  still, 
In  the  language  wherewith  Spring 
Letters  cowslips  on  the  hill? 
Hence  that  look  and  smile  of  thine, 
Spiritual  Adeline. 


MARGARET. 


O  sweet  pale  Margaret, 
O  rare  pale  Margaret, 
What  lit  your  eyes  with  tearful  power, 
Like  moonlight  on  a  falling  shower? 
Who  lent  you,  love,  your  mortal  dower 
Of  pensive  thought  and  aspect  pale, 
Your  melancholy  sweet  and  frail 
As  perfume  of  the  cuckoo-flower? 
From  the  westward-winding  flood, 
From  the  evening-lighted  wood, 

From  all  things  outward  you  have 
won 
A  tearful  grace,  as  tho'  you  stood 

Between  the  rainbow  and  the  sun. 
The  very  smile  before  you  speak, 

That  dimples  your  transparent  cheek, 
Encircles  all  the  heart,  and  feedeth 
The  senses  with  a  still  delight 

Of  dainty  sorrow  without  sound, 
Like  the  tender  amber  round, 
Which  the  moon  about  her  spreadeth, 
Moving  thro'  a  fleecy  night. 


MAR  GARE  z  —  R  OSALIND. 


21 


You  love,  remaining  peacefully, 

To  hear  the  murmur  of  the  strife, 
But  enter  not  the  toil  of  life. 

Your  spirit  is  the  calmed  sea, 

Laid  by  the  tumult  of  the  fight. 

You  are  the  evening  star,  alway 

Remaining  betwixt  dark  and  bright : 

Lull'd  echoes  of  laborious  day 

Come  to  you,  gleams  of  mellow  light 
Float  by  you  on  the  verge  of  night. 


What  can  it  matter,  Margaret, 

What  songs  below  the  waning  stars 
The  lion-heart,  Plantagenet, 

Sang  looking  thro'  his  prison  bars? 
Exquisite  Margaret,  who  can  tell 
The  last  wild  thought  of  Chatelet, 
Just  ere  the  falling  axe  did  part 
The  burning  brain  from  the  true  heart, 
Even  in  her  sight  he  loved  so  well? 


A  fairy  shield  your  Genius  made 

And  gave  you  on  your  natal  day. 
Your  sorrow,  only  sorrow's  shade, 

Keeps  real  sorrow  far  away. 
You  move  not  in  such  solitudes, 

You  are  not  less  divine, 
But  more  human  in  your  moods, 

Than  your  twin- sister,  Adeline. 
Your  hair  is  darker,  and  your  eyes 

Touch'd  with  a  somewhat  darker  hue, 

And  less  aerially  blue, 

But  ever  trembling  thro'  the  dew 
Of  dainty-woeful  sympathies. 


O  sweet  pale  Margaret, 
O  rare  pale  Margaret, 
Come  down,  come  down,  and  hear  me 

speak  : 
Tie  up  the  ringlets  on  your  cheek  : 

The  sun  is  just  about  to  set, 
The  arching  limes  are  tall  and  shady, 
And  faint  rainy  lights  are  seen, 
Moving  in  the  leavy  beech. 
Rise  from  the  feast  of  sorrow,  lady, 

Where  all  day  long  you  sit  between 
Joy  and  woe,  and  whisper  each. 


Or  only  look  across  the  lawn, 

Look  out  below  your  bower-eaves, 

Look  down,  and  let  your  blue  eyes  dawn 
Upon  me  thro'  the  jasmine-leaves. 


ROSALIND. 


My  Rosalind,  my  Rosalind, 

My  frolic  falcon,  with  bright  eyes, 

Whose  free  delight,  from  any  heignt  of 

rapid  flight, 
Stoops  at  all  game  that  wing  the  skies, 
My  Rosalind,  my  Rosalind, 
My  bright-eyed,  wild-eyed  falcon,  whither, 
Careless  both  of  wind  and  weather, 
Whither  fly  ye,  what  game  spy  ye, 
Up  or  down  the  streaming  wind? 

II. 

The  quick  lark's  closest-caroll'd  strains, 
The  shadow  rushing  up  the  sea, 
The  lightning  flash  atween  the  rains, 
The  sunlight  driving  down  the  lea, 
The  leaping  stream,  the  very  wind, 
That  will  not  stay,  upon  his  way, 
To  stoop  the  cowslip  to  the  plains, 
Is  not  so  clear  and  bold  and  free 
As  you,  my  falcon  Rosalind. 
You  care  not  for  another's  pains, 
Because  you  are  the  soul  of  joy, 
Bright  metal  all  without  alloy. 
Life  shoots  and  glances  thro'  your  veins, 
And  flashes  off  a  thousand  ways, 
Thro'  lips  and  eyes  in  subtle  rays. 
Your  hawk-eyes  are  keen  and  bright, 
Keen  with  triumph,  W'atching  still 
To  pierce  me  thro'  with  pointed  light; 
But  oftentimes  they  flash  and  glitter 
Like  sunshine  on  a  dancing  rill, 
And  your  words  are  seeming-bitter, 
Sharp  and  few,  but  seeming-bitter 
From  excess  of  swift  delight. 


Come  down,  come  home,  my  Rosalind; 
My  gay  young  hawk,  my  Rosalind  : 
Too  long  you  keep  the  upper  skies; 
Too  long  you  roam  and  wheel  at  will; 
But  we  must  hood  your  random  eyes, 
That  care  not  whom  they  kill, 


ELEANORE. 


And  your  cheek,  whose  brilliant  hue 
Is  so  sparkling-fresh  to  view, 
Some  red  heath-flower  in  the  dew, 
Touch'd  with  sunrise.     We  must  bind 
And  keep  you  fast,  my  Rosalind, 
Fast,  fast,  my  wild-eyed  Rosalind, 
And  clip  your  wings,  and  make  you  love  : 
When  we  have  lured  you  from  above, 
And  that  delight  of  frolic  flight,  by  day 

or  night, 
From  North  to  South, 
We'll  bind  you  fast  in  silken  cords, 
And  kiss  away  the  bitter  words 
From  off  your  rosy  mouth. 


ELEANORE. 


Thy  dark  eyes  open'd  not, 

Nor  first  reveal'd  themselves  to  English 
air, 
For  there  is  nothing  here, 
Which,  from  the  outward  to  the  inward 

brought, 
Moulded  thy  baby  thought. 
Far  off  from  human  neighbourhood, 

Thou  wert  born  on  a  summer  morn, 
A  mile  beneath  the  cedar-wood. 
Thy  bounteous  forehead  was  not  fann'd 

With  breezes  from  our  oaken  glades, 
But  thou  wert  nursed  in  some  delicious 
land 
Of  lavish  lights,  and  floating  shades : 
And  flattering  thy  childish  thought 
The  oriental  fairy  brought, 
At  the  moment  of  thy  birth, 
From  old  well-heads  of  haunted  rills, 
A.nd  the  hearts  of  purple  hills, 

And  shadow'd  coves  on  a  sunny  shore, 
The   choicest    wealth    of  all    the 
earth, 
Jewel  or  shell,  or  starry  ore, 
To  deck  thy  cradle,  Eleanore. 

II. 

Or  the  yellow-banded  bees, 
Thro'  half- open  lattices 
Coming  in  the  scented  breeze, 

Fed  thee,  a  child,  lying  alone, 

With  whitest  honey  in  fairy  gar- 
dens cull'd  — 


A  glorious  child,  dreaming  alone, 
In  silk-soft  folds,  upon  yielding  down, 
With  the  hum  of  swarming  bees 

Into  dreamful  slumber  lull'd. 


Who  may  minister  to  theet 
Summer  herself  should  minister 

To  thee,  with  fruitage  golden-rinded 
On  golden  salvers,  or  it  may  be, 
Youngest  Autumn,  in  a  bower 
Grape-thicken'd    from    the     light,    and 
blinded 
With  many  a  deep-hued  bell-like 
flower 
Of  fragrant  trailers,  when  the  air 

Sleepeth  over  all  the  heaven, 
And  the  crag  that  fronts  the  Even, 
All  along  the  shadowing  shore, 
Crimsons  over  an  inland  mere, 
Eleanore ! 


How  may  full-sail'd  verse  express, 
How  may  measured  words  adore 
The  full- flowing  harmony 
Of  thy  swan-like  stateliness, 
Eleanore? 
The  luxuriant  symmetry 
Of  thy  floating  gracefulness, 
Eleanore? 
Every  turn  and  glance  of  thine, 
Every  lineament  divine, 

Eleanore, 
And  the  steady  sunset  glow, 
That  stays  upon  thee?  For  in  thee 
Is  nothing  sudden,  nothing  single; 
Like  two  streams  of  incense  free 
From  one  censer  in  one  shrine, 
Thought  and  motion  mingle, 
Mingle  ever.     Motions  flow 
To  one  another,  even  as  tho' 
They  were  modulated  so 

To  an  unheard  melody, 
Which  lives  about  thee,  and  a  sweep 
Of  richest  pauses,  evermore 
Drawn  from  each  other  mellow-deep; 
Who  may  express  thee,  Eleanore? 


I  stand  before  thee,  Eleanore; 

I  see  thy  beauty  gradually  unfold, 


ELEANORE. 


23 


Daily  and  hourly,  more  and  more. 
I  muse,  as  in  a  trance,  the  while 

Slowly,  as  from  a  cloud  of  gold, 
Comes  out  thy  deep  ambrosial  smile. 
I  muse,  as  in  a  trance,  whene'er 

The  languors  of  thy  love-deep  eyes 
Float  on  to  me.     I  would  I  were 

So  tranced,  so  rapt  in  ecstasies, 
To  stand  apart,  and  to  adore, 
Gazing  on  thee  for  evermore, 
Serene,  imperial  Eleanore ! 


Sometimes,  with  most  intensity 

Gazing,  I  seem  to  see 

Thought   folded   over    thought,    smiling 

asleep, 
Slowly  awaken'd,  grow  so  full  and  deep 
In  thy  large  eyes,  that,  overpower'd  quite, 
I  cannot  veil,  or  droop  my  sight, 
But  am  as  nothing  in  its  light : 
As  tho'  a  star,  in  inmost  heaven  set, 
Ev'n  while  we  gaze  on  it, 
Should  slowly  round  his  orb,  and  slowly 

grow 
To  a  full  face,  there  like  a  sun  remain 
Fix'd  —  then  as  slowly  fade  again, 

And    draw    itself    to   what    it   was 
before ; 
So  full,  so  deep,  so  slow, 
Thought  seems  to  come  and  go 
In  thy  large  eyes,  imperial  Eleanore. 


As  thunder-clouds  that,  hung  on  high, 
Roofd  the  world  with    doubt   and 
fear, 
Floating  thro'  an  evening  atmosphere, 
Grow  golden  all  about  the  sky; 
In  thee  all  passion  becomes  passionless, 
Touch'd  by  thy  spirit's  mellowness, 
Losing  his  fire  and  active  might 

In  a  silent  meditation, 
Falling  into  a  still  delight, 

And  luxury  of  contemplation 
As  waves  that  up  a  quiet  cove 
Rolling  slide,  and  lying  still 

Shadow  forth  the  banks  at  will: 
Or  sometimes  they  swell  and  move, 
Pressing  up  against  the  land, 
With  motions  of  the  outer  sea  : 


And  the  self-same  influence 
Controlleth  all  the  soul  and  sense 
Of  Passion  gazing  upon  thee. 
His  bow-string  slacken'd,  languid  Love, 
Leaning  his  cheek  upon  his  hand, 
Droops  both  his  wings,  regarding  thee, 
And  so  would  languish  evermore, 
Serene,  imperial  Eleanore. 

VIII. 

But  when  I  see  thee  roam,  with  tresses 

unconfined, 
While  the  amorous,  odorous  wind 

Breathes  low  between  the  sunset  and 
the  moon; 
Or,  in  a  shadowy  saloon, 
On  silken  cushions  half  reclined; 

I  watch  thy  grace;  and  in  its  place 
My  heart  a  charmed  slumber  keeps, 

While  I  muse  upon  thy  face; 
And  a  languid  fire  creeps 

Thro'  my  veins  to  all  my  frame, 
Dissolvingly  and  slowly  :  soon 

From  thy  rose-red  lips  my  name 
Floweth;   and  then,  as  in  a  swoon, 
With    dinning   sound   my  ears   are 
rife, 
My  tremulous  tongue  faltereth, 
I  lose  my  colour,  I  lose  my  breath, 
I  drink  the  cup  of  a  costly  death, 
Brimmed  with  delirious  draughts  of  warm- 
est life. 
I  die  with  my  delight,  before 

I  hear  what  I  would   hear  from 

thee; 
Yet  tell  my  name  again  to  me, 
I  would  ho.  dying  evermore, 
So  dying  ever,  Eleanore. 


My  life  is  full  of  weary  days, 

But  good  things  have  not  kept  aloof, 
Nor  wander'd  into  other  ways : 

I  have  not  lack'd  thy  mild  reproof, 
Nor  golden  largess  of  thy  praise. 

And  now  shake  hands  across  the  brink 
Of  that  deep  grave  to  which  I  go : 

Shake  hands  once  more  :  I  cannot  sink 
So  far — far  down,  but  I  shall  know 
Thy  voice,  and  answer  from  below. 


EARLY  SONNETS. 


II. 

When  in  the  darkness  over  me 
The  four-handed  mole  shall  scrape, 

Plant  thou  no  dusky  cypress-tree, 

Nor  wreathe  thy  cap  with  doleful  crape, 
But  pledge  me  in  the  flowing  grape. 

And  when  the  sappy  field  and  wood 
Grow  green  beneath  the  showery  gray, 

And  rugged  barks  begin  to  bud, 

And  thro'  damp  holts  new-flush'd  with 

May, 
Ring  sudden  scritches  of  the  jay, 

Then  let  wise  Nature  work  her  will, 
And  on  my  clay  her  darnel  grow; 

Come  only,  when  the  days  are  still, 
And  at  my  headstone  whisper  low, 
And  tell  me  if  the  woodbines  blow. 


EARLY  SONNETS. 


TO  . 

As  when  with  downcast  eyes  we  muse  and 

brood, 
And  ebb  into  a  former  life,  or  seem 
To  lapse  far  back  in  some  confused  dream 
To  states  of  mystical  similitude; 
If  one  but  speaks  or  hems  or  stirs  his  chair, 
Ever  the  wonder  waxeth  more  and  more, 
So  that  we  say, '  All  this  hath  been  before, 
All  this  hath  been,  I  know  not  when  or 

where.' 
So,  friend,  when  first  I  look'd  upon  your 

face, 
Our  thought  gave  answer  each  to  each,  so 

true  — 
Opposed  mirrors  each  reflecting  each  — 
That  tho'  I  knew  not  in  what  time  or  place, 
Methought  that  I  had  often  met  with  you, 
And  either  lived  in  either's  heart  and 

speech. 

II. 
TO  J.   M.   K. 

My  hope  and  heart  is  with  thee  —  thou 

wilt  be 
A  latter  Luther,  and  a  soldier-priest 


To  scare  church-harpies  from  the  master's 

feast ; 
Our  dusted  velvets  have  much  need  of 

thee  : 
Thou  art  no  Sabbath-drawler  of  old  saws, 
Distill'd      from      some     worm-canker'd 

homily ; 
But  spurr'd  at  heart  with  fieriest  energy 
To  embattail  and  to  wall  about  thy  cause 
With  iron-worded  proof,  hating  to  hark 
The  humming  of  the  drowsy  pulpit-drone 
Half  God's  good  sabbath,  while  the  worn- 
out  clerk 
Brow-beats  his  desk  below.     Thou  from 

a  throne 
Mounted  in  heaven  wilt  shoot  into  the 

dark 
Arrows  of  lightnings.     I  will  stand  and 

mark. 


Mine  be  the  strength  of  spirit,  full  and 

free, 
Like    some   broad    river  rushing  down 

alone, 
With  the  selfsame  impulse  wherewith  he 

was  thrown 
From  his  loud  fount  upon  the  echoing 

lea:  — 
Which  with  increasing  might  doth  for- 
ward flee 
By  town,  and  tower,  and  hill,  and  cape, 

and  isle, 
And  in  the  middle  of  the  green  salt  sea 
Keeps  his  blue  waters  fresh  for  many  a 

mile. 
Mine  be  the  power  which  ever  to  its  sway 
Will  win  the  wise  at  once,  and  by  degrees 
May  into  uncongenial  spirits  flow; 
Ev'n  as  the  warm  gulf-stream  of  Florida 
Floats  far  away  into  the  Northern  seas 
The  lavish  growths  of  southern  Mexico. 

IV. 

ALEXANDER. 

Warrior  of  God,   whose  strong  right 

arm  debased 
The  throne  of  Persia,  when  her  Satrap 

bled 
At  Issus  by  the  Syrian  gates,  or  fled 
Beyond  the  Memmian  naphtha-pits,  dis 

graced 


EARLY  SONNETS. 


25 


For    ever  —  thee    (thy    pathway    sand- 
erased) 
Gliding  with  equal  crowns  two  serpents  led 
Joyful  to  that  palm-planted  fountain-fed 
Ammonian  Oasis  in  the  waste. 
There  in  a  silent  shade  of  laurel  brown 
Apart  the  Chamian  Oracle  divine 
Shelter'd  his  unapproached  mysteries : 
High  things  were  spoken  there,  unhanded 

down; 
Only  they  saw  thee  from  the  secret  shrine 
Returning  with  hot  cheek  and  kindled 
eyes. 

v. 
BUONAPARTE. 

He  thought  to  quell  the  stubborn  hearts 

of  oak, 
Madman  !  —  to  chain  with    chains,  and 

bind  with  bands  .   . 

That  island  queen  who  sways  the  floods 

and  lands 
From  Ind  to  Ind,  but  in  fair  daylight  woke, 
When  from  her  wooden  walls,  —  lit  by 

sure  hands,  — 
With  thunders,  and  with  lightnings,  and 

with  smoke,  — 
Peal  after  peal,  the  British  battle  broke, 
Lulling  the  brine  against  the  Coptic  sands. 
We  taught  him  lowlier  moods,  when  El- 

sinore 
Heard.the  war  moan  along  the  distant  sea, 
Rocking  with  shatter'd  spars,  with  sud- 
den fires 
Flamed  over :  at  Trafalgar  yet  once  more 
We  taught  him :  late  he  learned  humility 
Perforce,  like  those  whom  Gideon  school'd 

with  briers. 

VI. 

POLAND. 

How  long,  O  God,  shall  men  be  ridden 
down, 

And  trampled  under  by  the  last  and  least 

Of  men?  The  heart  of  Poland  hath  not 
ceased 

To  quiver,  tho'  her  sacred  blood  doth 
drown 

The  fields,  and  out  of  every  smouldering 
town 

Cries  to  Thee,  lest  brute  Power  be  in- 
creased, 


Till  that  o'ergrown  Barbarian  in  the  East 
Transgress  his  ample  bound  to  some  new 

crown :  — 
Cries   to  Thee,   '  Lord,   how   long   shall 

these  things  be? 
How  long  this  icy-hearted  Muscovite 
Oppress  the  region?'     Us,  O  Just   and 

Good, 
Forgive,  who  smiled  when  she  was  torn 

in  three; 
Us,  who  stand  now,  when  we  should  aid 

the  right  — 
A  matter  to  be  wept  with  tears  of  blood ! 


Caress'd  or  chidden  by  the  slender  hand, 
And  singing  airy  trifles  this  or  that, 
Light  Hope  at  Beauty's  call  would  perch 

and  stand, 
And  run  thro'  every  change  of  sharp  and 

flat; 
And  Fancy  came  and  at  her  pillow  sat, 
When  Sleep  had  bound  her  in  his  rosy 

band, 
And  chased  away  the  still-recurring  gnat, 
And  woke  her  with  a  lay  from  fairy  land. 
But  now  they  live  with  Beauty  less  and 

less, 
For  Hope  is  other  Hope  and  wanders  far, 
Nor  cares  to  lisp  in  love's  delicious  creeds; 
And  Fancy  watches  in  the  wilderness, 
Poor  Fancy  sadder  than  a  single  star, 
That  sets  at  twilight  in  a  land  of  reeds. 

VIII. 

The  form,  the  form  alone  is  eloquent ! 
A  nobler  yearning  never  broke  her  rest 
Than  but  to  dance  and   sing,  be  gaily 

drest, 
And  win  all  eyes  with  all   accomplish- 
ment: 
Yet  in  the  whirling  dances  as  we  went, 
My  fancy  made  me  for  a  moment  blest 
To  find  my  heart  so  near  the  beauteous 

breast 
That  once  had  power  to  rob  it  of  content. 
A  moment  came  the  tenderness  of  tears, 
The  phantom  of  a  wish  that  once  could 

move, 
A  ghost  of  passion   that  no  smiles  re- 
store — 
For  ah !  the  slight  coquette,  she  cannot 
love, 


26 


EARLY  SONNETS. 


And  if  you  kiss'd   her  feet  a  thousand 

years, 
She  still  would  take  the  praise,  and  care 

no  more. 

IX. 

Wan  Sculptor,  weepest  thou  to  take  the 

cast 
Of  those  dead  lineaments  that  near  thee 

lie? 

0  sorrowest  thou,  pale  Painter,  for  the 

past, 
In    painting    some    dead    friend    from 

memory  ? 
Weep  on :   beyond  his  object  Love  can 

last: 
His  object   lives:    more   cause  to  weep 

have  I : 
My  tears,  no  tears  of  love,  are  flowing  fast, 
No  tears  of  love,  but  tears  that  Love  can 

die. 

1  pledge  her  not  in  any  cheerful  cup, 
Nor  care  to  sit  beside  her  where  she  sits  — 
A.h  pity  —  hint  it  not  in  human  tones, 
But  breathe  it  into  earth  and  close  it  up 
With  secret  death  for  ever,  in  the  pits 
Which  some  green  Christmas  crams  with 

weary  bones. 


If  I  were  loved,  as  I  desire  to  be, 
What  is  there  in  the  great  sphere  of  the 

earth, 
And  range  of  evil  between  death  and  birth, 
That  I  should  fear,  —  if  I  were  loved  by 

thee? 
All  the  inner,  all  the  outer  world  of  pain 
Clear  Love  would  pierce  and  cleave,  if 

thou  wert  mine, 
As  I  have  heard  that,  somewhere  in  the 


Fresh-water    springs    come    up    through 

bitter  brine. 
'Twere  joy,  not  fear,  claspt  hand-in-hand 

with  thee, 
To  wait  for  death  —  mute  —  careless  of 

all  ills, 
Apart  upon  a  mountain,  tho'  the  surge 
Of  some  new  deluge  from  a  thousand  hills 
Flung  leagues  of  roaring  foam  into  the 

gorge 
Below  us,  as  far  on  as  eye  could  see. 

XI. 

THE   BRIDESMAID. 

0  bridesmaid,  ere  the  happy  knot  was 

tied, 
Thine  eyes  so  wept  that  they  could  hardly 

see; 
Thy  sister  smiled  and  said,  '  No  tears  for 

me ! 
A    happy   bridesmaid    makes    a   happy 

bride.' 
And  then,  the  couple  standing   side  by 

side, 
Love  lighted  down  between  them  full  of 

glee, 
And  over  his   left   shoulder   laugh'd  at 

thee, 
'  O   happy   bridesmaid,    make    a   happy 

bride.'    • 
And  all  at  once  a  pleasant  truth  I  learn'd, 
For  while  the  tender  service  made  thee 

weep, 

1  loved  thee  for  the  tear  thou  couldst  not 

hide, 
And  prest  thy  hand,  and  knew  the  press 

return'd, 
And  thought,  'My  life  is  sick  of  single 

sleep : 
O    happy    bridesmaid,   make    a    happy 

bride ! ' 


THE  LADY  OF  SHALOTT. 


27 


THE    LADY   OF   SHALOTT 

AND   OTHER  POEMS. 


THE  LADY  OF   SHALOTT. 

PART   I. 

On  either  side  the  river  lie 
Long  fields  of  barley  and  of  rye, 
That  clothe  the  wold  and  meet  the  sky; 
And  thro'  the  field  the  road  runs  by 

To  many-tower'd  Camelot; 
And  up  and  down  the  people  go, 
Gazing  where  the  lilies  blow 
Round  an  island  there  below, 

The  island  of  Shalott. 

"Willows  whiten,  aspens  quiver, 
Little  breezes  dusk  and  shiver 
Thro'  the  wave  that  runs  for  ever 
By  the  island  in  the  river 

Flowing  clown  to  Camelot. 
Four  gray  walls,  and  four  gray  towers, 
Overlook  a  space  of  flowers, 
And  the  silent  isle  imbowers 

The  Lady  of  Shalott. 

By  the  margin,  willow-veil'd 
Slide  the  heavy  barges  trail'd 
By  slow  horses;   and  unhail'd 
The  shallop  flitteth  silken-sail'd 

Skimming  down  to  Camelot : 
But  who  hath  seen  her  wave  her  hand? 
Or  at  the  casement  seen  her  stand? 
Or  is  she  known  in  all  the  land, 

The  Lady  of  Shalott? 

Only  reapers,  reaping  early 
In  among  the  bearded  barley, 
Hear  a  song  that  echoes  cheerly 
From  the  river  winding  clearly, 

Down  to  tower'd  Camelot : 
And  by  the  moon  the  reaper  weary, 
Piling  sheaves  in  uplands  airy, 
Listening,  whispers  '  'Tis  the  fairy 

Lady  of  Shalott.' 


PART  II. 

There  she  weaves  by  night  and  day 
A  magic  web  with  colours  gay. 
She  has  heard  a  whisper  say, 
A  curse  is  on  her  if  she  stay 

To  look  down  to  Camelot. 
She  knows  not  what  the  curse  may  be, 
And  so  she  weaveth  steadily, 
And  little  other  care  hath  she, 

The  Lady  of  Shalott. 


And  moving  thro'  a  mirror  clear 
That  hangs  before  her  all  the  year, 
Shadows  of  the  world  appear. 
There  she  sees  the  highway  near 

Winding  down  to  Camelot : 
There  the  river  eddy  whirls, 
And  there  the  surly  village-churls, 
And  the  red  cloaks  of  market  girls, 

Pass  onward  from  Shalott. 


Sometimes  a  troop  of  damsels  glad, 
An  abbot  on  an  ambling  pad, 
Sometimes  a  curly  shepherd-lad, 
Or  long-hair'd  page  in  crimson  clad, 

Goes  by  to  tower'd  Camelot : 
And  sometimes  thro'  the  mirror  blue 
The  knights  come  riding  two  and  two; 
She  hath  no  loyal  knight  and  true, 

The  Lady  of  Shalott. 

But  in  her  web  she  still  delights 
To  weave  the  mirror's  magic  sights, 
For  often  thro'  the  silent  nights 
A  funeral,  with  plumes  and  lights 

And  music,  went  to  Camelot : 
Or  when  the  moon  was  overhead, 
Came  two  young  lovers  lately  wed; 
'  I  am  half  sick  of  shadows,'  said 

The  Lady  of  Shalott. 


28 


THE  LADY  OF  SHALOTT. 


A  bow-shot  from  her  bower-eaves, 
He  rode  between  the  barley-sheaves, 
The  sun  came  dazzling  thro'  the  leaves, 
And  flamed  upon  the  brazen  greaves 

Of  bold  Sir  Lancelot. 
A  red- cross  knight  for  ever  kneel' d 
To  a  lady  in  his  shield, 
That  sparkled  on  the  yellow  field, 

Beside  remote  Shalott. 

The  gemmy  bridle  glitter'd  free, 
Like  to  some  branch  of  stars  we  see 
Hung  in  the  golden  Galaxy. 
The  bridle  bells  rang  merrily 

As  he  rode  down  to  Camelot : 
And  from  his  blazon'd  baldric  slung 
A  mighty  silver  bugle  hung, 
And  as  he  rode  his  armour  rung, 

Beside  remote  Shalott. 

All  in  the  blue  unclouded  weather 
Thick-jewell'd  shone  the  saddle-leather, 
The  helmet  and  the  helmet-feather 
Burn'd  like  one  burning  flame  together, 

As  he  rode  down  to  Camelot. 
As  often  thro'  the  purple  night, 
Below  the  starry  clusters  bright, 
Some  bearded  meteor,  trailing  light, 

Moves  over  still  Shalott. 

His  broad  clear  brow  in  sunlight  glow'd ; 
On  burnish 'd  hooves  his  war-horse  trode; 
From  underneath  his  helmet  flow'd 
His  coal-black  curls  as  on  he  rode, 

As  he  rode  down  to  Camelot. 
From  the  bank  and  from  the  river 
He  flash'd  into  the  crystal  mirror, 
'  Tirra  lirra,'  by  the  river 

Sang  Sir  Lancelot. 

She  left  the  web,  she  left  the  loom, 
She  made  three  paces  thro'  the  room, 
She  saw  the  water-lily  bloom, 
She  saw  the  helmet  and  the  plume, 

She  look'd  down  to  Camelot. 
Out  flew  the  web  and  floated  wide; 
The  mirror  crack'd  from  side  to  side; 
'The  curse  is  come  upon 'me,'  cried 

The  Lady  of  Shalott. 


PART  IV. 

In  the  stormy  east-wind  straining, 
The  pale  yellow  woods  were  waning, 
The  broad  stream  in  his  banks  complain- 
ing, 
Heavily  the  low  sky  raining 

Over  tower'd  Camelot; 
Down  she  came  and  found  a  boat 
Beneath  a  willow  left  afloat, 
And  round  about  the  prow  she  wrote 
The  Lady  of  Shalott. 

And  down  the  river's  dim  expanse 
Like  some  bold  seer  in  a  trance, 
Seeing  all  his  own  mischance  — 
With  a  glassy  countenance 

Did  she  look  to  Camelot. 
And  at  the  closing  of  the  day 
She  loosed  the  chain,  and  down  she  lay; 
The  broad  stream  bore  her  far  away, 

The  Lady  of  Shalott. 

Lying,  robed  in  snowy  white 
That  loosely  flew  to  left  and  right  — 
The  leaves  upon  her  falling  light  — 
Thro'  the  noises  of  the  night 

She  floated  down  to  Camelot : 
And  as  the  boat-head  wound  along 
The  willowy  hills  and  fields  among, 
They  heard  her  singing  her  last  song, 

The  Lady  of  Shalott. 

Heard  a  carol,  mournful,  holy, 
Chanted  loudly,  chanted  lowly, 
Till  her  blood  was  frozen  slowly, 
And  her  eyes  were  darken'd  wholly, 

Turn'd  to  tower'd  Camelot. 
For  ere  she  reach'd  upon  the  tide 
The  first  house  by  the  water-side, 
Singing  in  her  song  she  died, 

The  Lady  of  Shalott. 

Under  tower  and  balcony, 

By  garden-wall  and  gallery, 

A  gleaming  shape  she  floated  by, 

Dead-pale  between  the  houses  high, 

Silent  into  Camelot. 
Out  upon  the  wharfs  they  came, 
Knight  and  burgher,  lord  and  dame, 
And  round  the  prow  they  read  her  name, 

The  Lady  of  Shalott. 


MARIANA   IN   THE   SOUTH. 


29 


Who  is  this?  and  what  is  here? 
And  in  the  lighted  palace  near 
Died  the  sound  of  royal  cheer; 
And  they  cross'd  themselves  for  fear, 

All  the  knights  at  Camelot : 
But  Lancelot  mused  a  little  space; 
He  said,  '  She  has  a  lovely  face; 
God  in  his  mercy  lend  her  grace, 

The  Lady  of  Shalott.' 

MARIANA   IN  THE   SOUTH. 

With  one  black  shadow  at  its  feet, ' 

The  house  thro'  all  the  level  shines, 
Close-latticed  to  the  brooding  heat, 

And  silent  in  its  dusty  vines : 
A  faint-blue  ridge  upon  the  right, 
An  empty  river-bed  before, 
And  shallows  on  a  distant  shore, 
In  glaring  sand  and  inlets  bright. 

But  '  Ave  Mary,'  made  she  moan, 

And  '  Ave  Mary,'  night  and  morn, 

And  •  Ah,'  she  sang, '  to  be  all  alone, 

To  live  forgotten,  and  love  forlorn.' 

She,  as  her  carol  sadder  grew, 

From  brow  and  bosom  slowly  down 
Thro'  rosy  taper  fingers  drew 

Her  streaming  curls  of  deepest  brown 
To  left  and  right,  and  made  appear 
Still-lighted  in  a  secret  shrine, 
Her  melancholy  eyes  divine, 
The  home  of  woe  without  a  tear. 

And  '  Ave  Mary,'  was  her  moan, 

•  Madonna,  sad  is  night  and  morn,' 

And  '  Ah,'  she  sang, '  to  be  all  alone, 

To  live  forgotten,  and  love  forlorn.' 

Till  all  the  crimson  changed,  and  past 

Into  deep  orange  o'er  the  sea, 
Low  on/her  knees  herself  she  cast, 
Before  Our  Lady  murmur' d  she; 
Complaining,  '  Mother,  give  me  grace 
To  help  me  of  my  weary  load.' 
And  on  the  liquid  mirror  glow'd 
The  clear  perfection  of  her  face. 

'  Is  this   the   form,'   she   made   her 
moan, 
'That  won  his  praises  night  and 
morn  ? ' 
And  '  Ah,'  she  said,  .'  but  I  wake 
alone, 
I  sleep  forgotten,  I  wake  forlorn.' 


Nor  bird  would   sing,  nor  lamb  would 
bleat, 
Nor  any  cloud  would  cross  the  vault, 
But  day  increased  from  heat  to  heat, 

On  stony  drought  and  steaming  salt; 
Till  now  at  noon  she  slept  again, 

And   seem'd   knee-deep   in  mountain 

grass, 
And  heard  her  native  breezes  pass, 
And  runlets  babbling  down  the  glen. 

She  breathed  in  sleep  a  lower  moan, 
And  murmuring,  as  at  night  and 
morn, 
She  thought, '  My  spirit  is  here  alone, 
Walks  forgotten,  and  is  forlorn.' 

Dreaming,  she  knew  it  was  a  dream : 
She  felt  he  was  and  was  not  there. 
She  woke  :  the  babble  of  the  stream 
Fell,  and,  without,  the  steady  glare 
Shrank  one  sick  willow  sere  and  small. 
The  river-bed  was  dusty- white; 
And  all  the  furnace  of  the  light 
Struck  up  against  the  blinding  wall. 
She  whisper'd,  with  a  stifled  moan 

More  inward  than  at  night  or  morn, 
'  Sweet  Mother,  let  me  not  here  alone 
Live  forgotten  and  die  forlorn.' 

And,  rising,  from  her  bosom  drew 

Old  letters,  breathing  of  her  worth, 
For  'Love,'  they  said,  'must  needs  be 

true, 
>  To  what  is  loveliest  upon  earth.' 
An  image  seem'd  to  pass  the  door, 
To  look  at  her  with  slight,  and  say 
'  But  now  thy  beauty  flows  away, 
So  be  alone  for  evermore.' 

1 0  cruel  heart,'  she  changed  her  tone, 
'  And  cruel  love,  whose  end  is  scorn, 
Is  this  the  end  to  be  left  alone, 
To  live  forgotten,  and  die  forlorn? ' 

But  sometimes  in  the  falling  day 
An  image  seem'd  to  pass  the  door, 

To  look  into  her  eyes  and  say, 

'  But  thou  shalt  be  alone  no  more.' 

And  flaming  downward  over  all 

From  heat  to  heat  the  day  decreased, 
And  slowly  rounded  to  the  east 

The  one  black  shadow  from  the  wall. 
'The  day  to  night,'  she  made  her 
moan. 


3° 


THE    TWO   VOICES. 


'The  day  to  night,  the  night  to 
morn, 
And  day  and  night  I  am  left  alone 
To  live  forgotten,  and  love  forlorn.' 

At  eve  a  dry  cicala  sung, 

There  came  a  sound  as  of  the  sea; 
Backward  the  lattice-blind  she  flung, 

And  lean'd  upon  the  balcony. 
There  all  in  spaces  rosy-bright 

Large  Hesper  glitter'd  on  her  tears, 

And  deepening  thro'  the  silent  spheres 
Heaven  over  Heaven  rose  the  night. 
And  weeping  then  she  made  her  moan, 

'The  night  comes  on  that  knows  not 
morn, 
When  I  shall  cease  to  be  all  alone, 

To  live  forgotten,  and  love  forlorn.' 

THE  TWO  VOICES. 

A  still  small  voice  spake  unto  me, 
*  Thou  art  so  full  of  misery, 
Were  it  not  better  not  to  be? ' 

Then  to  the  still  small  voice  I  said : 
'  Let  me  not  cast  in  endless  shade 
What  is  so  wonderfully  made.' 

To  which  the  voice  did  urge  reply : 

'  To-day  I  saw  the  dragon-fly 

Come  from  the  wells  where  he  did  lie. 

'  An  inner  impulse  rent  the  veil 
Of  his  old  husk  :  from  head  to  tail 
Came  out  clear  plates  of  sapphire  mail. 

'  He  dried  his  wings :    like   gauze   they 

grew; 
Thro'  crofts  and  pastures  wet  with  dew 
A  living  flash  of  light  he  flew.' 

I  said,  '  When  first  the  world  began, 
Young  Nature  thro'  five  cycles  ran, 
And  in  the  sixth  she  moulded  man. 

'  She  gave  him  mind,  the  lordliest 
Proportion,  and,  above  the  rest, 
Dominion  in  the  head  and  breast.' 

Thereto  the  silent  voice  replied : 
'  Self-blinded  are  you  by  your  pride : 
Look  up  thro'  night :  the  world  is  wide. 


'This  truth  within  thy  mind  rehearse, 
That  in  a  boundless  universe 

Is  boundless  better,  boundless  worse. 

'  Think  you  this  mould  of  hopes  and  fear" 
Could  find  no  statelier  than  his  peers 
In  yonder  hundred  million  spheres?' 

It  spake,  moreover,  in  my  mind : 

•  Tho'  thou  wert  scatter'd  to  the  wind, 

Yet  is  there  plenty  of  the  kind.' 

Then  did  my  response  clearer  fall : 
'  No  compound  of  this  earthly  ball 
Is  like  another,  all  in  all.' 

To  which  he  answer'd  scoffingly : 
'  Good  soul !  suppose  I  grant  it  thee, 
Who'll  weep  for  thy  deficiency? 

'  Or  will  one  beam  be  less  intense, 

When  thy  peculiar  difference 

Is  cancell'd  in  the  world  of  sense?  ' 

I   would    have    said,   'Thou  canst  not 

know,' 
But  my  full  heart,  that  work'd  below, 
Rain'd  thro'  my  sight  its  overflow. 

Again  the  voice  spake  unto  me : 
'  Thou  art  so  steep'd  in  misery, 
Surely  'twere  better  not  to  be. 

'  Thine  anguish  will  not  let  thee  sleep, 
Nor  any  train  of  reason  keep  : 
Thou    canst    not  think,   but  thou  wilt 
weep.' 

I  said,  *  The  years  with  change  advance : 
If*  I  make  dark  my  countenance, 
I  shut  my  life  from  happier  chance. 

'  Some  turn  this  sickness  yet  might  take, 
Ev'n  yet.'      But  he :    '  What  drug   can 

make 
A  wither'd  palsy  cease  to  shake?' 

I  wept,  '  Tho'  I  should  die,  I  know 
That  all  about  the  thorn  will  blow 
In  tufts  of  rosy-tinted  snow; 


THE    TWO    VOICES. 


3* 


'And  men,  thro'  novel  spheres  of  thought 
Still  moving  after  truth  long  sought, 
Will  learn  new  things  when  I  am  not.' 

'Yet,'  said  the  secret  voice,  'some  time, 
Sooner  or  later,  will  gray  prime 
Make  thy  grass  hoar  with  early  "rime. 

'  Not  less  swift  souls  that  yearn  for  light, 
Rapt  after  heaven's  starry  flight, 
Would  sweep  the  tracts  of  day  and  night. 

'  Not  less  the  bee  would  range  her  cells, 
The  furzy  prickle  fire  the  dells, 
The  foxglove  cluster  dappled  bells.' 

I  said  that '  all  the  years  invent; 
Each  month  is  various  to  present 
The  world  with  some  development. 

'  Were  this  not  well,  to  bide  mine  hour, 
Tho'  watching  from  a  ruin'd  tower 
How  grows  the  day  of  human  power?' 

'  The  highest-mounted  mind,'  he  said, 
'  Still  sees  the  sacred  morning  spread 
The  silent  summit  overhead. 

'  Will  thirty  seasons  render  plain 
Those  lonely  lights  that  still  remain, 
Just  breaking  over  land  and  main? 

'  Or   make   that    morn,   from    his    cold 

crown 
And  crystal  silence  creeping  down, 
Flood  with  full  daylight  glebe  and  town? 

'  Forerun  thy  peers,  thy  time,  and  let 

Thy  feet,  millenniums  hence,  be  set 

In  midst  of  knowledge,  dream'd  not  yet. 

'Thou  hast  not  gain'd  a  real  height, 
Nor  art  thou  nearer  to  the  light, 
Because  the  scale  is  infinite. 

*  'Twere  better  not  to  breathe  or  speak, 
Than  cry  for  strength,  remaining  weak, 
And  seem  to  find,  but  still  to  seek. 

'  Moreover,  but  to  seem  to  find 

Asks  what  thou  lackest,  thought  resign'd, 

A  healthy  frame,  a  quiet  mind.' 


I  said,  '  When  I  am  gone  away, 

"  He  dared  not  tarry,"  men  will  say,  . 

Doing  dishonour  to  my  clay.' 

'  This  is  more  vile,'  he  made  reply, 

'To    breathe    and   loathe,   to    live    and 

sigh, 
Than  once  from  dread  of  pain  to  die. 

'  Sick  art  thou  —  a  divided  will 
Still  heaping  on  the  fear  of  ill 
The  fear  of  men,  a  coward  still. 

'  Do  men  love  thee?     Art  thou  so  bound 
To  men,  that  how  thy  name  may  sound 
Will  vex  thee  lying  underground? 

'The  memory  of  the  wither'd  leaf 
In  endless  time  is  scarce  more  brief 
Than  of  the  garner'd  Autumn-sheaf. 

'Go,  vexed  Spirit,  sleep  in  trust; 
The  right  ear,  that  is  fill'd  with  dust, 
Hears  little  of  the  false  or  just.' 

'  Hard  task,  to  pluck  resolve,'  I  cried, 
'  From  emptiness  and  the  waste  wide 
Of  that  abyss,  or  scornful  pride ! 

'Nay  —  rather  yet  that  I  could  raise 
One  hope  that  warm'd  me  in  the  days 
While  still  I  yearn'd  for  human  praise. 

'  When,  wide  in  soul  and  bold  of  tongue, 
Among  the  tents  I  paused  and  sung, 
The  distant  battle  flash'd  and  rung. 

'  I  sung  the  joyful  Paean  clear, 
And,  sitting,  burnish'd  without  fear 
The  brand,  the  buckler,  and  the  spear  — 

'  Waiting  to  strive  a  happy  strife, 
To  war  with  falsehood  to  the  knife, 
And  not  to  lose  the  good  of  life  — 

'  Some  hidden  principle  to  move, 
To  put  together,  part  and  prove, 
And  mete  the  bounds  of  hate  and  love  — 

'  As  far  as  might  be,  to  carve  out 
Free  space  for  every  human  doubt, 
That  the  whole  mind  might  orb  about  — 


32 


THE    TWO    VOICES. 


'  To  search  thro'  all  I  felt  or  saw, 
The  springs  of  life,  the  depths  of  awe, 
And  reach  the  law  within  the  law: 

1  At  least,  not  rotting  like  a  weed, 
But,  having  sown  some  generous  seed, 
Fruitful  of  further  thought  and  deed, 

'  To  pass,  when  Life  her  light  withdraws, 
Not  void  of  righteous  self-applause, 
Nor  merely  in  a  selfish  cause  — 

'  In  some  good  cause,  not  in  mine  own, 
To  perish,  wept  for,  honour'd,  known, 
And  like  a  warrior  overthrown; 

*  Whose  eyes  are  dim  with  glorious  tears, 
When  soil'd  with  noble  dust,  he  hears 
His  country's  war-song  thrill  his  ears : 

*  Then  dying  of  a  mortal  stroke, 
What  time  the  foeman's  line  is  broke, 
And  all  the  war  is  roll'd  in  smoke. 

'  Yea ! '  said  the  voice,  '  thy  dream  was 

good, 
While  thou  abodest  in  the  bud. 
It  was  the  stirring  of  the  blood. 

'  If  Nature  put  not  forth  her  power 
About  the  opening  of  the  flower, 
Who  is  it  that  could  live  an  hour? 

*  Then  comes  the  check,  the  change,  the 

fall, 
Pain  rises  up,  old  pleasures  pall. 
There  is  one  remedy  for  all. 

'  Yet  hadst  thou,  thro'  enduring  pain, 
Link'd  month  to  month  with  such  a  chain 
Of  knitted  purport,  all  were  vain. 

L '  Thou  hadst  not  between  death  and  birth 
|m3issolved  the  riddle  of  the  earth. 
|\So  were  thy  labour  little-worth. 

'  That  men  with  knowledge  merely  play'd 
I  told  thee  —  hardly  nigher  made, 
Tho'  scaling  slow  from  grade  to  grade; 

'  Much  less  this  dreamer,  deaf  and  blind, 
Named  man,  may  hope  some  truth  to  find, 
That  bears  relation  to  the  mind. 


•  For  every  worm  beneath  the  moon 
Draws  different   threads,   and   late    and 

soon 
Spins,  toiling  out  his  own  cocoon. 

'  Cry,  faint  not  :  either  Truth  is  born 
Beyond  the  polar  gleam  forlorn, 
Or  in  the  gateways  of  the  morn. 

'  Cry,  faint  not,  climb:  the  summits  slope 
Beyond  the  furthest  flights  of  hope, 
Wrapt  in  dense  cloud  from  base  to  cope. 

'  Sometimes  a  little  corner  shines, 

As  over  rainy  mist  inclines 

A  gleaming  crag  with  belts  of  pines. 

1 1  will  go  forward,  sayest  thou, 

I  shall  not  fail  to  find  her  now. 
Look  up,  the  fold  is  on  her  brow. 

'  If  straight  thy  track,  or  if  oblique, 
Thou  know'st  not.     Shadows  thou  dost 

strike, 
Embracing-cloud,  Ixion-like; 

'  And  owning  but  a  little  more 
Than  beasts,  abidest  lame  and  poor, 
Calling  thyself  a  little  lower 

'  Than  angels.    Cease  to  wail  and  brawl ! 
Why  inch  by  inch  to  darkness  crawl? 
There  is  one  remedy  for  all.' 

1 0  dull,  one-sided  voice,'  said  I, 
'  Wilt  thou  make  everything  a  lie, 
To  flatter  me  that  I  may  die  ? 

*  I  know  that  age  to  age  succeeds, 
Blowing  a  noise  of  tongues  and  deeds, 
A  dust  of  systems  and  of  creeds. 

I I  cannot  hide  that  some  have  striven, 
Achieving  calm,  to  whom  was  given 
The  joy  that  mixes  man  with  Heaven  : 

1  Who,  rowing  hard  against  the  stream, 
Saw  distant  gates  of  Eden  gleam, 
And  did  not  dream  it  was  a  dream; 

1  But  heard,  by  secret  transport  led, 
Ev'n  in  the  enamels  of  the  dead, 
The  murmur  of  the  fountain-head  — 


THE  ?W0    VOICES. 


33 


{  Which  did  accomplish  their  desire, 
Bore  and  forebore,  and  did  not  tire, 
Like  Stephen,  an  unquenched  fire. 

'  He  heeded  not  reviling  tones, 
Nor  sold  his  heart  to  idle  moans, 
Tho'    cursed   and  scorn'd,  and    bruised 
with  stones : 

'  But  looking  upward,  full  of  grace, 
He  pray'd,  and  from  a  happy  place 
God's  glory  smote  him  on  the  face.' 

The  sullen  answer  slid  betwixt: 

I  Not  that  the  grounds  of  hope  were  fix'd, 

The  elements  were  kindlier  mix'd.' 

I  said,  '  I  toil  beneath  the  curse, 
But,  knowing  not  the  universe, 
I  fear  to  slide  from  bad  to  worse. 

'  And  that,  in  seeking  to  undo 
One  riddle,  and  to  find  the  true, 
I  knit  a  hundred  others  new  : 

'  Or  that  this  anguish  fleeting  hence, 
Unmanacled  from  bonds  of  sense, 
Be  fix'd  and  froz'n  to  permanence : 

■  For  I  go,  weak  from  suffering  here : 
Naked  I  go,  and  void  of  cheer : 
What  is  it  that  I  may  not  fear?  ' 

'  Consider  well,'  the  voice  replied, 

i  His   face,   that   two   hours   since   hath 

died; 
Wilt  thou  find  passion,  pain  or  pride  ? 

*  Will  he  obey  when  one  commands  ? 
Or  answer  should  one  press  his  hands 
He  answers  not,  nor  understands. 

I  His  palms  are  folded  on  his  breast : 
There  is  no  other  thing  express'd 
But  long  disquiet  merged  in  rest. 

j  His  lips  are  very  mild  and  meek : 
Tho'  one  should  smite  him  on  the  cheek, 
And  on  the  mouth,  he  will  not  speak. 

j  His  little  daughter,  whose  sweet  face 
He  kiss'd,  taking  his  last  embrace, 
Becomes  dishonour  to  her  race  — 


*  His  sons  grow  up  that  bear  his  name, 
Some  grow  to  honour,  some  to  shame,  — 
But  he  is  chill  to  praise  or  blame. 

*  He  will  not  hear  the  north-wind  rave, 
Nor,  moaning,  household  shelter  crave 
From  winter  rains  that  beat  his  grave. 

'  High  up  the  vapours  fold  and  swim : 
About  him  broods  the  twilight  dim  : 
The  place  he  knew  forgetteth  him.' 

'  If  all  be  dark,  vague  voice,'  I  said, 
'These   things  are  wrapt  in  doubt  and 

dread, 
Nor  canst  thou  show  the  dead  are  dead. 

'  The  sap  dries  up  ;    the  plant  declines. 

A  deeper  tale  my  heart  divines. 

Know  I  not  Death?  the  outward  signs? 

'  I  found  him  when  my  years  were  few; 
A  shadow  on  the  graves  I  knew, 
And  darkness  in  the  village  yew. 

'  From  grave  to  grave  the  shadow  crept : 
In  her  still  place  the  morning  wept : 
Touch'd  by  his  feet  the  daisy  slept. 

*  The  simple  senses  crown'd  his  head : 
"  Omega !  thou  art  Lord,"  they  said, 
"  We  find  no  motion  in  the  dead." 

'  -Why,  if  man  rot  in  dreamless  ease, 
Should    that   plain    fact,   as    taught    by 

these, 
Not  make  him  sure  that  he  shall  cease  ? 

'  Who  forged  that  other  influence, 

That  heat  of  inward  evidence, 

By  Which  he  doubts  against  the  sense? 

'  He  owns  the  fatal  gift  of  eyes, 
That  read  his  spirit  blindly  wise, 
Not  simple  as  a  thing  that  dies. 

'  Here  sits  he  shaping  wings  to  fly : 
His  heart  forebodes  a  mystery : 
He  names  the  name  Eternity. 

'  That  type  of  Perfect  in  his  mind 
In  Nature  can  he  nowhere  find. 
He  sows  himself  on  every  wind. 


34 


THE    TWO    VOICES. 


1  He  seems  to  hear  a  Heavenly  Friend, 
And  thro'  thick  veils  to  apprehend 
A  labour  working  to  an  end. 

•  The  end  and  the  beginning  vex 
His  reason :  many  things  perplex, 
With  motions,  checks,  and  counterchecks. 

•  He  knows  a  baseness  in  his  blood 

At   such   strange   war   with    something 

good, 
He  may  not  do  the  thing  he  would. 

'  Heaven  opens  inward,  chasms  yawn, 
Vast  images  in  glimmering  dawn, 
Half  shown,  are  broken  and  withdrawn. 

'  Ah  !  sure  within  him  and  without, 
Could  his  dark  wisdom  find  it  out, 
There  must  be  answer  to  his  doubt, 

1  But  thou  canst  answer  not  again. 
With  thine  own  weapon  art  thou  slain, 
Or  thou  wilt  answer  but  in  vain. 

'  The  doubt  would  rest,  I  dare  not  solve. 
In  the  same  circle  we  revolve. 
Assurance  only  breeds  resolve.' 

As  when  a  billow,  blown  against, 

Falls    back,    the    voice    with    which    I 

fenced 
A  little  ceased,  but  recommenced. 

'  Where  wert  thou  when  thy  father  play'd 
In  his  free  field,  and  pastime  made, 
A  merry  boy  in  sun  and  shade? 

*  A  merry  boy  they  call'd  him  then, 
He  sat  upon  the  knees  of  men 

In  days  that  never  come  again. 

1  Before  the  little  ducts  began 

To  feed  thy  bones  with  lime,  and  ran 

Their  course,  till  thou  wert  also  man : 

'  Who  took  a  wife,  who  rear'd  his  race, 
Whose  wrinkles  gather'd  on  his  face, 
Whose  troubles  number  with  his  days : 

*  A  life  of  nothings,  nothing-worth, 
From  that  first  nothing  ere  his  birth 
To  that  last  nothing  under  earth ! ' 


•  These  words,'  I  said,  '  are  like  the  rest; 
No  certain  clearness,  but  at  best 

A  vague  suspicion  of  the  breast : 

'  But  if  I  grant,  thou  mightst  defend 
The  thesis  which  thy  words  intend  — 
That  to  begin  implies  to  end; 

I  Yet  how  should  I  for  certain  hold, 
Because  my  memory  is  so  cold, 
That  I  first  was  in  human  mould? 

I I  cannot  make  this  matter  plain, 
But  I  would  shoot,  howe'er  in  vain, 
A  random  arrow  from  the  brain. 

1  It  may  be  that  no  life  is  found, 
Which  only  to  one  engine  bound 
Falls  off,  but  cycles  always  round. 

'  As  old  mythologies  relate, 

Some  draught  of  Lethe  might  await 

The  slipping  thro'  from  state  to  state. 

•  As  here  we  find  in  trances,  men 
Forget  the  dream  that  happens  then, 
Until  they  fall  in  trance  again, 

'  So  might  we,  if  our  state  were  such 
As  one  before,  remember  much, 
For  those   two   likes  might   meet   and 
touch. 

'  But,  if  I  lapsed  from  nobler  place, 
Some  legend  of  a  fallen  race 
Alone  might  hint  of  my  disgrace ; 

1  Some  vague  emotion  of  delight 
In  gazing  up  an  Alpine  height, 
Some    yearning    toward    the    lamps   oi 
night; 

•  Or  if  thro'  lower  lives  I  came  — 
Tho'  all  experience  past  became 
Consolidate  in  mind  and  frame  — 

•  I  might  forget  my  weaker  lot ; 
For  is  not  our  first  year  forgot? 
The  haunts  of  memory  echo  not. 

•  And  men,  whose  reason  long  was  blind, 
From  cells  of  madness  unconfined, 

Oft  lose  whole  years  of  darker  mind. 


THE    TWO    VOICES. 


35 


1  Much  more,  if  first  I  floated  free, 
As  naked  essence,  must  I  be 
Incompetent  of  memory : 

1  For  memory  dealing  but  with  time, 
And  he  with  matter,  could  she  climb 
Beyond  her  own  material  prime? 

4  Moreover,  something  is  or  seems, 
That  touches  me  with  mystic  gleams, 
Like  glimpses  of  forgotten  dreams  — ; 

'  Of  something  felt,  like  something  here; 
Of  something  done,  I  know  not  where; 
Such  as  no  language  may  declare.' 

The  still  voice  laugh'd.     ■  I  talk,'  said 

he, 
\  Not  with  thy  dreams.     Suffice  it  thee 
Thy  pain  is  a  reality.' 

'  But   thou,'   said    I,   '  hast    missed   thy 

mark, 
Who  sought'st  to  wreck  my  mortal  ark, 
By  making  all  the  horizon  dark. 

|  Why  not  set  forth,  if  I  should  do 
This  rashness,  that  which  might  ensue 
With  this  old  soul  in  organs  new? 

'  Whatever  crazy  sorrow  saith, 

No  life  that  breathes  with  human  breath 

Has  ever  truly  long'd  for  death. 

*  'Tis  life,  whereof  our  nerves  are  scant, 
Oh  life,  not  death,  for  which  we  pant; 
More  life,  and  fuller,  that  I  want.' 

I  ceased,  and  sat  as  one  forlorn. 
Then  said  the  voice,  in  quiet  scorn, 
I  Behold,  it  is  tbfe  Sabbath  morn.' 

And  I  arose,  and  I  released" 

The  casement,  and  the  light  increased 

With  freshness  in  the  dawning  east. 

Like  soften'd  airs  that  blowing  steal, 
When  meres  begin  to  uncongeal, 
The  sweet  church  bells  began  to  peal. 

On  to  God's  house  the  people  prest : 
Passing  the  place  where  each  must  rest, 
Each  enter'd  like  a  welcome  guest. 


One  walk'd  between  his  wife  and  child, 
With  measured  footfall  firm  and  mild, 
And  now  and  then  he  gravely  smiled. 

The  prudent  partner  of  his  blood 
Lean'd  on  him,  faithful,  gentle,  good, 
Wearing  the  rose  of  womanhood. 

And  in  their  double  love  secure, 
The  little  maiden  walk'd  demure, 
Pacing  with  downward  eyelids  pure. 

These  three  made  unity  so  sweet, 
My  frozen  heart  began  to  beat, 
Remembering  its  ancient  heat. 

I  blest  them,  and  they  wander'd  on : 

I  spoke,  but  answer  came  there  none : 
The  dull  and  bitter  voice  was  gone. 

A  second  voice  was  at  mine  ear, 

A  little  whisper  silver-clear, 

A  murmur,  '  Be  of  better  cheer/ 

As  from  some  blissful  neighbourhood, 
A  notice  faintly  understood, 

I I  see  the  end,  and  know  the  good.' 

A  little  hint  to  solace  woe, 

A  hint,  a  whisper  breathing  low, 

'  I  may  not  speak  of  what  I  know.' 

Like  an  v'Eolian  harp  that  wakes 

No  certain  air,  but  overtakes 

Far  thought  with  music  that  it  makes  : 

Such  seem'd  the  whisper  at  my  side : 
'  What  is  it  thou  knowest,  sweet  voice?' 

I  cried. 
'  A  hidden  hope,'  the  voice  replied : 

So  heavenly-toned,  that  in  that  hour 
From  out  my  sullen  heart  a  power 
Broke,    like    the     rainbow     from     the 
shower, 

To  feel,  altho'  no  tongue  can  prove, 
That  every  cloud,  that  spreads  above 
And  veileth  love,  itself  is  love. 

And  forth  into  the  fields  I  went, 
And  Nature's  living  motion  lent 
The  pulse  of  hope  to  discontent. 


36 


THE  MILLER'S  DAUGHTER. 


1  wonder'd  at  the  bounteous  hours, 
The  slow  result  of  winter  showers : 
You   scarce    could    see    the    grass    for 
flowers. 

I  wonder'd,  while  I  paced  along : 
The  woods  were  fill'd  so  full  with  song, 
There    seem'd   no    room    for   sense    of 
wrong; 

And  all  so  variously  wrought, 

I  marvell'd  how  the  mind  was  brought 

To  anchor  by  one  gloomy  thought; 

And  wherefore  rather  I  made  choice 
To  commune  with  that  barren  voice, 
Than  him  that  said,  '  Rejoice  !    Rejoice  ! ' 


THE  MILLER'S  DAUGHTER. 

I  see  the  wealthy  miller  yet, 

His  double  chin,  his  portly  size, 
And  who  that  knew  him  could  forget 

The  busy  wrinkles  round  his  eyes? 
The  slow  wise  smile  that,  round  about 

His  dusty  forehead  drily  curl'd, 
Seem'd  half-within  and  half-without, 

And  full  of  dealings  with  the  world? 

In  yonder  chair  I  see  him  sit, 

Three  fingers  round  the  old  silver  cup  — 
I  see  his  gray  eyes  twinkle  yet 

At  his  own  jest  —  gray  eyes  lit  up 
With  summer  lightnings  of  a  soul 

So  full  of  summer  warmth,  so  glad, 
So  healthy,  sound,  and  clear  and  whole, 

His  memory  scarce  can  make  me  sad. 

Yet  fill  my  glass :  give  me  one  kiss : 

My  own  sweet  Alice,  we  must  die. 
There's  somewhat  in  this  world  amiss 

Shall  be  unriddled  by  and  by. 
There's  somewhat  flows  to  us  in  life, 

But  more  is  taken  quite  away. 
Pray,  Alice,  pray,  my  darling  wife, 

That  we  may  die  the  self-same  day. 

Have  I  not  found  a  happy  earth? 

I  least  should  breathe  a  thought   of 
pain. 
Would  God  renew  me  from  my  birth 

I'd  almost  live  my  life  again. 


So  sweet  it  seems  with  thee  to  walk, 
And  once  again  to  woo  thee  mine  — 

It  seems  in  after-dinner  talk 

Across  the  walnuts  and  the  wine  — 

To  be  the  long  and  listless  boy 

Late-left  an  orphan  of  the  squire, 
Where  this  old  mansion  mounted  high 

Looks  down  upon  the  village  spire : 
For  even  here,  where  I  and  you 

Have  lived  and  loved  alone  so  long, 
Each  morn  my  sleep  was  broken  thro' 

By  some  wild  skylark's  matin  song. 

And  oft  I  heard  the  tender  dove 

In  firry  woodlands  making  moan; 
But  ere  I  saw  your  eyes,  my  love, 

I  had  no  motion  of  my  own. 
For  scarce  my  life  with  fancy  play'd 

Before  I  dream'd  that  pleasant  dream  — 
Still  hither  thither  idly  sway'd 

Like  those  long  mosses  in  the  stream. 

Or  from  the  bridge  I  lean'd  to  hear 

The  milldam  rushing  down  with  noise, 
And  see  the  minnows  everywhere 

In  crystal  eddies  glance  and  poise, 
The  tall  flag-flowers  when  they  sprung 

Below  the  range  of  stepping-stones, 
Or    those    three    chestnuts    near,    that 
hung 

In  masses  thick  with  milky  cones. 

But,  Alice,  what  an  hour  was  that, 

When,  after  roving  in  the  woods 
('Twas  April  then),  I  came  and  sat 

Below  the  chestnuts,  when  their  buds 
Were  glistening  to  the  breezy  blue; 

And  on  the  slope,  an  absent  fool, 
I  cast  me  down,  nor  thought  of  you, 

But  angled  in  the  .  igher  pool. 

A  love-song  I  had  somewhere  read, 

An  echo  from  a  measured  strain, 
Beat  time  to  nothing  in  my  head 

From  some  odd  corner  of  the  brain. 
It  haunted  me,  the  morning  long, 

With  weary  sameness  in  the  rhymes, 
The  phantom  of  a  silent  song, 

That  went  and  came  a  thousand  times. 

Then  leapt  a  trout.     In  lazy  mood 
I  watch '-1  che  little  circles  die- 


THE  MILLER'S  DAUGHTER. 


37 


They  past  into  the  level  flood, 

And  there  a  vision  caught  my  eye; 

The  reflex  of  a  beauteous  form, 
A  glowing  arm,  a  gleaming  neck, 

As  when  a  sunbeam  wavers  warm 
Within  the  dark  and  dimpled  beck 

For  you  remember,  you  had  set, 

That  morning,  on  the  casement-edge 
A  long  green  box  of  mignonette, 

And  you  were  leaning  from  the  ledge 
And  when  I  raised  my  eyes,  above 

They  met  with  two  so  full  and  bright  — 
Such  eyes !  I  swear  to  you,  my  love, 

That  these  have  never  lost  their  light. 

I  loved,  and  love  dispell'd  the  fear 

That  I  should  die  an  early  death : 
For  love  possess'd  the  atmosphere, 

And  fill'd  the  breast  with  purer  breath. 
My  mother  thought, '  What  ails  the  boy  ? ' 

For  I  was  alter'd,  and  began 
To  move  about  the  house  with  joy, 

And  with  the  certain  step  of  man. 

I  loved  the  brimming  wave  that  swam 

Thro'  quiet  meadows  round  the  mill, 
The  sleepy  pool  above  the  dam, 

The  pool  beneath  it  never  still, 
The  meal-sacks  on  the  whiten'd  floor, 

The  dark  round  of  the  dripping  wheel, 
The  very  air  about  the  door 

Made  misty  with  the  floating  meal. 

And  oft  in  ramblings  on  the  wold, 

When  April  nights  began  to  blow, 
And  April's  crescent  glimmer'd  cold, 

I  saw  the  village  lights  below; 
I  knew  your  taper  far  away, 

And  full  at  heart  of  trembling  hope 
From  off  the  wold  I  came,  and  lay 

Upon  the  freshly-flower'd  slope. 

The   deep   brook   groan'd    beneath   the 
mill; 

And  'By  that  lamp,'  I  thought,  'she 
sits  !  ' 
The  white  chalk-quarry  from  the  hill 

Gleam'd  to  the  flying  moon  by  fits. 
'  O  that  I  were  beside  her  now  ! 

O  will  she  answer  if  I  call? 
O  would  she  give  me  vow  for  vow, 

Sweet  Alice,  if  I  told  her  all?  ' 


Sometimes  I  saw  you  sit  and  spin; 

And,  in  the  pauses  of  the  wind, 
Sometimes  I  heard  you  sing  within, 

Sometimes  your   shadow   cross'd   the 
blind. 
At  last  you  rose  and  moved  the  light, 

And  the  long  shadow  of  the  chair 
Flitted  across  into  the  night, 

And  all  the  casement  darken'd  there. 

But  when  at  last  I  dared  to  speak, 

The  lanes,  you  know,  were  white  with 
may,  , 

Your   ripe    lips    moved    not,    but    your 
cheek 

Flush'd  like  the  coming  of  the  day; 
And  so  it  was  —  half-sly,  half-shy, 

You  would,  and  would  not,  little  one ! 
Although  I  pleaded  tenderly, 

And  you  and  I  were  all  alone. 

And  slowly  was  my  mother  brought 

To  yield  consent  to  my  desire : 
She  wish'd  me  happy,  but  she  thought 

I  might  have  look'd  a  little  higher; 
And  I  was  young  —  too  young  to  wed: 

'Yet  must  I  love  her  for  your  sake; 
Go  fetch  your  Alice  here,'  she  said  : 

Her  eyelid  quiver'd  as  she  spake. 

And  down  I  went  to  fetch  my  bride  : 

But,  Alice,  you  were  ill  at  ease; 
This  dress  and  that  by  turns  you  tried, 

Too  fearful  that  you  should  not  please. 
I  loved  you  better  for  your  fears, 

I  knew  you  could  not  look  but  well; 
And   dews,   that   would    have   fall'n   in 
tears, 

I  kiss'd  away  before  they  fell. 

I  watch'd  the  little  flutterings, 

The  doubt  my  mother  would  not  see; 
She  spoke  at  large  of  many  things, 

And  at  the  last  she  spoke  of  me; 
And  turning  look'd  upon  your  face, 

As  near  this  door  you  sat  apart, 
And  rose,  and,  with  a  silent  grace 

Approaching,  press'd  you  heart  to  heart 

Ah,  well  —  but  sing  the  foolish  song 
I  gave  you,  Alice,  on  the  day 

When,  arm  in  arm,  we  went  along, 
A  pensive  pair,  and  you  were  gay 


3§ 


THE  MILLER'S  DAUGHTER  —  FATIMA. 


With  bridal  flowers  —  that  I  may  seem, 
As  in  the  nights  of.old,  to  lie 

Beside  the  mill-wheel  in  the  stream, 
While  those  full  chestnuts  whisper  by. 

It  is  the  miller's  daughter, 
And  she  is  grown  so  dear,  so  dear, 

That  I  would  be  the  jewel 
That  trembles  in  her  ear: 

For  hid  in  ringlets  day  and  night, 

I'd  touch  her  neck  so  warm  and  white. 

And  I  would  be  the  girdle 
About  her  dainty  dainty  waist, 

And  her  heart  would  beat  against  me, 
In  sorrow  and  in  rest: 

And  I  should  know  if  it  beat  right, 

I'd  clasp  it  round  so  close  and  tight. 

And  I  would  be  the  necklace, 
And  all  day  long  to  fall  and  rise 

Upon  her  balmy  bosom, 
With  her  laughter  or  her  sighs, 

And  I  would  lie  so  light,  so  light, 

I  scarce  should  be  unclasp'd  at  night. 

A  trifle,  sweet !  which  true  love  spells  — 

True  love  interprets  —  right  alone. 
His  light  upon  the  letter  dwells, 

For  all  the  spirit  is  his  own. 
So,  if  I  waste  words  now,  in  truth 

You  must  blame  Love.     His  early  rage 
Had  force  to  make  me  rhyme  in  youth, 

And  makes  me  talk  too  much  in  age. 

And  now  those  vivid  hours  are  gone, 

Like  mine  own  life  to  me  thou  art, 
While  Past  and  Present,  wound  in  one, 

Do  make  a  garland  for  the  heart: 
£o  sing  that  other  song  I  made, 

Half-anger'd  with  my  happy  lot, 
Vhe  day,  when  in  the  chestnut  shade 

I  found  the  blue  Forget-me-not. 

Love  that  hath  us  in  the  net, 
Can  he  pass,  and  we  forget? 
Many  suns  arise  and  set. 
Many  a  chance  the  years  beget. 
Love  the  gift  is  Love  the  debt. 

Even  so. 
Love  is  hurt  with  jar  and  fret. 
Love  is  made  a  vague  regret. 
Eyes  with  idle  tears  are  wet. 
Idle  habit  links  us  yet. 
What  is  love?  for  we  forget: 

Ah.  no!  no! 


Look  thro'  mine  eyes  with  thine.    True 
wife, 

Round  my  true  heart  thine  arms  entwine 
My  other  dearer  life  in  life, 

Look  thro'  my  very  soul  with  thine ! 
Untouch'd  with  any  shade  of  years, 

May  those  kind  eyes  for  ever  dwell ! 
They  have  not  shed  a  many  tears, 

Dear  eyes,  since   first  I  knew  them 
well. 

Yet  tears  they  shed :  they  had  their  part 

Of  sorrow :  for  when  time  was  ripe, 
The  still  affection  of  the  heart 

Became  an  outward  breathing  type, 
That  into  stillness  past  again, 

And  left  a  want  unknown  before; 
Although  the  loss  had  brought  us  pain, 

That  loss  but  made  us  love  the  more, 

With  farther  lookings  on.     The  kiss, 

The  woven  arms,  seem  but  to  be 
Weak  symbols  of  the  settled  bliss, 

The  comfort,  I  have  found  in  thee : 
But   that  God   bless  thee,   dear  —  who 
wrought 

Two  spirits  to  one  equal  mind  — 
With  blessings  beyond  hope  or  thought, 

With  blessings  which  no  words  can  find. 

Arise,  and  let  us  wander  forth, 

To  yon  old  mill  across  the  wolds; 
For  look,  the  sunset,  south  and  north, 

Winds  all  the  vale  in  rosy  folds, 
And  fires  your  narrow  casement  glass, 

Touching  the  sullen  pool  below : 
On  the  chalk-hill  the  bearded  grass 

Is  dry  and  dewless.     Let  us  go. 


FATIMA. 

O  Love,  Love,  Love  !  O  withering  might ! 
O  sun,  that  from  thy  noonday  height 
Shudderest  when  I  strain  my  sight, 
Throbbing  thro'  all  thy  heat  and  light, 
Lo,  falling  from  my  constant  mind, 
Lo,  parch'd   and  wither'd,   deaf  and 

blind, 
I  whirl  like  leaves  in  roaring  wind. 

Last  night  I  wasted  hateful  hours 
Below  the  city's  eastern  towers :    i 


FA  TIM  A  —  (EN  ONE. 


39 


I  thirsted  for  the  brooks,  the  showers : 
I  roll'd  among  the  tender  flowers  : 

I  crush'd  them  on  my  breast,  my  mouth; 
I  look'd  athwart  the  burning  drouth 
Of  that  long  desert  to  the  south. 

Last  night,  when  some  one  spoke  his 

nam::, 
From  my  swift  blood  that  went  and  came 
A  thousand  little  shafts  of  flame 
Were  shiver'd  in  my  narrow  frame. 

0  Love,  O  fire  !  once  he  drew 

With  one  long  kiss  my  whole  soul  thro' 
My  lips,  as  sunlight  drinketh  dew. 

Before  he  mounts  the  hill,  I  know 
He  cometh  quickly :  from  below 
Sweet  gales,  as  from  deep  gardens,  blow 
Before  him,  striking  on  my  brow. 
In  my  dry  brain  my  spirit  soon, 
Down-deepening  from  swoon  to  swoon, 
Faints  like  a  dazzled  morning  moon. 

The  wind  sounds  like  a  silver  wire, 
And  from  beyond  the  noon  a  fire 
Is  pour'd  upon  the  hills,  and  nigher 
The  skies  stoop  down  in  their  desire; 
And,  isled  in  sudden  seas  of  light, 
My  heart,    pierced   thro'   with    fierce 

delight, 
Bursts  into  blossom  in  his  sight. 

My  whole  soul  waiting  silently, 
All  naked  in  a  sultry  sky, 
Droops  blinded  with  his  shining  eye : 
I  will  posses^  him  or  will  die 

1  will  gi?ow  round  him  in  his  place, 
GroWj/five,  die  looking  on  his  face, 
Die,  dying  clasp'd  in  his  embrace. 


CENONE. 

There  lies  a  vale  in  Ida,  lovelier 
Than  all  the  valleys  of  Ionian  hills. 
The  swimming  vapour  slopes  athwart  the 

glen, 
Puts  forth  an  arm,  and  creeps  from  pine 

to  pine, 
And  loiters,   slowly   drawn.     On   either 

hand 
The  lawns  and  meadow-ledges  midway 

down 


Hang  rich  in  flowers,  and  far  below  them 

roars 
The  long  brook  falling  thro'  the  clov'n 

ravine 
In  cataract  after  cataract  to  the  sea. 
Behind  the  valley  topmost  Gargarus 
Stands  up  and  takes  the  morning :  but  in 

front 
The  gorges,  opening  wide  apart,  reveal 
Troas  and  Ilion's  column'd  citadel, 
The  crown  of  Troas. 

Hither  came  at  noon 
Mournful  GEnone,  wandering  forlorn 
Of  Paris,  once  her  playmate  on  the  hills. 
Her  cheek  had  lost  the  rose,  and  round 

her  neck 
Floated  her  hair  or  seem'd  to  float  in  rest. 
She,  leaning  on  a  fragment  twined  with 

vine, 
Sang  to  the  stillness,  till  the  mountain- 
shade 
Sloped  downward  to  her  seat  from  the 

upper  cliff. 

1 0  mother  Ida,  many-fountain'd  Ida, 
Dear  mother  Ida.  harken  ere  I  die. 
For  now  the  noonday  quiet  holds  the  hill : 
The  grasshopper  is  silent  in  the  grass : 
The  lizard,  with  his  shadow  on  the  stone, 
Reste  like  a  shadow,  and  the  winds  are 

dead. 
The  purple  flower  droops:    the  golden 

bee 
Is  lily-cradled :  I  alone  awake. 
My  eyes  are  full  of  tears,  my  heart  of  love, 
My  heart  is  breaking,  and  my  eyes  are 

dim, 
And  I  am  all  aweary  of  my  life. 

*  O  mother  Ida,  many-fountain'd  Ida, 
Dear  mother  Ida,  harken  ere  I  die. 
Hear  me,  O  Earth,  hear  me,  O  Hills,  O 

Caves 
That  house  the  cold  crown'd  snake !     O 

mountain  brooks, 
I  am  the  daughter  of  a  River-God, 
Hear  me,  for  I  will  speak,  and  build  up  all 
My  sorrow  with  my  song,  as  yonder  walls 
Rose  slowly  to  a  music  slowly  breathed, 
A  cloud  that  gather'd  shape  :  for  it  maybe 
That,  while  I  speak  of  it,  a  little  while 
My  heart  may  wander  from  its  deeper 

woe. 


4Q 


(ENONE. 


*  O  mother  Ida,  many-fountain'd  Ida, 
Dear  mother  Ida,  harken  ere  I  die. 

I  waited  underneath  the  dawning  hills, 
Aloft  the  mountain  lawn  was  dewy-dark, 
And  dewy-dark  aloft  the  mountain  pine : 
Beautiful  Paris,  evil-hearted  Paris, 
Leading  a  jet-black   goat  white-horn'd, 

white-hooved, 
Came  up  from  reedy  Simois  all  alone. 

'  O  mother  Ida,  harken  ere  I  die*     . 
Far-off  the  torrent  call'd  me  from  the  cleft : 
Far  up  the  solitary  morning  smote 
The  streaks  of  virgin  snow.     With  down- 

dropt  eyes 
I  sat  alone :  white-breasted  like  a  star 
Fronting  the  dawn  he  moved;   a  leopard 

skin 
Droop'd  from  his  shoulder,  but  his  sunny 

hair 
Cluster'd  about  his  temples  like  a  God's : 
And  his  cheek  brighten'd  as  the  foam-bow 

brightens 
When  the  wind  blows  the  foam,  and  all 

my  heart 
Went  forth  to  embrace  him  coming  ere 

he  came. 

*  Dear  mother  Ida,  harken  ere  I  die. 
He  smiled,  and  opening  out  his  milk- 
white  palm 

Disclosed  a  fruit  of  pure  Hesperian  gold, 
That  smelt  ambrosially,  and  while  I  look'd 
And   listen'd,    the    full-flowing   river   of 

speech 
Came  down  upon  my  heart. 

1 "  My  own  (Enone, 
Beautiful-brow'd  CEnone,  my  own  soul, 
Behold  this  fruit,  whose  gleaming  rind 

ingrav'n 
'For  the    most    fair,'    would    seem   to 

award  it  thine, 
As  lovelier  than  whatever  Oread  haunt 
The  knolls  of  Ida,  loveliest  in  all  grace 
Of  movement,  and  the  charm  of  married 

brows." 

*  Dear  mother  Ida,  harken  ere  I  die. 
He  prest  the  blossom  of  his  lips  to  mine, 
And  added   "  This   was   cast   upon   the 

board, 
When  all  the  full-faced  presence  of  the 
Gods 


Ranged  in  the  halls  of  Peleus;   where- 
upon 
Rose   feud,  with    question   unto   whom 

'twere  due : 
But  light-foot  Iris  brought  it  yester-eve, 
Delivering  that  to  me,  by  common  voice 
Elected  umpire,  Here  comes  to-day, 
Pallas  and  Aphrodite,  claiming  each 
This  meed  of  fairest.     Thou,  within  the 

cave 
Behind  yon  whispering  tuft  of  oldest  pine, 
Mayst  well  behold  them   unbeheld,  un- 
heard 
Hear  all,   and  see   thy   Paris  judge   of 
Gods." 

1  Dear  mother  Ida,  harken  ere  I  die. 
It  was  the  deep   midnoon :  one   silvery 

cloud 
Had  lost  his  way  between  the  piney  sides 
Of  this  long  glen.     Then  to  the  bower 

they  came, 
Naked  they  came  to  that  smooth-swarded 

bower, 
And  at  their  feet  the  crocus  brake  like 

fire, 
Violet,  amaracus,  and  asphodel, 
Lotos  and  lilies :  and  a  wind  arose, 
And    overhead   the  wandering  ivy  and 

vine, 
This  way  and  that,  in  many  a  wild  festoon 
Ran  riot,  garlanding  the  gnarled  boughs 
With  bunch  and  berry  and  flower  thro' 

and  thro'. 

1 0  mother  Ida,  harken  ere  I  die. 
On  the  tree-tops  a  crested  peacock  lit, 
And  o'er  him  flow'd  a  golden  cloud,  and 

lean'd 
Upon  him,  slowly  dropping  fragrant  dew. 
Then  first  I  heard  the  voice  of  her,  to 

whom 
Coming  thro'  Heaven,  like  a  light  that 

grows 
Larger  and  clearer,  with  one  mind  the 

Gods 
Rise  up  for  reverence.    She  to  Paris  made 
Proffer  of  royal  power,  ample  rule 
Unquestion'd,  overflowing  revenue 
Wherewith    to    embellish    state,    M  from 

many  a  vale 
And   river-sunder'd  champaign    clothed 

with  corn, 


(ENONE. 


4i 


Or  labour'd  mine  undrainable  of  ore. 
Honour,"  she    said,   "  and  homage,  tax 

and  toll, 
From  many  an  inland  town  and  haven 

large, 
Mast-throng'd   beneath   her    shadowing 

citadel 
In  glassy  bays  among  her  tallest  towers." 

'  O  mother  Ida,  harken  ere  I  die. 
Still  she  spake  on  and  still  she  spake  of 

power, 
"Which  in  all  action  is  the  end  of  all; 
Power   fitted    to    the    season;     wisdom- 
bred 
And  throned  of  wisdom  —  from  all  neigh- 
bour crowns 
Alliance  and  allegiance,  till  thy  hand 
Fail  from  the  sceptre-staff.     Such  boon 

from  me, 
From    me,    Heaven's   Queen,   Paris,   to 

thee  king-born, 
A  shepherd  all  thy  life  but  yet  king-born, 
Should  come  most  welcome,  seeing  men, 

in  power 
Only,  are  likest  gods,  who  have  attain'd 
Rest  in  a  happy  place  and  quiet  seats 
Above  the  thunder,  with  undying  bliss 
In  knowledge  of  their  own  supremacy." 

\  Dear  mother  Ida,  harken  ere  I  die. 
She    ceasecL  and  Paris  held   the   costly 

fruit 
Out  at  arm's  length,  so  much  the  thought 

of  power 
Flatter'd  his  spirit;   but  Pallas  where  she 

stood 
Somewhat  apart,   her   clear   and   bared 

limbs 
O'erthwarted    with    the    brazen-headed 

spear 
Upon  her  pearly  shoulder  leaning  cold, 
'ihe  while,  above,  her  full   and  earnest 

eye 
Over   her   snow-cold   breast   and   angry 

cheek 
Kept  watch,  waiting  decision,  made  reply. 

' "  Self-reverence,  self-knowledge,  self- 
control, 

These  three  alone  lead  life  to  sovereign 
power. 

Yet  not  for  power  (power  of  herself 


Would  come  uncall'd  for)  but  to  live  by 
law, 

Acting  the  law  we  live  by  without  fear; 

And  because  right  is  right,  to  follow 
right 

Were  wisdom  in  the  scorn  of  conse- 
quence."    • 

'  Dear  mother  Ida,  harken  ere  I  die. 
Again  she  said :  "  I  woo  thee  not  with 

gifts. 
Sequel  of  guerdon  could  not  alter  me 
To  fairer.     Judge   thou  me   by  what  I 

am, 
So  shalt  thou  find  me  fairest. 

Yet,  indeed 
If  gazing  on  divinity  disrobed 
Thy  mortal  eyes  are  frail  to  judge  of  fair, 
Unbias'd  by  self-profit,  oh  !   rest  thee  sure, 
That  I  shall  love  thee  well  and  cleave  to 

thee, 
So  that  my  vigour,  wedded  to  thy  blood, 
Shall    strike   within    thy    pulses   like   a 

God's, 
To   push    thee    forward    thro'   a   life  of 

shocks, 
Dangers,  and  deeds,  until  endurance  grow 
Sinew'd  with  action,  and  the  full-grown 

will, 
Circled  thro'  all  experiences,  pure  law, 
Commeasure  perfect  freedom." 

1  Here  she  ceas'd, 
And    Paris   ponder'd,  and  I    cried,  '*  O 

Paris, 
Give  it  to  Pallas !  "  but  he  heard  me  not, 
Or  hearing  would  not  hear  me,  woe  is  me  ! 

'  O  mother  Ida,  many-fountain'd  Ida, 
Dear  mother  Ida,  harken  ere  I  die. 
Idalian  Aphrodite  beautiful, 
Fresh  as  the  foam,  new-bathed  in  Paphian 

wells, 
With  rosy  slender  fingers  backward  drew 
From  her  warm  brows  and  bosom  her 

deep  hair 
Ambrosial,  golden  round  her  lucid  throat 
And  shoulder :  from  the  violets  her  light 

foot 
Shone  rosy-white,  and  o'er  her  rounded 

form 
Between  the  shadows  of  the  vine-bunches 
Floated    the   glowing   sunlights,  as   she 

moved. 


42 


(ENONE. 


'  Dear  mother  Ida,  harken  ere  I  die. 
She  with  a  subtle  smile  in  her  mild  eyes, 
The    herald    of    her    triumph,    drawing 

nigh 
Hatf-whisper'd   in  his  ear,  "  I  promise 

thee 
The    fairest    and   most   loving    wife    in 

Greece." 
She  spoke  and  laugh'd :  I  shut  my  sight 

for  fear: 
But  when  I  look'd,  Paris  had  raised  his 

arm, 
And  I  beheld  great  Here's  angry  eyes, 
As  she  withdrew  into  the  golden  cloud, 
And  I  was  left  alone  within  the  bower ; 
And  from  that  time  to  this  I  am  alone, 
And  I  shall  be  alone  until  I  die. 

'  Yet,  mother  Ida,  harken  ere  I  die. 
Fairest  —  why  fairest  wife  ?  am  I  not  fair  ? 
My  love  hath  told   me   so   a   thousand 

times. 
Methinks  I  must  be  fair,  for  yesterday, 
When  I  past  by,  a  wild  and  wanton  pard, 
Eyed  like  the  evening  star,  with  playful 

tail 
Crouch'd   fawning   in   the  weed.     Most 

loving  is  she? 
Ah  me,  my  mountain  shepherd,  that  my 

arms 
Were  wound  about  thee,  and  my  hot  lips 

prest 
Close,  close  to  thine  in  that  quick-falling 

dew 
Of  fruitful  kisses,  thick  as  Autumn  rains 
Flash  in  the  pools  of  whirling  Simois. 

'  O  mother,  hear  me  yet  before  I  die. 
They  came,   they   cut   away   my   tallest 

pines, 
My  tall   dark   pines,   that    plumed  the 

craggy  ledge 
High  over  the  blue  gorge,  and  all  between 
The  snowy  peak  and  snow-white  cataract 
Foster'd  the  callow  eaglet  —  from  beneath 
Whose  thick  mysterious  boughs  in  the 

dark  morn 
The  panther's  roar  came  muffled,  while 

I  sat 
Low  in  the  valley.     Never,  never  more 
Shall  lone  CEnone  see  the  morning  mist 
Sweep  thro'  them;  never  see  them  over- 
laid 


With  narrow  moon-lit  slips  of  silver  cloud, 
Between  the  loud  stream  and  the  trem- 
bling stars. 

■  O  mother,  hear  me  yet  before  I  die. 
I  wish  that  somewhere  in  the  ruin'd  folds, 
Among  the  fragments  tumbled  from  the 

glens, 
Or  the  dry  thickets,  I  could  meet  with 

her 
The  Abominable,  that  uninvited  came 
Into  the  fair  Peleian  banquet-hall, 
And  cast  the  golden  fruit  upon  the  board, 
And  bred  this  change;  that  I  might  speak 

my  mind, 
And  tell  her  to  her  face  how  much  I  hate 
Her  presence,  hated  both  of  Gods  and 

men. 

'  O  mother,  hear  me  yet  before  I  die. 
Hath  he  not  sworn  his  love  a  thousand 

times, 
In  this  green  valley,  under  this  green  hill, 
Ev'n  on  this  hand,  and  sitting  on   this 

stone? 
Seal'd   it   with   kisses?    water'd   it  with 

tears? 
O  happy  tears,  and  how  unlike  to  these ! 
O  happy  Heaven,  how  canst  thou  see  my 

face? 
O  happy  earth,  how  canst  thou  bear  my 

weight? 

0  death,  death,  death,  thou  ever-floating 

cloud, 
There  are  enough  unhappy  on  this  earth; 
Pass  by  the  happy  souls,  that  love  to  live : 

1  pray  thee,  pass  before  my  light  of  life, 
And  shadow  all  my  soul,  that  I  may  die. 
Thou  weighest  heavy  on  the  heart  within, 
Weigh  heavy  on  my  eyelids :  let  me  die. 

1  O  mother,  hear  me  yet  before  I  die. 
I  will  not  die  alone,  for  fiery  thoughts 
Do  shape  themselves  within  me,  more  and 

more, 
Whereof  I  catch  the  issue,  as  I  hear 
Dead  sounds  at  night  come  from  the  in- 
most hills, 
Like  footsteps  upon  wool.     I  dimly  see 
My  far-off  doubtful  purpose,  as  a  mother 
Conjectures  of  the  features  of  her  child 
Ere  it  is  born  :  her  child  !  —  a  shudder 
comes 


THE  SISTERS— THE  PALACE    OF  ART. 


43 


Across  me  :  never  child  be  born  of  me, 
Unblest,  to  vex  me  with  his  father's  eyes ! 

'  O  mother,  hear  me  yet  before  I  die. 
Hear  me,  0  earth.     I  will  not  die  alone, 
Lest  their  shrill  happy  laughter  come  to 

me 
Walking  the  cold  and  starless  road  of 

Death 
Uncomforted,  leaving  my  ancient  love 
With  the  Greek  woman.     I  will  rise  and 

go 
Down  into  Troy,  and  ere  the  stars  come 

forth 
Talk  with  the  wild  Cassandra,  for  she  says 
A  fire  dances  before  her,  and  a  sound 
Rings  ever  in  her  ears  of  armed  men. 
What   this  may  be   I  know  not,  but  I 

know 
That,  wheresoe'er  I  am  by  night  and  day, 
All  earth  and  air  seem  only  burning  fire.' 


THE  SISTERS. 

We  were  two  daughters  of  one  race  : 
She  was  the  fairest  in  the  face : 

The  wind  is  blowing  in  turret  and  tree. 
They  were  together,  and  she  fell; 
Therefore  revenge  J^ecame  me  well. 

O  the  Earl  was/fair  to  see ! 

She  died :  she  went  to  burning  flame  : 
She  mix'd  her  ancient  blood  with  shame. 

The  wind  is  howling  in  turret  and  tree. 
Whole  weeks  and  months,  and  early  and 

late, 
To  win  his  love  I  lay  in  wait : 

O  the  Earl  was  fair  to  see ! 

I  made  a  feast;   I  bade  him  come; 
I  won  his  love,  I  brought  him  home. 

The  wind  is  roaring  in  turret  and  tree. 
And  after  supper,  on  a  bed, 
Upon  my  lap  he  laid  his  head : 

O  the  Earl  was  fair  to  see  ! 

I  kissed  his  eyelids  into  rest : 
His  ruddy  cheek  upon  my  breast. 

The  wind  is  raging  in  turret  and  tree. 
I  hated  him  with  the  hate  of  hell, 
But  I  loved  his  beauty  passing  well. 

O  the  Earl  was  fair  to  see ! 


I  rose  up  in  the  silent  night : 

I  made  my  dagger  sharp  and  bright. 

The  wind  is  raving  in  turret  and  tree. 
As  half-asleep  his  breath  he  drew, 
Three  times  I  stabb'd  him  thro'  and  thro'. 

O  the  Earl  was  fair  to  see ! 

I  curl'd  and  comb'd  his  comely  head, 
He  look'd  so  grand  when  he  was  dead. 

The   wind  is   blowing   in   turret    and 
tree. 
I  wrapt  his  body  in  the  sheet, 
And  laid  him  at  his  mother's  feet. 

O  the  Earl  was  fair  to  see  ! 


TO . 

WITH  THE   FOLLOWING   POEM. 

I  send  you  here  a  sort  of  allegory, 
(For  you  will  understand  it)  of  a  soul, 
A  sinful  soul  possess'd  of  many  gifts, 
A  spacious  garden  full  of  flowering  weeds, 
A  glorious  Devil,  large  in  heart  and  brain, 
That  did  love  Beauty  only  (Beauty  seen 
In  all  varieties  of  mould  and  mind), 
And  Knowledge  for   its   beauty;     or   if 

Good, 
Good  only  for  its  beauty,  seeing  not 
That  Beauty,  Good,  and  Knowledge  are 

three  sisters 
That  dote  upon  each  other,  friends  to 

man, 
Living  together  under  the  same  roof, 
And  never  can  be  sunder'd  w'thout  tears. 
And  he  that  shuts  Love  out,  in  turn  shall 

be 
Shut  out  from  Love,  and  on  her  threshold 

He, 
Howling  in  outer  darkness.    Not  for  this 
Was  common  clay  ta'en  from  the  common 

earth 
Moulded  by  God,  and  temper'd  with  the 

tears 
Of  angels  to  the  perfect  shape  of  man. 


THE  PALACE  OF  ART. 

I  BUILT  my  soul  a  lordly  pleasure-house, 

Wherein  at  ease  for  aye  to  dwell. 
I  said, '  O  Soul,  make  merry  and  carouse, 
Dear  soul,  for  all  is  well.' 


44 


THE  PALACE    OF  ART. 


A  huge  crag-platform,  smooth  as  burnish'd 
brass 
I  chose.     The  ranged  ramparts  bright 
From  level  meadow-bases  of  deep  grass 
Suddenly  scaled  the  light. 

Thereon   I   built  it  firm.      Of  ledge  or 
shelf 
The  rock  rose  clear,  or  winding  stair. 
My  soul  would  live  alone  unto  herself 
In  her  high  palace  there. 

And  'While  the  world  runs  round  and 
round,'  I  said, 
1  Reign  thou  apart,  a  quiet  king, 
Still  as,  while  Saturn  whirls,  his  stedfast 
shade 
Sleeps  on  his  luminous  ring.' 

To  which  my  soul  made  answer  readily : 

'  Trust  me,  in  bliss  I  shall  abide 
In  this  great  mansion,  that  is  built  for  me, 
So  royal-rich  and  wide.' 


Four  courts  I  made,  East,  West  and  South 
and  North, 
In  each  a  squared  lawn,  wherefrom 
The   golden   gorge  of  dragons   spouted 
forth 
A  flood  of  fountain-foam. 

And  round  the  cool  green  courts  there 
ran  a  row 
Of    cloistets^    branch'd    like    mighty 
woods, 
Echoing  all  night  to  that  sonorous  flow 
—  Of  spouted  fountain-floods. 

And  round  the  roofs  a  gilded  gallery 

That  lent  broad  verge  to  distant  lands, 
Far  as  the  wild  swan  wings,  to  where  the 
sky 
Dipt  down  to  sea  and  sands. 

From  those  four  jets  four  currents  in  one 
swell 
Across  the  mountain  stream'd  below 
In  misty  folds,  that  floating  as  they  fell 
Lit  up  a  torrent-bow. 

And  high  on  every  peak  a  statue  seem'd 
To  hang  on  tiptoe,  tossing  up 


A  cloud  of  incense  of  all  odour  steam'd 
From  out  a  golden  cup. 

So  that   she   thought,  •  And  who   shall 
gaze  upon 
My  palace  with  unblindeci  eyes, 
While  this  great  bow  will  waver  in  the  sun, 
And  that  sweet  incense  rise?' 

For  that  sweet   incense  rose  and  never 
fail'd, 
And,  while  day  sank  or  mounted  higher, 
The  light  aerial  gallery,  golden-rail'd, 
Burnt  like  a  fringe  of  fire. 

Likewise   the    deep-set  windows,  stain'd 
and  traced, 
Would  seem  slow-flaming  crimson  fires 
From  shadow'd  grots  of  arches  interlaced, 
And  tipt  with  frost-like  spires. 


Full  of  long-sounding  corridors  it  was, 

That  over-vaulted  grateful  gloom, 
Thro'  which   the   livelong   day  my  soul 
did  pass, 
Well-pleased,  from  room  to  room. 

Full  of  great  rooms  and  small  the  palace 
stood, 
All  various,  each  a  perfect  whole 
From  living  Nature,  fit  for  every  mood 
And  change  of  my  still  soul. 

For   some  were   hung  with  arras  green 
and  blue, 
Showing  a  gaudy  summer-morn, 
Where  with  puff 'd  cheek  the  belted  hunter 
blew 
His  wreathed  bugle-horn. 

One  seem'd  all  dark  and  red  —  a  tract  of 
sand, 
And  some  one  pacing  there  alone, 
Who  paced  for  ever  in  a  glimmering  land, 
Lit  with  a  low  large  moon. 

One   show'd   an   iron   coast    and   angry 
waves. 
You  seem'd  to  hear  them  climb  and  fall 
And  roar  rock-thwarted  under  bellowing 
caves, 
Beneath  the  windy  wall. 


THE  PALACE    OF  ART. 


45 


And  one,  a  full-fed  river  winding  slow 

By  herds  upon  an  endless  plain, 
The   ragged   rims  of  thunder   brooding 
low, 
With  shadow-streaks  of  rain. 

And  one,  the  reapers  at  their  sultry  toil. 
In  front  they  bound  the  sheaves.     Be- 
hind 
Were  realms  of  upland,  prodigal  in  oil, 
And  hoary  to  the  wind. 

And  one  a  foreground  black  with  stones 
and  slags, 
Beyond,  a  line  of  heights,  and  higher 
All   barr'd   with    long   white   cloud   the 
scornful  crags.  \ 
ArfoHiighestTsnow  and  fire. 

And  one,  an  English  home  —  gray  twi- 
light pour'd 
On  dewy  pastures,  dewy  trees, 
Softer   than   sleep  —  all  things  in  order 
stored, 
A  haunt  of  ancient  Peace. 

Nor   these   alone,   but   every  landscape 
fair, 
As  fit  for  every  modd  of  mind, 
Or  gay,  or  grave,  or  sweet,  or  stern,  was 
there  / 

Not  less  than  truth  design'd. 

#  *  »  * 

*  *  *  * 
Or  the  maid-mother  by  a  crucifix, 

In  tracts  of  pasture  sunny-warm, 
Beneath  branch-work  of  costly  sardonyx 
Sat  smiling,  babe  in  arm. 

Or  in  a  clear-wall'd  city  on  the  sea, 
Near  gilded  organ-pipes,  her  hair 
Wound  with  white  roses,  slept  St.  Cecily; 
An  angel  look'd  at  her. 

Or  thronging  all  one  porch  of  Paradise 

A  group  of  Houris  bow'd  to  see 
The  dying  Islamite,  with  hands  and  eyes 
That  said,  We  wait  for  thee. 

Or  mythic  tltheris-deeply-wounded  son 
In  some  fair  space  of  sloping  greens 
Lay,  dozing  in  the  vale  of  Avalon, 
And  watch'd  by  weeping  queens. 


Or  hollowing  one  hand  against  his  ear, 

To  list  a  foot-fall,  ere  he  saw 
The  wood-nymph,  stay'd   the   Ausonian 
king  to  hear 
Of  wisdom  and  of  law. 

Or  over  hills  with  peaky  tops  engrail'd, 

And  many  a  tract  of  palm  and  rice, 
The  throne  of  Indian  Cama  slowly  sail'd 
A  summer  faTinM  with  spice. 

Or  sweet  Europa's  mantle  blew  unclasp'd, 
From  off  her  shoulder  backward  borne : 
From  one  hand  droop'd  a  crocus :  one 
hand  grasp'd 
The  mild  bull's  golden  horn. 

Or  else  flush'd  Ganymede,  his  rosy  thigh 

Half-buried  in  the  Eagle's  down, 
Sole  as  a  flying  star  shot  thro'  the  sky 
Above  the  pillar'd  town. 

Nor  these  alone  :  but  every  legend  fail 
Which  the  supreme  Caucasian  mind 
Carved  out  of  Nature  for  itself,  was  there, 
Not  less  than  life,  design'd. 


Then  in  the  towers  I  placed  great  bells 
that  swung, 
Moved  of  themselves,  with  silver  sound ; 
And  with  choice,  paintings  of  wise  men  I 
hung 
The  royal  dais  round. 

For  there  was  Milton  like  a  seraph  strong, 
Beside  him  Shakespeare  bland  and  mild ; 
And  there  the  world-worn  Dante  grasp'd 
his  song, 
And  somewhat  grimly  smiled. 

And  there  the  Ionian  father  of  the  rest; 

A  million  wrinkles  carved  his  skin; 
A  hundred  winters  snow'd  upon  his  breast, 
From  cheek  and  throat  and  chin. 

Above,  the  fair  hall-ceiling  stately-set 

Many  an  arch  high  up  did  lift, 
And  angels  rising  and  descending  met 
With  interchange  of  gift. 

Below  was  all  mosaic  choicely  plann'd 
With  cycles  of  the  human  tale 


46 


THE  PALACE    OF  ART. 


Of  this  wide  world,  the  times  of  every  land 
So  wrought,  they  will  not  fail. 

The  people  here,  a  beast  of  burden  slow, 
Toil'd  onward,  prick'd  with  goads  and 
stings; 
Here  play'd,  a  tiger,  rolling  to  and  fro 
The  heads  and  crowns  of  kings; 

Here  rose,  an  athlete,  strong  to  break  or 

bind     ' " 

All  force  in  bonds  that  might  endure, 
And  here  once  more  like  some  sick  man 
declined, 
And  trusted  any  cure. 

But  over  these  she  trod :  and  those  great 
bells 
Began  to  chime.    She  took  her  throne : 
She  sat  betwixt  the  shining  Oriels, 
To  sing  her  songs  alone. 

And  thro'  the  topmost  Oriels'  coloured 
flame 
Two  godlike  faces  gazed  below; 
Plato  the  wise,  and  large-brow'd  Verulam, 
The  first  of  those  who  know. 

And  all  those  names,  that  in  their  motion 
were 
Full-welling  fountain-heads  of  change, 
Betwixt  the  slender  shafts  were  blazon'd 
fair 
In  diverse  raiment  strange : 

Thro'    which    the    lights,    rose,    amber, 
emerald,  blue, 
Flush'd  in  her  temples  and  her  eyes, 
And  from  her  lips,  as  morn  from  Memnon, 
drew 
Rivers  of  melodies. 

No  nightingale  delighteth  to  prolong 

Her  low  preamble  all  alone, 
More  than  my  soul  to  hear  her  echo'd  song 
Throb  thro'  the  ribbed  stone; 

Singing  and  murmuring  in  her  feastful 
mirth, 
Joying  to  feel  herself  alive, 
Lord  over  Nature,  Lord  of  the  visible 
.earth, 
Lord  of  the  senses  five; 


Communing  with  herself:  'All  these  are 
mine, 
And  let  the  world  have  peace  or  wars, 
'Tis  one  to  me.'    She  —  when  young  night 
divine 
Crown'd  dying  day  with  stars, 

Making  sweet  close  of  his  delicious  toils  — 

Lit  light  in  wreaths  and  anadems, 
And  pure  quintessences  of  precious  oils 
In  hollow'd  moons  of  gems, 

To  mimic  heaven;  and  clapt  her  hands 
and  cried, 
'  I  marvel  if  :.iy  ctill  delight 
In  this  great  house  so  royal-rich,  and  wide, 
Be  flattcr'd  to  the  height. 

'O  all  things  fair  to   sate   my  various 
eyes! 

0  shapes  and   hues   that  please  me 

well! 

0  silent  faces  of  the  Great  and  Wise, 

My  Gods,  with  whom  I  dwell ! 

'O  God-like  isolation  which  art  mine, 

1  can  but  count  thee  perfecT  gain, 
What  time  I  watch  the  darkening  droves 

of  swine 
That  range  on  yonder  plain. 

1  In  filthy  sloughs  they  roll  a  prurient  skin, 

They  graze    and  wallow,   breed   and 
sleep; 
And  oft  some  brainless  devil  enters  in, 
And  drives  them  to  the  deep/ 

Then  of  the  moral  instinct  would  she  prate 

And  of  the  rising  from  the  dead, 
As  hers  by  right  of  full-accomplish'd  Fate ; 
And  at  the  last  she  said  : 

'  I  take  possession  of  man's  mind  and  deed. 

I  care  not  what  the  sects  may  brawl. 
I  sit  as  God  holding  no  form  of  creed, 
But  contemplating  all.' 


Full  oft  the  riddle  of  the  painful  earth 

Flash'd  thro'  her  as  she  sat  alone, 
Yet  not  the  less  held  she  her  solemn 
mirth, 
And  intellectual  throne. 


THE  PALACE    OF  ART. 


47 


And   so  she   throve  and   prosper'd :   so 
three  years 
She  prosper'd :  on  the  fourth  she  fell, 
Like  Herod,  when  the~~shout  was  in  Eis 
ears, 
Struck  thro'  with  pangs  of  hell. 

Lest  she  should  fail  and  perish  utterly, 

God,  before  whom  ever  lie  bare 
The  abysmal  deeps  of  Personality, 
Plagued  her  with  sore  despair. 

When  she  would    think,  where'er    she 
turn'd  her  sight 
The  airy  hand  confusion  wrought, 
Wrote,  '  Mene,  mene,'  and  divided  quite 
The  kingdom  of  her  thought. 

Deep  dread  and  loathjngjrf  her  solitude 
Fell   on  her,  frorn  which  mood  was 
born 
Scorn  of  herself;    again,  from  out  that 

mood 
Laughter  at  her  self-scorn. 

*  What !  is  not  this  my  place  of  strength,' 
she  said,         / 
'  My  spacious  mansion  built  for  me, 
Whereof    the    strong    foundation-stones 
were  laid 
Since  my  first  memory? ' 

But  in  dark  corners  of  her  palace  stood 

Uncertain  shapes;   and  unawares 
On  white-eyed  phantasms  weeping  tears 
of  blood, 
And  horrible  nightmares, 

And  hollow  shades,  enclosing  hearts  of 
flame, 
And,  with  dim  fretted  foreheads  all, 
On  corpses  three-months-old  at  noon  she 
came, 
That  stood  against  the  wall. 

A  spot  of  dull  stagnation,  without  light 

Or  power  of  movement,  seem'd  my  soul, 
'Mid  onward-sloping  motions  infinite 
Making  for  one  sure  goal. 

A  still  salt  pool,  lock'd  in  with  bars  of 
sand, 
Left  on  the  shore ;   that  hears  all  night 


The  plunging  seas  draw  backward  from 
the  land 
Their  moon-led  waters  white. 

A  star  that  with  the  choral  starry  dance 

Join'd  not,  but  stood,  and  standing  saw 
The  hollow  orb  of  moving  Circumstance 
Roll'd  round  by  one  fix'd  law. 

Back  on  herself  her  serpent  jjride  had 
curl'd. 
'No  voice,'  she  shriek'd  in  that  lone 
hall, 
'  No  voice  breaks  thro'  the  stillness  of 
this  world : 
One  deep,  deep  silence  all ! ' 

She,  mouldering  with   the   dull   earth's 
mouldering  sod, 
Inwrapt  tenfold  in  slothful  shame, 
Lay  there  exiled  from  eternal  God, 
Lost  to  her  place  and  name; 

And  death  and  life  she  hated  equally, 

And  nothing  saw,  for  her  despair, 
But  dreadful  time,  dreadful  eternity, 
No  comfort  anywhere; 

Remaining  utterly  confused  with  fears, 
And  ever  worse  with  growing  time, 
And  ever  unrelieved  by  dismal  tears, 
And  all  alone  in  crime : 

Shut  up  as  in  a  crumbling  tomb,  girt  round 

With  blackness  as  a  solid  wall, 
Far  off  she  seem'd  to  hear  the  dully  sound 
Of  human  footsteps  fall. 

As  in  strange  lands  a  traveller  walking 
slow, 
In  doubt  and  great  perplexity, 
A  little  before  moon-rise  hears  the  low 
Moan  of  an  unknown  sea; 

And  knows  not  if  it  be  thunder,  or  a  sound 
Of  rocks  thrown  down,  or  one  deep 
cry 
Of  great  wild  beasts;  then  thinketh,  'I 
have  found 
Anewjand,  but  I  die.' 

She  howl'd  aloud,  '  I  am  on  fire  within. 
There  comes  no  murmur  of  reply. 


48 


LADY  CLARA    VERE  DE    VERE. 


What  is  it  that  will  take  away  my  sin, 
And  save  me  lest  I  die  ? ' 

So  when  four  years  were  wholly  finished, 

She  threw  her  royal  robes  away. 
*  Make  me  a  cottage  in  the  vale,'  she  said, 
'  Where  I  may  mourn  and  pray. 

'  Yet  pull  not  down  my  palace  towers, 
that  are 
So  lightly,  beautifully  built : 
Perchance  I  may  return  with  others  there 
When  I  have  purged  my  guilt.' 

LADY  CLARA  VERE  DE  VERE. 

Lady  Clara  Vere  de  Vere, 

Of  me  you  shall  not  win  renown  : 
You  thought  to  break  a  country  heart 

For  pastime,  ere  you  went  to  town. 
At  me  you  smiled,  but  unbeguiled 

I  saw  the  snare,  and  I  retired: 
The  daughter  of  a  hundred  Earls, 

You  are  not  one  to  be  desired. 

Lady  Clara  Vere  de  Vere, 

I  know  you  proud  to  bear  your  name, 
Your  pride  is  yet  no  mate  for  mine, 

Too  proud  to  care  from  whence  I  came. 
Nor  would  I  break  for  your  sweet  sake 

A  heart  that  dotes  on  truer  charms. 
A  simple  maiden  in  her  flower 

Is  worth  a  hundred  coats-of-arms. 

Lady  Clara  Vere  de  Vere, 

Some  meeker  pupil  you  must  find, 
For  were  you  queen  of  all  that  is, 

I  could  not  stoop  to  such  a  mind. 
You  sought  to  prove  how  I  could  love, 

And  my  disdain  is  my  reply. 
The  lion  on  your  old  stone  gates 

Is  not  more  cold  to  you  than  I. 

Lady  Clara  Vere  de  Vere, 

You  put  strange  memories  in  my  head. 
Not   thrice  your   branching   limes  have 
blown 

Since  I  beheld  young  Laurence  dead. 
Oh  your  sweet  eyes,  your  low  replies : 

A  great  enchantress  you  may  be; 


But  there  was  that  across  his  throat 
Which  you  had  hardly  cared  to  see. 

Lady  Clara  Vere  de  Vere, 

When  thus  he  met  his  mother's  view, 
She  had  the  passions  of  her  kind, 

She  spake  some  certain  truths  of  you. 
Indeed  I  heard  one  bitter  word 

That  scarce  is  fit  for  you  to  hear; 
Her  manners  had  not  that  repose 

Which  stamps   the  caste  of  Vere  de 
Vere. 

Lady  Clara  Vere  de  Vere, 

There  stands  a  spectre  in  your  hall : 
The  guilt  of  blood  is  at  your  door : 

You   changed   a  wholesome   heart  to 
gall. 
You  held  your  course  without  remorse, 

To  make  him  trust  his  modest  worth, 
And,  last,  you  fix'd  a  vacant  stare, 

And  slew  him  with  your  noble  birth. 

Trust  me,  Clara  Vere  de  Vere, 

From  yon  blue  heavens  above  us  bent 
The  gardener  Adam  and  his  wife 

Smile  at  the  claims  of  long  descent. 
Howe'er  it  be,  it  seems  to  me, 

'Tis  only  noble  to  be  good. 
Kind  hearts  are  more  than  coronets, 

And  simple  faith  than  Norman  blood. 

I  know  you,  Clara  Vere  de  Vere, 

You  pine  among  your  halls  and  towers : 
The  languid  light  of  your  proud  eyes 

Is  wearied  of  the  rolling  hours. 
In  glowing  health,  with  boundless  wealth, 

But  sickening  of  a  vague  disease, 
You  know  so  ill  to  deal  with  time, 

You  needs  must  play  such  pranks  as 
these. 

Clara,  Clara  Vere  de  Vere, 

If  time  be  heavy  on  your  hands, 
Are  there  no  beggars  at  your  gate, 

Nor  any  poor  about  your  lands? 
Oh  !  teach  the  orphan-boy  to  read, 

Or  teach  the  orphan-girl  to  sew, 
Pray  heaven  for  a  human  heart, 

And  let  the  foolish  yeoman  go. 


THE  MAY  QUEEN.  49 


THE  MAY  QUEEN. 

You  must  wake  and  call  me  early,  call  me  early,  mother  dear; 

To-morrow  'ill  be  the  happiest  time  of  all  the  glad  New-year; 

Of  all  the  glad  New-year,  mother,  the  maddest  merriest  day; 

For  I'm  to  be  Queen  o'  the  May,  mother,  I'm  to  be  Queen  o'  the  May. 

There's  many  a  black  black  eye,  they  say,  but  none  so  bright  as  mine; 

There's  Margaret  and  Mary,  there's  Kate  and  Caroline : 

But  none  so  fair  as  little  Alice  in  all  the  land  they  say, 

So  I'm  to  be  Queen  o'  the  May,  mother,  I'm  to  be  Queen  o'  the  May. 

I  sleep  so  sound  all  night,  mother,  that  I  shall  never  wake, 

If  you  do  not  call  me  loud  when  the  day  begins  to  break : 

But  I  must  gather  knots  of  flowers,  and  buds  and  garlands  gay, 

For  I'm  to  be  Queen  o'  the  May,  mother,  I'm  to  be  Queen  o'  the  May. 

As  I  came  up  the  valley  whom  think  ye  should  I  see, 

But  Robin  leaning  on  the  bridge  beneath  the  hazel-tree? 

He  thought  of  that  sharp  look,  mother,  I  gave  him  yesterday, 

But  I'm  to  be  Queen  o'  the  May,  mother,  I'm  to  be  Queen  o'  the  May. 

He  thought  I  was  a  ghost,  mother,  for  I  was  all  in  white, 

And  I  ran  by  him  without  speaking,  like  a  flash  of  light. 

They  call  me  cruel-hearted,  but  1  care  not  what  they  say, 

For  I'm  to  be  Queen  o'  the  May,  mother,  I'm  to  be  Queen  o'  the  May. 

They  say  he's  dying  all  for  love,  but  that  can  never  be : 

They  say  his  heart  is  breaking,  mother  —  what  is  that  to  me? 

There's  many  a  bolder  lad  'ill  woo  me  any  summer  day, 

And  I'm  to  be  Queen  o'  the  May,  mother,  I'm  to  be  Queen  o'  the  May. 

Little  Effie  shall  go  with  me  to-morrow  to  the  green, 

And  you'll  be  there,  too,  mother,  to  see  me  made  the  Queen; 

For  the  shepherd  lads  on  every  side  'ill  come  from  far  away, 

And  I'm  to  be  Queen  o'  the  May,  mother,  I'm  to  be  Queen  o'  the  May. 

The  honeysuckle  round  the  porch  has  wov'n  its  wavy  bowers, 
And  by  the  meadow-trenches  blow  the  faint  sweet  cuckoo-flowers; 
And  the  wild  marsh-marigold  shines  like  fire  in  swamps  and  hollows  gray, 
And  I'm  to  be  Queen  o'  the  May,  mother,  I'm  to  be  Queen  o'  the  May. 

The  night-winds  come  and  go,  mother,  upon  the  meadow-grass, 
And  the  happy  stars  above  them  seem  to  brighten  as  they  pass; 
There  will  not  be  a  drop  of  rain  the  whole  of  the  livelong  day, 
And  I'm  to  be  Queen  o'  the  May,  mother,  I'm  to  be  Queen  o'  the  May. 

All  the  valley,  mother,  'ill  be  fresh  and  green  and  still, 
And  the  cowslip  and  the  crowfoot  are  over  all  the  hill, 
And  the  rivulet  in  the  flowery  dale  'ill  merrily  glance  and  play, 
For  I'm  to  be  Queen  o'  the  May,  mother,  I'm  to  be  Queen  o'  the  May. 
s 


50  THE  MAY  QUEEN. 


So  you  must  wake  and  call  me  early,  call  me  early,  mother  dear, 
To-morrow  'ill  be  the  happiest  time  of  all  the  glad  New-year : 
To-morrow  'ill  be  of  all  the  year  the  maddest  merriest  day, 
For  I'm  to  be  Queen  o'  the  May,  mother,  I'm  to  be  Queen  o'  the  May. 


NEW-YEAR'S  EVE. 

If  you're  waking  call  me  early,  call  me  early,  mother  dear, 

For  I  would  see  the  sun  rise  upon  the  glad  New-year. 

It  is  the  last  New-year  that  I  shall  ever  see, 

Then  you  may  lay  me  low  i'  the  mould  and  think  no  more  of  me. 

To-night  I  saw  the  sun  set :  he  set  and  left  behind 
The  good  old  year,  the  deat  old  time,  and  all  my  peace  of  mind; 
And  the  New-year's  coming  up,  mother,  but  I  shall  never  see 
The  blossom  on  the  blackthorn,  the  leaf  upon  the  tree. 

Last  May  we  made  a  crown  of  flowers :  we  had  a  merry  day;      , 
Beneath  the  hawthorn  on  the  green  they  made  me  Queen  of  May; 
And  we  danced  about  the  may-pole  and  in  the  hazel  copse, 
Till  Charles's  Wain  came  out  above  the  tall  white  chimney-tops. 

There's  not  a  flower  on  all  the  hills :  the  frost  is  on  the  pane : 
I  only  wish  to  live  till  the  snowdrops  come  again : 
I  wish  the  snow  would  melt  and  the  sun  come  out  on  high : 
I  long  to  see  a  flower  so  before  the  day  I  die. 

The  building  rook  'ill  caw  from  the  windy  tall  elm-tree, 

And  the  tufted  plover  pipe  along  the  fallow  lea, 

And  the  swallow  'ill  come  back  again  with  summer  o'er  the  wave. 

But  I  shall  lie  alone,  mother,  within  the  mouldering  grave. 

Upon  the  chancel-casement,  and  upon  that  grave  of  mine, 
In  the  early  early  morning  the  summer  sun  'ill  shine, 
Before  the  red  cock  crows  from  the  farm  upon  the  hill, 
When  you  are  warm-asleep,  mother,  and  all  the  world  is  still. 

When  the  flowers  come  again,  mother,  beneath  the  waning  light 
You'll  never  see  me  more  in  the  long  gray  fields  at  night; 
When  from  the  dry  dark  wold  the  summer  airs  blow  cool 
On  the  oat-grass  and  the  sword-grass,  and  the  bulrush  in  the  pool. 

You'll  bury  me,  my  mother,  just  beneath  the  hawthorn  shade, 
And  you'll  come  sometimes  and  see  me  where  I  am  lowly  laid. 
I  shall  not  forget  you,  mother,  I  shall  hear  you  when  you  pass, 
With  your  feet  above  my  head  in  the  long  and  pleasant  grass. 

I  have  been  wild  and  wayward,  but  you'll  forgive  me  now; 
You'll  kiss  me,  my  own  mother,  and  forgive  me  ere  I  go; 
Nay,  nay,  you  must  not  weep,  nor  let  your  grief  be  wild, 
You  should  not  fret  for  me,  mother,  you  have  another  child. 


THE  MAY  QUEEN. 


If  I  can  I'll  come  again,  mother,  from  out  my  resting-place; 
Tho'  you'll  not  see  me,  mother,  I  shall  look  upon  your  face; 
Tho'  I  cannot  speak  a  word,  I  shall  harken  what  you  say, 
And  be  often,  often  with  you  when  you  think  I'm  far  away. 

Goodnight,  goodnight,  when  I  have  said  goodnight  for  evermore, 
And  you  see  me  carried  out  from  the  threshold  of  the  door; 
Don't  let  Erne  come  to  see  me  till  my  grave  be  growing  green : 
She'll  be  a  better  child  to  you  than  ever  I  have  been. 

She'll  find  my  garden-tools  upon  the  granary  floor : 
Let  her  take  'em :  they  are  hers :  I  shall  never  garden  more: 
But  tell  her,  when  I'm  gone,  to  train  the  rosebush  that  I  set 
About  the  parlour-window  and  the  box  of  mignonette. 

Goodnight,  sweet  mother :  call  me  before  the  day  is  born. 
All  night  I  lie  awake,  but  I  fall  asleep  at  morn; 
But  I  would  see  the  sun  rise  upon  the  glad  New-year, 
So,  if  you're  waking,  call  me,  call  me  early,  mother  dear. 


CONCLUSION. 

I  thought  to  pass  away  before,  and  yet  alive  I  am; 

And  in  the  fields  all  round  I  hear  the  bleating  of  the  lamb. 

How  sadly,  I  remember,  rose  the  morning  of  the  year ! 

To  die  before  the  snowdrop  came,  and  now  the  violet's  here. 

O  sweet  is  the  new  violet,  that  comes  beneath  the  skies, 
And  sweeter  is  the  young  lamb's  voice  to  me  that  cannot  rise, 
And  sweet  is  all  the  land  about,  and  all  the  flowers  that  blow, 
And  sweeter  far  is  death  than  life  to  me  that  long  to  go. 

It  seem'd  so  hard  at  first,  mother,  to  leave  the  blessed  sun, 
And  now  it  seems  as  hard  to  stay,  and  yet  His  will  be  done ! 
But  still  I  think  it  can't  be  long  before  I  find  release; 
And  that  good  man,  the  clergyman,  has  told  me  words  of  peace. 

O  blessings  on  his  kindly  voice  and  on  his  silver  hair ! 

And  blessings  on  his  whole  life  long,  until  he  meet  me  there ! 

0  blessings  on  his  kindly  heart  and  on  his  silver  head ! 
A  thousand  times  I  blest  him,  as  he  knelt  beside  my  bed. 

He  taught  me  all  the  mercy,  for  he  show'd  me  all  the  sin. 
Now,  tho'  my  lamp  was  lighted  late,  there's  One  will  let  me  in : 
Nor  would  I  now  be  well,  mother,  again  if  that  could  be, 
For  my  desire  is  but  to  pass  to  Him  that  died  for  me. 

1  did  not  hear  the  dog  howl,  mother,  or  the  death-watch  beat, 
There  came  a  sweeter  token  when  the  night  and  morning  meet ; 
But  sit  beside  my  bed,  mother,  and  put  your  hand  in  mine, 
And  Effie  on  the  other  side,  and  I  will  tell  the  sign. 


52  THE  MAY  QUEEN. 


All  in  the  wild  March-morning  I  heard  the  angels  call ; 
It  was  when  the  moon  was  setting,  and  the  dark  was  over  all; 
The  trees  began  to  whisper,  and  the  wind  began  to  roll, 
And  in  the  wild  March-morning  I  heard  them  call  my  soul. 

For  lying  broad  awake  I  thought  of  you  and  Efne  dear; 
I  saw  you  sitting  in  the  house  and  I  no  longer  here ; 
With  all  my  strength  I  pray'd  for  both,  and  so  I  felt  resign'd, 
And  up  the  valley  came  a  swell  of  music  on  the  wind. 

I  thought  that  it  was  fancy,  and  I  listen'd  in  my  bed, 
And  then  did  something  speak  to  me  —  I  know  not  what  was  said; 
For  great  delight  and  shuddering  took  hold  of  all  my  mind, 
And  up  the  valley  came  again  the  music  on  the  wind. 

But  you  were  sleeping;  and  I  said,  '  It's  not  for  them :  it's  mine.' 
And  if  it  come  three  times,  I  thought,  I  take  it  for  a  sign. 
And  once  again  it  came,  and  close  beside  the  window-bars, 
Then  seem'd  to  go  right  up  to  Heaven  and  die  among  the  stars. 

So  now  I  think  my  time  is  near.     I  trust  it  is.     I  know 
The  blessed  music  went  that  way  my  soul  will  have  to  go. 
And  for  myself,  indeed,  I  care  not  if  I  go  to-day. 
But,  Efne,  you  must  comfort  her  when  I  am  passed  away. 

And  say  to  Robin  a  kind  word,  and  tell  him  not  to  fret; 
There's  many  a  worthier  than  I,  would  make  him  happy  yet. 
If  I  had  lived  —  I  cannot  tell  —  I  might  have  been  his  wife; 
But  all  these  things  have  ceased  to  be,  with  my  desire  of  life. 

O  look !  the  sun  begins  to  rise,  the  heavens  are  in  a  glow; 

He  shines  upon  a  hundred  fields,  and  all  of  them  I  know. 

And  there  I  move  no  longer  now,  and  there  his  light  may  shine  — 

Wild  flowers  in  the  valley  for  other  hands  than  mine. 

O  sweet  and  strange  it  seems  to  me,  that  ere  this  day  is  done 
The  voice,  that  now  is  speaking,  may  be  beyond  the  sun  — 
For  ever  and  for  ever  with  those  just  souls  and  true  — 
And  what  is  life,  that  we  should  moan?  why  make  we  such  ado? 

For  ever  and  for  ever,  all  in  a  blessed  home  — 
And  there  to  wait  a  little  while  till  you  and  Effie  come  — 
To  lie  within  the  light  of  God,  as  I  lie  upon  your  breast  — 
And  the  wicked  cease  from  troubling,  and  the  weary  are  at  rest 


THE  LOTOS-EATERS. 


53 


THE  LOTOS-EATERS. 

1  Courage  ! '  he  said,  and  pointed  toward 

the  land, 
'This  mounting  wave  will  roll  us  shore- 
ward soon.' 
In  the  afternoon  they  came  unto  a  land 
In  which  it  seemed  always  afternoon. 
All  round  the  coast  the  languid  air  did 

swoon, 
Breathing  like  one  that   hath   a  weary 

dream. 
Full-faced   above   the   valley   stood   the 

moon; 
And  like  a  downward  smoke,  the  slender 

stream 
Along  the  cliff  to  fall  and  pause  and  fall 

did  seem. 

A  land  of  streams !  some,  like  a  down- 
ward smoke, 
Slow-dropping  veils  of  thinnest  lawn,  did 

go; 

And  some  thro'  wavering  lights  and 
shadows  broke, 

Rolling  a  slumbrous  sheet  of  foam  below. 

They  saw  the  gleaming  river  seaward  flow 

From  the  inner  land :  far  off,  three  moun- 
tain-tops, 

Three  silent  pinnacles  of  aged  snow, 

Sfood  sunset-fiush'd :  and,  dew'd  with 
showery  drops, 

Up-clomb  the  shadowy  pine  above  the 
woven  copse. 

The  charmed  sunset  lingered  low  adown 
In  the  red  West :   thro'  mountain  clefts 

the  dale 
Was  seen  far  inland,  and  the  yellow  down 
Border'd  with  palm,  and  many  a  winding 

vale 
And  meadow,  set  with  slender  galingale; 
A  land  where  all  things  always  seem'd 

the  same ! 
And   round    about   the   keel  with  faces 

pale, 
Dark  faces  pale  against  that  rosy  flame, 
The  mild-eyed  melancholy  Lotos-eaters 

came. 
Branches  they  bore  of  that   enchanted 

stem, 
Laden  with  flower  and  fruit,  whereof  they 

gave 


To  each,  but  whoso  did  receive  of  them, 
And  taste,  to  him  the  gushing  of  the  wave 
Far  far  away  did  seem  to  mourn  and  rave 
On  alien  shores;  and  if  his  fellow  spake, 
His  voice  was  thin,  as  voices  from  the 

grave ; 
And  deep-asleep  he  seem'd,  yet  all  awake, 
And  music  in  his  ears  his  beating  heart 

did  make. 

They  sat  them  down  upon   the  yellow 

sand, 
Between  the  sun  and  moon   upon  the 

shore; 
And  sweet  it  was  to  dream  of  Fatherland, 
Of  child,  and  wife,  and  slave;   but  ever- 
more 
Most  weary  seem'd  the  sea,  weary  the 

oar, 
Weary  the  wandering  fields   of  barren 

foam. 
Then  some  one  said,  '  We  will  return  no 

more;  ' 
And  all  at  once  they  sang,  '  Our  island 

home 
Is  far  beyond  the  wave;  we  will  no  longer 

roam.' 


CHORIC  SONG. 


There  is  sweet  music  here  that  softer  falls 
Than  petals  from  blown  roses  on  the  grass, 
Or  night-dews   on  still  waters  between 

walls 
Of  shadowy  granite,  in  a  gleaming  pass; 
Music  that  gentlier  on  the  spirit  lies, 
Than  tir'd  eyelids  upon  tir'd  eyes; 
Music  that  brings  sweet  sleep  down  from 

the  blissful  skies. 
Here  are  cool  mosses  deep, 
And  thro'  the  moss  the  ivies  creep, 
And  in  the  stream  the  long-leaved  flowers 

weep, 
And  from  the  craggy  ledge  the  poppy 

hangs  in  sleep. 

II. 

Why  are  we  weigh'd  upon  with  heavi- 
ness, 

And  utterly  consumed  with  sharp  dis- 
tress, 


54 


THE  LOTOS-EATERS. 


While  all    things   else   have   rest    from 

weariness? 
All   things   have   rest: 

to]]  fllorigj 

We  only  toil,  who  are  the  first  of  things, 
And  make  perpetual  moan, 
Still  from  one  sorrow  to  another  thrown : 
Nor  ever  fold  our  wings, 
And  cease  from  wanderings, 
Nor  steep   our  brows  in  slumber's  holy 

balm; 
Nor  harken  what  the  inner  spirit  sings, 
'  There  is  no  joy  but  calm ! ' 
Why  should  we  only  toil,  the  roof  and 

crown  of  things? 

III. 

Lo  !  in  the  middle  of  the  wood, 

The  folded  leaf  is  woo'd  from  out  the 

bud 
With  winds  upon  the  branch,  and  there 
Grows  green  and   broad,  and   takes  no 

care, 
Sun-steep'd  at  noon,  and  in  the  moon 
Nightly  dew-fed;   and  turning  yellow 
Falls,  and  floats  adown  the  air. 
Lo !  sweeten'd  with  the  summer  light, 
The  full-juiced  apple,  waxing  over-mel- 
low, 
Drops  in  a  silent  autumn  night. 
All  its  allotted  length  of  days, 
The  flower  ripens  in  its  place, 
Ripens  and   fades,  and   falls,  and   hath 

no  toil, 
Fast-rooted  in  the  fruitful  soil. 


IV. 

Hateful  is  the  dark-blue  sky, 

J  Vaulted  o'er  the  dark -blue  sea. 
Death  is  the  end  of  life;   ah,  why 
Should  life  all  labour  be? 
Let  us  done.     Time  driveth  onward  fast, 
And  in  a  little  while  our  lips  are  dumb. 
Let  us  alone.     What  is  it  that  will  last? 
All  things  are  taken  from  us,  and  become 
Portions  and  parcels  of  the  dreadful  Past. 
Let    us  alone,.    What   pleasure    can  we 

have 
To  war  with  evil  ?     Is  there  any  peace 
fin  ever  climbing  up  the  climbing  wave? 
All   things  have  rest,  and  ripen  toward 
the  grave 


In  silence;  ripen,  fall  and  cease: 
Give  us  long  rest  or  death,  dark  death, 
L  ***        or  dreamful  ease. 

v. 

How  sweet  it  were,  hearing  the  down- 
ward stream, 

With  half-shut  eyes  ever  to  seem 

Falling  asleep  in  a  half-dream ! 

To  dream  and  dream,  like  yonder  amber 
light, 

Which  will  not  leave  the  myrrh-bush  on 
the  height; 

To  hear  each  other's  whisper'd  speech; 

Eating  the  Lotos  day  by  day, 

To  watch  the  crisping  ripples  on  the 
beach, 

>  And  tender  curving  lines  of  creamy  spray; 
To  lend  our  hearts  and  spirits  wholly 

>  To  the  influence  of  mild-minded  melan- 

choly; 
To  muse  and   brood  and  live  again  in 

memory, 
With  those  old  faces  of  our  infancy 
Heap'd  over  with  a  mound  of  grass, 
Two  handfuls  of  white  dust,  shut  in  an 

urn  of  brass ! 


Dear  is  the  memory  of  our  wedded  lives, 
And  dear  the  last  embraces  of  our  wives 
And  their  warm  tears :  but  all  hath  suf- 

fer'd  change: 
For  surely  now  our  household  hearths 

are  cold: 
Our    sons    inherit    us:    our    looks    are 

strange : 
And  we  should    come    like   ghosts  to 

trouble  joy. 
Or  else  the  island  princes  over-bold 
Have  eat  our  substance,  and   the  min- 
strel sings 
Before   them  of  the   ten  years'  war  in 

Troy, 
And  our  great   deeds,  as  half-forgotten 

things. 
Is  there  confusion  in  the  little  isle? 
Let  what  is  broken  so  remain. 
The  Gods  are  hard  to  reconcile : 
'Tis  hard  to  settle  order  once  again. 
There  is  confusion  worse  than  death, 
TroubTe  on  trouble,  pain  on  pain, 
Long  labour  unto  aged  breath, 


THE  LOTOS-EATERS—  A   DREAM   OF  FAIR    WOMEN. 


55 


Sore  task  to  hearts  worn  out  by  many  wars 
And   eyes   grown   dim  with   gazing   on 
the  pilot-stars. 

VII. 

But,   propt   on  beds   of  amaranth    and 

moly, 
How   sweet    (while   warm   airs   lull   us, 

blowing  lowly) 
With  half-dropt  eyelid  still, 
Beneath  a  heaven  dark  and  holy, 
To  watch  the  long  bright  river  drawing 

slowly 
His  waters  from  the  purple  hill  — 
To  hear  the  dewy  echoes  calling 
From  cave  to  cave  thro'  the  thick-twined 

vine  — 
To   watch    the    emerald-colour'd   water 

falling 
Thro'    many   a   wov'n    acanthus-wreath 

divine ! 
Only  to  hear  and  see  the  far-off  spark- 
ling brine, 
Only  to  hear  were  sweet,  stretch'd   out 

beneath  the  pine. 


The  Lotos  blooms  below  the  barren  peak : 
The  Lotos  blows  by  every  winding  creek  : 
All  day  the  wind  breathes  low  with  mel- 
lower tone : 
Thro'  every  hollow  cave  and  alley  lone 
Round  and  round  the  spicy  downs  the 

yellow  Lotos-dust  is  blown. 
We  have  had  enough  of  action,  and  of 

motion  we, 
Roll'd    to  starboard,  roll'd    to   larboard, 

when  the  surge  was  seething  free, 
Where   the  wallowing  monster   spouted 

his  foam-fountains  in  the  sea. 
Let  us  swear  an  oath,  and  keep  it  with 

an  equal  mind, 
In  the  hollow  Lotos-land  to  live  and  lie 

reclined 
On  the  hills  like  Gods  together,  careless 

of,  mankind. 
For  they  lie  beside  their  nectar,  and  the 

bolts  are  hurl'd 
Far  below  them  in  the  valleys,  and  the 

clouds  are  lightly  curl'd 
Round  their  golden  houses,  girdled  with 

the  gleaming  world: 


Where  they  smile  in  secret,  looking  over 

wasted  lands, 
Blight  and  famine,  plague  and  earthquake, 

roaring  deeps  and  fiery  sands, 
Clanging  fights,  and  flaming  towns,  and 

sinking  ships,  and  praying  hands. 
But  they  smile,  they  find  a  music  centred 

in  a  doleful  song 
Steaming  up,  a  lamentation  and  an  an- 
cient tale  of  wrong, 
Like  a  tale  of  little  meaning   tho'    the 

words  are  strong; 
Chanted   from  an  ill-used   race  of  men 

that  cleave  the  soil, 
Sow  the  seed,  and  reap  the  harvest  with 

enduring  toil, 
Storing  yearly  little  dues  of  wheat,  and 

wine  and  oil; 
Till  they  perish  and  they  suffer  —  some, 

'tis  whisper'd  —  down  in  hell 
Suffer  endless  anguish,  others  in  Elysian 

valleys  dwell, 
Resting  weary  limbs  at  last  on  beds  of 

asphodel. 
Surely,   surely,   slumber    is   more   sweet 

than  toil,  the  shore 
Than   labour   in   the    deep    mid-ocean, 

wind  and  wave  and  oar; 
Oh   rest   ye,  brother   mariners,  we   will 

not  wander  more. 


A  DREAM   OF   FAIR   WOMEN. 

I   read,  before  my  eyelids   dropt   their 
shade, 
'  The  Legend  of  Good  Women?  long  ago 
Sung  by  the  morning  star  of  song,  who 
made 
His  music  heard  below; 

Dan  Chaucer,  the  first  v/arbler,  whose 
sweet  breath 

Preluded  those  melodious  bursts  that  fill 
The  spacious  times  of  great  Elizabeth 

With  sounds  that  echo  still. 

And,  for  a  while,  the  knowledge  of  his  art 
Held  me  above  the  subject,  as  strong 
gales 
Hold  swollen  clouds  from  raining,  tho' 
my  heart, 
Brimful  of  those  wild  tales, 


56 


A   DREAM   OF  FAIR    WOMEN. 


Charged  both  mine  eyes  with  tears.     In 

As  when  a  great  thought  strikes  along 

every  land 

the  brain, 

I  saw,  wherever  light  illumineth, 

And  flushes  all  the  cheek. 

Beauty  and  anguish  walking  hand  in  hand 

The  downward  slope  to  death. 

And  once  my  arm  was  lifted  to  hew  down 

A  cavalier  from  off  his  saddle-bow, 

1  hose  far-renowned  brides  of  ancient  song 

That  bore  a  lady  from  a  leaguer'd  town; 

Peopled  the  hollow  dark,  like  burning 

And  then,  I  know  not  how, 

stars, 
And  I  heard  sounds  of  insult,  shame,  and 

All  those  sharp  fancies,  by  down-lapsing 

wrong, 

thought 

And  trumpets  blown  for  wars; 

Stream'd  onward,  lost  their  edges,  and 

did  creep 

And  clattering  flints  batter'd  with  clang- 

Roll'd on  each  other,  rounded,  smooth'd, 

ing  hoofs; 

and  brought 

And  I  saw  crowds  in  column' d  sanctu- 

Into the  gulfs  of  sleep. 

aries  ; 
And  forms  that  pass'd  at  windows  and  on 

At  last  methought  that  I  had  wander'd  far 

roofs 

In  an  old  wood :  fresh-wash'd  in  coolest 

Of  marble  palaces; 

dew 

The  maiden  splendours  of  the  morning  star 

Corpses  across  the  threshold;   heroes  tall 

Shook  in  the  stedfast  blue. 

Dislodging  pinnacle  and  parapet 

Upon  the  tortoise  creeping  to  the  wall; 

Enormous  elm-tree-boles  did  stoop  and 

Lances  in  ambush  set; 

lean 

Upon  the  dusky  brushwood  underneath 

And  high  shrine-doors  burst  thro'  with 

Their  broad  curved  branches,  fledged  wrth 

heated  blasts 

clearest  green, 

That  run  before  the  fluttering  tongues 

New  from  its  silken  sheath. 

of  fire; 

White  surf  wind-scatter'd  over  sails  and 

The  dim  red  morn  had  died,  her  journey 

masts, 

done, 

And  ever  climbing  higher; 

And  with  dead  lips  smiled  at  the  twi- 

light plain, 

Squadrons  and  squares  of  men  in  brazen 

Half-fall' n  across  the  threshold  of  the  sun, 

plates, 

Never  to  rise  again. 

Scaffolds,  still  sheets  of  water,  divers 

woes, 

There  was  no  motion  in  the  dumb  dead  air, 

Ranges  of  glimmering  vaults  with  iron 

Not  any  song  of  bird  or  sound  of  rill; 

grates, 

Gross  darkness  of  the  inner  sepulchre 

And  hush'd  seraglios. 

Is  not  so  deadly  still 

So  shape  chased  shape  as  swift  as,  when 

As  that  wide  forest.     Growths  of  jasmine 

to  land 

turn'd 

Bluster  the  winds  and  tides  the  self- 

Their humid  arms  festooning  tree  to 

same  way, 

tree, 

Crisp  foam-flakes  scud  along  the  level 

And  at  the  root  thro'  lush  green  grasses 

sand, 

burn'd 

Torn  from  the  fringe  of  spray. 

The  red  anemone. 

I  started  once,  or  seem'd  to  start  in  pain, 

I  knew  the  flowers,  I  knew  the  leaves,  I 

Resolved  on  noble  things,  and  strove 

knew 

to  speak, 

The  tearful  glimmer  of  the  languid  dawn 

A   DREAM  OF  FAIR    WOMEN. 


57 


On  those  long,  rank,  dark  wood-walks 
drench'd  in  dew, 
Leading  from  lawn  to  lawn. 

The  smell  of  violets,  hidden  in  the  green, 
Pour'd  back  into  my  empty  soul  and 
frame 

The  times  when  I  remember  to  have  been 
Joyful  and  free  from  blame. 

And  from  within  me  a  clear  under-tone 
ThrilPd  thro'  mine  ears  in  that  unbliss- 
ful  clime, 

'Pass  freely  thro' :  the  wood  is  all  thine  own, 
Until  the  end  of  time.' 

At  length  I  saw  a  lady  within  call, 

Stiller  than  chisell'd  marble,  standing 
there; 

A  daughter  of  the  gods,  divinely  tall, 
And  most  divinely  fair. 

Her  loveliness  with  shame  and  with  sur- 
prise 
Froze  my  swift  speech :  she  turning  on 
my  face 
The  star-like  sorrows  of  immortal  eyes, 
Spoke  slowly  in  her  place. 

'  I  had  great  beauty :  ask  thou  not  my 
name : 
No  one  can  be  more  wise  than  destiny. 
Many  drew  swords  and  died.     Where'er 
I  came 
I  brought  calamity.' 

'No  marvel,  sovereign  lady:  in  fair  field 
Myself  for  such  a  face  had  boldly  died,' 

I  answer'd  free;   and  turning  I  appeal'd 
To  one  that  stood  beside. 

But  she,  with  sick  and  scornful  looks  averse, 
To  her  full  height  her  stately  stature 
draws; 
'My  youth,'  she  said,  'was  blasted  with 
a  curse : 
This  woman  was  the  cause. 

'  I  was  cut  off  from  hope  in  that  sad  place, 
Which  men  call'd  Aulis  in  those  iron 
years : 

My  father  held  his  hand  upon  his  face; 
I,  blinded  with  my  tears, 


'  Still   strove   to   speak :    my   voice   was 
thick  with  sighs 
As  in  a  dream.     Dimly  I  could  descry 
The  stern  black-bearded  kings  with  wolf- 
ish eyes, 
Waiting  to  see  me  die. 

'The   high  masts  flicker'd   as   they  lay 
afloat; 
The  crowds,  the  temples,  waver'd,  and 
the  shore; 
The  bright  death  quiver'd  at  the  victim's 
throat; 
Touch'd;   and  I  knew  no  more.' 

Whereto    the    other   with    a   downward 
brow: 
'  I  would  the  white  cold  heavy-plung- 
ing foam, 
Whirl'd  by  the  wind,  had  roll'd  me  deep 
below, 
Then  when  I  left  my  home.' 

Her  slow  full  words  sank  thro'  the  silence 
drear, 
As   thunder-drops   fall  on  a  sleeping 
sea: 
Sudden  I  heard  a  voice  that  cried,  '  Come 
here, 
That  I  may  look  on  thee.' 

I  turning  saw,  throned  on  a  flowery  rise, 
One  sitting  on  a  crimson  scarf  unroll'd; 

A  queen,  with  swarthy  cheeks  and  bold 
black  eyes, 
Brow-bound  with  burning  gold. 

She,  flashing  forth  a  haughty  smile,  began : 
'  I  govern 'd  men  by  change,  and  so  I 
sway'd 
All  moods.     'Tis  long  since  I  have  seen 
a  man. 
Once,  like  the  moon,  I  made 

'The  ever-shifting  currents  of  the  blood 
According  to  my  humour  ebb  and  flow. 

I  have  no  men  to  govern  in  this  wood: 
That  makes  my  only  woe. 

'  Nay  —  yet  it  chafes  me  that  I  could  not 
bend 
One  will;     nor  tame   and  tutor  with 
mine  eye 


58 


A   DREAM   OF  FAIR    WOMEN. 


That  dull  cold-blooded  Caesar.     Prythee, 

From  tone  to  tone,  and  glided  thro'  all 

friend, 

change 

Where  is  Mark  Antony? 

Of  liveliest  utterance. 

*  The  man,  my  lover,  with  whom  I  rode 

When  she  made  pause  I  knew  not  foi 

sublime 

delight; 

On  Fortune's  neck:  we  sat  as  God  by 

Because  with  sudden  motion  from  the 

God: 

ground 

The  Nilus  would  have  risen  before   his 

She  raised  her  piercing  orbs,  and  fill'd 

time 

with  light 

And  flooded  at  our  nod. 

The  interval  of  sound. 

*  We  drank  the  Libyan  Sun  to  sleep,  and 

Still  with  their  fires  Love  tipt  his  keenest 

lit 

darts; 

Lamps  which  out-burn'd  Canopus.     O 

As  once  they  drew  into  two  burning 

my  life 

rings 

In  Egypt !     0  the  dalliance  and  the  wit, 

All  beams  of  Love,  melting  the  mighty 

The  flattery  and  the  strife, 

hearts 

. 

Of  captains  and  of  kings. 

'And  the  wild  kiss,  when  fresh  from  war's 

alarms, 

Slowly  my  sense    undazzled.      Then   I 

My  Hercules,  my  Roman  Antony, 

heard 

My  mailed  Bacchus  leapt  into  my  arms, 

A  noise  of  some  one  coming  thro'  the 

Contented  there  to  die  ! 

lawn, 

And    singing  clearer   than  the   crested 

t  And  there  he  died :  and  when  I  heard 

bird 

my  name 

That  claps  his  wings  at  dawn. 

Sigh'd    forth   with   life   I   would   not 

brook  my  fear 

*  The  torrent  brooks  of  hallow'd  Israel 

Of  the  other:  with  a  worm  I  balk'd  his 

From  craggy  hollows  pouring,  late  and 

fame. 

soon, 

What  else  was  left?  look  here ! ' 

Sound  all  night  long,  in  falling  thro'  the 
dell, 
Far-heard  beneath  the  moon. 

(With  that  she  tore  her  robe  apart,  and 
half 
The  polish'd  argent  of  her  breast  to 

1  The  balmy  moon  of  blessed  Israel 

sight 

Floods  all  the  deep-blue  gloom  with 

Laid  bare.     Thereto  she  pointed  with  a 

beams  divine : 

laugh, 

All  night  the  splinter'd  crags  that  wall 

Showing  the  aspick's  bite.) 

the  dell 

With  spires  of  silver  shine.' 

'I  died  a  Queen.    The   Roman  soldier 

found 

As  one  that  museth  where  broad  sunshine 

Me  lying  dead,  my  crown  about  my 

laves 

brows, 

The  lawn  by  some  cathedral,  thro'  the 

A  name    for    ever!  —  lying  robed   and 

door 

crown'd, 

Hearing  the  holy  organ  rolling  waves 

Worthy  a  Roman  spouse.' 

Of  sound  on  roof  and  floor 

Her  warbling  voice,   a  lyre   of  widest 

Within,  and  anthem  sung,  is  charm'd  and 

range 

tied 

Struck  by  all  passion,  did  fall   down 

To   where    he    stands,  —  so  stood  I, 

and  glance 

when  that  flow 

A  DREAM  OF  FAIR    WOMEN. 


59 


Of  music  left  the  lips  of  her  that  died 
To  save  her  father's  vow; 

The  daughter  of  the  warrior  Gileadite, 
.     A  maiden   pure;   as   when   she   went 

along 
From  Mizpeh's    tower'd  gate  with  wel- 
come light, 
With  timbrel  and  with  song. 

My   words  leapt  forth :  '  Heaven  heads 
the  count  of  crimes 
With  that  wild  oath.'      She  render'd 
answer  high : 
'Not   so,  nor   once   alone;   a   thousand 
times 
I  would  be  born  and  die. 

'  Single  I  grew,  like  some  green  plant, 
whose  root 
Creeps  to  the  garden  water-pipes  be- 
neath, 
Feeding  the  flower;  but  ere  my  flower  to 
fruit 
Changed,  I  was  ripe  for  death. 

'My  God,  my  land,  my  father  —  these 
did  move 
Me  from  my  bliss  of  life,  that  Nature 
gave, 
Lower'd  softly  with  a  threefold  cord  of 
love 
Down  to  a  silent  grave. 

'  And  I  went  mourning,  "  No  fair  Hebrew 

boy 
Shall  smile   away  my  maiden  blame 

among 
The  Hebrew  mothers 


emptied  of  all 


joy, 


Leaving  the  dance  and  song, 

'  Leaving  the  olive-gardens  far  below, 
Leaving    the     promise   of  my   bridal 
bower, 
The  valleys   of  grape-loaded  vines  that 
glow 
Beneath  the  battled  tower. 

'The  light  white  cloud  swam  over  us. 
Anon 
We   heard  the  lion  roaring  from  his 
den; 


We  saw  the  large  white  stars  rise  one  by 
one, 
Or,  from  the  darken'd  glen, 

'  Saw  God  divide  the  night  with  flying 
flame, 
And  thunder  on  the  everlasting  hills. 
I  heard  Him,  for  He  spake,  and  grief 
became 
A  solemn  scorn  of  ills. 

'  When  the   next  moon  was  roll'd   into 
the  sky, 
Strength  came  to  me  that  equall'd  my 
desire. 
How  beautiful  a  thing  it  was  to  die 
For  God  and  for  my  sire  ! 

'  It  comforts  me  in  this  one  thought  to 
dwell, 
.That  I   subdued   me   to   my  father's 
will; 
Because  the  kiss  he  gave  me,  ere  I  fell, 
Sweetens  the  spirit  still. 

'  Moreover  it  is  written  that  my  race 
Hew'd  Ammon,  hip  and  thigh,  from 
Aroer 
On  Arnon  unto  Minneth.'       Here  her 
face 
Glow'd,  as  I  look'd  at  her. 

She  lock'd  her  lips :  she  left  me  where  I 
stood : 
'Glory  to  God,'  she  sang,   and  past 
afar, 
Thridding   the   sombre  boskage  of  the 
wood, 
Toward  the  morning-star. 

Losing  her  carol  I  stood  pensively, 
As  one  that  from  a  casement  leans  his 
head, 
When  midnight  bells  cease  ringing  sud- 
denly, 
And  the  old  year  is  dead. 

'  Alas !    alas !  I   a  low  voice,  full  of  care, 
Murmur'd  beside  me :   '  Turn  and  look 
on  me: 
I  am  that    Rosamond,  whom   men   call 
fair, 
If  what  I  was  I  be. 


6o 


A   DREAM  OF  FAIR    WOMEN—THE  BLACKBIRD. 


*  Would  I  had  been  some  maiden  coarse 
and  poor ! 

O  me,  that  I  should  ever  see  the  light ! 
Those  dragon  eyes  of  anger'd  Eleanor 

Do  hunt  me.  day  and  night.' 

She  ceased  in  tears,  fallen  from  hope  and 
trust: 
To   whom   the    Egyptian :     '  Oh,   you 
tamely  died ! 
You  should  have  clung  to  Fulvia's  waist, 
and  thrust 
The  dagger  thro'  her  side.' 

With  that  sharp  sound  the  white  dawn's 
creeping  beams, 
Stol'n  to  my  brain,  dissolved  the  mystery 
Of  folded    sleep.      The    captain   of  my 
dreams 
Ruled  in  the  eastern  sky. 

Morn  broaden'd  on  the  borders  of  the  dark, 
Ere  I  saw  her,  who  clasp'd  in  her  last 
trance 
Her  murder'd  father's  head,  or  Joan  of 
Arc, 
A  light  of  ancient  France; 

Or  her  who  knew  that  Love  can  vanquish 
Death, 
Who   kneeling,   with   one   arm  about 
her  king, 
Drew  forth   the  poison  with  her  balmy 
breath, 
Sweet  as  new  buds  in  Spring. 

No  memory  labours  longer  from  the  deep 
Gold-mines    of    thought    to   lift    the 
hidden  ore 
That  glimpses,  moving  up,  than  I  from 
sleep 
To  gather  and  tell  o'er 

Each  little  sound  and  sight.     With  what 
dull  pain 
Compass' d,  how  eagerly  I   sought   to 
strike 
Into    that   wondrous    track    of    dreams 
again ! 
But  no  two  dreams  are  like. 

As  when  a  soul  laments,  which  hath  been 
blest, 


Desiring  what   is  mingled  with  past 
years, 
In  yearnings  that  can  never  be  exprest 
By  sighs  or  groans  or  tears; 

Because  all  words,  tho'  cull'd  with  choicest 
art, 

Failing  to  give  the  bitter  of  the  sweet, 
Wither  beneath  the  palate,  and  the  heart 

Faints,  faded  by  its  heat. 

THE  BLACKBIRD. 

O  blackbird  !  sing  me  something  well : 
While   all   the  neighbours  shoot  thee 

round, 
I  keep  smooth  plats  of  fruitful  ground, 

Where  thou  may'st  warble,  eat  and  dwell. 

The  espaliers  and  the  standards  all 

Are   thine;     the   range   of  lawn   and 

park : 
The  unnetted  black-hearts  ripen  dark, 

All  thine,  against  the  garden  wall. 

Yet,  tho'  I  spared  thee  all  the  spring, 
Thy  sole  delight  is,  sitting  still, 
With  that  gold  dagger  of  thy  bill 

To  fret  the  summer  jenneting. 

A  golden  bill !  the  silver  tongue, 

Cold  February  loved,  is  dry : 

Plenty  corrupts  the  melody 
That   made    thee    famous    once,   when 
young : 

And  in  the  sultry  garden-squares, 
.  Now  thy  flute-notes   are   changed   to 
coarse, 
I  hear  thee  not  at  all,  or  hoarse 
As  when  a  hawker  hawks  his  wares. 

Take  warning !  he  that  will  not  sing 
While  yon  sun  prospers  in  the  blue, 
Shall  sing  for  want,  ere  leaves  are  new, 

Caught  in  the  frozen  palms  of  Spring. 

THE  DEATH   OF  THE  OLD 
YEAR. 

Full  knee-deep  lies  the  winter  snow, 
And  the  winter  winds  are  wearily  sigh- 
ing: 


: 


THE  DEATH  OF   THE    OLD    YEAR— TO  J.   S. 


61 


Toll  ye  the  church-bell  sad  and  slow 
And  tread  softly  and  speak  low, 
For  the  old  year  lies  a-dying. 
Old  year,  you  must  not  die; 
You  came  to  us  so  readily, 
You  lived  with  us  so  steadily, 
Old  year,  you  shall  not  die. 

He  lieth  still :  he  doth  not  move  : 
He  will  not  see  the  dawn  of  day. 
He  hath  no  other  life  above. 
He  gave  me  a  friend,  and  a  true  true-love, 
And  the  New-year  will  take  'em  away. 
Old  year,  you  must  not  go; 
So  long  as  you  have  been  with  us, 
Such  joy  as  you  have  seen  with  us, 
Old  year,  you  shall  not  go. 

He  froth'd  his  bumpers  to  the  brim; 
A  jollier  year  we  shall  not  see. 
But  tho'  his  eyes  are  waxing  dim, 
And  tho'  his  foes  speak  ill  of  him, 
He  was  a  friend  to  me. 

Old  year,  you  shall  not  die; 

We  did  so  laugh  and  cry  with  you, 

I've  half  a  mind  to  die  with  you, 

Old  year,  if  you  must  die. 

He  was  full  of  joke  and  jest, 
But  all  his  merry  quips  are  o'er. 
To  see  him  die,  across  the  waste 
His  son  and  heir  doth  ride  post-haste, 
But  he'll  be  dead  before. 

Every  one  for  his  own. 

The   night   is   starry   and  cold,  my 
friend, 

And  the  New-year  blithe  and  bold, 
my  friend, 

Comes  up  to  take  his  own. 

How  hard  he  breathes !  over  the  snow 
I  heard  just  now  the  crowing  cock. 
The  shadows  flicker  to  and  fro : 
The  cricket  chirps :  the  light  burns  low : 
'Tis  nearly  twelve  o'clock. 

Shake  hands,  before  you  die. 

Old  year,  we'll  dearly  rue  for  you : 

What  is  it  we  can  do  for  you? 

Speak  out  before  you  die. 

His  face  is  growing  sharp  and  thin. 

Alack  !  our  friend  is  gone. 

Close  up  his  eyes :  tie  up  his  chin  : 


Step  from  the  corpse,  and  let  him  in 
That  standeth  there  alone, 
And  waiteth  at  the  door. 
There's  a  new  foot  on  the  floor,  my 

friend, 
And  a   new  face   at  the  door,  my 

friend, 
A  new  face  at  the  door. 


TO  J.   S. 

The  wind,  that  beats  the  mountain,  blows 
More  softly  round  the  open  wold, 

And  gently  comes  the  world  to  those 
That  are  cast  in  gentle  mould. 

And  me  this  knowledge  bolder  made, 
Or  else  I  had  not  dared  to  flow 

In  these  words  toward  you,  and  invade 
Even  with  a  verse  your  holy  woe. 

'Tis  strange  that  those  we  lean  on  most, 
Those  in  whose  laps  our  limbs  are 
nursed, 

Fall  into  shadow,  soonest  lost : 

Those  we  love  first  are  taken  first. 

God  gives  us  love.     Something  to  love 
He  lends  us;  but,  when  love  is  grown 

To  ripeness,  that  on  which  it  throve 
Falls  off,  and  love  is  left  alone; 

This  is  the  curse  of  time.     Alas ! 

In  grief  I  am  not  all  unlearn'd; 
Once  thro'  mine  own  doors  Death'did  pass ; 

One  went,  who  never  hath  return'd. 

He  will  not  smile — not  speak  to  me 

Once  more.     Two  years  his  chair  is 
seen 

Empty  before  us.     That  was  he 

Without  whose  life  I  had  not  been. 

Your  loss  is  rarer ;   for  this  star 

Rose  with  you  thro'  a  little  arc 

Of  heaven,  nor  having  wander'd  far 
Shot  on  the  sudden  into  dark. 

I  knew  your  brother :  his  mute  dust 
I  honour  and  his  living  worth  : 

A  man  more  pure  and  bold  and  just 
Was  never  born  into  the  earth. 


62 


TO  J.   S.—  ON  A  MOURNER. 


I  have  not  look'd  upon  you  nigh, 

Since  that  dear  soul  hath  fall'n  asleep. 

Great  Nature  is  move  wise  than  I : 
I  will  not  tell  you  not  to  weep. 

And  tho'  mine  own  eyes  fill  with  dew, 
Drawn  from  the  spirit  thro'  the  brain, 

I  will  not  even  preach  to  you, 

'Weep,  weeping   dulls  the  inward 
pain.' 

Let  Grief  be  her  own  mistress  still. 

She  loveth  her  own  anguish  deep 
More  than  much  pleasure.     Let  her  will 

Be  done  —  to  weep  or  not  to  weep. 

I  will  not  say,  '  God's  ordinance 

Of  Death  is  blown  in  every  wind;  ' 

For  that  is  not  a  common  chance 
That  takes  away  a  noble  mind. 

His  memory  long  will  live  alone 

In  all  our  hearts,  as  mournful  light 

That  broods  above  the  fallen  sun, 

And  dwells  in  heaven  half  the  night. 

Vain  solace  !  Memory  standing  near 

Cast   down   her    eyes,   and   in  her 
throat 

Her  voice  seem'd  distant,  and  a  tear 
Dropt  on  the  letters  as  I  wrote. 

I  wrote  I  know  not  what.     In  truth, 
How  should  I  soothe  you  anyway, 

Who  miss  the  brother  of  your  youth  ? 
Yet  something  I  did  wish  to  say : 

For  he  too  was  a  friend  to  me : 

Both  are  my  friends,  and  my  true 
breast 

Bleedeth  for  both ;  yet  it  may  be 
That  only  silence  suiteth  best. 

Words  weaker  than  your  grief  would 
make 
Grief  more.     'Twere  better  I  should 
cease 
Although  myself  could  almost  take 

The   place   of    him  that  sleeps  in 
peace. 

Sleep  sweetly,  tender  heart,  in  peace  : 
Sleep,  holy  spirit,  blessed  soul, 


While  the  stars  burn,  the  moons  increase, 
And  the  great  ages  onward  roll. 

Sleep  till  the  end,  true  soul  and  sweet. 

Nothing  comes  to  thee  new  or  strange. 
Sleep  full  of  rest  from  head  to  feet; 

Lie  still,  dry  dust,  secure  of  change, 

ON  A   MOURNER. 


Nature,  so  far  as  in  her  lies, 
Imitates  God,  and  turns  her  face 

To  every  land  beneath  the  sk^es, 

Counts  nothing   that   she   meets  with 

base, 
But  lives  and  loves  in  every  place; 


Fills  out  the  homely  quickset-screens, 
And  makes  the  purple  lilac  ripe, 

Steps  from  her  airy  hill,  and  greens 
The  swamp,  where  humm'd  the  drop- 
ping snipe, 
With  moss  and  braided  marish-pipe; 


And  on  thy  heart  a  finger  lays, 

Saying,  '  Beat  quicker,  for  the  time 

Is  pleasant,  and  the  woods  and  ways 
Are  pleasant,  and  the  beech  and  lime 
Put  forth  and  feel  a  gladder  clime.' 

IV. 

And  murmurs  of  a  deeper  voice, 
Going  before  to  some  far  shrine, 

Teach  that  sick  heart  the  stronger  choice, 
Till  all  thy  life  one  way  incline 
With  one  wide  Will  that  closes  thine. 

v. 

And  when  the  zoning  eve  has  died 
Where  yon  dark  valleys  wind  forlorn, 

Come  Hope  and   Memory,  spouse  and 
bride, 
From  out  the  borders  of  the  morn, 
With  that  fair  child  betwixt  them  born. 

VI. 

And  when  no  mortal  motion  jars 

The  blackness  round  the  tombing  sod, 


LOVE    THOU   THY  LAND. 


63 


Thro'  silence  and  the  trembling  stars 
Conies  Faith  from  tracts  no  feet  have 

trod, 
And  Virtue,  like  a  household  god 


Promising  empire;   such  as  those 

Once  heard  at  dead  of  night  to  greet 

Troy's  wandering  prince,  so  that  he  rose 
With  sacrifice,  while  all  the  fleet 
Had  rest  by  stony  hills  of  Crete. 


You  ask  me,  why,  tho'  ill  at  ease, 
Within  this  region  I  subsist, 
Whose  spirits  falter  in  the  mist, 

And  languish  for  the  purple  seas. 

It  is  the  land  that  freemen  till, 

That  sober-suited  Freedom  chose, 
The  land,  where  girt  with  friends  or 
foes 

A  man  may  speak  the  thing  he  will; 

A  land  of  settled  government, 

A  land  of  just  and  old  renown, 
Where    Freedom    slowly    broadens 
down 

From  precedent  to  precedent : 

Where  faction  seldom  gathers  head, 
But  by  degrees  to  fullness  wrought, 
The    strength     of    some     diffusive 
thought 

Hath  time  and  space  to  work  and  spread. 

Should  banded  unions  persecute 
Opinion,  and  induce  a  time 
When  single  thought  is  civil  crime, 

And  individual  freedom  mute; 

Tho'  Power   should  make  from  land  to 
land 
The  name  of  Britain  trebly  great  — 
Tho'  every  channel  of  the  State 

Should  fill  and  choke  with  golden  sand  — 

Yet  waft  me  from  the  harbour-mouth, 
Wild  wind !     I  seek  a  warmer  sky, 
And  I  will  see  before  I  die 

The  palms  and  temples  of  the  South. 


Of  old  sat  Freedom  on  the  heights, 

The  thunders  breaking  at  her  feet : 

Above  her  shook  the  starry  lights  : 
She  heard  the  torrents  meet. 

There  in  her  place  she  did  rejoice, 

Self-gather'd  in  her  prophet-mind, 

But  fragments  of  her  mighty  voice 
Came  rolling  on  the  wind. 

Then  stept  she   down  thro'  town   and 
field 

To  mingle  with  the  human  race, 
And  part  by  part  to  men  reveal'd 

The  fullness  of  her  face  — 

Grave  mother  of  majestic  works, 

From  her  isle-altar  gazing  down, 

Who,  God-like,  grasps  the  triple  forks, 
And,  King-like,  wears  the  crown : 

Her  open  eyes  desire  the  truth. 

The  wisdom  of  a  thousand  years 
Is  in  them.     May  perpetual  youth 

Keep  dry  their  light  from  tears; 

That  her  fair  form  may  stand  and  shine, 
Make  bright  our  days  and  light  our 
dreams, 

Turning  to  scorn  with  lips  divine 
The  falsehood  of  extremes ! 


Love  thou  thy  land,  with  love  far-brought 
From  out  the  storied  Past,  and  used 
Within  the  Present,  but  transfused 

Thro'  future  time  by  power  of  thought. 

True  love  turn'd  round  on  fixed  poles, 
Love,  that  endures  not  sordid  ends, 
For  English'  natures,  freemen,  friends, 

Thy  brothers  and  immortal  souls. 

But  pamper  not  a  hasty  time, 
Nor  feed  with  crude  imaginings 
The  herd,  wild  hearts  and  feeble  wings 

That  every  sophister  can  lime. 

Deliver  not  the  tasks  of  might 
To  weakness,  neither  hide  the  ray 
From  those,  not  blind,  who  wait  fof 
day, 

Tho'  sitting  girt  with  doubtful  light. 


64 


LOVE    THOU   THY  LAND. 


Make  knowledge  circle  with  the  winds; 

But  let  her  herald,  Reverence,  fly 

Before  her  to  whatever  sky 
Bear  seed  of  men  and  growth  of  minds. 

Watch    what    main-currents    draw    the 
years : 
Cut  Prejudice  against  the  grain : 
But  gentle  words  are  always  gain ; 

Regard  the  weakness  of  thy  peers : 

Nor  toil  for  title,  place,  or  touch 

Of  pension,  neither  count  on  praise  : 
It  grows  to  guerdon  after-days : 

Nor  deal  in  watch-words  overmuch  : 

Not  clinging  to  some  ancient  saw; 

Not  master'd  by  some  modern  term; 

Not   swift    nor    slow   to    change,   but 
firm: 
And  in  its  season  bring  the  law; 

That  from  Discussion's  lip  may  fall 
With    Life,    that,    working   strongly, 

binds  — 
Set  in  all  lights  by  many  minds, 

To  close  the  interests  of  all. 

For  Nature  also,  cold  and  warm, 
And  moist  and  dry,  devising  long, 
Thro'  many  agents  making  strong, 

Matures  the  individual  form. 

Meet  is  it  changes  should  control   • 
Our  being,  lest  we  rust  in  ease. 
We  all  are  changed  by  still  degrees, 

All  but  the  basis  of  the  soul. 

So  let  the  change  which  comes  be  free 
To   ingroove   itself    with    that   which 

flies, 
And  work,  a  joint  of  state,  that  plies 

Its  office,  moved  with  sympathy. 

A  saying,  hard  to  shape  in  act; 
For  all  the  past  of  Time  reveals 
A  bridal  dawn  of  thunder-peals, 

Wherever  Thought  hath  wedded  Fact. 

Ev'n  now  we  hear  with  inward  strife 
A  motion  toiling  in  the  gloom  — 
The  Spirit  of  the  years  to  come 

Yearning  to  mix  himself  with  Life. 


A  slow-develop'd  strength  awaits 
Completion  in  a  painful  school; 
Phantoms  of  other  forms  of  rule, 

New  Majesties  of  mighty  States  — 

The  warders  of  the  growing  hour, 
But  vague  in  vapour,  hard  to  mark; 
And  round  them  sea  and  air  are  dark 

With  great  contrivances  of  Power. 

Of  many  changes,  aptly  join'd, 
Is  bodied  forth  the  second  whole. 
Regard  gradation,  lest  the  soul 

Of  Discord  race  the  rising  wind; 

A  wind  to  puff  your  idol- fires, 

And  heap  their  ashes  on  the  head; 
To  shame  the  boast  so  often  made, 

That  we  are  wiser  than  our  sires. 

Oh  yet,  if  Nature's  evil  star 

Drive  men  in  manhood,  as  in  youth, 
To  follow  flying  steps  of  Truth 

Across  the  brazen  bridge  of  war  — 

If  New  and  Old,  disastrous  feud, 
Must  ever  shock,  like  armed  foes, 
And  this  be  true,  till  Time  shall  close, 

That  Principles  are  rain'd  in  blood; 

Not  yet  the  wise  of  heart  would  cease 
To   hold   his   hope    thro'  shame   and 

guilt, 
But  with  his  hand  against  the  hilt, 
Would    pace    the    troubled    land,    like 
Peace; 

Not  less,  tho'  dogs  of  Faction  bay, 

Would   serve  his  kind   in   deed    and 

word, 
Certain,  if  knowledge  bring  the  sword 

That  knowledge  takes  the  sword  away — 

Would  love   the   gleams   of  good  that 
broke 
From  either  side,  nor  veil  his  eyes  : 
And  if  some  dreadful  need  should  rise 

Would  strike,  and  firmly,  and  one  stroke : 

To-morrow  yet  would  reap  to-day, 
As  we  bear  blossom  of  the  dead : 
Earn  well  the  thrifty  months,  nor  wed 

Raw  Haste,  half-sister  to  Decay. 


ENGLAND  AND  AMERICA   IN  1782 —THE    GOOSE. 


65 


ENGLAND   AND   AMERICA 
IN    1782. 

O  thou,  that  sendest  out  the  man 

To  rule  by  land  and  sea, 
Strong  mother  of  a  Lion-line, 
Be  proud  of  those  strong  sons  of  thine 

Who  wrench'd  their  rights  from  thee  ! 

What  wonder,  if  in  noble  heat 

Those  men  thine  arms  withstood, 
Retaught  the  lesson  thou  hadst  taught, 
And  in  thy  spirit  with  thee  fought  — 
Who  sprang  from  English  blood ! 

But  Thou  rejoice  with  liberal  joy, 

Lift  up  thy  rocky  face, 
And  shatter,  when  the  storms  are  black, 
In  many  a  streaming  torrent  back, 

The  seas  that  shock  thy  base  ! 

Whatever  harmonies  of  law 

The  growing  world  assume, 
Thy  work  is  thine  —  The  single  note 
From  that  deep  chord  which  Hampden 
smote 

Will  vibrate  to  the  doom. 


THE   GOOSE. 

I  knew  an  old  wife  lean  and  poor, 
Her  rags  scarce  held  together ; 

There  strode  a  stranger  to  the  door, 
And  it  was  windy  weather. 

He  held  a  goose  upon  his  arm, 
He  utter'd  rhyme  and  reason, 
Here,  take  the  goose,  and  keep  you 
warm, 
It  is  a  stormy  season.' 

She  caught  the  white  goose  by  the  leg, 
A  goose  —  'twas  no  great  matter. 

The  goose  let  fall  a  golden  egg 
With  cackle  and  with  clatter. 

She  dropt  the   goose,   and   caught   the 
pelf, 

And  ran  to  tell  her  neighbours; 
And  bless'd  herself,  and  cursed  herself, 

And  rested  from  her  labours. 


And  feeding  high,  and  living  soft, 
Grew  plump  and  able-bodied; 

Until  the  grave  churchwarden  doff' d, 
The  parson  smirk'd  and  nodded. 

So  sitting,  served  by  man  and  maid, 
She  felt  her  heart  grow  prouder  : 

But  ah  !  the  more  the  white  goose  laid 
It  clack'd  and  cackled  louder. 

It  clutter'd  here,  it  chuckled  there; 

It  stirr'd  the  old  wife's  mettle : 
She  shifted  in  her  elbow-chair, 

And  hurl'd  the  pan  and  kettle. 

1 A  quinsy  choke  thy  cursed  note !  ' 
Then  wax'd  her  anger  stronger. 

1  Go,    take    the    goose,    and    wring    her 
throat, 
I  will  not  bear  it  longer.' 

Then  yelp'd   the    cur,   and   yawl'd   the 
cat; 

Ran  Gaffer,  stumbled  Gammer. 
The  goose  flew  this  way  and  flew  that, 

And  filPd  the  house  with  clamour. 

As  head  and  heels  upon  the  floor 
They  flounder'd  all  together, 

There  strode  a  stranger  to  the  door, 
And  it  was  windy  weather : 

He  took  the  goose  upon  his  arm, 
He  utter'd  words  of  scorning  : 

'  So  keep  you  cold,  or  keep  you  warm, 
It  is  a  stormy  morning.' 

The  wild  wind  rang  from  park  and  plain, 
And  round  the  attics  rumbled, 

Till  all  the  tables  danced  again, 
And  half  the  chimneys  tumbled. 

The  glass  blew  in,  the  fire  blew  out, 
The  blast  was  hard  and  harder. 

Her  cap  blew  off,  her  gown  blew  up, 
And  a  whirlwind  clear'd  the  larder : 

And  while  on  all  sides  breaking  loose 
Her  household  fled  the  danger, 

Quoth  she,  •  The  Devil  take  the  goose, 
And  God  forget  the  stranger ! ' 


66 


THE  EPIC. 


ENGLISH    IDYLS 

AND   OTHER  POEMS. 


THE  EPIC. 

A.T  Francis  Allen's  on  the  Christmas- 
eve,  — 

The  game  of  forfeits  done  —  the  girls  all 
kiss'd 

Beneath  the  sacred  bush  and  past  away  — 

The  parson  Holmes,  the  poet  Everard 
Hall, 

The  host,  and  I  sat  round  the  wassail- 
bowl, 

Then  half-way  ebb'd :  and  there  we  held 
a  talk, 

How  all  the  old  honour  had  from  Christ- 
mas gone, 

Or  gone,  or  dwindled  down  to  some  odd 
games 

In  some  odd  nooks  like  this;  till  I,  tired 
out 

With  cutting  eights  that  day  upon  the 
pond, 

Where,  three  times  slipping  from  the 
outer  edge, 

I  bump'd  the  ice  into  three  several  stars, 

Fell  in  a  doze;  and  half-awake  I  heard 

The  parson  taking  wide  and  wider 
sweeps, 

Now  harping  on  the  church-commis- 
sioners, 

Now  hawking  at  Geology  and  schism; 

Until  I  woke,  and  found  him  settled  down 

Upon  the  general  decay  of  faith 

Right  thro'  the  world,  '  at  home  was  little 
left, 

And  none  abroad :  there  was  no  anchor, 
none, 

To  hold  by.'  Francis,  laughing,  clapt 
his  hand 

On  Everard's  shoulder,  with  '  I  hold  by 
him.' 

'  And  I,'  quoth  Everard,  '  by  the  wassail- 
bowl.' 

'Why  yes,'  I  said,  'we  knew  your  gift 
that  way 

At  college :  but  another  which  you  had, 

I  mean  of  verse  (for  so  we  held  it  then), 


What  came  of  that? '     '  You  know,'  said 

Frank,  '  he  burnt 
His  epic,  his  King  Arthur,  some  twelve 

books ' — 
And  then  to  me  demanding  why?     'Oh, 

sir, 
He  thought  that  nothing  new  was  said, 

or  else 
Something  so  said  'twas  nothing  —  that  a 

truth 
Looks   freshest   in   the    fashion    of   the 

day: 
God  knows :  he  has  a  mint  of  reasons : 

ask. 
It  pleased  me  well  enough.'    '  Nay,  nay,' 

said  Hall, 
'  Why  take   the   style   of  those    heroic 

times? 
For  nature  brings  not  back  the  Masto- 
don, 
Nor  we  those  times;  and  why  should  any 

man 
Remodel  models?  these  twelve  books  of 

mine 
Were   faint   Homeric   echoes,   nothing- 
worth, 
Mere  chaff  and  draff,  much  better  burnt.' 

1  But  I,' 
Said  Francis,  ?  pick'd  the  eleventh  from 

this  hearth 
And  have  it :  keep  a  thing,  its  use  will 

come. 
I  hoard  it  as  a  sugar-plum  for  Holmes.' 
He   laugh'd,   and  I,   tho'  sleepy,  like  a 

horse 
That   hears   the  corn-bin   open,  prick'd 

my  ears; 
For  I  remember'd  Everard's  college  fame 
When  we  were  Freshmen :  then  at  my 

request 
He    brought    it;     and    the    poet    little 

urged, 
But  with  some  prelude  of  disparagement, 
Read,  mouthing  out  his  hollow  oes  and 

aes, 
Deep-chested  music,  and  to  this  result. 


MORTE  H ARTHUR. 


67 


MORTE  D'ARTHUR. 

So  all  day  long  the  noise  of  battle  roll'd 
Among  the  mountains  by  the  winter  sea; 
Until  King  Arthur's  table,  man  by  man, 
Had  fallen  in  Lyonnesse  about  their  Lord, 
King  Arthur :  then,  because   his  wound 

was  deep, 
The  bold  Sir  Bedivere  uplifted  him, 
Sir  Bedivere,  the  last  of  all  his  knights, 
And  bore  him  to  a  chapel  nigh  the  field, 
A  broken  chancel  with  a  broken  cross, 
That  stood  on  a  dark  strait  of  barren  land. 
On  one  side  lay  the  Ocean,  and  on  one 
Lay  a  great  water,  and   the  moon  was 

full. 
Then     spake     King    Arthur     to     Sir 

Bedivere : 
•  The  sequel  of  to-day  unsolders  all 
The     goodliest     fellowship     of    famous 

knights 
Whereof  this  world  holds  record.     Such 

a  sleep 
They  sleep  —  the  men  I  loved.     I  think 

that  we 
Shall  never  more,  at  any  future  time, 
Delight  our  souls  with  talk  of  knightly 

deeds, 
Walking  about  the  gardens  and  the  halls 
Of  Camelot,  as  in  the  days  that  were. 
I  perish  by  this  people  which  I  made, — 
Tho'  Merlin  sware  that  I  should  come 

again 
To  rule  once  more  —  but  let  what  will  be, 

be, 
I  am  so  deeply  smitten  thro'  the  helm 
That  without  help  I  cannot  last  till  morn. 
Thou  therefore  take  my  brand  Excalibur, 
Which  was  my  pride :   for  thou  remem- 

berest  how 
In  those  old  days,  one  summer  noon,  an 

arm 
Rose  up  from  out  the  bosom  of  the  lake, 
Clothed  in  white  samite,  mystic,  wonder- 
ful, 
Holding  the  sword  —  and  how  I  row'd 

across 
And  took  it,  and   have  worn  it,  like  a 

king: 
And,  wheresoever  I  am  sung  or  told 
In  aftertime,  this  also  shall  be  known  : 
But  now  delay  not :  take  Excalib«r, 


1 


And  fling  him  far  into  the  middle  mere : 
Watch  what  thou  seest,  and  lightly  bring 

me  word.' 
To  him  replied  the  bold  Sir  Bedivere  : 
'  It  is  not  meet,  Sir  King,  to  leave  thee 

thus, 
Aidless,  alone,  and  smitten  thro'  the  helm. 
A  little  thing  may  harm  a  wounded  man. 
Yet  I  thy  hest  will  all  perform  at  full, 
Watch  what  I  see,  and  lightly  bring  thee 

word.' 
So  saying,  from  the  ruin'd  shrine  he 

stept 
And  in  the  moon  athwart  the  place  of 

tombs, 
Where  lay  the  mighty  bones  of  ancient 

men, 
Old  knights,  and  over  them  the  sea-wind 

sang 
Shrill,   chill,  with    flakes  of  foam.     He, 

stepping  down 
By   zig-zag   paths,  and  juts   of  pointed 

rock, 
Came  on  the  shining  levels  of  the  lake. 
There     drew     he     forth     the     brand 

Excalibur, 
And   o'er   him,    drawing  it,  the   winter 

moon, 
Brightening  the  skirts  of  a  long  cloud,- 

ran  forth 
And  sparkled  keen  with  frost  against  the 

hilt: 
For  all  the  haft  twinkled  with  diamond 

sparks, 
Myriads  of  topaz-lights,  and  jacinth-work 
Of  subtlest  jewellery.     He  gazed  so  long 
That  both  his  eyes  were  dazzled,  as  he 

stood, 
This  way  and   that   dividing   the    swift 

mind, 
In  act  to  throw :  but  at  the  last  it  seem'd 
Better  to  leave  Excalibur  conceal'd 
There  in  the  many-knotted  waterflags, 
That  whistled  stiff  and  dry    about   the 

marge. 
So  strode  he  back  slow  to  the  wounded 

King. 
Then  spake  King  Arthur  to  Sir  Bedi- 
vere : 
'  Hast  thou  perform'd  my  mission  which 

I  gave? 
What  is  it  thou  hast  seen?  or  what  hast 

heard?' 


68 


MORTE  D' ARTHUR. 


And  answer  made  the  bold  Sir  Bedi- 

vere: 
'  I  heard  the  ripple  washing  in  the  reeds, 
And  the  wild  water  lapping  on  the  crag.' 
To  whom  replied  King  Arthur,  faint 

and  pale : 
'Thou  hast  betray 'd  thy  nature  and  thy 

name, 
Not  rendering  true  answer,  as  beseem'd 
Thy  fealty,  nor  like  a  noble  knight : 
For  surer  sign  had  follow'd,  either  hand, 
Or  voice,  or  else  a  motion  of  the  mere. 
This  is  a  shameful  thing  for  men  to  lie. 
Yet  now,  I  charge  thee,  quickly  go  again 
As  thou  art  lief  and  dear,  and  do  the 

thing 
I  bade  thee,  watch,  and  lightly  bring  me 

word.' 
Then  went  Sir  Bedivere  the    second 

time 
Across  the  ridge,  and  paced  beside  the 

mere, 
Counting    the    dewy    pebbles,   fix'd    in 

thought; 
But  when  he  saw  the  wonder  of  the  hilt, 
How  curiously  and  strangely  chased,  he 

smote 
His  palms  together,  and  he  cried  aloud, 
'  And  if  indeed  I  cast  the  brand  away, 
Surely  a  precious  thing,  one  worthy  note, 
Should  thus  be  lost  for  ever  from  the  earth, 
Which  might  have  pleased  the  eyes  of 

many  men. 
What  good  should  follow    this,   if  this 

were  done? 
What  harm,  undone?  deep  harm  to  dis- 
obey, 
Seeing  obedience  is  the  bond  of  rule. 
Were  it  well  to  obey,  then,  if  a  king  de- 
mand 
An  act  unprofitable,  against  himself  ? 
The  King  is  sick,  and  knows  not  what  he 

does. 
What  record,  or  what  relic  of  my  lord 
Should  be  to  aftertime,  but  empty  breath 
And  rumours  of  a  doubt  ?  but  were  this 

kept, 
Stored  in  some  treasure-house  of  mighty 

kings, 
Some  one  might  show  it  at  a  joust  of  arms, 
Saying,  "  King  Arthur's  sword,  Excalibur, 
Wrought   by  the  lonely  maiden  of  the 

Lake. 


Nine  years  she  wrought  it,  sitting  in  the 

deeps 
Upon  the  hidden  bases  of  the  hills." 
So   might  some  old  man  speak  in  the 

aftertime 
To  all  the  people,  winning  reverence. 
But  now  much  honour  and  much  fame 

were  lost.' 
So  spake  he,  clouded   with  his   own 

conceit, 
And  hid  Excalibur  the  second  time, 
And  so  strode  back  slow  to  the  wounded 

King. 
Then  spoke   King  Arthur,   breathing 

heavily : 
'  What  is  it  thou  hast  seen?  or  what  hast 

heard?  ' 
And  answer  made  the  bold  Sir  Bedi- 
vere: 
'  I  heard  the  water  lapping  on  the  crag, 
And   the    iong   ripple    washing   in   the 

reeds.' 
To  whom  replied  King  Arthur,  much 

in  wrath: 
'  Ah,  miserable  and  unkind,  untrue, 
Unknightly,  traitor-hearted  !  Woe  is  me  ! 
Authority  forgets  a  dying  king, 
Laid  widow'd  of  the  power  in  his  eye 
That  bow'd  the  will.     I  see  thee  what 

thou  art, 
For  thou,  the  latest-left  of  all  my  knights, 
In  whom  should  meet  the  offices  of  all, 
Thou  wouldst  betray  me  for  the  precious 

hilt; 
Either  from  lust  of  gold,  or  like  a  girl 
Valuing  the  giddy  pleasure  of  the  eyes. 
Yet,  for  a  man  may  fail  in  duty  twice, 
And  the  third  time  may  prosper,  get  thee 

hence: 
But,  if  thou  spare  to  fling  Excalibur, 
I  will  arise  and  slay  thee  with  my  hands.' 
Then  quickly  rose   Sir  Bedivere,  and 

ran, 
And,   leaping   down  the   ridges  lightly, 

plunged 
Among  the  bulrush-beds,  and    clutch'd 

the  sword, 
And  strongly  wheel'd  and  threw  it.    The 

great  brand 
Made  lightnings  in  the  splendour  of  the 

moon, 
And  flashing  round  and  round,  and  whirl'd 
•in  an  arch, 


MORTE  H ARTHUR. 


69 


Shot  like  a  streamer  of  the  northern  morn, 
Seen  where  the  moving  isles  of  winter 

shock 
By  night,  with  noises  of  the  northern  sea. 
So  flash'd  and  fell  the  brand  Excalibur: 
But  ere  he  dipt  the  surface,  rose  an  arm 
Clothed  in  white  samite,  mystic,  wonder- 
ful, 
And  caught  him  by  the  hilt,  and  bran- 

dish'd  him 
Three  times,  and  drew  him  under  in  the 

mere. 
And  lightly  went  the  other  to  the  King. 
Then    spoke    King   Arthur,   drawing 
thicker  breath: 
1  Now  see  I  by  thine  eyes  that  this  is 

done. 
Speak  out:  what  is  it  thou  hast  heard,  or 
seen?' 
And  answer  made  the  bold  Sir  Bedi- 
vere: 
■  Sir  King,  I  closed  mine  eyelids,  lest  the 

gems 
Should  blind  my  purpose,  for  I  never  saw, 
Nor  shall  see,  here  or  elsewhere,  till  I  die, 
Not  tho'  I  live  three  lives  of  mortal  men, 
So  great  a  miracle  as  yonder  hilt. 
Then  with  both  hands  I  flung  him,  wheel- 
ing him; 
But  when  I  look'd  again,  behold  an  arm, 
Clothed  in  white  samite,  mystic,  wonder- 
ful, 
That  caught  him  by  the  hilt,  and  bran- 

dish'd  him 
Three  times,  and  drew  him  under  in  the 
mere.' 
And  answer  made  King  Arthur,  breath- 
ing hard: 
'My   end   draws  nigh;   'tis  time  that  I 

were  gone. 
Make  broad  thy  shoulders  to  receive  my 

weight, 
And  bear  me  to  the  margin;   yet  I  fear 
My  wound  hath  taken  cold,  and  I  shall 
die.' 
So  saying,  from  the  pavement  he  half 
rose, 
Slowly,  with  pain,  reclining  on  his  arm, 
And  looking  wistfully  with  wide  blue  eyes 
As  in  a  picture.     Him  Sir  Bevidere 
Remorsefully  regarded  thro'  his  tears, 
And  would  have  spoken,  but  he  found 
not  words; 


Then   took  with  care,  and  kneeling  on 

one  knee, 
O'er  both  his  shoulders  drew  the  languid 

hands, 
And  rising  bore  him  thro'  the  place  of 

tombs. 
But,  as  he  walk'd,  King  Arthur  panted 

hard, 
Like  one  that  feels  a  nightmare  on  his  bed 
When  all  the  house  is  mute.      So  sigh'd 

the  King, 
Muttering   and   murmuring   at   his   ear, 

'  Quick,  quick ! 
I  fear  it  is  too  late,  and  I  shall  die.' 
But  the  other  swiftly  strode  from  ridge  to 

ridge, 
Clothed  with  his  breath,  and  looking,  as 

he  walk'd, 
Larger  than  human  on  the  frozen  hills. 
He  heard  the  deep  behind  him,  and  a  cry 
Before.     His   own   thought   drove    him). 

like  a  goad. 
Dry  clash'd  his  harness  in  the  icy  caves 
And  barren  chasms,  and  all  to  left  and 

right 
The  bare  black  cliff  clang'd  round  him, 

as  he  based 
His  feet   on  juts  of  slippery  crag  that 

rang 
Sharp-smitten  with   the   dint   of  armed 

heels  — 
And  on  a  sudden,  lo !  the  level  lake, 
And  the  long  glories  of  the  winter  moon. 
Then  saw  they  how  there  hove  a  dusky 

barge, 
Dark  as  a  funeral  scarf  from  stem  to  stern, 
Beneath  them ;  and  descending  they  were 

ware 
That  all  the  decks  were  dense  with  stately 

forms 
Black-stoled,  black-hooded,  like  a  dream 

—  by  these 
Three   Queens  with    crowns   of  gold  — 

and  from  them  rose 
A  cry  that  shiver'd  to  the  tingling  stars, 
And,  as  it  were  one  voice  an  agony 
Of  lamentation,  like  a  wind,  that  shrills 
All  night  in  a  waste  land,  where  no  one 

comes, 
Or  hath  come,  since  the  making  of  the 

world. 
Then  murmur'd  Arthur,  '  Place  me  in 

the  barge,' 


70 


MORTE   D1  ARTHUR. 


And    to   the    barge   they   came.     There 

those  three  Queens 
Put  forth  their  hands,  and  took  the  King, 

and  wept. 
But  she,  that  rose  the  tallest  of  them  all 
And  fairest,  laid  his  head  upon  her  lap, 
And   loosed    the    shatter'd    casque,  and 

chafed  his  hands, 
And  call'd  him  by  his  name,  complaining 

loud, 
And  dropping  bitter  tears  against  his  brow 
Striped  with  dark  blood  :   for  all  his  face 

was  white 
And   colourless,    and   like   the   wither'd 

moon 
Smote  by  the  fresh  beam  of  the  springing 

east ; 
And  all  his  greaves  and  cuisses  dash'd 

with  drops 
Of  onset ;    and   the   light   and  lustrous 
/  curls  — 

That  made  his  forehead  like  a  rising  sun 
High      from      the      dais-throne  —  were 

parch'd  with  dust ; 
Or,  clotted  into  points  and  hanging  loose, 
Mix'd   with    the    knightly   growth    that 

fringed  his  lips. 
So  like  a  shatter'd  column  lay  the  King  ; 
Not  like  that  Arthur  who,  with  lance  in 

rest, 
From  spur  to  plume  a  star  of  tournament, 
Shot  thro'  the  lists  at  Camelot,  and  charged 
Before  the  eyes  of  ladies  and  of  kings. 

Then  loudly  cried  the  bold  Sir  Bedivere, 
'  Ah !   my  Lord  Arthur,  whither  shall  I 

go? 
Where  shall  I  hide  my  forehead  and  my 

eyes? 
For   now  I  see  the  true  old  times  are 

dead, 
When  every  morning  brought   a   noble 

chance, 
And  every  chance  brought  out  a  noble 

knight. 
Such  times  have  been  not  since  the  light 

that  led 
The  holy  Elders  with  the  gift  of  myrrh. 
But   now   the   whole    round    table  is 

dissolved 
Which  was  an  image  of  the  mighty  world ; 
And  I,  the  last,  go  forth  companionless, 
And  the  days  darken  round  me,  and  the 

years, 


Among   new  men,  strange    faces,  other 

minds.' 
And  slowly  answered  Arthur  from  the 

barge : 
'  The  old  order  changeth,  yielding  place 

to  new, 
And  God  fulfils  Himself  in  many  ways, 
Lest  one  good  custom  should  corrupt  the 

world. 
Comfort  thyself:  what  comfort  is  in  me? 
I  have  lived  my  life,  and  that  which  I 

have  done 
May  He  within  Himself  make  pure  !  but 

thou, 
If  thou  shouldst  never  see  my  face  again, 
Pray   for   my   soul.       More   things    sue 

wrought  by  prayer 
Than  this  world  dreams  of.     Wherefore, 

let  thy  voice 
Rise  like  a  fountain  for  me  night  and 

day. 
For  what  are  men  better  than  sheep  or 

goats 
That  nourish  a  blind  life  within  the  brain, 
If,  knowing  God,  they  lift  not  hands  of 

prayer 
Both  for  themselves  and  those  who  call 

them  friend? 
For  so  the  whole  round  earth  is  every  way 
Bound  by  gold  chains  about  the  feet  of 

God. 
But  now  farewell.     I  am  going  a  long  way 
With  these  thou  seest  —  if  indeed  I  go  — 
(For  all  my  mind  is  clouded  with  a  doubt) 
To  the  island-valley  of  Avilion; 
Where  falls  not  hail,  or  rain,  or  any  snow, 
Nor  ever  wind  blows  loudly;  but  it  lies 
Deep-meadow'd,  happy,  fair  with  orchard- 
lawns 
And  bowery  hollows  crown'd  with  sum- 
mer sea, 
Where  I  will  heal   me   of  my  grievous 

wound.' 
So  said  he,  and  the  barge  with  oar  and 

sail 
Moved  from  the   brink,  like   some  full- 
breasted  swan 
That,  fluting  a  wild  carol  ere  her  death, 
Ruffles  her  pure  cold  plume,  and  takes 

the  flood 
With   swarthy   webs.      Long  stood   Sir 

Bedivere 
Revolving  many  memories,  till  the  hull 


MORTE  D>  ARTHUR  —  THE    GARDENER'S  DAUGHTER. 


Look'd  one  black  dot  against  the  verge 

of  dawn, 
And  on  the -mere  the  wailing  died  away. 


Here   ended  Hall,  and  our   last   light, 

that  long 
Had   wink'd   and    threaten'd    darkness, 

flared  and  fell : 
At  which  the  Parson,  sent  to  sleep  with 

sound, 
And  waked  with  silence,  grunted  f  Good  ! ' 

but  we 
Sat  rapt:  it  was  the  tone  with  which  he 

read  — 
Perhaps  some  modern  touches  here  and 

there 
Redeem'd  it  from  the  charge  of  nothing- 
ness— 
Or  else  we  loved  the  man,  and  prized  his 

work  ; 
I  know  not :  but  we  sitting,  as  I  said, 
The  cock  crew  loud ;  as  at  that  time  of 

year 
The  lusty  bird  takes  every  hour  for  dawn : 
Then  Francis,  muttering,  like  a  man  ill- 
used, 
'There  now  —  that's   nothing!'  drew  a 

little  back, 
And  drove  his  heel  into  the  smoulder'd 

log, 
That  sent  a  blast  of  sparkles  up  the  flue : 
And  so  to  bed ;  where  yet  in  sleep  I  seem'd 
To  sail  with  Arthur  under  looming  shores, 
Point  after  point ;   till  on  to  dawn,  when 

dreams 
Begin  to  feel  the  truth  and  stir  of  day, 
To  me,  methought,  who  waited  with   a 

crowd, 
There  came  a  bark  that,  blowing  forward, 

bore 
King  Arthur,  like  a  modern  gentleman 
Of  stateliest  port ;    and  all  the  people 

cried, 
I  Arthur  is  come  again :  he  cannot  die.' 
Then   those   that   stood  upon   the   hills 

behind 
Repeated  —  '  Come  again,  and  thrice  as 

fair  ;  ' 
And,    further    inland,    voices    echo'd  — 

'Come 
With  all  good  things,  and  war  shall  be 

no  more.' 


At  this  a  hundred  bells  began  to  peal, 
That  with  the  sound  I  woke,  and  heard 

indeed 
The    clear     church-bells     ring    in    the 

Christmas-morn. 


THE  GARDENER'S  DAUGHTER; 

OR,  THE  PICTURES. 

This  morning  is  the  morning  of  the  day, 
When  I  and  Eustace  from  the  city  went 
To  see  the  gardener's  daughter;  I  and  he, 
Brothers  in  Art ;  a  friendship  so  complete 
Portion'd  in  halves  between  us,  that  we 

grew 
The  fable  of  the  city  where  we  dwelt. 
My  Eustace  might  have  sat  for  Her- 
cules; 
So  muscular  he  spread,  so  broad  of  breast. 
He,  by  some  law  that  holds  in  love,  and 

draws 
The  greater  to  the  lesser,  long  desired 
A  certain  miracle  of  symmetry, 
A  miniature  of  loveliness,  all  grace 
Summ'd  up  and  closed  in  little;  — Juliet, 

she 
So  light  of  foot,  so  light  of  spirit  —  oh,  she 
To  me  myself,  for  some  three   careless 

moons, 
The  summer  pilot  of  an  empty  heart 
Unto  the  shores  of  nothing!  Knowyounot 
Such  touches  are  but  embassies  of  love, 
To  tamper  with  the  feelings,  ere  he  found 
Empire  for  life  ?  but  Eustace  painted  her, 
And  said  to  me,  she  sitting  with  us  then, 
'  When  will  you  paint  like  this?'  and  I 

replied, 
(My  words  were  half  in  earnest,  half  in 

jest,) 
'  'Tis  not  your  work,  but  Love's.     Love, 

unperceived, 
A  more  ideal  Artist  he  than  all, 
Came,  drew  your  pencil  from  you,  made 

those  eyes 
Darker  than  darkest  pansies,  and  that  hair 
More  black  than  ashbuds  in  the  front  of 

March.' 
And  Juliet  answer'd  laughing, '  Go  and  see 
The  gardener's  daughter :  trust  me,  after 

that, 
You  scarce  can  fail  to  match  his  master* 

piece.' 


THE   GARDENER'S  DAUGHTER; 


And  up  we  rose,  and  on  the  spur  we  went. 
Not  wholly  in  the  busy  world,  nor  quite 
Beyond  it,  blooms  the  garden  that  I  love. 
News  from  the  humming  city  comes  to  it 
In  sound  of  funeral  or  of  marriage  bells; 
And,  sitting  muffled  in  dark  leaves,  you 

hear 
The  windy  clanging  of  the  minster  clock ; 
Although  between  it  and  the  garden  lies 
A  league  of  grass,  wash'd  by  a  slow  broad 

stream, 
That,  stirr'd  with  languid  pulses  of  the  oar, 
Waves  all  its  lazy  lilies,  and  creeps  on, 
Barge-laden,  to  three  arches  of  a  bridge 
Crown'd  with  the  minster-towers. 

The  fields  between 
Are  dewy-fresh,  browsed  by  deep-udder'd 

kine, 
And  all  about  the  large  lime  feathers  low, 
The  lime  a  summer  home  of  murmurous 

wings. 
In  that  still  place  she,  hoarded  in  herself, 
Grew,  seldom  seen;    not  less  among  us 

lived 
Her  fame  from  lip  to  lip.     Who  had  not 

heard 
Of  Rose,  the  gardener's  daughter  ?  Where 

was  he, 
So  blunt  in  memory,  so  old  at  heart, 
At  such  a  distance  from  his  youth  in  grief, 
That,  having  seen,  forgot  ?    The  common 

mouth, 
So  gross  to  express  delight,  in  praise  of 

her 
Grew  oratory.     Such  a  lord  is  Love, 
And  Beauty  such  a  mistress  of  the  world. 
And  if  I  said  that  Fancy,  led  by  Love, 
Would  play  with  flying  forms  and  images, 
Yet  this  is  also  true,  that,  long  before 
I  look'd  upon  her,  when  I  heard  her  name 
My  heart  was  like  a  prophet  to  my  heart, 
And  told  me  I  should  love.     A  crowd  of 

hopes, 
That    sought    to    sow    themselves    like 

winged  seeds, 
Born  out  of  everything  I  heard  and  saw, 
Flutter'd  about  my  senses  and  my  soul ; 
And  vague   desires,  like   fitful  blasts  of 

balm 
To  one  that  travels  quickly,  made  the  air 
Of  Life  delicious,  and  all  kinds  of  thought, 
That  verged  upon  them,  sweeter  than  the 

dream 


Dream'd  by  a  happy  man,  when  the  dark 

East, 
Unseen,  is  brightening  to  his  bridal  morn. 
And  sure  this  orbit  of  the  memory  folds 
For  ever  in  itself  the  day  we  went 
To  see   her.     All   the   land   in   flowery 

squares, 
Beneath  a  broad  and  equal-blowing  wind, 
Smelt   of  the   coming   summer,  as   one 

large  cloud 
Drew  downward :  but  all  else  of  heaven 

was  pure 
Up  to  the  Sun,  and  May  from  verge  to 

verge, 
And  May  with  me  from  head  to  heel. 

And  now, 
As  tho'  'twere  yesterday,  as  tho'  it  were 
The  hour  just  flown,  that  morn  with  all 

its  sound, 
(For  those  old  Mays  had  thrice  the  life 

of  these,) 
Rings  in  mine  ears.    The  steer  forgot  to 

graze, 
And,    where    the    hedge-row   cuts    the 

pathway,  stood, 
Leaning   his   horns   into  the  neighbour 

field, 
And  lowing  to  his  fellows.     From   the 

woods 
Came  voices  of  the  well-contented  doves. 
The  lark  could  scarce  get  out  his  notes 

for  joy, 
But  shook  his  song  together  as  he  near'd 
His   happy  home,  the  ground.     To  left 

and  right, 
The  cuckoo  told  his  name  to  all  the  hills; 
The  mellow  ouzel  fluted  in  the  elm; 
The  redcap  whistled;  and  the  nightingale 
Sang  loud,  as  tho'  he  were  the  bird  of 

day. 
And  Eustace  turn'd,  and  smiling  said 

to  me, 
'  Hear  how  the  bushes  echo  !  by  my  life, 
These  birds  have  joyful  thoughts.   Think 

you  they  sing 
Like  poets,  from  the  vanity  of  song? 
Or  have  they  any  sense  of  why  they  sing? 
And  would  they  praise  the  heavens  for 

what  they  have?' 
And  I  made  answer,  <  Were  there  nothing 

else 
For  which  to  praise  the  heavens  but  only 

love, 


OR,   THE  PICTURES. 


73 


That   only  love  were  cause  enough  for 

praise.' 
Lightly  he  laugh'd,  as  one  that  read 

my  thought, 
And  on  we  went;   but  ere  an  hour  had 

pass'd, 
We   reach'd  a  meadow  slanting  to  the 

North ; 
Down  which  a  well-worn  pathway  courted 

us 
To  one  green  wicket  in  a  privet  hedge; 
This,  yielding,  gave  into  a  grassy  walk 
Thro'      crowded      lilac-ambush      trimly 

pruned; 
And  one  warm  gust,  full-fed  with  per- 
fume, blew 
Beyond  us,  as  we  enter'd  in  the  cool. 
The  garden  stretches  southward.     In  the 

midst 
A  cedar  spread  his  dark-green  layers  of 

shade. 
The    garden-glasses    glanced,   and    mo- 
mently 
The  twinkling  laurel  scatter'd  silver  lights. 
1  Eustace,'  I  said,  '  this  wonder  keeps 

the  house.' 
He  nodded,  but  a  moment  afterwards 
He   cried,    '  Look  !    look  ! '     Before   he 

ceased  I  turn'd, 
And,  ere  a  star  can  wink,  beheld  her  there. 
For  up  the  porch  there  grew  an  Eastern 

rose, 
That,  flowering  high,  the  last  night's  gale 

had  caught, 
And  blown  across  the  walk.     One  arm 

aloft  — 
Gown'd  in  pure  white,  that  fitted  to  the 

shape  — 
Holding  the  bush,  to  fix  it  back,  she  stood, 
A  single  stream  of  all  her  soft  brown  hair 
Pour'd  on  one  side :  the  shadow  of  the 

flowers 
Stole  all  the  golden  gloss,  and,  wavering 
Lovingly  lower,  trembled  on  her  waist  — 
Ah,  happy  shade  —  and  still  went  waver- 
ing down, 
But,  ere  it  touch'd  a  foot,  that  might  have 

danced 
The  greensward  into  greener  circles,  dipt, 
And  mix'd  with  shadows  of  the  common 

ground ! 
But  the  full  day  dwelt  on  her  brows,  and 

sunn'd 


Her  violet  eyes,  and  all  her  Hebe  bloom, 
And  doubled  his  own  warmth  against  her 

lips, 
And  on  the  bounteous  wave  of  such  a 

breast 
As  never  pencil  drew.     Half  light,  half 

shade, 
She  stood,  a  sight  to  make  an  old  man 

young. 
So  rapt,  we  near'd   the  house ;    but 

she,  a  Rose 
In  roses,  mingled  with  her  fragrant  toil, 
Nor  heard  us  come,  nor  from  her  ten- 
dance turn'd 
Into  the  world  without ;  till  close  at  hand, 
And  almost  ere  I  knew  mine  own  intent, 
This  murmur  broke  the  stillness  of  that 

air 
Which  brooded  round  about  her : 

'  Ah,  one  rose, 
One  rose,  but  one,  by  those  fair  fingers 

cull'd, 
Were  worth  a  hundred  kisses  press'd  on 

lips 
Less  exquisite  than  thine.' 

Shelook'd:  but  all 
Suffused  with  blushes  —  neither  self-pos- 

sess'd 
Nor  startled,  but  betwixt  this  mood  and 

that, 
Divided  in  a  graceful  quiet  —  paused, 
And  dropt  the  branch  she  held,  and  turn- 
ing, wound 
Her  looser  hair  in  braid,  and  stirr'd  her 

lips 
For  some  sweet  answer,  tho'  no  answer 

came, 
Nor  yet  refused  the  rose,  but  granted  it, 
And  moved  away,  and  left  me,  statue-like, 
In  act  to  render  thanks. 

I,  that  whole  day, 
Saw  her  no  more,  altho'  I  linger'd  there 
Till  every  daisy  slept,  and  Love's  white 

star 
Beam'd  thro'  the  thicken'd  cedar  in  the 

dusk. 
So  home  we  went,  and  all  the  livelong 

way 
With  solemn  gibe  did  Eustace  banter  me. 
'  Now,'  said  he,  '  will  you  climb  the  top 

of  Art. 
You  cannot  fail  but  work  in  hues  to  dim 
The  Titianic  Flora.     Will  you  match 


74 


THE    GARDENER'S  DAUGHTER. 


My  Juliet  ?  you,  not  you,  —  the  Master, 

Love, 
A  more  ideal  Artist  he  than  all.' 

So  home  I  went,  but  could  not  sleep 

for  joy, 
Reading  her  perfect  features  in  the  gloom, 
Kissing  the  rose  she  gave  me  o'er  and  o'er, 
And  shaping  faithful  record  of  the  glance 
That  graced  the  giving  —  such  a  noise  of 

life 
Swarm'd  in  the  golden  present,  such  a 

voice 
Call'd  to  me  from  the  years  to  come,  and 

such 
A  length  of  bright  horizon  rimm'd  the 

dark. 
And  all  that  night  I  heard  the  watchman 

peal 
The  sliding  season  :  all  that  night  I  heard 
The  heavy  clocks  knolling  the  drowsy 

hours. 
The  drowsy  hours,  dispensers  of  all  good, 
O'er  the  mute  city  stole  with  folded  wings, 
Distilling  odors  on  me  as  they  went 
To  greet  their  fairer  sisters  of  the  East. 
Love  at  first  sight,  first-born,  and  heir 

to  all, 
Made   this   night   thus.      Henceforward 

squall  nor  storm 
Could  keep  me  from  that  Eden  where  she 

dwelt. 
Light  pretexts  drew  me;    sometimes  a 

Dutch  love 
For  tulips :  then  for  roses,  moss  or  musk, 
To  grace  my  city  rooms;   or  fruits  and 

cream 
Served  in  the  weeping  elm;    and  more 

and  more 
A  word  could   bring  the  colour  to  my 

cheek; 
A  thought  would  fill  my  eyes  with  happy 

dew; 
Love  trebled  life  within  me,  and  with 

each 
The  year  increased. 

The  daughters  of  the  year, 
One    after   one,  thro'   that   still   garden 

pass'd ; 
Each  garlanded  with  her  peculiar  flower 
Danced    into   light,  and   died   into   the 

shade; 
And  each  in  passing  touch'd  with  some 

new  grace 


Or  seem'd  to  touch  her,  so  that  day  by 

day, 
Like  one  that  never  can  be  wholly  known, 
Her  beauty  grew;   till  Autumn  brought 

an  hour 
For  Eustace,  when  I  heard  his  deep  '  I 

will,' 
Breathed,  like  the  covenant  of  a  God,  to 

hold 
From  thence  thro'  all  the  worlds :  but  I 

rose  up 
Full  of  his  bliss,  and  following  her  dark 

eyes 
Felt  earth  as  air  beneath  me,  till  I  reach'd 
The  wicket-gate,  and  found  her  standing 

there. 
There  sat  we   down  upon   a  garden 

mound, 
Two  mutually  enfolded;   Love,  the  third, 
Between  us,  in  the  circle  of  his  arms 
Enwound  us  both ;  and  over  many  a  range 
Of  waning  lime  the  gray  cathedral  towers, 
Across  a  hazy  glimmer  of  the  west, 
Reveal'd   their  shining  windows:    from 

them  clash'd 
The  bells;    we  listen'd;    with  the  time 

we  play'd, 
We  spoke  of  other  things;   we  coursed 

about 
The  subject  most  at  heart,  more  near  and 

near, 
Like  doves  about  a  dovecote,  wheeling 

round 
The  central  wish,  until  we  settled  there. 
Then,  in  that  time  and  place,  I  spoke 

to  her, 
Requiring,  tho'  I  knew  it  was  mine  own, 
Yet  for  the  pleasure  that  I  took  to  hear, 
Requiring  at  her  hand  the  greatest  gift, 
A  woman's  heart,  the  heart  of  her  I  loved ; 
And  in  that  time  and  place  she  answer'd 

me, 
And  in  the  compass  of  three  little  words, 
More  musical  than  ever  came  in  one, 
The  silver  fragments  of  a  broken  voice, 
Made  me  most  happy,  faltering,  ■  I  am 

thine.' 
Shall  I  cease  here  ?     Is  this  enough  to 

say 
That  my  desire,  like  all  strongest  hopes, 
By  its  own  energy  fulfill'd  itself, 
Merged  in  completion  ?   Would  you  learn 

at  full 


THE    GARDENER'S  DAUGHTER  — DORA. 


75 


How   passion   rose    thro'   circumstantial 
grades 

Beyond  all  grades  develop'd  ?  and  indeed 

I  had  not  staid  so  long  to  tell  you  all, 

But  while  I  mused  came  Memory  with 
.  .   sad  eyes, 

Holding  the  folded  annals  of  my  youth; 

And  while  I  mused,  Love  with  knit  brows 
went  by,  . 

And  with  a  flying  finger  swept  my  lips, 

And  spake,  '  Be  wise :  not  easily  forgiven 

Are  those  who,  setting  wide  the  doors 
that  bar 

Trie  secret  bridal  chambers  of  the  heart, 

Let  in  the  day.'     Here,  then,  my  words 
have  end. 
Yet  might  I  tell  of  meetings,  of  fare- 
wells — 

Of  that  which  came  between,  more  sweet 
than  each, 

In  whispers,  like   the  whispers   of  the 
leaves 

That  tremble  round  a  nightingale  —  in 
sighs 

Which  perfect  Joy,  perplex'd  for  utter- 
ance, 

Stole  from  her  sister  Sorrow.     Might  I 
not  tell 

Of    difference,    reconcilement,    pledges 
given, 

And  vows,  where  there  was  never  need 
of  vows, 

And  kisses,  where  the  heart  on  one  wild 
leap 

Hung  tranced  from  all  pulsation,  as  above 

The  heavens  between  their  fairy  fleeces 
pale 

Sow'd  all  their  mystic  gulfs  with  fleeting 
stars; 

Or  while  the  balmy  glooming,  crescent-lit, 

Spread  the  light  haze  along  the  river- 
shores, 

And  in  the  hollows;   or  as  once  we  met 

Unheedful,   tho'   beneath   a   whispering 
rain 

Night  slid  down  one  long  stream  of  sigh- 
ing wind, 

And  in  her  bosom  bore  the  baby,  Sleep. 
But  this  whole  hour  your  eyes  have 
been  intent 

On  that  veil'd  picture  — veil'd,  for  what  it 
holds 

May  not  be  dwelt  on  by  the  common  day. 


This  prelude  has  prepared  thee.     Raise 

thy  soul; 
Make  thine  heart  ready  with  thine  eyes : 

the  time 
Is  come  to  raise  the  veil. 

Behold  her  there, 
As  I  beheld  her  ere  she  knew  my  heart, 
My  first,  last  love;  the  idol  of  my  youth, 
The  darling  of  my  manhood,  and,  alas ! 
Now  the  most  blessed  memory  of  mine 

age. 

DORA. 

With  farmer  Allan  at  the  farm  abode 
William  and  Dora.    William  was  his  son, 
And  she  his  niece.     He  often  look'd  at 

them, 
And  often  thought,  •  I'll  make  them  man 

and  wife.' 
Now  Dora  felt  her  uncle's  will  in  all, 
And   yearn'd   toward  William;    but  the 

youth,  because 
He  had  been  always  with  her  in  the  house, 
Thought  not  of  Dora. 

Then  there  came  a  day 
When   Allan   call'd   his   son,  and   said, 

*  My  son : 
I  married  late,  but  I  would  wish  to  see 
My  grandchild  on  my  knees  before  I  die : 
And  I  have  set  my  heart  upon  a  match. 
Now  therefore  look  to  Dora ;  she  is  well 
To  look  to;  thrifty  too  beyond  her  age. 
She  is  my  brother's  daughter :  he  and  I 
Had  once  hard  words,  and  parted,  and 

he  died 
In  foreign  lands;   but  for  his  sake  I  bred 
His  daughter  Dora:    take  her  for  your 

wife; 
For  I  have  wish'd  this  marriage,  night 

and  day, 
For  many  years.'     But  William  arswer'd 

short : 
'I  cannot  marry  Dora;  by  my  life, 
I  will  not  marry  Dora.'   Then  the  old  man 
Was  wroth,  and  doubled  up  his  hands, 

and  said  : 
'  You  will  not,  boy !  you  dare  to  answer 

thus! 
But  in  my  time  a  father's  word  was  law, 
And  so  it  shall  be  now  for  me.    Look  to  it ; 
Consider,    William:     take    a   month -to 

think, 


i 


76 


DORA. 


And  let  me  have  an  answer  to  my  wish; 
Or,  by  the  Lord  that  made  me,  you  shall 

pack, 
And  never  more  darken  my  doors  again.' 
But    William   answer'd   madly;    bit    his 

lips, 
And  broke  away.     The  more  he  look'd 

at  her 
The  less  he  liked  her;  and  his  ways  were 

harsh ; 
But    Dora    bore    them    meekly.     Then 

before 
The  month  was  out  he  left  his  father's 

house, 
And  hired   himself  to  work  within  the 

fields; 
And  half  in  love,  half  spite,  he  woa'd  and 

wed 
A  labourer's  daughter,  Mary  Morrison. 
Then,  when   the   bells   were   ringing, 

Allan  call'd 
His  niece  and  said  :  '  My  girl,  I  love  you 

well; 
But  if  you  speak  with  him  that  was  my 

son, 
Or  change  a  word  with  her  he  calls  his 

wife, 
My  home  is  none  of  yours.     My  will  is 

law.' 
And  Dora  promised,  being  meek.     She 

thought, 
'  It   cannot   be :    my   uncle's   mind   will 

change ! ' 
And  days  went  on,  and  there  was  born 

a  boy 
To   William;    then   distresses   came   on 

him; 
And  day  by  day  he  pass'd   his  father's 

gate, 
Heart-broken,  and  his  father  help'd  him 

not. 
But  Dora  stored  what  little   she  could 

save, 
And  sent  it  them  by  stealth,  nor  did  they 

know 
Who  sent  it;  till  at  last  a  fever  seized 
On  William,  and  in  harvest  time  he  died. 

Then  Dora  went  to  Mary.     Mary  sat 
And  look'd  with  tears  upon  her  boy,  and 

thought 
Hard  things  of  Dora.     Dora  came  and 

said  : 
1 1  have  obey'd  my  uncle  until  now, 


And  I  have  sinn'd,  for  it  was  all  thro'  me 
This  evil  came  on  William  at  the  first. 
But,  Mary,  for  the   sake  of  him   that's 

gone, 
And  for  your  sake,  the  woman  that  he 

chose, 
And  for  this  orphan,  I  am  come  to  you : 
You  know  there  has  not  been  for  these 

five  years 
So  full  a  harvest :  let  me  take  the  boy, 
And  I  will  set  him  in  my  uncle's  eye 
Among  the  wheat;  that  when  his  heart 

is  glad 
Of  the  full  harvest,  he  may  see  the  boy, 
And  bless  him  for  the  sake  of  him  that's 

gone.' 
And   Dora  took  the  child,  and  went 

her  way 
Across  the  wheat,  and  sat  upon  a  mound 
That  was  unsown,  where  many  poppies 

grew. 
Far  off  the  farmer  came  into  the  field 
And  spied  her  not;   for  none  of  all  his 

men 
Dare  tell  him  Dora  waited  with  the  child; 
And  Dora  would  have  risen  and  gone  to 

him, 
But  her  heart  fail'd  her;  and  the  reapers 

reap'd, 
And  the  sun  fell,  and  all  the  land  was 

dark. 
But  when  the  morrow  came,  she  rose 

and  took 
The  child  once  more,  and  sat  upon  the 

mound; 
And  made  a  little  wreath  of  all  the  flowers 
That  grew  about,  and  tied  it  round  his  hat 
To  make  him  pleasing  in  her  uncle's  eye. 
Then  when  the  farmer  pass'd  into  the  field 
He  spied  her,  and  he  left  his  men  at  work, 
And  came  and  said:  'Where  were  you 

yesterday? 
Whose  child  is  that  ?  What  are  you  doing 

here  ? ' 
So  Dora  cast  her  eyes  upon  the  ground, 
And  answer'd  softly,  'This  is  William's 

child ! ' 
'  And  did  I  not,'  said  Allan,  '  did  I  not 
Forbid  you,  Dora? '     Dora  said  again  : 
'Do  with  me   as  you  will,  but  take  the 

child, 
And  bless  him  for  the  sake  of  him  that's 

gone ! ' 


DORA. 


11 


And  Allan  said,  '  I  see  it  is  a  trick 
Got  up  betwixt  you  and  the  woman  there. 
I  must  be  taught  my  duty,  and  by  you ! 
You  knew  my  word  was  law,  and  yet  you 

dared 
To  slight  it.     Well  — for  I  will  take  the 

boy; 
But  go  you  hence,  and  never  see  me  more.' 
So  saying,  he  took  the  boy,  that  cried 

aloud 
And   struggled    hard.      The   wreath   of 

flowers  fell 
At   Dora's   feet.     She  bowed  upon  her 

hands, 
And  the  boy's  cry  came  to  her  from  the 

field, 
More    and    more    distant.     She    bow'd 

down  her  head, 
Remembering  the  day  when  first  she  came, 
And  all  the  things  that  had  been.     She 

bow'd  down 
And  wept  in  secret;    and  the  reapers 

reap'd, 
And  the  sun  fell,  and  all  the  land  was 

dark. 
Then  Dora  went  to  Mary's  house,  and 

stood  » 

Upon  the  threshold.     Mary  saw  the  boy 
Was  not  with  Dora.     She  broke  out  in 

praise 
To  God,  that  help'd  her  in  her  widow- 
hood. 
And  Dora  said, '  My  uncle  took  the  boy; 
But,  Mary,  let  me  live  and  work  with  you : 
He  says  that  he  will  never  see  me  more.' 
Then  answer'd  Mary, '  This  shall  never  be, 
That  thou  shouldst  take  my  trouble  on 

thyself:. 
And,  now  I  think,  he  shall  not  have  the 

boy, 
For  he  will  teach  him  hardness,  and  to 

slight 
His  mother;  therefore  thou  and  I  will  go, 
And  I  will  have  my  boy,  and  bring  him 

home; 
And  I  will  beg  of  him  to  take  thee  back  : 
But  if  he  will  not  take  thee  back  again, 
Then   thou  and  I  will  live  within  one 

house, 
And  work  for  William's  child,  until  he 

grows 
Of  age  to  help  us.' 

So  the  women  kiss'd 


Each  other,  and  set  out,  and  reach'd  the 

farm. 
The  door  was  off  the  latch:  they  peep'd, 

and  saw 
The  boy   set  up  betwixt  his  grandsire's 

knees, 
Who  thrust  him  in  the  hollows  of  his  arm, 
And  clapt  him  on  the  hands  and  on  the 

cheeks, 
Like  one  that  loved  him:  and  the  lad 

stretch'd  out 
And  babbled  for  the  golden  seal,  that 

hung 
From  Allan's  watch,  and  sparkled  by  the 

fire. 
Then  they  came  in:  but  when  the  boy 

beheld 
His  mother,  he  cried  out  to  come  to  her : 
And  Allan  set  him  down,  and  Mary  said  : 
'O  Father!  —  if  you  let  me  call  you 

so  — 
I  never  came  a-begging  for  myself, 
Or   William,  or   this  child;   but   now  I 

come 
For  Dora :  take  her  back;   she  loves  you 

well. 

0  Sir,  when  William  died,  he  died  at 

peace 
With  all  men;   for  I  ask'd  him,  and  he 

said 
He  could  not  ever  rue  his  marrying  me  — 

1  had  been  a  patient  wife :  but,  Sir,  he 

said 
That  he  was  wrong  to  cross  his  father 

thus  : 
"  God  bless  him  !  "  he  said,  "  and  may  he 

never  know 
The  troubles  I  have  gone  thro' !  "     Then 

he  turn'd 
His  face  and  pass'd  —  unhappy  that  I  am  ! 
But  now,  Sir,  let  me  have  my  boy,  for 

you 
Will  make  him  hard,  and  he  will  learn 

to  slight 
His   father's  memory;    and   take   Dora 

back, 
And  let  all  this  be  as  it  was  before.' 

So  Mary  said,  and  Dora  hid  her  face 
By  Mary.   There  was  silence  in  the  room ; 
And  all  at  once  the  old  man  burst  in 

sobs : — 
'  I  have  been  to  blame  —  to  blame.     I 

have  kill'd  my  son. 


7* 


AUDLEY  COURT. 


I  have  kill'd  him  —  but  I  loved  him  — 
my  dear  son. 

May  God  forgive  me  !  — I  have  been  to 
blame. 

Kiss  me,  my  children.' 

Then  they  clung  about 

The  old  man's  neck,  and  kiss'd  him  many 
times. 

And  all  the  man  was  broken  with  re- 
morse ; 

And  all  his  love  caire  back  a  hundred- 
fold; 

And  for  three  hours  he  sobb'd  o'er  Will- 
iam's child 

Thinking  of  William. 

So  those  four  abode 

Within  one  house  together;  and  as  years 

Went  forward,  Mary  took  another  mate; 

But  Dora  lived  unmarried  till  her  death. 


AUDLEY  COURT. 

'The  Bull,  the  Fleece  are  cramm'd,  and 

not  a  room 
For  love  or  money.     Let  us  picnic  there 
At  Audley  Court.' 

I  spoke,  while  Audley  feast 
Humm'd  like  a  hive  all  round  the  narrow 

quay, 
To  Francis,  with  a  basket  on  his  arm, 
To  Francis  just  alighted  from  the  boat, 
And  breathing  of  the  sea.     '  With  all  my 

heart,' 
Said  Francis.     Then  we  shoulder'd  thro' 

the  swarm, 
And  rounded  by  the  stillness  of  the  beach 
To   where   the   bay   runs  up    its    latest 

horn. 
We  left  the  dying  ebb  that  faintly  lipp'd 
The  flat  red  granite;  so  by  many  a  sweep 
Of  meadow  smooth  from  aftermath  we 

reach'd 
The  griffin-guarded  gates,  and  pass'd  thro' 

all 
The  pillar' d  dusk  of  sounding  sycamores, 
And  cross'd  the  garden  to  the  gardener's 

lodge, 
With  all  its  casements  bedded,  and  its 

walls 
And  chimneys  muffled  in  the  leafy  vine. 
There,  on  a  slope  of  orchard.  Francis 

laid 


A   damask  napkin  wrought  with   horse 

and  hound, 
Brought  out  a  dusky  loaf  that  smelt  oi 

home, 
And,  half-cut-down,  a.  pasty  costly-made, 
WThere  quail  and  pigeon,  lark  and  leveret 

lay, 
Like  fossils  of  the  rock,  with  golden  yolks 
Imbedded  and  injellied;  last,  with  these, 
A  flask  of  cider  from  his  father's  vats, 
Prime,  which  I  knew;   and  so  we  sat  and 

eat 
And  talk'd   old  matters  over;  who  was 

dead, 
Who  married,  who  was  like  to  be,  and 

how 
The  races  went,  and  who  would  rent  the 

hall: 
Then  touch'd  upon  the  game,  how  scarce 

it  was 
This  season;   glancing  thence,  discuss'd 

the  farm, 
The  four-field  system,  and  the  price  of 

grain ; 
And  struck  upon  the  corn-laws,  where 

we  split, 
And  came  again  together  on  the  king 
With  heated  faces;  till  he  laugh'd  aloud; 
And,  while  the  blackbird  on  the  pippin 

hung 
To  hear  him,  clapt  his  hand  in  mine  and 

sang  — 
4  Oh !  who  would  fight  and  march  and 

countermarch, 
Be  shot  for  sixpence  in  a  battle-field, 
And  shovell'd  up  into  some  bloody  trench 
Where  no  one  knows?  but  let  me  live 

my  life. 
'  Oh  !  who  would  cast  and  balance  at 

a  desk, 
Perch'd  like  a  crow  upon  a  three-legg'd 

stool, 
Till  all  his  juice  is  dried,  and  all  his  joints 
Are  full  of  chalk?  but  let  me  live   my 

life. 
'  Who'd  serve  the  state?   for  if  I  carved 

my  name 

Upon  the  cliffs  that  guard  my  native  land, 

I  might  as  well  have  traced  it  in  the  sands; 

The  sea  wastes  all :  but  let  me  live  my  life. 

'Oh!     who   would    love?    I  woo'd   a 

woman  once, 
But  she  was  sharper  than  an  eastern  wind, 


AUDLEY  COURT— WALKING    TO    THE  MAIL. 


79 


And  all  my  heart  turfi'd  from  her,  as  a 

thorn 
Turns  from  the  sea;   but  let  me  live  my 

life.' 
He  sang  his  song,  and  I  replied  with 

mine: 
I  found  it  in  a  volume,  all  of  songs, 
Knock'd    down    to   me,   when    old    Sir 

Robert's  pride, 
His  books  —  the  more  the  pity,  so  I  said — 
Came  to  the  hammer  here  in  March  — 

and  this  — 
I  set  the  words,  and  added  names  I  knew. 
'  Sleep,  Ellen  Aubrey,  sleep,  and  dream 

of  me : 
Sleep,  Ellen,  folded  in  thy  sister's  arm, 
And  sleeping,  haply  dream  her  arm  is 

mine. 
1  Sleep,  Ellen,  folded  in  Emilia's  arm; 
Emilia,  fairer  than  all  else  but  thou, 
For  thou  art  fairer  than  all  else  that  is. 
'Sleep,   breathing   health   and    peace 

upon  her  breast : 
Sleep,  breathing  love  and  trust   against 

her  lip: 
I  go  to-night :  I  come  to-morrow  morn. 

'  I  go,  but  I  return :  I  would  I  were 
The  pilot  of  the  darkness  and  the  dream. 
Sleep,  Ellen  Aubrey,  love,  and  dream  of 

me.' 
So  sang  we   each   to    either,    Francis 

Hale, 
The  farmer's  son,  who  lived  across  the  bay, 
My   friend;   and  I,  that   having   where- 
withal, 
And  in  the  fallow  leisure  of  my  life 
A  rolling  stone  of  here  and  everywhere, 
Did  what  I  would;   but  ere  the  night  we 

rose 
And   saunter'd   home   beneath  a  moon, 

that,  just 
In  crescent,  dimly  rain'd  about  the  leaf 
Twilights  of  airy  silver,  till  we  reach'd 
The  limit  of  the  hills;   and  as  we  sank 
From  rock  to  rock  upon  the  glooming 

quay, 
The  town  was  hush'd  beneath  us :  lower 

down 
The   bay  was   oily  calm;    the   harbour- 
buoy, 
Sole  star  of  phosphorescence  in  the  calm, 
With  one  green  sparkle  ever  and  anon 
Dipt  by  itself,  and  we  were  glad  at  heart. 


WALKING  TO  THE   MAIL. 

John.     I'm  glad  I  walk'd.     How  fresh 
the  meadows  look 
Above  the  river,  and,  but  a  month  ago, 
The  whole  hill-side  was  redder  than  a  fox. 
Is  yon  plantation  where  this  byway  joins 
The  turnpike? 

James.  Yes. 

John.     And  when  does  this  come  by? 

James.     The  mail?     At  one  o'clock. 


John. 


What  is  it 


James.     A  quarter  to. 
John.  Whose  house  is  that  I  see? 

No,  not  the  County  Member's  with  the 

vane : 
Up  higher  with  the  yew-tree  by  it,  and 

half 
A  score  of  gables. 

James.     That?     Sir  Edward   Head's: 

But  he's  abroad  :  the  place  is  to  be  sold. 

John.     Oh,  his.     He  was  not  broken. 

James.  No,  sir,  he, 

Vex'd  with  a  morbid  devil  in  his  blood 

That  veil'd  the  world  with  jaundice,  hid 

his  face 
From    all   men,   and    commercing   with 

himself, 
He   lost   the    sense   that    handles   daily 

life  — 
That  keeps  us  all  in  order  more  or  less  — 
And   sick    of    home   went   overseas   for 
change. 
John.     And  whither? 
James.     Nay,  who  knows?    He's  here 
and  there. 
But  let  him  go;   his  devil  goes  with  him, 
As  well  as  with  his  tenant,  Jocky  Dawes. 
John.     What's  that? 
James.     You  saw  the  man  —  on  Mon- 
day, was  it  ?  — 
There  by  the  humpback'd  willow;    half 

stands  up 
And  bristles;   half  has  fall'n  and  made  a 

bridge; 
And  there  he  caught  the  younker  tickling 

trout  — 
Caught  in  flagrante  —  what's  the  Latin 

word?  — 
Delicto  :  but  his  house,  for  so  they  say, 
Was   haunted  with   a  jolly  ghost,   that 
shook 


So 


WALKING    TO    THE  MAIL. 


The  curtains,  whined  in  lobbies,  tapt  at 

doors, 
And  rummaged   like  a  rat:    no  servant 

stay'd : 
The  farmer  vext  packs  up  his  beds  and 

chairs, 
And  all  his  household  stuff;   and  with  his 

boy 
Betwixt  his  knees,  his  wife  upon  the  tilt, 
Sets  out,  and  meets  a  friend  who  hails 

him,  '  What ! 
You're   flitting ! '     '  Yes,   we're   flitting,' 

says  the  ghost 
(For  they  had  pack'd  the  thing  among 

the  beds). 
1  Oh  well,'  says  he,  '  you  flitting  with  us 

too  — 
Jack,  turn  the  horses'  heads  and  home 

again.' 
John.     He  left  his  wife  behind ;   for  so 

I  heard. 
James.     He  left  her,  yes.     I  met  my 

lady  once: 
A  woman  like  a  butt,  and  harsh  as  crabs. 
John.    Oh   yet   but  I  remember,   ten 

years  back  — 
Tis  now  at  least  ten  years  —  and  then 

she  was  — 
You  could  not  light  upon  a  sweeter  thing : 
A  body  slight  and  round,  and  like  a  pear 
In  growing,  modest  eyes,  a  hand,  a  foot 
Lessening  in  perfect  cadence,  and  a  skin 
As  clean  and  white  as  privet  when  it 

flowers. 
James.     Ay,  ay,  the  blossom  fades,  and 

they  that  loved 
At  first  like  dove  and  dove  were  cat  and 

dog. 
She  was  the  daughter  of  a  cottager, 
Out  of  her  sphere.     What  betwixt  shame 

and  pride, 
New  things  and  old,  himself  and  her,  she 

sour'd 
To  what  she  is  :  a  nature  never  kind ! 
Like  men,  like  manners :  like  breeds  like, 

they  say  : 
Kind  nature  is  the  best :  those  manners 

next 
That  fit  us  like  a  nature  second-hand; 
Which   are  indeed  the  manners  of  the 

great. 
John.     But  I  had  heard  it  was  this  bill 

that  past, 


And  fear  of  change  at  home,  that  drove 

him  hence. 
James.     That  was  the  last  drop  in  the 

cup  of  gall. 
I  once  was  near  him,  when  his  bailiff 

brought 
A  Chartist  pike.     You  should  have  seen 

him  wince 
As  from  a  venomous  thing :  he  thought 

himself 
A  mark  for  all,  and  shudder'd,  lest  a  cry 
Should  break  his  sleep  by  night,  and  his 

nice  eyes 
Should  see  the  raw  mechanic's   bloody 

thumbs 
Sweat   on   his  blazon'd  chairs;  but,  sir, 

you  know 
That  these  two   parties   still   divide  the 

world  — 
Of  those  that  want,  and  those  that  have  : 

and  still 
The  same  old  sore  breaks  out  from  age 

to  age 
With   much   the  same  result.      Now  I 

myself, 
A  Tory  to  the  quick,  was  as  a  boy 
Destructive,  when  I  had  not  what  I  would. 
I  was  at  school  —  a  college  in  the  South  : 
There  lived  a  flayflint  near;   we  stole  his 

fruit, 
His  hens,  his  eggs;   but  there  was  law 

for  us  ; 
We  paid  in  person.     He  had  a  sow,  sir. 

She, 
With  meditative  grunts  of  much  content, 
Lay  great  with  pig,  wallowing  in  sun  and 

mud. 
By  night  we  dragg'd  her  to  the  college 

tower 
From  her  warm  bed,  and  up  the  cork- 
screw stair 
With  hand  and  rope  we  haled  the  groan- 
ing sow, 
And  on  the  leads  we  kept  her  till  she 

Pigg'd. 
Large  range  of  prospect  had  the  mother 

sow, 
And  but  for  daily  loss  of  one  she  loved 
As  one  by  one  we  took  them  —  but  for 

this  — 
As  never  sow  was  higher  in  this  world  — 
Might  have  been  happy :  but  what  lot  is 

pure? 


EDWIN  MORRIS;    OR,   THE   IAKE. 


8\ 


We  took  them  all,  till  she  was  left  alone 
Upon  her  tower,  the  Niobe  of  swine, 
And  so  return'd  unfarrow'd  to  her  sty. 
John.    They  found  you  out? 
James.  Not  they. 

John.  Well  —  after  all  — 

What  know  we  of  the  secret  of  a  man? 
His  nerves  were  wrong.     What  ails  us, 

who  are  sound, 
That  we  should  mimic  this  raw  fool  the 

world, 
Which  charts  us  all  in  its  coarse  blacks 

or  whites, 
As  ruthless  as  a  baby  with  a  worm, 
As  cruel  as  a  schoolboy  ere  he  grows 
To  Pity  —  more  from  ignorance  than  will. 
But  put  your  best  foot  forward,  or  I 
fear 
That  we  shall  miss  the  mail :  and  here  it 

comes 
With  five  at  top  :  as  quaint  a  four-in-hand 
As  you  shall  see  —  three  pyebalds  and  a 
roan. 


EDWIN  MORRIS; 

OR,   THE    LAKE. 

O  ME,  my  pleasant  rambles  by  the  lake, 
My  sweet,  wild,  fresh  three  quarters  of  a 

year, 
My  one  Oasis  in  the  dust  and  drouth 
Of  city  life  !     I  was  a  sketcher  then  : 
See  here,  my  doing :  curves  of  mountain, 

bridge, 
Boat,  island,  ruins  of  a  castle,  built 
When  men  knew  how  to  build,  upon  a 

rock 
With  turrets  lichen-gilded  like  a  rock  : 
And    here,    new-comers    in    an    ancient 

hold, 
New-comers  from  the  Mersey,  million- 
aires, 
Here  lived  the  Hills  —  a  Tudor-chimnied 

bulk 
Of  mellow  brickwork  on  an  isle  of  bowers. 
O  me,  my  pleasant  rambles  by  the  lake 
With  Edwin   Morris   and  with   Edward 

Bull 
The  curate;   he  was  fatter  than  his  cure. 

But  Edwin  Morris,  he  that  knew  the 
names, 

G 


Long  learned  names  of  agaric,  moss  and 

fern, 
Who  forged  a  thousand  theories  of  the 

rocks, 
Who  taught  me  how  to  skate,  to  row,  to 

swim, 
Who  read  me  rhymes  elaborately  good, 
His  own  —  I  call'd  him  Crichton,  for  he 

seem'd 
All-perfect,  finish'd  to  the  finger  nail. 

And  once  I  ask'd  him  of  his  early  life, 
And  his  first  passion;   and  he  answer'd 

me; 
And  well  his  words  became  him :  was  he 

not 
A  full-cell'd  honeycomb  of  eloquence 
Stored  from  all  flowers?      Poet-like  he 

spoke. 

*  My  love  for  Nature  is  as  old  as  I; 
But  thirty  moons,  one  honeymoon  to  that, 
And  three  rich  sennights  more,  my  love 

for  her. 
My  love  for  Nature  and  my  love  for  her, 
Of  different  ages,  like  twin-sisters  grew, 
Twin-sisters  differently  beautiful. 
To  some  full  music  rose  and  sank  the  sun, 
And  some  full  music  seem'd  to  move  and 

change 
With  all  the  varied  changes  of  the  dark, 
And  either  twilight  and  the  day  between; 
For  daily  hope  fulfill'd,  to  rise  again 
Revolving    toward    fulfilment,   made    it 

sweet 
To   walk,  to   sit,  to   sleep,  to   wake,  to 

breathe.' 

Or  this  or  something  like  to  this  he 
spoke. 
Then  said  the  fat-faced  curate  Edward 
Bull, 
'I  take  it,  God  made  the  woman  for 
the  man, 
And  for  the  good  and  increase  of  the 

world. 
A  pretty  face  is  well,  and  this  is  well, 
To  have  a  dame  indoors,  that  trims  us  up, 
And  keeps  us  tight ;  but  these  unreal  ways 
Seem  but  the  theme  of  writers,  and  in- 
deed 
Worn  threadbare.     Man  is  made  of  solid 
stuff. 


82 


EDWIN  MORRIS;    OR,   THE  LAKE. 


1  say,  God  made  the  woman  for  the  man, 
And  for  the  good  and  increase  of  the 
world.' 

'Parson,'  said  I,  'you  pitch  the  pipe 

too  low : 
But  I  have  sudden  touches,  and  can  run 
My  faith  beyond  my  practice  into  his : 
Tho'  if,  in  dancing  after  Letty  Hill, 
I  do  not  hear  the  bells  upon  my  cap, 
I  scarce  have  other  music :  yet  say  on. 
What  should  one  give  to  light  on  such  a 

dream? ' 
I  ask'd  him  half-sardonically. 

'Give? 
Give  all  thou  art,'  he  answer'd,  and   a 

light 
Of  laughter  dimpled  in  his  swarthy  cheek; 
•I   would   have   hid   her   needle   in   my 

heart, 
To  save  her  little  finger  from  a  scratch 
No  deeper  than  the  skin  :  my  ears  could 

hear 
Her  lightest  breath;    her  least  remark 

was  worth 
The  experience  of  the  wise.     I  went  and 

came; 
Her  voice  fled  always  thro'  the  summer 

land; 
I  spoke  her  name  alone.     Thrice-happy 

days! 
The  flower  of  each,  those  moments  when 

we  met, 
The    crown  of  all,  we  met  to  part  no 

more.' 

Were  not  his  words  delicious,  I  a  beast 
To  take  them  as  I  did?  but  something 

jarr'd; 
Whether  he  spoke  too  largely;  that  there 

seem'd 
A  touch  of  something  false,  some  self- 
conceit, 
Or  over-smoothness :  howsoe'er  it  was, 
He  scarcely  hit  my  humour,  and  I  said : 

'Friend  Edwin,  do  not  think  yourself 

alone 
Of  all  men  happy.      Shall  not  Love  to 

me, 
As  in  the  Latin  song  I  learnt  at  school, 
Sneeze  out  a  full  God-bless-you  right  and 

left? 


But  you  can  talk:  yours  is  a  kindly  vein  : 
I  have,    I   think,  —  Heaven  knows,  —  as 

much  within; 
Have,  or  should  have,  but  for  a  thought 

or  two, 
That  like  a  purple  beech  among  the  greens 
Looks  out  of  place :  'tis  from  no  want  in 

her: 
It  is  my  shyness,  or  my  self-distrust, 
Or  something  of  a  wayward  modern  mind 
Dissecting  passion.      Time  will  set  me 

right.' 

So   spoke  I  knowing  not  the  things 

that  were. 
Then  said  the  fat-faced  curate,  Edward 

Bull: 
'God  made  the  woman  for  the  use  of 

man, 
And  for  the  good  and  increase  of  the 

world.' 
And  I  and  Edwin  laughed;  and  now  we 

paused 
About  the  windings  of  the,  marge  to  hear 
The  soft  wind   blowing  over  meadowy 

holms 
And  alders,  garden-isles;   and  now  we  left 
The  clerk  behind  us,  I  and  he,  and  ran 
By  ripply  shallows  of  the  lisping  lake, 
Delighted   with   the   freshness   and    the 

sound. 

But,  when  the  bracken  rusted  on  their 

crags, 
My  suit  had  wither'd,  nipt  to  death  by 

him 
That  was  a  God,  and  is  a  lawyer's  clerk, 
The  rentroll  Cupid  of  our  rainy  isles. 
'Tis  true,  we  met;  one  hour  I  had,  no 

more : 
She  sent  a  note,  the  seal  an  Elle  vous 

suit, 
The  close, '  Your  Letty,  only  yours  ;  '  and 

this 
Thrice   underscored.     The  friendly  mist 

of  morn 
Clung  to  the  lake.     I  boated  over,  ran 
My  craft  aground,  and  heard  with  beat- 
ing heart 
The  Sweet-Gale  rustle  round  the  shelving 

keel; 
And  out  I  stept,  and  up  I  crept :  she 

moved, 


ST.   SIMEON  STYLITES. 


83 


Like     Proserpine    in    Enna,    gathering 

flowers : 
Then  low  and  sweet  I  whistled  thrice; 

and  she, 
She  turn'd,  we  closed,  we  kiss'd,  swore 

faith,  I  breathed 
In  some  new  planet :  a  silent  cousin  stole 
Upon    us   and    departed :    •  Leave,'   she 

cried, 
15  O  leave  me  ! '     '  Never,  dearest,  never  : 

here 
I  brave  the  worst :  '  and  while  we  stood 

like  fools 
Embracing,  all  at  once  a  score  of  pugs 
And  poodles  yell'd  within,  and  out  they 

came 
Trustees  and  Aunts  and  Uncles.     *  What, 

with  him ! 
Go '  (shrill'd  the  cotton-spinning  chorus) ; 

■ him !  ■ 
I    choked.      Again    they    shriek'd    the 

burthen  — '  Him! ' 
Again  with  hands  of  wild  rejection '  Go !  — 
Girl,  get  you  in ! '     She  went  —  and  in 

one  month 
They  wedded  her  to  sixty  thousand  pounds, 
To  lands  in  Kent  and  messuages  in  York, 
And  slight  Sir  Robert  with  his  watery 

smile 
And  educated  whisker.     But  for  me, 
They  set  an  ancient  creditor  to  work  : 
It  seems  I  broke  a  close  with  force  and 

arms: 
There  came  a  mystic  token  from  the  king 
To  greet  the  sheriff,  needless  courtesy ! 
I   read,   and   fled  by   night,   and   flying 

turn'd  : 
Her  taper  glimmer'd  in  the  lake  below : 
I  turn'd  once  more,  close-button'd  to  the 

storm ; 
So  left  the  place,  left  Edwin,  nor  have  seen 
Him  since,  nor  heard  of  her,  nor  cared  to 

hear. 

Nor  cared  to  hear?  perhaps:  yet  long 

ago 
I  have  pardon'd  little  Letty;  not  indeed, 
It  may  be,  for  her  own  dear  sake  but  this, 
She  seems  a  part  of  those  fresh  days  to  me ; 
For  in  the  dust  and  drouth  of  London  life 
She  moves  among  my  visions  of  the  lake, 
While  the  prime  swallow  dips  his  wing, 

or  then 


While  the  gold-lily  blows,  and  overhead 
The  light  cloud  smoulders  on  the  summer 
crag. 


ST.   SIMEON  STYLITES. 

Altho'  I  be  the  basest  of  mankind, 
From  scalp  to  sole  one  slough  and  crust 

of  sin, 
Unfit  for  earth,  unfit  for  heaven,  scarce 

meet 
For  troops  of  devils,  mad  with  blasphemy, 
I  will  not  cease  to  grasp  the  hope  I  hold 
Of  saintdom,  and  to  clamour,  mourn  and 

sob, 
Battering  the  gates  of  heaven  with  storms 

of  prayer, 
Have  mercy,  Lord,  and  take  away  my 

sin. 
Let  this  avail,  just,  dreadful,  mighty 

God, 
This  not  be  all  in  vain,  that  thrice  ten 

years, 
Thrice  multiplied  by  superhuman  pangs, 
In  hungers  and  in  thirsts,  fevers  and  cold, 
In  coughs,  aches,  stitches,  ulcerous  throes 

and  cramps, 
A  sign  betwixt  the  meadow  and  the  cloud, 
Patient  on  this  tall  pillar  I  have  borne 
Rain,  wind,  frost,  heat,  hail,  damp,  and 

sleet,  and  snow; 
And  I  had  hoped  that  ere  this  period  closed 
Thou  wouldst  have  caught  me  up  into  thy 

rest, 
Denying  not  these  weather-beaten  limbs 
The  meed  of  saints,  the  white  robe  and 

the  palm. 
O  take  the  meaning,  Lord:  I  do  not 

breathe, 
Not  whisper,  any  murmur  of  complaint. 
Pain  heapM  ten-hundred-fold  to  this,  were 

still 
Less  burthen,  by  ten-hundred-fold,  to  bear, 
Than  were  those  lead-like  tons  of  sin, 

that  crush'd 
My  spirit  flat  before  thee. 

O  Lord,  Lord, 
Thou  knowest  I  bore  this  better  at  the 

first, 
For  I  was  strong  and  hale  of  body  then; 
And  tho'  my  teeth,  which  now  are  dropt 

away, 


84 


ST.   SIMEON  STYLITES. 


Would  chatter  with  the  cold,  and  all  my 

beard 
Was  tagg'd  with  icy  fringes  in  the  moon, 
I  drown'd  the  whoopings  of  the  owl  with 

sound 
Of  pious  hymns  and  psalms,  and  some- 
times saw 
An  angel  stand  and  watch  me,  as  I  sang. 
Now  am  I  feeble  grown;  my  end  draws 

nigh; 
I  hope  my  end  draws  nigh :  half  deaf  I 

am, 
So  that  I  scarce  can  hear  the  people  hum 
About  the  column's  base,  and  almost  blind, 
And   scarce   can  recognise  the  fields  I 

know; 
And  both  my  thighs  are  rotted  with  the 

dew; 
Yet  cease  I  not  to  clamour  and  to  cry, 
While  my  stiff  spine  can  hold  my  weary 

head, 
Till  all  my  limbs  drop  piecemeal  from  the 

stone, 
Have  mercy,  mercy :  take  away  my  sin. 

O  Jesus,  if  thou  wilt  not  save  my  soul, 
Who  may  be  saved?  who  is  it  may  be 

saved  ? 
Who  may  be  made  a  saint,  if  I  fail  here  ? 
Show  me  the  man   hath  suffer'd   more 

than  I. 
For  did  not  all  thy  martyrs  die  one  death  ? 
For  either  they  were  stoned,  or  crucified, 
Or  burn'd  in  fire,  or  boil'd  in  oil,  or  sawn 
In  twain  beneath  the  ribs;  but  I  die  here 
To-day,  and  whole  years  long,  a  life  of 

death. 
Bear  witness,  if  I  could  have  found  a  way 
(And  heedfully  I  sifted  all  my  thought) 
More  slowly-painful  to  subdue  this  home 
Of  sin,  my  flesh,  which  I  despise  and  hate, 
I  had  not  stinted  practice,  O  my  God. 

For  not  alone  this  pillar-punishment, 
Not  this  alone  I  bore :  but  while  I  lived 
In  the  white  convent  down  the  valley  there, 
For  many  weeks  about  my  loins  I  wore 
The  rope  that  haled  the  buckets  from  the 

well, 
Twisted  as  tight  as  I  could  knot  the  noose; 
And  spake  not  of  it  to  a  single  soul, 
Until  the  ulcer,  eating  thro'  my  skin, 
Betray'd  my  secret  penance,  so  that  all 
My   brethren    marvell'd   greatly.      More 

than  this 


I  bore,  whereof,  O  God,  thou  knowest  all. 
Three    winters,    that    my    soul    might 

grow  to  thee, 
I  lived  up   there   on   yonder   mountain 

side. 
My  right  leg  chain'd  into  the  crag,  I  lay 
Pent  in  a  roofless  close  of  ragged  stones; 
Inswathed  sometimes  in  wandering  mist, 

and  twice 
Black'd  with  thy  branding  thunder,  and 

sometimes 
Sucking  the  damps  for  drink,  and  eating 

not, 
Except   the   spare   chance-gift   of  those 

that  came 
To  touch  my  body  and  be  heal'd,  and  live  : 
And  they  say  then  that  I  work'd  miracles, 
Whereof  my  fame  is  loud  amongst  man- 
kind, 
Cured  lameness,  palsies,  cancers.    Thou, 

OGod, 
Knowest  alone  whether  this  was  or  no. 
Have  mercy,  mercy !  cover  all  my  sin. 
Then,  that   I   might  be  more   alone 

with  thee, 
Three  years  I  lived  upon  a  pillar,  high 
Six  cubits,  and   three  years  on  one  of 

twelve; 
And  twice  three  years  I  crouch'd  on  one 

that  rose 
Twenty  by  measure ;   last  of  all,  I  grew 
Twice  ten  long  weary  weary  years  to  this, 
That  numbers  forty  cubits  from  the  soil. 
I  think  that  I  have  borne  as  much  as 

this  — 
Or  else  I  dream  —  and  for  so  long  a  time, 
If  I  may  measure  time  by  yon  slow  light, 
And   this   high   dial,  which   my  sorrow 

crowns  — 
So  much  —  even  so. 

And  yet  I  know  not  well, 
For  that  the  evil  ones  come  here,  and  say, 
'  Fall  down,  O  Simeon :  thou  hast  suffer'd 

long 
For  ages  and  for  ages ! '  then  they  prate 
Of  penances  I  cannot  have  gone  thro', 
Perplexing  me  with  lies;   and  oft  I  fall, 
Maybe  for  months,  in  such  blind  lethargies 
That  Heaven,  and  Earth,  and  Time  are 

choked. 

But  yet 
Bethink  thee,  Lord,  while  thou  and  all 

the  saints 


ST.   SIMEON  STYLITES. 


§5 


Enjoy  themselves  in  heaven,  and  men  on 
earth 

House  in  the  shade  of  comfortable  roofs, 

Sit  with  their  wives  by  fires,  eat  whole- 
some food, 

And  wear  warm  clothes,  and  even  beasts 
have  stalls, 

I,  'tween  the  spring  and  downfall  of  the 
light, 

Bow  down  one  thousand  and  two  hundred 
times, 

To  Christ,  the  Virgin  Mother,  and  the 
saints; 

Or  in  the  night,  after  a  little  sleep, 

I  wake  :  the  chill  stars  sparkle;    I  am  wet 

With  drenching  dews,  or  stiff  with  crack- 
ling frost. 

I  wear  an  undress'd  goatskin  on  my 
back; 

A  grazing  iron  collar  grinds  my  neck ; 

And  in  my  weak,  lean  arms  I  lift  the 
cross, 

And  strive  and  wrestle  with  thee  till  I 
die: 

0  mercy,  mercy  !  wash  away  my  sin. 

O  Lord,  thou  knowest  what  a  man  I 

am; 
A  sinful  man,  conceived  and  born  in  sin  : 
'Tis  their   own  doing;    this  is  none  of 

mine; 
Lay  it  not  to  me.     Am  I  to  blame  for 

this, 
That  here  come  those  that  worship  me? 

Ha!  ha! 
They  think  that  I  am  somewhat.     What 

am  I? 
The  silly  people  take  me  for  a  saint, 
And   bring   me   offerings   of    fruit    and 

flowers : 
And  I,  in  truth  (thou  wilt  bear  witness 

here) 
Have  all  in  all  endured   as    much,  and 

more 
Than   many  just    and   holy  men,  whose 

names 
Are  register'd  and  calendar'd  for  saints. 

Good  people,  you  do  ill  to  kneel  to  me. 
What  is  it  I  can  have  done  to  merit  this? 

1  am  a  sinner  viler  than  you  all. 

It  may  be  I  have  wrought  some  miracles, 
And  cured  some  halt  and  maim'd;   but 

what  of  that? 
It  may  be,  no  one,  even  among  the  saints, 


May  match    his   pains  with  mine;    but 

what  of  that  ? 
Yet  do  not  rise;   for  you  may  look  on  me, 
And  in  your  looking  you  may  kneel  to 

God. 
Speak  !  is  there  any  of  you  halt  or  maim'd? 
I  think   you  know  I  have   some  power 

with  Heaven 
From  my  long  penance:  let  him  speak 

his  wish. 
Yes,   I   can   heal   him.      Power   goes 

forth  from  me. 
They   say   that   they   are    heal'd.      Ah, 

hark !  they  shout 
•  St.  Simeon  Stylites.'     Why,  if  so, 
God  reaps  a  harvest  in  me.     O  my  soul, 
God  reaps  a  harvest  in  thee.     If  this  be, 
Can  I  work  miracles  and  not  be  saved? 
This  is  not  told  of  any.     They  were  saints. 
It  cannot  be  but  that  I  shall  be  saved; 
Yea,    crown'd    a    saint.       They    shout, 

'  Behold  a  saint ! ' 
And  lower  voices  saint  me  from  above. 
Courage,  St.  Simeon  !  This  dull  chrysalis 
Cracks  into  shining  wings,  and  hope  ere 

death 
Spreads  more  and  more  and  more,  that 

God  hath  now 
Sponged   and   made  blank    of  crimeful 

record  all 
My  mortal  archives. 

O  my  sons,  my  sons, 
I,  Simeon  of  the  pillar,  by  surname 
Stylites,  among  men ;  I,  Simeon, 
The  watcher  on  the  column  till  the  end; 
I,   Simeon,    whose   brain   the    sunshine 

bakes; 
I,   whose   bald   brows    in    silent    hours 

become 
Unnaturally  hoar  with  rime,  do  now 
From  my  high  nest  of  penance  here  pro- 
claim 
That  Pontius  and  Iscariot  by  my  side 
Show'd  like  fair  seraphs.     On  the  coals 

I  lay, 
A  vessel  full  of"  sin  :  all  hell  beneath 
Made  me  boil  over.     Devils  pluck'd  my 

sleeve, 
Abaddon  and  Asmodeus  caught  at  me. 
I    smote    them   with    the    cross;     they 

swarm'd  again. 
In  bed  like  monstrous  apes  they  crush'd 

my  chest : 


So 


ST.    SIMEON  STYLITES—  THE    TALKING    OAK. 


They  flapp'd  my  light  out  as  I  read :  I 
saw 

Their  faces  grow  between  me  and   my 
book; 

With  colt-like  whinny  and  with  hoggish 
whine 

They  burst   my   prayer.  .  Yet   this  way 
was  left, 

And  by  this  way  I  'scaped  them.     Mortify 

Your  flesh,  like  me,  with  scourges  and 
with  thorns; 

Smite,  shrink  not,  spare  not.     If  it  may 
be,  fast 

Whole  Lents,  and  pray.     I  hardly,  with 
slow  steps, 

With  slow,  faint  steps,  and  much  exceed- 
ing pain, 

Have  scrambled  past  those  pits  of  fire, 
that  still 

Sing  in  mine  ears.     But  yield  not  me  the 
praise : 

God  only  thro'  his  bounty  hath  thought  fit, 

Among  the  powers  and  princes  of  this 
world, 

To  make  me  an  example  to  mankind, 

Which  few  can  reach  to.     Yet  I  do  not 
say 

But  that  a  time  may  come  —  yea,  even 
now, 

Now,  now,  his  footsteps  smite  the  thresh- 
old stairs 

Of  life  —  I  say,  that  time  is  at  the  doors 

When  you  may  worship  me  without  re- 
proach ; 

For  I  will  leave  my  relics  in  your  land, 

And   you  may  carve  a  shrine  about  my 
dust, 

And   burn   a   fragrant   lamp   before  my 
bones, 

When   I   am    gather'd   to   the   glorious 
saints. 
While  I  spake  then,  a  sting  of  shrewd- 
est pain 

Ran  shrivelling  thro'  me,  and  a  cloudlike 
change, 

In  passing,  with  a  grosser  film  made  thick 

These  heavy,  horny  eyes.     The  end !  the 
end  ! 

Surely  the  end  !     What's  here?  a  shape, 
a  shade, 

A  flash  of  light.     Is  that  the  angel  there 

That   holds   a   crown?      Come,    blessed 
brother,  come. 


I   know  thy  glittering  face.       I   waited 

long; 
My  brows   are  ready.      What!    deny  it 

now? 
Nay,   draw,    draw,    draw    nigh.       So    I 

clutch  it.     Christ! 
Tis  gone:    'tis  here  again;   the  crown! 

the  crown ! 
So  now  'tis  fitted  on  and  grows  to  me, 
And  from  it  melt  the  dews  of  Paradise,. 
Sweet !  sweet !  spikenard,  and  balm,  and 

frankincense. 
Ah !  let  me  not  be  fool'd,  sweet  saints : 

I  trust 
That  I  am  whole,  and  clean,  and  meet 

for  Heaven. 
Speak,  if  there  be  a  priest,  a  man  of 

God, 
Among  you  there,  and  let  him  presently 
Approach,   and    lean   a   ladder   on    the 

shaft, 
And  climbing  up  into  my  airy  home, 
Deliver  me  the  blessed  sacrament; 
For  by  the  warning  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
I  prophesy  that  I  shall  die  to-night, 
A  quarter  before  twelve. 

But  thou,  O  Lord, 
Aid  all  this  foolish  people;  let  them  take 
Example,    pattern:    lead    them    to    thy 

light. 


THE  TALKING  OAK. 

Once  more  the  gate  behind  me  falls; 

Once  more  before  my  face 
I.  see  the  moulder'd  Abbey-walls, 

That  stand  within  the  chace. 

Beyond  the  lodge  the  city  lies, 
Beneath  its  drift  of  smoke; 

And  ah  !  with  what  delighted  eyes 
I  turn  to  yonder  oak. 

For  when  my  passion  first  began, 
Ere  that,  which  in  me  burn'd, 

The  love,  that  makes  me  thrice  a  man, 
Could  hope  itself  return'd; 

To  yonder  oak  within  the  field 

I  spoke  without  restraint, 
And  with  a  larger  faith  appeal'd 

Than  Papist  unto  Saint. 


THE   TALKING    OAK. 


87 


For  oft  I  talk'd  with  him  apart; 

And  told  him  of  my  choice, 
Until  he  plagiarised  a  heart, 

And  answer'd  with  a  voice. 

Tho'  what  he  whisper'd  under  Heaven 
None  else  could  understand; 

I  found  him  garrulously  given, 
A  babbler  in  the  land. 

'But  since  I  heard  him  make  reply 

Is  many  a  weary  hour; 
'Twere  well  to  question  him,  and  try 

If  yet  he  keeps  the  power. 

Hail,  hidden  to  the  knees  in  fern, 
Broad  Oak  of  Sumner-chace, 

Whose  topmost  branches  can  discern 
The  roofs  of  Sumner-place ! 

Say  thou,  whereon  I  carved  her  name, 

If  ever  maid  or  spouse, 
As  fair  as  my  Olivia,  came 

To  rest  beneath  thy  boughs. — 

1 0  Walter,  I  have  shelter'd  here 

Whatever  maiden  grace 
The  good  old  Summers,  year  by  year 

Made  ripe  in  Sumner-chace : 

'Old  Summers,  when  the  monk  was  fat, 
And,  issuing  shorn  and  sleek, 

Would  twist  his  girdle  tight,  and  pat 
The  girls  upon  the  cheek, 

'  Ere  yet,  in  scorn  of  Peter's-pence, 
And  number'd  bead,  and  shrift, 

Bluff  Harry  broke  into  the  spence 
And  turn'd  the  cowls  adrift : 

'  And  I  have  seen  some  score  of  those 
Fresh  faces,  that  would  thrive 

When  his  man-minded  offset  rose 
To  chase  the  deer  at  five; 

'  And    all    that    from    the  .  town    would 
stroll, 

Till  that  wild  wind  made  work 
In  which  the  gloomy  brewer's  soul 

Went  by  me,  like  a  stork  : 

'The  slight  she-slips  of  loyal  blood, 
And  others,  passing  praise, 


Strait-laced,  but  all-too-full  in  bud 
For  puritanic  stays : 

1  And  I  have  shadow'd  many  a  group 

Of  beauties,  that  were  born 
In  teacup-times  of  hood  and  hoop, 

Or  while  the  patch  was  worn; 

I  And,  leg  and  arm  with  love-knots  gay, 

About  me  leap'd  and  laugh'd 
The  modish  Cupid  of  the  day, 
And  shrill'd  his  tinsel  shaft. 

I I  swear  (and  else  may  insects  prick 
Each  leaf  into  a  gall) 

This  girl,  for  whom  your  heart  is  sick, 
Is  three  times  worth  them  all; 

'  For  those  and  theirs,  by  Nature's  law, 

Have  faded  long  ago; 
But  in  these  latter  springs  I  saw 

Your  own  Olivia  blow, 

'  From     vhen    she    gamboll'd    on    the 
greens 

A  baby-germ,  to  when 
The  maiden  blossoms  of  her  teens 

Could  number  five  from  ten. 

1 1  swear,  by  leaf,  and  wind,  and  rain, 
(And  hear  me  with  thine  ears,) 

That,  tho'  I  circle  in  the  grain 
Five  hundred  rings  of  years  — 

'  Yet,  since  I  first  could  cast  a  shade, 

Did  never  creature  pass 
So  slightly,  musically  made, 

So  light  upon  the  grass: 

'  For  as  to  fairies,  that  will  flit 
To  make  the  greensward  fresh, 

I  hold  them  exquisitely  knit, 
But  far  too  spare  of  flesh.' 

O  hide  thy  knotted  knees  in  fern, 

And  overlook  the  chace; 
And  from  thy  topmost  branch  discern 

The  roofs  of  Sumner-place. 

But  thou,  whereon  I  carved  her  name, 
That  oft  hast  heard  my  vows, 

Declare  when  last  Olivia  came 
To  sport  beneath  thy  boughs. 


ft 


THE    TALKING   OAK. 


1 0  yesterday,  you  know,  the  fair 

That  round  me,  clasping  each  in  each, 

Was  holden  at  the  town; 

She  might  have  lock'd  her  hands. 

Her  father  left  his  good  arm-chair, 

And.rode  his  hunter  down. 

*  Yet  seem'd  the  pressure  thrice  as  sweet 

As  woodbine's  fragile  hold, 

1  And  with  him  Albert  came  on  his. 

Or  when  I  feel  about  my  feet 

I  look'd  at  him  with  joy : 

The  berried  briony  fold.' 

As  cowslip  unto  oxlip  is, 

So  seems  she  to  the  boy. 

O  muffle  round  thy  knees  with  fern, 

And  shadow  Sumner-chace ! 

'  An  hour  had  past  —  and,  sitting  straight 

Long  may  thy  topmost  branch  discern 

Within  the  low-wheeFd  chaise, 

The  roofs  of  Sumner-place  ! 

Her  mother  trundled  to  the  gate 

Behind  the  dappled  grays. 

But  tell  me.,  did  she  read  the  name 

I  carved  with  many  vows 

'  But  as  for  her,  she  stay'd  at  home, 

When  last  with  throbbing  heart  I  came 

And  on  the  roof  she  went, 

To  rest  beneath  thy  boughs? 

And  down  the  way  you  use  to  come, 

She  look'd  with  discontent. 

1  0  yes,  she  wander'd  round  and  round 

These  knotted  knees  of  mine, 

'  She  left  the  novel  half-uncut 

And  found,   and  kiss'd   the   name  she 

Upon  the  rosewood  shelf ; 

found, 

She  left  the  new  piano  shut : 

And  sweetly  murmur'd  thine. 

She  could  not  please  herself. 

1 A  teardrop  trembled  from  its  source, 

'  Then  ran  she,  gamesome  as  the  colt, 

And  down  my  surface  crept. 

And  livelier  than  a  lark 

My  sense  of  touch  is  something  coarse, 

She  sent  her  voice  thro'  all  the  holt 

But  I  believe  she  wept. 

Before  her,  and  the  park. 

1  Then  flush'd  her  cheek  with  rosy  light, 

'  A  light  wind  chased  her  on  the  wing, 

She  glanced  across  the  plain; 

And  in  the  chase  grew  wild, 

But  not  a  creature  was  in  sight: 

As  close  as  might  be  would  he  cling 

She  kiss'd  me  once  again. 

About  the  darling  child : 

1  Her  kisses  were  so  close  and  kind, 

'  But  light  as  any  wind  that  blows 

That,  trust  me  on  my  word, 

So  fleetly  did  she  stir, 

Hard  wood  I  am,  and  wrinkled  rind, 

The  flower,  she  touch'd  on,  dipt  and  rose, 

But  yet  my  sap  was  stirr'd : 

And  turn'd  to  look  at  her. 

1  And  even  into  my  inmost  ring 

'And   here   she   came,   and   round   me 

A  pleasure  I  discern'd, 

play'd, 

Like  those  blind  motions  of  the  Spring 

And  sang  to  me  the  whole 

That  show  the  year  is  turn'd. 

Of  those  three  stanzas  that  you  made 

About  my  "  giant  bole;  " 

'Thrice-happy  he  that  may  caress 

The  ringlet's  waving  balm  — 

'  And  in  a  fit  of  frolic  mirth 

The  cushions  of  whose  touch  may  press 

She  strove  to  span  my  waist : 

The  maiden's  tender  palm. 

Alas,  I  was  so  broad  of  girth, 

I  could  not  be  embraced. 

'  I,  rooted  here  among  the  groves 

, 

But  languidly  adjust 

'  I  wish'd  myself  the  fair  young  beech 

My  vapid  vegetable  loves 

That  here  beside  me  stands, 

With  anthers  and  with  dust : 

THE    TALKING   OAK. 


89 


!  For  ah  !  my  friend,  the  days  were  brief 

Whereof  the  poets  talk, 
"When  that,  which  breathes  within   the 
leaf, 

Could  slip  its  bark  and  walk. 

1  But  could  I,  as  in  times  foregone, 
From  spray,  and  branch,  and  stem, 

Have  suck'd  and  gather'd  into  one 
The  life  that  spreads  in  them, 

1  She  had  not  found  me  so  remiss; 

But  lightly  issuing  thro', 
I  would  have  paid  her  kiss  for  kiss, 

With  usury  thereto.' 

O  nourish  high,  with  leafy  towers, 

And  overlook  the  lea, 
Pursue  thy  loves  among  the  bowers 

But  leave  thou  mine  to  me. 

0  flourish,  hidden  deep  in  fern, 
Old  oak,  I  love  thee  well; 

A  thousand  thanks  for  what  I  learn 
And  what  remains  to  tell. 

'  'Tis  little  more  :  the  day  was  warm; 

At  last,  tired  out  with  play, 
She  sank  her  head  upon  her  arm 

And  at  my  feet  she  lay. 

1  Her  eyelids  dropp'd  their  silken  eaves. 

I  breathed  upon  her  eyes 
Thro'  all  the  summer  of  my  leaves 
A  welcome  mix'd  with  sighs. 

1 1  took  the  swarming  sound  of  life  — 

The  music  from  the  town  — 
The  murmurs  of  the  drum  and  fife 

And  lull'd  them  in  my  own. 

'  Sometimes  I  let  a  sunbeam  slip, 

To  light  her  shaded  eye; 
A  second  flutter'd  round  her  lip 

Like  a  golden  butterfly; 

*  A  third  would  glimmer  on  her  neck 
To  make  the  necklace  shine; 

Another  slid,  a  sunny  fleck, 
From  head  to  ankle  fine. 

;Then  close  and  dark  my  arms  I  spread, 
And  shadow'd  all  her  rest  — 


Dropt  dews  upon  her  golden  head, 
An  acorn  in  her  breast. 

1  But  in  a  pet  she  started  up, 
And  pluck'd  it  out,  and  drew 

My  little  oakling  from  the  cup, 
And  flung  him  in  the  dew. 

'  And  yet  it  was  a  graceful  gift  — 

I  felt  a  pang  within 
As  when  I  see  the  woodman  lift 

His  axe  to  slay  my  kin. 

'  I  shook  him  down  because  he  was 

The  finest  on  the  tree. 
He  lies  beside  thee  on  the  grass. 

O  kiss  him  once  for  me. 

'  O  kiss  him  twice  and  thrice  for  me, 

That  have  no  lips  to  kiss, 
For  never  yet  was  oak  on  lea 

Shall  grow  so  fair  as  this.' 

Step  deeper  yet  in  herb  and  fern, 
Look  further  thro'  the  chace, 

Spread  upward  till  thy  boughs  discern 
The  front  of  Sumner-place. 

This  fru'.t  of  thine  by  Love  is  blest, 

That  but  a  moment  lay 
Where  fairer  fruit  of  Love  may  rest 

Some  happy  future  day. 

I  kiss  it  twice,  I  kiss  it  thrice, 
The  warmth  it  thence  shall  win 

To  riper  life  may  magnetise 
The  baby-oak  within. 

But  thou,  while  kingdoms  overset, 
Or  lapse  from  hand  to  hand, 

Thy  leaf  shall  never  fail,  nor  yet 
Thine  acorn  in  the  land. 

May  never  saw  dismember  thee, 

Nor  wielded  axe  disjoint, 
Thou  art  the  fairest-spoken  tree 

From  here  to  Lizard-point. 

O  rock  upon  thy  towery-top 
All  throats  that  gurgle  sweet ! 

All  starry  culmination  drop 
Balm-dews  to  bathe  thy  feet  I 


go 


THE    TALKING    OAK  — LOVE  AND  DUTY. 


All  grass  of  silky  feather  grow  — 
And  while  he  sinks  or  swells 

The  full  south-breeze  around  thee  blow 
The  sound  of  minster  bells. 

The  fat  earth  feed  thy  branchy  root, 

That  under  deeply  strikes ! 
The  northern  morning  o'er  thee  shoot, 

High  up,  in  silver  spikes ! 

Nor  ever  lightning  char  thy  grain, 

But,  rolling  as  in  sleep, 
Low  thunders  bring  the  mellow  rain, 

That  makes  thee  broad  and  deep ! 

And  hear  me  swear  a  solemn  oath, 

That  only  by  thy  side 
Will  I  to  Olive  plight  my  troth, 

And  gain  her  for  my  bride. 

And  when  my  marriage  morn  may  fall, 
She,  Dryad-like,  shall  wear 

Alternate  leaf  and  acorn-ball 
In  wreath  about  her  hair. 

And  I  will  work  in  prose  and  rhyme, 
And  praise  thee  more  in  both 

Than  bard  has  honour'd  beech  or  lime, 
Or  that  Thessalian  growth, 

In  which  the  swarthy  ringdove  sat, 
And  mystic  sentence  spoke; 

And  more  than  England  honours  that, 
Thy  famous  brother-oak, 

Wherein  the  younger  Charles  abode 

Till  all  the  paths  were  dim, 
And  far  below  the  Roundhead  rode, 

And  humm'd  a  surly  hymn. 


LOVE   AND   DUTY. 

Of  love  that  never  found  his  earthly  close, 
What     sequel  ?        Streaming   eyes    and 

breaking  hearts  ? 
Or  all  the  same  as  if  he  had  not  been? 
Not  so.     Shall  Error  in  the  round  of 

time 
Still  father  Truth?     O  shall  the  braggart 

shout 
For  some  blind  glimpse  of  freedom  work 

itself 


Thro'  madness,  hated  by  the  wise,  to  law, 
System  and  empire  ?  Sin  itself  be  found 
The  cloudy   porch   oft  opening  on  the 

.  Sun? 
And  only  he,  this  wonder,  dead,  become 
Mere   highway   dust?  or  year   by  year 

alone 
Sit  brooding  in  the  ruins  of  a  life, 
Nightmare  of  youth,  the  spectre  of  him- 
self? 
If  this  were  thus,  if  this,  indeed,  were 

all, 
Better  the  narrow  brain,  the  stony  heart, 
The  staring  eye  glazed  o'er  with  sapless 

days, 
The  long  mechanic  pacings  to  and  fro, 
The  set  gray  life,  and  apathetic  end. 
But  am  I  not  the  nobler  thro'  thy  love? 
O  three  times   less  unworthy !    likewise 

thou 
Art  more  thro'  Love,  and  greater  than 

thy  years, 
The  Sun  will  run  his  orbit,  and  the  Moon 
Her  circle.     Wait,  and  Love  himself  will 

bring 
The     drooping     flower     of    knowledge 

changed   to  fruit 
Of  wisdom.     Wait:  my  faith  is  large  in 

Time, 
And  that  which  shapes  it  to  some  perfect 

end. 
Will  some  one  say,  Then  why  not  ill 

for  good? 
Why  took  ye  not  your  Pastime?     To  that 

man 
My  work  shall  answer,  since  I  knew  the 

right 
And  did  it;   for  a  man  is  not  as  God, 
But  then  most  Godlike  being  most  a  man. 
—  So  let  me  think  'tis  well  for  thee  and 

me  — 
Ill-fated  that  I  am,  what  lot  is  mine 
Whose  foresight  preaches  peace,  my  heart 

so  slow 
To  feel  it !   For  how  hard  it  seem'd  to 

me, 
When  eyes,  love-languid  thro'  half  tears 

would  dwell 
One  earnest,  earnest  moment  upon  mine, 
Then  not  to  dare  to  see !  when  thy  low 

voice, 
Faltering,  would    break  its  syllables,    to 

keep 


LOVE  AND  DUTY— THE    GOLDEN  YEAR. 


9« 


My  own  full-tuned,  —  hold  passion  in  a 

leash, 
And   not  leap  forth   and  fall  about  thy 

neck, 
And  on  thy  bosom  (deep  desired  relief!) 
Rain   out  the  heavy  mist  of  tears,  that 

weigh'd 
Upon  my  brain,  my  senses  and  my  soul ! 
For   Love   himself  took   part  against 

himself 
To  warn  us  off,  and  Duty  loved  of  Love  — 
O  this  world's  curse  —  beloved  but  hated 

—  came 
Like  Death  betwixt  thy  dear  embrace  and 

mine, 
And   crying,  ■  Who   is   this?  behold  thy 

bride,' 
She  push'd  me  from  thee. 

If  the  sense  is  hard 
To  alien  ears,  I  did  not  speak  to  these  — 
No,  not  to  thee,  but  to  thyself  in  me : 
Hard    is    my   doom    and    thine:    thou 

knowest  it  all. 
Could  Love  part  thus?  was  it  not  well 

to  speak, 
To  have  spoken  once?     It  could  not  but 

be  well. 
The  slow  sweet  hours  that  bring  us  all 

things  good, 
The   slow   sad   hours   that   bring  us  all 

things  ill, 
And  all  good  things  from  evil,  brought 

the  night 
In  which  we  sat  together  and  alone, 
And  to  the  want,  that  hollow'd  all  the 

heart, 
Gave  utterance  by  the  yearning  of  an  eye, 
That  burn'd  upon  its  object   thro'  such 

tears 
As  flow  but  once  a  life. 

The  trance  gave  way 
To  those  caresses,  when  a  hundred  times 
In  that  last  kiss,  which  never  was  the  last, 
Farewell,  like  endless  welcome,  lived  and 

died. 
Then  follow'd  counsel,  comfort,  and  the 

words 
That  make  a  man  feel  strong  in  speaking 

truth; 
Till  now  the  dark  was  worn,  and  overhead 
The  lights  of  sunset  and  of  sunrise  mix'd 
In  that  brief  night;   the  summer  night, 

that  paused 


Among  her  stars  to  hear  us;   stars  that 

hung 
Love-charm'd  to  listen :  all  the  wheels  of 

Time 
Spun  round  in  station,  but  the  end  had 

come. 
O   then  like  those,  who  clench  their 

nerves  to  rush 
Upon  their  dissolution,  we  two  rose, 
There  —  closing  like  an  individual  life  — 
In  one  blind  cry  of  passion  and  of  pain, 
Like  bitter  accusation  ev'n  to  death, 
Caught  up  the  whole  of  love  and  utter' d 

it, 
And  bade  adieu  for  ever. 

Live  —  yet  live  — 
Shall  sharpest  pathos  blight  us,  knowing 

all 
Life  needs  for  life  is  possible  to  will  — 
Live  happy;   tend  thy  flowers;   be  tended 

by 
My  blessing !     Should  my  Shadow  cross 

thy  thoughts 
Too  sadly  for  their  peace,  remand  it  thou 
For  calmer  hours   to  Memory's   darkest 

hold, 
If  not  to  be  forgotten  — not  at  once — 
Not   all  forgotten.     Should  it  cross   thy 

dreams, 
O  might  it  come  like  one  that  looks  con- 
tent, 
With  quiet  eyes  unfaithful  to  the  truth, 
And  point  thee  forward  to  a  distant  light, 
'Or  seem  to  lift  a  burthen  from  thy  heart 
And   leave    thee   freer,   till   thou   wake 

refresh'd 
Then  when  the  first  low  matin-chirp  hath 

grown 
Full  quire,  and  morning  driv'n  her  plow 

of  pearl 
Far  furrowing   into   light    the  mounded 

rack, 
Beyond  the  fair  green  field  and  eastern 


THE   GOLDEN  YEAR. 

Well,  you  shall  have  that  song  which 

Leonard  wrote : 
It  was  last  summer  on  a  tour  in  Wales : 
Old  James  was  with    me :    we   that  day 

had  been 


92 


THE   GOLDEN   YEAR. 


Up  Snowdon;   and  I  wish'd  for  Leonard 

there, 
And  found   him  in  Llanberis:   then  we 

crost 
Between  the   lakes,  and   clamber'd  half 

way  up 
The  counter  side;   and  that  same  song  of 

his 
He  told  me;    for  I  banter'd   him,  and 

swore 
They  said  he  lived  shut  up  within  himself, 
A  tongue-tied  Poet  in  the  feverous  days, 
That,  setting   the  how  much  before  the 

how, 
Cry,  like  the  daughters  of  the  horseleech, 

'  Give, 
Cram  us  with  all,'  but  count  not  me  the 

herd! 
To  which  'They  call   me   what  they 

will,'  he  said  : 
1  But  I  was  born  too  late  :  the  fair  new 

forms, 
That  float  about  the  threshold  of  an  age, 
Like    truths   of  Science   waiting    to   be 

caught  — 
Catch  me  who  can,  and  make  the  catcher 

crovvn'd  — 
Are  taken  by  the  forelock.     Let  it  be. 
But  if  you  care  indeed  to  listen,  hear 
These    measured    words,   my   work    of 

yestermorn. 
'  We  sleep  and  wake  and  sleep,  but  all 

things  move; 
The  Sun  flies  forward  to  his  brother  Sun;  ' 
The  dark  Earth  follows  wheel'd  in  her 

ellipse; 
And   human   things  returning  on  them- 
selves 
Move  onward,  leading  up  the  golden  year. 
'Ah,  tho'  the  times,  when  some  new 

thought  can  bud, 
Are   but   as   poets'    seasons   when    they 

flower, 
Yet  oceans  daily  gaining  on  the  land, 
Have   ebb   and  flow  conditioning   their 

march, 
And  slow  and  sure  comes  up  the  golden 

year. 
'  When  wealth  no  more  shall   rest  in 

mounded  heaps, 
But   smit   with  freer   light   shall   slowly 

melt 
Tn  many  streams  to  fatten  lower  lands, 


And  light  shall  spread,  and  man  be  liker 

man 
Thro'  all  the  season  of  the  golden  year. 
'Shall  eagles  not  be  eagles?  wrens  be 

wrens? 
If  all  the  world  were  falcons,  what   of 

that? 
The  wonder  of  the  eagle  were  the  less, 
But  he  not  less  the  eagle.     Happy  days 
Roll  onward,  leading  up  the  golden  year. 
'  Fly,  happy  happy  sails,  and  bear  the 

Press; 
Fly  happy  with  the  mission  of  the  Cross; 
Knit  land  to  land,  and  blowing  haven- 
ward 
With  silks,  and  fruits,  and  spices,  cleat 

of  toll, 
Enrich  the  markets  of  the  golden  year. 
'  But  we  grow  old.     Ah !    when  shall 

all  men's  good 
Be  each  man's  rule,  and  universal  Peace 
Lie  like  a  shaft  of  light  across  the  land, 
And    like  a  lane  of  beams  athwart  the 

sea, 
Thro'  all  the  circle  of  the  golden  year?' 
Thus  far  he  flow'd,  and  ended;  where- 
upon 
'  Ah,  folly ! '  in  mimic  cadence  answer'd 

James  — 
'  Ah,  folly !  for  it  lies  so  far  away, 
Not  in  our  time,  nor  in  our  children's 

time, 
'Tis   like   the   second  world   to   us  that 

live; 
'Twere   all  as  one  to  fix  our   hopes  on 

Heaven 
As  on  this  vision  of  the  golden  year.' 
With  that  he  struck  his  staff  against 

the  rocks 
And  broke  it,  —  James,  —  you  know  him, 

—  old,  but  full 
Of  force  and  choler,  and  firm  upon  his 

feet, 
And  like  an  oaken  stock  in  winter  woods, 
O'erflourish'd  with  the  hoary  clematis : 
Then  added,  all  in  heat: 

♦  What  stuff  is  this ! 
Old   writers   push'd    the    happy  season 

back, — 
The    more    fools    they,  —  we    forward : 

dreamers  both : 
You  most,  that  in   an  age,  when  every 

hour 


UL  YSSES. 


93 


Must   sweat   her   sixty   minutes    to    the 

death, 
Live  on,  God  love  us,  as  if  the  seedsman, 

rapt 
Upon   the  teeming  harvest,  should  not 

plunge 
His  hand  into  the  bag:  but  well  I  know 
That  unto  him  who  works,  and  feels  he 

works, 
This   same   grand  year   is   ever   at    the 

doors.' 
He  spoke;   and,  high  above,  I  heard 

them  blast 
The   steep   slate-quarry,   and   the   great 

echo  flap 
And  buffet  round  the  hills,  from  bluff  to 

bluff. 

ULYSSES. 

It  little  profits  that  an  idle  king, 

By  this  still  hearth,  among  these  barren 

crags, 
Match'd  with  an  aged  wife,  I  mete  and 

dole 
Unequal  laws  unto  a  savage  race, 
That   hoard,   and   sleep,  and  feed,  and 

know  not  me. 
I  cannot  rest  from  travel:  I  will  drink 
Life  to  the  Tees :  all  times  I  have  enjoy' d 
Greatly,  have  suffer'd  greatly,  both  with 

those 
That  loved  me,  and  alone;  on  shore,  and 

when 
Thro'  scudding  drifts  the  rainy  Hyades 
Vext  the  dim  sea :  I  .am  become  a  name ; 
For  always  roaming  with  a  hungry  heart 
Much  have  I  seen  and  known :  cities  of 

men, 
And  manners,  climates,  councils,  govern- 
ments, 
Myseif  not  least,  but  honour'd  of  them 

all; 
And   drunk   delight   of  battle  with   my 

peers, 
Far    on    the    ringing    plains    of   windy 

Troy. 
I  am  a  part  of  all  that  I  have  met; 
Yet  all  experience  is  an  arch  wherethro' 
Gleams    that    untravell'd   world,   whose 

margin  fades 
For  ever  and  for  ever  when  I  move. 
How  dull  it  is  to  pause,  to  make  an  end, 


To  just  unburnish'd,  not  to  shine  in  use  ! 
As  tho'  to  breathe  were  life.     Life  piled 

on  life 
Were  all  too  little,  and  of  one  to  me 
Little  remains :  but  every  hour  is  saved 
From    that    eternal    silence,    something 

more, 
A   bringer   of  new  things;    and  vile  it 

were 
For  some  three  suns  to  store  and  hoard 

myself, 
And  this  gray  spirit  yearning  in  desire 
To  follow  knowledge  like  a  sinkingstar, 
Beyond    the    utmost    bound    of    human 

thought. 
This  is  my  son,  mine  own  Telemachus, 
To  whom  I  leave  the  sceptre  and  the  isle — 
Well-loved  of  me,  discerning  to  fulfil 
This  labour,  by  slow  prudence  to  make 

mild 
A  rugged  people,  and  thro'  soft  degrees 
Subdue  them  to  the  useful  and  the  good. 
Most   blameless   is   he,    centred   in    the 

sphere 
Of  common  duties,  decent  not  to  fail 
In  offices  of  tenderness,  and  pay 
Meet  adoration  to  my  household  gods, 
When  I  am  gone.     He  works  his  work, 

I  mine. 
There  lies  the  port;    the  vessel   puffs 

her  sail : 
There  gloom  the  dark  broad  seas.     My 

mariners, 
Souls  that  have  toil'd,  and  wrought,  and 

thought  with  me  — 
That  ever  with  a  frolic  welcome  took 
The    thunder    and    the    sunshine,    and 

opposed 
Free  hearts,  free  foreheads  —  you  and  I 

are  old; 
Old  age  hath  yet  his  honour  and  his  toil; 
Death  closes  all :   but  something  ere  the 

end, 
Some  work  of  noble  note,  may  yet  be 

done, 
Not    unbecoming   men  that  strove  with 

Gods. 
The   lights-  begin   to   twinkle  from   the 

rocks : 
The   long   day   wanes:    the   slow  moon 

climbs :  the  deep 
Moans  round  with  many  voices.     Come, 

my  friends, 


94 


TITIIONUS. 


Tis  not  too  late  to  seek  a  newer  world. 
Push  off,  and  sitting  well  in  order  smite 
The  sounding  furrows;    for  my  purpose 

holds 
To  sail  beyond  the  sunset,  and  the  baths 
( )f  all  the  western  stars,  until  I  die. 
It  may  be  that  the  gulfs  will  wash  us 

down : 
It  may  be  we  shall  touch  the  Happy  Isles, 
And   see   the   great  Achilles,  whom  we 

knew. 
Tho'  much  is  taken,  much  abides;   and 

tho' 
We  are  not  now  that  strength  which  in 

old  days 
Moved  earth  and  heaven;  that  which  we 

are,  we  are; 
One  equal  temper  of  heroic  hearts, 
Made  weak  by  time  and  fate,  but  strong 

in  will 
To  strive,  to  se^kjJtojfin^iuid4io^ti?^ieJ<i, 


TITHONUS. 

The  woods  decay,  the  woods  decay  and 

fall, 
The  vapours  weep  their  burthen  to  the 

ground, 
Man  comes  and  tills  the  field  and  lies 

beneath, 
And  after  many  a  summer  dies  the  swan. 
Me__only__criiel  immortality 
Consumes:  I  wither  slowly  in  thine  arms, 
Here  at  the  quiet  limit  of  the  world, 
A  white-hair'd   shadow  roaming   like   a 

dream 
The  ever-silent  spaces  of  the  East, 
Far-folded  mists,  and  gleaming  halls  of 

morn. 

Alas!    for  this  gray  shadow,  once  a 

man  — 
So  glorious  in  his  beauty  and  thy  choice, 
Who  madest  him   thy  chosen,   that   he 

seem'd 
To  his  great   heart  none  other   than  a 

God! 
I  ask'd  thee,  '  Give  me  immortality.' 
Then  didst  thou  grant  mine  asking  with 

a  smile, 
Like  wealthy  men  who  care  not  how  they 

give. 


But  thy  strong  Hours  indignant  work'd 

their  wills, 
And    beat   me    down   and   marr'd   and 

wasted   me, 
And  tho'  they  could  not  end  me,  left  me 

maim'd 
To  dwell  in  presence  of  immortal  youth, 
Immortal  age  beside  immortal  youth, 
And  all  I  was,  in  ashes.     Can  thy  love, 
Thy   beauty,   make   amends,   tho'   even 

now, 
Close  over  us,  the  silver  star,  thy  guide, 
Shines  in  those  tremulous  eyes  that  fill 

with  tears 
To  hear  me  ?    Let  me  go :  take  back  thy 

gift: 
Why  should  a  man  desire  in  any  way 
To  vary  from  the  kindly  race  of  men, 
Or  pass  beyond  the  goal  of  ordinance 
Where  all  should  pause,  as  is  most  meet 

for  all  ? 

A  soft  air  fans  the  cloud  apart;  there 

comes 
A  glimpse  of  that  dark  world  where  I 

was  born. 
Once  more  the  old  mysterious  glimmer 

steals 
From   thy  pure    brows,   and    from  thy 

shoulders  pure, 
And  bosom  beating  with  a  heart  renew'd. 
Thy  cheek    begins   to  redden  thro'  the 

gloom, 
Thy  sweet  eyes  brighten  slowly  close  to 

mine, 
Ere  yet  they  blind  the  stars,  and  the  wild 

team 
Which  love  thee,  yearning  for  thy  yoke, 

arise, 
And    shake    the    darkness    from    their 

loosen'd  manes, 
And  beat  the  twilight  into  flakes  of  fire. 

Lo !  ever  thus  thou  growest  beautiful 
In   silence,   then    before    thine    answer 

given 
Departest,   and    thy  tears    are    on  my 

cheek. 

Why  wilt  thou  ever  scare  me  with  thy 
tears, 
And    make    me    tremble    lest    a    saying 
learnt, 


TIT  HON  US  —  LO  CKSLE  Y  HALL. 


95 


In  days  far-off,  on  that  dark  earth,  be 

true  ? 
'The     Gods    themselves    cannot    recall 

their  gifts.' 

Ay  me !    ay  me !    with  what  another 

heart 
In  days  far-off,  and  with  what  other  eyes 
I  used  to  watch  —  if  I  be  he  that  watch'd — 
The  lucid  outline  forming  round  thee; 

saw 
The  dim  curls  kindle  into  sunny  rings; 
Changed  with   thy  mystic  change,  and 

felt  my  blood 
Glow  with  the  glow  that  slowly  crimson'd 

all 
Thy  presence  and  thy  portals,  while  I 

lay, 
Mouth,  forehead,  eyelids,  growing  dewy- 
warm 
With   kisses  balmier  than  half-opening 

buds 
Of  April,  and  could  hear  the  lips  that 

kiss'd 
Whispering  I  knew  not  what  of  wild  and 

sweet, 


Like  that  strange  song  I  heard  Apollo 

sing, 
While  Ilion  like  a  mist  rose  into  towers. 

Yet  hold  me  not  for  ever  in  thine  East : 
How  can   my   nature   longer   mix   with 

thine  ? 
Coldly  thy  rosy  shadows  bathe  me,  cold 
Are  all  thy  lights,  and  cold  my  wrinkled 

feet 
Upon  thy  glimmering  thresholds,  when 

the  steam 
Floats  up  from  those  dim  fields  about  the 

homes 
Of  happy  men  that  have  the  power  to 

die, 
And    grassy    barrows    of    the    happier 

dead. 
Release    me,    and    restore   me    to    the 

ground; 
Thou  seest  all  things,  thou  wilt  see  my 

grave : 
Thou  wilt   renew  thy   beauty  morn   by 

morn; 
I  earth  in  earth  forget  these  empty  courts, 
And  thee  returning  on  thy  silver  wheels. 


LOCKSLEY  HALL. 

Comrades,  leave  me  here  a  little,  while  as  yet  'tis  early  morn : 
Leave  me  here,  and  when  you  want  me,  sound  upon  the  bugle-horn. 

Tis  the  place,  and  all  around  it,  as  of  old,  the  curlews  call, 
Dreary  gleams  about  the  moorland  flying  over  Locksley  Hall; 

Locksley  Hall,  that  in  the  distance  overlooks  the  sandy  tracts, 
And  the  hollow  ocean-ridges  roaring  into  cataracts. 

Many  a  night  from  yonder  ivied  casement,  ere  I  went  to  rest, 
Did  I  look  on  great  Orion  sloping  slowly  to  the  West. 

Many  a  night  I  saw  the  Pleiads,  rising  thro'  the  mellow  shade, 
Glitter  like  a  swarm  of  fire-flies  tangled  in  a  silver  braid. 

Here  about  the  beach  I  wander'd,  nourishing  a  youth  sublime 
With  the  fairy  tales  of  science,  and  the  long  result  of  Time; 

When  the  centuries  behind  me  like  a  fruitful  land  reposed ; 
When  I  clung  to  all  the  present  for  the  promise  that  it  closed : 

When  I  dipt  into  the  future  far  as  human  eye  could  see; 

Saw  the  Vision  of  the  world,  and  all  the  wonder  that  would  be.  — 


96  LOCKSLEY  HALL. 


In  the  Spring  a  fuller  crimson  comes  upon  the  robin's  breast; 
In  the  Spring  the  wanton  lapwing  gets  himself  another  crest; 

In  the  Spring  a  livelier  iris  changes  on  the  burnish'd  dove; 

In  the  Spring  a  young  man's  fancy  lightly  turns  to  thoughts  of  love. 

Then  her  cheek  was  pale  and  thinner  than  should  be  for  one  so  young, 
And  her  eyes  on  all  my  motions  with  a  mute  observance  hung. 

And  I  said,  '  My  cousin  Amy,  speak,  and  speak  the  truth  to  me, 
Trust  me,  cousin,  all  the  current  of  my  being  sets  to  thee.' 

On  her  pallid  cheek  and  forehead  came  a  color  and  a  light, 
As  I  have  seen  the  rosy  red  flushing  in  the  northern  night. 

And  she  turn'd  —  her  bosom  shaken  with  a  sudden  storm  of  sighs  — 
All  the  spirit  deeply  dawning  in  the  dark  of  hazel  eyes  — 

Saying,  '  I  have  hid  my  feelings,  fearing  they  should  do  me  wrong  ;  ' 
Saying,  '  Dost  thou  love  me,  cousin  ? '  weeping,  '  I  have  loved  thee  long. 

Love  took  up  the  glass  of  Time,  and  turn'd  it  in  his  glowing  hands; 
Every  moment,  lightly  shaken,  ran  itself  in  golden  sands. 

Love  took  up  the  harp  of  Life,  and  smote  on  all  the  chords  with  might; 
Smote  the  chord,  of  Self,  that,  trembling,  pass'd  in  music  out  of  sight. 

Many  a  morning  on  the  moorland  did  we  hear  the  copses  ring, 
And  her  whisper  throng'd  my  pulses  with  the  fullness  of  the  Spring. 

Many  an  evening  by  the  waters  did  we  watch  the  stately  ships, 
And  our  spirits  rush  d  together  at  the  touching  of  the  lips. 

O  my  cousin,  shallow-hearted  !     O  my  Amy,  mine  no  more ! 
O  the  dreary,  dreary  moorland  !     O  the  barren,  barren  shore ! 

Falser  than  all  fancy  fathoms,  falser  than  all  songs  have  sung, 
Puppet  to  a  father's  threat,  and  servile  to  a  shrewish  tongue ! 

Is  it  well  to  wish  thee  happy?  —  having  known  me  —  to  decline 
On  a  range  of  lower  feelings  and  a  narrower  heart  than  mine ! 

Yet  it  shall  be :  thou  shalt  lower  to  his  level  day  by  day, 

What  is  fine  within  thee  growing  coarse  to  sympathise  with  clay. 

As  the  husband  is,  the  wife  is :  thou  art  mated  with  a  clown, 

And  the  grossness  of  his  nature  will  have  weight  to  drag  thee  down. 

He  will  hold  thee,  when  his  passion  shall  have  spent  its  novel  force, 
Something  better  than  his  dog,  a  little  dearer  than  his  horse. 

What  is  this?  his  eyes  are  heavy:  think  not  they  are  glazed  with  wine. 
Go  to  him :  it  is  thy  duty  :  kiss  him  :  take  his  hand  in  thine. 


LOCKS  LEY  HALL.  97 


It  may  be  my  lord  is  weary,  that  his  brain  is  overwrought : 

Soothe  him  with  thy  finer  fancies,  touch  him  with  thy  lighter  thought. 

He  will  answer  to  the  purpose,  easy  things  to  understand  — 
Better  thou  wert  dead  before  me,  tho'  I  slew  thee  with  my  hand ! 

Better  thou  and  I  were  lying,  hidden  from  the  heart's  disgrace, 
RolPd  in  one  another's  arms,  and  silent  in  a  last  embrace. 

Cursed  be  the  social  wants  that  sin  against  the  strength  of  youth ! 
Cursed  be  the  social  lies  that  warp  us  from  the  living  truth ! 

Cursed  be  the  sickly  forms  that  err  from  honest  Nature's  rule ! 
Cursed  be  the  gold  that  gilds  the  straiten'd  forehead  of  the  fool ! 

Well  —  'tis  well  that  I  should  bluster  !  —  Hadst  thou  less  unworthy  proved 
Would  to  God  —  for  I  had  loved  thee  more  than  ever  wife  was  loved. 

Am  I  mad,  that  I  should  cherish  that  which  bears  but  bitter  fruit? 
I  will  pluck  it  from  my  bosom,  tho'  my  heart  be  at  the  root. 

Never,  tho'  my  mortal  summers  to  such  length  of  years  should  come 
As  the  many-winter'd  crow  that  leads  the  clanging  rookery  home. 

Where  is  comfort?  in  division  of  the  records  of  the  mind? 
Can  I  part  her  from  herself,  and  love  her,  as  I  knew  her,  kind? 

I  remember  one  that  perish'd  :  sweetly  did  she  speak  and  move  : 
Such  a  one  do  I  remember,  whom  to  look  at  was  to  love. 

Can  I  think  of  her  as  dead,  and  love  her  for  the  love  she  bore? 
No  —  she  never  loved  me  truly :  love  is  love  for  evermore. 

Comfort?  comfort  scorn'd  of  devils!  this  is  truth  the  poet  sings, 
That  a  sorrow's  crown  of  sorrow  is  remembering  happier  things* 

Drug  thy  memories,  lest  thou  learn  it,  lest  thy  heart  be  put  to  proof, 
In  the  dead  unhappy  night,  and  when  the  rain  is  on  the  roof. 

Like  a  dog,  he  hunts  in  dreams,  and  thou  art  staring  at  the  wall, 
Where  the  dying  night-lamp  flickers,  and  the  shadows  rise  and  fall. 

Then  a  hand  shall  pass  before  thee,  pointing  to  his  drunken  sleep, 
To  thy  widow'd  marriage-pillows,  to  the  tears  that  thou  wilt  weep. 

Thou  shalt  hear  the  '  Never,  never,'  whisper'd  by  the  phantom  years, 
And  a  song  from  out  the  distance  in  the  ringing  of  thine  ears; 

And  an  eye  shall  vex  thee,  looking  ancient  kindness  on  thy  pain. 
Turn  thee,  turn  thee  on  thy  pillow:  get  thee  to  thy  rest  again. 

Nay,  but  Nature  brings  thee  solace;   for  a  tender  voice  will  cry. 
Tis  a  purer  life  than  thine;   a  lip  to  drain  thy  trouble  dry. 
H 


98  LOCKSLEY  HALL. 


Baby  lips  will  laugh  me  down :  my  latest  rival  brings  thee  rest. 
Baby  ringers,  waxen  touches,  press  me  from  the  mother's  breast. 

O,  the  child  too  clothes  the  father  with  a  dearness  not  his  due. 
Half  is  thine  and  half  is  his :  it  will  be  worthy  of  the  two. 

O,  I  see  thee  old  and  formal,  fitted  to  thy  petty  part, 

With  a  little  hoard  of  maxims  preaching  down  a  daughter's  heart. 

'They  were  dangerous  guides  the  feelings  —  she  herself  was  not  exempt  — 
Truly,  she  herself  had  suffer 'd '  —  Perish  in  thy  self-contempt ! 

Overlive  it — lower  yet  —  be  happy!  wherefore  should  I  care? 
I  myself  must  mix  with  action,  lest  I  wither  by  despair. 

What  is  that  which  I  should  turn  to,  lighting  upon  days  like  these? 
Every  door  is  barr'd  with  gold,  and  opens  but  to  golden  keys. 

Every  gate  is  throng'd  with  suitors,  all  the  markets  overflow. 
I  have  but  an  angry  fancy :  what  is  that  which  I  should  do? 

I  had  been  content  to  perish,  falling  on  the  foeman's  ground, 

When  the  ranks  are  roll'd  in  vapour,  and  the  winds  are  laid  with  sound. 

But  the  jingling  of  the  guinea  helps  the  hurt  that  Honour  feels, 
And  the  nations  do  but  murmur,  snarling  at  each  other's  heels. 

Can  I  but  relive  in  sadness?     I  will  turn  that  earlier  page. 
Hide  me  from  my  deep  emotion,  O  thou  wondrous  Mother-Age ! 

Make  me  feel  the  wild  pulsation  that  I  felt  before  the  strife, 
When  I  heard  my  days  before  me,  and  the  tumult  of  my  life; 

Yearning  for  the  large  excitement  that  the  coming  years  would  yield, 
Eager-hearted  as  a  boy  when  first  he  leaves  his  father's  field, 

And  at  night  along  the  dusky  highway  near  and  nearer  drawn, 
Sees  in  heaven  the  light  of  London  flaring  like  a  dreary  dawn; 

And  his  spirit  leaps  within  him  to  be  gone  before  him  then, 
Underneath  the  light  he  looks  at,  in  among  the  throngs  of  men : 

Men,  my  brothers,  men  the  workers,  ever  reaping  something  new : 
That  which  they  have  done  but  earnest  of  the  things  that  they  shall  do : 

For  I  dipt  into  the  future,  far  as  human  eye  could  see, 

Saw  the  Vision  of  the  world,  and  all  the  wonder  that  would  be; 

Saw  the  heavens  fill  with  commerce,  argosies  of  magic  sails, 
Pilots  of  the  purple  twilight,  dropping  down  with  costly  bales; 

Heard  the  heavens  fill  with  shouting,  and  there  rain'd  a  ghastly  dew 
From  the  nations'  airy  navies  grappling  in  the  central  blue ; 


LOCKSLEY  HALL.  99 


Far  along  the  world-wide  whisper  of  the  south-wind  rushing  warm, 
With  the  standards  of  the  peoples  plunging  thro'  the  thunder-storm; 

Till  the  war-drum  throbb'd  no  longer,  and  the  battle-flags  were  furl'd 
In  the  Parliament  of  man,  the  Federation  of  the  world. 

There  the  common  sense  of  most  shall  hold  a  fretful  realm  in  awe, 
And  the  kindly  earth  shall  slumber,  lapt  in  universal  law. 

So  I  triumph'd  ere  my  passion  sweeping  thro'  me  left  me  dry, 
Left  me  with  the  palsied  heart,  and  left  me  with  the  jaundiced  eye; 

Eye,  to  which  all  order  festers,  all  things  here  are  out  of  joint: 
Science  moves,  but  slowly  slowly,  creeping  on  from  point  to  point: 

Slowly  comes  a  hungry  people,  as  a  lion  creeping  nigher, 
Glares  at  one  that  nods  and  winks  behind  a  slowly-dying  fire. 

Yet  I  doubt  not  thro'  the  ages  one  increasing  purpose  runs, 

And  the  thoughts  of  men  are  widen'd  with  the  process  of  the  suns. 

What  is  that  to  him  that  reaps  not  harvest  of  his  youthful  joys, 
Tho'  the  deep  heart  of  existence  beat  for  ever  like  a  boy's? 

Knowledge  comes,  but  wisdom  lingers,  and  I  linger  on  the  shore, 
And  the  individual  withers,  and  the  world  is  more  and  more. 

Knowledge  comes,  but  wisdom  lingers,  and  he  bears  a  laden  breast, 
Full  of  sad  experience,  moving  toward  the  stillness  of  his  rest. 

Hark,  my  merry  comrades  call  me,  sounding  on  the  bugle-horn, 
They  to  whom  my  foolish  passion  were  a  target  for  their  scorn : 

Shall  it  not  be  scorn  to  me  to  harp  on  such  a  moulder'd  string? 
I  am  shamed  thro'  all  my  nature  to  have  loved  so  slight  a  thing. 

Weakness  to  be  wroth  with  weakness!  woman's  pleasure,  woman's  pain- 
Nature  made  them  blinder  motions  bounded  in  a  shallower  brain : 

Woman  is  the  lesser  man,  and  all  thy  passions,  match'd  with  mine, 
Are  as  moonlight  unto  sunlight,  and  as  water  unto  wine  — 

Here  at  least,  where  nature  sickens,  nothing.     Ah,  for  some  retreat 
Deep  in  yonder  shining  Orient,  where  my  life  began  to  beat; 

Where  in  wild  Mahratta-battle  fell  my  father  evil-starr'd;  — 
I  was  left  a  trampled  orphan,  and  a  selfish  uncle's  ward. 

Or  to  burst  all  links  of  habit  —  there  to  wander  far  away, 
On  from  island  unto  island  at  the  gateways  of  the  day. 

Larger  constellations  burning,  mellow  moons  and  happy  skies, 
Breadths  of  tropic  shade  and  palms  in  cluster,  knots  of  Paradise. 


ioo  LOCKSLEY  HALL. 


Never  comes  the  trader,  never  floats  an  European  flag, 

Slides  the  bird  o'er  lustrous  woodland,  swings  the  trailer  from  the  crag; 

Droops  the  heavy-blossom'd  bower,  hangs  the  heavy-fruited  tree  — 
Summer  isles  of  Eden  lying  in  dark-purple  spheres  of  sea. 

There  methinks  would  be  enjoyment  more  than  in  this  march  of  mind, 
In  the  steamship,  in  the  railway,  in  the  thoughts  that  shake  mankind. 

There  the  passions  cramp'd  no  longer  shall  have  scope  and  breathing  space- 
I  will  take  some  savage  woman,  she  shall  rear  my  dusky  race. 

Iron-jointed,  supple-sinew'd,  they  shall  dive,  and  they  shall  run, 
Catch  the  wild  goat  by  the  hair,  and  hurl  their  lances  in  the  sun; 

Whistle  back  the  parrot's  call,  and  leap  the  rainbows  of  the  brooks, 
Not  with  blinded  eyesight  poring  over  miserable  books  — 

Fool,  again  the  dream,  the  fancy !  but  I  know  my  words  are  wild, 
But  I  count  the  gray  barbarian  lower  than  the  Christian  child. 

I,  to  herd  with  narrow  foreheads,  vacant  of  our  glorious  gains, 
Like  a  beast  with  lower  pleasures,  like  a  beast  with  lower  pains ! 

Mated  with  a  squalid  savage  —  what  to  me  were  sun  or  clime  ? 
I  the  heir  of  all  the  ages,  in  the  foremost  files  of  time  — 

I  that  rather  held  it  better  men  should  perish  one  by  one, 

Than  that  earth  should  stand  at  gaze  like  Joshua's  moon  in  Ajalon ! 

Not  in  vain  the  distance  beacons.     Forward,  forward  let  us  range, 
Let  the  great  world  spin  for  ever  down  the  ringing  grooves  of  change. 

Thro*  the  shadow  of  the  globe  we  sweep  into  the  younger  day : 
Better  fifty  years  of  Europe  than  a  cycle  of  Cathay. 

Mother-Age  (for  mine  I  knew  not)  help  me  as  when  life  begun : 
Rift  the  hills,  and  roll  the  waters,  flash  the  lightnings,  weigh  the  Sun. 

O,  I  see  the  crescent  promise  of  my  spirit  hath  not  set. 
Ancient  founts  of  inspiration  well  thro'  all  my  fancy  yet. 

Howsoever  these  things  be,  a  long  farewell  to  Locksley  Hall ! 
Now  for  me  the  woods  may  wither,  now  for  me  the  roof-tree  fall. 

Comes  a  vapour  from  the  margin,  blackening  over  heath  and  holt, 
Cramming  all  the  blast  before  it,  in  its  breast  a  thunderbolt. 

Let  it  fall  on  Locksley  Hall,  with  rain  or  hail,  or  fire  or  snow; 
For  the  mighty  wind  arises,  roaring  seaward,  and  I  go. 


GODIVA. 


101 


GODIVA. 

I  waited  for  the  train  at  Coventry; 

I  hung  zvith  grooms  and  porters  on  the 

bridge, 
To  watch  the  three  tall  spires;  and  there 

I  shaped 
77ie  city's  ancient  legend  into  this  :  — 

Not  only  we,  the  latest  seed  of  Time, 
New  men,  that  in  the  flying  of  a  wheel 
Cry  down  the  past,  not  only  we,  that  prate 
Of  rights  and   wrongs,  have   loved    the 

people  well, 
And  loathed  to  see  them  overtax'd;   but 

she 
Did  more,  and  underwent,  and  overcame, 
The  woman  of  a  thousand  summers  back, 
Godiva,  wife  to  that  grim  Earl,  who  ruled 
In  Coventry :  for  when  he  laid  a  tax 
Upon   his    town,   and    all    the   mothers 

brought 
Their  children,  clamouring,  '  If  we  pay, 

we  starve ! ' 
She   sought   her   lord,  and   found   him, 

where  he  strode 
About  the  hall,  among  his  dogs,  alone, 
His  beard  a  foot  before  him,  and  his  hair 
A  yard  behind.     She  told  him  of  their 

tears, 
And  pray'd  him,  '  If  they  pay  this  tax, 

they  starve.' 
Whereat  he  stared,  replying,  half-amazed, 
'  You  would  not  let  your  little  finger  ache 
For  such  as  these  ?'  —  '  But  I  would  die,' 

said  she. 
He  laugh'd,  and  swore  by  Peter  and  by 

Paul: 
Then  fillip'd  at  the  diamond  in  her  ear; 
'  Oh  ay,  ay,  ay,  you  talk  ! '  —  ■  Alas ! '  she 

said, 
'  But  prove  me  what  it  is  I  would  not  do.' 
And   from  a   heart   as  rough  as  Esau's 

hand, 
He  answer'd,  '  Ride  you  naked  thro'  the 

town, 
And  I  repeal   it;  '  and  nodding,  as  in 

scorn, 
He  parted,  with  great  strides  among  his 

dogs. 
So  left  alone,  the  passions  of  her  mind, 
As  winds  from  all  the  compass  shift  and 

blow, 


Made  war  upon  each  other  for  an  hour, 

Till  pity  won.     She  sent  a  herald  forth, 

And  bade  him  cry,  with  sound  of  trumpet, 
all 

The  hard  condition;   but  that  she  would 
loose 

The  people :  therefore,  as  they  loved  her 
well, 

From  then  till  noon  no  foot  should  pace 
the  street, 

No  eye  look  down,  she  passing;   but  that 
all 

Should  keep  within,  door  shut,  and  win- 
dow barr'd. 
Then  fled  she  to  her  inmost   bower, 
and  there 

Unclasp'd  the  wedded  eagles  of  her  belt, 

The  grim  Earl's  gift;   but  ever  at  a  breath 

She    linger'd,    looking    like    a    summer 
moon 

Half-dipt  in  cloud :  anon  she  shook  her 
head, 

And  shower'd  the  rippled  ringlets  to  her 
knee; 

Unclad  herself  in  haste;   adown  the  stair 

Stole  on;   and,  like  a  creeping  sunbeam, 
slid 

From  pillar  unto  pillar,  until  she  reach'd 

The  gateway;  there  she  found  her  pal- 
frey trapt 

In  purple  blazon'd  with  armorial  gold. 
Then  she  rode  forth,  clothed  on  with 
chastity  : 

The  deep  air  listen'd  round  her  as  she 
rode, 

And  all  the  low  wind  hardly  breathed  for 
fear. 

The  little  wide-mouth'd  heads  upon  the 
spout 

Had  cunning  eyes  to  see :  the  barking 
cur 

Made  her  cheek  flame :  her  palfrey's  foot- 
fall shot 

Light  horrors  thro'  her  pulses :  the  blind 
walls 

Were  full  of  chinks  and  holes;  and  over- 
head 

Fantastic  gables,  crowding,  stared:  but 
she 

Not  less  thro'  all  bore  up,  till,  last,  she 
saw 

The  white- flower'd  elder-thicket  from  the 
field 


THE  DAY-DREAM. 


Gleam  thro'  the  Gothic  archway  in  the 
wall. 
Then  she  rode  back,  clothed  on  with 
chastity : 

And  one  low  churl,  compact  of  thankless 
earth, 

The  fatal  byword  of  all  years  to  come, 

Boring  a  little  auger-hole  in  fear, 

Peep'd  —  but  his  eyes,  before  they  had 
their  will, 

Were    shrivell'd    into    darkness    in    his 
head, 

And  dropt  before  him.     So  the  Powers, 
who  wait 

On  noble  deeds,  cancell'd  a  sense  mis- 
used ; 

And  she,  that  knew  not,  pass'd :  and  all 
at  once, 

With  twelve  great  shocks  of  sound,  the 
shameless  noon 

Was  clash 'd  and  hammer' d  from  a  hun- 
dred towers, 

One  after  one :  but  even  then  she  gain'd 

Her  bower;   whence  reissuing,  robed  and 
crown'd, 

To   meet   her   lord,   she   took    the    tax 
away 

And  built  herself  an  everlasting  name. 

THE  DAY-DREAM. 

PROLOGUE. 

O  Lady  Flora,  let  me  speak : 

A  pleasant  hour  has  pass'd  away 
While,  dreaming  on  your  damask  cheek, 

The  dewy  sister-eyelids  lay. 
As  by  the  lattice  you  reclined, 

I  went  thro'  many  wayward  moods 
To  see  you  dreaming  —  and,  behind, 

A  summer  crisp  with  shining  woods. 
And  I  too  dream'd,  until  at  last 

Across  my  fancy,  brooding  warm, 
The  reflex  of  a  legend  past, 

And  loosely  settled  into  form. 
And  would  you  have  the  thought  I  had, 

And  see  the  vision  that  I  saw, 
Then  take  the  broidery-frame,  and  add 

A  crimson  to  the  quaint  Macaw, 
And  I  will  tell  it.     Turn  your  face, 

Nor  look  with  that  too-earnest  eye  — 
The  rhymes  are  dazzled  from  their  place 

And  order'd  words  asunder  fly. 


THE  SLEEPING   PALACE. 


The  varying  year  with  blade  and  sheaf 

Clothes  and  reclothes  the  happy  plains, 
Here  rests  the  sap  within  the  leaf, 

Here  stays  the  blood  along  the  veins. 
Faint  shadows,  vapours  lightly  curl'd, 

Faint    murmurs    from    the    meadows 
come, 
Like  hints  and  echoes  of  the  world 

To  spirits  folded  in  the  womb. 


Soft  lustre  bathes  the  range  of  urns 

On  every  slanting  terrace-lawn. 
The  fountain  to  his  place  returns 

Deep  in  the  garden  lake  withdrawn. 
Here  droops  the  banner  on  the  tower, 

On  the  hall-hearths  the  festal  fires, 
The  peacock  in  his  laurel  bower, 

The  parrot  in  his  gilded  wires. 

III. 

Roof-haunting  martins  warm  their  eggs : 

In  these,  in  those  the  life  is  stay'd. 
The  mantles  from  the  golden  pegs 

Droop  sleepily :  no  sound  is  made, 
Not  even  of  a  gnat  that  sings. 

More  like  a  picture  seemeth  all 
Than  those  old  portraits  of  old  kings, 

That  watch  the  sleepers  from  the  wall. 

IV. 

Here  sits  the  Butler  with  a  flask 

Between  his  knees,  half-drain'd;   and 
there 
The  wrinkled  steward  at  his  task, 

The  maid-of-honour  blooming  fair; 
The  page  has  caught  her  hand  in  his : 

Her  lips  are  sever'd  as  to  speak : 
His  own  are  pouted  to  a  kiss : 

The  blush  is  fix'd  upon  her  cheek. 

v. 

Till  all  the  hundred  summers  pass, 
The  beams,  that  thro'  the  Oriel  shine, 

Make  prisms  in  every  carven  glass, 
And  beaker  brimm'd  with  noble  wine 

Each  baron  at  the  banquet  sleeps, 
Grave  faces  gather'd  in  a  ring. 


THE  DAY-DREAM. 


103 


His  state  the  king  reposing  keeps. 
He  must  have  been  a  jovial  king. 

VI. 

All  round  a  hedge  upshoots,  and  shows 

At  distance  like  a  little  wood; 
Thorns,  ivies,  woodbine,  mistletoes, 

And  grapes  with  bunches  red  as  blood; 
All  creeping  plants,  a  wall  of  green 

Close-matted,  bur  and  brake  and  briar, 
And  glimpsing  over  these,  just  seen, 

High  up,  the  topmost  palace  spire. 


When  will  the  hundred  summers  die, 

And  thought  and  time  be  born  again, 
And  newer  knowledge,  drawing  nigh, 

Bring  truth  that  sways  the  soul  of  men? 
Here  all  things  in  their  place  remain, 

As  all  were  order'd,  ages  since. 
Come,  Care  and  Pleasure,  Hope  and  Pain, 

And  bring  the  fated  fairy  Prince. 

THE  SLEEPING  BEAUTY. 


Year  after  year  unto  her  feet, 

She  lying  on  her  couch  alone, 
Across  the  purple  coverlet, 

The  maiden's  jet-black  hair  has  grown, 
On  either  side  her  tranced  form 

Forth  streaming  from  a  braid  of  pearl : 
The  slumbrous  light  is  rich  and  warm, 

And  moves  not  on  the  rounded  curl. 

II. 

The  silk  star-broider'd  coverlid 

Unto  her  limbs  itself  doth  mould 
Languidly  ever  ;   and,  amid 

Her     full    black    ringlets    downward 
roll'd, 
Glows  forth  each  softly-shadow'd  arm 

With  bracelets  of  the  diamond  bright : 
Her  constant  beauty  doth  inform 

Stillness  with  love,  and  day  with  light. 

ill. 

She  sleeps :  her  breathings  are  not  heard 
In  palace  chambers  far  apart. 

The  fragrant  tresses  are  not  stirr'd 
That  lie  upon  her  charmed  heart. 


She  sleeps :  on  either  hand  upswells 
The  gold-fringed  pillow  lightly  prest : 

She  sleeps,  nor  dreams,  but  ever  dwells 
A  perfect  form  in  perfect  rest. 


THE  ARRIVAL. 
I. 

All  precious  things,  discover'd  late, 

To  those  that  seek  them  issue  forth; 
For  love  in  sequel  works  with  fate, 

And  draws  the  veil  from  hidden  worth. 
He  travels  far  from  other  skies  — 

His  mantle  glitters  on  the  rocks  — 
A  fairy  Prince,  with  joyful  eyes, 

And  lighter-footed  than  the  fox. 


The  bodies  and  the  bones  of  those 

That  strove  in  other  days  to  pass, 
Are  wither'd  in  the  thorny  close, 

Or  scatter'd  blanching  on  the  grass. 
He  gazes  on  the  silent  dead : 

*  They  perish'd  in  their  daring  deeds.' 
This  proverb  flashes  thro'  his  head, 

'  The  many  fail :  the  one  succeeds.' 

in. 

He    comes,    scarce    knowing    what    he 
seeks : 

He    breaks    the    hedge:     he    enters 
there : 
The  colour  flies  into  his  cheeks  : 

He  trusts  to  light  on  something  fair ; 
For  all  his  life  the  charm  did  talk 

About  his  path,  and  hover  near 
With  words  of  promise  in  his  walk, 

And  whisper'd  voices  at  his  ear. 

IV. 

More    close    and    close    his    footsteps 
wind: 
The  Magic  Music  in  his  heart 
Beats  quick  and  quicker,  till  he  find 

The  quiet  chamber  far  apart. 
His  spirit  flutters  like  a  lark, 

He    stoops  —  to    kiss    her  —  on    his 
knee. 
*  Love,  if  thy  tresses  be  so  dark, 

How   dark   those   hidden  eyes   must 
be!' 


104 


THE  DAY-DREAM. 


THE  REVIVAL. 
I. 

A  touch,  a  kiss !  the  charm  was  snapt. 

There  rose  a  noise  of  striking  clocks, 
And  feet  that  ran,  and  doors  that  clapt, 

And  barking  dogs,  and  crowing  cocks; 
A  fuller  light  illumined  all, 

A  breeze  thro'  all  the  garden  swept, 
A  sudden  hubbub  shook  the  hall, 

And  sixty  feet  the  fountain  leapt. 


The  hedge  broke  in,  the  banner  blew, 

The  butler  drank,  the  steward  scrawl'd, 
The  fire  shot  up,  the  martin  flew, 

The    parrot    scream'd,   the    peacock 
squall'd, 
The  maid  and  page  renew'd  their  strife, 

The   palace   bang'd,  and   buzz'd   and 
clackt, 
And  all  the  long-pent  stream  of  life 

Dash'd  downward  in  a  cataract. 


And  last  with  these  the  king  awoke, 

And  in  his  chair  himself  uprear'd, 
And  yawn'd,  and  rubb'd  his  face,  and 
spoke, 

•  By  holy  rood,  a  royal  beard  ! 
How  say  you?  we  have  slept,  my  lords. 

My  beard  has  grown  into  my  lap.' 
The  barons  swore,  with  many  words, 

'Twas  but  an  after-dinner's  nap. 

IV. 

•  Pardy,'  return'd  the  king,  *  but  still 

My  joints  are  somewhat  stiff  or  so. 
My  lord,  and  shall  we  pass  the  bill 

I  mention'd  half  an  hour  ago? ' 
The  chancellor,  sedate  and  vain, 

In  courteous  words  return'd  reply : 
But  dallied  with  his  golden  chain, 

And,  smiling,  put  the  question  by. 


THE  DEPARTURE. 


And  on  her  lover's  arm  she  leant, 
And  round  her  waist  she  felt  it  fold, 


And  far  across  the  hills  they  went 
In  that  new  world  which  is  the  old : 

Across  the  hills,  and  far  away 
Beyond  their  utmost  purple  rim, 

And  deep  into  the  dying  day 
The  happy  princess  follow'd  him. 


'  I'd  sleep  another  hundred  years, 

O  love,  for  such  another  kiss;  ' 
'  O  wake  for  ever,  love,'  she  hears, 

'  O  love,  'twas  such  as  this  and  this.5 
And  o'er  them  many  a  sliding  star, 

And  many  a  merry  wind  was  borne, 
And,  stream'd  thro'  many  a  golden  bar, 

The  twilight  melted  into  morn. 


'  O  eyes  long  laid  in  happy  sleep ! ' 

'  O  happy  sleep,  that  lightly  fled ! ' 
'  O  happy  kiss,  that  woke  thy  sleep ! ' 

'  O  love,  thy  kiss  would  wake  the  dead ! ; 
And  o'er  them  many  a  flowing  range 

Of  vapour  buoy'd  the  crescent-bark, 
And,  rapt  thro'  many  a  rosy  change, 

The  twilight  died  into  the  dark. 

IV. 

'  A  hundred  summers !  can  it  be? 

And  whither  goest  thou,  tell  me  where  ? 
'  O  seek  my  father's  court  with  me, 

For  there  are  greater  wonders  there.' 
And  o'er  the  hills,  and  far  away 

Beyond  their  utmost  purple  rim, 
Beyond  the  night,  across  the  day, 

Thro'  all  the  world  she  follow'd  him. 


MORAL. 


So,  Lady  Flora,  take  my  lay, 

And  if  you  find  no  moral  there, 
Go,  look  in  any  glass  and  say, 

What  moral  is  in  being  fair. 
Oh,  to  what  uses  shall  we  put 

The  wildweed -flower  th at  simply  blows  ? 
And  is  there  any  moral  shut 

Within  the  bosom  of  the  rose? 

II. 

But  any  man  that  walks  the  mead, 
In  bud,  or  blade,  or  bloom,  may  find, 


THE  DAY-DREAM— AMPHION 


io5 


According  as  his  humours  lead, 
A  meaning  suited  to  his  mind. 

And  liberal  applications  lie 

In  Art  like  Nature,  dearest  friend; 

So  'twere  to  cramp  its  use,  if  I 

Should  hook  it  to  some  useful  end. 

L'ENVOI. 


You  shake  your  head.     A  random  string 

Your  finer  female  sense  offends. 
Well  —  were  it  not  a  pleasant  thing 

To  fall  asleep  with  all  one's  friends; 
To  pass  with  all  our  social  ties 

To  silence  from  the  paths  of  men; 
And  every  hundred  years  to  rise 

And  learn  the  world,  and  sleep  again; 
To  sleep  thro'  terms  of  mighty  wars, 

And  wake  on  science  grown  to  more, 
On  secrets  of  the  brain,  the  stars, 

As  wild  as  aught  of  fairy  lore ; 
And  all  that  else  the  years  will  show, 

The  Poet-forms  of  stronger  hours, 
The  vast  Republics  that  may  grow, 

The  Federations  and  the  Powers; 
Titanic  forces  taking  birth 

In  divers  seasons,  divers  climes; 
For  we  are  Ancients  of  the  earth, 

And  in  the  morning  of  the  times. 


So  sleeping,  so  aroused  from  sleep 
Thro'  sunny  decads  new  and  strange, 

Or  gay  quinquenniads  would  we  reap 
The  flower  and  quintessence  of  change. 


Ah,  yet  would  I —  and  would  I  might ! 

So  much  your  eyes  my  fancy  take  — 
Be  still  the  first  to  leap  to  light 

That  I  might  kiss  those  eyes  awake ! 
For,  am  I  right,  or  am  I  wrong, 

To  choose  your  own  you  did  not  care : 
You'd  have  my  moral  from  the  song, 

And  I  will  take  my  pleasure  there  : 
And,  am  I  right  or  am  I  wrong, 

My  fancy,  ranging  thro'  and  thro', 
To  search  a  meaning  for  the  song, 

Perforce  will  still  revert  to  you; 
Nor  finds  a  closer  truth  than  this 

All-graceful  head,  so  richly  curl'd, 


And  evermore  a  costly  kiss 

The  prelude  to  some  brighter  world. 

IV. 

For  since  the  time  when  Adam  first 

Embraced  his  Eve  in  happy  hour, 
And  every  bird  of  Eden  burst 

In  carol,  every  bud  to  flower, 
What    eyes,   like    thine,   have   waken'd 
hopes, 

What    lips,    like    thine,     so    sweetly 
join'd? 
Where  on  the  double  rosebud  droops 

The  fullness  of  the  pensive  mind; 
Which  all  too  dearly  self-involved, 

Yet  sleeps  a  dreamless  sleep  to  me; 
A  sleep  by  kisses  undissolved, 

That  lets  thee  neither  hear  nor  see : 
But  break  it.     In  the  name  of  wife, 

And    in   the   rights    that    name   may 
give, 
Are  clasp'd  the  moral  of  thy  life, 

And  that  for  which  I  care  to  live. 

EPILOGUE. 

So,  Lady  Flora,  take  my  lay, 

And,  if  you  find  a  meaning  there, 
O  whisper  to  your  glass,  and  say, 

1  What  wonder,  if  he  thinks  me  fair?' 
What  wonder  I  was  all  unwise, 

To  shape  the  song  for  your  delight 
Like  long-tail'd  birds  of  Paradise 

That  float  thro'  Heaven,  and    cannot 
light? 
Or  old-world  trains,  upheld  at  court 

By  Cupid-boys  of  blooming  hue — 
But  take  it  —  earnest  wed  with  sport, 

And  either  sacred  unto  you. 

AMPHION. 

My  father  left  a  park  to  me, 

But 'it  is  wild  and  barren, 
A  garden  too  with  scarce  a  tree, 

And  waster  than  a  warren  : 
Yet  say  the  neighbours  when  they  call, 

It  is  not  bad  but  good  land, 
And  in  it  is  the  germ  of  all 

That  grows  within  the  woodland. 

O  had  I  lived  when  song  was  great 
In  days  of  old  Amphion, 


io6 


AMPHION. 


And  ta'en  my  fiddle  to  the  gate, 

Nor  cared  for  seed  or  scion  ! 
And  had  I  lived  when  song  was  great, 

And  legs  of  trees  were  limber, 
And  ta'en  my  fiddle  to  the  gate, 

And  fiddled  in  the  timber ! 

Tis  said  he  had  a  tuneful  tongue, 

Such  happy  intonation, 
Wherever  he  sat  down  and  sung 

He  left  a  small  plantation; 
Wherever  in  a  lonely  grove 

He  set  up  his  forlorn  pipes, 
The  gouty  oak  began  to  move, 

And  flounder  into  hornpipes. 

The  mountain  stirr'd  its  bushy  crown, 

And,  as  tradition  teaches, 
Young  ashes  pirouetted  down 

Coquetting  with  young  beeches; 
And  briony-vine  and  ivy-wreath 

Ran  forward  to  his  rhyming, 
And  from  the  valleys  underneath 

Came  little  copses  climbing. 

The  linden  broke  her  ranks  and  rent 

The  woodbine  wreaths  that  bind  her, 
And  down  the  middle,  buzz !  she  went 

With  all  her  bees  behind  her : 
The  poplars,  in  long  order  due, 

With  cypress  promenaded, 
The  shock-head  willows  two  and  two 

By  rivers  gallopaded. 

Came  wet-shod  alder  from  the  wave, 

Came  yews,  a  dismal  coterie; 
Each    pluck'd    his    one    foot    from    the 
grave 

Poussetting  with  a  sloe-tree : 
Old  elms  came  breaking  from  the  vine, 

The  vine  stream'd  out  to  follow, 
And,  sweating  rosin,  plump'd  the  pine 

From  many  a  cloudy  hollow. 

And  wasn't  it  a  sight  to  see, 

When,  ere  his  song  was  ended, 
Like  some  great  landslip,  tree  by  tree, 

The  country-side  descended; 
And  shepherds  from  the  mountain-eaves 

Look'd  down,  half-pleased,  half-fright- 
en'd, 
As  dash'd  about  the  drunken  leaves 

The  random  sunshine  lighten'd  ! 


Oh,  nature  first  was  fresh  to  men, 

And  wanton  without  measure; 
So  youthful  and  so  flexile  then, 

You  moved  her  at  your  pleasure. 
Twang  out,  my  fiddle  !  shake  the  twigs ! 

And  make  her  dance  attendance; 
Blow,  flute,  and  stir  the  stiff-set  sprigs, 

And  scirrhous  roots  and  tendons. 

'Tis  vain  !  in  such  a  brassy  age 

I  could  not  move  a  thistle; 
The  very  sparrows  in  the  hedge 

Scarce  answer  to  my  whistle; 
Or  at  the  most,  when  three-parts-sick 

With  strumming  and  with  scraping, 
A  jackass  heehaws  from  the  rick, 

The  passive  oxen  gaping. 

But  what  is  that  I  hear?  a  sound 

Like  sleepy  counsel  pleading; 
O  Lord  !  —  'tis  in  my  neighbour's  ground, 

The  modern  Muses  reading. 
They  read  Botanic  Treatises, 

And  Works  on  Gardening  thro'  there, 
And  Methods  of  transplanting  trees 

To  look  as  if  they  grew  there. 

The  wither'd  Misses  !  how  they  prose 

O'er  books  of  travell'd  seamen, 
And  show  you  slips  of  all  that  grows 

From  England  to  Van  Diemen. 
They  read  in  arbours  dipt  and  cut, 

And  alleys,  faded  places, 
By  squares  of  tropic  summer  shut 

And  warm'd  in  crystal  cases. 

But  these,  tho'  fed  with  careful  dirt, 

Are  neither  green  nor  sappy; 
Half-conscious  of  the  garden-squirt, 

The  spindlings  look  unhappy. 
Better  to  me  the  meanest  weed 

That  blows  upon  its  mountain, 
The  vilest  herb  that  runs  to  seed 

Beside  its  native  fountain. 

And  I  must  work  thro'  months  of  toil, 

And  years  of  cultivation, 
Upon  my  proper  patch  of  soil 

To  grow  my  own  plantation. 
I'll  take  the  showers  as  they  fall, 

I  will  not  vex  my  bosom  : 
Enough  if  at  the  end  of  all 

A  little  garden  blossom. 


ST.   AGNES'   EVE— SIR    GALAHAD. 


107 


ST.   AGNES'   EVE. 

Deep  on  the  convent-roof  the  snows 

Are  sparkling  to  the  moon : 
My  breath  to  heaven  like  vapour  goes : 

May  my  soul  follow  soon  ! 
The  shadows  of  the  convent-towers 

Slant  down  the  snowy  sward, 
Still  creeping  with  the  creeping  hours 

That  lead  me  to  my  Lord : 
Make  Thou  my  spirit  pure  and  clear 

As  are  the  frosty  skies, 
Or  this  first  snowdrop  of  the  year 

That  in  my  bosom  lies. 

As  these  white  robes  are  soil'd  and  dark, 

To  yonder  shining  ground; 
As  this  pale  taper's  earthly  spark, 

To  yonder  argent  round; 
So  shows  my  soul  before  the  Lamb, 

My  spirit  before  Thee; 
So  in  mine  earthly  house  I  am, 

To  that  I  hope  to  be. 
Break  up  the  heavens,  O  Lord  !  and  far, 

Thro'  all  yon  starlight  keen, 
Draw  me,  thy  bride,  a  glittering  star, 

In  raiment  white  and  clean. 

He  lifts  me  to  the  golden  doors; 

The  flashes  come  and  go; 
All  heaven  bursts  her  starry  floors, 

And  strows  her  lights  below, 
And  deepens  on  and  up !  the  gates 

Roll  back,  and  far  within 
For  me  the  Heavenly  Bridegroom  waits, 

To  make  me  pure  of  sin. 
The  sabbaths  of  Eternity, 

One  sabbath  deep  and  wide  — 
A  light  upon  the  shining  sea  — 

The  Bridegroom  with  his  bride  ! 


SIR   GALAHAD. 

My  good  blade  carves  the  casques  of  men, 

My  tough  lance  thrusteth  sure, 
My  strength  is  as  the  strength  of  ten, 

Because  my  heart  is  pure. 
The  shattering  trumpet  shrilleth  high, 

The  hard  brands  shiver  on  the  steel, 
The  splinter'd  spear-shafts  crack  and  fly, 

The  horse  and  rider  reel : 


They  reel,  they  roll  in  clanging  lists, 
And  when  the  tide  of  combat  stands, 

Perfume  and  flowers  fall  in  showers, 
That  lightly  rain  from  ladies'  hands. 

How  sweet  are  looks  that  ladies  bend 

On  whom  their  favours  fall ! 
For  them  I  battle  till  the  end, 

To  save  from  shame  and  thrall : 
But  all  my  heart  is  drawn  above, 

My   knees   are    bow'd    in   crypt   and 
shrine : 
I  never  felt  the  kiss  of  love, 

Nor  maiden's  hand  in  mine. 
More  bounteous  aspects  on  me  beam, 

Me    mightier    transports    move    and 
thrill; 
So  keep  I  fair  thro'  faith  and  prayer 

A  virgin  heart  in  work  and  will. 

When  down  the  stormy  crescent  goes, 

A  light  before  me  swims, 
Between  dark  stems  the  forest  glows, 

I  hear  a  noise  of  hymns : 
Then  by  some  secret  shrine  I  ride; 

I  hear  a  voice  but  none  are  there; 
The  stalls  are  void,  the  doors  are  wide, 

The  tapers  burning  fair. 
Fair  gleams  the  snowy  altar-cloth, 

The  silver  vessels  sparkle  clean, 
The  shrill  bell  rings,  the  censer  swings, 

And  solemn  chaunts  resound  between. 

Sometimes  on  lonely  mountain-meres 

I  find  a  magic  bark; 
I  leap  on  board :  no  helmsman  steers : 

I  float  till  all  is  dark. 
A  gentle  sound,  an  awful  light ! 

Three  angels  bear  the  holy  Grail : 
With  folded  feet,  in  stoles  of  white, 

On  sleeping  wings  they  sail. 
Ah,  blessed  vision  !  blood  of  God ! 

My  spirit  beats  her  mortal  bars, 
As  down  dark  tides  the  glory  slides, 

And  star-like  mingles  with  the  stars. 

When  on  my  goodly  charger  borne 

Thro'  dreaming  towns  I  go, 
The  cock  crows  ere  the  Christmas  morn, 

The  streets  are  dumb  with  snow. 
The  tempest  crackles  on  the  leads, 

And,  ringing,  springs  from  brand  and 
mail; 


io8 


EDWARD    GRAY. 


But  o'er  the  dark  a  glory  spreads, 

And  gilds  the  driving  hail. 
I  leave  the  plain,  I  climb  the  height; 

No  branchy  thicket  shelter  yields; 
But  blessed  forms  in  whistling  storms 

Fly  o'er  waste  fens  and  windy  fields. 

A  maiden  knight  —  to  me  is  given 

Such  hope,  I  know  not  fear; 
I  yearn  to  breathe  the  airs  of  heaven 

That  often  meet  me  here. 
I  muse  on  joy  that  will  not  cease, 

Pure  spaces  clothed  in  living  beams, 
Pure  lilies  of  eternal  peace, 

Whose  odours  haunt  my  dreams; 
And,  stricken  by  an  angel's  hand, 

This  mortal  armour  that  I  wear, 
This  weight  and  size,  this  heart  and  eyes, 

Are  touch'd,  are  turn'd  to  finest  air. 

The  clouds  are  broken  in  the  sky, 

And  thro'  the  mountain-walls 
A  rolling  organ-harmony 

Swells  up,  and  shakes  and  falls. 
Then  move  the  trees,  the  copses  nod, 

Wings  flutter,  voices  hover  clear : 
'  O  just  and  faithful  knight  of  God ! 

Ride  on  !  the  prize  is  near.' 
So  pass  I  hostel,  hall,  and  grange; 

By  bridge  and  ford,  by  park  and  pale, 
All-arm'd  I  ride,  whate'er  betide, 

Until  I  find  the  holy  Grail. 


EDWARD  GRAY. 

Sweet  Emma  Moreland  of  yonder  town 

Met  me  walking  on  yonder  way, 
'And   have   you   lost   your  heart?'    she 
said; 
'And    are   you  married   yet,    Edward 
Gray? ' 

Sweet  Emma  Moreland  spoke  to  me  : 
Bitterly  weeping  I  turn'd  away : 

1  Sweet  Emma  Moreland,  love  no  more 
Can  touch  the  heart  of  Edward  Gray. 

'  Ellen  Adair  she  loved  me  well, 

Against    her    father's    and    mother's 
will: 

To-day  I  sat  for  an  hour  and  wept, 
By  Ellen's  grave,  on  the  windy  hill. 


'Shy  she  was,  and  I  thought  her  cold; 

Thought  her  proud,  and  fled  over  the 
sea; 
Fill'd  I  was  with  folly  and  spite, 

When  Ellen  Adair  was  dying  for  me. 

'  Cruel,  cruel  the  words  I  said ! 

Cruelly  came  they  back  to-day : 
"  You're  too  slight  and  fickle,"  I  said, 

"To  trouble  the  heart  of  Edward  Gray.'5 

'There  I  put  my  face  in  the  grass  — 
Whisper'd,  "  Listen  to  my  despair : 

I  repent  me  of  all  I  did : 

Speak  a  little,  Ellen  Adair !  " 

'  Then  I  took  a  pencil,  and  wrote 
On  the  mossy  stone,  as  I  lay, 

"  Here  lies  the  body  of  Ellen  Adair; 
And  here  the  heart  of  Edward  Gray !  " 

'  Love  may  come,  and  love  may  go, 
And  fly,  like  a  bird,  from  tree  to  tree; 

But  I  will  love  no  more,  no  more, 
Till  Ellen  Adair  come  back  to  me. 

'  Bitterly  wept  I  over  the  stone : 
Bitterly  weeping  I  turn'd  away : 

There  lies  the  body  of  Ellen  Adair ! 
And  there  the  heart  of  Edward  Gray  ! ' 

WILL    WATERPROOF'S    LYRICAL 
MONOLOGUE. 

MADE  AT  THE  COCK. 

O  plump  head-waiter  at  The  Cock, 

To  which  I  most  resort, 
How  goes  the  time?     'Tis  five  o'clock. 

Go  fetch  a  pint  of  port : 
But  let  it  not  be  such  as  that 

You  set  before  chance-comers, 
But  such  whose  father-grape  grew  fat 

On  Lusitanian  summers. 

No  vain  libation  to  the  Muse, 

But  may  she  still  be  kind, 
And  whisper  lovely  words,  and  use 

Her  influence  on  the  mind, 
To  make  me  write  my  random  rhymes, 

Ere  they  be  half-forgotten ; 
Nor  add  and  alter,  many  times, 

Till  all  be  ripe  and  rotten. 


WILL    WATERPROOF'S  LYRICAL  MONOLOGUE. 


109 


I  pledge  her,  and  she  comes  and  dips 

Her  laurel  in  the  wine, 
And  lays  it  thrice  upon  my  lips, 

These  favour'd  lips  of  mine; 
Until  the  charm  have  power  to  make 

New  lifeblood  warm  the  bosom, 
And  barren  commonplaces  break 

In  full  and  kindly  blossom. 

I  pledge  her  silent  at  the  board; 

Her  gradual  fingers  steal 
And  touch  upon  the  master-chord 

Of  all  I  felt  and  feel. 
Old  wishes,  ghosts  of  broken  plans, 

And  phantom  hopes  assemble; 
And  that  child's  heart  within  the  man's 

Begins  to  move  and  tremble. 

Thro'  many  an  hour  of  summer  suns, 

By  many  pleasant  ways, 
Against  its  fountain  upward  runs 

The  current  of  my  days : 
I  kiss  the  lips  I  once  have  kiss'd; 

The  gas-light  wavers  dimmer; 
And  softly,  thro'  a  vinous  mist, 

My  college  friendships  glimmer. 

I  grow  in  worth,  and  wit,  and  sense, 

Unboding  critic-pen, 
Or  that  eternal  want  of  pence, 

Which  vexes  public  men, 
Who  hold  their  hands  to  all,  and  cry 

For  that  which  all  deny  them  — 
Who  sweep  the  crossings,  wet  or  dry, 

And  all  the  world  go  by  them. 

Ah  yet,  tho'  all  the  world  forsake, 

Tho1  fortune  clip  my  wings, 
I  will  not  cramp  my  heart,  nor  take 

Half-views  of  men  and  things. 
Let  Whig  and  Tory  stir  their  blood; 

There  must  be  stormy  weather; 
But  for  some  true  result  of  good 

All  parties  work  together. 

Let  there  be  thistles,  there  are  grapes; 

If  old  things,  there  are  new; 
Ten  thousand  broken  lights  and  shapes, 

Yet  glimpses  of  the  true. 
Let  raffs  be  rife  in  prose  and  rhyme, 

We  lack  not  rhymes  and  reasons, 
As  on  this  whirligig  of  Time 

We  circle  with  the  seasons. 


This  earth  is  rich  in  man  and  maid; 

With  fair  horizons  bound  : 
This    whole    wide    earth    of    light    and 
shade 

Comes  out  a  perfect  round. 
High  over  roaring  Temple-bar, 

And  set  in  Heaven's  third  story, 
I  look  at  all  things  as  they  are, 

But  thro'  a  kind  of  glory. 


Head-waiter,  honour'd  by  the  guest 

Half-mused,  or  reeling  ripe, 
The  pint,  you  brought  me,  was  the  best 

That  ever  came  from  pipe. 
But  tho'  the  port  surpasses  praise, 

My  nerves  have  dealt  with  stiffer. 
Is  there  some  magic  in  the  place? 

Or  do  my  peptics  differ? 

For  since  I  came  to  live  and  learn, 

No  pint  of  white  or  red 
Had  ever  half  the  power  to  turn 

This  wheel  within  my  head, 
Which  bears  a  season'd  brain  about, 

Unsubject  to  confusion, 
Tho'  soak'd  and  saturate,  out  and  out, 

Thro'  every  convolution. 

For  I  am  of  a  numerous  house, 

With  many  kinsmen  gay, 
Where  long  and  largely  we  carouse 

As  who  shall  say  me  nay : 
Each  month,  a  birth-day  coming  on, 

We  drink  defying  trouble, 
Or  sometimes  two  would  meet  in  one, 

And  then  we  drank  it  double; 

Whether  the  vintage,  yet  unkept, 

Had  relish  fiery-new, 
Or  elbow-deep  in  sawdust,  slept, 

As  old  as  Waterloo; 
Or  stow'd,  when  classic  Canning  died, 

In  musty  bins  and  chambers, 
Had 'cast  upon  its  crusty  side 

The  gloom  of  ten  Decembers. 

The  Muse,  the  jolly  Muse,  it  is  ! 

She  answer'd  to  my  call, 
She  changes  with  that  mood  or  this, 

Is  all-in-all  to  all : 
She  lit  the  spark  within  my  throat, 

To  make  my  blood  run  quicker, 


WILL    WATERPROOF'S  LYRICAL  MONOLOGUE. 


Used  all  her  fiery  will,  and  smote 
Her  life  into  the  liquor. 

And  hence  this  halo  lives  about 

The  waiter's  hands,  that  reach 
To  each  his  perfect  pint  of  stout, 

His  proper  chop  to  each. 
He  looks  not  like  the  common  breed 

That  with  the  napkin  dally; 
I  think  he  came  like  Ganymede, 

From  some  delightful  valley. 

The  Cock  was  of  a  larger  egg 

Than  modern  poultry  drop, 
Stept  forward  on  a  firmer  leg, 

And  cramm'd  a  plumper  crop; 
Upon  an  ampler  dunghill  trod, 

Crow'd  lustier  late  and  early, 
Sipt  wine  from  silver,  praising  God, 

And  raked  in  golden  barley. 

A  private  life  was  all  his  joy, 

Till  in  a  court  he  saw 
A  something-pottle-bodied  boy 

That  knuckled  at  the  taw : 
He  stoop'd  and  clutch'd  him,  fair  and 
good, 

Flew  over  roof  and  casement : 
His  brothers  of  the  weather  stood 

Stock-still  for  sheer  amazement. 

But  he,  by  farmstead,  thorpe  and  spire, 

And  follow'd  with  acclaims, 
A  sign  to  many  a  staring  shire 

Came  crowing  over  Thames. 
Right  down  by  smoky  Paul's  they  bore, 

Till,  where  the  street  grows  straiter, 
One  fix'd  for  ever  at  the  door, 

And  one  became  head-waiter. 


But  whither  would  my  fancy  go? 

How  out  of  place  she  makes 
The  violet  of  a  legend  blow 

Among  the  chops  and  steaks ! 
'Tis  but  a  steward  of  the  can, 

One  shade  more  plump  than  common; 
As  just  and  mere  a  serving- man 

As  any  born  of  woman. 

I    ranged    too    high :    what    draws    me 
down 
Into  the  common  day  ? 


Is  it  the  weight  of  that  half-crown, 

Which  I  shall  have  to  pay? 
For,  something  duller  than  at  first, 

Nor  wholly  comfortable, 
I  sit,  my  empty  glass  reversed, 

And  thrumming  on  the  table  : 

Half  fearful  that,  with  self  at  strife, 

I  take  myself  to  task ; 
Lest  of  the  fullness  of  my  life 

I  leave  an  empty  flask : 
For  I  had  hope,  by  something  rare 

To  prove  myself  a  poet : 
But,  while  I  plan  and  plan,  my  hair 

Is  gray  before  I  know  it. 

So  fares  it  since  the  years  began, 

Till  they  be  gather'd  up; 
The  truth,  that  flies  the  flowing  can, 

Will  haunt  the  vacant  cup : 
And  others'  follies  teach  us  not, 

Nor  much  their  wisdom  teaches; 
And  most,  of  sterling  worth,  is  what 

Our  own  experience  preaches. 

Ah,  let  the  rusty  theme  alone  ! 

We  know  not  what  we  know. 
But  for  my  pleasant  hour,  'tis  gone; 

'Tis  gone,  and  let  it  go. 
'Tis  gone :  a  thousand  such  have  slipt 

Away  from  my  embraces, 
And  fall'n  into  the  dusty  crypt 
.    Of  darken'd  forms  and  faces. 

Go,  therefore,  thou !  thy  betters  went 

Long  since,  and  came  no  more; 
With  peals  of  genial  clamour  sent 

From  many  a  tavern-door, 
With  twisted  quirks  and  happy  hits, 

From  misty  men  of  letters; 
The  tavern-hours  of  mighty  wits  — 

Thine  elders  and  thy  betters. 

Hours,  when  the  Poet's  words  and  looks 

Had  yet  their  native  glow : 
Nor  yet  the  fear  of  little  books 

Had  made  him  talk  for  show; 
But,  all  his  vast  heart  sherris-warm'd, 

He  flash'd  his  random  speeches, 
Ere  days,  that  deal  in  ana,  swarm'd 

His  literary  leeches. 


LADY  CLARE. 


So  mix  for  ever  with  the  past, 

Like  all  good  things  on  earth ! 
For   should  I   prize  thee,   couldst   thou 
last, 

At  half  thy  real  worth? 
I  hold  it  good,  good  things  should  pass : 

With  time  I  will  not  quarrel : 
It  is  but  yonder  empty  glass 

That  makes  me  maudlin-moral. 


Head-waiter  of  the  chop-house  here, 

To  which  I  most  resort, 
I  too  must  part :  I  hold  thee  dear 

For  this  good  pint  of  port. 
For  this,  thou  shalt  from  all  things  suck 

Marrow  of  mirth  and  laughter; 
And  wheresoe'er  thou  move,  good  luck 

Shall  fling  her  old  shoe  after. 

But  thou  wilt  never  move  from  hence, 

The  sphere  thy  fate  allots : 
Thy  latter  days  increased  with  pence 

Go  down  among  the  pots : 
Thou  battenest  by  the  greasy  gleam 

In  haunts  of  hungry  sinners, 
Old  boxes,  larded  with  the  steam 

Of  thirty  thousand  dinners. 

We  fret,  we  fume,  would  shift  our  skins, 

Would  quarrel  with  our  lot; 
Thy  care  is,  under  polish'd  tins, 

To  serve  the  hot-and-hot; 
To  come  and  go,  and  come  again, 

Returning  like  the  pewit, 
And  watch'd  by  silent  gentlemen, 

That  trifle  with  the  cruet. 

Live  long,  ere  from  thy  topmost  head 

The  thick-set  hazel  dies; 
Long,  ere  the  hateful  crow  shall  tread 

The  corners  of  thine  eyes  : 
Live  long,  nor  feel  in  head  or  chest 

Our  changeful  equinoxes, 
Till  mellow  Death,  like  some  late  guest, 

Shall  call  thee  from  the  boxes. 

But  when  he  calls,  and  thou  shalt  cease 

To  pace  the  gritted  floor, 
And,  laying  down  an  unctuous  lease 

Of  life,  shalt  earn  no  more ; 
No  carved  cross-bones,  the  types  of  Death, 

Shall  show  thee  past  to  Heaven : 


But  carved  cross-pipes,  and,  underneath, 
A  pint-pot  neatly  graven. 


LADY  CLARE. 

It  was  the  time  when  lilies  blow, 
And  clouds  are  highest  up  in  air, 

Lord  Ronald  brought  a  lily-white  doe 
To  give  his  cousin,  Lady  Clare. 

I  trow  they  did  not  part  in  scorn : 
Lovers  long-betroth'd  were  they : 

They  two  will  wed  the  morrow  morn : 
God's  blessing  on  the  day  ! 

'  He  does  not  love  me  for  my  birth, 
Nor  for  my  lands  so  broad  and  fair; 

He  loves  me  for  my  own  true  worth, 
And  that  is  well,'  said  Lady  Clare. 

In  there  came  old  Alice  the  nurse, 

Said,  '  Who  was  this  that  went  from 
thee?' 

'  It  was  my  cousin,'  said  Lady  Clare, 
1  To-morrow  he  weds  with  me.' 

'  O  God  be  thank'd  ! '  said  Alice  the  nurse, 
'  That  all  comes  round  so  just  and  fair  : 

Lord  Ronald  is  heir  of  all  your  lands, 
And  you  are  not  the  Lady  Clare.' 

*  Are  ye  out  of  your  mind,  my  nurse,  my 
nurse  ? ' 
Said  Lady  Clare,  '  that   ye  speak  so 
wild?' 
1  As  God's  above,'  said  Alice  the  nurse, 
*  I  speak  the  truth  :  you  are  my  child. 

'The   old    Earl's   daughter   died   at  my 
breast; 

I  speak  the  truth,  as  I  live  by  bread ! 
I  buried  her  like  my  own  sweet  child, 

And  put  my  child  in  her  stead.' 

'  Falsely,  falsely  have  ye  done, 

O  mother,'  she  said,  'if  this  be  true, 

To  keep  the  best  man  under  the  sun 
So  many  years  from  his  due.' 

'Nay   now,   my   child,'    said    Alice    the 
nurse, 
'  But  keep  the  secret  for  your  life, 


112 


LADY   CLARE— THE    CAPTAIN. 


And  all  you  have  will  be  Lord  Ronald's, 
When  you  are  man  and  wife.' 

'If  I'm  a  beggar  born,'  she  said, 
1 1  will  speak  out,  for  I  dare  not  lie. 

Pull  off,  pull  off,  the  brooch  of  gold, 
And  fling  the  diamond  necklace  by.' 

*  Nay  now,   my   child,'   said   Alice    the 
nurse, 

'  But  keep  the  secret  all  ye  can.' 
She  said,  *  Not  so :  but  I  will  know 

If  there  be  any  faith  in  man.' 

'Nay  now,  what  faith?'  said  Alice  the 
nurse, 

'  The  man  will  cleave  unto  his  right.' 
'  And  he  shall  have  it,'  the  lady  replied, 

'  Tho'  I  should  die  to-night.' 

'  Yet  give  one  kiss  to  your  mother  dear ! 

Alas,  my  child,  I  sinn'd  for  thee.' 
'  O  mother,  mother,  mother,'  she  said, 

'  So  strange  it  seems  to  me. 

'  Yet  here's  a  kiss  for  my  mother  dear, 
My  mother  dear,  if  this  be  so, 

And  lay  your  hand  upon  my  head, 
And  bless  me,  mother,  ere  I  go.' 

She  clad  herself  in  a  russet  gown, 
She  was  no  longer  Lady  Clare : 

She  went  by  dale,  and  she  went  by  down, 
With  a  single  rose  in  her  hair. 

The  lily-white   doe    Lord   Ronald    had 
brought 

Leapt  up  from  where  she  lay, 
Dropt  her  head  in  the  maiden's  hand, 

And  follow'd  her  all  the  way. 

Down  stept  Lord  Ronald  from  his  tower : 
*  O  Lady  Clare,  you  shame  your  worth  ! 

Why  come  you  drest  like  a  village  maid, 
That  are  the  flower  of  the  earth  ? ' 

:  If  I  come  drest  like  a  village  maid, 
I  am  but  as  my  fortunes  are : 

I  am  a  beggar  born,'  she  said, 
1  And  not  the  Lady  Clare.' 

'  Play  me  no  tricks,'  said  Lord  Ronald, 
'  For  I  am  yours  in  word  and  in  deed. 


Play  me  no  tricks,'  said  Lord  Ronald, 
'Your  riddle  is  hard  to  read.' 

0  and  proudly  stood  she  up  ! 

Her  heart  within  her  did  not  fail : 

She  look'd  into  Lord  Ronald's  eyes, 

And  told  him  all  her  nurse's  tale. 

He  laugh'd  a  laugh  of  merry  scorn : 
He  turn'd  and   kiss'd  her  where  she 
stood : 

1  If  you  are  not  the  heiress  born, 

And  I,'  said  he,  '  the  next  in  blood  — 

'  If  you  are  not  the  heiress  born, 
And  I,'  said  he, '  the  lawful  heir, 

We  two  will  wed  to-morrow  morn, 
And  you  shall  still  be  Lady  Clare.' 


THE  CAPTAIN. 

A   LEGEND    OF  THE   NAVY. 

He  that  only  rules  by  terror 

Doeth  grievous  wrong. 
Deep  as  Hell  I  count  his  error. 

Let  him  hear  my  song. 
Brave  the  Captain  was :  the  seamen 

Made  a  gallant  crew, 
Gallant  sons  of  English  freemen, 

Sailors  bold  and  true. 
But  they  hated  his  oppression, 

Stern  he  was  and  rash; 
So  for  every  light  transgression 

Doom'd  them  to  the  lash. 
Day  by  day  more  harsh  and  cruel 

Seem'd  the  Captain's  mood. 
Secret  wrath  like  smother'd  fuel 

Burnt  in  each  man's  blood. 
Yet  he  hoped  to  purchase  glory, 

Hoped  to  make  the  name 
Of  his  vessel  great  in  story, 

Wheresoe'er  he  came. 
So  they  past  by  capes  and  islands, 

Many  a  harbour-mouth, 
Sailing  under  palmy  highlands 

Far  within  the  South. 
On  a  day  when  they  were  going 

O'er  the  lone  expanse, 
In  the  north,  her  canvas  flowing, 

Rose  a  ship  of  France. 
Then  the  Captain's  colour  heighten'cU 

Joyful  came  his  speech  : 


THE  LORD    OF  BURLEIGH. 


l3 


But  a  cloudy  gladness  lighten'd 

She  replies,  in  accents  fainter, 

In  the  eyes  of  each. 

'  There  is  none  I  love  like  thee.' 

'Chase,'  he  said:  the  ship  flew  forward, 

He  is  but  a  landscape-painter, 

And  the  wind  did  blow; 

And  a  village  maiden  she. 

Stately,  lightly,  went  she  Norward, 

He  to  lips,  that  fondly  falter, 

Till  she  near'd  the  foe. 

Presses  his  without  reproof: 

Then  they  look'd  at  him  they  hated, 

Leads  her  to  the  village  altar, 

Had  what  they  desired  : 

And  they  leave  her  father's  roof. 

Mute  with  folded  arms  they  waited  — 

'  I  can  make  no  marriage  present : 

Not  a  gun  was  fired. 

Little  can  I  give  my  wife. 

But  they  heard  the  foeman's  thunder 

Love  will  make  our  cottage  pleasant, 

Roaring  out  their  doom; 

And  I  love  thee  more  than  life.' 

All  the  air  was  torn  in  sunder, 

They  by  parks  and  lodges  going 

Crashing  went  the  boom, 

See  the  lordly  castles  stand : 

Spars  were  splinter'd,  decks  were  shat- 

Summer  woods,  about  them  blowing, 

ter'd, 

Made  a  murmur  in  the  land. 

Bullets  fell  like  rain; 

From  deep  thought  himself  he  rouses, 

Over  mast  and  deck  were  scatter'd 

Says  to  her  that  loves  him  well, 

Blood  and  brains  of  men. 

'  Let  us  see  these  handsome  houses 

Spars     were     splinter'd;      decks     were 

Where  the  wealthy  nobles  dwell.' 

broken : 

So  she  goes  by  him  attended, 

Every  mother's  son  — 

Hears  him  lovingly  converse, 

Down     they     dropt  —  no     word     was 

Sees  whatever  fair  and  splendid 

spoken  — 

Lay  betwixt  his  home  and  hers; 

Each  beside  his  gun. 

Parks  with  oak  and  chestnut  shady, 

On  the  decks  as  they  were  lying, 

Parks  and  order'd  gardens  great, 

Were  their  faces  grim. 

Ancient  homes  of  lord  and  lady, 

In  their  blood,  as  they  lay  dying, 

Built  for  pleasure  and  for  state. 

Did  they  smile  on  him. 

All  he  shows  her  makes  him  dearer : 

Those,  in  whom  he  had  reliance 

Evermore  she  seems  to  gaze 

For  his  noble  name, 

On  that  cottage  growing  nearer, 

With  one  smile  of  still  defiance 

Where    they   twain   will    spend   theii 

Sold  him  unto  shame. 

days. 

Shame  and  wrath  his  heart  confounded,. 

0  but  she  will  love  him  truly ! 

Pale  he  turn'd  and  red, 

He  shall  have  a  cheerful  home; 

Till  himself  was  deadly  wounded 

She  will  order  all  things  duly, 

Falling  on  the  dead. 

When  beneath  his  roof  they  come. 

Dismal  error !  fearful  slaughter ! 

Thus  her  heart  rejoices  greatly, 

Years  have  wander'd  by, 

Till  a  gateway  she  discerns 

Side  by  side  beneath  the  water 

With  armorial  bearings  stately, 

Crew  and  Captain  lie; 

And  beneath  the  gate  she  turns; 

There  the  sunlit  ocean  tosses 

Sees  a  mansion  more  majestic 

O'er  them  mouldering, 

Than  all  those  she  saw  before  : 

And  the  lonely  seabird  crosses 

Many  a  gallant  gay  domestic 

With  one  waft  of  the  wing. 

Bows  before  him  at  the  door. 

And  they  speak  in  gentle  murmur, 

When  they  answer  to  his  call, 

THE   LORD   OF  BURLEIGH. 

While  he  treads  with  footstep  firmer, 

Leading  on  from  hall  to  hall. 

In  her  ear  he  whispers  gaily, 

And,  while  now  she  wonders  blindly, 

1  If  my  heart  by  signs  can  tell, 

Nor  the  meaning  can  divine, 

Maiden,  I  have  watch'd  thee  daily, 

Proudly  turns  he  round  and  kindly, 

And  I  think  thou  lov'st  me  well.' 

*  All  of  this  is  mine  and  thine.' 

ii4 


THE    VOYAGE. 


Here  he  lives  in  state  and  bounty, 

Lord  of  Burleigh,  fair  and  free, 
Not  a  lord  in  all  the  county 

Is  so  great  a  lord  as  he. 
All  at  once  the  colour  flushes 

Her  sweet  face  from  brow  to  chin : 
As  it  were  with  shame  she  blushes, 

And  her  spirit  changed  within. 
Then  her  countenance  all  over 

Pale  again  as  death  did  prove : 
But  he  clasp'd  her  like  a  lover, 

And  he  cheer'd  her  soul  with  love. 
So  she  strove  against  her  weakness, 

Tho'  at  times  her  spirit  sank: 
Shaped  her  heart  with  woman's  meekness 

To  all  duties  of  her  rank  : 
And  a  gentle  consort  made  he, 

And  her  gentle  mind  was  such 
That  she  grew  a  noble  lady, 

And  the  people  loved  her  much. 
But  a  trouble  weigh'd  upon  her, 

And  perplex'd  her,  night  and  morn, 
With  the  burthen  of  an  honour 

Unto  which  she  was  not  born. 
Faint  she  grew,  and  ever  fainter, 

And  she  murmur'd,  ■  Oh,  that  he 
Were  once  more  that  landscape-painter, 

Which  did  win  my  heart  from  me  ! ' 
So  she  droop'd  and  droop'd  before  him, 

Fading  slowly  from  his  side  : 
Three  fair  children  first  she  bore  him, 

Then  before  her  time  she  died. 
Weeping,  weeping  late  and  early, 

Walking  up  and  pacing  down, 
Deeply  mourn'd  the  Lord  of  Burleigh, 

Burleigh-house  by  Stamford-town. 
And  he  came  to  look  upon  her, 

And  he  look'd  at  her  and  said, 
'  Bring  the  dress  and  put  it  on  her, 

That  she  wore  when  she  was  wed.' 
Then  her  people,  softly  treading, 

Bore  to  earth  her  body,  drest 
In  the  dress  that  she  was  wed  in, 

That  her  spirit  might  have  rest. 


THE  VOYAGE. 


We  left  behind  the  painted  buoy 
That  tosses  at  the  harbour-mouth; 

And  madly  danced  our  hearts  with  joy, 
As  fast  we  fleeted  to  the  South : 


How  fresh  was  every  sight  and  sound 
On  open  main  or  winding  shore  ! 

We  knew  the  merry  world  was  round, 
And  we  might  sail  for  evermore. 


Warm  broke  the  breeze  against  the  brow, 

Dry  sang  the  tackle,  sang  the  sail : 
The  Lady's-head  upon  the  prow 

Caught  the  shrill  salt,  and  sheer'd  the 
gale. 
The  broad  seas  swell'd  to  meet  the  keel, 

And  swept  behind;  so  quick  the  run, 
We  felt  the  good  ship  shake  and  reel, 

We  seem'd  to  sail  into  the  Sun ! 


How  oft  we  saw  the  Sun  retire, 

And  burn  the  threshold  of  the  night, 
Fall  from  his  Ocean-lane  of  fire, 

And  sleep  beneath  his  pillar'd  light ! 
How  oft  the  purple-skirted  robe 

Of  twilight  slowly  downward  drawn, 
As  thro'  the  slumber  of  the  globe 

Again  we  dash'd  into  the  dawn ! 


New  stars  all  night  above  the  brim 

Of  waters  lighten'd  into  view; 
They  climb'd  as  quickly,  for  the  rim 

Changed  every  moment  as  we  flew. 
Far  ran  the  naked  moon  across 

The  houseless  ocean's  heaving  field, 
Or  fifing  shone,  the  silver  boss 

Of  her  own  halo's  dusky  shield; 


The  peaky  islet  shifted  shapes, 

High  towns  on  hills  were  dimly  seen, 
We  past  long  lines  of  Northern  capes 

And  dewy  Northern  meadows  green. 
We  came  to  warmer  waves,  and  deep 

Across  the  boundless  east  we  drove, 
Where  those  long  swells  of  breaker  sweep 

The  nutmeg  rocks  and  isles  of  clove. 

VI. 

By  peaks  that  flamed,  or,  all  in  shade, 
Gloom'd  the  low  coast  and  quivering 
brine 

With  ashy  rains,  that  spreading  made 
Fantastic  plume  or  sable  pine; 


SIR   LAUNCELOT  AND    QUEEN   GUINEVERE. 


*5 


By  sands  and  steaming  flats,  and  floods 
Of  mighty  mouth,  we  scudded  fast, 

And  hills  and  scarlet-mingled  woods 
Glow'd  for  a  moment  as  we  past. 

VII. 

O  hundred  shores  of  happy  climes, 

How  swiftly  stream'd  ye  by  the  bark  ! 
At  times  the  whole  sea  burn'd,  at  times 

With  wakes  of  fire  we  tore  the  dark; 
At  times  a  carven  craft  would  shoot 

From  havens  hid  in  fairy  bowers, 
With  naked  limbs  and  flowers  and  fruit, 

But  we  nor  paused  for  fruit  nor  flowers. 

VIII. 

For  one  fair  Vision  ever  fled 

Down  the  waste  waters  day  and  night, 
And  still  we  follow'd  where  she  led, 

In  hope  to  gain  upon  her  flight. 
Her  face  was  evermore  unseen, 

And  fixt  upon  the  far  sea-line; 
But  each  man  murmur'd,  '  O  my  Queen, 

I  follow  till  I  make  thee  mine.' 


And  now  we  lost  her,  now  she  gleam'd 

Like  Fancy  made  of  golden  air, 
Now  nearer  to  the  prow  she  seem'd 

Like  Virtue  firm,  like  Knowledge  fair, 
Now  high  on  waves  that  idly  burst 

Like  Heavenly  Hope  she  crown'd  the 
sea,  • 
And  now,  the  bloodless  point  reversed, 

She  bore  the  blade  of  Liberty. 


And  only  one  among  us  —  him 

We    pleased     not  —  he    was    seldom 
pleased : 
He  saw  not  far :  his  eyes  were  dim  : 

But  ours  he  swore  were  all  diseased. 
'  A  ship  of  fools,'  he  shriek'd  in  spite, 

'A    ship    of    fools,'    he    sneer'd    and 
wept. 
And  overboard  one  stormy  night 

He  cast  his  body,  and  on  we  swept. 

XI. 

And  never  sail  of  ours  was  furl'd, 
Nor  anchor  dropt  at  eve  or  morn; 


We  lov'd  the  glories  of  the  world, 
But  laws  of  nature  were  our  scorn. 

For  blasts  would  rise  and  rave  and  cease, 
But  whence  were  those  that  drove  the 
sail 

Across  the  whirlwind's  heart  of  peace, 
And  to  and  thro'  the  counter  gale? 


Again  to  colder  climes  we  came, 

For  still  we  follow'd  where  she  led : 
Now  mate  is  blind  and  captain  lame, 

And  half  the  crew  are  sick  or  dead; 
But,  blind  or  lame  or  sick  or  sound, 

We  follow  that  which  flies  before  : 
We  know  the  merry  world  is  round, 

And  we  may  sail  for  evermore. 


SIR  LAUNCELOT  AND  QUEEN 
GUINEVERE. 

A   FRAGMENT. 

Like  souls  that  balance  joy  and  pain, 
With  tears  and  smiles  from  heaven  again 
The  maiden  Spring  upon  the  plain 
Came  in  a  sun-lit  fall  of  rain. 

In  crystal  vapour  everywhere 
Blue  isles  of  heaven  laugh'd  between, 
And  far,  in  forest-deeps  unseen, 
The  topmost  elm-tree  gather'd  green 

From  draughts  of  balmy  air. 

Sometimes  the  linnet  piped  his  song : 
Sometimes  the  throstle  whistled  strong : 
Sometimes  the  sparhawk,  wheel'd  along, 
Hush'd  all  the  groves  from  fear  of  wrong : 

By  grassy  capes  with  fuller  sound 
In  curves  the  yellowing  river  ran, 
And  drooping  chestnut-buds  began 
To  spread  into  the  perfect  fan, 

Above  the  teeming  ground. 

Then,  in  the  boyhood  of  the  year, 
Sir  Launcelot  and  Queen  Guinevere 
Rode  thro'  the  coverts  of  the  deer, 
With  blissful  treble  ringing  clear. 

She  seem'd  a  part  of  joyous  Spring 
A  gown  of  grass-green  silk  she  wore, 
Buckled  with  golden  clasps  before; 
A  light-green  tuft  of  plumes  she  bore 

Closed  in  a  golden  ring. 


n6 


A   FAREWELL— THE  BEGGAR  MALD—THE  EAGLE. 


Now  on  some  twisted  ivy-net, 

1  It  is  no  wonder,'  said  the  lords, 

Now  by  some  tinkling  rivulet, 

•  She  is  more  beautiful  than  day.' 

In  mosses  mixt  with  violet 

Her  cream-white  mule  his  pastern  set: 

As  shines  the  moon  in  clouded  skies, 

And   fleeter  now  she  skimm'd  the 

She  in  her  poor  attire  was  seen : 

plains 

One  praised  her  ankles,  one  her  eyes, 

Than  she  whose  elfin  prancer  springs 

One  her  dark  hair  and  lovesome  mien. 

By  night  to  eery  warblings, 

So  sweet  a  face,  such  angel  grace, 

When  all  the  glimmering  moorland  rings 

In  all  that  land  had  never  been : 

With  jingling  bridle-reins. 

Cophetua  sware  a  royal  oath  : 

'  This  beggar  maid  shall  be  my  queen  ! ' 

As  fast  she  fled  thro'  sun  and  shade, 

The  happy  winds  upon  her  play'd, 

Blowing  the  ringlet  from  the  braid : 

THE  EAGLE. 

She  look'd  so  lovely,  as  she  sway'd 

FRAGMENT. 

The  rein  with  dainty  finger-tips, 

A  man  had  given  all  other  bliss, 

He  clasps  the  crag  with  crooked  hands; 

And  all  his  worldly  worth  for  this, 

Close  to  the  sun  in  lonely  lands, 

To  waste  his  whole  heart  in  one  kiss 

Ring'd  with  the  azure  world,  he  stands. 

Upon  her  perfect  lips. 

The  wrinkled  sea  beneath  him  crawls; 

He  watches  from  his  mountain  walls, 

A  FAREWELL. 

And  like  a  thunderbolt  he  falls. 

Flow  down,  cold  rivulet,  to  the  sea, 

Thy  tribute  wave  deliver : 

Move  eastward,  happy  earth,  and  leave 

No  more  by  thee  my  steps  shall  be, 

Yon  orange  sunset  waning  slow  : 

For  ever  and  for  ever. 

From  fringes  of  the  faded  eve, 

0,  happy  planet,  eastward  go; 

Flow,  softly  flow,  by  lawn  and  lea, 

Till  over  thy  dark  shoulder  glow 

A  rivulet,  then  a  river : 

Thy  silver  sister-world,  and  rise 

No  where  by  thee  my  steps  shall  be, 

To  glass  herself  in  dewy  eyes 

For  ever  and  for  ever. 

That  watch  me  from  the  glen  below. 

But  here  will  sigh  thine  alder  tree, 

Ah,  bear  me-  with  thee,  smoothly  borne, 

And  here  thine  aspen  shiver; 

Dip  forward  under  starry  light, 

And  here  by  thee  will  hum  the  bee, 

And  move  me  to  my  marriage-morn, 

For  ever  and  for  ever. 

And  round  again  to  happy  night. 

A  thousand  suns  will  stream  on  thee, 

A  thousand  moons  will  quiver; 

Come  not,  when  I  am  dead, 

But  not  by  thee  my  steps  shall  be, 

To  drop  thy   foolish    tears   upon   my 

For  ever  and  for  ever. 

grave, 

To  trample  round  my  fallen  head, 

And  vex  the  unhappy  dust  thou  wouldst 

THE   BEGGAR  MAID. 

not  save. 

There  let  the  wind  sweep  and  the  plover 

TTi  r  arms  across  her  breast  she  laid; 

cry; 

She  was  more  fair  than  words  can  say : 

But  thou,  go  by. 

Bare-footed  came  the  beggar  maid 

Before  the  king  Cophetua. 

Child,    if   it    were    thine    error    or.  thy 

In  robe  and  crown  the  king  stept  down, 

crime 

To  meet  and  greet  her  on  her  way; 

I  care  no  longer,  being  all  unblest : 

THE  LETTERS—  THE    VISION  OF  SIN. 


17 


Wed  whom  thou  wilt,  but  I  am  sick  of 
Time, 
And  I  desire  to  rest. 
Pass  on,  weak  heart,  and  leave  me  where 
Hie: 

Go  by,  go  by. 

THE   LETTEPvS. 


Still  on  the  tower  stood  the  vane, 

A   black    yew   gloom'd    the   stagnant 
air, 
I  peer'd  athwart  the  chancel  pane 

And  saw  the  altar  cold  and  bare. 
A  clog  of  lead  was  round  my  feet, 

A  band  of  pain  across  my  brow ; 
1  Cold  altar,  Heaven  and  earth  shall  meet 

Before  you  hear  my  marriage  vow.' 

11. 

I  turn'd  and  humm'd  a  bitter  song 

That   mock'd   the  wholesome   human 
heart, 
And  then  we  met  in  wrath  and  wrong, 

We  met,  but  only  meant  to  part. 
Full  cold  my  greeting  was  and  dry; 

She  faintly  smiled,  she  hardly  moved; 
1  saw  with  half-unconscious  eye 

She  wore  the  colours  I  approved. 


She  took  the  little  ivory  chest, 

With  half  a  sigh  she  turn'd  the  key, 
Then  raised  her  head  with  lips  comprest, 

And  gave  my  letters  back  to  me. 
And  gave  the  trinkets  and  the  rings, 

My  gifts,  when   gifts   of  mine    could 
please ; 
As  looks  a  father  on  the  things 

Of  his  dead  son,  I  look'd  on  these. 


She  told  me  all  her  friends  had  said; 

I  raged  against  the  public  liar; 
She  talk'd  as  if  her  love  were  dead,  * 

But  in  my  words  were  seeds  of  fire. 
'No  more  of  love;   your  sex  is  known 

I  never  will  be  twice  deceived. 
Henceforth  I  trust  the  man  alone, 

The  woman  cannot  be  believed. 


1  Thro'  slander,  meanest  spawn  of  Hell  — 

And  women's  slander  is  the  worst, 
And  you,  whom  once  I  lov'd  so  well, 

Thro'  you,  my  life  will  be  accurst.' 
I  spoke  with  heart,  and  heat  and  force, 

I  shook  her  breast  with  vague  alarms — 
Like  torrents  from  a  mountain  source 

We  rush'd  into  each  other's  arms. 


We  parted :  sweetly  gleam'd  the  stars, 

And  sweet  the  vapour-braided  blue, 
Low  breezes  fann'd  the  belfry  bars, 

As  homeward  by  the  church  I  drew. 
The  very  graves  appear'd  to  smile, 

So  fresh  they  rose  in  shadow'd  swells. 
1  Dark  porch,'  I  said,  '  and  silent  aisle, 

There  comes  a  sound  of  marriage  bells.' 


THE  VISION   OF   SIN. 


I  HAD  a  vision  when  the  night  was  late : 
A  youth  came  riding  toward  a  palace-gate. 
He  rode  a  horse  with  wings,  that  would 

have  flown, 
But  that  his  heavy  rider  kept  him  down. 
And  from  the  palace  came  a  child  of  sin, 
And  took  him  by  the  curls,  and  led  him  in, 
Where  sat  a  company  with  heated  eyes, 
Expecting  when  a  fountain  should  arise : 
A  sleepy  light  upon  their  brows  and  lips — 
As  when  the  sun,  a  crescent  of  eclipse, 
Dreams  over  lake  and  lawn,  and  isles  and 

capes  — 
Suffused    them,    sitting,    lying,    languid 

shapes, 
By  heaps  of  gourds,  and  skins  of  wine, 

and  piles  of  grapes. 


Then  methought  I  heard  a  mellow  sound, 
Gathering  up  from  all  the  lower  ground; 
Narrowing  in  to  where  they  sat  assembled 
Low  voluptuous  music  winding  trembled, 
Wov'n  in  circles :  they  that  heard  it  sigh'd, 
Panted  hand-in-hand  with  faces  pale, 
Swung  themselves,  and  in  low  tones  re- 
plied ; 


n8 


THE    VISION  OF  SIN. 


Till  the  fountain  spouted,  showering  wide 
Sleet  of  diamond-drift  and  pearly  hail; 
Then  the  music    touch'd   the  gates  and 

died; 
Rose  again  from  where  it  seem'd  to  fail, 
Storm'd  in  orbs  of  song,  a  growing  gale; 
Till  thronging  in  and  in,  to  where  they 

waited, 
As  'twere  a  hundred-throated  nightingale, 
The  strong  tempestuous  treble  throbb'd 

and  palpitated; 
Ran  into  its  giddiest  whirl  of  sound, 
Caught  the  sparkles,  and  in  circles, 
Purple  gauzes,  golden  hazes,  liquid  mazes, 
Flung  the  torrent  rainbow  round  : 
Then  they  started  from  their  places, 
Moved  with  violence,  changed  in  hue, 
Caught  each  other  with  wild  grimaces, 
Half-invisible  to  the  view, 
Wheeling  with  precipitate  paces 
To  the  melody,  till  they  flew, 
Hair,  and  eyes,  and  limbs,  and  faces, 
Twisted  hard  in  fierce  embraces, 
Like  to  Furies,  like  to  Graces, 
Dash'd  together  in  blinding  dew : 
Till,  kilFd  with  some  luxurious  agony 
The  nerve-dissolving  melody 
Flutter'd  headlong  from  the  sky. 


And  then  I  look'd  up  toward  a  mountain- 
tract, 

That  girt  the  region  with  high  cliff  and 
lawn: 

I  saw  that  every  morning,  far  withdrawn 

Beyond  the  darkness  and  the  cataract, 

God  made  Himself  an '  awful  rose  of 
dawn, 

Unheeded :  and  detaching,  fold  by  fold, 

From  those  still  heights,  and,  slowly 
drawing  near, 

A  vapour  heavy,  hueless,  formless,  cold, 

Came  floating  on  for  many  a  month  and 
year, 

Unheeded :  and  I  thought  I  would  have 
spoken, 

And  warn'd  that  madman  ere  it  grew  too 
late: 

But,  as  in  dreams,  I  could  not.  Mine 
was  broken, 

When  that  cold  vapour  touch'd  the  pal- 
ace gate, 


And    link'd    again.      I   saw   within   my 

head 
A  gray  and  gap-tooth'd  man  as  lean  as 

death, 
Who  slowly  rode  across  a  wither'd  heath, 
And  lighted  at  a  ruin'd  inn,  and  said : 


'  Wrinkled  ostler,  grim  and  thin  ! 

Here  is  custom  come  your  way; 
Take  my  brute,  and  lead  him  in, 

Stuff  his  ribs  with  mouldy  hay. 

'  Bitter  barmaid,  waning  fast ! 

See  that  sheets  are  on  my  bed; 
What !  the  flower  of  life  is  past : 

It  is  long  before  you  wed. 

I  Slip-shod  waiter,  lank  and  sour, 

At  the  Dragon  on  the  heath ! 
Let  us  have  a  quiet  hour, 

Let  us  hob-and-nob  with  Death. 

I I  am  old,  but  let  me  drink ; 
Bring  me  spices,  bring  me  wine; 

I  remember,  when  I  think, 
That  my  youth  was  half  divine. 

'  Wine  is  good  for  shrivell'd  lips, 
When  a  blanket  wraps  the  day, 

When  the  rotten  woodland  drips, 
And  the  leaf  is  stamp'd  in  clay. 

•  Sit  thee  down,  and  have  no  shame, 
Cheek  by  jowl,  and  knee  by  knee : 

What  care  I  for  any  name? 
What  for  order  or  degree? 

'  Let  me  screw  thee  up  a  peg : 

Let  me  loose  thy  tongue  with  wine : 

Callest  thou  that  thing  a  leg? 

Which  is  thinnest?  thine  or  mine? 

'Thou  shalt  not  be  saved  by  works: 
Thou  hast  been  a  sinner  too  : 

Ruin'd  trunks  on  wither'd  forks, 
Etapty  scarecrows,  I  and  you ! 

1  Fill  the  cup,  and  fill  the  can : 
Have  a  rouse  before  the  morn : 

Every  moment  dies  a  man, 
Every  moment  one  is  born. 


THE    VISION  OF  SIN. 


19 


'  We  are  men  of  ruin'd  blood  ; 

Therefore  comes  it  we  are  wise. 
Fish  are  we  that  love  the  mud, 

Rising  to  no  fancy-flies. 

1  Name  and  fame  !  to  fly  sublime 

Thro'     the    courts,    the    camps,    the 
schools, 

Is  to  be  the  ball  of  Time, 

Bandied  by  the  hands  of  fools. 

'  Friendship  !  —  to  be  two  in  one  — 

Let  the  canting  liar  pack  ! 
Well  I  know,  when  I  am  gone, 

How  she  mouths  behind  my  back. 

'  Virtue  !  —  to  be  good  and  just  — 
Every  heart,  when  sifted  well, 

Is  a  clot  of  warmer  dust, 

Mix'd  with  cunning  sparks  of  hell. 

*  O !  we  two  as  well  can  look 
Whited  thought  and  cleanly  life 

As  the  priest,  above  his  book 
Leering  at  his  neighbour's  wife. 

'  Fill  the  cup,  and  fill  the  can : 
Have  a  rouse  before  the  morn : 

Every  moment  dies  a  man, 
Every  moment  one  is  born. 

'  Drink,  and  let  the  parties  rave  : 
They  are  fill'd  with  idle  spleen; 

Rising,  falling,  like  a  wave, 

For  they  know  not  what  they  mean. 

6  He  that  roars  for  liberty 

Faster  binds  a  tyrant's  power; 

And  the  tyrant's  cruel  glee 
Forces  on  the  freer  hour. 

1  Fill  the  can,  and  fill  the  cup : 

All  the  windy  ways  of  men 
Are  but  dust  that  rises  up, 

And  is  lightly  laid  again. 

'Greet  her  with  applausive  breath, 
Freedom,  gaily  doth  she  tread  ; 

In  her  right  a  civic  wreath, 
In  her  left  a  human  head. 

'No,  I  love  not  what  is  new; 
She  is  of  an  ancient  house  : 


And  I  think  we  know  the  hue 
Of  that  cap  upon  her  brows. 

'  Let  her  go !  her  thirst  she  slakes 
Where  the  bloody  conduit  runs, 

Then  her  sweetest  meal  she  makes 
On  the  first-born  of  her  sons. 

1  Drink  to  lofty  hopes  that  cool  — 
Visions  of  a  perfect  State : 

Drink  we,  last,  the  public  fool, 
Frantic  love  and  frantic  hate. 

'Chant  me  now  some  wicked  stave, 
Till  thy  drooping  courage  rise, 

And  the  glow-worm  of  the  grave 
Glimmer  in  thy  rheumy  eyes. 

'Fear  not  thou  to  loose  thy  tongue; 

Set  thy  hoary  fancies  free; 
What  is  loathsome  to  the  young 

Savours  well  to  thee  and  me. 

'Change,  reverting  to  the  years, 
When  thy  nerves  could  understand 

What  there  is  in  loving  tears, 

And  the  warmth  of  hand  in  hand. 

'  Tell  me  tales  of  thy  first  love  — 
April  hopes,  the  fools  of  chance; 

Till  the  graves  begin  to  move, 
And  the  dead  begin  to  dance. 

'  Fill  the  can,  and  fill  the  cup  : 
All  the  windy  ways  of  men 

Are  but  dust  that  rises  up, 
And  is  lightly  laid  again. 

'  Trooping  from  their  mouldy  dens 
The  chap-fallen  circle  spreads : 

Welcome,  fellow-citizens, 

Hollow  hearts  and  empty  heads ! 

'  You  are  bones,  and  what  of  that  ? 

Every  face,  however  full, 
Padded  round  with  flesh  and  fat, 

Is  but  modell'd  on  a  skull. 

'  Death  is  king,  and  Vivat  Rex ! 

Tread  a  measure  on  the  stones, 
Madam  —  if  I  know  your  sex, 

From  the  fashion  of  your  bones. 


THE    VISION  OF  SIN. 


'  No,  I  cannot  praise  the  fire 
In  your  eye  —  nor  yet  your  lip : 

All  the  more  do  I  admire 

Joints  of  cunning  workmanship. 

{Lo  !  God's  likeness — the  ground-plan  — 
Neither  modell'd,  glazed,  nor  framed 

Buss  me,  thou  rough  sketch  of  man, 
Far  too  naked  to  be  shamed ! 

1  Drink  to  Fortune,  drink  to  Chance, 
While  we  keep  a  little  breath ! 

Drink  to  heavy  Ignorance  ! 

Hob-and-nob  with  brother  Death  I 

1  Thou  art  mazed,  the  night  is  long, 
And  the  longer  night  is  near : 

What !  I  am  not  all  as  wrong 
As  a  bitter  jest  is  dear. 

'  Youthful  hopes,  by  scores,  to  all, 
When  the  locks  are  crisp  and  curl'd; 

Unto  me  my  maudlin  gall 

And  my  mockeries  of  the  world. 

1  Fill  the  cup,  and  fill  the  can : 
Mingle  madness,  mingle  scorn  ! 

Dregs  of  life,  and  lees  of  man : 
Yet  we  will  not  die  folorn.' 


The   voice    grew   faint:    there   came  a 

further  change : 
Once  more  uprose  the  mystic  mountain- 
range  : 
Below  were  men  and  horses  pierced  with 

worms, 
And  slowly  quickening  into  lower  forms; 
By  shards  and  scurf  of  salt,  and  scum  of 

dross, 
Old  plash  of  rains,  and  refuse  patch'd 

with  moss. 
Then  some  one  spake  :  '  Behold  !  it  was 

a  crime 
Of  sense  avenged  by  sense  that  wore  with 

time.' 
Another    said:     'The    crime    of    sense 

became 
The  crime  of  malice,  and  is  equal  blame.' 
And  one :  '  He  had  not  wholly  quench'd 

his  power; 
A  little  grain  of  conscience   made  him 

sour.' 


At  last  I  heard  a  voice  upon  the  slope 
Cry  to  the  summit,  '  Is  there  any  hope  ?' 
To  which   an  answer  peal'd   from   that 

high  land, 
But  in  a  tongue  no  man  could  understand; 
And  on  the  glimmering  limit  far  with- 
drawn 
God  made  Himself  an  awful  rose  of  dawn. 


TO  , 

AFTER   READING  A  LIFE  AND   LETTERS. 

'  Cursed  be  he  that  moves  my  bones.' 

Shakespeare's  Epitaph. 

You  might  have  won  the  Poet's  name, 
If  such  be  worth  the  winning  now, 
And  gain'd  a  laurel  for  your  brow 

Of  sounder  leaf  than  I  can  claim; 

But  you  have  made  the  wiser  choice, 
A  life  that  moves  to  gracious  ends 
Thro'  troops  of  unrecording  friends, 

A  deedful  life,  a  silent  voice : 

And  you  have  miss'd  the  irreverent  doom 
Of  those  that  wear  the  Poet's  crown ' 
Hereafter,  neither  knave  nor  clowp 

Shall  hold  their  orgies  at  your  tomb. 

For  now  the  Poet  cannot  die, 
Nor  leave  his  music  as  of  old, 
But  round  him  ere  he  scarce  be  col<* 

Begins  the  scandal  and  the  cry : 

1  Proclaim  the  faults  he  would  not  show : 
Break  lock  and  seal :  betray  the  trust : 
Keep  nothing  sacred  :  'tis  but  just 

The  many-headed  beast  should  know.' 

Ah  shameless !  for  he  did  but  sing 
A  song  that  pleased  us  from  its  worth ; 
No  public  life  was  his  on  earth, 

No  blazon'd  statesman  he,  nor  king. 

He  gave  the  people  of  his  best : 

His  worst  he  kept,  his  best  he  gave. 
My  Shakespeare's  curse  on  clown  and 
knave 

Who  will  not  let  his  ashes  rest ! 

Who  make  it  seem  more  sweet  to  be 
The  little  life  of  bank  and  brier, 


TO  E.   I.,    ON  HIS   TRAVELS  IN  GREECE. 


The  bird  that  pipes  his  lone  desire 
And  dies  unheard  within  his  tree, 

Than  he  that  warbles  long  and  loud 
And  drops  at  Glory's  temple-gates, 
For  whom  the  carrion  vulture  waits 

To  tear  his  heart  before  the  crowd ! 


TO  E.  L.,  ON  HIS  TRAVELS 
IN.  GREECE. 

Illyrian  woodlands,  echoing  falls 
Of  water,  sheets  of  summer  glass, 
The  long  divine  Pene'ian  pass, 

The  vast  Akrokeraunian  walls, 

Tomohrit,  Athos,  all  things  fair, 
With  such  a  pencil,  such  a  pen, 
You  shadow  forth  to  distant  men, 

I  read  and  felt  that  I  was  there : 

And  trust  me  while  I  turn'd  the  page, 
And  track'd  you  still  on  classic  ground, 
I  grew  in  gladness  till  I  found 

My  spirits  in  the  golden  age. 

For  me  the  torrent  ever  pour'd 

And  glisten'd  —  here  and  there  alone 
The    broad-limb'd    Gods    at    random 
#  thrown 

By  fountain-urns;  — and  Naiads  oar'd 

A  glimmering  shoulder  under  gloom 
Of  cavern  pillars;   on  the  swell 
The  silver  lily  heaved  and  fell; 

And  many  a  slope  was  rich  in  bloom 

From  him  that  on  the  mountain  lea 
By  dancing  rivulets  fed  his  flocks 
To  him  who  sat  upon  the  rocks, 

And  fluted  to  the  morning  sea. 


Break,  break,  break, 

On  thy  cold  gray  stones,  O  Sea ! 


And  I  would  that  my  tongue  could  utter 
The  thoughts  that  arise  in  me. 

O  well  for  the  fisherman's  boy, 

That  he  shouts  with  his  sister  at  play ! 

O  well  for  the  sailor  lad, 

That  he  sings  in  his  boat  on  the  bay ! 

And  the  stately  ships  go  on 
To  their  haven  under  the  hill; 

But  O  for  the  touch  of  a  vanish'd  hand, 
And  the  sound  of  a  voice  that  is  still ! 

Break,  break,  break, 

At  the  foot  of  thy  crags,  O  Sea ! 
But  the  tender  grace  of  a  day  that  is 
dead 

Will  never  come  back  to  me. 


THE  POET'S   SONG. 

The  rain  had  fallen,  the  Poet  arose, 
He  pass'd  by  the  town  and  out  of  the 
street, 
A  light  wind  blew  from  the  gates  of  the 
sun, 
And  waves  of  shadow  went  over  the 
wheat, 
And  he  sat  him  down  in  a  lonely  place, 

And  chanted  a  melody  loud  and  sweet, 
That  made  the  wild-swan  pause  in  her 
cloud, 
And  the  lark  drop  down  at  his  feet. 

The  swallow  stopt  as  he  hunted  the  fly, 

The  snake  slipt  under  a  spray, 
The  wild  hawk  stood  with  the  down  on 
his  beak, 
And    stared,    with    his    foot   on    the 
prey, 
And   the   nightingale   thought,  '  I  have 
sung  many  songs, 
But  never  a  one  so  gay, 
For  he  sings  of  what  the  world  will  be 
When  the  years  have  died  away.' 


ENOCH  ARDEN. 


ENOCH    ARDEN 

AND   OTHER   POEMS. 


ENOCH   ARDEN. 

Long  lines  of  cliff  breaking  have  left  a 

chasm ; 
And  in  the  chasm  are  foam  and  yellow 

sands; 
Beyond,  red  roofs  about  a  narrow  wharf 
In   cluster;   then   a   moulder'd   church; 

and  higher 
A  long  street  climbs  to  one  tall-tower'd 

mill; 
And  high  in  heaven  behind  it  a  gray  down 
With  Danish  barrows;   and  a  hazelwood, 
By  autumn  nutters  haunted,  flourishes 
Green  in  a  cuplike  hollow  of  the  down. 

Here  on  this  beach  a  hundred  years 
ago, 
Three  children  of  three  houses,  Annie 

Lee, 
The  prettiest  little  damsel  in  the  port, 
And  Philip  Ray  the  miller's  only  son, 
And  Enoch  Arden,  a  rough  sailor's  lad 
Made   orphan    by   a   winter   shipwreck, 

play'd 
Among  the  waste  and  lumber  of  the  shore, 
Hard  coils  of  cordage,  swarthy  fishing- 
nets, 
Anchors  of  rusty  fluke,   and  boats  up- 
drawn; 
And  built  their  castles  of  dissolving  sand 
To  watch  them  overflow'd,or  following  up 
And  flying  the  white  breaker,  daily  left 
The  little  footprint  daily  wash'd  away. 

A  narrow  cave  ran  in  beneath  the  cliff: 
In  this  the  children  play'd  at  keeping 

house. 
Enoch  was  host  one  day,  Philip  the  next, 
While  Annie  still  was  mistress;   but  at 

times 
Enoch  would  hold  possession  for  a  week  : 
'This  is  my  house  and  this  my  little  wife.' 
'Mine  too,' said    Philip,  'turn  and  turn 

about:' 


When,  if  they  quarrell'd,  Enoch  stronger- 
made 

Was  master :  then  would  Philip,  his  blue 
eyes 

All  flooded  with  the  helpless  wrath  of 
tears, 

Shriek  out,  'I  hate  you,  Enoch,'  and  at 
this 

The  little  wife  would  weep  for  company, 

And  pray  them  not  to  quarrel  for  h,er 
sake, 

And  say  she  would  be  little  wife  to  both. 

But  when  the  dawn  of  rosy  childhood 
past, 
And  the  new  warmth  of  life's  ascending 

sun 
Was  felt  by  either,  either  fixt  his  heart 
On  that  one  girl;   and  Enoch  spoke  his 

love, 
But  Philip  loved  in  silence;   and  the  girl 
Seem'd  kinder  unto  Philip  than  to  him; 
But  she  loved  Enoch;   tho'  she  knew  it 

not, 
And  would  if  ask'd  deny  it.     Enoch  set 
A  purpose  evermore  before  his  eyes, 
To  hoard  all  savings  to  the  uttermost, 
To  purchase  his  own  boat,  and  make  a 

home 
For  Annie  :   and  so  prosper'd  that  at  last 
A  luckier  or  a  bolder  fisherman, 
A  carefuller  in  peril,  did  not  breathe 
For  leagues  along  that   breaker-beaten 

coast 
Than  Enoch.     Likewise  had  he  served  a 

year 
On   board    a   merchantman,    and    made 

himself 
Full  sailor;   and  he  thrice  had  pluck'd  a 

life 
From   the   dread   sweep    of  the   down- 
streaming  seas : 
And  all  men  look'd  upon  him  favour- 
ably: 


ENOCH  ARDEN. 


23 


And  ere  he  touch'd  his  one-and-twentieth 

May 
He  purchased  his  own  boat,  and  made  a 

home 
For  Annie,  neat  and  nestlike,  halfway  up 
The  narrow  street  that  clamber'd  toward 

the  mill. 

Then,  on  a  golden  autumn  eventide, 
The  younger  people  making  holiday, 
With  bag  and  sack  and  basket,  great  and 

small, 
Went  nutting  to  the  hazels.    Philip  stay'd 
(His  father  lying  sick  and  needing  him) 
An  hour  behind;   but  as  he  climb'd  the 

hill, 
Just  where  the  prone  edge  of  the  wood 

began 
To  feather  toward  the  hollow,  saw  the 

pair, 
Enoch  and  Annie,  sitting  hand-in-hand, 
His  large  gray  eyes  and  weather-beaten 

face 
All-kindled  by  a  still  and  sacred  fire, 
That  burn'd  as  on  an  altar.   Philip  look'd, 
And  in  their  eyes  and  faces  read  his  doom ; 
Then,    as    their    faces    drew    together, 

groan'd, 
And  slipt  aside,  and  like  a  wounded  life 
Crept  clown  into  the  hollows  of  the  wood; 
There,  while  the  rest  were  loud  in  merry- 
making, 
Had  his  dark  hour  unseen,  and  rose  and 

past 
Bearing  a  lifelong  hunger  in  his  heart. 

So  these  were  wed,  and  merrily  rang 
the  bells, 

And  merrily  ran  the  years,  seven  happy 
years, 

Seven  happy  years  of  health  and  com- 
petence, 

And  mutual  love  and  honourable  toil; 

With  children;  first  a  daughter.  In  him 
woke, 

With  his  first  babe's  first  cry,  the  noble 
wish 

To  save  all  earnings  to  the  uttermost, 

And  give  his  child  a  better  bringing-up 

Than  his  had  been,  or  hers;  a  wish  re- 
new'd, 

When  two  years  after  came  a  boy  to  be 

The  rosy  idol  of  her  solitudes, 


While  Enoch  was  abroad  on  wrathful  seas, 
Or  often  journeying  landward;  for  in  truth 
Enoch's  white  horse,  and  Enoch's  ocean- 
spoil 
In  ocean-smelling  osier,  and  his  face, 
Rough-redden'd  with  a  thousand  winter 

gales, 
Not  only  to  the  market-cross  were  known, 
But  in  the  leafy  lanes  behind  the  down, 
Far  as  the  portal-warding  lion-whelp, 
And  peacock-yewtree  of  the  lonely  Hall, 
Whose  Friday  fare  was  Enoch's  minister- 
ing. 

Then   came   a   change,  as   all  things 

human  change. 
Ten  miles  to  northward  of  the  narrow  port 
Open'd  a  larger  haven :  thither  used 
Enoch  at  times  to  go  by  land  or  sea; 
And  once  when  there,  and  clambering  on 

a  mast 
In  harbour,  by  mischance  he  slipt  and 

fell: 
A  limb  was  broken  when  they  lifted  him; 
And  while  he  lay  recovering  there,  his  wife 
Bore  him  another  son,  a  sickly  one  : 
Another  hand  crept  too  across  his  trade 
Taking  her  bread  and  theirs  :  and  on  him 

fell, 
Altho'  a  grave  and  staid  God-fearing  man, 
Yet  lying  thus  inactive,  doubt  and  gloom. 
He  seem'd,  as  in  a  nightmare  of  the  night, 
To  see  his  children  leading  evermore 
Low  miserable  lives  of  hand-to-mouth, 
And  her,  he  loved,  a  beggar :  then  he 

pray'd 
'  Save  them  from  this,  whatever  comes  to 

me.' 
And  while  he  pray'd,  the  master  of  that 

ship 
Enoch  had  served  in,  hearing  his  mis- 
chance, 
Came,  for  he  knew  the  man  and  valued 

him, 
Reporting  of  his  vessel  China-bound, 
And  wanting  yet  a  boatswain.     Would 

he  go? 
There  yet  were  many  weeks  before  she 

sail'd, 
Sail'd  from   this   port.      Would    Enoch 

have  the  place? 
And  Enoch  all  at  once  assented  to  it, 
Rejoicing  at  that  answer  to  his  prayer. 


124 


ENOCH  ARDEN. 


So    now    that   shadow   of   mischance 

appear'd 
No  graver  than  as  when  some  little  cloud 
Cuts  off  the  fiery  highway  of  the  sun, 
And  isles  a  light  in  the  offing :  yet  the 

wife  — 
When    he   was   gone  —  the   children  — 

what  to  do? 
Then  Enoch  lay  long-pondering  on  his 

plans ; 
To  sell  the  boat  —  and  yet  he  loved  her 

well  — 
How  many  a  rough  sea  had  he  weather'd 

in  her ! 
He  knew  her,  as  a  horseman  knows  his 

horse  — 
And  yet  to   sell   her  —  then  with  what 

she  brought 
Buy  goods  and  stores  —  set  Annie  forth 

in  trade 
With  all  that  seamen   needed   or   their 

wives  — 
So  might  she  keep  the  house  while  he 

was  gone. 
Should  he  not  trade  himself  out  yonder? 

go 
This  voyage  more  than  once?   yea  twice 

or  thrice  — 
As  oft  as  needed  —  last,  returning  rich, 
Become  the  master  of  a  larger  craft, 
With  fuller  profits  lead  an  easier  life, 
Have  all  his  pretty  young  ones  educated, 
And  pass  his  days  in  peace  among  his 


Thus  Enoch  in  his  heart  determined 
all: 

Then  moving  homeward  came  on  Annie 
pale, 

Nursing  the  sickly  babe,  her  latest-born. 

Forward  she  started  with  a  happy  cry, 

And  laid  the  feeble  infant  in  his  arms; 

Whom  Enoch  took,  and  handled  all  his 
limbs, 

Appraised  his  weight  and  fondled  father- 
like, 

But  had  no  heart  to  break  his  purposes 

To  Annie,  till  the  morrow,  when  he 
spoke. 

Then  first  since  Enoch's  golden  ring 
had  girt 
Her  finger,  Annie  fought  against  his  will : 


Yet  not  with  brawling  opposition  she, 
But  manifold  entreaties,  many  a  tear, 
Many  a  sad  kiss  by  day  by  night  renew'd 
(Sure  that  all  evil  would  come  out  of  it) 
Besought  him,  supplicating,  if  he  cared 
For  her  or  his  dear  children,  not  to  go. 
He  not  for  his  own  self  caring  but  her, 
Her  and  her  children,  let  her  plead  in 

vain; 
So  grieving   held  his  will,  and   bore  it 

thro'. 

For  Enoch   parted  with   his  old  sea 

friend, 
Bought  Annie  goods  and  stores,  and  set 

his  hand 
To  fit  their  little  streetward  sitting-room 
With  shelf  and  corner  for  the  goods  and 

stores. 
So  all  day  long  till  Enoch's  last  at  home, 
Shaking  their  pretty  cabin,  hammer  and 

axe, 
Auger  and  saw,  while  Annie  seem'd  to 

hear 
Her  own   death-scaffold  raising,  shrill'd 

and  rang, 
Till   this   was    ended,   and    his    careful 

hand, — 
The  space  was  narrow,  —  having  order'd 

all 
Almost    as  neat    and   close   as    Nature 

packs 
Her  blossom  or  her  seedling,  paused; 

and  he, 
Who  needs  would  work  for  Annie  to  the 

last, 
Ascending  tired,  heavily  slept  till  morn. 

And  Enoch  faced  this  morning  of  fare- 
well 

Brightly  and  boldly.  All  his  Annie's 
fears, 

Save,  as  his  Annie's,  were  a  laughter  to 
him. 

Yet  Enoch  as  a  brave  God-fearing  man 

Bow'd  himself  down,  and  in  that  mystery 

Where  God-in-man  is  one  with  man-in- 
God, 

Pray'd  for  a  blessing  on  his  wife  and 
babes 

Whatever  came  to  him :  and  then  he 
said: 

*  Annie,  this  voyage,  by  the  grace  of  God 


ENOCH  ARDEN. 


125 


Will  bring  fair  weather  yet  to  all  of  us. 
Keep  a  clean  hearth  and  a  clear  fire  for 

me, 
For  I'll   be   back,  my   girl,   before   you 

know  it.' 
Then  lightly  rocking  baby's  cradle,  '  and 

he, 
This  pretty,  puny,  weakly  little  one,  — 
Nay  —  for  I  love  him  all  the  better  for 

it  — 
God   bless   him,  he   shall   sit   upon   my 

knees 
And  I  will  tell  him  tales  of  foreign  parts, 
And  make  him  merry,  when  I  come  home 

again. 
Come,  Annie,  come,  cheer  up  before  I  go.' 

Him   running   on  thus  hopefully  she 

heard, 
And  almost  hoped  herself;   but  when  he 

turn'd 
The  current  of  his  talk  to  graver  things 
In  sailor  fashion  roughly  sermonizing 
On  providence  and  trust  in  Heaven,  she 

heard, 
Heard  and  not  heard  him;  as  the  village 

girl, 
Who   sets   her   pitcher   underneath   the 

spring, 
Musing  on  him  that  used  to  fill  it  for  her, 
Hears  and  not  hears,  and  lets  it  overflow. 

At  length  she  spoke:  'O  Enoch,  you, 

are  wise; 
And  yet  for  all  your  wisdom  well  know  I 
That  I   shall  look   upon   your   face   no 

more.' 

'Well  then,'  said  Enoch,  'I  shall  look 

on  yours. 
Annie,  the  ship  I  sail  in  passes  here 
(He  named  the  day);  get  you  a  seaman's 

glass, 
Spy  out  my  face,  and  laugh  at  all  your 

fears.' 

But  when  the  last  of  those  last  moments 

came, 

1  Annie,  my  girl,  cheer  up,  be  comforted, 

Look  to  the  babes,  and  till  I  come  again 

Keep  everything   shipshape,  for  I  must 

g°- 
And  fear  no  more  for  me ;   or  if  you  fear 


Cast  all  your  cares  on  God;   that  anchor 

holds. 
Is  He  not  yonder  in  those  uttermost 
Parts  of  the  morning?  if  I  flee  to  these 
Can  I  go  from  Him  ?  and  the  sea  is  His, 
The  sea  is  His :    He  made  it.' 

Enoch  rose, 
Cast  his  strong  arms  about  his  drooping 

wife, 
And    kiss'd    his    wonder-stricken    little 

ones; 
But  for  the   third,  the  sickly   one,  who 

slept 
After  a  night  of  feverous  wakefulness, 
When    Annie    would   have   raised    him 

Enoch  said, 
'Wake   him    not;   let   him   sleep;    how 

should  the  child 
Remember  this? '  and  kiss'd  him  in  his 

cot. 
But  Annie*  from  her  baby's  forehead  dipt 
A   tiny  curl,  and  gave  it :  this  he  kept 
Thro'   all   his   future;    but   now   hastily 

caught 
His  bundle,  waved  his  hand,  and  went 

his  way. 

She,  when  the  day,  that  Enoch  men- 

tion'd,  came, 
Borrow'd  a  glass,  but  all  in  vain  :  perhaps 
She  could  not  fix  the  glass  to  suit  her  eye; 
Perhaps  her  eye  was  dim, hand  tremulous; 
She  saw  him  not :  and  while  he  stood  on 

deck 
Waving,  the  moment  and  the  vessel  past. 

Ev'n  to  the  last  dip  of  the  vanishing  sail 
She  watch'd  it,  and  departed  weeping  for 

him; 
Then,  tho'  she  mourn'd  his  absence  as 

his  grave, 
Set  her  sad  will  no  less  to  chime  with  his, 
But  throve  not  in  her  trade,  not  being 

bred 
To  barter,  nor  compensating  the  want 
By  shrewdness,  neither  capable  of  lies, 
Nor  asking  overmuch  and  taking  less, 
And  still  foreboding  '  what  would  Enoch 

say?' 
For  more  than  once,  in  days  of  difficulty 
And  pressure,  had  she  sold  her  wares  for 

less 


126 


ENOCH  ARDEN. 


Than  what  she  gave  in  buying  what  she 

sold : 
She  fail'd  and  sadden'd  knowing  it;  and 

thus, 
Expectant    of   that    news  which    never 

came, 
Gain'd  for  her  own  a  scanty  sustenance, 
And  lived  a  life  of  silent  melancholy. 

Now  the  third  child  was  sickly-born 

and  grew 
Yet  sicklier,  tho'  the  mother  cared  for  it 
With  all  a  mother's  care :  nevertheless, 
Whether  her   business   often  call'd   her 

from  it, 
Or  thro'  the  want  of  what  it  needed  most, 
Or  means  to  pay  the  voice   who   best 

could  tell 
What  most  it  needed — howsoe'er  it  was, 
After  a  lingering, —  ere  she  was  aware,  — 
Like  the  caged  bird  escaping  suddenly, 
The  little  innocent  soul  flitted  away. 

In  that  same  week  when  Annie  buried  it, 
Philip's  true  heart,  which  hunger' d  for 

her  peace 
(Since  Enoch  left  he  had  not  look'd  upon 

her), 
Smote  him,  as  having  kept  aloof  so  long. 
1  Surely,'  said  Philip, '  I  may  see  her  now, 
May  be  some  little  comfort;  '  therefore 

went, 
Past  thro'  the  solitary  room  in  front, 
Paused  for  a  moment  at  an  irlner  door, 
Then  struck  it  thrice,  and,  no  one  opening, 
Enter'd;  but  Annie,  seated  with  her  grief, 
Fresh  from  the  burial  of  her  little  one, 
Cared  not  to  look  on  any  human  face, 
But  turn'd  her  own  toward  the  wall  and 

wept. 
Then  Philip  standing  up  said  falteringly, 
'  Annie,  I  came  to  ask  a  favour  of  you.' 

He  spoke;   the  passion  in  her  moan'd 
reply, 
'  Favour  from  one  so  sad  and  so  forlorn 
As  I  am  ! '  half  abash'd  him;  yet  unask'd, 
His  bash  fulness  and  tenderness  at  war, 
He  set  himself  beside  her,  saying  to  her : 

'  I  came  to  speak  to  you  of  what  he 
wish'd, 
Enoch,  your  husband :   I  have  ever  said 


You  chose  the  best  among  us  —  a  strong 

man: 
For  where  he  fixt  his  heart  he  set  his 

hand 
To  do  the  thing  he  will'd,  and  bore  it 

thro'. 
And  wherefore  did  he  go  this  weary  way, 
And   leave  you  lonely?  not  to  see  the 

world  — 
For  pleasure?  —  nay,  but  for  the  where- 
withal 
To  give  his  babes  a  better  bringing-up 
Than  his  had  been,  or  yours:  that  was 

his  wish. 
And  if  he  come  again,  vext  will  he  be 
To  find  the  precious  morning  hours  were 

lost. 
And  it  would  vex  him  even  in  his  grave, 
If  he  could  know  his  babes  were  running 

wild 
Like  colts  about  the  waste.     So,  Annie, 

now  — 
Have  we  not  known  each  other  all  our 

lives? 
I  do  beseech  you  by  the  love  you  bear 
Him  and  his  children  not  to  say  me  nay  — 
For,  if  you  will,  when  Enoch  comes  again 
Why  then  he  shall  repay  me  —  if  you  will, 
Annie  —  for  I  am  rich  and  well-to-do. 
Now   let   me   put   the  boy   and  girl   to 

school : 
This  is  the  favour  that  I  came  to  ask.' 

Then  Annie  with  her  brows  against 

the  wall 
Answer'd, ■*  I  cannot  look  you  in  the  face; 
I  seem  so  foolish  and  so  broken  down. 
When  you  came  in  my  sorrow  broke  me 

down; 
And  now  I  think  your  kindness  breaks 

me  down; 
But  Enoch  lives;  that  is  borne  in  on  me : 
He  will  repay  you :  money  can  be  repaid  ; 
Not  kindness  such  as  yours.' 

And  Philip  ask'd 
'Then  you  will  let  me,  Annie?' 

There  she  turn'd, 
She  rose,   and  fixt  her   swimming   eyes 

upon  him, 
And  dwelt  a  moment  on  his  kindly  face, 
Then  calling  down  a  blessing  on  his  head 


ENOCH  ARDEN. 


127 


Caught  at  his  hand,  and  wrung  it  pas- 
sionately, 
And  past  into  the  little  garth  beyond. 
So  lifted  up  in  spirit  he  moved  away. 

Then  Philip  put  the  boy  and  girl  to 

school, 
And    bought   them    needful   books,  and 

every  way, 
Like  one  who  does  his  duty  by  his  own, 
Made  himself  theirs;  and  tho'  for  Annie's 

sake, 
Fearing  the  lazy  gossip  of  the  port, 
He  oft  denied  his  heart  his  dearest  wish, 
And  seldom  crost  her  threshold,  yet  he 

sent 
Gifts  by  the  children,  garden-herbs  and 

fruit, 
The  late  and  early  roses  from  his  wall, 
Or  conies  from  the  down,  and  now  and 

then, 
With   some  pretext   of  fineness   in   the 

meal 
To  save  the  offence  of  charitable,  flour 
From  his  tall  mill  that  whistled  on  the 

waste. 

But    Philip   did    not   fathom   Annie's 

mind : 
Scarce  could  the  woman  when  he  came 

upon  her, 
Out  of  full  heart  and  boundless  gratitude 
Light  on   a  broken  word  to  thank  him 

with. 
But  Philip  was  her  children's  all-in-all; 
From  distant  corners  of  the  street  they  ran 
To  greet  his  hearty  welcome  heartily; 
Lords  of  his  house  and  of  his  mill  were 

they; 
Worried  his  passive  ear  with  petty  wrongs 
Or  pleasures,  hung  upon  him,  play'd  with 

him 
And  call'd  him   Father  Philip.      Philip 

gain'd 
As  Enoch  lost;  for  Enoch  seem'd  to  them 
Uncertain  as  a  vision  or  a  dream, 
Faint  as  a  figure  seen  in  early  dawn 
Down  at  the  far  end  of  an  avenue, 
Going  we  know  not  where :  and  so  ten 

years, 
Since  Enoch  left  his  hearth  and  native 

land. 
Fled  forward ,  and  no  news  of  Enoch  came. 


It  chanced  one  evening  Annie's  chil- 
dren long'd 

To  go  with  others,  nutting  to  the  wood, 

And  Annie  would  go  with  them ;  then 
they  begg'd 

For  Father  Philip  (as  they  call'd  him) 
too: 

Him,  like  the  working  bee  in  blossom- 
dust, 

Blanch'd  with  his  mill,  they  found;  and 
saying  to  him, 

'Come  with  us,  Father  Philip,'  he  de- 
nied; 

But  when  the  children  pluck'd  at  him 
to  go, 

He  laugh'd,  and  yielded  readily  to  their 
wish, 

For  was  not  Annie  with  them?  and  they 
went. 

But  after  scaling  half  the  weary  down, 
Just  where  the  prone  edge  of  the  wood 

began 
To  feather   toward  the   hollow,  all  her 

force 
Fail'd  her;   and  sighing,  '  Let  me  rest' 

she  said : 
So  Philip  rested  with  her  well-content; 
While  all  the  younger  ones  with  jubilant 

cries 
Broke  from  their  elders,  and  tumultously 
Down  thro'  the  whitening  hazels  made  a 

plunge 
To  the  bottom,  and  dispersed,  and  bent 

or  broke 
The  lithe  reluctant  boughs  to  tear  away 
Their  tawny  clusters,  crying  to  each  other 
And  calling,  here  and  there,  about  the 

wood. 

But  Philip  sitting  at  her  side  forgot 
Her  presence,  and  remember'd  one  dark 

hour 
Here  in  this  wood,  when  like  a  wounded 

life 
He  crept  into  the  shadow:    at  last  he 

said, 
Lifting    his    honest    forehead,   '  Listen, 

Annie, 
How  merry  they  are  down  yonder  in  the 

wood. 
Tired,  Annie?'  for  she  did  not  speak  a 

word. 


128 


ENOCH  ARDEN. 


'Tired?'   but  her  face  had  fall'n  upon 

her  hands; 
At  which,  as  with  a  kind  of  anger  in  him, 
'The  ship  was  lost,'  he  said,  'the  ship 

was  lost ! 
No  more  of  that!  why  should  you  kill 

yourself 
And  make  them  orphans  quite?'     And 

Annie  said, 
'  I  thought  not  of  it :  but  —  I  know  not 

why  — 
Their  voices  make  me  feel  so  solitary.' 

Then  Philip  coming  somewhat  closer 

spoke : 
'  Annie,  there  is  a  thing  upon  my  mind, 
And  it  has  been  upon  my  mind  so  long, 
That  tho'  I  know  not  when  it  first  came 

there, 
I  know  that  it  will  out  at  last.    O  Annie, 
It  is  beyond  all  hope,  against  all  chance, 
That  he  who  left  you  ten  long  years  ago 
Should  still  be   living;    well   then  —  let 

me  speak : 
I  grieve  to  see   you  poor  and  wanting 

help:, 
I  cannot  help  you  as  I  wish  to  do 
Unless  —  they   say    that   women    are  so 

quick  — 
Perhaps  you  know  what  I  would  have 

you  know  — 
I  wish  you  for  my  wife.     I  fain  would 

prove 
A  father  to  your  children :  I  do  think 
They  love  me  as  a  father :  I  am  sure 
That  I  love  them  as  if  they  were  mine 

own; 
And  I  believe,  if  you  were  fast  my  wife, 
That  after  all  these  sad  uncertain  years, 
We  might  be  still  as  happy  as  God  grants 
To  any  of  his  creatures.  Think  upon  it : 
For  I  am  well-to-do  —  no  kin,  no  care, 
No  burthen,  save  my  care  for  you  and 

yours : 
And  we  have  known  each  other  all  our 

lives, 
And  I  have  loved  you  longer  than  you 

know.' 

Then   answer'd   Annie;    tenderly  she 
spoke : 
You  have  been  as  God's  good  angel  in 
our  house. 


God  bless  you  for  it,  God  reward  you  for 

it, 
Philip,  with  something  happier  than  my- 
self. 
Can  one  love  twice?   can  you  be  ever 

loved 
As  Enoch  was?  what  is  it  that  you  ask?' 
'  I  am  content,'  he  answer'd, '  to  be  loved 
A  little  after  Enoch.'     '  O,'  she  cried, 
Scared  as  it  were,  'dear  Philip,  wait  a 

while : 
If  Enoch  comes  —  but   Enoch  will   not 

come  — 
Yet  wait  a  year,  a  year  is  not  so  long : 
Surely  I  shall  be  wiser  in  a  year : 

0  wait  a  little  ! '     Philip  sadly  said, 
'  Annie,  as  I  have  waited  ail  my  life 

1  well  may  wait   a  little.'     '  Nay,'  she 

cried, 
'I  am  bound:  you  have  my  promise  — 

in  a  year : 
Will  you  not  bide  your  year  as  I  bide 

mine? ' 
And  Philip   answer'd,   '  I  will  bide  my 

year.' 

Here  both  were  mute,  till  Philip  glan- 
cing up 
Beheld  the  dead  flame  of  the  fallen  day 
Pass  from  the  Danish  barrow  overhead; 
Then  fearing  night  and  chill  for  Annie, 

rose 
And  sent  his  voice  beneath  him  thro'  the 

wood. 
Up  came  the  children  laden  with  their 

spoil ; 
Then  all  descended  to  the  port,  and  there 
At  Annie's  door  he  paused  and  gave  his 

hand, 
Saying  gently,  '  Annie,  when  I  spoke  to 

you, 
That  was  your  hour  of  weakness.     I  was 

wrong, 
I  am  always  bound  to  you,  but  you  are 

free.' 
Then   Annie  weeping  answer'd,  '  I  am 

bound.' 

She  spoke;   and  in  one  moment  as  it 
were, 
While  yet  she  went  about  her  household 

ways, 
Ev'n  as  she  dwelt  upon  his  latest  words, 


ENOCH  ARDEN. 


129 


That  he  had  loved  her  longer  than  she 

knew, 
That  autumn  into  autumn  flash'd  again, 
And  there  he  stood  once  more  before  her 

face, 
Claiming  her  promise.     'Is  it  a  year?' 

she  ask'd. 
'  Yes,  if  the  nuts,'  he  said, '  be  ripe  again : 
Come  out  and  see.'     But  she  —  she  put 

him  off — 
So  much  to  look  to  —  such  a  change  — 

a  month  — 
Give  her  a  month — she  knew  that  she 

was  bound  — 
A  month  —  no  more.     Then  Philip  with 

his  eyes 
Full   of  that   lifelong   hunger,   and   his 

voice 
Shaking  a  little  like  a  drunkard's  hand, 
Take  your  own  time,  Annie,  take  your 

own  time.' 
And  Annie  could  have  wept  for  pity  of 

him; 
And  yet  she  held  him  on  delayingly 
With  many  a  scarce-believable  excuse, 
Trying  his  truth  and  his  long-sufferance, 
Till  half-another  year  had  slipt  away. 

By  this  the  lazy  gossips  of  the  port, 
Abhorrent  of  a  calculation  crost, 
Began  to  chafe  as  at  a  personal  wrong. 
Some  thought  that  Philip  did  but  trifle 

with  her; 
Some  that  she  but  held  off  to  draw  him 

on; 
And  others  laugh'd   at   her  and  Philip 

too, 
As  simple  folk  that  knew  not  their  own 

minds, 
And  one,  in  whom  all  evil  fancies  clung 
Like    serpent  eggs  together,  laughingly 
Would  hint  at  worse  in  either.    Her  own 

son 
Was    silent,   tho'    he    often    look'd    his 

wish; 
But  evermore  the   daughter  prest  upon 

her 
To  wed  the  man  so  dear  to  all  of  them 
And  lift  the  household  out  of  poverty; 
And  Philip's  rosy  face  contracting  grew 
Careworn  and  wan;   and  all  these  things 

fell  on  her 
Sharp  as  reproach. 


At  last  one  night  it  chanced 
That   Annie   could   not   sleep,  but   ear- 
nestly 
Pray'd  for  a  sign, '  my  Enoch,  is  he  gone  ? ' 
Then  compass'd  round  by  the  blind  wall 

of  night 
Brook'd  not  the  expectant  terror  of  her 

heart, 
Started  from  bed,  and  struck  herself  a 

light, 
Then  desperately  seized  the  holy  Book, 
Suddenly  set  it  wide  to  find  a  sign, 
Suddenly  put  her  finger  on  the  text, 
'  Under  the  palm-tree.'     That  was  noth- 
ing to  her : 
No  meaning  there :  she  closed  the  Book 

and  slept : 
When  lo  !  her  Enoch  sitting  on  a  height, 
Under  a  palm-tree,  over  him  the  Sun : 
1  He  is  gone,'  she  thought,  *  he  is  happy, 

he  is  singing 
Hosanna  in  the  highest:  yonder  shines 
The  Sun  of  Righteousness,  and  these  be 

palms 
Whereof  the  happy  people  strowing  cried 
"  Hosanna  in  the  highest !  "  '     Here  she 

woke, 
Resolved,  sent  for  him  and  said  wildly 

to  him, 
1  There  is  no  reason  why  we  should  not 

wed.' 
'  Then  for  God's  sake,'  he  answer'd, '  both 

our  sakes, 
So  you  will  wed  me,  let  it  be  at  once.' 

So  these  were  wed  and  merrily  rang 

the  bells, 
Merrily  rang   the   bells   and   they  were 

wed. 
But  never  merrily  beat  Annie's  heart. 
A  footstep  seem'd  to  fall  beside  her  path, 
She   knew  not   whence;    a  whisper   on 

her  ear, 
She  knew  not  what;   nor   loved  she  to 

be  left 
Alone  at  home,  nor  ventured  out  alone. 
What  ail'd  her  then,  that  ere  she  enter'd, 

often 
Her  hand  dwelt  lingeringly  on  the  latch, 
Fearing   to    enter:    Philip    thought    he 

knew: 
Such  doubts  and  fears  were  common  to 

her  state, 


130 


ENOCH  ARDEN. 


Being  with   child:    but  when  her  child 

was  born, 
Then  her  new  child  was  as  herself  re- 

new'd, 
Then  the  new  mother  came  about   her 

heart, 
Then  her  good  Philip  was  her  all-in-all, 
And  that  mysterious  instinct  wholly  died. 

And  where  was  Enoch?  prosperously 

sail'd 
The  ship  '  Good  Fortune,'  tho'  at  setting 

forth 
The    Biscay,   roughly  ridging   eastward, 

shook 
And  almost  overwhelm'd  her,  yet  unvext 
She  slipt  across  the  summer  of  the  world, 
Then  after  a  long  tumble  about  the  Cape 
And  frequent  interchange  of  foul  and  fair, 
She  passing  thro'  the  summer  world  again, 
The  breath  of  heaven  came  continually 
And  sent  her  sweetly  by  the  golden  isles, 
Till  silent  in  her  oriental  haven. 

There  Enoch  traded  for  himself,  and 

bought 
Quaint  monsters  for  the  market  of  those 

times, 
A  gilded  dragon,  also,  for  the  babes. 

Less  lucky  her  home-voyage:  at  first 
indeed 

Thro'  many  a  fair  sea-circle,  day  by  day, 

Scarce-rocking,  her  full-busted  figure- 
head 

Stared  o'er  the  ripple  feathering  from 
her  bows: 

Then  follow'd  calms,  and  then  winds 
variable, 

Then  baffling,  a  long  course  of  them; 
and  last 

Storm,  such  as  drove  her  under  moon- 
less heavens 

Till  hard  upon  the  cry  of  '  breakers ' 
came 

The  crash  of  ruin,  and  the  loss  of  all 

But  Enoch  and  two  others.  Half  the 
night, 

Buoy'd  upon  floating  tackle  and  broken 
spars, 

These  drifted,  stranding  on  an  isle  at 
morn 

Rich,  but  the  loneliest  in  a  lonely  sea. 


No  want  was  there  of  human  suste- 
nance, 

Soft  fruitage,  mighty  nuts,  and  nourish 
ing  roots; 

Nor  save  for  pity  was  it  hard  to  take 

The  helpless  life  so  wild  that  it  was  tame. 

There  in  a  seaward-gazing  mountain- 
gorge 

They  built,  and  thatch'd  with  leaves  of 
palm,  a  hut, 

Half  hut,  half  native  cavern.  So  the 
three, 

Set  in  this  Eden  of  all  plenteousness, 

Dwelt  with  eternal  summer,  ill-content. 

For  one,  the  youngest,  hardly  more 
than  boy, 

Hurt  in  that  night  of  sudden  ruin  and 
wreck, 

Lay  lingering  out  a  five-years'  death-in- 
life. 

They  could  not  leave  him.  After  he 
was  gone, 

The  two  remaining  found  a  fallen  stem; 

And  Enoch's  comrade,  careless  of  him- 
self, 

Fire-hollowing  this  in  Indian  fashion,  fell 

Sun-stricken,  and  that  other  lived  alone. 

In  those  two  deaths  he  read  God's  warn- 
ing '  wait.' 

The  mountain  wooded   to   the   peak, 

the  lawns 
And  winding  glades  high  up  like  ways 

to  heaven, 
The  slender  coco's   drooping  crown  of 

plumes, 
The    lightning    flash    of   insect    and    of 

bird, 
The  lustre  of  the  long  convolvuluses 
That  coil'd  around  the  stately  stems,  and 

ran 
Ev'n  to  the  limit  of  the  land,  the  glows 
And   glories  of  the   broad   belt   of  the 

world, 
All  these  he  saw;  but  what  he  fain  had 

seen 
He  could  not  see,  the  kindly  human  face, 
Nor  ever  hear  a  kindly  voice,  but  heard 
The  myriad   shriek   of  wheeling  ocean- 
fowl, 
The  league-long  roller  thundering  on  the 

reef, 


ENOCH  ARDEN. 


131 


The  moving  whisper  of  huge  trees  that 

branch'd 
And    blossom'd    in   the   zenith,   or   the 

sweep 
Of  some  precipitous  rivulet  to  the  wave, 
As   down   the  shore    he  ranged,  or   all 

day  long 
Sat  often  in  the  seaward-gazing  gorge, 
A  shipwreck'd  sailor,  waiting  for  a  sail : 
No  sail  from  day  to  day,  but  every  day 
.Vhe  sunrise  broken  into  scarlet  shafts 
Among  the  palms  and  ferns  and  preci- 
pices; 
The  blaze  upon  the  waters  to  the  east; 
The  blaze  upon  his  island  overhead; 
The  blaze  upon  the  waters  to  the  west; 
Then  the  great  stars  that  globed  them- 
selves in  heaven, 
The  hollower-bellowing  ocean,  and  again 
The  scarlet  shafts  of  sunrise  —  but  no 
sail. 

There  often  as  he  watch'd  or  seem'd 

to  watch, 
So  still,  the  golden  lizard  on  him  paused, 
A  phantom   made   of   many  phantoms 

moved 
Before  him  haunting  him,  or  he  himself 
Moved     haunting    people,    things    and 

places,  known 
Far  in  a  darker  isle  beyond  the  line; 
The  babes,  their  babble,  Annie,  the  small 

house, 
The  climbing  street,  the  mill,  the  leafy 

lanes, 
The  peacock-yewtree  and  the  lonely  Hall, 
The  horse  he  drove,  the  boat  he  sold,  the 

chill 
November    dawns    and    dewy-glooming 

downs, 
The  gentle  shower,  the  smell  of  dying 

leaves, 
And   the   low  moan  of  leaden-colour'd 

seas. 

Once  likewise,  in  the  ringing  of  his 

ears, 

Tho'  faintly,  merrily — far  and  faraway  — 

He  heard  the  pealing  of  his  parish  bells; 

Then,  tho'  he  knew  not  wherefore,  started 

Up 
Shuddering,    and   when    the    beauteous 

hateful  isle 


Return'd  upon  him,  had  not  his  poor 
heart 

Spoken  with  That,  which  being  every- 
where 

Lets  none,  who  speaks  with  Him,  seem 
all  alone, 

Surely  the  man  had  died  of  solitude. 

Thus  over  Enoch's  early-silvering  head 
The  sunny  and  rainy  seasons  came  and 

went 
Year  after  year.     His  hopes  to  see  bis 

own, 
And  pace  the  sacred  old  familiar  fields, 
Not  yet  had   perish'd,  when  his  lonely 

doom 
Came  suddenly  to  an  end.     Another  ship 
(She  wanted  water)    blown   by  baffling 

winds, 
Like  the  '  Good  Fortune,'  from  her  des- 
tined course, 
Stay'd  by  this  isle,  not  knowing  where 

she  lay: 
For  since  the  mate   had  seen  at  early 

dawn 
Across  a  break  on  the  mist-wreathen  isle 
The  silent  water  slipping  from  the  hills, 
They  sent  a  crew  that  landing  burst  away 
In  search  of  stream  or  fount,  and  fill'd 

the  shores 
With    clamour.      Downward    from    his 

mountain  gorge 
Stept  the  long-hair'd  long-bearded  soli- 
tary, 
Brown,  looking  hardly  human,  strangely 

clad, 
Muttering    and    mumbling,    idiotlike    it 

seem'd, 
With  inarticulate  rage,  and  making  signs 
They  knew  not  what:    and   yet   he  led 

the  way 
To  where   the  rivulets  of  sweet  water 

ran; 
And  ever  as  he  mingled  with  the  crew, 
And    heard    them    talking,    his    long- 

bounden  tongue 
Was  loosen'd,  till  he  made  them  under- 
stand; 
Whom,  when  their  casks  were  fill'd  they 

took  aboard : 
And  there  the  tale  he  utter'd  brokenly, 
Scarce-credited  at  first  but    more   and 
more, 


132 


.ENOCH  ARDEN. 


Amazed  and  melted  all  who  listen'd  to  it : 
And  clothes  they  gave  him  and  free  pas- 
sage home; 
But  oft  he  work'd  among  the  rest  and 

shook 
His  isolation  from  him.     None  of  these 
Came  from  his  country,  or  could  answer 

him, 
If  question'd,  aught  of  what  he  cared  to 

know. 
And    dull    the    voyage   was   with    long 

delays, 
The  vessel  scarce  sea- worthy;  but  ever- 
more 
His  fancy  fled  before  the  lazy  wind 
Returning,  till  beneath  a  clouded  moon 
He  like  a  lover  down  thro'  all  his  blood 
Drew  in  the   dewy  meadowy  morning- 
breath 
Of  England,  blown  across  her  ghostly 

wall : 
And    that    same   morning    officers   and 

men 
Levied  a  kindly  tax  upon  themselves, 
Pitying  the  lonely  man,  and  gave  him  it : 
Then  moving  up  the  coast  they  landed 

him, 
Ev'n  in  that  harbour  whence  he  sail'd 
before. 

There  Enoch  spoke  no  word  to  any 

one, 
But    homeward  —  home — what    home? 

had  he  a  home? 
His  home,  he  walk'd.     Bright  was  that 

afternoon, 
Sunny  but  chill;  till  drawn  thro'  either 

chasm, 
Where    either    haven    open'd    on    the 

deeps, 
Roll'd  a  sea-haze  and  whelm'd  the  world 

in  gray; 
Cut  off  the  length  of  highway  on  before, 
And  left  but  narrow  breadth  to  left  and 

right 
Of  wither'd  holt  or  tilth  or  pasturage. 
On  the  nigh-naked  tree  the  robin  piped 
Disconsolate,    and    thro'    the    dripping 

haze 
The  dead  weight  of  the  dead  leaf  bore  it 

down: 
Thicker   the    drizzle    grew,    deeper   the 

gloom; 


Last,  as  it  seem'd,  a  great  mist-blotted 

light 
Flared  on  him,  and  he  came  upon  the 

place. 

Then    down   the   long   street    having 

slowly  stolen, 
His  heart  foreshadowing  all  calamity, 
His  eyes  upon  the  stones,  he  reach'd  the 

home 
Where  Annie  lived  and  loved  him,  and 

his  babes 
In  those  far-off  seven  happy  years  were 

born; 
But  finding   neither  light   nor  murmur 

there 
(A  bill  of  sale  gleam'd  thro'  the  drizzle) 

crept 
Still  downward  thinking  '  dead  or  dead 

tome!' 

Down  to  the  pool  and  narrow  wharf 

he  went, 
Seeking  a  tavern  which  of  old  he  knew, 
A  front  of  timber-crost  antiquity, 
So  propt,  worm-eaten,  ruinously  old, 
He  thought  it  must  have  gone;   but  he 

was  gone 
Who   kept  it;    and  his  widow   Miriam 

Lane, 
With    daily-dwindling    profits   held   the 

house; 
A  haunt  of  brawling  seamen  once,  but  now 
Stiller,   with   yet   a   bed   for   wandering 

men. 
There  Enoch  rested  silent  many  days. 

But  Miriam  Lane  was  good  and  garru- 
lous, 
Nor  let  him  be,  but  often  breaking  in, 
Told  him,  with  other  annals  of  the  port, 
Not  knowing  —  Enoch  was  so  brown,  so 

bow'd, 
So  broken  —  all  the  story  of  his  house. 
His  baby's  death,  her  growing  poverty, 
How  Philip  put  her  little  ones  to  school, 
And  kept   them  in  it,  his  long  wooing 

her, 
Her  slow  consent,  and  marriage,  and  the 

birth 
Of  Philip's  child :   and  o'er  his  counte- 
nance 
No  shadow  past,  nor  motion :  any  one, 


ENOCH  ARDEN. 


'33 


Regarding,  well  had  deem'd  he  felt  the 

tale 
Less   than    the   teller:    only   when    she 

closed, 
\  Enoch,  poor  man,  was  cast  away  and 

lost,' 
He,  shaking  his  gray  head  pathetically, 
Repeated  muttering '  cast  away  and  lost;  ' 
Again  in  deeper  inward  whispers  '  lost ! ' 

But   Enoch    yearn'd    to   see   her  face 

again; 
1  If  I  might  look  on  her  sweet  face  again 
And  know  that  she  is  happy.'     So  the 

thought 
Haunted   and    harass'd   him,  and  drove 

him  forth, 
At  evening  when  the  dull  November  day 
Was  growing  duller  twilight,  to  the  hill. 
There  he  sat  down  gazing  on  all  below; 
There  did  a  thousand  memories  roll  upon 

him, 
Unspeakable  for  sadness.     By  and  by 
The  ruddy  square  of  comfortable  light, 
Far-blazing   from   the    rear   of    Philip's 

house, 
Allured  him,  as  the  beacon-blaze  allures 
The  bird  of  passage,  till  he  madly  strikes 
Against  it,  and  beats  out  his  weary  life. 

For  Philip's  dwelling  fronted  on  the 

street,  . 
The  latest  house  to  landward;    but  be- 
hind, 
With  one  small  gate  that  open'd  on  the 

waste, 
Flourish'd    a   little   garden   square    and 

wall'd : 
And  in  it  throve  an  ancient  evergreen, 
A  yewtree,  and  all  round  it  ran  a  walk 
Of  shingle,  and  a  walk  divided  it :      * 
But  Enoch  shunn'd  the  middle  walk  and 

stole 
Up  by  the  wall,  behind  the  yew;    and 

thence 
That  which  he  better  might  have  shunn'd, 

if  griefs 
Like  his  have  worse  or  better,  Enoch  saw. 

For  cups  and  silver  on  the  burnish'd 
board 
Sparkled  and  shone;   so  genial  was  the 
hearth : 


And  on  the  right  hand  of  the  hearth  he 

saw 
Philip,  the  slighted  suitor  of  old  times, 
Stout,   rosy,   with   his    babe   across   his 

knees; 
And   o'er   her   second   father  stoopt  a 

girl, 
A  ^ater  but  a  loftier  Annie  Lee, 
Fair-hair'd  and  tall,  and  from  her  lifted 

hand 
Dangled  a  length  of  ribbon  and  a  ring 
To  tempt  the  babe,  who  rear'd  his  creasy 

arms, 
Caught  at  and  ever  miss'd  it,  and  they 

laugh'd; 
And  on  the  left  hand  of  the  hearth  he 

saw 
The  mother  glancing  often  toward  her 

babe, 
But  turning  now  and  then  to  speak  with 

him, 
Her  son,  who  stood  beside  her  tall  and 

strong, 
And  saying  that  which  pleased  him,  for 

he  smiled. 

Now  when  the  dead  man  come  to  life 

beheld 
His  wife  his  wife  no  more,  and  saw  the 

babe 
Hers,  yet  not  his,  upon  the  father's  knee, 
And    all    the    warmth,   the    peace,    the 

happiness, 
And  his  own  children  tall  and  beautiful, 
And  him,  that  other,  reigning  in  his  place, 
Lord  of  his  rights  and  of  his  children's 

love,  — 
Then  he,  tho'  Miriam  Lane  had  told  him 

all, 
Because  things  seen  are  mightier  than 

things  heard, 
Stagger'd  and  shook,  holding  the  branch, 

and  fear'd 
To  send  abroad  a  shrill  and  terrible  cry, 
Which  in  one  moment,  like  the  blast  of 

doom, 
Would  shatter  all  the  happiness  of  the 

hearth. 

He  therefore  turning  softly  like  a  thief, 
Lest  the  harsh  shingle  should  grate  under 

foot, 
And  feeling  all  along  the  garden-walL 


134 


ENOCH  ARDEN. 


Lest  he  should  swoon  and  tumble  and  be 

found, 
Crept   to    the  gate,  and   open'd  it,  and 

closed, 
As  lightly  as  a  sick  man's  chamber-door, 
Behind   him,    and   came   out   upon   the 

waste. 

And  there  he  would  have  knelt,  but 

that  his  knees. 
Were  feeble,  so  that  falling  prone  he  dug 
His    fingers    into    the   wet    earth,    and 

pray'd. 

'Too  hard  to  bear!  why  did  they  take 

me  thence? 
O  God  Almighty,  blessed  Saviour,  Thou 
That  didst  uphold  me  on  my  lonely  isle, 
Uphold  me,  Father,  in  my  loneliness 
A  little  longer  !  aid  me,  give  me  strength 
Not  to  tell  her,  never  to  let  her  know. 
Help  me  not  to  break  in  upon  her  peace. 
My  children  too !    must  I  not  speak  to 

these  ? 
They  know  me   not.      I   should   betray 

myself. 
Never :  No  father's  kiss  for  me  —  the  girl 
So  like   her   mother,  and   the   boy,  my 

son.' 

There  speech  and  thought  and  nature 

fail'd  a  little, 
And  he  lay  tranced;   but  when  he  rose 

and  paced 
Back  toward  his  solitary  home  again, 
All  down  the  long  and  narrow  street  he 

went 
Beating  it  in  upon  his  weary  brain, 
As  tho'  it  were  the  burthen  of  a  song, 
'  Not  to  tell  her,  never  to  let  her  know.' 

He  was  not  all  unhappy.     His  resolve 
Upbore  him,  and  firm    faith,  and   ever- 
more 
Prayer  from  a  living  source  within  the 

will, 
And  beating  up  thro'  all  the  bitter  world, 
Like  fountains  of  sweet  water  in  the  sea, 
Kept  him  a  living  soul.     '  This  miller's 

wife,' 
He  said  to  Miriam, '  that  you  spoke  about, 
Has  she  no  fear  that  her  first  husband 
lives?' 


'Ay,  ay,  poor  soul,'  said    Miriam,  'fear 

enow ! 
If  you  could  tell  her  you  had  seen  him 

dead, 
Why,  that  would  be  her  comfort;  '  and 

he  thought 
'After  the  Lord  has  call'd  me  she  shall 

know. 
I  wait  His  time,'  and  Enoch  set  himself, 
Scorning  an  alms,  to  work  whereby  to  live. 
Almost  to  all  things  could   he   turn  his 

hand. 
Cooper  he  was  and  carpenter,  and  wrought 
To  make   the   boatmen   fishing-nets,  or 

help'd 
At  lading  and  unlading  the  tall  barks, 
That  brought  the  stinted  commerce  of 

those  days; 
Thus  earn'd  a  scanty  living  for  himself: 
Yet  since  he  did  but  labour  for  himself, 
Work  without  hope,  there  was  not  life 

in  it 
Whereby  the  man  could  live;  and  as  the 

year 
Roll'd  itself  round  again  to  meet  the  day 
When    Enoch   had   return'd,  a   languor 

came 
Upon  him,  gentle  sickness,  gradually 
Weakening  the  man,  till  he  could  do  no 

more, 
But  kept  the  house,  his  chair,  and  last  his 

bed. 
And  Enoch  bore  his  weakness  cheerfully. 
For  sure  no  gladlier  does  the  stranded 

wreck 
See  thro'  the  gray  skirts  of  a  lifting  squall 
The  boat   that   bears   the   hope   of  life 

approach 
To  save  the  life  despair'd  of,  than  he  saw 
Death  dawning  on  him,  and  the  close  of 
<    all. 

For  thro'  that  dawning  gleam'd  a  kind- 
lier hope 
On  Enoch  thinking,  '  after  I  am  gone, 
Then  may  she  learn  I  lov'd  her  to  the 

last.' 
He  call'd  aloud  for  Miriam  Lane  and  said, 
'Woman,  I  have  a  secret  —  only  swear, 
Before  I  tell  you  —  swear  upon  the  book 
Not  to  reveal  it,  till  you  see  me  dead.' 
'  Dead,'  clamour'd  the  good  woman, '  heat 
him  talk ! 


ENOCH  ARDEN. 


135 


I  warrant,  man,  that  we  shall  bring  you 

round.' 
'Swear,'  added  Enoch  sternly,  'on   the 

book.' 
And  on  the  book,  half-frighted,  Miriam 

swore. 
Then  Enoch  rolling  his  gray  eyes  upon  her, 
'Did   you   know  Enoch  Arden    of  this 

town  ? ' 
'  Know  him? '  she  said,  '  I  knew  him  far 

away. 
Ay,  ay,  I  mind  him   coming   down  the 

street; 
Held  his  head  high,  and  cared  for  no  man, 

he.' 
Slowly  and  sadly  Enoch  answer'd  her : 
'His  head  is  low,  and  no  man  cares  for 

him. 
I  think  I  have  not  three  days  more  to  live ; 
I  am  the  man.'     At  which  the  woman  gave 
A  half-incredulous,  half-hysterical  cry. 
'  You  Arden,  you !    nay,  —  sure  he  was  a 

foot 
Higher  than  you  be.'     Enoch  said  again, 
'  My  God  has  bow'd  me  down  to  what  I 

am; 
My  grief  and  solitude  have  broken  me; 
Nevertheless,  know  you  that  I  am  he 
Who  married  —  but  that  name  has  twice 

been  changed  — 
I  married  her  who  married  Philip  Ray. 
Sit,   listen.'     Then   he    told   her   of  his 

voyage, 
His  wreck,  his  lonely  life,  his  coming  back, 
His  gazing  in  on  Annie,  his  resolve, 
And   how  he   kept   it.     As   the  woman 

heard, 
Fast  flow'd  the  current  of  her  easy  tears, 
While  in  her  heart  she  yearn'd  incessantly 
To  rush  abroad  all  round  the  little  haven, 
Proclaiming  Enoch  Arden  and  his  woes; 
But  awed  and  promise-bounden  she  for- 
bore, 
Saying  only,  'See  your  bairns  before  you 

Eh,  let  me  fetch  'em,  Arden,'  and  arose 
Eager  to  bring  them  down,  for    Enoch 

hung 
A  moment  on  her  words,  but  then  replied : 

'Woman,  disturb  me  not  now  at  the 
last, 
But  let  me  hold  my  purpose  till  I  die. 


Sit  down  again ;  mark  me  and  understand, 
While  I  have  power  to  speak.     I  charge 

you  now, 
When  you  shall  see  her,  tell  her  that  I  died 
Blessing  her,  praying  for  her,  loving  her; 
Save  for  the  bar  between  us,  loving  her 
As  when  she  laid  her  head  beside  my  own. 
And  tell  my  daughter  Annie,  whom  I  saw 
So  like  her  mother,  that  my  latest  breath 
Was  spent  in  blessing  her  and  praying  for 

her. 
And  tell  my  son  that  I  died  blessing  him. 
And  say  to  Philip  that  I  blest  him  too; 
He  never  meant  us  any  thing  but  good. 
But  if  my  children  care  to  see  me  dead, 
Who   hardly  knew  me  living,  let   them 

come, 
I  am  their  father;  but  she  must  not  come, 
For  my  dead  face  would  vex  her  after-life. 
And  now  there  is  but  one  of  all  my  blood 
Who  will  embrace  me  in  the  world-to-be. 
This  hair  is  his :  she  cut  it  off  and  gave  it, 
And  I  have  borne  it  with  me  all  these 

years, 
And  thought  to  bear  it  with  me  to  my 

grave ; 
But  now  my  mind  is  changed,  for  I  shall 

see  him, 
My  babe  in  bliss :    wherefore  when  I  am 

gone, 
Take,  give  her  this,  for  it  may  comfort  her  : 
It  will  moreover  be  a  token  to  her, 
That  I  am  he.' 

He  ceased;  and  Miriam  Lane 
Made  such  a  voluble  answer  promising  all, 
That  once  again  he  roll'd  his  eyes  upon 

her 
Repeating  all  he  wish'd,  and  once  again 
She  promised. 

Then  the  third  night  after  this, 

While  Enoch  slumber'd  motionless  and 
pale, 

And  Miriam  watch'd  and  dozed  at  inter- 
vals, 

There  came  so  loud  a  calling  of  the  sea, 

That  all  the  houses  in  the  haven  rang. 

He  woke,  he  rose,  he  spread  his  arms 
abroad 

Crying  with  a  loud  voice  'A  sail !  a  sail ! 

I  am  saved ; '  and  so  fell  back  and  spoke 
no  more. 


136 


THE  BROOK. 


So  past  the  strong  heroic  soul  away. 
And  when   they   buried   him   the   little 

port 
Had  seldom  seen  a  costlier  funeral. 


THE  BROOK. 

Here,  by  this  brook,  we  parted;   I  to  the 

East 
And  he  for  Italy  —  too  late  —  too  late  : 
One  whom  the  strong  sons  of  the  world 

despise; 
For  lucky  rhymes  to  him  were  scrip  and 

share, 
And  mellow  metres  more  than  cent  for 

cent; 
Nor   could   he   understand  how  money 

breeds, 
Thought  it  a  dead  thing;    yet  himself 

could  make 
The  thing  that  is  not  as  the  thing  that 

is. 

0  had  he  lived !     In  our  schoolbooks  we 

say, 
Of  those  that  held  their  heads  above  the 

crowd, 
They  flourished  then  or  then;  but  life  in 

him 
Could   scarce   be   said   to   flourish,  only 

touch'd 
On  such  a  time  as  goes  before  the  leaf, 
When  all  the  wood  stands  in  a  mist  of 

green, 
And  nothing  perfect :  yet  the  brook  he 

loved, 
For    which,    in    branding    summers    of 

Bengal, 
Or  ev'n  the  sweet  half- English  Neilgherry 

air 

1  panted,  seems,  as  I  re-listen  to  it, 
Prattling  the  primrose  fancies  of  the  boy, 
To  me  that  loved  him;    for  'O  brook,' 

he  says, 
'  O  babbling  brook,'  says  Edmund  in  his 

rhyme, 
•Whence  come  you?'  and  the  brook,  why 

not?  replies. 

I  come  from  haunts  of  coot  and  hern, 

I  make  a  sudden  sally, 
And  sparkle  out  among  the  fern, 

To  bicker  down  a  valley. 


By  thirty  hills  I  hurry  down, 

Or  slip  between  the  ridges, 
By  twenty  thorps,  a  little  town, 

And  half  a  hundred  bridges. 

Till  last  by  Philip's  farm  I  flow 

To  join  the  brimming  river, 
For  men  may  come  and  men  may  go, 

But  I  go  on  for  ever. 

'  Poor  lad,  he   died   at   Florence,  quite 

worn  out, 
Travelling  to  Naples.     There  is  Darnley 

bridge, 
It  has  more  ivy;    there  the  river;    and 

there 
Stands   Philip's  farm  where   brook  and 

river  meet. 

I  chatter  over  stony  ways, 

In  little  sharps  and  trebles, 
I  bubble  into  eddying  bays, 

I  babble  on  the  pebbles. 

With  many  a  curve  my  banks  I  fret 

By  many  a  field  and  fallow, 
And  many  a  fairy  foreland  set 

With  willow-weed  and  mallow. 

I  chatter,  chatter,  as  I  flow 

To  join  the  brimming  river, 
For  men  may  come  and  men  may  go, 

But  I  go  on  for  ever. 

'  But  Philip  chatter'd  more  than  brook 

or  bird; 
Old   Philip ;    all    about   the   fields  you 

caught 
His   weary   daylong   chirping,    like   the 

dry 
High-elbow'd  grigs  that  leap  in  summer 


I  wind  about,  and  in  and  out, 
With  here  a  blossom  sailing, 

And  here  and  there  a  lusty  trout, 
And  here  and  there  a  grayling, 

And  here  and  there  a  foamy  flake 

Upon  me,  as  I  travel 
With  many  a  silvery  waterbreak 

Above  the  golden  gravel, 

And  draw  them  all  along,  and  flow 
To  join  the  brimming  river, 

For  men  may  come  and  men  may  go, 
But  I  go  on  for  ever. 


THE  BROOK. 


137 


'  O   darling    Katie    Willows,    his   one 

child  ! 
A.  maiden  of  our  century,  yet  most  meek; 
A   daughter   of   our   meadows,   yet   not 

coarse; 
Straight,  but  as  lissome  as  a  hazel  wand; 
Her  eyes  a  bashful  azure,  and  her  hair 
In  gloss  and  hue  the  chestnut,  when  the 

shell 
Divides  threefold  to  show  the  fruit  within. 

'  Sweet  Katie,  once  I  did  her  a  good 

turn, 
Her  and  her  far-off  cousin  and  betrothed, 
James  Willows,  of  one  name  and  heart 

with  her. 
For  here  I  came,  twenty  years  back  — 

the  week 
Before  I  parted  with  poor  Edmund;  crost 
By  that  old  bridge  which,  half  in  ruins 

then, 
Still  makes  a  hoary  eyebrow  for  the  gleam 
Beyond  it,  where  the  waters  marry  —  crost, 
Whistling  a  random  bar  of  Bonny  Doon, 
And  push'd  at  Philip's  garden-gate.     The 

gate, 
Half-parted   from  a  weak  and  scolding 

hinge, 
Stuck;    and  he  clamour'd   from  a  case- 
ment, "  Run  " 
To  Katie  somewhere  in  the  walks  below, 
"  Run,  Katie  !  "  .  Katie  never  ran :    she 

moved 
To   meet  me,  winding   under  woodbine 

bowers, 
A  little  flutter'd,  with  her  eyelids  down, 
Fresh  apple-blossom,  blushing  for  a  boon. 

'What  was  it?  less  of  sentiment  than 
sense 
Had  Katie;   not  illiterate;   nor  of  those 
Who  dabbling  in  the  fount  of  fictive  tears, 
And   nursed   by  mealy-mouth'd    philan- 
thropies, 
Divorce  the  Feeling  from  her  mate  the 
Deed. 

'  She  told  me.     She  and   James  had 

quarrell'd.     Why? 
What  cause  of  quarrel?     None,  she  said, 

no  cause; 
James  had  no  cause :  but  when  I  prest 

the  cause, 


I  learnt  that  James   had   flickering  jeal- 
ousies 
Which  anger'd  her.   Who  anger'd  James? 

I  said. 
But  Katie  snatch'd  her  eyes  at  once  from 

mine, 
And  sketching  with  her  slender  pointed 

foot 
Some  figure  like  a  wizard  pentagram 
On  garden  gravel,  let  my  query  pass 
Unclaim'd,  in  flushing  silence,  till  I  ask'd 
If  James  were  coming.     "Coming  every 

day," 
She  answer'd,  "  ever  longing  to  explain, 
But  evermore  her  father  came  across 
With  some  long-winded  tale,  and  broke 

him  short; 
And  James  departed  vext  with  him  and 

her." 
How  could  I  help  her?  "Would  I  —  was 

it  wrong?" 
(Claspt  hands  and  that  petitionary  grace 
Of  sweet  seventeen  subdued  me  ere  she 

spoke) 
"  O  would  I  take  her  father  for  one  hour, 
For  one  half-hour,  and  let  him  talk  to  me ! " 
And  even  while  she  spoke,  I  saw  where 

James 
Made  toward  us,  like  a  wader  in  the  surf, 
Beyond  the  brook,  waist-deep  in  meadow- 
sweet. 

1 0  Katie,  what  I  suffer'd  for  your  sake  ! 

For  in  I  went,  and  call'd  old  Philip  out 

To  show  the  farm :  full  willingly  he  rose  : 

He  led  me  thro'  the  short  sweet-smelling 
lanes 

Of  his  wheat-suburb,  babbling  as  he  went. 

He  praised  his  land,  his  horses,  his 
machines; 

He  praised  his  ploughs,  his  cows,  his 
hogs,  his  dogs; 

He  praised  his  hens,  his  geese,  his  guinea- 
hens; 

His  pigeons,  who  in  session  on  their  roofs 

Approved  him,  bowing  at  their  own 
deserts  : 

Then  from  the  plaintive  mother's  teat  he 
took 

Her  blind  and  shuddering  puppies,  nam- 
ing each, 

And  naming  those,  his  friends,  for  whom 
they  were: 


^8 


THE   BROOK. 


Then  crost  the   common   into   Darnley 

chase 
To  show  Sir  Arthur's   deer.     In  copse 

and  fern 
Twinkled  the  innumerable  ear  and  tail. 
Then,  seated  on  a  serpent-rooted  beech, 
He   pointed   out   a   pasturing   colt,  and 

said: 
"That  was  the  four-year-old  I  sold  the 

Squire." 
And  there  he  told  a  long  long-winded  tale 
Of  how  the  Squire  had  seen  the  colt  at 

grass, 
And  how  it  was  the  thing  his  daughter 

wish'd, 
And  how  he  sent  the  bailiff  to  the  farm 
To  learn  the  price,  and  what  the  price  he 

ask'd, 
And  how  the  bailiff  swore  that  he  was 

mad, 
But  he  stood  firm;   and  so  the  matter 

hung; 
He  gave  them  line :  and  five  days  after 

that 
He  met  the  bailiff  at  the  Golden  Fleece, 
Who  then  and  there  had  offer'd  some- 
thing more, 
But  he   stood  firm;    and  so  the  matter 

hung; 
He  knew  the  man;   the  colt  would  fetch 

its  price; 
He  gave  them  line  :  and  how  by  chance 

at  last 
(It  might  be  May  or  April,  he  forgot, 
The  last  of  April  or  the  first  of  May) 
He  found  the  bailiff  riding  by  the  farm, 
And,  talking   from   the   point,  he  drew 

him  in, 
And  there  he  mellow'd  all  his  heart  with 

ale, 
Until  they  closed  a  bargain,  hand  in  hand. 

'Then,  while  I  breathed   in  sight  of 
haven,  he, 
Poor  fellow,  could  he  help  it?   recom- 
menced, 
And  ran  thro'  all  the  coltish  chronicle, 
Wild  Will,  Black  Bess,  Tantivy,  Tallyho, 
Reform,  White   Rose,  Bellerophon,   the 

Jilt, 
Arbaces,  and  Phenomenon,  and  the  rest, 
Till,  not  to  die  a  listener,  I  arose, 
And  with  me  Philip,  talking  still;   and  so 


We  turn'd  our  foreheads  from  the  falling 
sun, 

And  following  our  own  shadows  thrice 
as  long 

As  when  they  follow'd  us  from  Philip's 
door, 

Arrived,  and  found  the  sun  of  sweet  con- 
tent 

Re-risen  in  Katie's  eyes,  and  all  things 
well. 

I  steal  by  lawns  and  grassy  plots, 

I  slide  by  hazel  covers ; 
I  move  the  sweet  forget-me-nots 

That  grow  for  happy  lovers. 

I  slip,  I  slide,  I  gloom,  I  glance, 
Among  my  skimming  swallows; 

I  make  the  netted  sunbeam  dance 
Against  my  sandy  shallows. 

I  murmur  under  moon  and  stars 

In  brambly  wildernesses ; 
I  linger  by  my  shingly  bars; 

I  loiter  round  my  cresses; 

And  out  again  I  curve  and  flow 

To  join  the  brimming  river, 
For  men  may  come  and  men  may  go, 

But  I  go  on  for  ever. 

Yes,  men  may  come  and  go;  and  these 

are  gone, 
All  gone.     My  dearest  brother,  Edmund, 

sleeps, 
Not  by  the  well-known  stream  and  rustic 

spire, 
But  unfamiliar  Arno,  and  the  dome 
Of  Brunelleschi;  sleeps  in  peace :  and  he, 
Poor  Philip,  of  all  his  lavish  waste  of 

words 
Remains  the  lean  P.  W\  on  his  tomb : 
I  scraped  the  lichen  from  it :  Katie  walks 
By  the  long  wash  of  Australasian  seas 
Far  off,   and   holds   her   head   to  other 

stars,  * 
And  breathes  in  April-autumns.     All  are 

gone.' 

So  Lawrence  Aylmer,  seated  on  a  stile 
In  the  long   hedge,  and   rolling  in  his 

mind 
Old  waifs  of  rhyme,  and  bowing  o'er  the 

brook 
A  tonsured  head  in  middle  age  forlorn, 


AYLMER' S  FIELD. 


139 


Mused,  and  was  mute.     On  a  sudden  a 

low  breath 
Of    tender    air    made    tremble    in    the 

hedge 
The  fragile   bindweed-bells   and  briony 

rings; 
And  he  look'd  up.     There  stood  a  maiden 

near, 
Waiting   to   pass.     In  much   amaze   he 

stared 
On  eyes  a  bashful  azure,  and  on  hair 
In  gloss  and  hue  the  chestnut,  when  the 

shell 
Divides  threefold  to  show  the  fruit  within : 
Then,  wondering,  ask'd   her,  'Are   you 

from  the  farm?' 
1  Yes,'  answer'd  she.     '  Pray  stay  a  little  : 

pardon  me; 
What  do  they  call  you?'    'Katie.'    'That 

were  strange. 
What    surname?'      'Willows.'      'No!' 

'  That  is  my  name.' 
'  Indeed ! '   and  here  he  look'd  so  self- 

perplext, 
That  Katie  laugh'd,  and  laughing  blush'd, 

till  he 
Laugh'd    also,   but    as    one    before   he 

wakes, 
Who  feels  a  glimmering  strangeness  in 

his  dream. 
Then  looking  at  her :  '  Too  happy,  fresh 

and  fair, 
Too  fresh  and  fair  in  our  sad  world's  best 

bloom, 
To  be  the  ghost  of  one  who  bore  your 

name 
About  these  meadows,  twenty  years  ago.' 

'  Have  you  not  heard  ? '  said  Katie, '  we 
came  back. 

We  bought  the  farm  we  tenanted  be- 
fore. 

Am  I  so  like  her?  so  they  said  on 
board. 

Sir,  if  you  knew  her  in  her  English 
days, 

My  mother,  as  it  seems  you  did,  the  days 

That  most  she  loves  to  talk  of,  come 
with  me. 

My  brother  James  is  in  the  harvest- 
field : 

But  she  —  you  will  be  welcome —  O,  come 


AYLMER'S   FIELD. 

1793. 
Dust  are  our  frames;  and,  gilded  dust, 

our  pride 
Looks   only  for   a   moment   whole   and 

sound; 
Like  that  long-buried  body  of  the  king, 
Found  lying  with  his  urns  and  ornaments, 
Which    at   a  touch    of  light,  an  air  of 

heaven, 
Slipt  into  ashes,  and  was  found  no  more. 

Here  is  a  story  which  in  rougher  shape 
Came  from  a  grizzled  cripple,  whom  I 

saw 
Sunning  himself  in  a  waste  field  alone  — 
Old,  and  a  mine  of  memories  —  who  had 

served, 
Long  since,  a  bygone  Rector  of  the  place, 
And  been  himself  a  part  of  what  he  told. 

Sir  Aylmer  Aylmer,  that  almighty 

man, 
The  county  God  —  in  whose  capacious 

hall, 
Hung  with  a  hundred  shields,  the  family 

tree 
Sprang  from  the  midriff  of  a  prostrate 

king  — 
Whose  blazing  wyvern  weathercock'd  the 

spire, 
Stood  from  his  walls  and  wing'd  his  entry- 
gates 
And   swang   besides  on  many  a  windy 

sign  — 
Whose  eyes  from  under  a  pyramidal  head 
Saw  from  his  windows  nothing  save  his 

own  — 
What  lovelier  of  his  own  had  he  than 

her, 
His  only  child,  his  Edith,  whom  he  loved 
As  heiress  and  not  heir  regretfully? 
But  'he  that   marries   her   marries   her 

name '  — 
This  fiat  somewhat  soothed  himself  and 

wife, 
His  wife  a  faded  beauty  of  the  Baths, 
Insipid  as  the  Queen  upon  a  card; 
Her  all  of  thought  and  bearing  hardly 

more 
Than  his  own  shadow  in  a  sickly  sun. 


740 


AYLMER'S  FIELD. 


A  land   of  hops  and   poppy-mingled 

corn, 
Little  about  it  stirring  save  a  brook  ! 
A  sleepy  land,  where    under   the  same 

wheel 
The  same  old  rut  would  deepen  year  by 

year; 
Where  almost  all  the  village   had   one 

name; 
Where  Aylmev  followed  Aylmer  at  the 

Hall 
And  Averill  Averill  at  the  Rectory 
Thrice  over;   so  that  Rectory  and  Hall, 
Bound  in  an  immemorial  intimacy, 
Were  open  to  each  other;   tho   to  dream 
That  Love  could  bind  them  closer  well 

had  made 
The  hoar  hair  of  the  Baronet  bristle  up 
With  horror,  worse  than  had  he  heard 

his  priest 
Preach   an  inverted   scripture,   sons    of 

men 
Daughters   of  God;    so  sleepy  was  the 

land. 

And  might  not  Averill,  had  he  wilFd 
it  so, 
Somewhere  beneath  his  own  low  range 

of  roofs, 
Have  also  set  his  many-shielded  tree? 
There  was   an   Aylmer-Averill  marriage 

once, 
When  the  red  rose  was  redder  than  itself, 
And  York's  white  rose  as  red  as  Lancas- 
ter's, 
With  wounded   peace  which   each   had 

prick'd  to  death. 
}  Not  proven,'  Averill  said,  or  laughingly, 
'Some  other  race  of  AverihV  —  prov'n 

or  no, 
What  cared  he?  what,  if  other  or  the 

same? 
He  lean'd  not  on  his  fathers  but  himself. 
But  Leolin,  his  brother,  living  oft 
With  Averill,  and  a  year  or  two  before 
Call'd  to  the  bar,  but  ever  call'd  away 
By  one  low  voice  to  one  dear  neighbour- 
hood, 
Would  often,  in  his  walks  with   Edith, 

claim 
A  distant  kinship  to  the  gracious  blood 
That  shook  the  heart  of  Edith  hearing 
him. 


Sanguine  he  was :  a  but  less  vivid  hue 
Than  of  that  islet  in  the  chestnut-bloom 
Flamed  in  his  cheek;    and  eager  eyes, 

that  still 
Took   joyful   note   of  all   things  joyful, 

beam'd 
Beneath  a  manelike  mass  of  rolling  gold, 
Their  best  and  brightest,  when  they  dwel*: 

on  hers, 
Edith,  whose  pensive  beauty,  perfect  else. 
But  subject  to  the  season  or  the  mood, 
Shone  like  a  mystic  star  between  the  less 
And  greater  glory  varying  to  and  fro, 
We    know  not   wherefore;    bounteously 

made, 
And  yet  so  finely,  that  a  troublous  touch 
Thinn'd,  or  would  seem  to  thin  her  in  a 

day, 
A  joyous  to  dilate,  as  toward  the  light. 
And  these  had  been  together  from  the 

first. 
Leolin's  first  nurse  was,  five  years  after, 

hers: 
So  much  the  boy  foreran;  but  when  his 

date 
Doubled  her  own,  for  want  of  playmates, 

he 
(Since  Averill  was  a  decad  and  a  half 
His  elder,  and  their  parents  underground) 
Had  tost  his  ball  and  flown  his  kite,  and 

roll'd 
His  hoop  to  pleasure  Edith,  with  her  dipt 
Against  the  rush  of  the  air  in  the  prone 

swing, 
Made   blossom-ball   or    daisy-chain,   ar- 
ranged 
Her  garden,  sow'd  her  name  and  kept 

it  green 
In  living  letters,  told  her  fairy-tales, 
Show'd   her   the   fairy  footings   on   the 

grass, 
The  little  dells  of  cowslip,  fairy  palms, 
The  petty  marestail  forest,  fairy  pines, 
Or  from  the  tiny  pitted  target  blew 
What  look'd  a  flight  of  fairy  arrows  aim'd 
All  at  one  mark,  all  hitting:  make-be- 
lieves 
For  Edith  and  himself:  or  else  he  forged, 
But  that  was  later,  boyish  histories 
Of    battle,    bold    adventure,    dungeon, 

wreck, 
Flights,  terrors,  sudden  rescues,  and  true 

love 


AYLMER'S  FIELD. 


i4v 


Crown'd  after  trial;    sketches  rude  and 

faint, 
But  where  a  passion  yet  unborn  perhaps 
Lay  hidden  as  the  music  of  the  moon 
Sleeps  in  the  plain  eggs  of  the  nightin- 
gale. 
And  thus  together,  save  for  college-times 
Or  Temple-eaten  terms,  a  couple,  fair 
As  ever  painter  painted,  poet  sang, 
Or   Heaven  in   lavish   bounty  moulded, 

grew. 
And  more  and  more,  the  maiden  woman- 
grown, 
He  wasted   hours   with   Averill;    there, 

when  first 
The  tented  winter-field  was  broken  up 
Into  that  phalanx  of  the  summer  spears 
That    soon   should   wear    the   garland; 

there  again 
When    burr    and    bine   were   gather'd; 

lastly  there 
At  Christmas;   ever  welcome  at  the  Hall, 
On  whose  dull  sameness  his  full  tide  of 

youth 
Broke  with  a  phosphorescence  charming 

even 
My  lady;   and  the  Baronet  yet  had  laid 
No  bar   between  them :    dull   and   self- 
involved, 
Tall   and   erect,  but   bending   from   his 

height 
With    half-allowing   smiles   for   all    the 

world, 
And   mighty  courteous   in   the   main  — 

his  pride 
Lay  deeper  than  to  wear  it  as  his  ring  — 
He,  like  an  Aylmer  in  his  Aylmerism, 
Would  care  no  more  for  Leolin's  walking 

with  her 
Than  for  his  old  Newfoundland's,  when 

they  ran 
To  loose  him  at  the  stables,  for  he  rose 
Twofooted  at  the  limit  of  his  chain, 
Roaring    to   make   a    third:    and    how 

should  Love, 
Whom     the     cross-lightnings     of     four 

chance-met  eyes 
Flash  into  fiery  life  from  nothing,  follow 
Such  dear  familiarities  of  dawn? 
Seldom,  but  when  he  does,  Master  of  all. 

So   these  young   hearts  not   knowing 
that  they  loved, 


Not  she  at  least,  nor  conscious  of  a  bar 

Between  them,  nor  by  plight  or  broken 
ring 

Bound,  but  an  immemorial  intimacy, 

Wander'd  at  will,  and  oft  accompanied 

By  Averill:  his,  a  brother's  love,  that 
hung 

With  wings  of  brooding  shelter  o'er  her 
peace, 

Might  have  been  other,  save  for  Leo- 
lin's— 

Who  knows?  but  so  they  wander'd,  hour 
by  hour 

Gather'd  the  blossom  that  rebloom'd, 
and  drank 

The  magic  cup  that  fill'd  itself  anew. 

A  whisper  half  reveal'd  her  to  herself. 
For  out  beyond   her  lodges,  where  the 

brook 
Vocal,  with  here  and  there  a  silence,  ran 
By   sallowy   rims,   arose    the    labourers' 

homes, 
A  frequent  haunt  of  Edith,  on  low  knolls 
That  dimpling  died  into  each  other,  huts 
At   random   scatter'd,    each    a   nest    in 

bloom. 
Her  art,  her  hand,  her  counsel  all  had 

wrought 
About   them  :   here  was  one  that,  sum- 

mer-blanch'd, 
Was  parcel-bearded  with  the  traveller's- 
joy 
In  Autumn,  parcel  ivy-clad ;   and  here 
The  warm-blue  breathings  of  a  hidden 

hearth 
Broke  from  a  bower  of  vine  and  honey- 
suckle : 
One  look'd  all  rosetree,  and  another  wore 
A  close-set  robe  of  jasmine  sown  with 

stars : 
This  had  a  rosy  sea  of  gillyflowers 
About  it ;  this,  a  milky-way  on  earth, 
Like  visions  in  the  Northern  dreamer's 

heavens, 
A  lily-avenue  climbing  to  the  doors; 
One,' almost  to  the  martin-haunted  eaves 
A  summer  burial  deep  in  hollyhocks; 
Each,  its  own  charm ;   and  Edith's  every- 
where; 
And  Edith  ever  visitant  with  him, 
He   but   less   loved  than  Edith,  of  her 
poor: 


I42 


AYLMER'S  FIELD. 


For  she  —  so  lowly-lovely  and  so  loving, 
Queenly  responsive  when  the  loyal  hand 
Rose  from  the  clay  it  work'd  in  as  she 

past, 
Not  sowing  hedgerow  texts  and  passing 

by, 
Nor  dealing  goodly  counsel  from  a  height 
That  makes   the   lowest   hate   it,  but  a 

voice 
Of  comfort  and  an  open  hand  of  help, 
A  splendid  presence  flattering  the  poor 

roofs 
Revered   as    theirs,    but    kindlier    than 

themselves 
To  ailing  wife  or  wailing  infancy 
Or  old  bedridden  palsy,  —  was  adored; 
He,  loved   for  her  and  for  himself.     A 

grasp 
Having  the  warmth  and  muscle  of  the 

heart, 
A  childly  way  with  children,  and  a  laugh 
Ringing  like  proven  golden  coinage  true, 
Were   no    false   passport    to    that   easy 

realm, 
Where  once  with  Leolin  at  her  side  the 

girl, 
Nursing    a    child,   and   turning   to    the 

warmth 
The  tender  pink  five-beaded  baby-soles, 
Heard  the  good  mother  softly  whisper 

'  Bless, 
God  bless  'em :   marriages  are  made  in 

Heaven.' 

A  flash  of  semi-jealousy  clear'd  it  to 
her. 
My  lady's  Indian  kinsman  unannounced 
With  half  a  score  of  swarthy  faces  came. 
His  own,  tho'  keen  and  bold  and  sol- 
dierly 
Sear'd  by  the  close  ecliptic,  was  not  fair; 
Fairer  his  talk,  a  tongue  that  ruled  the 

hour, 
Tho'  seeming  boastful :  so  when  first  he 

dash'd 
Into  the  chronicle  of  a  deedful  day, 
Sir  Aylmer  half  forgot  his  lazy  smile 
Of  patron  '  Good !    my  lady's  kinsman  ! 

good ! ' 
My  lady  with  her  fingers  interlock'd, 
And  rotatory  thumbs  on  silken  knees, 
Call'd  all  her  vital  spirits  into  each  ear 
To  listen :  unawares  they  flitted  off, 


Busying  themselves  about  the  flowerage 
That  stood   from  out  a  stiff  brocade  in 

which, 
The  meteor  of  a  splendid  season,  she, 
Once  with  this  kinsman,  ah  so  long  ago, 
Stept  thro'  the  stately  minuet  of  those 

days : 
But    Edith's   eager    fancy  hurried    with 

him 
Snatch'd  thro'  the  perilous  passes  of  his 

life: 
Till  Leolin  ever  watchful  of  her  eye, 
Hated  him  with  a  momentary  hate. 
Wife -hunting,   as   the   rumour   ran,  was 

he: 
I   know   not,    for    he   spoke    not,   only 

shower'd 
His  oriental  gifts  on  every  one 
And   most  on   Edith  :    like  a  storm  he 

came, 
And  shook  the  house,  and  like  a  storm 

he  went. 

Among  the  gifts  he  left  her  (possibly 
He  flow'd  and  ebb'd  uncertain,  to  return 
WThen  others  had  been  tested)  there  was 

one, 
A   dagger,    in   rich   sheath   with  jewels 

on  it 
Sprinkled  about  in  gold  that   branch'd 

itself 
Fine  as  ice-ferns  on  January  panes 
Made  by  a  breath.     I  know  not  whence 

at  first, 
Nor  of  what  race,  the  work;   but  as  he 

told 
The  story,  storming  a  hill-fort  of  thieves 
He  got  it;   for  their  captain  after  fight, 
His  comrades  having    fought    their  last 

below, 
Was  climbing  up  the  valley;    at  whom 

he  shot: 
Down  from  the  beetling  crag  to  which 

he  clung 
Tumbled  the  tawny  rascal  at  his  feet, 
This  dagger  with  him,  which  when  now 

admired 
By   Edith    whom   his    pleasure   was    to 

please, 
At  once  the  costly  Sahib  yielded  to  her. 

And  Leolin,  coming  after  he  was  gone, 
Tost  over  all  her  presents  petulantly : 


AYLMER' S  FIELD. 


H3 


And  when  she'show'd  the  wealthy  scab- 
bard, saying 

•  Look  what  a  lovely  piece  of  workman- 

ship ! ' 
Slight   was  his  answer,  •  Well  —  I  care 

not  for  it  : ' 
Then  playing  with  the  blade  he  prick'd 

his  hand, 
6  A  gracious  gift  to  give  a  lady,  this ! ' 
'  But   would  it  be  more  gracious,'  ask'd 

the  girl, 

•  Were  I  to  give  this  gift  of  his  to  one 
That   is   no    lady  ? '      '  Gracious  ?    No,' 

said  he. 

'  Me  ?  —  but  I  cared  not  for  it.  O  par- 
don me, 

I  seem  to  be  ungraciousness  itself.' 

•  Take  it,'  she  added   sweetly,  •  tho'  his 

gift; 
For  I  am  more  ungracious  ev'n  than  you, 
I  care  not  for  it  either;  '  and  he  said 
'  Why  then  I  love  it : '  but  Sir  Aylmer 

past, 
And  neither  loved   nor  liked  the  thing 

he  heard. 

The  next  day  came  a  neighbour. 
Blues  and  reds 

They  talk'd  of :  blues  were  sure  of  it,  he 
thought : 

Then  of  the  latest  fox  —  where  started 
—  kill'd 

In  such  a  bottom  :  *  Peter  had  the  brush, 

My  Peter,  first:'  and  did  Sir  Aylmer 
know 

That  great  pock-pitten  fellow  had  been 
caught  ? 

Then  made  his  pleasure  echo,  hand  to 
hand, 

And  rolling  as  it  were  the  substance  of  it 

Between  his  palms  a  moment  up  and 
down  — 

'The  birds  were  warm,  the  birds  were 
warm  upon  him;   , 

We  have  him  now : '  and  had  Sir  Ayl- 
mer heard  — 

Nay,  but  he  must  —  the  land  was  ring- 
ing of  it  — 

This  blacksmith  border-marriage  —  one 
they  knew  — 

Raw  from  the  nursery  —  who  could  trust 
a  child? 

That  cursed  France  with  her  egalities ! 


And  did  Sir  Aylmer  (deferentially 
With  nearing  chair  and  lower'd  accent) 

think  — 
For  people  talk'd  —  that   it  was  wholly 

wise 
To  let  that  handsome  fellow  Averill  walk 
So    freely   with    his   daughter  ?    people 

talk'd  — 
The  boy  might  get  a  notion  into  him; 
The   girl   might   be   entangled   ere   she 

knew. 
Sir    Aylmer    Aylmer    slowly    stiffening 

spoke : 
'  The  girl  and  boy,  Sir,  know  their  differ- 
ences ! ' 
'  Good,'   said   his   friend,   '  but  watch  ! ' 

and  he,  '  Enough, 
More  than  enough,  Sir !   I  can  guard  my 

own.' 
They   parted,   and   Sir   Aylmer   Aylmer 

watch'd. 

Pale,  for  on  her  the  thunders  of  the 

house 
Had   fallen   first,  was   Edith  that   same 

night; 
Pale  as  the  Jephtha's  daughter,  a  rough 

piece 
Of  early  rigid  colour,  under  which 
Withdrawing  by  the  counter  door  to  that 
Which  Leolin  open'd,  she  cast  back  upon 

him 
A  piteous  glance,  and  vanish'd.     He,  as 

one 
Caught  in  a  burst  of  unexpected  storm, 
And  pelted  with  outrageous  epithets, 
Turning  beheld  the  Powers  of  the  House 
On  either  side  the  hearth,  indignant  ;  her, 
Cooling  her  false  cheek  with  a  feather  fan, 
Him,   glaring,    by   his    own   stale   devil 

spurr'd, 
And,  like  a  beast  hard-ridden,  breathing 

hard. 
'  Ungenerous,  dishonourable,  base, 
Presumptuous !  trusted  as  he  was  with  her, 
The  sole  succeeder  to  their  wealth,  their 

lands, 
The  last  remaining  pillar  of  their  house, 
The  one  transmitter  of  their  ancient  name, 
Their  child.'    '  Our  child ! '  '  Our  heiress ! ' 

'  Ours  ! '  for  still, 
Like  echoes  from  beyond  a  hollow,  came 
Her  sicklier  iteration.     Last  he  said, 


144 


AYLMER' S  FIELD. 


*  Boy,  mark  me  !  for  your  fortunes  are  to 

make. 
I  swear  you  shall  not  make  them  out  of 

mine. 
Now  inasmuch  as  you  have  practised  on 

her, 
Perplext  her,  made  her  half  forget  herself, 
Swerve  from  her  duty  to  herself  and  us  — 
Things  in  an  Aylmer  deem'd  impossible, 
Far  as  we  track  ourselves  —  I  say  that 

this  — 
Else  I  withdraw  favour  and  countenance 
From  you  and  yours  for  ever  —  shall  you 

do. 
Sir,  when  you  see  her  —  but  you  shall  not 

see  her  — 
No,  you  shall  write,  and  not  to  her,  but 

me: 
And  you  shall  say  that   having   spoken 

with  me, 
And  after  look'd  into  yourself,  you  find 
That  you  meant  nothing —  as  indeed  you 

know 
That  you  meant  nothing.     Such  a  match 

as  this  1 
Impossible,    prodigious ! '    These    were 

words, 
As  meted  by  his  measure  of  himself, 
Arguing    boundless    forbearance :    after 

which, 
And  Leolin's  horror-stricken  answer,  'I 
So  foul  a  traitor  to  myself  and  her, 
Never  oh  never,'  for  about  as  long 
As   the   wind-hover    hangs   in   balance, 

paused 
Sir  Aylmer   reddening  from   the  storm 

within, 
Then  broke  all  bonds  of  courtesy,  and 

crying, 
'Boy,  should  I   find  you  by  my  doors 

again, 
My  men  shall  lash  you  from  them  like  a 

dog; 
Hence  ! '  with  a  sudden  execration  drove 
The  footstool  from  before  him,  and  arose; 
So,  stammering 'scoundrel'  out  of  teeth 

that  ground 
As  in  a  dreadful  dream,  while  Leolin  still 
Retreated  half-aghast,  the  fierce  old  man 
Follow'd,  and  under  his  own  lintel  stood 
Storming  with  lifted  hands,  a  hoary  face 
Meet  for  the  reverence  of  the  hearth,  but 

now, 


Beneath  a  pale  and  unimpassion'd  moon, 
Vext   with    unworthy  madness,  and  de 
form'd. 

Slowly  and  conscious  of  the  rageful  eye 
That   watch'd    him,    till   he    heard    the 

ponderous  door 
Close,  crashing  with  long  echoes  thro'  the 

land, 
Went  Leolin;   then,  his  passions   all  in 

flood 
And  masters  of  his  motion,  furiously 
Down    thro'    the    bright    lawns   to   his 

brother's  ran, 
And  foam'd  away  his  heart  at  Averill's 

ear : 
Whom    Averill    solaced    as    he    might, 

amazed : 
The  man  was  his,  had  been  his  father's, 

friend : 
He  must  have  seen,  himself  had  seen  it 

long; 
He  must  have  known,  himself  had  known : 

besides, 
He  never  yet  had  set  his  daughter  forth 
Here  in  the  woman-markets  of  the  west, 
Where  our  Caucasians  let  themselves  be 

sold. 
Some   one,   he   thought,    had    slander'd 

Leolin  to  him. 
'  Brother,  for  I  have  loved  you  more  as 

son 
Than  brother,  let  me  tell  you :  I  myself  — 
What  is  their  pretty  saying  ?  jilted,  is  it  ? 
Jilted  I  was :   I  say  it  for  your  peace. 
Pain'd,  and,  as   bearing   in   myself  the 

shame 
The  woman  should  have  borne,  humili- 
ated, 
I  lived  for  years  a  stunted  sunless  life; 
Till  after  our  good  parents  past  away 
Watching  your  growth,  I  seem'd  again  to 

grow. 
Leolin,  I  almosf:  sin  in  envying  you : 
The  very  whitest  lamb  in  all  my  fold 
Loves   you:     I    know    her:    the   worst 

thought' she  has 
Is  whiter  even  than  her  pretty  hand : 
She  must  prove  true  :  for,  brother,  where 

two  fight 
The  strongest  wins,  and  truth  and  love  are 

strength, 
And  you  are  happy :  let  her  parents  be.' 


AYLMER'S  FIELD. 


145 


But  Leolin  cried  out  the  more  upon 
them  — 

Insolent,  brainless,  heartless !  heiress, 
wealth, 

Their  wealth,  their  heiress !  wealth 
enough  was   theirs 

For  twenty  matches.  Were  he  lord  of 
this, 

Why  twenty  boys  and  girls  should  marry 
on  it, 

And  forty  blest  ones  bless  him,  and  him- 
self 

Be  wealthy  still,  ay  wealthier.  He  be- 
lieved 

This  filthy  marriage-hindering  Mammon 
made 

The  harlot  of  the  cities :  nature  crost 

Was  mother  of  the  foul  adulteries 

That  saturate  soul  with  body.  Name, 
too  !   name, 

Their  ancient  name !  they  might  be 
proud;    its  worth 

Was  being  Edith's.  Ah  how  pale  she 
had  look'd, 

Darling,  to-night !  they  must  have  rated 
her 

Beyond  all  tolerance.  These  old  pheasant- 
lords, 

These  partridge-breeders  of  a  thousand 
years, 

Who  had  mildew'd  in  their  thousands, 
doing  nothing 

Since  Egbert  —  why,  the  greater  their 
disgrace ! 

Fall  back  upon  a  name  !  rest,  rot  in  that ! 

Not  keep  it  noble,  make  it  nobler?  fools, 

With  such  a  vantage-ground  for  noble- 
ness ! 

He  had  known  a  man,,  a  quintessence  of 
man, 

The  life  of  all  —  who  madly  loved  —  and 
he, 

Thwarted  by  one  of  these  old  father-fools, 

Had  rioted  his  life  out,  and  made  an  end. 

He  would  not  do  it !  her  sweet  face  and 
faith 

Held  him  from  that :  but  he  had  powers, 
he  knew  it : 

Back  would  he  to  his  studies,  make  a  name, 

Name,  fortune  too :  the  world  should  ring 
of  him 

To  shame  these  mouldy  Aylmers  in  their 
graves : 


Chancellor,  or  what  is  greatest  would  he 

be  — 
•  O  brother,  I  am  grieved  to  learn  your 

grief— 
Give  me  my  fling,  and  let  me  say  my  say.' 

At  which,  like  one  that  sees  his  own 

excess, 
And  easily  forgives  it  as  his  own, 
He   laugh'd;    and  then  was  mute;    but 

presently 
Wept  like  a  storm:  and  honest  Averill 

seeing 
How  low  his  brother's  mood  had  fallen, 

fetch'd 
His  richest  beeswing  from  a  binn  reserved 
For  banquets,  praised  the  waning  red,  and 

told 
The  vintage  —  when  this  Aylmer  came  of 

age  — 
Then  drank  and  past  it;   till  at  length  the 

two, 
Tho'  Leolin  flamed  and  fell  again,  agreed 
That  much  allowance  must  be  made  for 

men. 
After  an  angry  dream  this  kindlier  glow 
Faded  with  morning,  but  his  purpose  held. 

Yet  once  by  night  again  the  lovers  met, 
A  perilous  meeting  under  the  tall  pines 
That  darken'd  all  the  northward  of  her 

Hall. 
Him,  to  her  meek  and  modest  bosom  prest 
In  agony,  she  promised  that  no  force, 
Persuasion,  no,  nor  death  could  alter  her : 
He,  passionately  hopefuller,  would  go, 
Labour  for  his  own  Edith,  and  return 
In  such  a  sunlight  of  prosperity 
He  should  not  be    rejected.     'Write  to 

me! 
They  loved  me,  and  because  I  love  their 

child 
They  hate  me :  there  is  war  between  us, 

dear, 
Which  breaks  all  bonds   but   ours;   we 

must  remain 
Sacred  to  one  another.'     So  they  talk'd, 
Poor   children,   for   their   comfort':    the 

wind  blew; 
The  rain  of  heaven,  and  their  own  bitter 

tears, 
Tears,  and  the  careless  rain  of  heaven, 

mixt 


146 


AYLMER'S  FIELD. 


Upon  their  faces,  as  they  kiss'd  each  other 
In  darkness,  and  above  them  roar'd  the 
pine. 

So  Leolin  went;  and  as  we  task  our- 
selves 
To  learn  a  language  known  but  smatter- 

ingly 
In  phrases  here  and  there  at  random, 

toil'd 
Mastering  the  lawless  science  of  our  law, 
That  codeless  myriad  of  precedent, 
That  wilderness  of  single  instances, 
Thro'  which  a  few,  by  wit  or  fortune  led, 
May  beat  a  pathway  out  to  wealth  and 

fame. 
The  jests,  that  flash'd  about  the  pleader's 

room, 
Lightning   of    the   hour,   the    pun,    the 

scurrilous  tale, — 
Old  scandals  buried  now  seven  decads 

deep 
In  other   scandals   that  have  lived  and 

died, 
And  left   the   living   scandal   that  shall 

die —  * 

Were  dead  to  him  already;   bent  as  he 

was 
To  make  disproof  of  scorn,  and  strong  in 

hopes,' 
And  prodigal  of  all  brain-labour  he, 
Charier  of  sleep,  and  wine,  and  exercise, 
Except  when  for  a  breathing-while  at  eve, 
Some  niggard  fraction  of  an  hour,  he  ran 
Beside  the  river-bank  :  and  then  indeed 
Harder  the  times  were,  and  the  hands  of 

power 
Were  bloodier,  and  the  according  hearts 

of  men 
Seem'd  harder  too;    but   the  soft  river- 
breeze, 
Which  fann'd  the  gardens  of  that  rival 

rose 
Yet  fragrant  ih  a  heart  remembering 
His  former   talks   with    Edith,    on   him 

breathed 
Far  purelier  in  his  rushings  to  and  fro, 
After  his  books,  to  flush  his  blood  with 

air, 
Then   to   his  books   again.     My   lady's 

cousin, 
Half-sickening  of  hispension'd  afternoon, 
Drove  in  upon  the  student  once  or  twice, 


Ran  a  Malayan  amuck  against  the  times, 
Had   golden   hopes  for   France  and  all 

mankind, 
Answer'd   all   queries  touching  those  at 

home 
With   a  heaved   shoulder   and   a   saucy 

smile, 
And   fain   had   haled  him   out  into  the 

world, 
And  air'd  him  there :  his  nearer  friend 

would  say, 
1  Screw  not  the  chord  too  sharply  lest  it 

snap.' 
Then  left  alone  he  pluck'd   her  dagger 

forth 
From  where  his  worldless  heart  had  kept 

it  warm, 
Kissing  his  vows  upon  it  like  a  knight. 
And  wrinkled  benchers  often   talk'd  of 

him 
Approvingly,  and  prophesied  his  rise : 
For  heart,    I  think,    help'd   head:    her 

letters  too, 
Tho'  far  between,  and  coming  fitfully 
Like  broken  music,  written  as  she  found 
Or  made  occasion,  being  strictly  watch'd, 
Charm'd  him  thro'  every  labyrinth  till  he 

saw 
An  end,  a  hope,  a  light  breaking  upon 

him. 

But  they  that  cast  her  spirit  into  flesh, 
Her  worldly-wise  begetters,  plagued  them- 
selves 
To  sell  her,  those  good  parents,  for  her 

good. 
Whatever  eldest-born  of  rank  or  wealth 
Might  lie  within  their  compass,  him  they 

lured 
Into  their  net  made  pleasant  by  the  baits 
Of  gold  and  beauty,  wooing  him  to  woo. 
So  month  by  month  the  noise  about  their 

doors, 
And  distant  blaze  of  those  dull  banquets, 

made 
The  nightly  wirer  of  their  innocent  hare 
Falter  before  he  took  it.     All  in  vain. 
Sullen,  defiant,  pitying,  wroth,  return'd 
Leolin's  rejected  rivals  from  their  suit 
So  often,  that  the  folly  taking  wings 
Slipt  o'er  those  lazy  limits  down  the  wind 
With  rumour,  and  became  in  other  fields 
A  mockery  to  the  yeomen  over  ale, 


ALYMEFS  FIELD. 


HI 


And  laughter  to  their  lords :  but  those  at 

home, 
As  hunters  round  a  hunted  creature  draw 
The  cordon  close  and  closer  toward  the 

death, 
Narrovv'd  her  goings  out  and  comings  in; 
Forbade  her  first  the  house  of  Averill, 
Then  closed  her  access  to  the  wealthier 

farms, 
Last  from   her   own  home-circle  of  the 

poor 
They  barr'd  her:    yet  she  bore  it:  yet 

her  cheek 
Kept  colour :  wondrous !  but,  O  mystery ! 
What  amulet  drew  her  down  to  that  old 

oak, 
So  old,  that  twenty  years  before,  a  part 
Falling   had   let    appear    the   brand  of 

John  — 
Once  grovelike,  each  huge  arm  a  tree, 

but  now 
The  broken  base  of  a  black  tower,  a  cave 
Of  touchwood,  with  a  single  flourishing 

spray. 
There  the  manorial  lord  too  curiously 
Raking  in  that  millennial  touchwood-dust 
Found  for  himself  a  bitter  treasure-trove; 
Burst  his  own  wyvern  on  the  seal,  and  read 
Writhing  a  letter  from  his  child,  for  which 
Came  at  the  moment  Leolin's  emissary, 
A  crippled  lad,  and  coming  turn'd  to  fly, 
But  scared  with  threats  of  jail  and  halter 

gave 
To  him  that  fluster'd  his  poor  parish  wits 
The  letter  which  he  brought,  and  swore 

besides 
To  play  their  go-between  as  heretofore 
Nor  let  them  know  themselves  #betray'd; 

and  then, 
Soul-stricken  at  their   kindness  to  him, 

went 
Hating  his  own  lean  heart  and  miserable. 

Thenceforward  oft  from  out  a  despot 

dream 
The  father  panting  woke,  and  oft,  as  dawn 
Aroused  the  black  republic  on  his  elms, 
Sweeping   the   frothfly  from   the  fescue 

brush'd 
Thro'    the    dim     meadow     toward     his 

treasure-trove, 
Seized  it,  took  home,  and  to  my  lady, — 

who  made 


A   downward    crescent   of    her    minio* 

mouth, 
Listless  in  all  despondence,  —  read;   and 

tore, 
As  if  the  living  passion  symbol'd  there 
Were  living  nerves  to  feel  the  rent;   and 

burnt, 
Now  chafing  at  his  own  great  self  defied, 
Now  striking  on  huge  stumbling-blocks 

of  scorn 
In  babyisms,  and  dear  diminutives 
Scatter'd  all  over  the  vocabulary 
Of  such  a  love  as  like  a  chidden  child, 
After  much  wailing,  hush'd  itself  at  last 
Hopeless  of  answer:    then  tho'  Averih 

wrote 
And  bade  him  with  good  heart  sustain 

himself — 
All  would  be  well  —  the  lover  heeded  not, 
But  passionately  restless  came  and  went, 
And  rustling  once  at  night  about  the  place, 
There  by  a  keeper  shot  at,  slightly  hurt, 
Raging  return'd :  nor  was  it  well  for  her 
Kept  to  the  garden  now,  and  grove  of 

pines, 
Watch'd  even  there;  and  one  was  set  to 

watch 
The   watcher,  and   Sir  Aylmer  watch'd 

them  all, 
Yet   bitterer   from    his   readings:    once 

indeed, 
Warm'd  with  his  wines,  or  taking  pride 

in  her, 
She  look'd  so  sweet,  he  kiss'd  her  tenderly 
Not  knowing  what  possess'd  him :  that 

one  kiss 
Was  Leolin's  one  strong  rival  upon  earth ; 
Seconded,  for  my  lady  follow'd  suit, 
Seem'd  hope's  returning  rose :  and  then 

ensued  . 
A  Martin's  summer  of  his  faded  love, 
Or  ordeal  by  kindness;   after  this 
He  seldom  crost  his  child  without  a  sneer ; 
The  mother  flow'd  in  shallower  acrimo- 
nies : 
Never  one  kindly  smile,  one  kindly  word  : 
So  that  the  gentle  creature  shut  from  all 
Her  charitable  use,  and  face  to  face 
With  twenty  months  of  silence,  slowly  lost 
Nor  greatly  cared  to  lose,  her  hold  on  life. 
Last,  some  low  fever  ranging  round  to 

spy 
The  weakness  of  a  people  or  a  house, 


148 


AYLMEK>S  FIELD. 


Like  flies  that  haunt  a  wound,  or  deer,  or 

men, 
Or  almost  all  that  is,  hurting  the  hurt  — 
Save  Christ  as  we   believe  him  —  found 

the  girl 
And  flung  her  down  upon  a  couch  of 

fire, 
Where  careless  of  the  household   faces 

near, 
And  crying  upon  the  name  of  Leolin, 
She,  and  with  her  the  race  of  Aylmer, 

past. 

Star  to  star  vibrates  light :  may  soul  to 

soul 
Strike  thro'  a  finer  element  of  her  own? 
So,  —  from  afar,  —  touch  as  at  once  ?  or 

why 
That  night,  that  moment,  when  she  named 

his  name, 
Did  the  keen  shriek, '  Yes,  love,  yes,  Edith, 

yes,' 
Shrill,  till  the  comrade  of  his  chambers 

woke, 
And  came  upon  him  half-arisen  from  sleep, 
With  a  weird  bright  eye,  sweating  and 

trembling, 
His  hair  as  it  were  crackling  into  flames, 
His  body  half  flung  forward  in  pursuit, 
And  his  long  arms  stretch'd  as  to  grasp  a 

flyer: 
Nor  knew  he  wherefore  he  had  made  the 

cry; 
And  being  much  befool'd  and  idioted 
By  the  rough  amity  of  the  other,  sank 
As  into  isleep  again.     The  second  day, 
My  lady's  Indian  kinsman  rushing  in, 
A  breaker  of  the  bitter  news  from  home, 
Pound  a  dead  man,  a  letter  edged  with 

death 
Beside  him,  and  the  dagger  which  himself 
Gave  Edith,  redden'd  with   no  bandit's 

blood : 
*  From  Edith '  was  engraven  on  the  blade. 

Then  Averill  went  and  gazed  upon  his 
death. 

And  when  he  came  again,  his  flock  be- 
lieved — 

Beholding  how  the  years  which  are  not 
Time's 

Had  blasted  him  —  that  many  thousand 
days 


Were   dipt  by  horror  from  his  term  oi 

life. 
Yet  the  sad  mother,  for  the  second  death 
Scarce  touch'd  her  thro'  that  nearness  of 

the  first, 
And  being  used  to  find  her  pastor  texts, 
Sent   to  the  harrow'd    brother,   praying 

him 
To  speak  before  the  people  of  her  child, 
And  fixt  the  Sabbath.     Darkly  that  day 

rose  : 
Autumn's   mock   sunshine  of  the  faded 

woods 
Was  all  the  life  of  it;   for  hard  on  these, 
A    breathless     burthen     of     low-folded 

heavens 
Stifled  and  chill'd  at  once;   but  every  roof 
Sent  out  a  listener  :  many  too  had  known 
Edith   among   the   hamlets   round,   and 

since 
The  parents'  harshness  and  the  hapless 

loves 
And  double  death  were  widely  murmur'd, 

left 
Their    own    gray   tower,   or   plain-faced 

tabernacle, 
To  hear  him;   all  in  mourning  these,  and 

those 
With  blots  of  it  about  them,  ribbon,  glove 
Or   kerchief;    while    the    church,  —  one 

night,  except 
For  greenish  glimmerings  thro'  the  lancets, 

—  made 
Still  paler  the  pale   head   of  him,  who 

tower'd 
Above  them,  with  his  hopes  in  either 

grave. 

Long    o'er    his    bent   brows  linger'd 

Averill, 
His  face  magnetic  to  the  hand  from  which 
Livid  he  pluck'd  it  forth,  and  labour'd 

thro' 
His  brief  prayer-prelude,  gave  the  verse 

'  Behold, 
Your  house  is  left  unto  you  desolate  ! ' 
But  lapsed  into  so  long  a  pause  again 
As  half  amazed,  half  frighted  all  his  flock : 
Then  from  his  height  and  loneliness  of 

grief 
Bore  down  in  flood,  and  dash'd  his  angry 

heart 
Against  the  desolations  of  the  world. 


AYLMEFS  FIELD. 


149 


Never  since  our  bad  earth  became  one 

sea, 
Which   rolling  o'er  the  palaces   of  the 

proud, 
And  all  but  those  who  knew  the  living 

God  — 
Eight   that  were   left  to  make  a  purer 

world  — 
When  since  had  flood,  fire,  earthquake, 

thunder,  wrought 
Such  waste  and  havock  as  the  idolatries, 
Which  from  the  low  light  of  mortality 
Shot  up  their  shadows  to  the  Heaven  of 

Heavens, 
And  worshipt  their  own  darkness  in  the 

Highest? 
Gash   thyself,   priest,   and   honour   thy 

brute  Baal, 
And  to  thy  worst  self  sacrifice  thyself, 
For  with  thy  worst  self  hast  thou  clothed 

thy  God. 
Then  came  a  Lord  in  no   wise   like  to 

Baal. 
The  babe  shall  lead  the  lion.     Surely  now 
The  wilderness  shall  blossom  as  the  rose. 
Crown  thyself,  worm,  and  worship  thine 

own  lusts !  — 
No  coarse  and  blockish  God  of  acreage 
Stands  at  thy  gate  for  thee  to  grovel  to  — 
Thy  God  is  far  diffused  in  noble  groves 
And  princely  halls,  and  farms,  and  flowing 

lawns, 
And  heaps  of  living  gold  that  daily  grow, 
And  title-scrolls  and  gorgeous  heraldries. 
In  such  a  shape  dost  thou  behold  thy 

God. 
Thou  wilt  not  gash  thy  flesh  for  him  ;  for 

thine 
Fares  richly,  in  fine  linen,  not  a  hair 
Ruffled  upon  the  scarfskin,  even  while 
The  deathless  ruler  of  thy  dying  house 
Is  wounded  to  the  death  that  cannot  die; 
And  tho'  thou  numberest  with  the  fol- 
lowers 
Of  One  who  cried,  "  Leave  all  and  follow 

me." 
Thee  therefore  with  His  light  about  thy 

feet, 
Thee  with  His  message  ringing  in  thine 

ears, 
Thee  shall  thy  brother  man,  the  Lord  from 

Heaven, 
Born  of  a  village  girl,  carpenter's  son, 


Wonderful,  Prince  of  peace,  the  Mighty 

God, 
Count  the  more  base  idolater  of  the  two; 
Crueller :  as  not  passing  thro'  the  fire 
Bodies,  but  souls  —  thy  children's  —  thro' 

the  smoke, 
The  blight  of  low   desires  —  darkening 

thine  own 
To   thine    own   likeness;    or   if  one   of 

these, 
Thy  better  born  unhappily  from  thee, 
Should,  as  by  miracle,  grow  straight  and 

fair  — 
Friends,  I  was  bid  to  speak  of  such   a 

one 
By  those  who  most  have  cause  to  sorrow 

for  her  — 
Fairer  than  Rachel  by  the  palmy  well, 
Fairer   than   Ruth   among   the  fields  of 

corn, 
Fair  as  the  Angel  that  said  "  Hail ! "  she 

seem'd, 
Who  entering  fill'd  the  house  with  sudden 

light. 
For  so  mine  own  was  brighten'd :  where 

indeed 
The  roof   so   lowly  but  that  beam   of 

Heaven 
Dawn'd    sometime   thro'   the   doorway? 

whose  the  babe 
Too  ragged  to  be  fondled  on  her  lap, 
Warm'd  at  her  bosom?     The  poor  child 

of  shame, 
The  common  care  whom  no  one  cared 

for,  leapt 
To  greet  her,  wasting  his  forgotten  heart, 
As  with  the  mother  he  had  never  known, 
In  gambols;   for  her  fresh  and  innocent 

eyes 
Had  such  a  star  of  morning  in  their  blue, 
That  all  neglected  places  of  the  field 
Broke  into  nature's  music  when  they  saw 

her. 
Low  was  her  voice,  but  won  mysterious 

way 
Thro'  the  seal'd  ear  to  which  a  louder 

one 
Was  all  but  silence  —  free  of  alms  her 

hand  — 
The  hand  that  robed  your  cottage-walls 

with  flowers 
Has   often    toil'd    to   clothe   your    little 

ones; 


AYLMER'S  FIELD. 


How  often  placed  upon  the  sick  man's 

Sat  anger-charm'd  from  sorrow,  soldier- 

brow 

like, 

Cool'd   it,    or    laid    his   feverous   pillow 

Erect :  but  when  the  preacher's  cadence 

smooth ! 

flow'd 

Had  you  one  sorrow  and  she  shared  it 

Softening  thro'  all  the  gentle  attributes 

not? 

Of  his  lost  child,  the  wife,  who  watch'd 

One  burthen  and  she  would  not  lighten 

his  face, 

it? 

Paled   at   a   sudden  twitch  of  his   iron 

One  spiritual  doubt  she  did  not  soothe? 

mouth ; 

Or  when  some  heat  of  difference  sparkled 

And,  '  0  pray  God  that  he  hold  up,'  she 

out, 

thought, 

How  sweetly  would   she  glide  between 

1  Or  surely  I  shall  shame  myself  and  him.' 

your  wraths, 

And  steal  you  from  each  other !  for  she 

'  Nor  yours  the  blame  —  for  who  beside 

walk'd 

your  hearths 

Wearing  the  light  yoke  of  that  Lord  of 

Can  take  her  place  —  if  echoing  me  you 

love, 

cry 

Who  still'd  the  rolling  wave  of  Galilee  ! 

"  Our  house  is  left  unto  us  desolate  "? 

And   one  —  of   him   I   was   not   bid   to 

But  thou,  O  thou  that  killest,  hadst  thou 

speak  — 

known, 

Was  always  with   her,  whom   you   also 

0  thou  that  stonest,  hadst  thou  under- 

knew. 

stood 

Him  too  you  loved,  for  he  was  worthy 

The  things  belonging  to  thy  peace  and 

love. 

ours! 

And  these  had  been  together  from  the 

Is  there  no  prophet  but  the  voice  that 

first; 

calls 

They  might  have  been  together  till  the 

Doom  upon  kings,  or  in  the  waste  "  Re- 

last. 

pent  "  ? 

Friends,  this   frail   bark   of  ours,  when 

Is  not  our  own  child  on  the  narrow  way, 

sorely  tried, 

Who  down  to  those  that  saunter  in  the 

May   wreck    itself    without    the    pilot's 

broad 

guilt, 

Cries  "  Come  up  hither,"  as  a  prophet  to 

Without  the  captain's  knowledge :  hope 

us? 

with  me. 

Is  there  no  stoning  save  with  flint  and 

Whose  shame  is  that,  if  he  went  hence 

rock? 

with  shame? 

Yes,  as  the  dead  we  weep  for  testify  — 

Nor  mine  the  fault,    if  losing   both  of 

No  desolation  but  by  sword  and  fire? 

these 

Yes,  as  your  moanings  witness,  and  my- 

I cry  to  vacant  chairs  and  widow'd  walls, 

self 

"  My  house  is  left  unto  me  desolate."  ' 

Am  lonelier,  darker,  earthlier  for  my  loss. 

Give  me  your  prayers,  for  he  is  past  your 

While  thus  he  spoke,  his  hearers  wept; 

prayers, 

but  some, 

Not    past   the   living   fount   of    pity   in 

Sons  of  the  glebe,  with  other  frowns  than 

Heaven. 

those 

But  I  that  thought  myself  long-suffering, 

That  knit  themselves  for  summer  shadow, 

meek, 

scowl'd 

Exceeding  "  poor  in  spirit  "  —  how  the 

At  their  great  lord.     He,  when  it  seem'd 

words 

he  saw 

Have  twisted  back  upon  themselves,  and 

No  pale  sheet-lightnings  from  afar,  but 

mean 

fork'd 

Vileness,   we    are   grown    so   proud  —  I 

Of  the  near  storm,  and   aiming   at    his 

wish'd  my  voice 

head, 

A  rushing  tempest  of  the  wrath  of  God 

AYLMER'S  FIELD. 


To  blow  these  sacrifices  thro'  the  world — 
Sent  like  the  twelve-divided  concubine 
To  inflame  the  tribes :    but  there  —  out 

yonder  — earth 
Lightens  from  her  own  central  Hell  — 

O  there 
The  red  fruit  of  an  old  idolatry  — 
The  heads  of  chiefs  and  princes  fall  so 

fast, 
They  cling  together  in  the  ghastly  sack  — 
The  land  all  shambles —  naked  marriages 
Flash  from  the  bridge,  and  ever-murder'd 

France, 
By  shores  that  darken  with  the  gathering 

wolf, 
Runs   in  a  river  of  blood   to   the  sick 

sea. 
Is  this  a  time  to  madden  madness  then? 
Was  this  a  time  for  these  to  flaunt  their 

pride  ? 
May  Pharaoh's  darkness,  folds  as  dense 

as  those 
Which  hid  the  Holiest  from  the  people's 

eyes 
Ere    the  great  death,  shroud  this  great 

sin  from  all ! 
Doubtless  our  narrow  world  must  canvass 

it: 
O  rather  pray  for  those  and  pity  them, 
Who,    thro'    their    own    desire    accom- 

plish'd,  bring 
Their  own  gray  hairs  with  sorrow  to  the 

grave  — 
Who  broke  the  bond  which  they  desired 

to  break, 
Which  else  had  link'd  their  race  with 

times  to  come  — 
Who   wove   coarse   webs   to   snare    her 

purity, 
Grossly  contriving  their  dear  daughter's 

good  — 
Poor  souls,  and  knew  not  what  they  did, 

but  sat 
Ignorant,  devising  their  own  daughter's 

death ! 
May  not  that  earthly  chastisement  suffice? 
Have  not  our  love    and   reverence   left 

them  bare? 
Will  not  another  take  their  heritage? 
Will  there  be  children's  laughter  in  their 

hall 
For  ever  and  for  ever,  or  one  stone 
Left  on  another,  or  is  it  a  light  thing 


That    I,   their    guest,   their   host,   their 

ancient  friend, 
I  made  by  these  the  last  of  all  my  race, 
Must  cry  to  these  the  last  of  theirs,  as 

cried 
Christ  ere  His  agony  to  those  that  swore 
Not  by  the  temple  but  the  gold,  and  made 
Their  own  traditions  God,  and  slew  the 

Lord, 
And  left  their  memories  a  world's  curse  — 

"  Behold, 
Your  house  is  left  unto  you  desolate"?' 

Ended  he  had  not,  but  she  brook'd  no 

more: 
Long  since  her  heart  had  beat  remorse- 
lessly, 
Her  crampt-up  sorrow  pain'd  her,  and  a 

sense 
Of  meanness  in  her  unresisting  life. 
Then  their  eyes  vext  her;  for  on  entering 
He  had  cast  the   curtains  of  their  seat 

aside  — 
Black  velvet  of  the  costliest  — she  herself 
Had  seen  to  that :  fain  had  she  closed 

them  now, 
Yet  dared  not  stir  to  do  it,  only  near'd 
Her  husband  inch  by  inch,  but  when  she 

laid, 
Wifelike,  her  hand  in  one  of  his,  he  veil'd 
His  face  with  the  other,  and  at  once,  as 

falls 
A  creeper  when  the  prop  is  broken,  fell 
The  woman   shrieking  at   his  feet,  and 

swoon'd. 
Then   her   own   people   bore  along  the 

nave 
Her  pendent  hands,  and  narrow  meagre 

face 
Seam'd   with  the  shallow  cares   of  fifty 

years : 
And  her  the  Lord  of  all  the  landscape 

round 
Ev'n  to  its  last  horizon,  and  of  all 
Who  peer'd  at  him  so  keenly,  follow'd 

out 
Tall  and  erect,  but  in  the  middle  aisle 
Reel'd,   as   a    footsore   ox    in    crowded 

ways 
Stumbling  across  the  market  to  his  death, 
Unpitied;   for  he   groped  as  blind,  and 

seem'd 
Always  about  to  fall,  grasping  the  pews 


«5* 


SEA   DREAMS. 


And   oaken   finials   till   he   touch'd  the 

door; 
Yet  to  the    lychgate,  where  his  chariot 

stood, 
Strode   from   the   porch,  tall   and  erect 

again. 

But  nevermore  did  either  pass  the  gate 
Save   under   pall  with  bearers.     In  one 

month,  • 

Thro'  weary  and  yet  ever  wearier  hours, 
The  childless  mother  went  to  seek  her 

child; 
And  when   he  felt   the    silence   of  his 

house 
About  him,  and  the  change  and  not  the 

change, 
And  those  fixt  eyes  of  painted  ancestors 
Staring  for  ever  from  their  gilded  walls 
On  him  their  last  descendant,  his  own 

head 
Began  to  droop,  to  fall;  the  man  became 
Imbecile;  his  one  word  was  'desolate;  ' 
Dead  for  two  years  before  his  death  was 

he; 
But  when  the  second  Christmas  came, 

escaped 
His  keepers,  and  the  silence  which  he 

felt, 
To  find  a  deepei:  in  the  narrow  gloom 
By  wife  and  child;    nor  wanted  at   his 

end 
The  dark  retinue  reverencing  death 
At  golden  thresholds;   nor  from  tender 

hearts, 
And  those  who  sorrow1  d  o'er  a  vanish'd 

race, 
Pity,  the  violet  on  the  tyrant's  grave. 
Then  the  great  Hall  was  wholly  broken 

down, 
And  the  broad  woodland  parcell'd   into 

farms; 
And     where    the    two    contrived    their 

daughter's  good, 
Lies  the  hawk's  cast,  the  mole  has  made 

his  run, 
The  hedgehog  underneath  the  plantain 

bores, 
The   rabbit    fondles   his    own    harmless 

face, 
The    slow- worm   creeps,   and    the   thin 

weasel  there 
Follows  the  mouse,  and  all  is  open  field. 


SEA   DREAMS. 

A  CITY  clerk,  but  gently  born  and  bred ; 
His   wife,  an    unknown   artist's   orphan 

child  — 
One  babe  was  theirs,  a  Margaret,  three 

years  old-: 
They,  thinking  that  her  clear  germander 

eye 
Droopt  in  the  giant-factoried  city-gloom, 
Came,  with  a  month's  leave  given  them, 

to  the  sea  : 
For  which  his  gains  were  dock'd,  however 

small : 
Small  were  his  gains,  and  hard  his  work; 

besides, 
Their  slender  household  fortunes  (for  the 

man 
Had  risk'd  his  little)  like  the  little  thrift, 
Trembled  in  perilous  places  o'er  a  deep : 
And  oft,  when  sitting  all  alone,  his  face 
Would  darken,  as  he  cursed  his  credulous- 

ness, 
And  that  one  unctuous  mouth  which  lured 

him,  rogue, 
To  buy  strange  shares  in  some  Peruvian 

mine. 
Now     seaward-bound    for    health    they 

gain'd  a  coast, 
All   sand  and  cliff  and   deep-inrunning 

cave, 
At  close  of  day;  slept,  woke,  and  went 

the  next, 
The   Sabbath,   pious   variers    from    the 

church, 
To  chapel;  where  a  heated  pulpiteer, 
Not   preaching  simple  Christ   to  simple 

men, 
Announced  the   coming  doom,  and  ful- 
minated 
Against  the  scarlet  woman  and  her  creed; 
For  sideways  up  he  swung  his  arms,  and 

shriek'd 
'Thus,  thus  with  violence,'  ev'n  as  if  he 

held 
The  Apocalyptic  milestone,  and  himself 
Were    that    great   Angel;     'Thus   with 

violence 
Shall  Babylon  be  cast  into  the  sea; 
Then   comes    the    close.'     The    gentle- 
hearted  wife 
Sat  shuddering  at  the  ruin  of  a  world; 
He  at  his  own  :  but  when  the  wordy  storm 


SEA   DREAMS. 


*53 


Had  ended,  forth  they  came  and  paced 

the  shore, 
Ran  in  and  out  the  long  sea-framing  caves, 
Drank  the  large  air,  and  saw,  but  scarce 

believed 
(The  sootflake  of  so  many  a  summer  still 
Clung  to  their  fancies)  that  they  saw,  the 

sea. 
So  now  on  sand  they  walk'd,  and  now  on 

cliff, 
I  angering  about  the  thymy  promontories, 
Till  all  the  sails  were  darken'd  in  the  west, 
And  rosed  in  the  east :  then  homeward 

and  to  bed : 
Where  she,  who  kept  a  tender  Christian 

hope, 
Haunting  a  holy  text,  and  still  to  that 
Returning,  as  the  bird  returns,  at  night, 
'  Let   not   the  sun   go  down  upon  your 

wrath,' 
Said, '  Love,  forgive  him :  '  but  he  did  not 

speak ; 
And  silenced  by  that  silence  lay  the  wife, 
Remembering  her  dear  Lord  who  died 

for  all. 
And  musing  on  the  little  lives  of  men, 
And  how  they  mar  this  little  by  their  feuds. 

But  while  the  two  were  sleeping,  a  full 

tide 
Rose   with  ground-swell,  which,  on  the 

foremost  rocks 
Touching,  upjetted  in  spirts  of  wild  sea- 
smoke, 
And  scaled  in  sheets  of  wasteful  foam, 

and  fell 
In  vast  sea- cataracts  —  ever  and  anon 
Dead  claps  of  thunder  from  within  the 

cliffs 
Heard  thro'  the  living  roar.     At  this  the 

babe, 
Their  Margaret  cradled  near  them,  wail'd 

and  woke 
The  mother,  and  the  father  suddenly  cried, 
'  A  wreck,  a  wreck ! '  then  turn'd,  and 

groaning  said, 

'  Forgive !     How  many  will  say,  "  for- 
give," and  find 
A  sort  of  absolution  in  the  sound 
To  hate  a  little  longer  !     No;   the  sin 
That  neither  God  nor  man  can  well  for- 
give, 


Hypocrisy,  I  saw  it  in  him  at  once. 
Is  it  so  true  that  second  thoughts  are  best? 
Not  first,  and  third,  which  are  a  riper  first? 
Too  ripe,  too  late !  they  come  too  late 

for  use. 
Ah  love,  there  surely  lives  in  man  and 

beast 
Something  divine  to  warn  them  of  their 

foes: 
And  such  a  sense,  when  first  I  fronted 

him, 
Said,  "Trust  him  not;"  but  after,  when 

I  came 
To  know  him  more,  I  lost  it,  knew  him 

less; 
Fought  with  what  seem'd  my  own   un- 

charity; 
Sat  at  his  table;   drank  his  costly  wines; 
Made  more  and  more  allowance  for  his 

talk; 
"Went  further,  fool !  and  trusted  him  with 

all, 
All  my  poor  scrapings  from  a  dozen  years 
Of  dust  and  desk  work:  there  is  no  such 

mine, 
None ;  but  a  gulf  of  ruin,  swallowing  gold, 
Not   making.     Ruin'd !  ruin'd !  the   sea 

roars 
Ruin :  a  fearful  night ! ' 

'Not  fearful;   fair,' 
Said   the   good   wife,   'if  every   star  in 

heaven 
Can  make  it  fair:  you  do  but  hear  the  tide. 
Had  you  ill  dreams?' 

'O  yes,'  he  said,  '  I  dream' d 
Of  such  a  tide  swelling  toward  the  land, 
And  I  from  out  the  boundless  outer  deep 
Swept  with  it  to  the  shore,  and  enter'd  one 
Of  those  dark  caves  that  run  beneath  the 

cliffs. 
I  thought  the  motion  of  the  boundless 

deep 
Bore  thro'  the  cave,  and  I  was  heaved 

upon  it 
In  darkness  :  then  I  saw  one  lovely  star 
Larger  and  larger.     "  What  a  world,"  I 

thought, 
"To  live  in  !  "  but  in  moving  on  I  found 
Only  the  landward  exit  of  the  cave, 
Bright   with   the   sun   upon   the   stream 

beyond: 


'54 


SEA  DREAMS. 


And  near  the  light  a  giant  woman  sat, 
All  over  earthy,  like  a  piece  of  earth, 
A  pickaxe  in  her  hand  :  then  out  I  slipt 
Into  a  land  all  sun  and  blossom,  trees 
As  high  as  heaven,  and  every  bird  that 

sings : 
And  here  the  night-light  flickering  in  my 

eyes 
Awoke  me.' 

'That  was  then  your  dream,'  she  said, 
'  Not  sad,  but  sweet.' 

'  So  sweet,  I  lay,'  said  he, 
'And  mused   upon   it,    drifting   up    the 

stream 
In  fancy,  till  I  slept  again,  and  pieced 
The  broken  vision ;  for  I  dream'd  that  still 
The  motion  of  the  great  deep  bore  me  on, 
And  that  the  woman  walk'd   upon   the 

brink : 
I  wonder'd  at  her  strength,  and  ask'd  her 

of  it: 
"  It  came,"  she  said,  "  by  working  in  the 

mines :  " 
O  then  to  ask  her  of  my  shares,  I  thought ; 
And  ask'd;   but  not  a  word;   she  shook 

her  head. 
And   then   the   motion   of  the   current 

ceased, 
And  there  was  rolling  thunder;   and  we 

reach'd 
A  mountain,  like  a   wall   of  burs   and 

thorns; 
But  she  with  her  strong  feet  up  the  steep 

,     hill 
Trod  out  a  path :  I  follow'd ;  and  at  top 
She   pointed  seaward:  there  a  fleet  of 

glass, 
That  seem'd  a  fleet  of  jewels  under  me, 
Sailing  along  before  a  gloomy  cloud 
That  not  one  moment  ceased  to  thunder, 

past 
In  sunshine:  right  across  its  track  there 

lay, 
Down  in  the  water,  a  long  reef  of  gold, 
Or  what  seem'd  gold  :  and  I  was  glad  at 

first 
To  think  that  in  our  often-ransack'd  world 
Still  so  much  gold  was  left;   and  then  I 

fear'd 
Lest  the  gay  navy  there  should  splinter 

on  it, 


And  fearing  waved  my  arm  to  warn  them 

off; 
An  idle  signal,  for  the  brittle  fleet 
(I  thought  I  could  have  died  to  save  it) 

near'd, 
Touch'd,  clink'd,  and  clash'd,  and  van- 

ish'd,  and  I  woke, 
I  heard  the  clash  so  clearly.     Now  I  see 
My  dream  was  Life;   the  woman  honest 

Work; 
And  my  poor  venture  but  a  fleet  of  glass 
Wreck'd  on  a  reef  of  visionary  gold.' 

'  Nay,'  said  the  kindly  wife  to  comfort 

him, 
'  You  raised  your  arm,  you  tumbled  down 

and  broke 
The  glass  with  little  Margaret's  medicine 

in  it; 
And,  breaking  that,  you  made  and  broke 

your  dream: 
A  trifle  makes  a  dream,  a  trifle  breaks.' 

'  No  trifle,'  groan'd  the  husband ;  '  yes- 
terday 
I  met  him  suddenly  in  the  street,  and  ask'd 
That  which  I  ask'd  the  woman  in  my 

dream. 
Like  her,  he  shook  his  head.   "  Show  me 

the  books ! " 
He   dodged  me  with  a  long  and  loose 

account. 
"The  books,   the  books!"   but  he,  he 

could  not  wait, 
Bound  on  a  matter  he  of  life  and  death : 
When  the  great  Books  (see  Daniel  seven 

and  ten) 
Were  open'd,  I  should  find  he  meant  me 

well; 
And  then  began  to  bloat  himself,  and  ooze 
All  over  with  the  fat  affectionate  smile 
That  makes  the  widow  lean.  "  My  dearest 

friend, 
Have  faith,  have  faith  !  We  live  by  faith," 

said  he; 
"And  all  things  work  together  for  the 

good 
Of  those  "  —  it  makes  me  sick  to  quote 

him  —  last 
Gript  my  hand  hard,  and  with  God-bless- 

you  went. 
I  stood  like  one  that  had  received  a  blow : 
I  found  a  hard  friend  in  his  loose  accounts, 


SEA  DREAMS. 


'55 


A  loose  one  in  the  hard  grip  of  his  hand, 
A  curse  in  his  God-bless-you :  then  my 

eyes 
Pursued   him   down  the  street,  and  far 

away, 
Among  the  honest  shoulders  of  the  crowd, 
Read  rascal  in  the  motions  of  his  back, 
And  scoundrel  in  the  supple-sliding  knee.' 

'Was  he  so  bound,  poor  soul?' said 

the  good  wife; 
1  So  are  we  all :  but  do  not  call  him,  love, 
Before  you  prove  him,  rogue,  and  proved, 

forgive. 
His  gain  is  loss;   for  he  that  wrongs  his 

friend 
Wrongs   himself  more,  and  ever  bears 

about 
A  silent  court  of  justice  in  his  breast, 
Himself  the  judge  and  jury,  and  himself 
The  prisoner  at  the  bar,  ever  condemn'd: 
And  that  drags  down  his  life  :  then  comes 

what  conies 
Hereafter:    and  he  meant,  he  said  he 

meant, 
Perhaps  he  meant,  or  partly  meant,  you 

well.' 

' "  With  all  his  conscience  and  one  eye 

askew  "  — 
Love,  let  me  quote  these  lines,  that  you 

may  learn 
A  man  is  likewise  counsel  for  himself, 
Too  often,  in  that  silent  court  of  yours  — 
"With   all  his  conscience  and  one  eye 

askew, 
So  false,  he  partly  took  himself  for  true ; 
Whose  pious  talk,  when  most  his  heart 

was  dry, 
Made  wet  the  crafty  crowsfoot  round  his 

eye; 
Who,  never  naming  God  except  for  gain, 
So  never  took  that  useful  name  in  vain, 
Made  Him  his  catspaw  and  the  Cross  his 

tool, 
And  Christ  the  bait  to  trap  his  dupe  and 

fool; 
Nor  deeds  of  gift,  but  gifts  of  grace  he 

forged, 
And  snake-like  slimed  his  victim  ere  he 

gorged; 
And  oft  at  Bible  meetings,  o'er  the  rest 
Arising,  did  his  holy  oily  best, 


Dropping  the  too  rough  H  in  Hell  and 

Heaven, 
To  spread  the  Word  by  which  himself 

had  thriven." 
How  like  you  this  old  satire?' 

f  Nay,'  she  said, 
'  I  loathe  it:  he  had  never  kindly  heart, 
Nor  ever  cared  to  better  his  own  kind, 
Who  first  wrote  satire,  with  no  pity  in  it. 
But  will  you  hear  my  dream,  for  I  had  one 
That  altogether  went  to  music?  Still 
It  awed  me.' 

Then  she  told  it,  having  dream'd 
Of  that  same  coast. 

—  But  round  the  North,  a  light, 
A  belt,  it  seem'd,  of  luminous  vapour,  lay, 
And  ever  in  it  a  low  musical  note 
Swell'd  up  and  died;  and,  as  it  swelPd, 

a  ridge 
Of  breaker  issued  from  the  belt,  and  still 
Grew  with  the  growing  note,  and  when 

the  note 
Had  reach'd  a  thunderous   fulness,  on 

those  cliffs 
Broke,  mixt  with  awful  light  (the  same  as 

that      , 
Living  within  the  belt)  whereby  she  saw 
That  all  those  lines  of  cliffs  were  cliffs  no 

more, 
But  huge  cathedral  fronts  of  every  age, 
Grave,  florid,  stern,  as  far  as  eye  could 

see, 
One  after  one :  and  then  the  great  ridge 

drew, 
Lessening  to  the  lessening  music,  back, 
And  past  into  the  belt  and  swell'd  again 
Slowly  to  music  :  ever  when  it  broke 
The  statues,  king  or  saint,  or  founder  fell; 
Then  from  the  gaps  and  chasms  of  ruin 

left 
Came  men  and  women  in  dark  clusters 

round, 
Some  crying,  'Set  them  up!  they  shall 

not  fall ! ' 
And  others,  '  Let  them  lie,  for  they  have 

fall'n.' 
And  still  they  strove  and  wrangled :  and 

she  grieved 
In  her  strange  dream,  she  knew  not  why, 

to  find 


I56 


SEA  DREAMS. 


Their  wildest  waitings  never  out  of  tune 
With  that  sweet  note;   and  ever  as  their 

shrieks 
Ran  highest  up  the  gamut,  that  great  wave 
Returning,  while  none  mark'd  it,  on  the 

.  crowd 
Broke,  mixt  with  awful  light,  and  show'd 

their  eyes 
Glaring,  and  passionate  looks,  and  swept 

away 
The  men  of  flesh  and  blood,  and  men  of 

stone, 
To  the  waste  deeps  together. 

•Then  I  fixt 
My  wistful  eyes  on  two  fair  images, 
Both  crown'd  with  stars  and  high  among 

the  stars,  — 
The  Virgin   Mother  standing  with  her 

child 
High  up  on  one  of  those  dark  minster- 
fronts  — 
Till  she  began  to  totter,  and  the  child 
Clung  to  the  mother,  and  sent  out  a  cry 
Which  mixt  with  little  Margaret's,  and  I 

woke, 
And  my  dream  awed  me: — well  —  but 

what  are  dreams? 
Yours  came  but  from  the  breaking  of  a 

glass, 
And   mine   but    from    the   crying    of  a 

child.' 

1 Child  ?    No !  '  said  he, «  but  this  tide's 

roar,  and  his, 
Our  Boanerges  with  his  threats  of  doom, 
And  loud-lung'd  Antibabylonianisms 
(Altho'  I  grant  but  little  music  there) 
Went  both  to  make  your  dream :  but  if 

there  were 
A  music  harmonizing  our  wild  cries, 
Sphere-music  such  as  that  you  dream'd 

about, 
Why,  that  would  make  our  passions  far 

too  like 
The  discords  dear  to  the  musician.    No  — 
One  shriek  of  hate  would  jar  all  the  hymns 

of  heaven : 
True  Devils  with  no  ear,  they  howl  in  tune 
With  nothing  but  the  Devil ! ' 

tu  True  "indeed! 
One  of  our  town,  but  later  by  an  hour 


Here  than  ourselves,  spoke  with  me  on 

the  shore; 
While  you  were  running  down  the  sands, 

and  made 
The  dimpled  flounce  of  the  sea-furbelow 

flap, 
Good   man,  to   please   the   child.      She 

brought  strange  news. 
Why  were  you  silent  when  I  spoke  to- 
night? 
I  had  set  my  heart  on  your   forgiving 

him 
Before  you  knew.     We  7iiust  forgive  the 

dead.' 

'  Dead !  who  is  dead? ' 

'The  man  your  eye  pursued. 
A  little  after  you  had  parted  with  him, 
He  suddenly  dropt  dead  of  heart-disease.' 

'Dead?   he?    of  heart-disease?   what 
heart  had  he 
To  die  of?  dead  ! ' 

'  Ah,  dearest,  if  there  be 
A  devil  in  man,  there  is  an  angel  too. 
And  if  he  did  that  wrong  you  charge  him 

with, 
His  angel  broke  his  heart.      But  your 

rough  voice 
(You  spoke  so  loud)  has  roused  the  child 

again. 
Sleep,  little  birdie,  sleep!    will  she  not 

sleep 
Without  her  "little  birdie"?  well  then, 

sleep, 
And  I  will  sing  you  "  birdie."  ' 

Saying  this, 

The  woman  half  turn'd  round  from  him 
she  loved, 

Left  him  one  hand,  and  reaching  thro' 
the  night 

Her  other,  found  (for  it  was  close  be- 
side) 

And  half-embraced  the  basket  cradle- 
head 

With  one  soft  arm,  which,  like  the  pliant 
bough 

That  moving  moves  the  nest  and  nestling, 
sway'd 

The  cradle,  while  she  sang  this  baby  song : 


LUCRETIUS. 


157 


What  does  little  birdie  say 
In  her  nest  at  peep  of  day? 
Let  me  fly,  says  little  birdie, 
Mother,  let  me  fly  away. 
Birdie,  rest  a  little  longer, 
Till  the  little  wings  are  stronger 
So  she  rests  a  little  longer, 
Then  she  flies  away. 

What  does  little  baby  say, 
In  her  bed  at  peep  of  day? 
Baby  says,  like  little  birdie, 
Let  me  rise  and  fly  away. 
Baby,  sleep  a  little  longer, 
Till  the  little  limbs  are  stronger. 
If  she  sleeps  a  little  longer, 
Baby  too  shall  fly  away. 

'She  sleeps:    let  us  too,  let  all  evil, 

sleep. 
He    also    sleeps  —  another    sleep    than 

ours. 
He  can  do  no  more  wrong :  forgive  him, 

dear, 
And  I  shall  sleep  the  sounder ! ' 

Then  the  man, 
'  His  deeds  yet  live,  the  worst  is  yet  to 

come. 
Yet  let  our  sleep  for  this  one  night  be 

sound : 
I  do  forgive  him ! ' 

1  Thanks,  my  love,'  she  said, 
*  Your  own  will  be  the  sweeter,'  and  they 
slept, 

LUCRETIUS. 

Lucilia,  wedded  to  Lucretius,  found 
Her  master  cold;   for  when  the  morning 

flush 
Of  passion  and  the  first  embrace  had  died 
Between  them,  tho'  he  lov'd  her  none  the 

less, 
Yet  often  when   the  woman   heard  his 

foot 
Return  from  pacings  in  the  field,  and  ran 
To  greet  him  with  a  kiss,  the  master  took 
Small  notice,  or  austerely,  for  —  his  mind 
Half  buried  in  some  weightier  argument, 
Or  fancy-borne  perhaps  upon  the  rise 
And  long  roll  of  the  Hexameter  —  he  past 


To  turn  and  ponder  those  three  hundred 

scrolls 
Left  by  the  Teacher,  whom  he  held  divine. 
She  brook'd  it  not ;  but  wrathful,  petulant, 
Dreaming  some  rival,  sought  and  found 

a  witch 
Who  brew'd  the  philtre  which  had  power, 

they  said, 
To  lead  an  errant  passion  home  again. 
And  this,  at  times,  she  mingled  with  his 

drink, 
And  this  destroy'd  him;   for  the  wicked 

broth 
Confused  the  chemic  labour  of  the  blood, 
And  tickling  the  brute  brain  within  the 

man's 
Made  havock  among  those  tender  cells, 

and  check'd 
His  power  to  shape  :  he  loathed  himself; 

and  once 
After  a  tempest  woke  upon  a  morn 
That  mock'd  him  with  returning  calm, 

and  cried : 

'  Storm  in  the  night !  for  bhrice  I  heard 

the  rain 
Rushing;     and    once    the    flash    of    a 

thunderbolt  — 
Methought  I  never  saw  so  fierce  a  fork  — 
Struck  out  the  streaming  mountain-side, 

and  show'd 
A  riotous  confluence  of  watercourses 
Blanching  and  billowing  in  a  hollow  of  it, 
Where  all  but  yester-eve  was  dusty-dry. 

•  Storm,    and    what    dreams,   ye    holy 
Gods,  what  dreams ! 
For  thrice  I  waken'd  after  dreams.     Per- 
chance 
We  do  but  recollect  the  dreams  that  come 
Just  ere  the  waking :  terrible  !  for  it  seem'd 
A  void  was  made  in  Nature;  all  her  bonds 
Crack'd;    and  I  saw  the  flaring  atom- 
streams 
And  torrents  of  her  myriad  universe, 
Ruining  along  the  illimitable  inane, 
Fly  on  to  clash  together  again,  and  make 
Another  and  another  frame  of  things 
For  ever:  that  was  mine,  my  dream,  I 

knew  it  — 
Of  and  belonging  to  me,  as  the  dog 
With  inward  yelp  and  restless  forefoot 
plies 


i58 


LUCRETIUS. 


His  function  of  the  woodland:  but  the 

next! 
I  thought  that  all  the  blood  by  Sylla  shed 
Came   driving   rainlike  down   again  on 

earth, 
And    where    it    dash'd    the    reddening 

meadow,  sprang 
No  dragon  warriors  from  Cadmean  teeth, 
For   these  I  thought  my  dream  would 

show  to  me, 
Hut  girls,  Hetairai,  curious  in  their  art, 
Hired    animalisms,    vile    as    those    that 

made 
The    mulberry- faced    Dictator's    orgies 

worse 
Than  aught  they  fable  of  the  quiet  Gods. 
And   hands   they   mixt,  and   yell'd   and 

round  me  drove 
In  narrowing  circles  till  I  yell'd  again 
Half-suffocated,  and  sprang  up,  and  saw  — 
Was  it  the  first  beam  of  my  latest  day? 

'Then,  then,  from  utter  gloom  stood 

out  the  breasts, 
The  breasts  of  Helen,  and  hoveringly  a 

sword 
Now  over  and  now  under,  now  direct, 
Pointed  itself  to  pierce,  but  sank  down 

shamed 
At  all  that  beauty;    and  as  I  stared,  a 

fire, 
The  fire  that  left  a  roofless  Ilion, 
Shot  out  of  them,  and  scorch'd  me  that 

I  woke. 

'Is  this   thy  vengeance,  holy  Venus, 

thine, 
Because  I  would  not  one  of  thine  own 

doves, 
Not  ev'n  a  rose,  were  offer'd  to  thee? 

thine, 
Forgetful  how  my  rich  procemion  makes 
Thy  glory  fly  along  the  Italian  field, 
In  lays  that  will  outlast  thy  Deity? 

'Deity?   nay,    thy    worshippers.     My 

tongue 
Trips,  or  I  speak  profanely.     Which  of 

these 
Angers  thee  most,  or  angers  thee  at  all  ? 
Not  if  thou  be'st  of  those  who,  far  aloof 
From  envy,  hate  and  pity,  and  spite  and 

scorn, 


Live  the  great  life  which  all  our  greatest 

fain 
Would  follow,  centr'd  in  eternal  calm. 

'  Nay,  if  thou  canst,  O  Goddess,  like 

ourselves 
Touch,  and  be  touch'd,  then  would  I  cry 

to  thee 
To  kiss  thy  Mavors,  roll  thy  tender  arms 
Round  him,  and  keep  him  from  the  lust 

of  blood 
That  makes  a  steaming  slaughter-house 

of  Rome. 

'Ay,  but  I  meant  not  thee;   I  meant 

not  her, 
Whom  all  the  pines  of  Ida  shook  to  see 
Slide  from  that  quiet  heaven  of  hers,  and 

tempt 
The  Trojan,  while  his  neat-herds  were 

abroad; 
Nor  her  that  o'er  her  wounded  hunter 

wept 
Her  Deity  false  in  human-amorous  tears; 
Nor  whom  her  beardless  apple-arbiter 
Decided  fairest.     Rather,  O  ye  Gods, 
Poet-like,  as  the  great  Sicilian  called 
Calliope  to  grace  his  golden  verse  — 
Ay,  and  this  Kypris  also  —  did  I  take 
That  popular  name  of  thine  to  shadow 

forth 
The    all-generating    powers    and    genial 

heat 
Of  Nature,  when  she  strikes  thro'  the 

thick  blood 
Of  cattle,  and  light  is  large,  and  lambs 

are  glad 
Nosing  the  mother's  udder,  and  the  bird 
Makes  his  heart  voice  amid  the  blaze  of 

flowers : 
Which  things  appear  the  work  of  mighty 

Gods. 

'  The  Gods !  and  if  I  go  my  work  is 

left 
Unfinish'd  —  if  I  go.     The  Gods,  who 

haunt 
The  lucid  interspace  of  world  and  world, 
Where  never  creeps  a  cloud,  or  moves  a 

wind, 
Nor   ever  falls  the   least  white   star  of 

snow, 
Nor  ever  lowest  roll  of  thunder  moans, 


LUCRETIUS. 


159 


Nor  sound  of  human  sorrow  mounts  to 

mar 
Their  sacred  everlasting  calm  !  and  such, 
Not  all  so  fine,  nor  so  divine  a  calm, 
Not  such,  nor  all  unlike  it,  man  may  gain 
Letting  his  own  life  go.     The  Gods,  the 

Gods! 
If  all  be  atoms,  how  then   should  the 

Gods 
Being  atomic  not  be  dissoluble, 
Not  follow  the  great  law?     My  master 

held 
That   Gods    there   are,  for  all  men  so 

believe. 
I  prest  my  footsteps  into  his,  and  meant 
Surely  to  lead  my  Memmius  in  a  train 
Of  flowery  clauses  onward  to  the  proof 
That    Gods    there    are,   and    deathless. 

Meant?     I  meant? 
I  have  forgotten  what  I  meant :  my  mind 
Stumbles,  and  all  my  faculties  are  lamed. 

'  Look  where  another  of  our  Gods,  the 

Sun, 
Apollo,  Delius,  or  of  older  use 
All-seeing  Hyperion  —  what  you  will  — 
Has  mounted  yonder;    since  he  never 

sware, 
Except    his    wrath    were    wreak'd    on 

wretched  man, 
That  he   would   only  shine  among  the 

dead 
Hereafter;   tales!  for  never  yet  on  earth 
Could  dead  flesh  creep,  or  bits  of  roast- 
ing ox 
Moan  round   the   spit  —  nor  knows  he 

what  he  sees; 
King  of  the  East  altho'  he   seem,  and 

girt 
With   song   and    flame    and   fragrance, 

slowly  lifts 
His   golden    feet    on   those    empurpled 

stairs 
That    climb    into    the   windy    halls    of 

heaven : 
And  here  he  glances  on  an  eye  new-born, 
And  gets  for  greeting  but  a  wail  of  pain; 
And  here  he  stays  upon  a  freezing  orb 
That  fain  would  gaze  upon  him  to  the 

last; 
And  here  upon  a  yellow  eyelid  fall'n 
And  closed  by  those  who  mourn  a  friend 

in  vain. 


Not   thankful  that   his   troubles  are  no 

more. 
And  me,  altho'  his  fire  is  on  my  face 
Blinding,  he  sees  not,  nor  at  all  can  tell 
Whether  I  mean  this  day  to  end  myself, 
Or  lend  an  ear  to  Plato  where  he  says, 
That  men  like  soldiers  may  not  quit  the 

post 
Allotted  by  the  Gods :  but  he  that  holds 
The  Gods  are  careless,  wherefore  need  he 

care 
Greatly  for  them,  nor  rather  plunge  at 

once, 
Being  troubled,  wholly  out  of  sight,  and 

sink 
Past    earthquake — ay,    and     gout    and 

stone,  that  break 
Body  toward  death,  and  palsy,  death-in- 
life, 
And  wretched  age  —  and   worst  disease 

of  all, 
These  prodigies  of  myriad  nakednesses, 
And  twisted  shapes  of  lust,  unspeakable, 
Abominable,  strangers  at  my  hearth 
Not  welcome,  harpies  miring  every  dish, 
The  phantom  husks  of  something  foully 

done, 
And  fleeting  thro'  the  boundless  universe, 
And  blasting  the  long  quiet  of  my  breast 
With  animal  heat  and  dire  insanity? 

*  How  should  the  mind,  except  it  loved 
them,  clasp 
These  idols  to  herself?  or  do  they  fly 
Now  thinner,  and  now  thicker,  like  the 

flakes 
In  a  fall  of  snow,  and  so  press  in,  per- 
force 
Of  multitude,  as  crowds  that  in  an  horn 
Of  civic  tumult  jam  the  doors,  and  bear 
The   keepers    down,   and   throng,   their 

rags  and  they 
The  basest,  far  into  that  council-hall 
Where  sit  the  best  and  stateliest  of  the 
land? 

'Can  I  not  fling  this  horror  off  me 

again, 
Seeing  with  how  great  ease  Nature  can 

smile, 
Balmier  and   nobler  from  her  bath  of 

storm, 
At  random  ravage?  and  how  easily 


i5o 


LUCRETIUS. 


The  mountain  there  has  cast  his  cloudy 

slough, 
Now  towering  o'er  him  in  serenest  air, 
A  mountain  o'er  a  mountain,  —  ay,  and 

within 
All  hollow  as  the  hopes  and  fears  of 

men? 

'  But  who  was  he,  that  in  the  garden 
snared 
Picus  and  Faunus,  rustic  Gods?  a  tale 
To  laugh  at  —  more  to  laugh  at  in  my- 
self— 
For  look !  what  is  it?  there?  yon  arbutus 
Totters;   a  noiseless  riot  underneath 
Strikes  through  the  wood,  sets  all  the 

tops  quivering  — 
The  mountain  quickens  into  Nymph  and 

Faun; 
And  here  an  Oread  —  how  the  sun  de- 
lights 
To  glance  and  shift  about  her  slippery 

sides, 
And  rosy  knees  and  supple  roundedness, 
And   budded    bosom-peaks  —  who   this 

way  runs 
Before  the  rest  —  A  satyr,  a  satyr,  see, 
Follows;  but  him  I  proved  impossible; 
Twy-natured  is  no  nature :  yet  he  draws 
Nearer  and  nearer,  and  I  scan  him  now 
Beastlier  than  any  phantom  of  his  kind 
That  ever  butted  his  rough  brother-brute 
For  lust  or  lusty  blood  or  provender : 
I  hate,  abhor,  spit,  sicken  at  him;   and 

she 
Loathes  him  as  well;  such  a  precipitate 

heel, 
Fledged  as  it  were  with  Mercury's  ankle- 
wing, 
Whirls  her  to  me :  but  will  she  fling  her- 
self, 
Shameless  upon  me?    Catch  her,  goat- 
foot:  nay, 
Hide,  hide  them,  million-myrtled  wilder- 
ness, 
And  cavern-shadowing  laurels,  hide  !    do 

I  wish  — 
What?  —  that  the  bush  were  leafless?  or 

to  whelm 
All  of  them  in  one  massacre?  O  ye  Gods, 
I  know  you  careless,  yet,  behold,  to  you 
From  childly   wont   and  ancient   use   I 
call  — 


I  thought  I  lived  securely  as  yourselves  — 
No  lewdness,  narrowing  envy,  monkey- 
spite, 
No  madness  of  ambition,  avarice,  none : 
No  larger  feast  than  under  plane  or  pine 
With  neighbours  laid  along  the  grass,  to 

take 
Only  such  cups  as  left  us  friendly-warm, 
Affirming  each  his  own  philosophy  — 
Nothing  to  mar  the  sober  majesties 
Of  settled,  sweet,  Epicurean  life. 
But  now  it  seems  some  unseen  monster 

lays 
His  vast  and  filthy  hands  upon  my  will, 
Wrenching   it  backward   into   his;   and 

spoils 
My  bliss  in  being;  and  it  was  not  great; 
For   save  when  shutting   reasons  up  in 

rhythm, 
Or  Heliconian  honey  in  living  words, 
To  make  a  truth  less  harsh,  I  often  grew 
Tired  of  so  much  within  our  little  life, 
Or  of  so  little  in  our  little  life  — 
Poor  little  life  that  toddles  half  an  hour 
Crown'd  with  a  flower  or  two,  and  there 

an  end  — 
And  since  the  nobler  pleasure  seems  to 

fade, 
Why  should  I,  beastlike  as  I  find  myself, 
Not  manlike   end  myself?  —  our  privi- 
lege— 
What   beast  has  heart  to  do  it?    And 

what  man, 
What  Roman  would  be  dragg'd  in  tri- 
umph thus? 
Not  I;    not   he,   who   bears  one   name 

with  her 
Whose  death-blow  struck   the   dateless 

doom  of  kings, 
When,  brooking  not  the  Tarquin  in  her 

veins, 
She  made  her  blood  in  sight  of  Collatine 
And  all  his  peers,  flushing   the  guiltless 

air, 
Spout  from  the  maiden  fountain  in  her 

heart. 
And  from  it  sprang  the  Commonwealth, 

which  breaks 
As  I  am  breaking  now ! 

•  And  therefore  now 
Let  her,  that  is  the  womb  and  tomb  of  all, 
Great  Nature,  take,  and  forcing  far  apart 


THE  PRINCESS;   A  MEDLEY. 


161 


Those  blind  beginnings  that  have  made 

me  man, 
Dash  them  anew  together  at  her  will 
Thro'    all   her   cycles  —  into   man   once 

more, 
Or  beast  or  bird  or  fish,  or  opulent  flower : 
But  till  this  cosmic  order  everywhere 
Shatter'd   into   one    earthquake   in   one 

day 
Cracks  all   to   pieces,  —  and   that  hour 

perhaps 
Is  not  so  far  when  momentary  man 
Shall  seem  no  more  a  something  to  him- 
self, 
But  he,  his  hopes  and  hates,  his  homes 

and  fanes, 
And  even  his  bones  long  laid  within  the 

grave, 
The  very  sides  of  the  grave   itself  shall 

pass, 
Vanishing,    atom   and   void,    atom    and 

void, 
Into  the  unseen  for  ever,  — till  that  hour, 
My  golden  work  in  which  I  told  a  truth 
That  stays  the  rolling  Ixionian  wheel, 
And  numbs  the  Fury's  ringlet-snake,  and 

plucks 
The  mortal  soul  from  out  immortal  hell, 


Shall  stand  :  ay,  surely :  then  it  falls  at  last 
And  perishes  as  I  must;   for  O  Thou, 
Passionless  bride,  divine  Tranquillity, 
Yearn'd  after  by  the  wisest  of  the  wise, 
Who  fail  to  find  thee,  being  as  thou  art 
Without  one  pleasure  and  without  one 

pain, 
Howbeit  I  know  thou  surely  must  be  mine 
Or  soon  or  late,  yet  out  of  season,  thus 
I  woo  thee  roughly,  for  thou  carest  not 
How  roughly  men  may  woo  thee  so  they 

win  — 
Thus  —  thus:  the  soul  flies  out  and  dies 

in  the  air.' 

With  that  he  drove  the  knife  into  his 

side: 
She  heard  him  raging,  heard  him  fall; 

ran  in, 
Beat   breast,  tore   hair,  cried  out  upon 

herself 
As  having  fail'd  in  duty  to  him,  shriek'd 
That  she  but  meant  to  win  him  back,  fell 

on  him, 
Clasp'd,  kiss'd  him,  wail'd:  he  answer'd, 

'  Care  not  thou ! 
Thy  duty?     What  is  duty?     Fare   thee 

well ! ' 


THE   PRINCESS; 

A  MEDLEY. 

PROLOGUE. 


Sir  Walter  Vivian  all  a  summer's  day 
Gave  his  broad   lawns  until  the  set  of 

sun 
Up    to   the   people:    thither   flock'd    at 

noon 
His  tenants,  wife  and  child,  and  thither 

half 
The   neighbouring    borough   with   their 

Institute 
Of  which   he  was  the   patron.     I   was 

there 
From  college,  visiting  the  son,  —  the  son 
A  Walter  too,  —  with  others  of  our  set, 
Five  others :    we  were  seven  at  Vivian- 
place. 


And  me  that  morning  Walter  show'd 

the  house, 
Greek,  set  with  busts :  from  vases  in  the 

hall 
Flowers  of  all  heavens,  and  lovelier  than 

their  names, 
Grew  side  by  side;  and  on  the  pavement 

lay 
Carved  stones  of  the  Abbey-ruin  in  the 

park, 
Huge  Ammonites,  and  the  first  bones  of 

Time ; 
And  on  the  tables  every  clime  and  age 
Jumbled  together;    celts  and  calumeK 
Claymore    and   snowshoe,  toys   in    lava 

fans 
Of  sandal,  amber,  ancient  rosari  s. 


162 


THE  PRINCESS;   A   MEDLEY. 


Laborious  orient  ivory  sphere  in  sphere, 

The  cursed  Malayan  crease,  and  battle- 
clubs 

From  the  isles  of  palm  :  and  higher  on 
the  walls, 

Betwixt  the  monstrous  horns  of  elk  and 
deer, 

His  own  forefathers'  arms  and  armour 
hung. 

And  '  This,'  he  said,  *■  was  Hugh's  at 

Agincourt; 
And  that  was  old  Sir  Ralph's  at  Ascalon  : 
A  good  knight  he  !  we  keep  a  chronicle 
With  all  about  him '  —  which  he  brought, 

and  I 
Dived  in  a  hoard  of  tales  that  dealt  with 

knights, 
Half-legend,    half-historic,    counts    and 

kings 
Who  laid  about  them  at  their  wills  and 

died; 
And  mixt  with  these,  a  lady,  one  that 

arm'd 
Her  own  fair  head,  and  sallying  thro'  the 

gate, 
Had  beat  her  foes  with  slaughter  from 

her  walls. 

'O  miracle  of  women,'  said  the  book, 
'  O  noble  heart  who,  being  strait-besieged 
By  this  wild  king  to  force  her  to  his  wish, 
Nor  bent,   nor    broke,   nor    shunn'd   a 

soldier's  death, 
But  now  when  all  was  lost  or  seem'd  as 

lost  — 
Her  stature  more  than  mortal  in  the  burst 
Of  sunrise,  her  arm  lifted,  eyes  on  fire  — 
Brake  with  a  blast  of  trumpets  from  the 

gate, 
And,  falling  on  them  like  a  thunderbolt, 
She  trampled  some  beneath  her  horses' 

heels, 
And  some  were  whelm'd  with  missiles  of 

the  wall, 
And  some  were  push'd  with  lances  from 

the  rock, 
And  part  were  drown'd  within  the  whirl- 
ing brook : 
O  miracle  of  noble  womanhood ! ' 

So  sang  the  gallant  glorious  chronicle; 
And,  I  all  rapt  in  this, '  Come  out,'  he  said, 


'  To  the  Abbey  :  there  is  Aunt  Elizabeth 
And  sister  Lilia  with  the  rest.'  We  went 
(I  kept  the  book  and  had  my  finger  in  it) 
Down  thro'  the  park  :    strange  was  the 

sight  to  me; 
For   all   the  sloping  pasture  murmur'd, 

sown 
With  happy  faces  and  with  holiday. 
There  moved  the  multitude,  a  thousand 

heads : 
The  patient  leaders  of  their  Institute 
Taught  them  with  facts.     One  rear'd  a 

font  of  stone 
And  drew,  from  butts  of  water  on  the 

slope, 
The  fountain  of  the   moment,   playing, 

now 
A  twisted  snake,  and  now  a  rain  of  pearls, 
Or  steep-up   spout  whereon   the   gilded 

ball 
Danced  like  a  wisp :  and  somewhat  lower 

down 
A  man  with  knobs  and  wires  and  vials 

fired 
A  cannon :  Echo  answer'd  in  her  sleep 
From  hollow  fields  :  and  here  were  tele- 
scopes 
For  azure  views;    and  there  a  group  of 

girls 
In  circle  waited,  whom  the  electric  shock 
Dislink'd   with    shrieks    and    laughter  : 

round  the  lake 
A  little  clock-work  steamer  paddling  plied 
And  shook  the  lilies  :  perch'd  about  the 

knolls 
A  dozen  angry  models  jetted  steam  : 
A  petty  railway  ran  :  a  fire-balloon 
Rose  gem-like  up  before  the  dusky  groves 
And  dropt  a  fairy  parachute  and  past : 
And  there  thro'  twenty  posts  of  telegraph 
They  flash'd  a  saucy  message  to  and  fro 
Between  the  mimic  stations;  so  that  sport 
Went  hand  in  hand  with  Science;  other- 
where 
Pure  sport :  a  herd  of  boys  with  clamour 

bowl'd 
And  stump'd  the  wicket;    babies  roll'd 

about 
Like   tumbled  fruit  in  grass;    and  men 

and  maids 
Arranged  a  country  dance,  and  flew  thro' 

light 
And  shadow,  while  the  twanging  violin 


THE  PRINCESS;  A  MEDLEY. 


163 


Struck  up  with  Soldier-laddie,  and  over- 
head 
The  broad  ambrosial  aisles  of  lofty  lime 
Made  noise  with  bees  and  breeze  from 
end  to  end. 

Strange  was  the  sight  and  smacking  of 

the  time; 
And  long  we  gazed,  but  satiated  at  length 
Came  to  the  ruins.    High-arch'd  and  ivy- 

claspt, 
Of  finest  Gothic  lighter  than  a  fire, 
Thro'  one  wide  chasm  of  time  and  frost 

they  gave 
The  park,  the  crowd,  the  house;   but  all 

within 
The  sward  was  trim  as  any  garden  lawn : 
And  here  we  lit  on  Aunt  Elizabeth, 
And  Lilia  with  the  rest,  and  lady  friends 
From   neighbour   seats:    and   there  was 

Ralph  himself, 
A  broken  statue  propt  against  the  wall, 
As  gay  as  any.     Lilia,  wild  with  sport, 
Half  child  half  woman  as  she  was,  had 

wound 
A  scarf  of  orange  round  the  stony  helm, 
And  robed  the  shoulders  in  a  rosy  silk, 
That  made  the  old  warrior  from  his  ivied 

nook 
Glow  like  a  sunbeam  :  near  his  tomb  a  feast 
Shone,  silver-set;   about  it  lay  the  guests, 
And   there   we  join'd   them :    then   the 

maiden  Aunt 
Took  this  fair  day  for  text,  and  from  it 

preach'd 
An  universal  culture  for  the  crowd, 
And  all  things  great;   but  we,  unworthier, 

told 
Of  college  :    he  had  climb'd  across  the 

spikes, 
And   he   had  squeezed   himself  betwixt 

the  bars, 
And  he  had  breathed  the  Proctor's  dogs; 

and  one 
Discuss'd  his  tutor,  rough  to  common  men, 
But  honeying  at  the  whisper  of  a  lord; 
And  one  the  Master,  as  a  rogue  in  grain 
Veneer'd  with  sanctimonious  theory. 

But    while    they  talk'd,   above   their 
heads  I  saw 
The    feudal    warrior    lady-clad;    which 
brought 


My  book  to  mind :  and  opening  this  I 

read 
Of  old  Sir  Ralph  a  page  or  two  that  rang 
With  tilt  and  tourney;   then  the  tale  of 

her 
That  drove  her  foes  with  slaughter  from 

her  walls, 
And  much  I  praised  her  nobleness,  and 

« Where,' 
Ask'd  Walter,  patting  Lilia's  head  (she 

lay 
Beside  him)  '  lives  there  such  a  woman 

now?' 

Quick  answer'd  Lilia, ■  There  are  thou- 
sands now 
Such  women,  but  convention  beats  them 

down : 
It   is  but   bringing  up;    no   more   than 

that: 
You  men  have  done  it :  how  I  hate  you 

all! 
Ah,  were  I  something  great !     I  wish  I 

were 
Some   mighty   poetess,   I   would   shame 

you  then, 
That  love  to  keep  us  children !    O  I  wish 
That  I  were  some  great  princess,  I  would 

build 
Far  off  from  men  a  college  like  a  man's, 
And  I  would  teach  them  all  that  men  are 

taught; 
We  are  twice  as  quick*.  •     And  here  she 

shook  aside 
The  hand  that  play'd  the  patron  with  her 

curls. 

And  one  said  smiling, '  Pretty  were  the 

sight 
If  our  old  halls  could  change  their  sex, 

and  flaunt 
With  prudes  for  proctors,  dowagers  for 

deans, 
And  sweet  girl-graduates  in  their  golden 

hair. 
I  think  they  should  not  wear  our  rusty 

gowns, 
But  move  as  rich  as  Emperor-moths,  or 

Ralph 
Who  shines  so  in  the  corner;  yet  I  fear, 
If  there  were  many  Lilias  in  the  brood, 
However  deep  you  might  embower  the 

nest, 


164 


THE  PRINCESS;   A   MEDLEY. 


Some  boy  would  spy  it.' 

At  this  upon  the  sward 
She  tapt  her  tiny  silken-sandal'd  foot : 
'That's   your   light   way;    but    I   would 

make  it  death 
For  any  male  thing  but  to  peep  at  us.' 

Petulant  she  spoke,  and  at  herself  she 

laugh'd ; 
A  rosebud  set  with  little  wilful  thorns, 
And  sweet  as  English  air  could  make  her; 

she : 
But  Walter  hail'd  a  score  of  names  upon 

her, 
And  '  petty  Ogress,'  and  *■  ungrateful  Puss,' 
And  swore   he   long'd   at   college,  only 

long'd, 
All  else  was  well,  for  she-society. 
They  boated   and  they  cricketed;    they 

talk'd 
At  wine,  in  clubs,  of  art,  of  politics; 
They   lost   their   weeks;    they  vext   the 

souls  of  deans; 
They  rode;    they  betted;    made  a  hun- 
dred friends, 
And  caught   the    blossom   of  the  flying 

terms, 
But  miss'd  the  mignonette  of  Vivian-place, 
The  little  hearth-flower  Lilia.     Thus  he 

spoke, 
Part  banter,  part  affection. 

1  True,'  she  said, 
'  We  doubt  not  tfbat.     O  yes,  you  miss'd 

us  much. 
I'll  stake  my  ruby  ring  upon  it  you  did.' 

She  held  it  out;   and  as  a  parrot  turns 
Up  thro'  gilt  wires  a  crafty  loving  eye, 
And  takes  a  lady's  finger  with  all  care, 
And  bites  it  for  true  heart  and  not  for 

harm, 
So  he  with  Lilia's.     Daintily  she  shriek'd 
And  wrung  it.     '  Doubt  my  word  again  ! ' 

he  said. 
« Come,  listen !    here   is  proof  that   you 

were  miss'd : 
We  seven  stay'd  at  Christmas  up  to  read ; 
And  there  we  took  one  tutor  as  to  read  : 
The  hard-grain'd  Muses  of  the  cube  and 

square 
Were  out  of  season :  never  man,  I  think, 
So  moulder'd  in  a  sinecure  as  he : 
For  while  our  cloisters  echo'd  frosty  feet, 


And  our  long  walks  were  stript  as  bare 

as  brooms, 
We  did  but  talk  you  over,  pledge  you  all 
In  wassail;    often,  like  as  many  girls  — 
Sick  for  the  hollies  and  the  yews  of  home  — 
As  many  little  trifling  Lilias  —  play'd 
Charades    and    riddles   as    at   Christmas 

here, 
And  what's  my  thought  and   when   and 

zuhere  and  how, 
And   often  told   a   tale  from   mouth   to 

mouth 
As  here  at  Christmas.' 

She  remember'd  that : 
A  pleasant  game,  she  thought :  she  liked 

it  more 
Than  magic  music,  forfeits,  all  the  rest. 
But  these  —  what  kind  of  tales  did  men 

tell  men, 
She  wonder'd,  by  themselves? 

A  half-disdain 
Perch'd  on  the  pouted  blossom  of  her 

lips: 
And  Walter  nodded  at  me;   '  He  began, 
The  rest  would  follow,  each  in  turn ;  and  so 
We   forged   a   sevenfold   story.      Kind? 

what  kind? 
Chimeras,  crotchets,  Christmas  solecisms, 
Seven-headed  monsters  only  made  to  kill 
Time  by  the  fire  in  winter.' 

■  Kill  him  now, 
The  tyrant !  kill  him  in  the  summer  too,' 
Said  Lilia;   •  Why  not  now? '  the  maiden 

Aunt. 
'  Why  not  a  summer's  as  a  winter's  tale? 
A  tale  for  summer  as  befits  the  time, 
And  something  it  should  be  to  suit  the 

place, 
Heroic,  for  a  hero  lies  beneath, 
Grave,  solemn ! ' 

Walter  warp'd  his  mouth  at  this 
To   something   so   mock-solemn,  that   I 

laugh'd 
And    Lilia   woke   with   sudden-shrilling 

mirth 
And  echo  like  a  ghostly  woodpecker, 
Hid  in  the  ruins;   till  the  maiden  Aunt 
(A  little  sense  of  wrong  had  touch'd  her 

face 
With  colour)  turn'd  to  me  with  '  As  you 

will; 
Heroic  if  you  will,  or  what  you  will, 
Or  be  yourself  your  hero  if  you  will.' 


THE  PRINCESS:   A   MEDLEY. 


[65 


'Take  Lilia,  then,  for  heroine,'  clam- 

our'd  he, 
'  And  make  her  some  great  Princess,  six 

feet  high, 
Grand,  epic,  homicidal ;  and  be  you 
The  Prince  to  win  her ! ' 

1  Then  follow  me,  the  Prince,' 
I  answer'd,  '  each  be  hero  in  his  turn  ! 
Seven  and  yet   one,  like  shadows  in  a 

dream.  — 
Heroic  seems  our  Princess  as  required  — 
But  something  made  to  suit  with  Time 

and  place, 
A  Gothic  ruin  and  a  Grecian  house, 
A  talk  of  college  and  of  ladies'  rights, 
A  feudal  knight  in  silken  masquerade, 
And,  yonder,  shrieks  and  strange  experi- 
ments 
For  which  the  good  Sir  Ralph  had  burnt 

them  all  — 
This  were  a  medley !  we  should  have  him 

back 
Who  told  the  "  Winter's  tale "  to  do  it 

for  us. 
No  matter :  we  will  say  whatever  comes. 
And  let  the  ladies  sing  us,  if  they  will, 
From  time  to  time,  some  ballad  or  a  song 
To  give  us  breathing-space.' 

So  I  began, 
And  the  rest  follow'd :  and  the  women 

sang 
Between  the  rougher  voices  of  the  men, 
Like  linnets  in  the  pauses  of  the  wind : 
And  here  I  give  the  story  and  the  songs. 


A  prince  I  was,  blue-eyed,  and  fair  in 

face, 
Of  temper  amorous,  as  the  first  of  May, 
With  lengths  of  yellow  ringlet,  like  a  girl, 
For  on  my  cradle   shone  the  Northern 

star. 

There  lived  an  ancient  legend  in  our 

house. 
Some  sorcerer,  whom  a  far-off  grandsire 

burnt 
Because  he  cast  no  shadow,  had  foretold, 
Dying,  that  none  of  all  our  blood  should 

know 
The  shadow  from  the  substance,  and  that 

one 


Should  come  to  fight  with  shadows  and 

to  fall. 
For  so,  my  mother  said,  the  story  ran. 
And,  truly,  waking  dreams  were,  more  or 

less, 
An  old  and  strange  affection  of  the  house. 
Myself  too  had  weird  seizures,  Heaven 

knows  what : 
On  a  sudden  in  the  midst  of  men  and  day, 
And  while  I  walk'd  and  talk'd  as  hereto- 
fore, 
I   seem'd   to   move   among   a  world   of 

ghosts, 
And  feel  myself  the  shadow  of  a  dream. 
Our  great  court-Galen  poised  his  gilt-head 

cane, 
And  paw'd  his  beard,  and  mutter'd  '  cata- 
lepsy.' 
My    mother    pitying  made   a   thousand 

prayers; 
My  mother  was  as  mild  as  any  saint, 
Half-canonised  by  all  that  look'd  on  her, 
So  gracious  was  her  tact  and  tenderness : 
But  my  good   father  thought  a  king   a 

king; 
He    cared  not  for   the  affection  of  the 

house; 
He  held  his  sceptre  like  a  pedant's  wand 
To  lash  offence,  and  with  long  arms  and 

hands 
Reach 'd  out,  and  pick'd  offenders  from 

the  mass 
For  judgment. 

Now  it  chanced  that  I  had  been, 
While   life   was  yet   in  bud  and  blade, 

betroth'd 
To  one,   a   neighbouring  Princess :    she 

to  me 
Was  proxy-wedded  with  a  bootless  calf 
At  eight  years  old;   and  still  from  time 

to  time 
Came  murmurs  of  her  beauty  from  the 

South, 
And  of  her  brethren,  youths  of  puissance ; 
And  still  I  wore  her  picture  by  my  heart, 
And  one  dark  tress;  and  all  around  them 

both 
Sweet   thoughts   would   swarm   as  bees 

about  their  queen. 

But  when  the  days  drew  nigh  that  I 
should  wed, 
My  father  sent  ambassadors  with  furs 


1 66 


THE  PRINCESS;  A   MEDLEY. 


And  jewels,  gifts,   to   fetch   her:  these 

brought  back 
A  present,  a  great  labour  of  the  loom; 
And  therewithal    an   answer  vague    as 

wind: 
Besides,  they  saw  the  king;  he  took  the 

gifts; 
He  said  there  was  a  compact;  that  was 

true: 
But  then  she  had  a  will;  was  he  to  blame? 
And  maiden  fancies;   loved  to  live  alone 
Among  her  women;  certain,  would  not 

wed. 

That  morning  in  the  presence  room  I 

stood 
With  Cyril  and  with   Florian,  my  two 

friends : 
The  first,  a  gentleman  of  broken  means 
(His   father's  fault)  but  given  to  starts 

and  bursts 
Of  revel ;  and  the  last,  my  other  heart, 
And    almost  my  half-self,   for   still  we 

moved 
Together,  twinn'd  as  horse's  ear  and  eye. 

Now,   while    they  spake,   I  saw  my 

father's  face 
Grow  long  and  troubled  like   a  rising 

moon, 
Inflamed  with  wrath :  he  started  on  his 

feet, 
Tore  the  king's  letter,  snow'd  it  down, 

and  rent 
The  wonder  of  the  loom  thro'  warp  and 

woof 
From  skirt  to  skirt;  and  at  the  last  he 

sware 
That  he  would  send  a  hundred  thousand 

men, 
And  bring  her  in  a  whirlwind :  then  he 

chew'd 
The   thrice-turn'd    cud    of   wrath,    and 

cook'd  his  spleen, 
Communing  with  his  captains  of  the  war. 

At  last  I  spoke.  '  My  father,  let  me  go. 
It  cannot  be  but  some  gross  error  lies 
In  this  report,  this  answer  of  a  king, 
Whom  all  men  rate  as  kind  and  hospitable : 
Or,  maybe,  I  myself,  my  bride  once  seen, 
Whate'er  my  grief  to  find  her  less  than 
fame, 


May  rue  the  bargain  made. '    And  Florian 

said  : 
'  I  have  a  sister  at  the  foreign  court, 
Who  moves  about  the  Princess;   she,  you 

know, 
Who  wedded  with  a    nobleman    from 

thence : 
He,  dying  lately,  left  her,  as  I  hear, 
The  lady  of  three  castles  in  that  land : 
Thro'  her  this  matter   might   be   sifted 

clean.' 
And  Cyril  whisper'd :  '  Take  me  with  you 

too.' 
Then    laughing  'what,   if    these  weird 

seizures  come 
Upon  you  in  those  lands,  and  no  one  near 
To  point  you  out  the  shadow  from  the 

truth ! 
Take  me:    I'll  serve  you   better   in  a 

straic; 
I  grate  on  rusty  hinges  here : '  but '  No ! ' 
Roar'd  the  rough  king,  'you  shall  not; 

we  ourself 
Will  crush  her  pretty  maiden  fancies  dead 
In  iron  gauntlets :  break  the  council  up.' 

But  when  the  council  broke,  I  rose  and 
past 

Thro'  the  wild  woods  that  hung  about  the 
town; 

Found  a  still  place,  and  pluck'd  her  like- 
ness out; 

Laid  it  on  flowers,  and  watch'd  it  lying 
bathed 

In  the  green  gleam  of  de  wy-tassell'd  trees : 

What  were  those  fancies?  wherefore 
break  her  troth? 

Proud  look'd  the  lips  :  but  while  I  medi- 
tated 

A  wind  arose  and  rush'd  upon  the  South, 

And  shook  the  songs,  the  whispers,  and 
the  shrieks 

Of  the  wild  woods  together;   and  a  Voice 

Went  with  it,  *  Follow,  follow,  thou  shalt 
win.' 

Then,  ere  the  silver  sickle  of  that  month 
Became  her  golden  shield,  I  stole  from 

court 
With  Cyril  and  with  Florian,  unperceived, 
Cat-footed  thro'  the  town   and  half  in 

dread 
To  hear  my  father's  clamour  at  our  backs 


THE  PRINCESS;   A   MEDLEY. 


167 


With  Ho  !  from  some  bay-window  shake 

the  night; 
But  all  was   quiet:    from   the  bastion'd 

walls 
Like  threaded  spiders,  one  by  one,  we 

dropt, 
And  flying  reach'd  the  frontier  :  then  we 

crost 
To  a  livelier  land;   and  so  by  tilth  and 

grange, 
And  vines,  and  blowing  bosks  of  wilder- 
ness, 
We   gain'd   the   mother-city  thick   with 

towers, 
And  in  the   imperial   palace  found   the 

king. 

His  name  was  Gama;  c«ack'd  and 
small  his  voice, 

But  bland  the  smile  that  like  a  wrinkling 
wind 

On  glassy  water  drove  his  cheek  in  lines; 

A  little  dry  old  man,  without  a  star, 

Not  like  a  king :  three  days  he  feasted 
us, 

And  on  the  fourth  I  spake  of  why  we 
came, 

And  my  betroth'd.  '  You  do  us,  Prince,' 
he  said, 

Airing  a  snowy  hand  and  signet  gem, 

'All  honour.  We  remember  love  our- 
selves 

In  our  sweet  youth  :  there  did  a  compact 
pass 

Long  summers  back,  a  kind  of  cere- 
mony— 

1  think  the  year  in  which  our  olives 
fail'd. 

I  would  you  had  her,  Prince,  with  all  my 
heart, 

With  my  full  heart:  but  there  were 
widows  here, 

Two  widows,  Lady  Psyche,  Lady  Blanche; 

They  fed  her  theories,  in  and  out  of  place 

Maintaining  that  with  equal  husbandry 

The  woman  were  an  equal  to  the  man. 

They  harp'd  on  this;  with  this  our  ban- 
quets rang; 

Our  dances  broke  and  buzz'd  in  knots  of 
talk; 

Nothing  but  this;   my  very  ears  were  hot 

To  hear  them :  knowledge,  so  my  daughter 
held, 


Was  all  in  all :  they  had  but  been,  she 

thought, 
As  children;   they  must  lose  the  child, 

assume 
The  woman :  then,  Sir,  awful  odes  she 

wrote, 
Too  awful,  sure,  for  what  they  treated  of, 
But  all  she  is  and  does  is  awful;   odes 
About  this  losing  of  the  child ;  and  rhymes 
And  dismal  lyrics,  prophesying  change 
Beyond   all   reason:    these   the   women 

sang; 
And   they   that   know   such    things  —  I 

sought  but  peace ; 
No  critic  I  —  would  call  them  master- 
pieces : 
They  master'd  me.     At  last  she  begg'd  a 

boon, 
A  certain  summer-palace  which  I  have 
Hard  by  your  father's  frontier :  I  said  no, 
Yet  being  an  easy  man,  gave  it  :    and 

there, 
All  wild  to  found  an  University 
For  maidens,  on  the  spur  she  fled;   and 

more 
We  know  not,  —  only  this :  they  see  no 

men, 
Not  ev'n  her  brother  Arac,  nor  the  twins 
Her  brethren,  tho'  they  love  her,  look 

upon  her 
As  on  a  kind  of  paragon;   and  I 
(Pardon  me  saying  it)  were  much  loth  to 

breed 
Dispute  betwixt  myself  and  mine :   but 

since 
(And  I  confess  with  right)  you  think  me 

bound 
In  some  sort,  I  can  give  you  letters  to  her; 
And  yet,  to  speak  the  truth,  I  rate  your 

chance 
Almost  at  naked  nothing.' 

Thus  the  king; 
And  I,  tho'  nettled  that  he  seem'd  to  slur 
With  garrulous  ease  and  oily  courtesies 
Our  formal  compact,  yet,  not  less  (all  frets 
But  chafing  me  on  fire  to  find  my  bride) 
Went  forth  again  with  both  my  friends. 

We  rode 
Many  a  long  league  back  to  the  North. 

At  last 
From  hills,  that  look'd  across  a  land  of 

hope, 
We  dropt  with  evening  on  a  rustic  town 


i68 


THE  PRINCESS;   A   MEDLEY. 


Set  in  a  gleaming  river's  crescent-curve, 
Close  at  the  boundary  of  the  liberties; 
There,  enter'd  an  old  hostel,  call'd  mine 

host 
To  council,  plied  him  with    his   richest 

wines, 
And  show'd  the  late-writ  letters  of  the 

king. 

He  with  a  long  low  sibilation,  stared 
As  blank  as  death  in  marble;   then  ex- 

claim'd 
Averring  it  was  clear  against  all  rules 
For  any  man  to  go :  but  as  his  brain 
Began  to  mellow,  '  If  the  king,'  he  said, 
'  Had  given  us  letters,  was  he  bound  to 

speak  ? 
The  king  would  bear  him  out;  '  and  at 

the  last  — 
The  summer  of  the  vine  in  all  his  veins  — 
'  No  doubt  that  we  might  make  it  worth 

his  while. 
She  once  had  past  that  way;   he  heard 

her  speak; 
She  scared  him;  life  !  he  never  saw  the 

like; 
She  look'd  as  grand  as  doomsday  and  as 

grave : 
And   he,    he  reverenced   his  liege-lady 

there; 
He  always  made  a  point  to  post  with 

mares; 
His  daughter  and  his  housemaid  were  the 

boys: 
The  land,  he  understood,  for  miles  about 
Was  till'd  by  women ;  all  the  swine  were 

sows, 
And  all* the  dogs'  — 

But  while  he  jested  thus, 
A  thought  flash'd  thro'  me  which  I  clothed 

in  act, 
Remembering  how  we  three   presented 

Maid 
Or  Nymph,  or  Goddess,  at  high  tide  of 

feast, 
In  masque  or  pageant  at  my  father's  court. 
We  sent  mine  host  to  purchase  female 

gear; 
He  brought   it,  and  himself,  a  sight  to 

shake 
The  midriff  of  despair  with  laughter,  holp 
To    lace   us   up,   till,   each,   in   maiden 

plumes 


We  rustled :  him  we  gave  a  costly  bribe 
To  guerdon  silence,  mounted  our  good 

steeds, 
And  boldly  ventured  on  the  liberties. 

We  follow'd  up  the  river  as  we  rode, 
And  rode  till  midnight  when  the  college 

lights 
Began  to  glitter  firefly-like  in  copse 
And  linden  alley  :  then  we  past  an  arch, 
Whereon  a  woman-statue  rose  with  wings 
From  four  wing'd  horses  dark  against  the 

stars; 
And  some  inscription  ran  along  the  front, 
But    deep   in   shadow :    further   on   we 

gain'd 
A  little  street  half  garden  and  half  house; 
But  scarce  could  hear  each  other  speak 

for  noise 
Of  clocks  and  chimes,  like  silver  hammers 

falling 
On  silver  anvils,  and  the  splash  and  stir 
Of  fountains  spouted  up  and  showering 

down 
In  meshes  of  the  jasmine  and  the  rose : 
And  all  about  us  peal'd  the  nightingale, 
Rapt  in  her  song,  and   careless  of  the 

snare. 

There  stood  a  bust  of  Pallas  for  a  sign, 
By  two  sphere  lamps  blazon'd  like  Heaven 

and  Earth 
With  constellation  and  with  continent, 
Above  an  entry:  riding  in,  we  call'd; 
A  plump-arm'd   Ostleress   and  a  stable 

wench 
Came  running  at  the  call,  and  help'd  us 

down. 
Then  stept  a  buxom   hostess  forth,  and 

sail'd, 
Full-blown,  before  us  into  rooms  which 

gave 
Upon  a  pillar'd  porch,  the  bases  lost 
In  laurel:  her  we  ask'd  of  that  and  this, 
And  who  were  tutors.     4  Lady  Blanche,' 

she  said, 
1  And  Lady  Psyche.'     '  Which  was  pret- 
tiest, 
Best-natured?'     *  Lady  Psyche.'     *  Hers 

are  we,' 
One  voice,  we  cried;   and  I  sat  down  and 

wrote, 
In  such  a  hand  as  when  a  field  of  corn 


THE  PRINCESS;   A   MEDLEY. 


169 


Bows  all  its  ears  before  the  roaring  East; 

'Three   ladies   of  the   Northern  empire 

pray 
Your  Highness  would  enroll  them  with 

your  own, 
As  Lady  Psyche's  pupils.' 

This  I  seal'd : 
The  seal  was  Cupid  bent  above  a  scroll, 
And  o'er  his  head  Uranian  Venus  hung, 
And  raised  the  blinding  bandage  from  his 

eyes: 
I  gave  the  letter  to  be  sent  with  dawn; 
And  then  to  bed,  where  half  in  doze  I 

seem'd 
To  float  about  a  glimmering  night,  and 

watch 
A  full  sea  glazed  with  muffled  moonlight, 

swell 
On  some  dark  shore  just  seen  that  it  was 

rich. 


11. 


As  thro'  the  land  at  eve  we  went, 

And  pluck'd  the  ripen'd  ears, 
We  fell  out,  my  wife  and  I, 
O  we  fell  out  I  know  not  why, 

And  kiss'd  again  with  tears. 
And  blessings  on  the  falling  out 

That  all  the  more  endears, 
When  we  fall  out  with  those  we  love 

And  kiss  again  with  tears ! 
For  when  we  came  where  lies  the  child 

We  lost  in  other  years, 
There  above  the  little  grave, 
O  there  above  the  little  grave, 

We  kiss'd  again  with  tears. 

At  break  of  day  the   College   Portress 

came : 
She  brought  us  Academic  silks,  in  hue 
The  lilac,  with  a  silken  hood  to  each, 
And  zoned  with  gold;    and   now  when 

these  were  on, 
And   we   as   rich   as   moths   from    dusk 

cocoons, 
She,  curtseying  her  obeisance,  let  us  know 
The  Princess  Ida  waited :  out  we  paced, 
I  first,  and  following  thro'  the  porch  that 

sang 
All  round  with  laurel,  issued  in  a  court 
Compact   of  lucid   marbles,  boss'd  with 

lengths 
Of  classic  frieze,  with  ample  awnings  gay 


Betwixt  the  pillars,  and  with  great  urns 

of  flowers. 
The  Muses  and  the  Graces,  group'd  in. 

threes, 
Enring'd    a    billowing    fountain    in   the 

midst ; 
And  here  and  there  on  lattice  edges  lay 
Or  book  or  lute;   but  hastily  we  past, 
And  up  a  flight  of  stairs  into  the  hall. 

There  at  a  board  by  tome  and  paper 

sat, 
With  two  tame  leopards  couch'd  beside 

her  throne, 
All  beauty  compass'd  in  a  female  form, 
The  Princess;   liker  to  the  inhabitant 
Of  some  clear  planet  close  upon  the  Sun, 
Than  our  man's  earth;   such  eyes  were  in 

her  head, 
And  so  much  grace  and  power,  breathing 

down 
From  over  her  arch'd  brows,  with  every 

turn 
Lived  thro'  her  to  the  tips  of  her  long 

hands, 
And  to  her  feet.     She  rose  her  height, 

and  said : 

1  We  give  you  welcome :    not  without 

redound 
Of  use  and  glory  to  yourselves  ye  come, 
The  first-fruits  of  the  stranger :  aftertime, 
And  that  full  voice  which  circles  round 

the  grave, 
Will  rank  you  nobly,  mingled  up  with  me. 
What !    are  the  ladies   of  your   land  so 

tall?' 

*  We  of  the  court,'  said   Cyril.      '  From 

the  court,' 
She  answer'd, '  then  ye  know  the  Prince  ? ' 

and  he : 
'  The  climax  of  his  age  !  as  tho'  there  were 
One  rose  in  all  the  world,  your  Highness 

that, 
He  worships  your  ideal :  '  she  replied  : 

•  We  scarcely  thought  in  our  own  hall  to 

hear 
This  barren  verbiage,  current  among  men, 
Light  coin,  the  tinsel  clink  of  compliment. 
Your  flight  from  out  your  bookless  wilds 

would  seem 
As  arguing   love   of  knowledge   and  of 

power; 


i7o 


THE  PRINCESS;   A   MEDLEY. 


Your  language  proves  you  still  the  child. 

Indeed, 
We  dream  not  of  him :  when  we  set  our 

hand 
To  this   great  work,  we   purposed  with 

ourself 
Never  to  wed.  •  You  likewise  will  do  well, 
Ladies,   in    entering   here,   to   cast   and 

fling 
The  tricks,  which  make  us  toys  of  men, 

that  so, 
Some  future  time,  if  so  indeed  you  will, 
You  may  with  those  self-styled  our  lords 

ally 
Your  fortunes,  justlier  balanced,  scale  with 

scale.' 

At  those  high  words,  we  conscious  of 

ourselves, 
Perused  the  matting;   then  an  officer 
Rose  up,  and  read  the  statutes,  such  as 

these : 
Not  for  three  years  to  correspond  with 

home; 
Not  for  three  years  to  cross  the  liberties; 
Not   for  three  years  to  speak  with  any 

men; 
And  many  more,  which  hastily  subscribed, 
We  enter'd  on  the  boards:  and  'Now,' 

she  cried, 
\  Ye  are  green  wood,  see  ye  warp  not. 

Look,  our  hall ! 
Our  statues !  —  not   of  those   that   men 

desire, 
Sleek  Odalisques,  or  oracles  of  mode, 
Nor  stunted  squaws  of  West  or  East;   but 

she 
That  taught  the  Sabine  how  to  rule,  and 

she 
The  foundress  of  the  Babylonian  wall. 
The  Carian  Artemisia  strong  in  war, 
The  Rhodope,  that  built  the  pyramid, 
Clelia,  Cornelia,  with  the  Palmyrene 
That   fought   Aurelian,  and  the  Roman 

brows 
Of  Agrippina.     Dwell   with   these,  and 

lose 
Convention,  since  to  look  on  noble  forms 
Makes  noble  thro'  the  sensuous  organism 
That  which  is  higher.     O  lift  your  natures 

up: 
EtftDrace  our  aims :  work  out  your  free- 
dom.    Girls, 


Knowledge  is  now  no  more  a  fountain 

seal'd : 
Drink  deep,  until  the  habits  of  the  slave, 
The  sins  of  emptiness,  gossip  and  spite 
And  slander,  die.     Better  not  be  at  all 
Than  not  be  noble.     Leave  us :  you  may 

go: 
To-day  the  Lady  Psyche  will  harangue 
The  fresh  arrivals  of  the  week  before; 
For  they  press  in  from  all  the  provinces, 
And  fill  the  hive.' 

She  spoke,  and  bowing  waved 
Dismissal :  back  again  we  crost  the  court 
To  Lady  Psyche's :  as  we  enter'd  in, 
There  sat  along  the  forms,  like  morning 

doves 
That   sun   their   milky   bosoms    on    the 

thatch, 
A  patient  range  of  pupils;   she  herself 
Erect  behind  a  desk  of"  satin-wood, 
A   quick   brunette,  well-moulded,  falcon 

eyed, 
And  on  the  hither  side,  or  so  she  look'd, 
Of  twenty  summers.     At  her  left,  a  child, 
In  shining  draperies,  headed  like  a  star, 
Her  maiden  babe,  a  double  April  old, 
Aglaia  slept.    We  sat :  the  Lady  glanced : 
Then    Florian,  but  no  livelier  than   the 

dame 
That  whisper'd  '  Asses'  ears  '  among  the 

sedge, 
•  My  sister.'     '  Comely,  too,  by  all  that's 

fair,' 
Said  Cyril.     '  O   hush,  hush ! '  and  she 

began. 

'  This  world  was  once  a  fluid  haze  of 

light, 
Till  toward  the  centre  set  the  starry  tides, 
And  eddied  into  suns,  that  wheeling  cast 
The  planets  :  then  the  monster,  then  the 

man; 
Tattoo'd  or  woaded,  winter-clad  in  skins, 
Raw  from  the  prime,  and  crushing  down 

his  mate; 
As  yet  we  find  in  barbarous  isles,  and 

here 
Among  the  lowest' 

Thereupon  she  took 
A  bird's-eye-view  of  all  the   ungracious 

past ; 
Glanced  at  the  legendary  Amazon 
As  emblematic  of  a  nobler  age; 


THE  PRINCESS;  A   MEDLEY. 


171 


Appraised  the  Lycian  custom,  spoke  of 

those 
That  lay  at  wine  with  Lar  and  Lucumo; 
Ran  down  the  Persian,  Grecian,  Roman 

lines 
Of  empire,  and  the  woman's  state  in  each, 
How  far  from  just;   till  warming  with  her 

theme 
She  fulmined  out  her  scorn  of  laws  Salique 
And  little-footed  China,  touch'd  on  Ma- 
homet 
With     much    contempt,   and    came    to 

chivalry : 
When  some  respect,  however  slight,  was 

paid 
To  woman,  superstition  all  awry : 
However  then  commenced  the  dawn:  a 

beam 
Had  slanted  forward,  falling  in  a  land 
Of  promise;   fruit  would  follow.     Deep, 

indeed, 
Their  debt  of  thanks  to  her  who  first  had 

dared 
To  leap  the  rotten  pales  of  prejudice, 
Disyoke  their  necks  from  custom,  and 

assert 
None  lordlier  than  themselves  but  that 

which  made. 
Woman  and   man.     She  had   founded; 

they  must  build. 
Here  might  they  learn  whatever  men  were 

taught : 
Let  them  not  fear :  some  said  their  heads 

were  less : 
Some  men's  were  small;    not  they  the 

least  of  men; 
For  often  fineness  compensated  size : 
Besides  the  brain  was  like  the  hand,  and 

grew 
With  using ;   thence  the  man's,  if  more 

was  more ; 
He  took  advantage  of  his  strength  to  be 
First  in  the  field:  some  ages  had  been 

lost; 
But  woman  ripen'd  earlier,  and  her  life 
Was   longer;    and   albeit  their   glorious 

names 
Were  fewer,  scatter'd  stars,  yet  since  in 

truth 
The  highest  is  the  measure  of  the  man, 
And  not  the  Kaffir,  Hottentot,  Malay, 
Nor  those  horn-handed  breakers  of  the 

glebe, 


But  Homer,  Plato,  Verulam;   even  so 
With  woman :  and  in  arts  of  government 
Elizabeth  and  others;   arts  of  war 
The    peasant  Joan  and  others;    arts   of 

grace 
Sappho  and  others  vied  with  any  man : 
And,  last  not  least,  she  who  had  left  her 

place, 
And  bow'd  her  state  to  them,  that  they 

might  grow 
To  use  and  power  on  this  Oasis,  lapt 
In  the  arms  of  leisure,  sacred  from  the 

blight 
Of  ancient  influence  and  scorn. 

At  last 
She  rose  upon  a  wind  of  prophecy 
Dilating  on  the  future;   'everywhere 
Two   heads   in   council,  two  beside  the 

hearth,- 
Two  in  the  tangled  business  of  the  world, 
Two  in  the  liberal  offices  of  life, 
Two  plummets  dropt  for  one  to  sound 

the  abyss 
Of  science,  and  the  secrets  of  the  mind  : 
Musician,  painter,  sculptor,  critic,  more: 
And  everywhere  the  broad  and  bounteous 

Earth 
Should  bear  a  double  growth  of  those 

rare  souls, 
Poets,  whose  thoughts  enrich  the  blood 

of  the  world.' 

She  ended  here,  and  beckon'd  us  :  the 

rest 
Parted ;  and,  glowing  full-faced  welcome, 

she 
Began  to  address  us,  and  was  moving  on 
In  gratulation,  till  as  when  a  boat 
Tacks,  and  the  slacken'd  sail  flaps,  all 

her  voice 
Faltering  and  fluttering  in  her  throat,  she 

cried 
*  My  brother ! '  *  Well,  my  sister.'     '  O,' 

she  said, 
'What  do  you  here?  and  in  this  dress? 

and  these? 
Why  who  are  these?  a  wolf  within  the 

fold! 
A  pack  of  wolves !  the  Lord  be  gracious 

to  me! 
A  plot,  a  plot,  a  plot,  to  ruin  all ! ' 
'No     plot,      no     plot,'    he     answer'd. 

'  Wretched  boy, 


**2 


THE   PRINCESS;   A   MEDLEY. 


How  saw  you  not  the  inscription  on  the 

gate, 
Let  no    man   enter    in    on  pain  of 

DEATH  ? ' 

'  And  if  I  had,'  he  answer'd,  'who  could 

think 
The  softer  Adams  of  your  Academe, 

0  sister,  Sirens  tho'  they  be,  were  such 
As  chanted   on  the  blanching  bones  of 

men?' 
*  But  you  will  find  it  otherwise,'  she  said. 
'  You  jest :  ill  jesting  with   edge-tools ! 

my  vow 
Binds  me  to  speak,  and  O  that  iron  will, 
That  axelike  edge  unturnable,  our  Head, 
The  Princess.'     '  Well  then,  Psyche,  take 

my  life, 
And  nail  me  like  a  weasel  on  a  grange 
For  warning :  bury  me  beside  the  gate, 
And  cut  this  epitaph  above  my  bones; 
Here  lies  a  brother  by  a  sister  slain, 
All  for  the  common  good  of  womankind.'' 

1  Let   me   die    too,'    said   Cyril,  '  having 

seen 
And  heard  the  Lady  Psyche.' 

I  struck  in : 
'Albeit  so  mask'd,  Madam,  I  love  the 

truth ; 
Receive  it;   and  in  me  behold  the  Prince 
Your  countryman,  affianced  years  ago 
To  the  Lady  Ida :  here,  for  here  she  was, 
And  thus  (what  other  way  was  left)  I 

came.' 
'O    Sir,  O  Prince,  I  have  no  country; 

none ; 
If  any,  this;   but  none.      Whate'er  I  was 
Disrooted,  what  I  am  is  grafted  here. 
Affianced,   Sir?    love-whispers   may   not 

breathe 
Within  this  vestal  limit,  and  how  should 

I. 

Who  am  not  mine,  say,  live :  the  thunder- 
bolt 

Hangs  silent;  but  prepare:  I  speak;  it 
falls.' 

'  Yet  pause,'  I  said :  '  for  that  inscription 
there, 

I  think  no  more  of  deadly  lurks  therein, 

Than  in  a  clapper  clapping  in  a  garth, 

To  scare  the  fowl  from  fruit :  if  more 
there  be, 

If  more  and  acted  on,  what  follows? 
war; 


Your  own  work   marr'd :    for  this  your 

Academe, 
Whichever  side  be  Victor,  in  the  halloo 
Will  topple   to  the  trumpet  down,  and 

pass 
With  all  fair  theories  only  made  to  gild 
A  stormless  summer.'     '  Let  the  Princess 

judge 
Of  that,'  she  said  :  '  farewell,  Sir  —  and 

to  you. 
I  shudder  at  the  sequel,  but  I  go.' 

•  Are  you  that  Lady  Psyche,'  I  rejoin'd, 
'  The  fifth  in  line  from  that  old  Florian, 
Yet  hangs  his  portrait  in  my  father's  hall 
(The  gaunt  old  Baron  with  his  beetle  brow 
Sun-shaded  in  the  heat  of  dusty  fights) 
As  he  bestrode  my  Grandsire,  when  he 

fell, 
And  all  else  fled?  we  point  to  it,  and  we 

say, 
The  loyal  warmth  of  Florian  is  not  cold, 
But  branches    current   yet    in    kindred 

veins.' 
'Are  you  that  Psyche,'  Florian  added; 

'  she 
With  whom  I  sang  about  the  morning 

hills, 
Flung   ball,    flew   kite,    and    raced    the 

purple  fly, 
And  snared  the  squirrel  of  the  glen?  are 

you 
That  Psyche,  wont  to  bind  my  throbbing 

brow, 
To  smoothe  my  pillow,  mix  the  foaming 

draught 
Of  fever,  tell  me  pleasant  tales,  and  read 
My  sickness  down  to  happy  dreams?  are 

you 
That  brother-sister  Psyche,  both  in  one? 
You  were  that  Psyche,  but  what  are  you 

now?' 
'You  are  that  Psyche,'  Cyril  said,  'for 

whom 
I  would  be  that  for  ever  which  I  seem, 
Woman,  if  I  might  sit  beside  your  feet, 
And  glean  your  scatter'd  sapience.' 

Then  once  more, 
'Are  you  that  Lady  Psyche,'  I  began, 
'That   on   her   bridal   morn   before   she 

past 
From  all  her  old  companions,  when  the 

king 


THE  PRINCESS;   A   MEDLEY. 


173 


Kiss'd    her   pale    cheek,    declared,  that 

ancient  ties 
Would  still  be  dear  beyond  the  southern 

hills; 
That  were  there  any  of  our  people  there 
In  want  or  peril,  there  was  one  to  hear 
And   help   them?    look!    for   such    are 

these  and  I.' 
'Are   you   that   Psyche,'   Florian   ask'd, 

'to  whom, 
In   gentler    days,   your    arrow-wounded 

fawn 
Came   flying  while  you   sat   beside   the 

well? 
The  creature  laid  his  muzzle  on  your  lap, 
And  sobb'd,  and  you  sobb'd  with  it,  and 

the  blood 
Was  sprinkled  on  your  kirtle,  and  you 

wept. 
That  was    fawn's   blood,   not   brother's, 

yet  you  wept. 
O  by  the  bright  head  of  my  little  niece, 
You  were    that   Psyche,   and   what   are 

you  now? ' 
'  You  are  that  Psyche,'  Cyril  said  again, 
'The  mother  of  the  sweetest  little  maid, 
That  ever  crow'd  for  kisses.' 

'  Out  upon  it ! ' 
She  answer'd,  '  peace !  and  why  should 

I  not  play 
The  Spartan  Mother  with  emotion,  be 
The  Lucius  Junius  Brutus  of  my  kind  ? 
Him  you  call  great :  he  for  the  common 

weal, 
The  fading  politics  of  mortal  Rome, 
As  I  might  slay  this  child,  if  good  need 

were, 
Slew  both  his  sons:  and  I,  shall  I,  on 

whom 
The  secular  emancipation  turns 
Of  half  this  world,  be  swerved  from  right 

to  save 
A  prince,  a  brother?  a  little  will  I  yield. 
Best  so,  perchance,  for  us,  and  well  for 

you. 
O  hard,  when  love  and  duty  clash !    I 

fear 
My  conscience  will  not  count  me  fleck- 
less;  yet  — 
Hear  my  conditions :  promise  (otherwise 
You  perish)  as  you  came,  to  slip  away, 
To-day,    to-morrow,    soon :    it   shall    be 

said. 


These  women  were  too  barbarous,  would 

not  learn; 
.They  fled,  who  might  have  shamed  us: 

promise,  all.' 

What    could   we    else,   we    promised 

each;   and  she, 
Like   some  wild    creature   newly-caged, 

commenced 
A  to-and-fro,  so  pacing  till  she  paused 
By  Florian;   holding  out  her  lily  arms 
Took  both  his  hands,  and  smiling  faintly 

said: 
'  I  knew  you  at  the  first :  tho'  you  have 

grown 
You  scarce  have  alter'd :  I  am  sad  and 

glad 
To  see   you,   Florian.     /  give  thee   to 

death 
My  brother !  it  was  duty  spoke,  not  I. 
My  needful  seeming  harshness,  pardon  it. 
Our  mother,  is  she  well?' 

With  that  she  kiss'd 
His    forehead,    then,   a   moment    after, 

clung 
About  him,  and  betwixt  them  blossom'd 

up 
From  out  a  common  vein  of  memory 
Sweet    household   talk,  and   phrases   of 

the  hearth, 
And  far  allusion,  till  the  gracious  dews 
Began  to  glisten  and  to  fall :  and  while 
They  stood,  so  rapt,  we  gazing,  came  a 

voice, 
'  I   brought  a  message  here  from  Lady 

Blanche.' 
Back  started  she,  and  turning  round  we 

saw 
The  Lady  Blanche's  daughter  where  she 

stood, 
Melissa,  with  her  hand  upon  the  lock, 
A  rosy  blonde,  and  in  a  college  gown, 
That  clad  her  like  an  April  daffodilly 
(Her    mother's    colour)    witn    her    lips 

apart, 
And  all  her  thoughts  as  fair  within  her 

eyes, 
As  bottom  agates  seen  to  wave  and  float 
In  crystal  currents  of  clear  morning  seas. 

So  stood  that  same  fair  creature  at  the 
door. 
Then  Lady  Psyche, '  Ah  —  Melissa  — you ! 


174 


THE  PRINCESS;   A   MEDLEY. 


You  heard  us?  '  and  Melissa,  'O  pardon 

me 
I   heard,  I  could   not   help   it,  did  not 

wish : 
But,  dearest  Lady,  pray  you  fear  me  not, 
Nor  think  I  bear  that  heart  within  my 

breast, 
To  give  three  gallant  gentlemen  to  death.' 
' 1  trust  you,'  said  the  other,  *  for  we  two 
Were   always   friends,  none   closer,  elm 

and  vine : 
But  yet  your  mother's  jealous  tempera- 
ment— 
Let  not  your  prudence,  dearest,  drowse, 

or  prove 
The  Dana'id  of  a  leaky  vase,  for  fear 
This  whole  foundation  ruin,  and  I  lose 
My  honour,  these  their  lives.'     '  Ah,  fear 

me  not,' 
Replied  Melissa;   'no —  I  would  not  tell, 
No,  not  for  all  Aspasia's  cleverness, 
No,  not   to    answer,    Madam,  all   those 

hard  things 
That  Sheba  came  to  ask  of  Solomon.' 
*  Be  it  so,'  the  other,  '  that  we  still  may 

lead 
The  new  light  up,  and  culminate  in  peace, 
For  Solomon  may  come  to  Sheba  yet.' 
Said  Cyril,  '  Madam,  he  the  wisest  man 
Feasted  the  woman  wisest  then,  in  halls 
Of  Lebanonian  cedar :  nor  should  you 
(Tho',  Madam,  you  should  answer,  we. 

would  ask) 
Less  welcome  find  among  us,  if  you  came 
Among  us,  debtors  for  our  lives  to  you, 
Myself  for  something  more.'     He  said 

not  what, 
But   'Thanks,'  she   answer'd,   'Go:   we 

have  been  too  long 
Together:    keep  your   hoods  about   the 

face; 
They  do  so  that  affect  abstraction  here. 
Speak  little;   mix  not  with  the  rest;   and 

hold 
Your  promise :  all,  I  trust,  may  yet  be 

well.' 

We  turn'd  to  go,  but  Cyril  took  the 
child, 

And  held  her  round  the  knees  against 
his  waist, 

And  blew  the  swoll'n  cheek  of  a  trump- 
eter, 


While    Psyche   watch'd    them,   smiling 

and  the  child 
Push'd   her   flat   hand  against   his   face 

and  laugh'd; 
And  thus  our  conference  closed. 

And  then  we  stroll'd 
For  half  the  day  thro'  stately  theatres 
Bench'd  crescent-wise.     In  each  we  sat, 

we  heard 
The   grave   Professor.     On  the    lecture 

slate 
The  circle  rounded  under  female  hands 
With   flawless   demonstration:    follow'd 

then 
A  classic  lecture,  rich  in  sentiment, 
With  scraps  of  thundrous  Epic  lilted  out 
By  violet-hooded  Doctors,  elegies 
And  quoted  odes,  and  jewels  five-words 

long 
That  on  the  stretch'd   forefinger  of  all 

Time 
Sparkle  for  ever :  then  we  dipt  in  all 
That  treats  of  whatsoever  is,  the  state, 
The  total  chronicles  of  man,  the  mind, 
The  morals,  something  of  the  frame,  the 

rock, 
The  star,  the  bird,  the  fish,  the  shell,  the 

flower, 
Electric,  chemic  laws,  and  all  the  rest, 
And    whatsoever    can    be    taught    and 

known; 
Till  like  three  horses  that  have  broken 

fence, 
And  glutted  all  night  long  breast-deep 

in  corn, 
We  issued  gorged  with  knowledge,  and 

I  spoke : 
'  Why,  Sirs,  they  do  all  this  as  well  as 

we.' 
'They  hunt  old  trails,'  said  Cyril,  'very 

well; 
But  when  did  woman  ever  yet  invent?' 
'  Ungracious ! '  answered  Florian;   '  have 

you  learnt 
No  more  from  Psyche's  lecture,  you  that 

talk'd 
The  trash  that  made  me  sick,  and  almost 

sad?' 
*  O  trash,'  he  said, '  but  with  a  kernel  in  it. 
Should  I  not  call  her  wise,  who  made  me 

wise? 
And  learnt?    I  learnt  more  from  her  in  a 

flash, 


THE  PRINCESS;   A   MEDLEY. 


175 


Than  if  my  brainpan  were  an  empty  hull, 
And  every  Muse  tumbled  a  science  in. 
A  thousand  hearts  lie  fallow  in  these  halls, 
And  round  these  halls  a  thousand  baby 

loves 
Fly   twanging   headless    arrows    at    the 

hearts, 
Whence   follows   many  a  vacant  pang; 

butO 
With  me,  Sir,  enter'd  in  the  bigger  boy, 
The  Head  of  all  the  golden-shafted  firm, 
The   long-limb'd  lad  that  had  a  Psyche 

too; 
He  cleft  me  thro'  the  stomacher;   and 

now 
What  think  you  of  it,  Florian?  do  I  chase 
The   substance   or  the  shadow?    will  it 

hold? 
I  have  no  sorcerer's  malison  on  me, 
No  ghostly  hauntings  like  his  Highness.  I 
Flatter  myself  that  always  everywhere 
I   know  the   substance  when    I  see   it. 

Well, 
Are  castles  shadows?     Three  of  them? 

Is  she 
The  sweet  proprietress  a  shadow?   If  not, 
Shall  those  three  castles  patch  my  tat- 

ter'd  coat? 
For  dear  are  those  three  castles  to  my 

wants, 
And  dear  is  sister  Psyche  to  my  heart, 
And  two  dear  things  are  one  of  double 

worth, 
And  much  I  might  have  said,  but  that 

my  zone 
Unmann'd  me :  then  the  Doctors !     O  to 

hear 
The  Doctors !     O  to  watch  the  thirsty 

plants 
Imbibing !  once  or  twice  I  thought  to  roar, 
To  break  my  chain,  to  shake  my  mane : 

but  thou, 
Modulate  me,  Soul  of  mincing  mimicry ! 
Make  liquid  treble  of  that  bassoon,  my 

throat; 
Abase  those  eyes  that  ever  loved  to  meet 
Star-sisters     answering    under    crescent 

brows; 
Abate  the  stride,  which  speaks  of  man, 

and  loose 
A  flying  charm  of  blushes  o'er  this  cheek, 
Where  they  like  swallows  coming  out  of 

time 


Will  wonder  why  they  came :  but  hark 

the  bell 
For  dinner,  let  us  go !  ? 

And  in  we  stream'd 
Among  the  columns,  pacing  staid  and  still 
By  twos  and  threes,  till  all  from  end  to  end 
With  beauties  every  shade  of  brown  and 

fair 
In  colours  gayer  than  the  morning  mist, 
The   long  hall   glitter'd   like    a   bed   of 

flowers. 
How  might  a  man  not  wander  from  his 

wits 
Pierced  thro'  with  eyes,  but  that  I  kept 

mine  own 
Intent  on  her,  who  rapt  in  glorious  dreams, 
The  second-sight  of  some  Astraean  age, 
Sat  compass'd  with  professors :  they,  the 

while, 
Discuss'd  a  doubt  and  tost  it  to  and  fro : 
A  clamour  thicken'd,  mixt  with  inmost 

terms 
Of  art  and  science :  Lady  Blanche  alone 
Of  faded  form  and  haughtiest  lineaments, 
With  all  her  autumn  tresses  falsely  brown, 
Shot  sidelong  daggers  at  us,  a  tiger-cat 
In  act  to  spring. 

At  last  a  solemn  grace 
Concluded,  and  we  sought  the  gardens : 

there 
One  walk'd  reciting  by  herself,  and  one 
In  this  hand  held  a  volume  as  to  read, 
And  smoothed  a  petted  peacock  down 

with  that : . 
Some  to  a  low  song  oar'd  a  shallop  by, 
Or  under  arches  of  the  marble  bridge 
Hung,  shadow'd  from  the  heat:    some 

hid  and  sought 
In  the  orange  thickets :  others  tost  a  ball 
Above  the  fountain-jets,  and  back  again 
With    laughter:    others    lay   about   the 

lawns, 
Of  the  older  sort,  and  murmur'd  that  their 

May 
Was  passing:    what  was  learning  unto 

them? 
They  wish'd  to  marry;   they  could  rule  a 

house; 
Men  hated  learned  women  :  but  we  three 
Sat  muffled  like    the  Fates;   and   often 

came 
Melissa  hitting  all  we  saw  with  shafts 
Of  gentle  satire,  kin  to  charity, 


176 


THE  PRINCESS;   A   MEDLEY. 


That  harm'd  not:  then  day  droopt;   the 

chapel  bells 
Call'd  us:  we  left   the  walks;     we  mixt 

with  those 
Six  hundred  maidens  clad  in  purest  white, 
Before  two  streams  of  light  from  wall  to 

wall, 
While  the  great  organ  almost  burst  his 

pipes, 
Groaning  for  power,  and  rolling  thro'  the 

court 
A  long  melodious  thunder  to  the  sound 
Of  solemn  psalms,  and  silver  litanies, 
The    work   of  Ida,   to   call   down   from 

Heaven 
A  blessing  on  her  labours  for  the  world. 

Hi. 

Sweet  and  low,  sweet  and  low, 

Wind  of  the  western  sea, 
Low,  low,  breathe  and  blow, 

Wind  of  the  western  sea! 
Over  the  rolling  waters  go, 
Come  from  the  dying  moon,  and  blow, 

Blow  him  again  to  me; 
While  my  little  one,  while  my  pretty  one,  sleeps. 

Sleep  and  rest,  sleep  and  rest, 

Father  will  come  to  thee  soon ; 
Rest,  rest,  on  mother's  breast, 

Father  will  come  to  thee  soon ; 
Father  will  come  to  his  babe  in  the  nest, 
Silver  sails  all  out  of  the  west 

Under  the  silver  moon: 
Sleep,  my  little  one,  sleep,  my  pretty  on«,  sleep. 

Morn  in  the  white  wake  of  the  morning 

star 
Came  furrowing  all  the  orient  into  gold. 
We  rose,  and  each  by  other  drest  with 

care 
Descended  to  the  court  that  lay  three  parts 
m  shadow,  but  the  Muses'  heads  were 

touch'd 
Above  the  darkness  from  their  native  East. 

There  while  we  stood  beside  the  fount, 

and  watch'd 
Or  seem'd  to  watch  the  dancing  bubble, 

approach'd 
Melissa,  tinged  with  wan  from  lack   of 

sleep, 
Or  firief,  and  glowing  round  her  dewy 

"ves 


The  circled  Iris  of  a  night  of  tears; 

1  And  fly,'  she  cried, '  O  fly,  while  yet  you 

may ! 
My  mother  knows :  '  and  when  I  ask'd 

her  '  how,' 
'  My  fault,'  she  wept,  '  my  fault !  and  yet 

not  mine; 
Yet  mine  in  part.     O  hear  me,  pardon 

me. 
My  mother,  'tis  her  wont  from  night  to 

night 
To  rail  at  Lady  Psyche  and  her  side. 
She  says  the  Princess  should  have  been 

the  Head, 
Herself  and  Lady  Psyche  the  two  arms; 
And  so  it  was   agreed   when   first   they 

came; 
But  Lady  Psyche  was  the  right  hand  now, 
And  she  the  left,  or  not,  or  seldom  used; 
Hers  more  than  half  the  students,  all  the 

love. 
And  so  last  night  she  fell  to  canvass  you : 
Her  countrywomen  !  she  did  not  envy  her. 
"  Who  ever  saw  such  wild  barbarians? 
Girls?  —  more  like  men!"  and  at  these 

words  the  snake, 
My  secret,  seem'd  to  stir  within  my  breast ; 
And  oh,  Sirs,  could  I  help  it,  but  my  cheek 
Began  to  burn  and  burn,  and  her  lynx  eye 
To   fix   and    make    me   hotter,   till   she 

laugh'd : 
"  O  marvellously  modest  maiden,  you ! 
Men !  girls,  like  men !  why,  if  they  had 

been  men 
You  need  not  set  your  thoughts  in  rubric 

thus 
For  wholesale  comment."     Pardon,  I  am 

shamed 
That  I  must  needs  repeat  for  my  excuse 
What  looks  so  little   graceful :    "  men  " 

(for  still     ' 
My  mother  went  revolving  on  the  word) 
"  And  so  they  are,  —  very  like  men  in- 
deed— 
And  with  that  woman  closeted  for  hours ! " 
Then  came  these  dreadful  words  out  one 

by  one, 
"Why  —  these  —  are — men:"   I  shud- 

der'd :  "  and  you  know  it." 
"O  ask  me  nothing,"  I  said:  "And  she 

knows  too, 
And  she  conceals  it."     So   my   mother 

clutch'd 


THE  PRINCESS;   A   MEDLEY. 


177 


The  truth  at  once,  but  with  no  word  from 

me; 
And  now  thus  early  risen  she   goes   to 

inform 
The    Princess:    Lady    Psyche    will    be 

crush'd; 
But  you  may  yet  be  saved,  and  therefore 

fly: 
But  heal  me  with  your  pardon  ere  you  go.' 

1  What  pardon,  sweet   Melissa,    for   a 

blush?' 
Said  Cyril:  ' Pale  one, blush  again :  than 

wear 
Those  lilies,  better  blush  our  lives  away. 
Yet  let  us  breathe  for  one  hour  more  in 

Heaven,' 
He  added, '  lest  some  classic  Angel  speak 
In  scorn  of  us,  "They  mounted,  Gany- 

medes, 
To  tumble,  Vulcans,  on  the  second  morn." 
But  I  will  melt  this  marble  into  wax 
To  yield  us  farther  furlough : '    and  he 

went. 

Melissa  shook  her  doubtful  curls,  and 

thought 
He   scarce   would    prosper.      'Tell   us,' 

Florian  ask'd, 
■  How  grew  this  feud  betwixt  the  right 

and  left.' 
1 0  long  ago,'  she  said, '  betwixt  these  two 
Division    smoulders     hidden;     'tis     my 

mother, 
Too  jealous,  often  fretful  as  the  wind 
Pent  in  a  crevice  :  much  1  bear  with  her : 
I  never  knew  my  father,  but  she  says 
(God  help  her)  she  was  wedded  to  a  fool; 
And  still  she  rail'd  against  the  state  of 

things. 
She  had  the  care  of  Lady  Ida's  youth, 
And  from  the  Queen's  decease  she  brought 

her  up. 
But  when  your  sister  came  she  won  the 

heart 
Of  Ida  :  they  were  still  together,  grew 
(For  so  they  said  themselves)  inosculated; 
Consonant  chords  that  shiver  to  one  note; 
One  mind  in  all  things :  yet  my  mother 

still 
Affirms  your  Psyche  thieved  her  theories, 
And  angled  with  them  for  her  pupil's  love  : 
She  calls  her  plagiarist;  I  know  not  what : 
N 


But  I  must  go :    I  dare  not  tarry,'  and 

light, 
As  flies  the  shadow  of  a  bird,  she  fled. 

Then   murmur'd  Florian  gazing  after 

her, 
'  An  open-hearted  maiden,  true  and  pure. 
If  I  could  love,  why  this  were  she :  how 

pretty 
Her  blushing  was,  and  how  she  blush'd 

again, 
As  if  to  close  with  Cyril's  random  wish  : 
Not   like   your   Princess    cramm'd   with 

erring  pride, 
Nor  like  poor  Psyche  whom  she  drags  in 

tow.' 

'  The  crane,'  I  said, '  may  chatter  of  the 

crane, 
The  dove  may  murmur  of  the  dove,  but  I 
An  eagle  clang  an  eagle  to  the  sphere. 
My  princess,  O  my  princess  !  true  she  errs, 
But  in  her  own  grand  way :  being  herself 
Three  times  more  noble  than  three  score 

of  men, 
She  sees  herself  in  every  woman  else, 
And  so  she  wears  her  error  like  a  crown 
To  blind  the  truth  and  me :  for  her,  and 

her, 
Hebes  are  they  to  hand  ambrosia,  mix 
The  nectar;  but — ah  she  —  whene'er  she 

moves 
The  Samian  Here  rises  and  she  speaks 
A  Memnon   smitten   with   the   morning 

Sun.' 

So   saying   from  the  court  we  paced, 

and  gain'd 
The  terrace  ranged  along  the  Northern 

front, 
And  leaning  there  on  those  balusters,  high 
Above  the  empurpled  champaign,  drank 

the  gale 
That  blown  about  the  foliage  underneath, 
And  sated  with  the  innumerable  rose, 
Beat  balm  upon  our  eyelids.    Hither  came 
Cyril,  and  yawning   'O   hard   task,'   he 

cried; 
'No  fighting  shadows  here!    I  forced  a 

way 
Thro'  solid  opposition  crabb'd  andgnarl'd. 
Better  to  clear  prime  forests,  heave  and 

thump 


i78 


THE  PRINCESS;   A   MEDLEY. 


A  league   of  street  in  summer  solstice 

down, 
Than   hammer   at  this  reverend  gentle- 
woman. 
I  knock'd  and   bidden,  enter'd;    found 

her  there 
At  point  to  move,  and   settled   in   her 

eyes 
The   green   malignant   light   of  coming 

storm. 
Sir,  I  was  courteous,  every  phrase  well- 

oil'd, 
As  man's  could  be;  yet  maiden-meek  I 

pray'd 
Concealment:    she   demanded   who   we 

were, 
And  why  we  came?  I  fabled  nothing  fair, 
But,  your  example  pilot,  told  her  all. 
Up  went  the  hush'd  amaze  of  hand  and 

eye. 
But  when  I  dwelt  upon  your  old  affiance, 
She  answer 'd  sharply  that  I  talk'd  astray. 
I  urged  the  fierce  inscription  on  the  gate, 
And   our   three   lives.     True  —  we   had 

limed  ourselves 
With  open  eyes,  and  we  must  take  the 

chance. 
But  such  extremes,  I  told  her,  well  might 

harm 
The  woman's  cause.     "Not   more   than 

now,"  she  said, 
"  So  puddled  as  it  is  with  favouritism." 
I  tried  the  mother's  heart.     Shame  might 

befall 
Melissa,  knowing,  saying  not  she  knew : 
Her  answer  was,  "  Leave  me  to  deal  with 

that." 
I  spoke  of  war  to  come  and  many  deaths, 
And  she  replied,  her  duty  was  to  speak, 
And  duty  duty,  clear  of  consequences. 
I  grew  discouraged,  Sir;  but  since  I  knew 
No  rock  so  hard  but  that  a  little  wave 
May  beat  admission  in  a  thousand  years, 
I    recommenced;   "Decide  not  ere  you 

pause. 
I  find  you  here  but  in  the  second  place, 
Some  say  the  third  —  the  authentic  foun- 
dress yoU. 
I  offer  boldly :  we  will  seat  you  highest : 
Wink  at  our  advent :  help  my  prince  to 

.  gain 
His  rightful  bride,  and  here  I  promise 

you 


Some  palace  in  our  land,  where  you  shall 
reign 

The  head  and  heart  of  all  our  fair  she- 
world, 

And  your  great  name  flow  on  with  broad- 
ening time 

For  ever."  Well,  she  balanced  this  a 
little, 

And  told  me  she  would  answer  us  to-day, 

Meantime  be  mute  :  thus  much,  nor  more 
I  gain'd.' 

He  ceasing,  came  a  message  from  the 

Head. 
'That  afternoon  the  Princess  rode  to  take 
The  dip  of  certain  strata  to  the  North. 
Would  we  go  with  her?  we  should  find 

the  land 
Worth  seeing;   and  the. river  made  a  fall 
Out  yonder : '    then  she  pointed   on   to 

where 
A  double  hill  ran  up  his  furrowy  forks 
Beyond  the  thick-leaved  platans  of  the 

vale. 

Agreed  to,  this,  the  day  fled  on  thro' 

all 
Its  range  of  duties  to  the  appointed  hour. 
Then  summon'd  to  the  porch  \ve  went. 

She  stood 
Among  her  maidens,  higher  by  the  head, 
Her  back    against  a  pillar,  her  foot  on 

one 
Of  those  tame  leopards.     Kittenlike  he 

roll'd 
And  paw'd  about  her  sandal.     I   drew 

near; 
I  gazed.     On  a  sudden  my  strange  seizure 

came 
Upon  me,  the  weird  vision  of  our  house : 
The  Princess  Ida  seem'd  a  hollow  show, 
Her  gay-furr'd  cats  a  painted  fantasy, 
Her    college    and    her    maidens    empty 

masks, 
And  I  myself  the  shadow  of  a  dream, 
For  all  things  were  and  were  not.     Yet 

I  felt 
My  heart  beat  thick  with   passion   and 

with  awe; 
Then   from   my   breast   the    involuntary 

sigh 
Brake,  as  she  smote  me  with  the  light  of 

eyes 


THE  PRINCESS;   A   MEDLEY. 


179 


That  lent  my  knee  desire  to  kneel,  and 

shook 
My  pulses,  till  to  horse  we  got,  and  so 
Went  forth  in  long  retinue  following  up 
The  river  as  it  narrow'd  to  the  hills. 

I  rode  beside  her  and  to  me  she  said  : 
\  O  friend,  we  trust  that  you  esteem'd  us 

not 
Too  harsh  to  your  companion  yestermorn ; 
Unwillingly  we  spake.'  *  No  —  not  to  her,' 
I  answer'd,  •  but  to  one  of  whom  we  spake 
Your   Highness  might  have  seem'd  the 

thing  you  say.' 
'  Again  ? '  she  cried,  '  are  you  ambassa- 
dresses 
From  him  to  me?  we  give  you,  being 

strange, 
A  license  :  speak,  and  let  the  topic  die.' 

I  stammer'd  that  I  knew  him  —  could 
have  wish'd  — 
*  Our  king  expects  —  was  there  no  pre- 
contract? 
There  is  no  truer-hearted  —  ah,  you  seem 
All  he  prefigured,  and  he  could  not  see 
The   bird   of    passage   flying  south   but 

long'd 
To  follow :  surely,  if  your  Highness  keep 
Your  purport,  you  will  shock  him  ev'n  to 

death, 
Or  baser  courses,  children  of  despair.' 

'  Poor  boy,'  she  said,  '  can  he  not  read 
—  no  books? 

Quoit,  tennis,  ball  —  no  games  ?  nor  deals 
in  that 

Which  men  delight  in,  martial  exercise? 

To  nurse  a  blind  ideal  like  a  girl, 

Methinks  he  seems  no  better  than  a  girl; 

As  girls  were  once,  as  we  ourself  have 
been: 

We  had  our  dreams;  perhaps  he  mixt 
with  them : 

We  touch  on  our  dead  self,  nor  shun  to 
do  it, 

Being  other  —  since  we  learnt  our  mean- 
ing here, 

To  lift  the  woman's  fall'n  divinity 

Upon  an  even  pedestal  with  man.' 

She  paused,  and  added  with  a  haughtier 
smile 


'  And  as  to  precontracts,  we   move,  my 

friend, 
At  no  man's  beck,  but  know  ourself  and 

thee, 

0  Vashti,  noble  Vashti !     Summon'd  out 
She  kept  her  state,  and  left  the  drunken 

king 
To   brawl   at   Shushan    underneath   the 
palms.' 

*  Alas    your    Highness    breathes    full 
East,'  I  said, 
'On  that  which  leans  to  you.     I  know 
the  Prince, 

1  prize  his  truth :    and  then  how  vast  a 

work 
To  assail  this  gray  preeminence  of  man  ! 
You  grant  me  license;    might  I  use  it? 

think; 
Ere  half  be  done  perchance  your  life  may 

fail; 
Then  comes  the  feebler  heiress  of  your 

plan, 
And  takes  and  ruins  all;   and  thus  your 

pains 
May  only  make  that  footprint  upon  sand 
Which  old-recurring  waves  of  prejudice 
Resmooth   to   nothing :    might   I    dread 

that  you, 
With   only  Fame  for  spouse   and   your 

great  deeds 
For  issue,  yet  may  live  in  vain,  and  miss, 
Meanwhile,  what   every  woman   counts 

her  due, 
Love,  children,  happiness?' 

And  she  exclaim'd, 
'  Peace,  you  young  savage  of  the  Northern 

wild! 
What !  tho'  your  Prince's  love  were  like 

a  God's, 
Have  we  not  made  ourself  the  sacrifice? 
You  are  bold  indeed :  we  are  not  talk'd 

to  thus : 
Yet  will  we  say  for  children,  would  they 

grew 
Like  field-flowers   everywhere !    we  like 

them  well : 
But  children  die;    and  let  me  tell  you, 

girl, 
Howe'er  you  babble,  great  deeds  cannot 

die; 
They  with  the  sun  and  moon  renew  their 

light 


i8o 


THE  PRINCESS;   A   MEDLEY. 


For  ever,  blessing  those  that  look  on 
them. 

Children  —  that  men  may  pluck  them 
from  our  hearts, 

Kill  us  with  pity,  break  us  with  our- 
selves — 

O  —  children  —  there  is  nothing  upon 
earth 

More  miserable  than  she  that  has  a  son 

And  sees  him  err :  nor  would  we  work 
for  fame; 

Tho'  she  perhaps  might  reap  the  applause 
of  Great, 

Who  learns  the  one  POU  STO  whence  after- 
hands 

May  move  the  world,  tho'  she  herself  effect 

But  little :  wherefore  up  and  act,  nor 
shrink 

7or  fear  our  solid  aim  be  dissipated 

By  frail  successors.  Would,  indeed,  we 
had  been, 

In  lieu  of  many  mortal  flies,  a  race 

Of  giants  living,  each,  a  thousand  years, 

That  we  might  see  our  own  work  out, 
and  watch 

The  sandy  footprint  harden  into  stone.' 

I  answer'd  nothing,  doubtful  in  myself 
If  that   strange    Poet-princess  with  her 

grand 
Imaginations  might  at  all  be  won. 
And    she    broke    out    interpreting    my 

thoughts : 

'  No  doubt  we  seem  a  kind  of  monster 

to  you; 
We  are  used  to  that :  for  women,  up  till 

this 
Cramp'd  under  worse  than  South-sea-isle 

taboo, 
Dwarfs  of  the  gynaeceum,  fail  so  far 
In   high   desire,  they  know  not,  cannot 

guess 
How  much  their  welfare  is  a  passion  to  us. 
If  we   could   give    them   surer,   quicker 

proof — 
Oh  if  our  end  were  less  achievable 
By  slow  approaches,  than  by  single  act 
Of  immolation,  any  phase  of  death, 
We  were  as  prompt  to  spring  against  the 

pikes, 
Or  down  the  fiery  gulf  as  talk  of  it, 
To  compass  our  dear  sisters'  liberties.' 


She  bow'd  as  if  to  veil  a  noble  tear; 
And  up   we  came    to   where    the  river 

sloped 
To    plunge    in    cataract,    shattering   on 

black  blocks 
A  breadth  of  thunder.     O'er  it  shook  the 

woods, 
And    danced    the    colour,    and,   below, 

stuck  out 
The  bones  of  some  vast  bulk  that  lived 

and  roar'd 
Before  man  was.     She  gazed  awhile  and 

said, 
•  As  these  rude  bones  to  us,  are  we  to 

her 
That  will  be.'     '  Dare  we  dream  of  that,' 

I  ask'd, 
1  Which  wrought  us,  as  the  workman  and 

his  work, 
That    practice    betters  ?  '      '  How,'   she 

cried,  '  you  love 
The   metaphysics!    read   and   earn   our 

prize, 
A  golden  brooch:    beneath  an  emerald 

plane 
Sits  Diotima,  teaching  him  that  died 
Of  hemlock;    our   device;    wrought  to 

the  life; 
She  rapt  upon  her  subject,  he  on  her : 
For   there   are   schools   for  all.'      'And 

yet,'  I  said, 
'  Methinks  I  have  not  found  among  them 

all 
One   anatomic'      'Nay,  we  thought   of 

that,' 
She  answer'd,  '  but  it  pleased  us  not :  in 

truth 
We   shudder   but  to   dream   our  maids 

should  ape 
Those   monstrous   males  that  carve  the 

living  hound, 
And  cram  him  with  the  fragments  of  the 

grave, 
Or  in  the  dark  dissolving  human  heart, 
And  holy  secrets  of  this  microcosm. 
Dabbling  a  shameless  hand  with  shame- 
ful jest, 
Encarnalise  their  spirits :  yet  we  know 
Knowledge  is  knowledge,  and  this  mat- 
ter hangs : 
Howbeit  ourself,  foreseeing  casualty, 
Nor  willing  men  should  come  among  us, 

learnt, 


THE   PRINCESS;  A  MEDLEY. 


181 


For  many  weary  moons  before  we  came, 
This  craft   of  healing.     Were  you  sick, 

ourself 
Would  tend  upon  you.     To  your  ques- 
tion now, 
Which  touches  on  the  workman  and  his 

work. 
Let  there  be  light  and  there  was  light : 

'tis  so : 
For  was,  and  is,  and  will  be,  are  but  is; 
And  all  creation  is  one  act  at  once, 
The  birth  of  light :  but  we  that  are  not 

all, 
As  parts,  can  see  but  parts,  now  this, 

now  that, 
And    live,    perforce,    from    thought    to 

thought,  and  make 
One  act  a  phantom  of  succession  :  thus 
Our     weakness     somehow    shapes    the 

shadow,  Time; 
But   in   the   shadow  will  we  work,  and 

mould 
The  woman  to  the  fuller  day.' 

She  spake 
With  kindled  eyes :   we  rode  a  league 

beyond, 
And,  o'er  a  bridge  of  pinewood  crossing, 

came 
On  flowery  levels  underneath  the  crag, 
Full  of  all  beauty.     *.  O  how  sweet,'  I  said 
(For  I  was  half-oblivious  of  my  mask), 
'To  linger  here  with  one  that  loved  us.' 

'Yea,' 
She  answer'd,  '  or  with  fair  philosophies 
That   lift   the   fancy;    for   indeed   these 

fields 
Are    lovely,    lovelier    not    the    Elysian 

lawns, 
Where  paced  the  Demigods,  of  old,  and 

saw 
The  soft  white  vapour  streak  the  crowned 

towers 
Built  to  the  Sun : '  then,  turning  to  her 

maids, 
I  Pitch  our  pavilion  here  upon  the  sward ; 
Lay  out  the  viands.'     At  the  word,  they 

raised 
A  tent  of  satin,  elaborately  wrought 
With  fair  Corinna's  triumph;    here   she 

stood, 
Engirt  with  many  a  florid  maiden-cheek, 
The     woman-conqueror ;      woman-con- 

quer'd  there 


The    bearded    Victor    of    ten-thousand 

hymns, 
And   all  the  men  mourn'd  at  his  side  : 

but  we 
Set  forth  to  climb;  then,  climbing,  Cyril 

kept 
With  Psyche,  with  Melissa  Florian,  I 
With  mine  affianced.     Many  a  little  hand 
Glanced  like  a  touch  of  sunshine  on  the 

rocks, 
Many  a  light  foot  shone  like  a  jewel 

set 
In*  the  dark  crag :  and  then  we  turn'd, 

we  wound 
About  the  cliffs,  the  copses,  out  and  in, 
Hammering    and     clinking,    chattering 

stony  names 
Of  shale  and    hornblende,  rag  and  trap 

and  tuff, 
Amygdaloid  and  trachyte,  till  the  Sun 
Grew  broader  toward  his  death  and  fell, 

and  all 
The   rosy  heights  came  out  above   the 

lawns. 

IV. 

The  splendour  falls  on  castle  walls 

And  showy  summits  old  in  story: 

The  long  light  shakes  across  the  lakes, 

And  the  wild  cataract  leaps  in  glory. 

Blow,  bugle,  blow,  set  the  wild  echoes  flying, 

Blow,  bugle;  answer,  echoes,  dying,  dying, 

dying. 

O  hark,  O  hear!  how  thin  and  clear, 

And  thinner,  clearer,  farther  going! 
O  sweet  and  far  from  cliff  and  scar 
The  horns  of  Elfland  faintly  blowing ! 
Blow,  let  us  hear  the  purple  glens  replying: 
Blow,  bugle;  answer,  echoes,  dying,  dying, 
dying. 

O  love,  they  die  in  yon  rich  sky, 

They  faint  on  hill  or  field  or  river: 
Our  echoes  roll  from  soul  to  soul, 
And  grow  for  ever  and  for  ever. 
Blow,  bugle,  blow,  set  the  wild  echoes  flying, 
And  answer,  echoes,  answer,  dying,  dying, 
dying. 

'There   sinks  the  nebulous  star  we  call 

the  Sun, 
If  that  hypothesis  of  theirs  be  sound,' 
Said  Ida;   'let  us  down  and  rest;  '  and 

we 


182 


THE  PRINCESS;  A   MEDLEY. 


Down  from  the  lean  and  wrinkled  preci- 
pices, 

By  every  coppice-feather'd  chasm  and 
cleft, 

Dropt  thro'  the  ambrosial  gloom  to 
where  below 

No  bigger  than  a  glow-worm  shone  the 
tent 

Lamp-lit  from  the  inner.  Once  she 
lean'd  on  me, 

Descending;  once  or  twice  she  lent  her 
hand, 

And  blissful  palpitations  in  the  blood, 

Stirring  a  sudden  transport  rose  and  fell. 

But  when  we  planted  level  feet,  and  dipt 
Beneath  the  satin  dome  and  enter'd  in, 
There   leaning   deep  in  broider'd  down 

we  sank 
Our  elbows :  on  a  tripod  in  the  midst 
A  fragrant   flame   rose,   and  before   us 

glow'd 
Fruit,  blossom,  viand,  amber  wine,  and 

gold. 

Then  she,  '  Let  some  one  sing  to  us : 

lightlier  move 
The  minutes  fledged  with  music  : '  and  a 

maid, 
Of  those  beside  her,  smote  her  harp,  and 

sang. 

'  Tears,  idle  tears,  I  know  not  what  they  mean, 
Tears  from  the  depth  of  some  divine  despair 
Rise  in  the  heart,  and  gather  to  the  eyes, 
In  looking  on  the  happy  Autumn-fields, 
And  thinking  of  the  days  that  are  no  more. 

'  Fresh  as  the  first  beam  glittering  on  a  sail, 
That  brings  our  friends  up  from  the  underworld, 
Sad  as  the  last  which  reddens  over  one 
That  sinks  with  all  we  love  below  the  verge; 
So  sad,  so  fr6sh,  the  days  that  are  no  more. 

'  Ah,  sad  and  strange  as  in  dark  summer  dawns 
The  earliest  pipe  of  half-awaken'd  birds 
To  dying  ears,  when  unto  dying  eyes 
The  casement  slowly  grows  a  glimmering  square; 
So  sad,  so  strange,  the  days  that  are  no  more. 

'  Dear  as  remember'd  kisses  after  death, 
And  sweet  as  those  by  hopeless  fancy  feign'd 
On  lips  that  are  for  others;  deep  as  love, 
Deep  as  first  love,  and  wild  with  all  regret; 
O  Death  in  Life,  the  days  that  are  no  more.' 


She  ended  with  such  passion  that  the 

tear, 
She  sang  of,  shook  and  fell,  an    erring 

pearl 
Lost  in  her  bosom :  but  with  some  dis- 
dain 
Answer'd  the  Princess,  '  If  indeed  there 

haunt 
About  the  moulder'd  lodges  of  the  Past 
So  sweet  a  voice   and  vague,  fatal   to 

men, 
Well  needs  it  we  should  cram  our  ears 

with  wool 
And  so   pace  by:  but  thine  are  fancies 

hatch'd 
In  silken-folded  idleness;   nor  is  it 
Wiser  to  weep  a  true  occasion  lost, 
But  trim  our  sails,  and  let  old  bygones 

be, 
While   down   the   streams   that  float  us 

each  and  all 
To  the  'issue,  goes,  like  glittering  bergs 

of  ice, 
Throne  after  throne,  and  molten  on  the 

waste 
Becomes   a   cloud :  for   all  things  serve 

their  time 
Toward  that  great  year  of  equal  mights 

and  rights, 
Nor  would  I  fight  with  iron  laws,  in  the 

end 
Found  golden:  let  the  past  be  past;  let 

be 
Their  cancell'd  Babels:    tho'  the  rough 

kex  break 
The  starr'd  mosaic,  and  the  beard-blown 

goat 
Hang  on  the  shaft,  and  the  wild  figtree 

split  t 
Their  monstrous  idols,  care  not  while  we 

hear 
A  trumpet  in  the  distance  pealing  news 
Of  better,  and   Hope,  a  poising  eagle, 

burns 
Above  the    unrisen    morrow : '   then  to 

me; 
*  Know  you  no  song  of  your  own  land,' 

she  said, 
1  Not  such  as  moans  about  the  retrospect, 
But  deals  with  the  other  distance  and  the 

hues 
Of  promise;    not  a  death's-head  at  the 

wine.' 


THE  PRINCESS;   A   MEDLEY. 


183 


Then  I  remember'd  one  myself  had 
made, 

What  time  I  watch'd  the  swallow  wing- 
ing south 

From  mine  own  land,  part  made  long 
since,  and  part 

Now'  while  I  sang,  and  maidenlike  as 
far 

As  I  could  ape  their  treble,  did  I  sing. 

•  O  Swallow,  Swallow,  flying,  flying  South, 
Fly  to  her,  and  fall  upon  her  gilded  eaves, 
And  tell  her,  tell  her,  what  I  tell  to  thee. 

'  O  tell  her,  Swallow,  thou  that  knowest  each, 
That  bright  and  fierce  and  fickle  is  the  South, 
And  dark  and  true  and  tender  is  the  North. 

1  O  Swallow,  Swallow,  if  I  could  follow,  and 
light 
Upon  her  lattice,  I  would  pipe  and  trill, 
And  cheep  and  twitter  twenty  million  loves. 

1 0  were  I  thou  that  she  might  take  me  in, 
And  lay  me  on  her  bosom,  and  her  heart 
Would  rock  the  snowy  cradle  till  I  died. 

'  Why  lingereth  she  to  clothe  her  heart  with  love, 
Delaying  as  the  tender  ash  delays 
To  clothe  herself,  when  all  the  woods  are  green  ? 

'  O  tell  her,  Swallow,  that  thy  brood  is  flown : 
Say  to  her,  I  do  but  wanton  in  the  South, 
But  in  the  North  long  since  my  nest  is  made. 

'  O  tell  her,  brief  is  life  but  love  is  long, 
And  brief  the  sun  of  summer  in  the  North, 
And  brief  the  moon  of  beauty  in  the  South. 

'  O  Swallow,  flying  from  the  golden  woods, 
Fly  to  her,  and  pipe  and  woo  her,  and  make  her 

mine, 
And  tell  her,  tell  her,  that  I  follow  thee.' 

I  ceased,  and  all  the  ladies,  each  at 

each, 
Like  the  Ithacensian  suitors  in  old  time, 
Stared  with  great  eyes,  and  laugh'd  with 

alien  lips, 
And  knew  not  what  they  meant;   for  still 

my  voice 
Rang  false :  but  smiling,  '  Not  for  thee,' 

she  said, 
'  O  Bulbul,  any  rose  of  Gulistan 
Shall  burst  her  veil :  marsh-divers,  rather, 

maid, 


Shall  croak  thee  sister,  or  the  meadow 

crake 
Grate  her  harsh  kindred  in  the  grass: 

and  this 
A  mere  love-poem  !  O  for  such,  my  friend, 
We  hold  them  slight:  they  mind  us  of 

the  time 
When  we  made  bricks  in  Egypt.    Knaves 

are  men, 
That  lute  and  flute  fantastic  tenderness, 
And  dress  the  victim  to  the  offering  up. 
And  paint  the  gates  of  Hell  with  Paradise, 
And  play  the  slave  to  gain  the  tyranny. 
Poor  soul !  1  had  a  maid  of  honour  once ; 
She  wept  her  true  eyes  blind  for  such  a 

one, 
A  rogue  of  canzonets  and  serenades. 
I  loved  her.     Peace  be  with  her.     She 

is  dead. 
So  they  blaspheme  the  muse  !     But  great 

is  song 
Used  to  great  ends:  ourself  have  often 

tried 
Valkyrian  hymns,  or  into   rhythm   have 

dash'd 
The  passion  of  the  prophetess;  for  song 
Is  duer  unto  freedom,  force  and  growth 
Of  spirit  than  to  junketing  and  love. 
Love  is  it?     Would  this  same  mock-love, 

and  this 
Mock-Hymen  were  laid   up  like  winter 

bats, 
Till  all  men  grew  to  rate  us  at  our  worth, 
Not  vassals  to  be  beat,  nor  pretty  babes 
To  be  dandled,  no,  but  living  wills,  and 

sphered 
Whole  in  ourselves  and  owed  to  none. 

Enough ! 
But  now  to  leaven  play  with  profit,  you, 
Know  you  no  song,  the  true  growth  of 

your  soil, 
That  gives  the  manners  of  your  country- 
women?' 

She  spoke  and  turn'd  her  sumptuous 

head  with  eyes 
Of  shining  expectation  fixt  on  mine. 
Then  while  I  dragg'd  my  brains  for  such 

a  song, 
Cyril,  with  whom  the  bell-mouth'd  glass 

had  wrought, 
Or  master'd  by  the  sense  of  sport,  began 
To  troll  a  careless,  careless  tavern-catch 


1 84 


THE  PRINCESS:   A   MEDLEY. 


Of  Moll  and  Meg,  and  strange  experiences 
Unmeet  for   ladies.     Florian  nodded  at 

him, 
I  frowning;   Psyche  flush'd  and  wann'd 

and  shook ; 
The  ladylike  Melissa  droop'd  her  brows; 
*  Forbear,' the  Princess  cried;   'Forbear, 

Sir,'  I; 
And  heated  thro'  and  thro'  with  wrath 

and  love, 
I  smote  him  on  the  breast;    he  started 

up; 
There  rose  a  shriek  as  of  a  city  sack'd; 
Melissa  clamour'd,  'Flee  the  death;  '  'To 

horse,' 
Said  Ida;   '  home  !  to  horse! '  and  fled, 

as  flies 
A  troop  of  snowy  doves  athwart  the  dusk, 
When  some  one  batters  at  the  dovecote 

doors, 
Disorderly  the  women.     Alone  I  stood 
With  Florian,  cursing  Cyril,  vext  at  heart, 
In  the  pavilion  :    there  like  parting  hopes 
I  heard  them  passing  from  me :  hoof  by 

hoof, 
And  every  hoof  a  knell  to  my  desires, 
Clang'd  on  the  bridge;   and  then  another 

shriek, 
'The  Head,  the  Head,  the  Princess,  O 

the  Head ! ' 
For  blind  with  rage  she  miss'd  the  plank, 

and  roll'd 
In  the  river.     Out  I  sprang  from  glow  to 

gloom  : 
There   whirl'd    her   white   robe    like    a 

blossom'd  branch 
Rapt  to  the   horrible   fall :    a  glance  I 

gave, 
No  more;   but  woman -vested  as  I  was 
Plunged;     and   the   flood   drew;    yet   I 

caught  her;   then 
Oaring  one  arm,  and  bearing  in  my  left 
The  weight  of  all  the  hopes  of  half  the 

world, 
Strove  to  buffet  to  land  in  vain.     A  tree 
Was  half-disrooted   from  his  place  and 

stoop'd 
To  drench  his  dark  locks  in  the  gurgling 

wave 
Mid-channel.     Right  on   this  we   drove 

and  caught, 
And  grasping  down  the  boughs  I  gain'd 

the  shore. 


There  stood  her  maidens  glimmeringly 

group'd 
In  the  hollow  bank.     One  reaching  for- 
ward drew 
My  burthen  from  mine  arms;   they  cried 

'  she  lives  : ' 
They  bore  her  back  into  the  tent :  but  I, 
So   much   a  kind  of  shame  within  me 

wrought, 
Not  yet  endured  to  meet  her  opening 

eyes, 
Nor  found  my  friends;   but  push'd  alone 

on  foot 
(For  since  her  horse  was  lost  I  left  her 

mine) 
Across  the  woods,  and  less  from  Indian 

craft 
Than  beelike  instinct  hiveward,  found  at 

length 
The  garden  portals.     Two  great  statues, 

Art 
And  Science,  Caryatids,  lifted  up 
A  weight  of  emblem,  and  betwixt  were 

valves 
Of  open-work  in  which  the  hunter  rued 
His    rash    intrusion,    manlike,    but    his 

brows 
Had  sprouted,  and  the  branches  there- 
upon 
Spread  out  at  top,  and  grimly  spiked  the 

gates. 

A  little  space  was  left   between  the 

horns, 
Thro'  which  I  clamber'd  o'er  at  top  with 

pain, 
Dropt  on  the  sward,  and  up  the  linden 

walks, 
And,  tost  on  thoughts  that  changed  from 

hue  to  hue, 
Now  poring  on  the  glowworm,  now  the 

star, 
I  paced  the  terrace,  till  the   Bear  had 

wheel'd 
Thro'  a  great  arc  his  seven  slow  suns. 

A  step 
Of  lightest  echo,  then  a  loftier  form 
Than  female,  moving  thro'  the  uncertain 

gloom, 
Disturb'd  me  with  the  doubt  '  if  this  were 

she,' 
But  it  was  Florian.     'Hist,  O  hist,'  he 

said, 


THE  PRINCESS:   A   MEDLEY. 


185 


'They  seek   us:    out  so   late   is   out   of 

rules. 
Moreover  "  seize  the  strangers  "  is  the  cry. 
How  came  you  here?'  I  told  him:  'I,' 

said  he, 
•  Last  of  the  train,  a  moral  leper,  I, 
To  whom  none  spake,  half-sick  at  heart, 

return'd. 
Arriving  all  confused  among  the  rest 
With  hooded  brows  I  crept  into  the  hall, 
And,  couch'd  behind  a  Judith,  under- 
neath 
The  head  of  Holofernes  peep'd  and  saw. 
Girl  after  girl  was  call'd  to  trial :  each 
Disclaim'd  all  knowledge  of  us:  last  of 

all, 
Melissa :  trust  me,  Sir,  I  pitied  her. 
She,  question'd  if  she  knew  us  men,  at 

first 
Was  silent ;   closer  prest,  denied  it  not : 
And    then,    demanded    if    her    mother 

knew, 
Or  Psyche,  she  affirm'd  not,  or  denied : 
From  whence  the  Royal  mind,  familiar 

with  her, 
Easily  gather'd  either  guilt.     She  sent 
For  Psyche,  but  she  was  not  there  ;   she 

call'd 
For  Psyche's  child  to  cast  it   from  the 

doors; 
She  sent  for  Blanche  to  accuse  her  face 

to  face; 
And  I  slipt  out :    but  whither  will   you 

now? 
And  where  are  Psyche,  Cyril?  both  are 

fled: 
What,  if  together?  that  were  not  so  well. 
Would  rather  we  had   never   come !     I 

dread 
His  wildness,  and   the   chances  of  the 

dark.' 

*  And   yet,'  I   said,   '  you  wrong   him 

more  than  I 
That  struck  him:   this  is  proper  to  the 

clown, 
Tho'   smock'd,    or   furr'd    and   purpled, 

still  the  clown, 
To  harm  the  thing  that  trusts  him,  and 

to  shame 
That  which  he  says  he  loves :  for  Cyril, 

howe'er 
He  deal  in  frolic,  as  to-night  —  the  song 


Might  have  been  worse  and   sinn'd   in 

grosser  lips 
Beyond  all  pardon  —  as  it  is,  I  hold 
These  flashes  on  the  surface  are  not  he. 
He  has  a  solid  base  of  temperament : 
But  as  the  waterlily  starts  and  slides 
Upon  the  level  in  little  puffs  of  wind, 
Tho'    anchor'd   to   the   bottom,  such  is 

he.' 

Scarce  had  I  ceased  when  from  a  tama- 
risk near 
Two    Proctors    leapt    upon    us,    crying, 

'  Names : ' 
He,  standing  still,  was  clutch'd;   but  I 

began 
To  thrid  the  musky-circled  mazes,  wind 
And  double  in  and  out  the   boles,  and 

race 
By  all  the  fountains  :  fleet  I  was  of  foot : 
Before  me  shower'd  the  rose  in  flakes; 

behind 
I  heard  the  puffd  pursuer;   at  mine  ear 
Bubbled    the    nightingale    and    heeded 

not, 
And  secret  laughter  tickled  all  my  soul. 
At  last  I  hook'd  my  ankle  in  a  vine, 
That  claspt  the  feet  of  a  Mnemosyne, 
And  falling  on  my  face  was  caught  and 

known. 

They  haled  us  to  the  Princess  where 

she  sat 
High  in  the  hall :  above  her  droop'd  a 

lamp, 
And  made  the  single  jewel  on  her  brow 
Burn   like   the  mystic   fire    on   a   mast- 
head, 
Prophet  of  storm :  a  handmaid  on  each 

side 
Bow'd  toward  her,  combing  out  her  long 

«black  hair 
Damp  from  the  river;   and  close  behind 

her  stood 
Eight  daughters  of  the  plough,  stronger 

than  men, 
Huge  women  blowzed  with  health,  and 

wind,  and  rain, 
And   labour.     Each   was   like   a   Druid 

rock; 
Or  like  a  spire  of  land  that  stands  apart 
Cleft  from   the   main,  and  wail'd   about 

with  mews. 


186 


THE  PRINCESS;   A   MEDLEY. 


Then,  as  we  came,  the  crowd  dividing 

clove 
An   advent   to    the   throne:   and  there- 

beside, 
Half-naked  as  if  caught  at  once  from 

bed 
And  tumbled  on  the  purple  footcloth,  lay 
The  lily-shining  child;   and  on  the  left, 
Bow'd  on  her  palms  and  folded  up  from 

wrong, 
Her  round  white  shoulder  shaken  with 

her  sobs, 
Melissa  knelt;   but  Lady  Blanche  erect 
Stood  up  and  spake,  an  affluent  orator. 

*  It  was  not  thus,  O  Princess,  in   old 

days : 
You  prized  my  counsel,  lived  upon  my 

lips: 
I  led  you  then  to  all  the  Castalies; 
I  fed  you  with  the  milk  of  every  Muse; 
I  loved  you  like  this  kneeler,  and  you 

me 
Your  second   mother:    those  were   gra- 
cious times. 
Then  came  your  new  friend :  you  began 

to  change  — 
I  saw  it  and  grieved  —  to  slacken  and  to 

cool; 
Till  taken  with  her  seeming  openness 
You  turn'd  your  warmer  currents  all  to 

her, 
To  me  you  froze  :  this  was  my  meed  for 

all. 
Yet  I  bore  up  in  part  from  ancient  love, 
And  partly  that  I  hoped  to  win  you  back, 
And  partly  conscious  of  my  own  deserts, 
And  partly  that  you  were  my  civil  head, 
And  chiefly  you  were  born  for  something 

great, 
In  which  I  might  your  fellow-worker  be, 
When  time   should   serve;    and   thus   a 

noble  scheme 
Grew  up  from  seed  we  two  long  since 

had  sown; 
In  us  true  growth,  in  her  a  Jonah's  gourd, 
Up  in  one  night  and  due  to  sudden  sun : 
We  took  this  palace ;  but  even  from  the 

first 
You  stood  in  your  own  light  and  darken'd 

mine. 
What  student  came  but  that  you  planed 

her  path 


To  Lady  Psyche,  younger,  not  so  wise, 
A  foreigner,  and  I  your  countrywoman, 
I  your  old  friend  and  tried,  she  new  in  all  ? 
But  still  her  lists  were  swell'd  and  mine 

were  lean; 
Yet  I   bore  4up  in  hope  she  would  be 

known : 
Then  came  these  wolves :  they  knew  her : 

they  endured, 
Long-closeted  with  her  the  yestermorn, 
To  tell  her  what  they  were,  and  she  to 

hear: 
And  me  none  told:  not  less  to  an  eye 

like  mine 
A  lidless  watcher  of  the  public  weal, 
Last  night,  their  mask  was  patent,  and 

my  foot 
Was  to  you :  but  I  thought  again :  I  fear'd 
To  meet  a  cold  "  We  thank  you,  we  shall 

hear  of  it 
From  Lady  Psyche :  "  you  had  gone  to 

her, 
She  told,   perforce;    and  winning  easy 

grace, 
No   doubt,    for    slight    delay,   remain'd 

among  us 
In  our  young  nursery  still  unknown,  the 

stem 
Less   grain   than   touchwood,  while  my 

honest  heat 
Were  all  miscounted  as  malignant  haste 
To  push  my  rival  out  of  place  and  power. 
But  public  use  required  she  should   be 

known; 
And  since  my  oath  was  ta'en  for  public 

use, 
I  broke  the  letter  of  it  to  keep  the  sense. 
I   spoke   not   then  at  first,  but  watch'd 

them  well, 
Saw   that  they  kept   apart,  no  mischief 

done; 
And  yet  this  day  (tho'  you  should  hate 

me  for  it) 
I  came  to  tell  you;   found  that  you  had 

gone, 
Ridd'n  to  the  hills,  she  likewise :  now,  I 

thought, 
That  surely  she  will  speak ;  if  not,  then  I : 
Did  she?    These  monsters  blazon'd  what 

they  were, 
According  to  the  coarseness  of  their  kind, 
For  thus  I  hear ;  and  known  at  last  (my 

work) 


THE  PRINCESS:  A   MEDLEY. 


'87 


And  full  of  cowardice  and  guilty  shame, 
I  grant  in  her  some  sense  of  shame,  she 

flies; 
And  I  remain  on  whom  to  wreak  your 

rage, 
I,  that  have  lent  my  life  to  build  up  yours, 
I  that  have  wasted  here  health,  wealth, 

and  time, 
And  talent,  I  —  you  know  it  —  I  will  not 

boast : 
Dismiss  me,  and  I  prophesy  your  plan, 
Divorced   from   my  experience,  will   be 

chaff 
For  every  gust  of  chance,  and  men  will 

say 
We   did  not  know  the   real   light,  but 

chased 
The  wisp  that  flickers  where  no  foot  can 

tread.' 

She   ceased :    the    Princess  answer'd 

coldly,  '  Good  : 
Your  oath  is  broken :  we  dismiss  you :  go. 
For  this  lost  lamb  (she  pointed  to  the 

child) 
Our  mind  is  changed :  we  take  it  to  our- 

self.' 

Thereat  the  Lady  stretch'd  a  vulture 
throat, 
And  shot  from  crooked  lips  a  haggard 
smile. 

*  The  plan  was  mine.     I  built  the  nest,' 

she  said, 

*  To  hatch    the    cuckoo.      Rise ! '    and 

stoop'd  to  updrag 
Melissa :  she,  half  on  her  mother  propt, 
Half-drooping  from  her,  turn'd  her  face, 

and  cast 
A  liquid  look  on  Ida,  full  of  prayer, 
Which   melted    Florian's    fancy   as   she 

hung, 
A  Niobean  daughter,  one  arm  out, 
Appealing  to  the  bolts  of  Heaven;   and 

while 
We  gazed  upon  her  came  a  little  stir 
About  the  doors,  and  on  a  sudden  rush'd 
Among  us,  out  of  breath,  as  one  pursued, 
A  woman-post  in  flying  raiment.     Fear 
Stared  in  her  eyes,  and  chalk'd  her  face, 

and  wing'd 
Her  transit  to  the  throne,  whereby  she 

fell 


Delivering   seal'd   dispatches  which  the 

Head 
Took  half-amazed,  and  in  her  lion's  mood 
Tore  open,  silent  we  with  blind  surmise 
Regarding,  while  she  read,  till  over  brow 
And  cheek  and  bosom  brake  the  wrath- 
ful bloom 
As  of  some  fire  against  a  stormy  cloud, 
When  the  wild   peasant   rights  himself, 

the  rick 
Flames,    and   his   anger  reddens  in  the 

heavens; 
For  anger  most  it  seem'd,  while  now  her 

breast, 
Beaten  with  some  great  passion  at  her 

heart, 
Palpitated,  her  hand  shook,  and  we  heard 
In  the  dead  hush  the  papers  that  she  held 
Rustle :  at  once  the  lost  lamb  at  her  feet 
Sent  out  a  bitter  bleating  for  its  dam; 
•The  plaintive  cry  jarr'd  on  her  ire;   she 

crush'd 
The  scrolls  together,  made  a  sudden  turn 
As  if  to  speak,  but,  utterance  failing  her, 
She   whirl'd   them   on    to   me,    as   who 

should  say 
'Read,'  and  I  read — two  letters  —  one 

her  sire's. 

'Fair    daughter,  when    we    sent  the 

Prince  your  way 
We  knew    not    your   ungracious    laws, 

which  learnt, 
We,  conscious  of  what  temper  you  are 

built, 
Came  all  in  haste  to  hinder  wrong,  but 

fell 
Into  his   father's   hands,   who   has   this 

night, 
You  lying  close  upon  his  territory, 
Slipt  round  and  in  the  dark  invested  you, 
And  here  he  keeps  me  hostage  for  his 

son.' 

The  second  was  my  father's  running 

thus : 
*  You  have  our  son :  touch  not  a  hair  of 

his  head : 
Render  him  up  unscathed  :  give  him  your 

hand : 
Cleave  to  your  contract :  tho'  indeed  we 

hear 
You  hold  the  woman  is  the  better  man; 


i88 


THE  PRINCESS;   A   MEDLEY. 


A  rampant  heresy,  such  as  if  it  spread 

Would   make    all   women   kick    against 
their  Lords 

Thro'  all   the  world,  and   which    might 
well'  deserve 

That  we   this  night   should   pluck  your 
palace  down; 

And  we  will   do  it,  unless  you  send  us 
back 

Our  son,  on  the  instant,  whole.' 

So  far  I  read; 

And   then  stood  up  and  spoke  impetu- 
ously. 

'O  not  to  pry  and  peer  on  your  reserve, 
But  led  by  golden  wishes,  and  a  hope 
The  child  of  regal  compact,  did  I  break 
Your  precinct;  not  a  scorner  of  your  sex 
But  venerator,  zealous  it  should  be 
All  that  it  might  be :  hear  me,  for  I  bear, 
Tho'  man,  yet  human,  whatsoe'er  your 

wrongs, 
From  the  flaxen  curl  to  the  gray  lock  a 

life 
Less  mine  than  yours :  my  nurse  would 

tell  me  of  you; 
I  babbled  for  you,  as  babies  for  the  moon, 
Vague    brightness;     when    a    boy,   you 

stoop'd  to  me 
From   all   high   places,  lived  in  all  fair 

lights, 
Came  in  long  breezes  rapt  from  inmost 

south 
And  blown  to  inmost  north;   at  eve  and 

dawn 
With  Ida,  Ida,  Ida,  rang  the  woods; 
The  leader  wildswan  in  among  the  stars 
Would  clang  it,  and  lapt  in  wreaths  of 

glowworm  light 
The  mellow  breaker  murmur'd  Ida.  Now, 
Because  I  would  have  reach'd  you,  had 

you  been 
Sphered  up  with  Cassiopeia,  or  the  en- 
throned 
Persephone  in  Hades,  now  at  length, 
Those  winters  of  abeyance  all  worn  out, 
A  man  I  came  to  see  you :  but,  indeed, 
Not   in   this   frequence    can  I  lend  full 

tongue, 
O  noble  Ida,  to  those  thoughts  that  wait 
On  you,  their  centre  :  let  me  say  but  this, 
That  many  a  famous  man  and  woman, 

town 


And  landskip,  have  I  heard  of,  after  seen 
The  dwarfs  of  presage  :  tho'  when  known, 

there  grew 
Another  kind  of  beauty  in  detail 
Made  them  worth  knowing;   but  in  you 

I  found 
My  boyish  dream  involved  and  dazzled 

down 
And    master'd,   while    that   after-beauty 

makes 
Such  head  from  act  to  act,  from  hour  to 

hour, 
Within  me,  that  except  you  slay  me  here, 
According  to  your  bitter  statute-book, 
I  cannot  cease  to  follow  you,  as  they  say 
The  seal  does  music;    who  desire   you 

more 
Than  growing  boys  their  manhood;   dy- 
ing lips, 
With  many  thousand  matters  left  to  do, 
The  breath  of  life;    O  more  than  poor 

men  wealth, 
Than  sick  men  health  — yours,  yours,  not 

mine  —  but  half 
Without  you;   with  you,  whole;   and  of 

those  halves 
You  worthiest;    and  howe'er  you  block 

and  bar 
Your  heart  with  system  out  from  mine,  I 

hold 
That  it  becomes  no  man  to  nurse  despair, 
But  in  the  teeth  of  clench'd  antagonisms 
To  follow  up  the  worthiest  till  he  die : 
Yet  that  I  came  not  all  unauthorised 
Behold  your  father's  letter.' 

On  one  knee 
Kneeling,  I  gave  it,  which  she  caught, 

and  dash'd 
Unopen'd  at  her  feet :  a  tide  of  fierce 
Invective  seem'd  to  wait  behind  her  lips, 
As  waits  a  river  level  with  the  dam 
Ready  to  burst  and  flood  the  world  with 

foam : 
And  so  she  would  have  spoken,  but  there 

rose 
A  hubbub  in  the  court  of  half  the  maids 
Gather'd  together  :  from  the  illumined  hall 
Long  lanes  of  splendour  slanted  o'er  a 

press 
Of   snowy    shoulders,    thick    as    herded 

ewes, 
And  rainbow  robes,  and  gems  and  gem- 
like eyes, 


THE  PRINCESS;  A   MEDLEY. 


[89 


And  gold  and  golden  heads;   they  to  and 

fro 
Fluctuated,  as  flowers  in  storm,  some  red, 

some  pale, 
All  open-mouth'd,  all  gazing  to  the  light, 
Some  crying  there  was  an  army  in  the 

land, 
And  some  that  men  were  in  the  very 

walls, 
And  some  they  cared  not;   till  a  clamour 

grew 
As  of  a  new-world  Babel,  woman-built, 
And  worse-confounded :  high  above  them 

stood 
The  placid  marble  Muses,  looking  peace. 

Not  peace  she  look'd,  the  Head :  but 

rising  up 
Robed  in  the  long  night  of  her  deep  hair, 

so 
To  the  open  window  moved,  remaining 

there 
Fixt  like  a  beacon-tower  above  the  waves 
Of  tempest,  when  the  crimson-rolling  eye 
Glares  ruin,  and  the  wild  birds  on  the 

light 
Dash    themselves   dead.      She   stretch'd 

her  arms  and  call'd 
Across  the  tumult  and  the  tumult  fell. 

'What  fear   ye,  brawlers?   am  not  I 

your  Head? 
On  me,  me,  me,  the  storm  first  breaks: 

/  dare 
All  these  male  thunderbolts:  what  is  it 

ye  fear? 
Peace !  there  are  those  to  avenge  us  and 

they  come : 
If  not,  —  myself  were    like    enough,   O 

girls, 
To  unfurl  the  maiden  banner  of  our  rights, 
And  clad  in  iron  burst  the  ranks  of  war, 
Or,  falling,  protomartyr  of  our  cause, 
Die :  yet  I  blame  you  not  so  much  for 

fear; 
Six  thousand  years  of  fear  have  made  you 

that 
From  which  I  would  redeem  you:   but 

for  those 
That  stir  this  hubbub  —  you  and  you  —  I 

know 
Your  faces  there  in  the  crowd  —  to-morrow 

morn 


We  hold  a  great  convention :  then  shall 

they 
That  love  their  voices  more  than  duty, 

learn 
With  whom  they  deal,  dismiss'd  in  shame 

to  live 
No  wiser  than  their  mothers,  household 

stuff, 
Live   chattels,  mincers   of  each   other's 

fame, 
Full  of  weak   poison,  turnspits  for  the 

clown, 
The  drunkard's  football,  laughing-stocks 

of  Time, 
Whose  brains  are  in  their  hands  and  in 

their  heels, 
But  fit  to  flaunt,  to  dress,  to  dance,  to 

thrum, 
To  tramp,  to  scream,  to  burnish,  and  to 

scour, 
For  ever  slaves  at  home  and  fools  abroad.' 

She,  ending,  waved  her  hands :  thereat 

the  crowd 
Muttering,  dissolved  :  then  with  a  smile, 

that  look'd 
A  stroke  of  cruel  sunshine  on  the  cliff, 
When  all  the  glens  are  drown'd  in  azure 

gloom 
Of  thunder-shower,  she  floated  to  us  and 

said : 

'You    have    done    well    and    like    a 

gentleman, 
And  like  a  prince :  you  have  our  thanks 

for  all : 
And  you  look  well  too  in  your  woman's 

dress : 
Well  have  you  done  and  like  a  gentleman. 
You  saved  our  life :   we  owe  you  bitter 

thanks : 
Better  have  died  and  spilt  our  bones  in 

the  flood  — 
Then  men  had  said  —  but  now  —  What 

hinders  me 
To  take  such  bloody  vengeance  on  you 

both?  — 
Yet  since  our  father —  Wasps  in  our  good 

hive, 
You  would-be  quenchers  of  the  light  to 

be, 
Barbarians,    grosser    than    your    native 

bears  — 


190 


THE  PRINCESS;  A   MEDLEY. 


0  would  I  had  his  sceptre  for  one  hour ! 
You  that  have  dared  to  break  our  bound, 

and  gull'd 
Our    servants,    wrong'd    and    lied    and 

thwarted  us  — 
/  wed  with  thee  !  /  bound  by  precontract 
Your  bride,  your  bondslave !  not  tho'  all 

the  gold 
That   veins   the    world  were   pack'd   to 

make  your  crown, 
And  every  spoken  tongue   should   lord 

you.     Sir, 
Your  falsehood  and  yourself  are  hateful 

to  us: 

1  trample  on  your  offers  and  on  you : 
Begone :  we  will  not  look  upon  you  more. 
Here,  push  them  out  at  gates.' 

In  wrath  she  spake. 
Then  those  eight  mighty  daughters  of  the 

plough 
Bent  their   broad  faces   toward  us  and 

address'd 
Their  motion :  twice  I  sought  to  plead 

my  cause, 
But  on  my  shoulder  hung  their  heavy 

hands, 
The  weight  of  destiny :  so  from  her  face 
They   push'd   us,  down   the   steps,  and 

thro'  the  court, 
And  with  grim  laughter  thrust  us  out  at 

gates. 

We  cross'd  the  street  and  gain'd  a  petty 

mound 
Beyond  it,  whence  we  saw  the  lights  and 

heard 
The  voices  murmuring.     While  I  listen'd, 

came 
On  a  sudden  the  weird  seizure  and  the 

doubt : 
I   seem'd   to   move   among   a  world   of 

ghosts; 
The  Princess  with  her  monstrous  woman- 
guard, 
The  jest  and  earnest  working  side  by  side, 
The  cataract  and  the  tumult  and  the  kings 
Were   shadows ;   and  the  long  fantastic 

night 
With  all  its  doings  had  and  had  not  been, 
And  all  things  were  and  were  not. 

This  went  by 
As  strangely  as  it  came,  and  on  my  spirits 
Settled  a  gentle  cloud  of  melancholy; 


Not  long;    I  shook  it  off;    for  spite  oi 

doubts 
And  sudden  ghostly  shadowings  I  was  one 
To  whom  the  touch  of  all  mischance  but 

came 
As  night  to  him  that  sitting  on  a  hill 
Sees  the  midsummer,  midnight,  Norway 

sun 
Set  into  sunrise;   then  we  moved  away. 

Thy  voice  is  heard  thro'  rolling  drums, 

That  beat  to  battle  where  he  stands; 
Thy  face  across  his  fancy  comes, 

And  gives  the  battle  to  his  hands: 
A  moment,  while  the  trumpets  blow, 

He  sees  his  brood  about  thy  knee; 
The  next,  like  fire  he  meets  the  foe, 

And  strikes  him  dead  for  thine  and  thee. 

So   Lilia  sang:    we   thought    her  half 

possess'd, 
She  struck  such  warbling  fury  thro'  the 

words; 
And,  after,  feigning  pique  at  what  she 

call'd 
The  raillery,  or  grotesque,  or  false  sub- 
lime— 
Like  one  that  wishes  at  a  dance  to  change 
The  music  —  clapt  her  hands  and  cried 

for  war, 
Or  some  grand  fight  to  kill  and  make  an 

end: 
And  he  that  next  inherited  the  tale 
Half  turning  to  the  broken  statue,  said, 
'  Sir  Ralph  has  got  your  colours :  if  I  prove 
Your  knight,  and  fight  your  battle,  what 

for  me  ? ' 
It  chanced,  her  empty  glove  upon  the 

tomb 
Lay  by  her  like  a  model  of  her  hand. 
She  took  it  and  she  flung  it.     'Fight,' 

she  said, 
1  And  make  us  all  we  would  be,  great  and 

good.' 
He    knightlike   in  his    cap    instead  of 

casque, 
A  cap  of  Tyrol  borrow'd  from  the  hall, 
Arranged  the  favour,  and   assumed  the 

Prince. 


Now,  scarce  three  paces  measured  from 

the  mound, 
We  stumbled  on  a  stationary  voice, 


THE  PRINCESS;   A   MEDLEY. 


191 


And   'Stand,   who   goes?'     'Two   from 

the  palace,'  I. 
'The   second  two:    they  wait,'  he  said, 

'  pass  on; 
His   Highness   wakes : '    and   one,   that 

clash'd  in  arms, 
By  glimmering  lanes  and  walls  of  canvas 

led 
Threading  the  soldier-city,  till  we  heard 
The   drowsy  folds  of  our   great   ensign 

shake 
From  blazon'd  lions  o'er  the  imperial  tent 
Whispers  of  war. 

Entering,  the  sudden  light 
Dazed  me  half-blind :  I  stood  and  seem'd 

to  hear, 
As  in  a  poplar  grove  when  a  light  wind 

wakes 
A  lisping  of  the  innumerous  leaf  and  dies, 
Each  hissing  in  his  neighbour's  ear;  and 

then 
A  strangled   titter,  out   of  which  there 

brake 
On   all    sides,    clamouring    etiquette   to 

death, 
Unmeasured  mirth;   while  now  the  two 

old  kings 
Began    to    wag   their   baldness   up   and 

down, 
The   fresh  young  captains  flash'd   their 

glittering  teeth, 
The   huge  bush-bearded  Barons  heaved 

and  blew, 
And  slain  with  laughter  roll'd  the  gilded 

Squire. 

At  length  my  Sire,  his  rough  cheek 

wet  with  tears, 
Panted  from  weary  sides,  '  King,  you  are 

free ! 
We  did  but  keep  you  surety  for  our  son, 
If  this  be  he,  —  or  a  draggled  mawkin, 

thou, 
That  tends  her  bristled  grunters  in  the 

sludge  : ' 
For  I  was  drench' d  with  ooze,  and  torn 

with  briers, 
More  crumpled  than  a  poppy  from  the 

sheath, 
And  all  one  rag,  disprinced  from  head  to 

heel. 
Then  some  one  sent  beneath  his  vaulted 

palm 


A  whisper'd  jest  to  some  one  near  him, 

'  Look, 
He  has  been  among  his  shadows.'    '  Satan 

take 
The  old  women  and  their  shadows !  (thus 

the  King 
Roar'd)  make  yourself  a  man  to  fight  with 

men. 
Go:  CyriUoldusall.' 

As  boys  that  slink 
From  ferule  and  the  trespass-chiding  eye, 
Away  we  stole,  and  transient  in  a  trice 
From  what  was   left   of  faded    woman - 

slough 
To  sheathing  splendours  and  the  golden 

scale 
Of  harness,  issued  in  the  sun,  that  now 
Leapt  from  the  dewy  shoulders  of  the 

Earth, 
And  hit  the  Northern  hills.     Here  Cyril 

met  us. 
A  little  shy  at  first,  but  by  and  by 
We  twain,  with  mutual  pardon  ask'd  and 

given 
For  stroke  and  song,  resolder'd  peace, 

whereon 
Follow'd  his  tale.     Amazed  he  fled  away 
Thro'  the  dark  land,  and  later  in  the  night 
Had  come  on  Psyche  weeping :  '  then  we 

fell 
Into  your  father's  hand,  and  there  she 

lies, 
But  will  not  speak,  nor  stir.' 

He  show'd  a  tent 
A  stone-shot  off:  we  enter'd  in,  and  there 
Among  piled  arms  and  rough  accoutre- 
ments, 
Pitiful  sight,  wrapp'd  in  a  soldier's  cloak, 
Like  some  sweet  sculpture  draped  from 

head  to  foot, 
And    push'd    by  rude    hands    from    its 

pedestal, 
All  her  fair  length  upon  the  ground  she 

lay: 
And  at  her  head  a  follower  of  the  camp, 
A  charr'd  and  wrinkled  piece  of  woman- 
hood, 
Sat  watching  like  a  watcher  by  the  dead. 

Then   Florian  knelt,  and  'Come,'  he 
whisper'd  to  her, 
*  Lift  up  your  head,  sweet  sister :  lie  not 
thus. 


192 


THE  PRINCESS;   A   MEDLEY. 


What  have  you  done  but  right  ?  you  could 

not  slay 
Me,  nor  your  prince :  look  up  :  be  com- 
forted : 
Sweet  is  it  to  have  done  the  thing  one 

ought, 
When  fall'n  in  darker  ways.'     And  like- 
wise I : 
'  Be  comforted :  have  I  not  lost  her  too, 
In  whose  least  act  abides  the  nameless 

charm 
That  none  has  else  for  me  ? '  She  heard, 

she  moved, 
She  moan'd,  a  folded  voice;  and  up  she 

sat, 
And  raised  the  cloak  from  brows  as  pale 

and  smooth 
As  those  that  mourn  half-shrouded  over 

death 
In  deathless  marble.      f  Her,'  she  said, 

'my  friend  — 
Parted   from    her  —  betray'd    her   cause 

and  mine  — 
Where  shall  I  breathe?  why  kept  ye  not 

your  faith  ? 
O  base   and  bad!    what   comfort?  none 

for  me  !  • 
To  whom  remorseful  Cyril,  'Yet  I  pray 
Take  comfort:  live,  dear  lady,  for  your 

child ! ' 
At  which  she  lifted  up  her  voice  and  cried. 

'Ah  me,  my  babe,  my  blossom,  ah,  my 

child, 
My  one  sweet  child,  whom  I  shall  see  no 

more ! 
For  now  will  cruel  Ida  keep  her  back; 
And  either  she  will  die  from  want  of  care, 
Or  sicken  with  ill-usage,  when  they  say 
The  child  is  hers  —  for  every  little  fault, 
The  child  is  hers ;  and  they  will  beat  my 

girl 
Remembering  her  mother :  O  my  flower ! 
Or  they  will  take  her,  they  will  make  her 

hard, 
And  she  will  pass  me  by  in  after-life 
With  some  cold   reverence  worse  than 

were  she  dead. 
Ill  mother  that  I  was  to  leave  her  there, 
To  lag  behind,  scared  by  the  cry  they 

made, 
The  horror  of  the  shame  among  them  all : 
But  I  will  go  and  sit  beside  the  doors, 


And  make  a  wild  petition  night  and  day, 
Until  they  hate  to  hear  me  like  a  wind 
Wailing  for  ever,  till  they  open  to  me, 
And  lay  my  little  blossom  at  my  feet, 
My  babe,  my  sweet  Aglai'a,  my  one  child  : 
And  I  will  take  her  up  and  go  my  way, 
And  satisfy  my  soul  with  kissing  her : 
Ah  !  what  might  that  man  not  deserve  of 

me 
Who  gave   me   back   my   child?'     'Be 

comforted,' 
Said  Cyril, '  you  shall  have  it;  '  but  again 
She  veil'd  her  brows,  and  prone  she  sank, 

and  so 
Like  tender  things  that  being  caught  feign 

death, 
Spoke  not,  nor  stirr'd. 

By  this  a  murmur  ran 
Thro'  all  the  camp  and  inward  raced  the 

scouts 
With  rumour  of  Prince  Arac  hard  at  hand. 
We  left  her  by  the  woman,  and  without 
Found  the  gray  kings  at  parle :  and '  Look 

you,'  cried 
My  father,  '  that  our  compact  be  fulfill'd : 
You  have  spoilt  this  child;   she  laughs  at 

you  and  man : 
She  wrongs  herself,  her  sex,  and  me,  and 

him: 
But  red-faced  war  has  rods  of  steel  and 

fire; 
She  yields,  or  war.' 

Then  Gama  turn'd  to  me : 
*  We  fear,  indeed,  you  spent  a   stormy 

time 
With  our  strange  girl :  and  yet  they  say 

that  still 
You  love  her.     Give  us,  then,  your  mind 

at  large : 
How  say  you,  war  or  not?' 

'  Not  war,  if  possible, 
O  king,'  I  said,  '  lest  from  the  abuse  of 

war, 
The  desecrated  shrine,  the  trampled  year, 
The    smouldering    homestead,   and    the 

household  flower 
Torn  from  the  lintel  —  all  the  common 

wrong — 
A  smoke  go  up  thro'  which  I  loom  to  her 
Three  times  a  monster :  now  she  lightens 

scorn 
At    him   that   mars  her  plan,  but   then 

would  hate 


THE  PRINCESS;   A    MEDLEY. 


193 


(And  every  voice  she  talk'd  with  ratify  it, 
And  every  face  she  look'd  on  justify  it) 
The  general  foe.     More  soluble   is  this 

knot, 
By  gentleness  than  war.    I  want  her  love. 
What  were  I  nigher  this  altho'  we  dash'd 
Your  cities  into  shards  with  catapults, 
She  would  not  love; — or  brought  her 

chain'd,  a  slave, 
The  lifting  of  whose  eyelash  is  my  lord, 
Not  ever  would  she  love ;   but  brooding 

turn 
The  book  of  scorn,  till  all  my   flitting 

chance 
Were  caught  within  the  record  of  her 

wrongs, 
And  crush'd  to  death :  and  rather,  Sire, 

than  this 
I  would  the  old  God  of  war  himself  were 

dead, 
Forgotten,  rusting  on  his  iron  hills, 
Rotting  on  some  wild  shore  with  ribs  of 

wreck, 
Or  like  an  old-world  mammoth  bulk'd  in 

ice, 
Not  to  be  molten  out.' 

And  roughly  spake 
My  father,  'Tut,  you  know  them  not,  the 

girls. 
Boy,  when  I  hear  you  prate  I  almost  think 
That  idiot  legend  credible.     Look  vou, 

Sir! 
Man  is  the  hunter;  woman  is  his  game  : 
The  sleek  and  shining  creatures  of  the 

chase, 
We  hunt  them  for  the  beauty  of  their 

skins; 
They  love  us  for  it,  and  we  ride  them 

down. 
Wheedling  and  siding  with  them !     Out ! 

for  shame ! 
Boy,  there's  no  rose  that's  half  so  dear  to 

them 
As  he  that  does  the  thing  they  dare  not  do, 
Breathing  and  sounding  beauteous  battle, 

comes 
With  the  air  of  the  trumpet  round  him, 

and  leaps  in 
Among  the  women,  snares  them  by  the 

score     * 
Flatter'd  and  fluster'd,  wins,  tho'  dash'd 

with  death 
He  reddens  what  he  kisses  :  thus  I  won 


Your  mother,  a  good  mother,  a  good  wife, 
Worth    winning;     but    this   firebrand  — 

gentleness 
To  such  as  her !  if  Cyril  spake  her  true, 
To  catch  a  dragon  in  a  cherry  net, 
To  trip  a  tigress  with  a  gossamer, 
Were  wisdom  to  it.' 

*  Yea  but  Sire,'  I  cried, 
'  Wild   natures   need   wise  curbs.      The 

soldier?     No: 
What  dares  not  Ida  do  that  she  should 

prize 
The  soldier  ?    I  beheld  her,  when  she  rose 
The  yesternight,  and  storming  in  extremes, 
Stood  for  her  cause,  and  flung  defiance 

down 
Gagelike  to  man,  and  had  not  shunn'd  the 

death, 
No,  not  the  soldier's :  yet  I  hold  her,  king, 
True  woman  :  but  you  clash  them  all  in 

one, 
That  have  as  many  differences  as  we. 
The  violet  varies  from  the  lily  as  far 
As  oak  from  elm :  one  loves  the  soldier, 

one 
The  silken  priest  of  peace,  one  this,  one 

that, 
And  some  unworthily;   their  sinless  faith, 
A  maiden  moon  that  sparkles  on  a  sty, 
Glorifying  clown  and  satyr;  whence  they 

need 
More  breadth  of  culture  :  is  not  Ida  right? 
They  worth  it?  truer  to  the  law  within? 
Severer  in  the  logic  of  a  life? 
Twice  as  magnetic  to  sweet  influences 
Of  earth  and  heaven?  and  she  of  whom 

you  speak, 
My  mother,  looks  as  whole  as  some  serene 
Creation  minted  in  the  golden  moods 
Of  sovereign  artists;     not  a  thought,  a 

touch, 
But  pure  as  lines  of  green  that  streak  the 

white 
Of  the  first  snowdrop's  inner  leaves;  I  say, 
Not  like  the  piebald  miscellany,  man, 
Bursts  of  great  heart  and  slips  in  sensual 

mire, 
But  whole  and  one :  and  take  them  all- 
in-all, 
Were  we  ourselves  but  half  as  good,  as 

kind, 
As   truthful,    much   that   Ida   claims   as 

right 


i94 


THE  PRINCESS;   A   MEDLEY. 


Had  ne'er  been  mooted,  but  as  frankly 

theirs 
As  dues  of  Nature.     To  our  point :  not 

war: 
Lest  I  lose  all.' 

'  Nay,  nay,  you  spake  but  sense,' 
Said  Gama.  '  We  remember  love  ourself 
In  our  sweet  youth;  we  did  not  rate  him 

then 
This  red-hot  iron  to  be  shaped  with  blows. 
You  talk  almost  like  Ida :  she  can  talk ; 
And  there  is  something  in  it  as  you  say : 
But  you  talk  kindlier :  we  esteem  you  for 

it.— 
He  seems  a  gracious  and  a  gallant  Prince, 
I  would  he  had  our  daughter  :    for  the 

rest, 
Our    own    detention,    why,    the    causes 

weigh'd, 
Fatherly  fears — you  used  us  courteously — 
We    would    do    much    to    gratify    your 

Prince  — 
We  pardon  it;   and  for  your  ingress  here 
Upon  the  skirt  and   fringe  of  our  fair 

land, 
You  did  but  come  as  goblins  in  the  night, 
Nor  in  the  furrow  broke  the  ploughman's 

head, 
Nor   burnt   the  grange,   nor  buss'd  the 

milking-maid, 
Nor   robb'd   the  farmer  of  his  bowl  of 

cream : 
But    let  your   Prince    (our  royal   word 

upon  it, 
He  comes  back  safe)  ride  with  us  to  our 

lines, 
And  speak  with  Arac:  Arac's  word   is 

thrice 
As   ours   with    Ida:    something  may  be 

done  — 
I  know  not  what  —  and  ours  shall  see  us 

friends. 
You,  likewise,  our  late  guests,  if  so  you 

will, 
Follow  us:    who  knows?   we  four  may 

build  some  plan 
Foursquare  to  opposition.' 

Here  he  reach'd 
White  hands  of  farewell  to  my  sire,  who 

growl'd 
An    answer   which,    half-muffled   in  his 

beard, 
Let  so  much  out  as  gave  us  leave  to  go. 


Then  rode  we  with  the  old  king  across 

the  lawns 
Beneath  huge  trees,  a  thousand  rings  oi 

Spring 
In  every  bole,  a  song  on  every  spray 
Of  birds  that  piped  their  Valentines,  and 

woke 
Desire  in  me  to  infuse  my  tale  of  love 
In  the    old  king's   ears,   who   promised 

help,  and  oozed 
All  o'er  with  honey'd  answer  as  we  rode 
And  blossom-flagrant  slipt  the  heavy  clews 
Gather'd  by  night  and  peace  with  each 

light  air 
On  our  mail'd  heads :  but  other  thoughts 

than  peace 
Burnt  in  us,  when  we  saw  the  embattled 

squaresj 
And  squadrons  of  the  Prince,  trampling 

the  flowers 
With  clamour :  for  among  them  rose  a 

cry 
As  if  to  greet   the   king;   they  made   a 

halt; 
The    horses   yell'd;    they   clash'd   their 

arms;   the  drum 
Beat;    merrily-blowing  shrill'd  the  mar- 
tial fife; 
And  in  the  blast  and  bray  of  the  long 

horn 
And  serpent-throated  bugle,  undulated 
The  banner:    anon   to   meet  us   lightly 

pranced 
Three  captains  out;   nor  ever  had  I  seen 
Such  thews  of  men :    the  midmost  and 

the  highest 
Was  Arac :  all  about  his  motion  clung 
The  shadow  of  his  sister,  as  the  beam 
Of  the  East,  that  play'd  upon  them,  made 

them  glance 
Like  those  three  stars  of  the  airy  Giant's 

zone, 
That  glitter  burnish'd  by  the  frosty  dark; 
And  as  the  fiery  Sirius  alters  hue, 
And    bickers     into     red    and   emerald, 

shone 
Their  morions,  wash'd  with  morning,  as 

they  came. 

And  I  that  prated  peace,  when  first  I 
heard 

War-music,    felt   the  blind  wildbeast  of 
force, 


THE  PRINCESS:   A   MEDLEY. 


195 


Whose  home  is  in  the  sinews  of  a  man, 
Stir  in  me  as  to  strike :  then  took  the 

king 
His  three  broad  sons;   with  now  a  wan- 
dering hand 
And  now  a  pointed  finger,  told  them  all : 
A  common   light   of  smiles  at  our  dis- 
guise 
Broke  from  their  lips,  and,  ere  the  windy 

jest 
Had   labour'd   down   within   his   ample 

lungs, 
The  genial  giant,  Arac,  roll'd  himself 
Thrice  in  the  saddle,  then  burst  out  in 
words. 

•  Our  land  invaded,  'sdeath !    and  he 

himself 
Your   captive,    yet  my  father   wills   not 

war: 
And,  'sdeath !   myself,  what  care  I,  war 

or  no? 
But  then  this  question  of  your  troth  re- 
mains : 
And  there's  a  downright  honest  meaning 

in  her; 
She  flies  too   high,  she  flies  too  high ! 

and  yet 
She  ask'd  but  space  and  fairplay  for  her 

scheme; 
She  prest  and  prest  it  on  me  —  I  myself, 
What  know  I  of  these  things?   but,  life 

and  soul ! 
I  thought  her  half-right  talking  of  her 

wrongs; 
I  say  she  flies  too  high,  'sdeath !  what  of 

that? 
I   take   her   for   the   flower  of  woman- 
kind, 
And  so  I  often  told  her,  right  or  wrong, 
And,  Prince,  she  can  be  sweet  to  those 

she  loves, 
And,  right  or  wrong,  I  care  not :  this  is 

all, 
I  stand  upon   her   side :  she  made   me 

swear  it  — 
'Sdeath  —  and    with     solemn    rites     by 

candle-light  — 
Swear  by   St.   something — I  forget  her 

name  — 
Her   that   talk'd    down    the   fifty  wisest 

men; 
She  was  a  princess  too;   and  so  I  swore. 


Come,  this  is  all;   she    will  not:    waive 

your  claim  : 
If  not,  the  foughten  field,  what  else,  at 

once 
Decides  it,  'sdeath !    against  my  father's 

will.' 

I  lagg'd  in  answer,  loth  to  render  up 
My  precontract,  and   loth   by   brainless 

war 
To  cleave  the  rift   of  difference   deeper 

yet; 
Till  one  of  those  two  brothers,  half  aside 
And  fingering  at  the  hair  about  his  lip, 
To  prick  us  on  to  combat  '  Like  to  like ! 
The  woman's  garment  hid  the  woman's 

heart.' 
A  taunt  that  clench'd  his  purpose  like  a 

blow ! 
For  fiery-short  was  Cyril's  counter-scoff, 
And  sharp  I  answer'd,  touch'd  upon  the 

point 
Where  idle  boys  are   cowards   to   their 

shame, 
*  Decide  it  here  :  why  not?  we  are  three 

to  three.' 

Then  spake  the  third,  '  But  three  to 

three?    no  more? 
No  more,  and  in  our  noble  sister's  cause? 
More,  more,  for  honour :    every  captain 

waits 
Hungry  for  honour,  angry  for  his  king. 
More,  more,  some  fifty  on  a  side,  that 

each 
May   breathe    himself,   and    quick!    by 

overthrow 
Of  these  or  those,  the  question  settled  die.' 

4  Yea,'     answer'd    I,    *  for    this    wild 

wreath  of  air, 
This   flake    of    rainbow   flying    on    the 

highest 
Foam  of  men's  deeds  —  this  honour,  if 

ye  will. 
It  needs  must  be  for  honour  if  at  all : 
Since,  what  decision  ?   if  we  fail,  we  fail, 
And  if  we  win,  we  fail :  she  would  not 

keep 
Her   compact.'      '  'Sdeath !   but  we  will 

send  to  her,' 
Said    Arac,    '  worthy   reasons   why   she 

should 


196 


THE  PRINCESS:   A   MEDLEY. 


Bide  by  this  issue :  let  our  missive  thro', 
And  you  shall  have  her  answer  by  the 
word.' 

'  Boys ! '   shriek'd   the   old    king,    but 
vainlier  than  a  hen 
To  her  false  daughters  in  the  pool;    for 

none 
Regarded ;   neither  seem'd  there  more  to 

say: 
Back  rode  we  to  my  father's  camp,  and 

found 
He  thrice  had  sent  a  herald  to  the  gates, 
To  learn  if  Ida  yet  would  cede  our  claim, 
Or  by  denial  flush  her  babbling  wells 
With  her  own  people's  life  :  three  times 

he  went : 
The  first,  he  blew  and  blew,   but   none 

appear'd : 
He  batter'd  at  the  doors;  none  came :  the 

next, 
An  awful  voice  within  had  warn'd  him 

thence : 
The  third,  and  those  eight  daughters  of 

the  plough 
Came     sallying    thro'     the    gates,    and 

caught  his  hair, 
And  so  belabour'd  him  on  rib  and  cheek 
They  made  him  wild  :  not  less  one  glance 

he  caught 
Thro'  open  doors  of  Ida  station'd  there 
Unshaken,  clinging  to  her  purpose,  firm 
Tho'  compass'd  by  two  armies  and  the 

noise 
Of  arms;  and  standing  like  a  stately  Pine 
Set  in  a  cataract  on  an  island-crag, 
When  storm  is  on  the  heights,  and  right 

and  left 
Suck'd  from  the  dark  heart  of  the  long 

hills  roll 
The  torrents,  dash'd  to  the  vale  :  and  yet 

her  will 
Bred  will  in  me  to  overcome  it  or  fall. 

But  when  I  told  the  king  that  I  was 

pledged 
To   fight   in   tourney   for   my  bride,  he 

clash'd 
His  iron  palms  together  with  a  cry; 
Himself  would  tilt  it  out  among  the  lads : 
But  overborne  by  all  his  bearded  lords 
With  reasons  drawn  from  age  and  state, 

perforce 


He  yielded,  wroth  and  red,  with  fierce 

demur : 
And  many  a  bold  knight  started  up  in  heat, 
And  sware  to  combat  for  my  claim  till 

death. 

All  on  this  side  the  palace  ran  the  field 
Flat  to  the   garden-wall:    and   likewise 

here, 
Above  the  garden's  glowing  blossom-belts, 
A  column'd  entry  shone  and  marble  stairs, 
And  great  bronze  valves,  emboss'd  with 

Tomyris 
And  what  she  did  to  Cyrus  after  fight, 
But  now  fast  barr'd :  so  here  upon  the  flat 
All  that  long  morn  the  lists  were  hammer'd 

up, 
And  all  that  morn  the  heralds  to  and  fro, 
With   message  and  defiance,  went  and 

came; 
Last,  Ida's  answer,  in  a  royal  hand, 
But  shaken  here  and  there,  and  rolling 

words 
Oration-like.     I  kiss'd  it  and  I  read. 

'  O  brother,  you  have  known  the  pangs 

we  felt, 
What  heats  of  indignation  when  we  heard 
Of  those  that  iron-cramp'd  their  women's 

feet; 
Of  lands  in  which  at  the  altar  the  poor 

bride 
Gives  her  harsh  groom  for  bridal-gift  a 

scourge ; 
Of  living  hearts  that  crack  within  the  fire 
Where  smoulder  their  dead  despots;  and 

of  those,  — 
Mothers,  —  that,  all  prophetic  pity,  fling 
Their  pretty  maids  in  the  running  flood, 

and  swoops 
The  vulture,  beak  and  talon,  at  the  heart 
Made  for  all  noble  motion :  and  I  saw 
That  equal  baseness  lived  in  sleeker  times 
W7ith   smoother   men :    the   old    leaven 

leaven'd  all : 
Millions  of  throats  would  bawl  for  civil 

rights, 
No  woman  named:   therefore  I  set  my 

face 
Against  all  men,  and  lived  but  for  mine 

own. 
Far  off  from  men  I  built  a  fold  for  them 
I  stored  it  full  of  rich  memorial : 


THE  PRINCESS;   A   MEDLEY. 


197 


I  fenced  it  round  with  gallant  institutes, 
And  biting  laws  to  scare  the  beasts  of 

prey 
And  prosper'd;   till  a  rout  of  saucy  boys 
Brake  on  us  at  our  books,  and  marr'd 

our  peace, 
Mask'd  like  our  maids,  blustering  I  know 

not  what 
Of  insolence  and  love,  some  pretext  held 
Of  baby  troth,  invalid,  since  my  will 
Seal'd  not  the  bond  —  the  striplings ! — for 

their  sport !  — 
I  tamed  my  leopards :  shall  I  not  tame 

these  ? 
Or  you?   or  I?  for  since  you  think  me 

touch'd 
In  honour  —  what,  I  would  not  aught  of 

false  — 
Is  not  our  cause  pure?   and  whereas  I 

know 
Your  prowess,  Arac,  and  what  mother's 

blood 
You  draw  from,  fight;  you  failing,  I  abide 
What  end  soever :  fail  you  will  not.  Still 
Take  not  his  life  :  he  risk'd  it  for  my  own; 
His  mother  lives :  yet  whatsoe'er  you  do, 
Fight  and  fight  well;    strike  and  strike 

home.     O  dear 
Brothers,  the  woman's  Angel  guards  you, 

you 
The  sole  men  to  be  mingled  with   our 

cause, 
The  sole  men  we  shall  prize  in  the  after- 
time, 
Your  very   armour   hallow'd,    and   your 

statues 
Rear'd,  sung  to,  when,  this  gad-fly  brush'd 

aside, 
We  plant  a  -olid  foot  into  the  Time, 
And  mould  a  generation  strong  to  move 
With  claim  on  claim  from  right  to  right, 

till  she 
Whose  name  is  yoked  with   children's, 

know  herself; 
And  Knowledge  in  our  own  land  make 

her  free, 
And,  ever  following  those  two  crowned 

twins,  m 

Commerce  and  conquest,  shower  the  fiery 

grain 
Of  freedom  broadcast  over  all  that  orbs 
Between  the  Northern  and  the  Southern 

morn.' 


Then  came  a  postscript  dash'd  across 

the  rest. 
1  See  that  there  be  no  traitors  in  your 

camp : 
We  seem  a  nest  of  traitors — none  to  trust 
Since  our  arms  fail'd — this  Egypt-plague 

of  men ! 
Almost  our  maids  were  better  at  their 

homes, 
Than  thus  man-girdled  here:    indeed  I 

think 
Our  chiefest  comfort  is  the  little  child 
Of  one  unworthy  mother;  which  she  left : 
She  shall  not  have  it  back :    the   child 

shall  grow 
To  prize  the  authentic  mother  of  her  mind. 
I  took  it  for  an  hour  in  mine  own  bed 
This  morning :  there  the  tender  orphan 

hands 
Felt  at  my  heart,  and  seem'd  to  charm 

from  thence 
The  wrath  I  nursed  against  the  world: 

farewell.' 

I  ceased;  he  said,  'Stubborn,  but  she 
may  sit 

Upon  a  king's  right  hand  in  thunder- 
storms, 

And  breed  up  warriors !  See  now,  tho' 
yourself 

Be  dazzled  by  the  wildfire  Love  to  sloughs 

That  swallow  common  sense,  the  spin- 
dling king, 

This  Gama  swamp'd  in  lazy  tolerance. 

When  the  man  wants  weight,  the  woman 
takes  it  up, 

And  topples  down  the  scales;  but  this  is 
fixt 

As  are  the  roots  of  earth  and  base  of  all; 

Man  for  the  field  and  woman  for  the 
hearth : 

Man  for  the  sword  and  for  the  needle 
she: 

Man  with  the  head  and  woman  with  the 
heart : 

Man  to  command  and  woman  to  obey; 

All  else  confusion.  Look  you !  the  gray 
mare 

Is  ill  to  live  with,  when  her  whinny  shrills 

From  tile  to  scullery,  and  her  small  good- 
man 

Shrinks  in  his  arm-chair  while  the  fires 
of  Hell 


198 


THE  PRINCESS;   A   MEDLEY. 


Mix  with  his  hearth:  but  you  —  she's  yet 

a  colt  — 
Take,  break  her :  strongly  groom'd  and 

straitly  curb'd 
She  might  not  rank  with  those  detestable 
That  let  the  bantling  scald  at  home,  and 

brawl 
Their  rights  or  wrongs  like  potherbs  in 

the  street. 
They  say  she's  comely;  there's  the  fairer 

chance : 
/like  her  none  the  less  for  rating  at  her  ! 
Besides,  the  woman  wed  is  not  as  we, 
But  suffers  change  of  frame.  A  lusty  brace 
Of  twins  may  weed  her  of  her  folly.  Boy, 
The  bearing  and  the  training  of  a  child  • 
Is  woman's  wisdom.' 

Thus  the  hard  old  king : 
I  took  my  leave,  for  it  was  nearly  noon : 
I  pored  upon  her  letter  which  I  held, 
And  on  the  little   clause   *  take   not  his 

life :  » 
I  mused  on  that  wild  morning  in  the 

woods, 
And  on  the  '  Follow,  follow,  thou  shalt 

win : ' 
I  thought  on  all  the  wrathful  king  had 

said, 
And  how  the  strange  betrothment  was  to 

end : 
Then  I  remember'd  that  burnt  sorcerer's 

curse 
That  one  should  fight  with  shadows  and 

should  fall; 
And    like   a  flash  the   weird    affection 

came : 
King,  camp  and  college  turn'd  to  hollow 

shows; 
I  seem'd  to  move  in  old  memorial  tilts, 
And  doing  battle  with  forgotten  ghosts, 
To  dream  myself  the  shadow  of  a  dream : 
And  ere  I  woke  it  was  the  point  of  noon, 
The  lists  were  ready.     Empanoplied  and 

plumed 
We  enter'd  in,  and  waited,  fifty  there 
Opposed  to  fifty,  till  the  trumpet  blared 
At  the  barrier  like  a  wild  horn  in  a  land 
Of  echoes,   and  a  moment,   and   once 

more 
The  trumpet,  and  again :    at  which  the 

storm 
Of  galloping  hoofs  bare  on  the  ridge  of 

spears 


And    riders   front   to   front,    until    they 

closed 
In  conflict  with   the    crash  of  shivering 

points, 
And   thunder.     Yet  it  seem'd  a  dream, 

I  dream'd 
Of  fighting.     On  his  haunches  rose  the 

steed, 
And  into  fiery  splinters  leapt  the  lance, 
And  out  of  stricken  helmets  sprang  the 

fire. 
Part  sat  like  rocks :  part  reel'd  but  kept 

their  seats : 
Part  roll'd  on  the  earth  and  rose  again 

and  drew: 
Part    stumbled    mixt    with    floundering 

horses.     Down 
From  those  two  bulks  at  Arac's  side,  and 

down 
From  Arac's  arm,  as  from  a  giant's  flail, 
The    large    blows   rain'd,   as   here   and 

everywhere 
He  rode  the  mellay,  lord  of  the  ringing 

lists, 
And   all   the  plain,  —  brand,  mace,  and 

shaft,  and  shield,  — 
Shock'd,    like    an    iron-clanging    anvil 

bang'd 
With  hammers;   till  I  thought,  can  this 

be  he 
From  Gama's  dwarfish  loins?  if  this  be  so, 
The  mother  makes  us  most  —  and  in  my 

dream 
I  glanced  aside,  and  saw  the  palace-front 
Alive  with  fluttering   scarfs  and  ladies' 

eyes, 
And  highest,  among  the  statues,  statue- 
like, 
Between  a  cymbal'd  Miriam  and  a  Jael, 
With  Psyche's  babe,  was  Ida  watching  us, 
A  single  band  of  gold  about  her  hair, 
Like  a  Saint's  glory  up  in  heaven  :  but  she 
No  saint  —  inexorable  —  no  tenderness — 
Too   hard,  too  cruel:  yet  she  sees  me 

fight, 
Yea,   let   her  see  me  fall !   with  that   I 

drave 
Among  the  thickest  and   bore  down  a 

Prince, 
And  Cyril,  one.     Yea,  let  me  make  my 

dream 
All    that    I    would.       But    that    large- 
moulded  man, 


THE  PRINCESS;  A  MEDLEY. 


199 


His  visage  all  agrin  as  at  a  wake, 
Made  at  me  thro'  the  press,  and,  stagger- 
ing back 
With  stroke   on   stroke   the   horse   and 

horseman,  came 
As  comes  a  pillar  of  electric  cloud, 
Flaying  the  roofs  and  sucking  upthe  drains, 
And  shadowing  down  the  champaign  till 

it  strikes 
On  a  wood,  and  takes,  and  breaks,  and 

cracks,  and  splits, 
And  twists  the  grain  with  such  a  roar 

that  Earth 
Reels,  and  the  herdsmen  cry;   for  every- 
thing 
Gave  way  before  him :  only  Florian,  he 
That  loved  me  closer  than  his  own  right 

eye, 
Thrust  in  between;  but  Arac  rode  him 

down: 
And  Cyril  seeing  it,  push'd  against  the 

Prince, 
With  Psyche's  colour  round  his  helmet, 

tough, 
Strong,  supple,  sinew-corded,  apt  at  arms; 
But   tougher,  heavier,  stronger,  he  that 

smote 
And  threw  him :  last  I  spurr'd;   I  felt  my 

veins 
Stretch  with  fierce  heat;   a  moment  hand 

to  hand, 
And  sword  to  sword,  and  horse  to  horse 

we  hung, 
Till  I  struck  out  and  shouted;   the  blade 

glanced, 
I  did  but  shear  a  feather,  and  dream  and 

truth 
Flow'd   from  me;    darkness  closed  me; 

and  I  fell. 


Home  they  brought  her  warrior  dead: 
She  nor  swoon'd,  nor  utter'd  cry: 

All  her  maidens,  watching,  said, 
•  She  must  weep  or  she  will  die.' 

Then  they  praised  him,  soft  and  low, 
Call'd  him  worthy  to  be  loved, 

Truest  friend  and  noblest  foe ; 
Yet  she  neither  spoke  nor  moved. 

Stole  a  maiden  from  her  place, 
Lightly  to  the  warrior  stept, 

Took  the  face-cloth  from  the  face ; 
Yet  she  neither  moved  nor  wept. 


Rose  a  nurse  of  ninety  years, 
Set  his  child  upon  her  knee  — 

Like  summer  tempest  came  her  tears  — 
1  Sweet  my  child,  I  live  for  thee.' 

My  dream  had  never  died  or  lived  again. 
As  in  some  mystic  middle  state  I  lay; 
Seeing  I  saw  not,  hearing  not  I  heard  : 
Tho',  if  I  saw  not,  yet  they  told  me  all 
So  often  that  I  speak  as  having  seen. 

For  so  it  seem'd,  or  so  they  said  to  me, 
That  all  things  grew  more   tragic   and 

more  strange; 
That  when  our  side  was  vanquish'd  and 

my  cause 
For  ever  lost,  there  went  up  a  great  cry, 
The   Prince  is  slain.     My  father   heard 

and  ran 
In  on  the  lists,  and  there  unlaced  my 

casque 
And  grovell'd  on  my  body,  and  after  him 
Came  Psyche,  sorrowing  for  Aglaia. 

But  high  upon  the  palace  Ida  stood 
With   Psyche's  babe  in  arm:    there  on 

the  roofs 
Like   that  great  dame  of  Lapidoth  she 
sang. 

1  Our  enemies  have  fall'n,  have  fall'n:  the  seed, 
The  little  seed  they  laugh 'd  at  in  the  dark, 
Has  risen  and  cleft  the  soil,  and  grown  a  bulk 
Of  spanless  girth,  that  lays  on  every  side 
A  thousand  arms  and  rushes  to  the  Sun. 

1  Our  enemies  have  fall'n,  have  fall'n:   they 
came ; 
The  leaves  were  wet  with  women's  tears:  they 

heard 
The  noise  of  songs  they  would  not  understand : 
They  mark'd  it  with  the  red  cross  to  the  fall, 
And  would  have  strown  it,  and  are  fall'n  them- 
„  selves. 

'Our  enemies  have  fall'n,  have  fall'n:    they 
came, 
The  woodmen  with  their  axes:  lo  the  tree! 
But  we  will  make  it  faggots  for  the  hearth, 
And  shape  it  plank  and  beam  for  roof  and  floor, 
And  boats  and  bridges  for  the  use  of  men. 

'Our  enemies  have  fall'n,  have  fall'n:    they 
struck ; 
With  their  own  blows  they  hurt  themselves,  nor 
knew 


200 


THE  PRINCESS;   A   MEDLEY. 


There  dwelt  an  iron  nature  in  the  grain  : 
The  glittering  axe  was  broken  in  their  arms, 
Their  arms  were  shattered  to  the  shoulder  blade. 

'  Our  enemies  have  fall'n,  but  this  shall  grow 
A  night  of  Summer  from  the  heat,  a  breadth 
Of  Autumn,  dropping  fruits  of  power:  and  roll'd 
With  music  in  the  growing  breeze  of  Time, 
i  he  tops  shall  strike  from  star  to  star,  the  fangs 
Shall  move  the  stony  bases  of  the  world. 

cAnd    now,    O    maids,    behold    our 

sanctuary 
Is  violate,  our  laws  broken  :  fear  we  not 
To   break   them   more   in  their  behoof, 

whose  arms 
Champion'd  our  cause  and  won  it  with  a 

day 
Blanch'd  in  our  annals,  and  perpetual  feast, 
When  dames  and  heroines  of  the  golden 

year 
Shall  strip  a  hundred   hollows  bare  of 

Spring, 
To  rain  an  April  of  ovation  round 
Their  statues,  borne  aloft,  the  three  :  but 

come, 
We  will  be  liberal,  since  our  rights  are 

won. 
Let  them  not  lie  in  the  tents  with  coarse 

mankind, 
111  nurses;  but  descend,  and  proffer  these 
The  brethren  of  our  blood  and  cause,  that 

there 
Lie    bruised    and    maim'd,   the   tender 

ministries 
Of  female  hands  and  hospitality.' 

She  spoke,  and  with  the  babe  yet  in 

her  arms, 
Descending,  burst  the  great  bronze  valves, 

and  led 
A  hundred  maids  in  train  across  the  Park. 
Some  cowl'd,  and  some  bare-headed,  on 

they  came, 
Their  feet  in  flowers,  her  loveliest:  by 

them  went 
The  enamour'd  air  sighing,  and  on  their 

curls 
From  the  high  tree  the  blossom  wavering 

fell, 
And  over  them  the  tremulous  isles  of  light 
Slided,    they  moving   under  shade :  but 

Blanche 
At  distance  follow'd :  so  they  came  :  anon 


Thro'  open  field  into  the  lists  they  wound 
Timorously;    and   as    the  leader  of  the 

herd 
That    holds   a   stately   fretwork    to    the 

Sun, 
And  follow'd  up  by  a  hundred  airy  does, 
Steps  with  a  tender  foot,  light  as  on  air, 
The  lovely,  lordly  creature  floated  on 
To   where   her  wounded  brethren   lay; 

there  stay'd; 
Knelt  on  one  knee,  —  the  child  on  one,  — 

and  prest 
Their   hands,  and  call'd  them  dear  de- 
liverers, 
And  happy  warriors,  and  immortal  names, 
And  said :  '  You  shall  not  lie  in  the  tents 

but  here, 
And   nursed    by   those    for   whom   you 

fought,  and  served 
With  female  hands  and  hospitality.' 

Then,  whether  moved  by  this,  or  was 

it  chance, 
She  past  my  way.     Up  started  from  my 

side 
The  old  lion,  glaring  with  his  whelpless 

eye, 
Silent;  but  when  she  saw  me  lying  stark, 
Dishelm'd   and   mute,  and   motionlessly 

pale, 
Cold  ev'n  to  her,  she  sigh'd;   and  when 

she  saw 
The  haggard  father's  face  and  reverend 

beard 
Of  grisly  twine,  all  dabbled  with  the  blood 
Of  his  own  son,  shudder'd,  a  twitch  of 

pain 
Tortured  her  mouth,  and  o'er  her  fore- 
head past 
A  shadow,  and  her  hue  changed,  and  she 

said: 
'  He  saved  my  life :  my  brother  slew  him 

for  it.' 
No  more :  at  which  the  king  -in  bitter 

scorn 
Drew  from  my  neck  the  painting  and  the 

tress, 
And  held  them  up :  she  saw  them,  and  a 

day 
Rose  from  the  distance  on  her  memory, 
When  the  good  Queen,  her  mother,  shore 

the  tress 
With  kisses,  ere  the  days  of  Lady  Blanche : 


THE  PRINCESS;   A  MEDLEY. 


And  then  once  more  she  look'd  at  my 

pale  face : 
Till  understanding  all  the  foolish  work 
Of  Fancy,  and  the  bitter  close  of  all, 
Her  iron  will  was  broken  in  her  mind; 
Her  noble  heart  was  molten  in  her  breast ; 
She  bow'd,  she  set  the  child  on  the  earth; 

she  laid 
A  feeling  finger  on  my  brows,  and  pres- 
ently 
(0  Sire,'  she  said,  'he  lives:  he  is  not 

dead: 
O  let  me  have  him  with  my  brethren  here 
In  our  own  palace :  we  will  tend  on  him 
Like  one  of  these  ;  if  so,  by  any  means, 
To  lighten  this  great  clog  of  thanks,  that 

make  ■ 
Our  progress  falter  to  the  woman's  goal.' 

She  said :  but  at  the  happy  word  '  he 

lives,' 
My   father  stoop'd,    re-father'd  o'er  my 

wounds. 
So  those  two  foes  above  my  fallen  life, 
With  brow  to  brow  like  night  and  evening 

mixt     . 
Their  dark  and  gray,  while  Psyche  ever 

stole 
A  little  nearer,  till  the  babe  that  by  us, 
Half-lapt  in  glowing  gauze  and  golden 

brede, 
Lay  like  a  new-fall'n  meteor  on  the  grass, 
Uncared  for,  spied  its  mother  and  began 
A  blind  and  babbling  laughter,  and  to 

.  dance 
Its  body,  and  reach  its  fading  innocent 

arms 
And  lazy  lingering  fingers.  She  the  appeal 
Brook'd  not,  but  clamouring  out '  Mine  — 

mine  —  not  yours, 
It  is  not  yours,  but  mine :  give  me  the 

child,' 
Ceased  all  on  tremble :  piteous  was  the 

cry  : 
So   stood    the    unhappy   mother    open- 

mouth'd, 
And  turn'd  each  face  her  way :  wan  was 

her  cheek 
With  hollow  watch,  her  blooming  mantle 

torn, 
Red  grief  and  mother's  hunger  in  her  eye, 
And  down  dead-heavy  sank  her  curls,  and 

half 


The  sacred  mother's  bosom,  panting,  burst 
The  laces  toward  her  babe;   but  she  nor 

cared 
Nor  knew  it,  clamouring  on,  till  Ida  heard, 
Look'd  up,  and  rising  slowly  from  me, 

stood 
Erect  and  silent,  striking  with  her  glance 
The  mother,  me,  the  child;   but  he  that 

lay 
Beside  us,  Cyril,  batter'd  as  he  was, 
Trail' d  himself  up  on  one  knee :  then  he 

drew 
Her  robe  to  meet  his  lips,  and  down  she 

look'd 
At  the  arm'd  man  sideways,  pitying  as  it 

seem'd, 
Or  self-involved;  but  when  she  learnt  his 

face, 
Remembering  his  ill-omen'd  song,  arose 
Once  more  thro'  all  her  height,  and  o'er 

him  grew 
Tall  as  a  figure  lengthen'd  on  the  sand 
When  the  tide  ebbs  in  sunshine,  and  he 

said: 

1 0    fair    and    strong     and     terrible ! 

Lioness 
That  with  your  long  locks  play  the  Lion's 

mane ! 
But  Love  and  Nature,  these  are  two  more 

terrible 
And  stronger.     See,  your  foot  is  on  our 

necks, 
We  vanquish'd,  you  the  Victor  of  your 

will. 
What   would   you   more?   give   her  the 

child !  remain 
Orb'd  in  your  isolation :  he  is  dead, 
Or  all  as  dead  :  henceforth  we  let  you  be : 
Win   you   the    hearts   of    women;    and 

beware 
Lest,  where  you  seek  the  common  love 

of  these, 
The   common   hate   with  the   revolving 

wheel 
Should  drag  you  down,  and  some  great 

Nemesis 
Break  from  a  darken'd  future,  crown'd 

with  fire, 
And  tread  you  out  for  ever:  but  how- 

soe'er 
Fix'd  in  yourself,  never  in  your  own  arms 
To  hold  your  own,  deny  not  hers  to  her, 


THE  PRINCESS;   A   MEDLEY. 


Give  her  the  child  !    O  if,  I  say,  you  keep 
One  pulse  that  beats  true  woman,  if  you 

loved 
The  breast  that  fed  or  arm  that  dandled 

you, 
Or  own  one  port  of  sense  not  flint  to 

prayer, 
Give   her  the  child !  or  if  you  scorn  to 

lay  it, 
Yourself,  in  hands  so  lately  claspt  with 

yours, 
Or  speak  to  her,  your  dearest,  her  one 

fault 
The  tenderness,  not  yours,  that  could  not 

kill, 
Give  me  it :  /  will  give  it  her.' 

He  said : 
At  first  her  eye  with  slow  dilation  roll'd 
Dry  flame,  she  listening;   after  sank  and 

sank 
And,  into  mournful  twilight  mellowing, 

dwelt 
Full  on  the  child;   she  took  it:  'Pretty 

bud! 
Lily  of  the  vale  !  half  open'd  bell  of  the 

woods ! 
Sole  comfort  of  my  dark  hour,  when  a 

world 
Of  traitorous  friend  and  broken  system 

made 
No  purple  in  the  distance,  mystery, 
Pledge  of  a  love  not  to  be  mine,  farewell; 
These  men  are  hard  upon  us  as  of  old, 
We  two  must   part:    and  yet  how  fain 

was  I 
To  dream  thy  cause  embraced  in  mine, 

to  think 
I  might  be  something  to  thee,  when  I 

felt 
Thy  helpless  warmth  about  my  barren 

breast 
In  the  dead  prime :  but  may  thy  mother 

prove 
As  true  to  thee  as  false,  false,  false  to  me ! 
And,  if  thou  needs  must  bear  the  yoke, 

I  wish  it 
Gentle  as  freedom '  —  here  she  kiss'd  it : 

then  — 
'All  good  go  with  thee !  take  it,  Sir,'  and  so 
Laid   the  soft  babe   in  his  hard-mailed 

hands, 
Who  turn'd  half-round  to  Psyche  as  she 

sprang 


To  meet  it,  with  an  eye  that  swum  in 
thanks; 

Then  felt  it  sound  and  whole  from  head 
to  foot, 

And  hugg'd  and  never  hugg'd  it  close 
enough, 

And  in  her  hunger  mouth'd  and  mum- 
bled it, 

And  hid  her  bosom  with  it;   after  that 

Put  on  more  calm  and  added  suppliantly  : 

'  We  two  were  friends :  I  go  to  mine 
own  land 
For  ever :  find  some  other :  as  for  me 
I  scarce  am  fit  for  your  great  plans :  yet 

speak  to  me, 
Say  one  soft  word  and  let  me  part  for- 
given.' 

But  Ida  spoke  not,  rapt  upon  the  child. 
Then  Arac.    4  Ida —  'sdeath  !  you  blame 

the  man; 
You  wrong  yourselves  —  the  woman  is  so 

hard 
Upon  the  woman.    Come,  a  grace  to  me ! 
I  am  your  warrior:    I   and   mine   have 

fought 
Your  battle :  kiss  her;  take  her  hand,  she 

weeps : 
'Sdeath  !  I  would  sooner  fight  thrice  o'er 

than  see  it.' 

But   Ida  spoke  not,   gazing    on    the 
ground; 
And  reddening  in  the  furrows  of  his  chin, 
And  moved  beyond   his  custom,  Gama 
said: 

'I've  heard  that  there  is  iron  in  the 

blood, 
And  I  believe  it.     Not  one  word?  not 

one? 
Whence  drew  you  this  steel  temper?  not 

from  me, 
Not  from  your  mother,  now  a  saint  with 

saints. 
She  said  you  had  a  heart  —  I  heard  her 

say  it  — 
"  Our  Ida  has  a  heart "  — just  ere  she 

died  — 
"  But  see  that  some  one  with  authority 
Be  near  her  still "  and  I  —  I  sought  for 

one  — 


THE  PRINCESS;   A   MEDLEY. 


203 


All  people  said  she  had  authority  — 
The  Lady  Blanche :  much  profit !     Not 

one  word; 
No !  tho'  your  father  sues :  see  how  you 

stand 
Stiff  as  Lot's  wife,  and  all  the  good  knights 

maim'd, 
I  trust  that  there  is  no  one  hurt  to  death, 
For  your  wild  whim :  and  was  it  then  for 

this, 
Was  it  for  this  we  gave  our  palace  up, 
Where  we  withdrew  from  summer  heats 

and  state, 
And  had  our  wine  and  chess  beneath  the 

planes, 
And  many  a  pleasant  hour  with  her  that's 

gone, 
Ere  you  were  born  to  vex  us?  Is  it  kind? 
Speak  to  her  I  say:  is  this  not  she  of 

whom, 
When  first  she  came,  all  flush'd  you  said 

to  me 
Now  had  you  got  a  friend  of  your  own 

age, 
Now  could  you  share  your  thought;   now 

should  men  see 
Two  women  faster  welded  in  one  love 
Than  pairs  of  wedlock;   she  you  walk'd 

with,  she 
You  talk'd  with,  whole  nights  long,  up  in 

the  tower, 
Of  sine  and  arc,  spheroid  and  azimuth, 
And  right  ascension,  Heaven  knows  what; 

and  now 
A  word,  but  one,  one  little  kindly  word, 
Not  one  to  spare  her:    out  upon  you, 

flint! 
You  love  nor  her,  nor  me,  nor  any;   nay, 
You  shame  your  mother's  judgment  too. 

Not  one? 
You  will  not?  well  —  no  heart  have  you, 

or  such 
As  fancies  like  the  vermin  in  a  nut 
Have  fretted  all  to  dust  and  bitterness.' 
So  said  the  small  king  moved  beyond  his 

wont. 

But  Ida  stood  nor  spoke,  drain'd  of 
her  force 
By  many  a  varying  influence  and  so  long. 
Down  thro'  her  limbs  a  drooping  languor 

wept: 
Her  head  a  little  bent;  and  on  her  mouth 


A  doubtful  smile  dwelt  like  a  clouded 

moon 
In  a  still  water :  then  brake  out  my  sire, 
Lifting  his  grim  head  from  my  wounds. 

'  O  you, 
Woman,  whom  we  thought  woman  even 

now, 
And  were  half  fool'd  to  let  you  tend  our 

son, 
Because  he  might  have  wish'd  it  —  but 

we  see 
The  accomplice  of  your  madness  unfor- 

given, 
And  think  that  you  might  mix  his  draught 

with  death, 
When   your    skies   change    again :    the 

rougher  hand 
Is  safer:  on  to  the  tents:  take  up  the 

Prince.' 

He  rose,  and  while  each  ear  was  prick'd 
to  attend 
A  tempest,  thro'  the  cloud  that  dimm'd 

her  broke 
A  genial  warmth  and  light  once  more, 

and  shone 
Thro'  glittering  drops  on  her  sad  friend. 
1  Come  hither. 

0  Psyche,'  she  cried  out,  '  embrace  me, 

come, 
Quick  while  I  melt;  make  reconcilement 

sure 
With  one  that  cannot  keep  her  mind  an 

hour: 
Come  to  the  hollow  heart  they  slander  so ! 
Kiss  and  be  friends,  like  children  being 

chid! 
/  seem  no  more :  /want  forgiveness  too : 

1  should  have  had  to  do  with  none  but 

maids, 
That  have  no  links  with  men.     Ah  false 

but  dear, 
Dear   traitor,  too  much  loved,  why?  — 

why?  —  Yet  see, 
Before  these  kings  we  embrace  you  yet 

once  more 
With  all  forgiveness,  all  oblivion, 
And  trust,  not  love,  you  less. 

And  now,  O  sire, 
Grant   me  your   son,  to   nurse,  to  wait 

upon  him, 
Like  mine  own  brother,     For  my  debt 

to  him, 


204 


THE  PRINCESS;  A   MEDLEY. 


This  nightmare  weight   of  gratitude,    I 

know  it; 
Taunt  me  no  more :  yourself  and  yours 

shall  have 
Free  adit;   we  will  scatter  all  our  maids 
Till  happier  times  each   to  her   proper 

hearth : 
What  use   to   keep   them   here  —  now? 

grant  my  prayer. 
Help,    father,   brother,   help;    speak   to 

the  king: 
Thaw  this  male  nature   to  some   touch 

of  that 
Which  kills  me  with  myself,  and  drags 

me  down 
From  my  fixt  height  to  mob  me  up  with  all 
The  soft  and  milky  rabble  of  womankind, 
Poor  weakling  ev'n  as  they  are.' 

.  Passionate  tears 
Follow'd:   the   king  replied  not:    Cyril 

said: 
1  Your  brother,   Lady,  —  Florian,  —  ask 

for  him 
Of  your  great  Head  —  for  he  is  wounded 

too  — 
That  you  may  tend  upon  him  with  the 

prince.' 
1  Ay  so,'  said  Ida  with  a  bitter  smile, 
'Our  laws  are  broken :  let  him  enter  too.' 
Then  Violet,  she  that  sang  the  mournful 

song, 
And  had  a  cousin  tumbled  on  the  plain, 
Petition'd  too  for  him.     'Ay  so,'  she  said, 
'  I  stagger  in  the  stream  :  I  cannot  keep 
My  heart   an   eddy  from   the   brawling 

hour: 
We  break   our  laws  with   ease,  but  let 

it  be.' 
'  Ay  so  ?  '  said  Blanche :  '  Amazed  am  I 

to  hear 
Your    Highness:     but    your    Highness 

breaks  with  ease 
The  law  your  Highness  did  not  make: 

'twas  I. 
I  had  been  wedded  wife,  I  knew  man- 
kind, 
And  block'd  them  out;   but  these  men 

came  to  woo 
Your  Highness  —  verily  I  think  to  win.' 

So  she,  and  turn'd  askance  a  wintry 
eye: 
But  Ida  with  a  voice,  that  like  a  bell 


Toll'd  by  an  earthquake  in  a  trembling 

tower, 
Rang  ruin,   answer'd  full   of  grief  and 

scorn. 

*  Fling  our   doors    wide !  all,  all,  not 

one,  but  all, 
Not  only  he,  but  by  my  mother's  soul, 
Whatever  man  lies  wounded,  friend  or 

foe, 
Shall  enter,  if  he  will.     Let  our  girls  flit, 
Till  the  storm  die !    but  had  you  stood 

by  us, 
The  roar  that   breaks  the   Pharos   from 

his  base 
Had  left  us  rock.     She  fain  would  sting 

us  too, 
But   shall    not.     Pass,  and   mingle  with 

your  likes. 
We  brook  no  further  insult  but  are  gone.' 

She  turn'd;   the  very  nape  of  her  white 

neck 
Was   rosed   with   indignation:    but   the 

Prince 
Her  brother  came;   the  king  her  father 

charm'd 
Her  wounded  soul  with  words :  nor  did 

mine  own 
Refuse  her  proffer,  lastly  gave  his  hand. 

Then  us  they  lifted  up,  dead  weights, 

and  bare 
Straight  to  the  doors :  to  them  the  doors 

gave  way 
Groaning,  and  in  the  Vestal  entry  shriek'd 
The  virgin  marble  under  iron  heels : 
And  on  they  moved  and  gain'd  the  hall, 

and  there 
Rested :    but   great   the  crush  was,  and 

each  base, 
To  left  and  right,  of  those  tall  columns 

drown'd 
In  silken  fluctuation  and  the  swarm 
Of  female  whisperers :  at  the  further  end 
Was  Ida  by  the  throne,  the  two  great 

cats 
Close  by  her,  like  supporters  on  a  shield, 
Bow-back'd  with  fear :  but  in  the  centre 

stood 
The   common   men    with    rolling   eyes; 

amazed 
They  glared  upon  the  women,  and  aghast 


THE  PRINCESS;   A   MEDLEY. 


205 


The  women  stared   at   these,  all   silent, 

save 
When  armour  clash'd  or  jingled,  while 

the  day, 
Descending,  struck  athwart  the  hall,  and 

shot 
A  flying  splendour  out  of  brass  and  steel, 
That  o'er  the  statues   leapt   from   head 

to  head, 
Now  fired  an  angry  Pallas  on  the  helm, 
Now  set  a  wrathful  Dian's  moon  on  flame, 
And  now  and  then  an  echo  started  up, 
And  shuddering  fled  from  room  to  room, 

and  died 
Of  fright  in  far  apartments. 

Then  the  voice 
Of  Ida  sounded,  issuing  ordinance  : 
And  me  they  bore  up  the  broad  stairs, 

and  thro' 
The  long-laid  galleries  past  a  hundred 

doors 
To  one  deep  chamber  shut  from  sound, 

and  due 
To  languid  limbs  and  sickness;   left  me 

in  it; 
And  others  otherwhere  they  laid ;   and  all 
That  afternoon  a  sound  arose  of  hoof 
And    chariot,   many   a   maiden    passing 

home 
Till  happier  times;    but  some  were  left 

of  those 
Held  sagest,  and  the  great  lords  out  and 

in, 
From  those   two  hosts  that  lay  beside 

the  walls, 
Walk'd  at  their  will,  and  everything  was 

changed. 

VII. 

Ask  me  no  more :  the  moon  may  draw  the  sea; 
The  cloud  may  stoop  from  heaven  and  take 

the  shape 
With   eld  to  fold,  of  mountain  or  of  cape; 
But  O  too  fond,  when  have  I  answer'd  thee? 
Ask  me  no  more. 

Ask  me  no  more:  what  answer  should  I  give? 
I  love  not  hollow  cheek  or  faded  eye: 
Yet,  O  my  friend,  I  will  not  have  thee  die ! 

Ask  me  no  more,  lest  I  should  bid  thee  live; 
Ask  me  no  more. 

Ask  me  no  more:  thy  fate  and  mine  are  seal'd: 
I  strove  against  the  stream  and  all  in  vain: 


Let  the  great  river  take  me  to  the  main : 
No  more,  dear  love,  for  at  a  touch  I  yield; 
Ask  me  no  more. 

So  was  their  sanctuary  violated, 
So  their  fair  college  turn'd  to  hospital; 
At  first  with  all  confusion :  by  and  by 
Sweet  order  lived  again  with  other  laws : 
A  kindlier  influence  reign'd;   and  every- 
where 
Low  voices  with  the  ministering  hand 
Hung  round  the  sick :  the  maidens  came, 

they  talk'd, 
They  sang,  they  read:   till  she  not  fair 

began 
To  gather  light,  and  she  that  was,  be- 
came 
Her  former  beauty  treble;  and  to  and  fro 
With    books,   with   flowers,  with   Angel 

offices, 
Like  creatures  native  unto  gracious  act, 
And   in   their   own  clear   element,  they 
moved. 

But  sadness  on  the  soul  of  Ida  fell, 
And  hatred  of  her  weakness,  blent  with 

shame. 
Old    studies   fail'd;    seldom  she  spoke : 

but  oft 
Clomb  to  the  roofs,  and  gazed  alone  for 

hours 
On  that  disastrous  leaguer,  swarms  of  men 
Darkening   her   female   field:   void  was 

her  use, 
And  she  as  one  that  climbs  a  peak  to  gaze 
O'er  land   and  main,  and  sees  a  great 

black  cloud 
Drag  inward  from  the  deeps,  a  wall  of 

night, 
Blot  out  the  slope  of  sea  from  verge  to 

shore, 
And  suck   the  blinding  splendour  from 

the  sand, 
And   quenching  lake  by  lake  and  tarn 

by  tarn 
Expunge  the  world :  so  fared  she  gazing 

there; 
So  blacken'd   all   her   world   in   secret, 

blank 
And  waste  it  seem'd  and  vain;   till  down 

she  came, 
And  found  fair  peace  once  more  among 

the  sick. 


206 


THE  PRINCESS;   A   MEDLEY. 


And   twilight    dawn'd;    and  morn  by 

morn  the  lark 
Shot  up  and  shrill'd  in  flickering  gyres, 

but  I 
Lay  silent  in  the  muffled  cage  of  life : 
And  twilight  gloom'd ;  and  broader-grown 

the  bowers 
Drew  the  great   night   into   themselves, 

and  Heaven, 
Star  after  star,  arose  and  fell;   but  I, 
Deeper   than  those  weird  doubts  could 

reach  me,  lay 
Quite  sunder'd  from  the  moving  Universe, 
Nor  knew  what  eye  was  on  me,  nor  the 

hand 
That   nursed   me,  more  than  infants  in 

their  sleep. 

But  Psyche  tended  Florian :  with  her 

oft, 
Melissa  came;   for  Blanche  had  gone,  but 

left 
Her  child  among  us,  willing  she  should 

keep 
Co urt- favour :  here  and  there  the  small 

bright  head, 
A   light   of  healing,  glanced  about  the 

couch, 
Or  thro'  the  parted  silks  the  tender  face 
Peep'd,  shining  in  upon  the  wounded  man 
With   blush   and   smile,  a   medicine   in 

themselves 
To  wile  the  length  from  languorous  hours, 

and  draw 
The  sting  from  pain ;  nor  seem'd  it  strange 

that  soon 
He  rose  up  whole,  and  those  fair  charities 
Join'd  at  her  side;   nor  stranger  seem'd 

that  hearts 
So  gentle,  so  employ'd,  should  close  in 

love, 
Than  when  two  dewdrops  on  the  petal 

shake 
To  the  same  sweet  air,  and  tremble  deeper 

down, 
And  slip  at  once  all-fragrant  into  one. 

Less  prosperously  the  second  suit  ob- 

tain'd 
At  first  with  Psyche.     Not  tho'  Blanche 

had  sworn 
That   after  that  dark  night  among  the 

fields 


She  needs  must  wed  him  for  her  own 
good  name; 

Not  tho'  he  built  upon  the  babe  restored; 

Nor  tho'  she  liked  him,  yielded  she,  but 
fear'd 

To  incense  the  Head  once  more;  till  on 
a  day 

When  Cyril  pleaded,  Ida  came  behind 

Seen  but  of  Psyche :  on  her  foot  she  hung 

A  moment,  and  she  heard,  at  which  her 
face 

A  little  flush'd,  and  she  past  on;   but  each 

Assumed  from  thence  a  half- consent  in- 
volved 

In  stillness,  plighted  troth,  and  were  at 
peace. 

Nor  only  these :    Love  in  the  sacred 

halls 
Held  carnival  at  will,  and  flying  struck 
With  showers  of  random  sweet  on  maid 

and  man. 
Nor  did  her  father  cease  to  press  my  claim, 
Nor  did  mine  own,  now  reconciled;   nor 

yet 
Did  those  twin  brothers,  risen  again  and 

whole; 
Nor  Arac,  satiate  with  his  victory. 

But  I  lay  still,  and  with  me  oft  she  sat : 
Then  came  a  change;    for  sometimes  I 

would  catch 
Her  hand  in  wild  delirium,  gripe  it  hard, 
And  fling  it  like  a  viper  off,  and  shriek 
'You  are  not  Ida;  '  clasp  it  once  again, 
And  call  her  Ida,  tho'  I  knew  her  not, 
And  call  her  sweet,  as  if  in  irony, 
And  call  her  hard  and  cold  which  seem'd 

a  truth : 
And  still  she  fear'd  that  I  should  lose  my 

mind, 
And  often  she  believed  that  I  should  die : 
Till  out  of  long  frustration  of  her  care, 
And  pensive  tendance  in  the  all-weary 

noons, 
And  watches  in  the  dead,  the  dark,  when 

clocks 
Throbb'd  thunder  thro'  the  palace  floors, 

or  call'd 
On   flying  Time    from    all    their    silver 

tongues  — 
And  out  of  memories  of  her  kindlier  days, 
And  sidelong  glances  at  my  father's  grief, 


THE  PRINCESS:   A   MEDLEY. 


207 


And  at  the  happy  lovers  heart  in  heart  — 
And  out  of  hauntings  of  my  spoken  love, 
And   lonely   listenings    to   my   mutter'd 

dream, 
And  often  feeling  of  the  helpless  hands, 
And  wordless  broodings  on  the  wasted 

cheek  — 
From  all  a  closer  interest  flourish'd  up, 
Tenderness  touch  by  touch,  and  last,  to 

these, 
Love,  like  an  Alpine  harebell  hung  with 

tears 
By  some  cold  morning  glacier;    frail  at 

first 
And  feeble,  all  unconscious  of  itself, 
But  such  as  gather'd  colour  day  by  day. 

Last  I  woke  sane,  but  well-nigh  close 

to  death 
For  weakness:    it  was  evening:    silent 

light 
Slept  on  the  painted  walls,  wherein  were 

wrought 
Two  grand  designs ;   for  on  one  side  arose 
The  women  up  in  wild  revolt,  and  storm'd 
At  the  Oppian  law.     Titanic  shapes,  they 

.  .cramm'd 
The  forum,  and  half-crush'd  among  the 

rest 
A  dwarf-like  Cato  cower'd.     On  the  other 

side 
Hortensia  spoke  against  the  tax;   behind, 
A  train  of  dames :  by  axe  and  eagle  sat, 
With  all  their  foreheads  drawn  in  Roman 

scowls, 
And  half  the  wolf's-milk  curdled  in  their 

veins, 
The  fierce  triumvirs;    and  before    them 

paused 
Hortensia  pleading :  angry  was  her  face. 

I  saw  the  forms :  I  knew  not  where  I 

was: 
They  did  but  look  like  hollow  shows; 

nor  more 
Sweet  Ida:    palm  to  palm  she  sat:    the 

dew 
Dwelt  in  her  eyes,  and  softer  all  her  shape 
And  rounder  seem'd :  I  moved  :  I  sigh'd : 

a  touch 
Came  round  my  wrist,  and  tears  upon  my 

hand : 
Then  all  for  languor  and  self-pity  ran 


Mine  down  my  face,  and  with  what  life  I 

had, 
And  like  a  flower  that  cannot  all  unfold, 
So  drench'd  it  is  with  tempest,  to  the  sun, 
Yet,  as  it  may,  turns  toward  him,  I  on  her 
Fixt  my  faint  eyes,  and  utter'd  whisper- 

ingly  : 

1  If  you  be,  what  I  think  you,  some 

sweet  dream, 
I  would  but  ask  you  to  fulfil  yourself: 
But  if  you  be  that  Ida  whom  I  knew, 
I  ask  you  nothing :  only,  if  a  dream, 
Sweet   dream,  be   perfect.     I   shall   die 

to-night. 
Stoop  down  and  seem  to  kiss  me  ere  I  die.' 

I  could  no  more,  but  lay  like  one  in 

trance, 
That  hears    his   burial   talk'd   of  by  his 

friends, 
And  cannot  speak,  nor  move,  nor  make 

one  sign, 
But  lies  and  dreads  his  doom.    She  turn'd ; 

she  paused; 
She  stoop'd;  and  out  of  languor  leapt  a 

cry; 
Leapt   fiery  Passion  from  the  brinks  of 

death; 
And  I  believed  that  in  the  living  world 
My  spirit  closed  with  Ida's  at  the  lips; 
Till  back  I  fell,  and  from  mine  arms  she 

rose 
Glowing  all  over  noble  shame;   and  all 
Her  falser  self  slipt  from  her  like  a  robe, 
And  left  her  woman,  lovelier  in  her  mood 
Than  in  her  mould  that  other,  when  she 

came 
From  barren  deeps  to  conquer  all  with 

love; 
And  down  the  streaming  crystal  dropt; 

and  she 
Far- fleeted  by  the  purple  island-sides, 
Naked,  a  double  light  in  air  and  wave, 
To  meet  her  Graces,  where  they  deck'd 

her  out 
For  worship  without  end ;  nor  end  of  mine, 
Stateliest,  for  thee !  but  mute  she  glided 

forth, 
Nor  glanced  behind  her,  and  I  sank  and 

slept, 
Fill'd  thro'  and  thro'  with  Love,  a  happy 

sleep. 


208 


THE  PRINCESS;   A   MEDLEY. 


Deep  in  the  night  I  woke :  she,  near 

me,  held 
A  volume  of  the  Poets  of  her  land : 
There  to  herself,  all  in  low  tones,  she 

read. 

'  Now  sleeps  the  crimson  petal,  now  the  white; 
Nor  waves  the  cypress  in  the  palace  walk; 
Nor  winks  the  gold  fin  in  the  porphyry  font: 
The  fire-fly  wakens:  waken  thou  with  me. 

Now  droops  the  milkwhite  peacock  like  a  ghost, 
And  like  a  ghost  she  glimmers  on  to  me. 

Now  lies  the  Earth  all  Danae  to  the  stars, 
And  all  thy  heart  lies  open  unto  me. 

Now  slides  the  silent  meteor  on,  and  leaves 
A  shining  furrow,  as  thy  thoughts  in  me. 

Now  folds  the  lily  ?11  her  sweetness  up, 
And  slips  into  the  bosom  of  the  lake: 
So  fold  thyself,  my  dearest,  thou,  and  slip 
Into  my  bosom  and  be  lost  in  me.' 

I  heard  her  turn  the  page;   she  found 
a  small 
Sweet  Idyl,  and  once  more,  as  low,  she 
read: 

'  Come  down,  O  maid,  from  yonder  mountain 
height: 
What  pleasure  lives  in  height  (the  shepherd  sang) 
In  height  and  cold,  the  splendour  of  the  hills? 
But  cease  to  move  so  near  the  Heavens,  and  cease 
To  glide  a  sunbeam  by  the  blasted  Pine, 
To  sit  a  star  upon  the  sparkling  spire; 
And  come,  for  Love  is  of  the  valley,  come, 
For  Love  is  of  the  valley,  come  thou  down 
And  find  him;  by  the  happy  threshold,  he, 
Or  tiand  in  hand  with  Plenty  in  the  maize, 
Or  red  with  spirted  purple  of  the  vats, 
Or  foxlike  in  the  vine;  nor  cares  to  walk 
With  Death  and  Morning  on  the  silver  horns, 
Nor  wilt  thou  snare  him  in  the  white  ravine, 
Nor  find  him  dropt  upon  the  firths  of  ice, 
That  huddling  slant  in  furrow-cloven  falls 
To  roll  the  torrent  out  of  dusky  doors : 
But  follow;  let  the  torrent  dance  thee  down 
To  find  him  in  the  valley;  let  the  wild 
Lean-headed  Eagles  yelp  alone,  and  leave 
The  monstrous  ledges  there  to  slope,  and  spill 
Their  thousand  wreaths  of  dangling  water-smoke, 
That  like  a  broken  purpose  waste  in  air: 
So  waste  not  thou;  but  come;   for  all  the  vales 
Await  thee;  azure  pillars  of  the  hearth 
Arise  to  thee;  the  children  call,  and  I 


Thy  shepherd  pipe,  and  sweet  is  every  sound, 
Sweeter  thy  voice,  but  every  sound  is  sweet; 
Myriads  of  rivulets  hurrying  thro'  the  lawn, 
The  moan  of  doves  in  immemorial  elms, 
And  murmuring  of  innumerable  bees.' 

So  she   low-toned;     while   with   shut 

eyes  I  lay 
Listening;   then  look'd.      Pale  was  the 

perfect  face; 
The  bosom  with  long  sighs  labour'd;  and 

meek 
Seem'd  the  full  lips,  and  mild  the  lumi- 
nous eyes, 
And  the  voice  trembled  and  the  hand. 

She  said 
Brokenly,  that  she  knew  it,  she  had  fail'd 
In  sweet  humility;   had  fail'd  in  all; 
That  all  her  labour  was  but  as  a  block 
Left  in  the  quarry;  but  she  still  were  loth, 
She  still  were  loth  to  yield  herself  to  one 
That  wholly  scorn'd  to  help  their  equal 

rights 
Against  the  sons  of  men,  and  barbarous 

laws. 
She  pray'd  me  not  to  judge  their  cause 

from  her 
That  wrong'd  it,  sought  far  less  for  truth 

than  power 
In  knowledge :    something  wild   within 

her  breast, 
A  greater  than  all  knowledge,  beat  her 

down. 
And  she  had  nursed  me  there  from  week 

to  week : 
Much  had  she  learnt  in  little  time.     In 

part 
It  was  ill  counsel  had  misled  the  girl 
To  vex  true  hearts :  yet  was  she  but  a 

girl  — 
'  Ah  fool,  and  made  myself  a  Queen  of 

farce ! 

When  comes  another  such  ?  never,  I  think, 

Till  the  Sun  drop,  dead,  from  the  signs.' 

Her  voice 

Choked,  and  her  forehead  sank  upon  her 

hands, 
And  her  great  heart  thro'  all  the  faultful 

Past 
Went  sorrowing  in  a  pause  I  dared  not 

break ; 
Till  notice  of  a  change  in  the  dark  world 
Was  lispt  about  the  acacias,  and  a  bird. 
That  early  woke  to  feed  her  little  ones, 


THE  PRINCESS;   A   MEDLEY. 


209 


Sent  from  a  dewy  breast  a  cry  for  light : 
She  moved,  and  at  her  feet  the  volume 
fell. 

'Blame  not  thyself  too  much,'  I  said, 

'  nor  blame 
Too  much  the  sons  of  men  and  barbarous 

laws; 
These  were  the  rough  ways  of  the  world 

till  now. 
Henceforth  thou  hast  a  helper,  me,  that 

know 
The  woman's  cause  is  man's :  they  rise 

or  sink 
Together,  dwarf 'd  or  godlike,  bond   or 

free: 
For  she  that  out  of  Lethe  scales  with 

man 
The  shining  steps  of  Nature,  shares  with 

man 
His  nights,  his  days,  moves  with  him  to 

one  goal, 
Stays   all  the  fair  young  planet  in  her 

hands  — 
If  she  be  small,  slight-natured,  miserable, 
How  shall  men  grow?  but  work  no  more 

alone ! 
Our  place  is  much :  as  far  as  in  us  lies 
We  two  will  serve  them  both  in  aiding 

her  — 
Will  clear  away  the  parasitic  forms 
That  seem  to  keep  her  up  but  drag  her 

down  — 
Will  leave  her  space  to  burgeon  out  of 

all 
Within  her  —  let  her  make  herself  her  own 
To  give  or  keep,  to  live  and  learn  and  be 
All  that  not  harms  distinctive  womanhood. 
For  woman  is  not  undevelopt  man, 
But  diverse :  could  we  make  her  as  the 

man, 
Sweet  Love  were  slain  :  his  dearest  bond 

is  this, 
Not  like  to  like,  but  like  in  difference. 
Yet  in  the  long  years  liker  must  they  grow; 
The  man  be  more  of  woman,  she  of  man; 
He  gain  in  sweetness  and  in  moral  height, 
Nor  lose  the  wrestling  thews  that  throw 

the  world; 
She  mental  breadth,  nor  fail  in  childward 

care, 
Nor  lose  the  childlike  in  the  larger  mind; 
Till  at  the  last  she  set  herself  to  man, 


Like  perfect  music  unto  noble  words; 

And  so  these  twain,  upon  the  skirts  of 
Time, 

Sit  side  by  side,  full-summ'd  in  all  their 
powers, 

Dispensing  harvest,  sowing  the  To-be, 

Self-reverent  each  and  reverencing  each, 

Distinct  in  individualities, 

But  like  each  other  ev'n  as  those  who  love. 

Then  comes  the  statelier  Eden  back  to 
men : 

Then   reign   the   world's   great    bridals, 
chaste  and  calm : 

Then  springs  the  crowning  race  of  human- 
kind. 

May  these  things  be  ! ' 

Sighing  she  spoke, '  I  fear 

They  will  not.' 

'  Dear,  but  let  us  type  them  now 

In  our  own  lives,  and  this  proud  watch- 
word rest 

Of  equal ;  seeing  either  sex  alone 

Is  half  itself,  and  in  true  marriage  lies 

Nor  equal,  nor  unequal :  each  fulfils 

Defect  in  each-,  and  always  thought  in 
thought, 

Purpose  in  purpose,  will  in   will,   they 
grow, 

The  single  pure  and  perfect  animal, 

The  two-cell'd  heart   beating,  with  one 
full  stroke, 

Life.' 

And  again  sighing  she  spoke  :    '  A  ■ 
dream 

That    once    was    mine !     what    woman 
taught  you  this  ? ' 

*  Alone,'  I  said,  *  from  earlier  than  I 

know, 
Immersed  in  rich  foreshadowings  of  the 

world, 
I  loved  the  woman :  he,  that  doth  not, 

lives 
A  drowning  life,  besotted  in  sweet  self, 
Or  pines  in  sad  experience  worse  than 

death, 
Or  keeps  his  wing'd  affections  dipt  with 

crime : 
Yet  was  there  one  thro'  whom  I  loved 

her,  one 
Not  learned,  save  in  gracious  household 

ways, 
Not  perfect,  nay,  but  full  of  tender  wants, 


THE   PRINCESS;  A   MEDLEY. 


No  Angel,  but  a  dearer  being,  all  dipt 
In  Angel  instincts,  breathing  Paradise, 
Interpreter  between  the  Gods  and  men, 
Who  look'd  all  native  to  her  place,  and 

yet 
On  tiptoe  seem'd  to  touch  upon  a  sphere 
Too  gross  to  tread,  and  all  male  minds 

perforce 
Sway'd  to  her  from  their  orbits  as  they 

moved, 
And  girdled  her  with  music.     Happy  he 
With  such  a  mother!   faith   in  woman- 
kind 
Beats  with   his  blood,  and   trust  in   all 

things  high 
Comes  easy  to  him,  and  tho'  he  trip  and 

fall 
He  shall  not  blind  his  soul  with  clay.' 

'Butl,' 
Said  Ida,  tremulously,  '  so  all  unlike  — 
It  seems  you  love  to  cheat  yourself  with 

words  : 
This   mother   is   your   model.       I   have 

heard 
Of  your  strange  doubts :  .they  well  might 

be :  I  seem 
A   mockery   to   my   own   self.      Never, 

Prince; 
You  cannot  love  me.' 

'  Nay  but  thee,'  I  said, 
1  From  yearlong  poring  on  thy  pictured 

eyes, 
Ere  seen  I  loved,  and  loved  thee  seen, 

and  saw 
Thee   woman  thro'  the    crust    of   iron 

moods 
That  mask'd  thee  from  men's  reverence 

up,  and  forced 
Sweet  love  on  pranks  of  saucy  boyhood : 

now, 
Giv'n  back  to  life,  to  life  indeed,  thro* 

thee, 
Indeed  I  love :  the  new  day  comes,  the 

light 
Dearer  for  night,  as  dearer  thou  for  faults 
Lived  over:  lift  thine  eyes;   my  doubts 

are  dead, 
My  haunting  sense  of  hollow  shows :  the 

change, 
This  truthful  change  in  thee  has  kill'd  it. 

Dear, 
Look   up,  and  let  thy  nature  strike  on 

mine, 


Like  yonder  morning  on  the  blind  half 

world ; 
Approach  and  fear   not;    breathe   upon 

my  brows; 
In  that  fine  air  I  tremble,  all  the  past 
Melts  mist-like  into  this  bright  hour,  and 

this 
Is  morn  to  more,  and  all  the  rich  to- 
come  • 
Reels,  as  the  golden  Autumn  woodland 

reels 
Athwart   the  smoke  of  burning  weeds. 

Forgive  me, 
I  waste  my  heart  in  signs :  let  be.      My 

bride, 
My  wife,  my  life.     O  we  will  walk  this 

world, 
Yoked  in  all  exercise  of  noble  end, 
And  so  thro'  those  dark  gates  across  the 

wild 
That   no  man   knows.      Indeed   I   love 

thee :  come, 
Yield  thyself  up :  my  hopes  and  thine 

are  one : 
Accomplish  thou  my  manhood  and  thy- 
self; 
Lay  thy  sweet  hands  in  mine  and  trust 

to  me.' 

CONCLUSION. 

So  closed  our  tale,  of  which  I  give  you 

all 
The  random  scheme  as  wildly  as  it  rose : 
The  words  are  mostly  mine;    for  when 

we  ceased 
There  came  a  minute's  pause,  and  Wal- 
ter said, 
'  I  wish  she  had  not  yielded ! '  then  to 

me, 
1  What,  if  you  drest  it  up  poetically ! ' 
So  pray'd  the  men,  the  women :  I  gave 

assent : 
Yet  how  to   bind  the  scatter'd  scheme 

of  seven 
Together    in   one  sheaf?      What  style 

could  suit? 
The  men   required   that  I   should   give 

throughout 
The  sort  of  mock-heroic  gigantesque, 
With  which  we  banter' d  little  Lilia  first: 
The    women  —  and    perhaps    they    felt 

their  power, 


THE  PRINCESS;   A  MEDLEY. 


211 


For  something  in  the  ballads  which  they 

sang, 
Or  in  their  silent  influence  as  they  sat, 
Had  ever   seem'd   to  wrestle  with   bur- 
lesque, 
And   drove   us,  last,  to  quite  a   solemn 

close  — 
They  hated  banter,  wish'd  for  something 

real, 
A  gallant  fight,  a  noble  princess  —  why 
Not   make    her    true-heroic  —  true-sub- 
lime ? 
Or  all,  they  said,  as  earnest  as  the  close? 
Which  yet  with  such  a  framework  scarce 

could  be. 
Then  rose  a  little  feud  betwixt  the  two, 
Betwixt  the  mockers  and  the  realists  : 
And   I,   betwixt    them   both,    to   please 

them  both, 
And  yet  to  give  the  story  as  it  rose, 
I  moved  as  in  a  strange  diagonal, 
And  maybe  neither  pleased  myself  nor 
them. 

But  Lilia  pleased  me,  for  she  took  no 

part 
In  our  dispute :  the  sequel  of  the  tale 
Had    touch'd   her ;     and    she    sat,   she 

pluck'd  the  grass, 
She   flung   it   from  her,  thinking :   last, 

she  fixt 
A  showery  glance  upon  her   aunt,  and 

said, 
*  You  —  tell  us  what  we  are,'  who  might 

have  told, 
For  she  was  cramm'd  with  theories  out 

of  books, 
But  that  there  rose  a  shout:    the  gates 

were  closed 
'At  sunset,  and  the  crowd  were  swarming 

now, 
To   take   their  leave,  about  the  garden 

rails. 

So  I  and  some  went  out  to  these :  we 

climb'd 
The   slope  to  Vivian-place,  and  turning 

saw 
The  happy  valleys,  half  in  light,  and  half 
Far-shadowing  from  the  west,  a  land  of 

peace; 
Gray  halls   alone   among   their   massive 

groves; 


Trim  hamlets;    here  and  there  a   rustic 

tower 
Half-lost  in  belts  of  hop  and  breadths  of 

wheat; 
The  shimmering   glimpses  of  a  stream; 

the  seas; 
A  red  sail,  or  a- white;   and  far  beyond, 
Imagined  more  than  seen,  the  skirts  of 

France. 

*  Look  there,  a  garden ! '  said  my  col- 
lege friend, 
The    Tory   member's    elder    son,   '  and 

there ! 
God  bless  the  narrow  sea  which   keeps 

her  off, 
And   keeps    our   Britain,    whole   within 

herself, 
A  nation  yet,  the  rulers  and  the  ruled  — 
Some  sense  of  duty,  something  of  a  faith, 
Some   reverence  for   the  laws  ourselves 

have  made, 
Some  patient  force  to  change  them  when 

we  will, 
Some    civic   manhood  firm   against   the 

crowd  — 
But  yonder,  whiff!  there  comes  a  sudden 

heat, 
The  gravest  citizen  seems  to  lose  his  head, 
The  king  is  scared,  the  soldier  will  not 

fight, 
The  little  boys  begin  to  shoot  and  stab, 
A  kingdom  topples  over  with  a  shriek 
Like  an  old  woman,  and  down  rolls  the 

world 
In  mock  heroics  stranger  than  our  own; 
Revolts,  republics,  revolutions,  most 
No  graver  than  a  schoolboys'  barring  out ; 
Too  comic  for  the  solemn  things  they  are, 
Too  solemn   for   the   comic   touches   in 

them, 
Like  our  wild   Princess  with  as  wise  a 

dream 
As  some  of  theirs  —  God  bless  the  narrow 

seas! 
I  wish  they  were  a  whole  Atlantic  broad.' 

'  Have  patience,'  I  replied,  '  ourselves 

are  full 
Of  social   wrong;     and    maybe   wildest 

dreams 
Are  but  the  needful  preludes  of  the  truth : 
For  me,  the  genial  day,  the  happy  crowd, 


ODE    ON   THE  DEATH   OF 


The  sport  half-science,  fill  me  with  a  faith. 
This  fine  old  world  of  ours  is  but  a  child 
Yet  in  the  go-cart.     Patience !  Give  it 

time 
To  learn  its  limbs :  there  is  a  hand  that 

guides.' 

In  such  discourse  we  gain'd  the  garden 

rails, 
And  there  we  saw  Sir  Walter  where  he 

stood. 
Before  a  tower  of  crimson  holly- oaks, 
Among  six  boys,  head  under  head,  and 

look'd 
No  little  lily-handed  Baronet  he, 
A  great  broad-shoulder'd  genial  English- 
man, 
A  lord  of  fat  prize-oxen  and  of  sheep, 
A  raiser  of  huge  melons  and  of  pine, 
A  patron  of  some  thirty  charities, 
A  pamphleteer  on  guano  and  on  grain, 
A  quarter-sessions  chairman,  abler  none; 
Fair-hair'd  and  redder  than  a  windy  morn; 
Now  shaking  hands  with  him,  now  him, 

of  those 
That  stood  the  nearest  —  now  address'd 

to  speech  — 
Who  spoke  few  words  and  pithy,  such  as 

closed 
Welcome,  farewell,  and  welcome  for  the 

year 
To  follow :  a  shout  rose  again,  and  made 
The  long  line  of  the  approaching  rookery 

swerve 
From  the  elms,  and  shook  the  branches 

of  the  deer 
From  slope  to  slope  thro'  distant  ferns, 

and  rang 
Beyond  the  bourn  of  sunset;   O,  a  shout 
More  joyful  than  the  city-roar  that  hails 
Premier  or  king !    Why  should  not  these 

great  Sirs 
Give  up  their  parks  some  dozen  times  a 

year 
To  let  the  people   breathe?    So   thrice 

they  cried, 
I  likewise,  and  in  groups  they  stream'd 

away. 

But  we  went  back  to  the  Abbey,  and 
sat  on, 
So  much  the  gathering  darkness  charm'd  : 
we  tat 


But  spoke  not,  rapt  in  nameless  reverie, 
Perchance    upon   the    future    man :    the 

walls 
Blacken'd  about   us,  bats  wheel'd,   and 

owls  whoop'd, 
And  gradually  the  powers  of  the  night, 
That  range  above  the  region  of  the  wind, 
Deepening  the  courts  of  twilight  broke 

them  up 
Thro'  all  the  silent  spaces  of  the  worlds, 
Beyond  all  thought  into  the  Heaven  of 

Heavens. 

Last  little  Lilia,  rising  quietly, 
Disrobed  the  glimmering  statue   of   Sir 

Ralph 
From  those   rich   silks,  and  home  well- 
pleased  we  went. 


ODE  ON  THE  DEATH  OF  THE 
DUKE  OF  WELLINGTON. 

PUBLISHED    IN    1852. 


Bury  the  Great  Duke 

With  an  empire's  lamentation, 
Let  us  bury  the  Great  Duke 

To  the  noise  of  the  mourning   of  a 
mighty  nation, 
Mourning  when  their  leaders  fall, 
Warriors  carry  the  warrior's  pall, 
And  sorrow  darkens  hamlet  and  hall. 


Where  shall,  we  lay  the  man  whom  we 

deplore? 
Here,    in    streaming    London's    central 

roar. 
Let  the  sound  of  those  he  wrought  for, 
And  the  feet  of  those  he  fought  for, 
Echo  round  his  bones  for  evermore. 

111. 

Lead  out  the  pageant :  sad  and  slow, 

As  fits  an  universal  woe, 

Let  the  long  long  procession  go, 

And  let  the   sorrowing   crowd  about  it 

grow, 
And  let  the  mournful  martial  music  blow; 
The  last  great  Englishman  is  low. 


THE  DUKE    OF   WELLINGTON. 


213 


Mourn,  for  to  us  he  seems  the  last, 
Remembering   all   his   greatness   in  the 

Past. 
No  more  in  soldier  fashion  will  he  greet 
With  lifted  hand  the  gazer  in  the  street. 
O  friends,  our  chief  state-oracle  is  mute  : 
Mourn    for    the    man  of  long-enduring 

blood, 
The  statesman-warrior,  moderate,   reso- 
lute, 
Whole  in  himself,  a  common  good. 
Mourn  for  the  man  of  amplest  influence, 
Yet  clearest  of  ambitious  crime, 
Our  greatest  yet  with  least  pretence, 
Great  in  council  and  great  in  war, 
Foremost  captain  of  his  time, 
Rich  in  saving  common-sense, 
And,  as  the  greatest  only  are, 
In  his  simplicity  sublime. 
O  good  gray  head  which  all  men  knew, 
O  voice  from  which  their  omens  all  men 

drew, 
O  iron  nerve  to  true  occasion  true, 
O  fall'n  at  length  that  tower  of  strength 
Which. stood  four-square  to  all  the  winds 

that  blew  ! 
Such  was  he  whom  we  deplore. 
The  long  self-sacrifice  of  life  is  o'er. 
The   great  World-victor's  victor  will  be 
seen  no  more. 


All  is  over  and  done : 
Render  thanks  to  the  Giver, 
England,  for  thy  son. 
Let  the  bell  be  toll'd. 
Render  thanks  to  the  Giver, 
And  render  him  to  the  mould. 
Under  the  cross  of  gold 
That  shines  over  city  and  river, 
There  he  shall  rest  for  ever 
Among  the  wise  and  the  bold. 
Let  the  bell  be  toll'd : 
And  a  reverent  people  behold 
The  towering  car,  the  sable  steeds: 
Bright  let  it  be  with  its  blazon'd  deeds, 
Dark  in  its  funeral  fold. 
Let  the  bell  be  toll'd  : 
And   a   deeper   knell    in   the   heart   be 
knoll'd; 


And  the  sound  of  the  sorrowing  anthem 

roll'd 
Thro'  the  dome  of  the  golden  cross; 
And   the  volleying   cannon  thunder  his 

loss; 
He  knew  their  voices  of  old. 
For  many  a  time  in  many  a  clime 
His  captain's-ear  has  heard  them  boom 
Bellowing  victory,  bellowing  doom : 
When  he  with  those  deep  voices  wrought, 
Guarding  realms  and  kings  from  shame; 
With  those  deep  voices  our  dead  captain 

taught 
The  tyrant,  and  asserts  his  claim 
In  that  dread  sound  to  the  great  name, 
Which  he  has  worn  so  pure  of  blame, 
In  praise  and  in  dispraise  the  same, 
A  man  of  well-temper'd  frame. 
O  civic  muse,  to  such  a  name, 
To  such  a  name  for  ages  long, 
To  such  a  name, 

Preserve  a  broad  approach  of  fame, 
And  ever-echoing  avenues  of  song. 

VI. 

Who  is  he  that  cometh,  like  an  honour'd 

guest, 
With  banner  and  with  music,  with  soldier 

and  with  priest, 
With  a  nation  weeping,  and  breaking  on 

my  rest? 
Mighty  Seaman,  this  is  he 
Was  great  by  land  as  thou  by  sea. 
Thine  island  loves  thee  well,  thou  famous 

man, 
The  greatest  sailor  since  our  world  began. 
Now,  to  the  roll  of  muffled  drums, 
To  thee  the  greatest  soldier  comes; 
For  this  is  he 

Was  great  by  land  as  thou  by  sea; 
His  foes  were  thine;   he  kept  us  free* 
O  give  him  welcome,  this  is  he 
Worthy  of  our  gorgeous  rites, 
And  worthy  to  be  laid  by  thee; 
For  this  is  England's  greatest  son, 
He  that  gain'd  a  hundred  fights, 
Nor  ever  lost  an  English  gun; 
This  is  he  that  far  away 
Against  the  myriads  of  Assaye 
Clash'd  with  his  fiery  few  and  won; 
And  underneath  another  sun, 
Warring  on  a  later  day, 


.(M~*-- 


214 


ODE    ON   THE  DEATH  OF 


Round  affrighted  Lisbon  drew 

The  treble  works,  the  vast  designs 

Of  his  labour'd  rampart-lines, 

Where  he  greatly  stood  at  bay, 

Whence  he  issued  forth  anew, 

And  ever  great  and  greater  grew, 

Beating  from  the  wasted  vines 

Back  to  France  her  banded  swarms, 

Back  to  France  with  countless  blows, 

Till  o'er  the  hills  her  eagles  flew 

Beyond  the  Pyrenean  pines, 

Follow'd  up  in  valley  and  glen 

With  blare  of  bugle,  clamour  of  men, 

Roll  of  cannon  and  clash  of  arms, 

And  England  pouring  on  her  foes. 

Such  a  war  had  such  a  close. 

Again  their  ravening  eagle  rose 

In  anger,  wheel'd  on  Europe-shadowing 

wings, 
And  barking  for  the  thrones  of  kings; 
Till   one   that   sought    but    Duty's   iron 

crown 
On  that  loud  sabbath  shook  the  spoiler 

down; 
A  day  of  onsets  of  despair ! 
Dash'd  on  every  rocky  square 
Their  surging  charges  foam'd  themselves 

away; 
Last,  the  Prussian  trumpet  blew; 
Thro'  the  long-tormented  air 
Heaven  fiash'd  a  sudden  jubilant  ray, 
And  down  we  swept   and  charged  and 

overthrew. 
So  great  a  soldier  taught  us  there, 
What  long-enduring  hearts  could  do 
In  that  world-earthquake,  Waterloo ! 
Mighty  Seaman,  tender  and  true, 
And  pure  as  he  from  taint  of  craven  guile, 
O  saviour  of  the  silver-coasted  isle, 
O  shaker  of  the  Balti:  and  the  Nile, 
If  aught  of  things  that  here  befall 
Touch  a  spirit  among  things  divine, 
If  love  of  country  move  thee  there  at  all, 
Be  glad,  because  hipbones  are  laid  by 

thine ! 
And  thro'  the  centuries  let   a  people's 

voice 
In  full  acclaim, 
A  people's  voice, 

The  proof  and  echo  of  all  human  fame, 
A  people's  voice,  when  they  rejoice 
At  civic  revel  and  pomp  and  game, 
Attest  their  great  commander's  claim 


With   honour,  honour,  honour,   honoui 

to  him, 
Eternal  honour  to  his  name. 

VII. 

A  people's  voice  !  we  are  a  people  yet. 
Tho'  all  men  else  their  nobler   dreams 

forget, 
Confused  by  brainless  mobs  and  lawless 

Powers; 
Thank    Him   who    isled    us    here,   and 

roughly  set 
His  Briton  in  blown  seas  and  storming 

showers, 
We  have  a  voice,  with  which  to  pay  the 

debt 
Of   boundless   love   and   reverence   and 

regret 
To  those   great   men   who   fought,  and 

kept  it  ours. 
And  keep  it  ours,  O   God,  from  brute 

control; 
O  Statesmen,  guard  us,  guard  the  eye, 

the  soul 
Of    Europe,    keep    our    noble    England 

whole, 
And  save  the  one  true  seed  of  freedom 

sown 
Betwixt    a    people    and    their    ancient 

throne, 
That  sober  freedom  out  of  which  there 

springs 
Our  loyal    passion    for    our    temperate 

kings; 
For,  saving  that,  ye  help  to  save  man- 
kind 
Till  public  wrong  be  crumbled  into  dust, 
And  drill  the  raw  world  for  the  march 

of  mind, 
Till  crowds  at  length  be  sane  and  crowns 

be  just. 
But  wink  no  more  in  slothful  overtrust. 
Remember  him  who  led  your  hosts; 
He  bade  you  guard  the  sacred  coasts. 
Your  cannons  moulder  on  the  seaward 

wall ; 
His  voice  is  silent  in  your  council-hall 
For  ever;   and  whatever  tempests  lour 
For  ever  silent;   even  if  they  broke 
In  thunder,  silent;   yet  remember  all 
He  spoke  among  you,  and  the  Man  who 

spoke; 


THE  DUKE    OF   WELLINGTON. 


215 


Who  never  sold  the  truth  to  serve  the 

hour, 
Nor  palter'd  with  Eternal  God  for  power; 
Who  let  the  turbid  streams  of  rumour 

flow 
Thro'  either  babbling  world  of  high  and 

low; 
Whose   life  was  work,  whose   language 

rife 
With  rugged  maxims  hewn  from  life; 
Who  never  spoke  against  a  foe; 
Whose    eighty  winters   freeze  with    one 

rebuke 
All  great  self-seekers  trampling  on  the 

right : 
Truth-teller   was   our   England's   Alfred 

named; 
Truth-lover  was  our  English  Duke; 
Whatever  record  leap  to  light 
He  never  shall  be  shamed. 


Lo,  the  leader  in  these  glorious  wars 
Now  to  glorious  burial  slowly  borne, 
Follow'd  by  the  brave  of  other  lands, 
He,  on  whom  from  both  her  open  hands 
Lavish  Honour  shower'd  all  her  stars, 
And   affluent   Fortune    emptied   all   her 

horn. 
Yea,  let  all  good  things  await 
Him  who  cares  not  to  be  great, 
But  as  he  saves  or  serves  the  state. 
Not  once  or  twice  in  our  rough  island- 
story, 
The  path  of  duty  was  the  way  to  glory : 
He  that  walks  it,  only  thirsting 
For  the  right,  and  learns  to  deaden 
Love  of  self,  before  his  journey  closes, 
He  shall  find  the  stubborn  thistle  burst- 
ing 
Into  glossy  purples,  which  outredden 
All  voluptuous  garden-roses. 
Not  once  or  twice  in  our  fair  island-story, 
The  path  of  duty  was  the  way  to  glory : 
He,  that  ever  following  her  commands, 
On  with  toil   of  heart  and   knees   and 

hands, 
Thro'  the  long  gorge  to  the  far  light  has 

won 
His  path  upward,  and  prevail'd, 
Shall  find  the   toppling  crags   of  Duty 
scaled 


Are  close  upon  the  shining  table-lands 
To  which  our  God  Himself  is  moon  and 

sun. 
Such  was  he :  his  work  is  done. 
But  while  the  races  of  mankind  endure, 
Let  his  great  example  stand 
Colossal,  seen  of  every  land, 
And  keep  the  soldier  firm,  the  statesman 

pure : 
Till  in  all  lands  and  thro'  all  human  story 
The  path  of  duty  be  the  way  to  glory : 
And  let  the  land  whose  hearths  he  saved 

from  shame 
For  many  and  many  an  age  proclaim 
At  civic  revel  and  pomp  and  game, 
And    when    the     long-illumined     cities 

flame, 
Their  ever-loyal  iron  leader's  fame, 
With  honour,  honour,  honour,  honour  to 

him, 
Eternal  honour  to  his  name. 


Peace,  his  triumph  will  be  sung 

By  some  yet  unmoulded  tongue 

Far  on  in  summers  that  we  shall  not  see  : 

Peace,  it  is  a  day  of  pain 

For  one  about  whose  patriarchal  knee 

Late  the  little  children  clung : 

O  peace,  it  is  a  day  of  pain 

For  one,  upon  whose  hand  and  heart  and 

brain 
Once  the  weight  and  fate  of  Europe  hung. 
Ours  the  pain,  be  his  the  gain ! 
More  than  is  of  man's  degree 
Must  be  with  us,  watching  here 
At  this,  our  great  solemnity. 
Whom  we  see  not  we  revere; 
We  revere,  and  we  refrain 
From  talk  of  battles  loud  and  vain, 
And  brawling  memories  all  too  free 
For  such  a  wise  humility 
As  befits  a  solemn  fane  : 
We  revere,  and  while  we  hear 
The  tides  of  Music's  golden  sea 
Setting  toward  eternity, 
Uplifted  high  in  heart  and  hope  are  we, 
Until  we  doubt  not  that  for  one  so  true 
There  must  be  other  nobler  work  to  do 
Than  when  he  fought  at  Waterloo, 
And  Victor  he  must  ever  be. 
For  tho'  the  Giant  Ages  heave  the  hill 


2l6 


THE    THIRD    OF  FEBRUARY,   1832. 


And  break  the  shore,  and  evermore 
Make  and  break,  and  work  their  will; 
Tho'  world  on  world  in  myriad  myriads 

roll 
Round  us,  each  with  different  powers, 
And  other  forms  of  life  than  ours, 
What  know  we  greater  than  the  soul? 
On  God  and  Godlike  men  we  build  our 

trust. 
Hush,  the  Dead  March  wails  in  the  peo- 
ple's ears : 
The  dark  crowd   moves,  and   there  are 

sobs  and  tears  : 
The    black    earth    yawns:     the    mortal 

disappears; 
Ashes  to  ashes,  dust  to  dust; 
He  is  gone  who  seem'd  so  great.  — 
Gone;   but  nothing  can  bereave  him 
Of  the  force  he  made  his  own 
Being  here,  and  we  believe  him 
Something  far  advanced  in  State, 
And  that  he  wears  a  truer  crown 
Than  any  wreath  that  man  can  weave 

him. 
Speak  no  more  of  his  renown, 
Lay  your  earthly  fancies  down, 
And  in  the  vast  cathedral  leave  him, 
God  accept  him,  Christ  receive  him. 

1852. 

THE  THIRD   OF  FEBRUARY, 

1852. 

My  Lords,  we  heard  you  speak :  you  told 

us  all 
That  England's  honest   censure  went 

too  far; 
That    our    free    press    should    cease    to 

brawl, 
Not  sting   the   fiery  Frenchman   into 

war. 
It  was  our  ancient  privilege,  my  Lords, 
To  fling  whate'er  we  felt,  not  fearing,  into 

words. 

We  love  not  this  French  God,  the  child 
of  Hell, 
Wild  War,  who  breaks  the  converse  of 
the  wise; 
But  though  we  love  kind  Peace  so  well, 
We  dare  not  ev'n  by  silence  sanction 
lies. 


It  might  be  safe  our  censures  to  with- 
draw; 

And  yet,  my  Lords,  not  well :  there  is  a 
higher  law. 

As  long  as  we  remain,  we  must  speak 

free, 
Tho'  all  the  storm  of  Euron  j  on  us 

break; 
No  little  German  state  are  we, 

But  the  one  voice  in  Europe  :  we  must 

speak; 
That  if  to-night  our  greatness  were  struck 

dead, 
There  might  be  left  some  record  of  the 

things  we  said. 

If  you  be  fearful,  then  must  we  be  bold. 
Our    Britain    cannot    salve    a    tyrant 
o'er. 

Better  the  waste  Atlantic  roll'd 

On    her   and    us  and   ours  for   ever- 
more. 

What !  have  we  fought  for  Freedom  from 
our  prime, 

At  last  to  dodge  and  palter  with  a  public 
crime? 

Shall  we  fear  him?  our  own  we  never 

fear'd. 
From   our   first   Charles  by   force  we 

wrung  our  claims. 
Prick'd  by  the  Papal  spur,  we  rear'd, 
We  flung  the  burthen  of  the  second 

James. 
I  say,  we  never  feared  !  and  as  for  these, 
We  broke  them  on  the  land,  we  drove 

them  on  the  seas. 

And  you,  my  Lords,  you  make  the  people 
muse 
In  doubt  if  you  be  of  our  Barons'  breed — 
Were   those   your   sires  who   fought  at 
Lewes? 
Is  this  the  manly  strain  of  Runnymede? 
O  fall'n  nobility,  that,  overawed, 
Would  lisp  in  honey'd  whispers  of  this 
monstrous  fraud ! 

We  feel,  at  least,  that  silence  here  were 
sin, 
Not  ours  the  fault  if  we  have    feeble 
hosts  — 


THE    CHARGE    OF   THE  LIGHT  BRIGADE. 


217 


If  easy  patrons  of  their  kin 

Have  left  the  last  free  race  with  naked 

coasts ! 
They  knew  the  precious  things  they  had 

to  guard : 
For  us,  we  will  not  spare  the  tyrant  one 

hard  word. 

Tho'  niggard  throats  of  Manchester  may 

bawl, 
What  England  was,  shall  her  true  sons 

forget? 
We  are  not  cotton-spinners  all, 

But  some  love  England  and  her  honour 

yet. 
And    these    in    our    Thermopylae    shall 

stand, 
And  hold  against  the  world  this  honour 

of  the  land. 


THE  CHARGE  OF  THE  LIGHT 
BRIGADE. 


Half  a  league,  half  a  league, 
Half  a  league  onward, 

All  in  the  valley  of  Death 
Rode  the  six  hundred. 

1  Forward,  the  Light  Brigade ! 

Charge  for  the  guns ! '  he  said  : 

Into  the  valley  of  Death 
Rode  the  six  hundred. 

II. 

'  Forward,  the  Light  Brigade ! ' 
Was  there  a  man  dismay'd? 
Not  tho'  the  soldier  knew 

Some  one  had  blunder'd : 
Theirs  not  to  make  reply, 
Theirs  not  to  reason  why, 
Theirs  but  to  do  and  die : 
Into  the  valley  of  Death 

Rode  the  six  hundred. 

ill. 

Cannon  to  right  of  them, 
Cannon  to  left  of  them, 
Cannon  in  front  of  them 

Volley'd  and  thunder'd; 
Storm'd  at  with  shot  and  shell, 
Boldly  they  rode  and  well, 


Into  the  jaws  of  Death, 
Into  the  mouth  of  Hell 
Rode  the  six  hundred. 


Flash'd  all  their  sabres  bare, 
Flash'd  as  they  turn'd  in  air 
Sabring  the  gunners  there, 
Charging  an  army,  while 

All  the  world  wonder'd : 
Plunged  in  the  battery-smoke 
Right  thro'  the  line  they  broke; 
Cossack  and  Russian 
Reel'd  from  the  sabre-stroke 

Shatter'd  and  sunder'd. 
Then  they  rode  back,  but  not  — 

Not  the  six  hundred. 

v. 

Cannon  to  right  of  them, 
Cannon  to  left  of  them, 
Cannon  behind  them 

Volley'd  and  thunder'd; 
Storm'd  at  with  shot  and  shell, 
While  horse  and  hero  fell, 
They  that  had  fought  so  well 
Came  thro'  the  jaws  of  Death, 
Back  from  the  mouth  of  Hell, 
All  that  was  left  of  them, 

Left  of  six  hundred. 


When  can  their  glory  fade? 
O  the  wild  charge  they  made  ! 

All  the  world  wonder'd. 
Honour  the  charge  they  made  ! 
Honour  the  Light  Brigade, 

Noble  six  hundred ! 


ODE  SUNG  AT  THE  OPENING 
OF  THE  INTERNATIONAL  EX- 
HIBITION. 

Uplift  a  thousand  voices  full  and  sweet, 
In  this  wide  hall  with  earth's  invention 

stored, 
And    praise    the    invisible    universa: 
Lord, 
Who  lets  once  more  in  peace  the  nations 
meet, 


2l8 


A    WELCOME    TO  ALEXANDRA. 


Where  Science,  Art,  and  Labour  have 
outpour'd 
Their  myriad  horns  of  plenty  at  our  feet. 


ii. 


O  silent  father  of  our  Kings  to  be 
Mourn'd  in  this  golden  hour  of  jubilee, 
For  this,  for  all,  we  weep  our  thanks  to 
thee! 

in. 

The  world-compelling  plan  was  thine, — 

And,  lo  !  the  long  laborious  miles 

Of  Palace;   lo!  the  giant  aisles, 

Rich  in  model  and  design; 

Harvest-tool  and  husbandry, 

Loom  and  wheel  and  enginery, 

Secrets  of  the  sullen  mine, 

Steel  and  gold,  and  corn  and  wine, 

Fabric  rough,  or  fairy-fine, 

Sunny  tokens  of  the  Line, 

Polar  marvels,  and  a  feast 

Of  wonder,  out  of  West  and  East, 

And  shapes  and  hues  of  Art  divine ! 

All  of  beauty,  all  of  use, 

That  one  fair  planet  can  produce, 

Brought  from  under  every  star, 
Blown  from  over  every  main, 
And  mixt,  as  life  is  mixt  with  pain, 

The  works  of  peace  with  works  of  war. 

IV. 

Is  the  goal  so  far  away? 

Far,  how  far  no  tongue  can  say, 

Let  us  dream  our  dream  to-day. 

v. 

O  ye,  the  wise  who  think,  the  wise  who 

reign, 
From  growing  commerce  loose  her  latest 

chain, 
And  let  the  fair  white-wing'd  peacemaker 

fly 
To  happy  havens  under  all  the  sky, 
And  mix  the   seasons   and  the  golden 

hours; 
Till  each  man  find  his  own  in  all  men's 

good, 
And  all  men  work  in  noble  brotherhood, 
Breaking  their  mailed  fleets  and  armed 

towers, 


And  ruling  by  obeying  Nature's  powers, 
And  gathering  all  the  fruits  of  earth  and 
crown'd  with  all  her  flowers. 


A   WELCOME  TO  ALEXANDRA. 

MARCH.  7,     1863. 

Sea-kings'  daughter  from  over  the  sea, 
Alexandra ! 
Saxon  and  Norman  and  Dane  are  we, 
But  all  of  us  Danes  in  our  welcome  of 

thee,  Alexandra ! 

Welcome  her,  thunders  of  fort  and  of  fleet ! 
Welcome  her,  thundering  cheer  of  the 

street ! 
Welcome   her,  all  things   youthful  and 

sweet, 
Scatter  the  blossom  under  her  feet ! 
Break,  happy  land,  into  earlier  flowers ! 
Make  music,  O  bird,  in  the  new-budded 

bowers ! 
Blazon    your  mottoes   of   blessing  and 

prayer ! 
Welcome  her,  welcome  her,  all  that  is 

ours ! 
Warble,  O  bugle,  and  trumpet,  blare ! 
Flags,  flutter  out  upon  turrets  and  towers ! 
Flames,  on  the  windy  headland  flare ! 
Utter  your  jubilee,  steeple  and  spire ! 
Clash,  ye  bells,  in  the  merry  March  air ! 
Flash,  ye  cities,  in  rivers  of  fire ! 
Rush   to   the   roof,  sudden  rocket,  and 

higher 
Melt  into  stars  for  the  land's  desire ! 
Roll  and  rejoice,  jubilant  voice, 
Roll   as   a  ground-swell  dash'd  on  the 

strand, 
Roar  as  the  sea  when  he  welcomes  the 

land, 
And  welcome  her,  welcome  the  land's 

desire, 
The  sea-kings'  daughter  as  happy  as  fair, 
Blissful  bride  of  a  blissful  heir, 
Bride  of  the  heir  of  the  kings  of  the 

sea  — 
O  joy  to  the  people  and  joy  to  the  throne, 
Come  to  us,  love  us  and  make  us  your 

own: 
For  Saxon  or  Dane  or  Norman  we, 
Teuton  or  Celt,  or  whatever  we  be, 
We  are  each  all  Dane  in  our  welcome  of 

thee,  Alexandra/ 


A    WELCOME    TO  ALEXANDROVNA. 


219 


A  WELCOME  TO  HER  ROYAL 
HIGHNESS  MARIE  ALEXAN- 
DROVNA, DUCHESS  OF  EDIN- 
BURGH. 

MARCH   7,    1874. 

I. 

The  Son  of  him  with  whom  we  strove 
for  power  — 
Whose  will  is  lord  thro'  all  his  world- 
domain  — 
Who  made  the  serf  a  man,  and  burst 
his  chain  — 
Has  given  our  Prince  his  own  imperial 
Flower, 

Alexandrovna. 
And  welcome,  Russian  flower,  a  people's 
pride, 
To  Britain,  when  her  flawers  begin  to 

blow ! 
From  love  to  love,  from  home  to  home 
you  go, 
From  mother  unto  mother,  stately  bride, 
Marie  Alexandrovna ! 

11. 

The  golden  news  along  the  steppes  is 
blown, 
And  at  thy  name  the  Tartar  tents  are 

stirr'd ; 
Elburz    and    all    the    Caucasus  have 
heard; 
And  all  the  sultry  palms  of  India  known, 

Alexandrovna. 
The  voices  of  our  universal  sea 

On  capes  of  Afric  as  on  cliffs  of  Kent, 
The  Maoris  and  that  Isle  of  Continent, 
And  loyal  pines  of  Canada  murmur  thee, 
Marie  Alexandrovna ! 

III. 

Fair  empires  branching,  both,  in  lusty 

life !  — 
Yet  Harold's  England  fell  to  Norman 

swords; 
Yet    thine    own   land   has  bow'd  to 

Tartar  hordes 


Since  English  Harold  gave  its  throne  a 
wife, 

Alexandrovna ! 
For  thrones  and  peoples  are  as  waifs  that 
swing, 
And  float  or  fall,  in  endless  ebb  and 

flow; 
But  who  love  best  have  best  the  grace 
to  know 
That  Love  by  right  divine  is  deathless 
king, 

Marie  Alexandrovna ! 

IV. 

And  Love  has  led  thee  to  the  stranger 
land, 
Where  men  are  bold  and  strongly  say 

their  say;  — 
See,   empire    upon    empire  smiles  to- 
day, 
As  thou  with  thy  young  lover  hand  in 
hand 

Alexandrovna ! 
So  now  thy  fuller  life  is  in  the  west, 
Whose  hand  at  home  was  gracious  to 

thy  poor: 
Thy  name  was  blest  within  the  narrow 
door; 
Here  also  Marie,  shall  thy  name  be  blest, 
Marie  Alexandrovna ! 

V. 

Shall  fears   and   jealous    hatreds    flame 
again  ? 
Or  at    thy   coming,   Princess,   every- 
where, 
The   blue   heaven    break,   and    some 
diviner  air 
Breathe  thro'  the  world  and  change  the 
hearts  of  men, 

Alexandrovna? 
But   hearts   that   change  not,  love   that 
cannot  cease, 
And  peace  be  yours,  the  peace  of  soul 

in  soul ! 
And  howsoever  this  wild  world  may  roll, 
Between  your  peoples  truth  and  manful 
peace, 

Alfred  —  Alexandrovna ! 


THE    GRANDMOTHER. 


THE  GRANDMOTHER. 


And  Willy,  my  eldest-born,  is  gone,  you  say,  little  Anne? 
Ruddy  and  white,  and  strong  on  his  legs,  he  looks  like  a  man. 
And  Willy's  wife  has  written :  she  never  was  over-wise, 
Never  the  wife  for  Willy :  he  wouldn't  take  my  advice. 


For,  Annie,  you  see,  her  father  was  not  the  man  to  save, 
Hadn't  a  head  to  manage,  and  drank  himself  into  his  grave. 
Pretty  enough,  very  pretty !  but  I  was  against  it  for  one. 
Eh!  —  but  he  wouldn't  hear  me  —  and  Willy,  you  say,  is  gone. 

III. 

Willy,  my  beauty,  my  eldest-born,  the  flower  of  the  flock ; 

Never  a  man  could  fling  him :  for  Willy  stood  like  a  rock. 

'  Here's  a  leg  for  a  babe  of  a  week !  •  says  doctor;   and  he  would  be  bound, 

There  was  not  his  like  that  year  in  twenty  parishes  rbund. 


Strong  of  his  hands,  and  strong  on  his  legs,  but  still  of  his  tongue ! 
I  ought  to  have  gone  before  him :   I  wonder  he  went  so  young. 
I  cannot  cry  for  him,  Annie :  I  have  not  long  to  stay; 
Perhaps  I  shall  see  him  the  sooner,  for  he  lived  far  away. 


Why  do  you  look  at  me,  Annie?  you  think  I  am  hard  and  cold; 
But  all  my  children  have  gone  before  me,  I  am  so  old : 
I  cannot  weep  for  Willy,  nor  can  I  weep  for  the  rest; 
Only  at  your  age,  Annie,  I  could  have  wept  with  the  best. 

VI. 

For  I  remember  a  quarrel  I  had  with  your  father,  my  dear, 
All  for  a  slanderous  story,  that  cost  me  many  a  tear. 
I  mean  your  grandfather,  Annie :  it  cost  me  a  world  of  woe, 
Seventy  years  ago,  my  darling,  seventy  years  ago. 


For  Jenny,  my  cousin,  had  come  to  the  place,  and  I  knew  right  well 
That  Jenny  had  tript  in  her  time :  I  knew,  but  I  would  not  tell. 
And  she  to  be  coming  and  slandering  me,  the  base  little  liar ! 
But  the  tongue  is  a  fire  as  you  know,  my  dear,  the  tongue  is  a  fire. 

VIII. 

And  the  parson  made  it  his  text  that  week,  and  he  said  likewise, 
That  a  lie  which  is  half  a  truth  is  ever  the  blackest  of  lies, 
That  a  lie  which  is  all  a  lie  may  be  met  and  fought  with  outright, 
But  a  lie  which  is  part  a  truth  is  a  harder  matter  to  fight. 


THE    GRANDMOTHER. 


IX. 


And  Willy  had  not  been  down  to  the  farm  for  a  week  and  a  day; 
And  all  things  look'd  baif-dead,  tho'  it  was  the  middle  of  May. 
Jenny,  to  slander  me,  who  knew  what  Jenny  had  been ! 
But  soiling  another,  Annie,  will  never  make  oneself  clean. 


And  I  cried  myself  well-nigh  blind,  and  all  of  an  evening  late 

I  climb'd  to  the  top  of  the  garth,  and  stood  by  the  road  at  the  gate. 

The  moon  like  a  rick  on  fire  was  rising  over  the  dale, 

And  whit,  whit,  whit,  in  the  bush  beside  me  chirrupt  the  nightingale. 

XI. 

All  of  a  sudden  he  stopt :  there  past  by  the  gate  of  the  farm, 
Willy,  —  he  didn't  see  me,  —  and  Jenny  hung  on  his  arm. 
Out  into  the  road  I  started,  and  spoke  I  scarce  knew  how; 
Ah,  there's  no  fool  like  the  old  one  —  it  makes  me  angry  now. 

XII. 

Willy  stood  up  like  a  man,  and  look'd  the  thing  that  he  meant; 
Jenny,  the  viper,  made  me  a  mocking  curtsey  and  went. 
And  I  said,  '  Let  us  part :  in  a  hundred  years  it'll  all  be  the  same, 
You  cannot  love  me  at  all,  if  you  love  not  my  good  name.' 

XIII. 

And  he  turn'd,  and  I  saw  his  eyes  all  wet,  in  the  sweet  moonshine : 
'  Sweetheart,  I  love  you  so  well  that  your  good  name  is  mine. 
And  what  do  I  care  for  Jane,  let  her  speak  of  you  well  or  ill; 
But  marry  me  out  of  hand :  we  two  shall  be  happy  still.' 

XIV. 

•  Marry  you,  Willy ! '  said  I,  '  but  I  needs  must  speak  my  mind, 
And  I  fear  you'll  listen  to  tales,  be  jealous  and  hard  and  unkind.' 
But  he  turn'd  and  claspt  me  in  his  arms,  and  answer'd,  '  No,  love,  no;  ' 
Seventy  years  ago,  my  darling,  seventy  years  ago. 

xv. 

So  Willy  and  I  were  wedded :  I  wore  a  lilac  gown; 
And  the  ringers  rang  with  a  will,  and  he  gave  the  ringers  a  crown. 
But  the  first  that  ever  I  bare  was  dead  before  he  was  born, 
Shadow  and  shine  is  life,  little  Annie,  flower  and  thorn. 

XVI. 

That  was  the  first  time,  too,  that  ever  I  thought  of  death. 

There  lay  the  sweet  little  body  that  never  had  drawn  a  breath. 

I  had  not  wept,  little  Anne,  not  since  I  had  been  a  wife; 

But  I  wept  like  a  child  that  day,  for  the  babe  had  fought  for  his  life. 


THE    GRANDMOTHER. 


XVII. 


His  dear  little  face  was  troubled,  as  if  with  anger  or  pain : 

I  look'd  at  the  still  little  body  —  his  trouble  had  all  been  in  vain. 

For  Willy  I  cannot  weep,  I  shall  see  him  another  morn : 

But  I  wept  like  a  child  for  the  child  that  was  dead  before  he  was  born. 


XVIII. 

But  he  cheer'd  me,  my  good  man,  for  he  seldom  said  me  nay : 
Kind,  like  a  man,  was  he;   like  a  man,  too,  would  have  his  way : 
Never  jealous  —  not  he :  we  had  many  a  happy  year; 
And  he  died,  and  I  could  not  weep  —  my  own  time  seem'd  so  near. 

XIX. 

But  I  wish'd  it  had  been  God's  will  that  I,  too,  then  could  have  died 
I  began  to  be  tired  a  little,  and  fain  had  slept  at  his  side. 
And  that  was  ten  years  back,  or  more,  if  I  don't  forget : 
But  as  to  the  children,  Annie,  they're  all  about  me  yet. 

XX. 

/  Pattering  over  the  boards,  my  Annie  who  left  me  at  two, 
Patter  she  goes,  my  own  little  Annie,  an  Annie  like  you : 
Pattering  over  the  boards,  she  comes  and  goes  at  her  will, 
While  Harry  is  in  the  five-acre  and  Charlie  ploughing  the  hill. 


And  Harry  and  Charlie,  I  hear  them  too  —  they  sing  to  their  team  I 
Often  they  come  to  the  door  in  a  pleasant  kind  of  a  dream. 
They  come  and  sit  by  my  chair,  they  hover  about  my  bed  — 
I  am  not  always  certain  if  they  be  alive  or  dead. 

XXII. 

And  yet  I  know  for  a  truth,  there's  none  of  them  left  alive; 
For  Harry  went  at  sixty,  your  father  at  sixty-five : 
And  Willy,  my  eldest-born,  at  nigh  threescore  and  ten; 
I  knew  them  all  as  babies,  and  now  they're  elderly  men. 

XXIII. 

For  mine  is  a  time  of  peace,  it  is  not  often  I  grieve; 
I  am  oftener  sitting  at  home  in  my  father's  farm  at  eve: 
And  the  neighbours  come  and  laugh  and  gossip,  and  so  do  I; 
I  find  myself  often  laughing  at  things  that  have  long  gone  by. 


To  be  sure  the  preacher  says,  our  sins  should  make  us  sad : 
But  mine  is  a  time  of  peace,  and  there  is  Grace  to  be  had; 
And  God,  not  man,  is  the  Judge  of  us  all  when  life  shall  cease; 
And  in  this  Book,  little  Annie,  the  message  is  one  of  Peace. 


NORTHERN  FARMER.  223 


xxv. 


And  age  is  a  time  of  peace,  so  it  be  free  from  pain, 
And  happy  has  been  my  life;   but  I  would  not  live  it  again. 
I  seem  to  be  tired  a  little,  that's  all,  and  long  for  rest; 
Only  at  your  age,  Annie,  I  could  have  wept  with  the  best. 


XXVI. 


So  Willy  has  gone,  my  beauty,  my  eldest-born,  my  flower; 
But  how  can  I  weep  for  Willy,  he  has  but  gone  for  an  hour,  — 
Gone  for  a  minute,  my  son,  from  this  room  into  the  next; 
I,  too,  shall  go  in  a  minute.     What  time  have  I.  to  be  vext? 


XXVII. 


And  Willy's  wife  has  written,  she  never  was  over-wise. 

Get  me  my  glasses,  Annie  :  thank  God  that  I  keep  my  eyes. 

There  is  but  a  trifle  left  you,  when  I  shall  have  past  away. 

But  stay  with  the  old  woman  now :  you  cannot  have  long  to  stay. 


NORTHERN  FARMER. 

OLD   STYLE. 


Wheer  'asta  bean  saw  long  and  mea  liggin'  'ere  aloan? 

Noorse  ?  thourt  nowt  o'  a  noorse :  whoy,  Doctor's  abean  an'  agoan  j 

Says  that  I  moant  'a  naw  moor  aale :  but  I  beant  a  fool : 

Git  ma  my  aale,  fur  I  beant  a-gawin'  to  break  my  rule. 


Doctors,  they  knaws  nowt,  fur  a  says  what's  nawways  true ; 
Naw  soort  o'  koind  o'  use  to  saay  the  things  that  a  do. 
I've  'ed  my  point  o'  aale  ivry  noight  sin'  I  bean  'ere. 
An'  I've  'ed  my  quart  ivry  market-noight  for  foorty  year. 


Parson's  a  bean  loikewoise,  an'  a  sittin'  'ere  o'  my  bed. 

1  The  amoighty's  a  taakin  o'  you  *  to  'issen,  my  friend,'  a  said, 

An'  a  towd  ma  my  sins,  an's  toithe  were  due,  an'  I  gied  it  in  hond; 

I  done  moy  duty  boy  'um,  as  I  'a  done  boy  the  lond. 


Larn'd  a  ma'  bea.     I  reckons  I  'annot  sa  mooch  to  larn. 

But  a  cast  oop,  thot  a  did,  'bout  Bessy  Marris's  barne. 

Thaw  a  knaws  I  hallus  voated  wi'  Squoire  an'  choorch  an'  staate, 

An'  i'  the  woost  o'  toimes  I  wur  niver  agin  the  raate. 

1  ou  as  in  hour. 


224  NORTHERN  FARMER. 


An'  I  hallus  coom'd  to  's  chooch  afoor  moy  Sally  wur  dead, 
An'  'eard  'urn  a  bummin'  awaay  loike  a  buzzard-clock x  ower  my  'ead, 
An'  1  niver  knaw'd  whot  a  mean'd  but  I  thowt  a  'ad  summut  to  saay, 
An'  I  thowt  a  said  whot  a  owt  to  'a  said  an'  I  coom'd  awaay. 


Bessy  Marris's  barne  !   tha  knaws  she  laaid  it  to  mea. 
Mowt  a  bean,  mayhap,  for  she  wur  a  bad  un,  shea. 
'Siver,  I  kep  'urn,  I  kep  'urn  my  lass,  tha  mun  understond; 
I  done  moy  duty  boy  'um  as  I  'a  done  boy  the  lond. 


But  Parson  a  cooms  an'  a  goas,  an'  a  says  it  easy  an'  freea 

•The  amoighty's'a  taakin  o'  you  to  'issen,  my  friend,'  says  'ea. 

I  weant  saay  men  be  loiars,  thaw  summun  said  it  in  'aaste : 

But  'e  reads  wonn  sarmin  a  weeak,  an'  I  'a  stubb'd  Thurnaby/waaste. 


D'ya  moind  the  waaste,  my  lass?  naw,  naw,  tha  was  not  born  then; 

Theer  wur  a  boggle  in  it,  I  often  'eard  'um  mysen; 

Moast  loike  a  butter-bump,2  fur  I  'eard  'um  about  an'  about, 

But  I  stubb'd  'um  oop  wi'  the  lot,  an'  raaved  an'  rembled  'um  out. 

IX. 

Keaper's  it  wur;   fo'  they  fun  'um  theer  a-laaid  of  'is  faace 
Down  i'  the  woild  'enemies  3  afoor  I  coom'd  to  the  plaace. 
Noaks  or  Thimbleby  —  toaner  4  'ed  shot  'um  as  dead  as  a  naail. 
Noaks  wur  'ang'd  for  it  oop  at  'soize  —  but  git  ma  my  aale. 


Dubbut  loook  at  the  waaste:    theer  warn't  not  feead  for  a  cow; 
Nowt  at  all  but  bracken  an'  fuzz,  an'  loook  at  it  now  — 
Warnt  worth  nowt  a  haacre,  an'  now  theer's  lots  o'  feead, 
Fourscoor  8  yows  upon  it  an'  some  on  it  down  i'  seead.6 

XI. 

Nobbut  a  bit  on  it's  left,  an'  I  mean'd  to  'a  stubb'd  it  at  fall, 

Done  it  ta-year  I  mean'd,  an'  runn'd  plow  thruff  it  an'  all, 

If  godamoighty  an'  parson  'ud  nobbut  let  ma  aloan, 

Mea,  wi'  haate  hoonderd  haacre  o'  Squoire's,  an'  lond  o'  my  oan. 

XII. 

Do  godamoighty  knaw  what  a's  doing  a-taakin'  o'  mea? 

I  beant  wonn  as  saws  'ere  a  bean  an'  yonder  a  pea; 

An'  Squoire  'ull  be  sa  mad  an'  all  —  a'  dear  a'  dear ! 

And  I  'a  managed  for  Squoire  coom  Michaelmas  thutty  year. 

Cockchafer.  a  Bittern.  8  Anemones.  *  One  or  other.  5  ou  as  in  hour.  6  Clover. 


NORTHERN  FARMER.  225 


A  mowt  'a  taaen  owd  Joanes,  as  'ant  not  a  'aapoth  o'  sense, 
Or  a  mowt  'a  taaen  young  Robins  — a  niver  mended  a  fence : 
But  godamoighty  a  moost  taake  mea  an'  taake  ma  now 
Wi'  aaf  the  cows  to  cauve  an'  Thurnaby  hoalms  to  plow ! 

XIV. 

Loook  'ow  quoloty  smoiles  when  they  seeas  ma  a  passin'  boy, 
Says  to  thessen  naw  doubt  '  what  a  man  a  bea  sewer-loy ! ' 
Fur  they  knaws  what  I  bean  to  Squoire  sin  fust  a  coom'd  to  the  'All; 
I  done  moy  duty  by  Squoire  an'  I  done  moy  duty  boy  hall. 


Squoire's  i'  Lunnon,  an'  summun  I  reckons  'ull  'a  to  wroite, 
For  whoa's  to  howd  the  lond  ater  mea  thot  muddles  ma  quoit; 
Sartin-sewer  I  bea,  thot  a  weant  niver  give  it  to  Joanes, 
Naw,  nor  a  moant  to  Robins  —  a  niver  rembles  the  stoans. 

XVI. 

But  summun  'ull  come  ater  mea  mayhap  wi'  'is  kittle  o'  steam 
Huzzin'  an'  maazin'  the  blessed  fealds  wi'  the  Divil's  oan  team. 
Sin'  I  mun  doy  I  mun  doy,  thaw  loife  they  says  is  sweet, 
But  sin'  I  mun  doy  I  mun  doy,  for  I  couldn  abear  to  see  it. 

XVII. 

What  atta  stannin'  theer  fur,  an'  doesn  bring  ma  the  aale? 
Doctor's  a  'toattler,  lass,  an  a's  hallus  i'  the  owd  taale ; 
I  weant  break  rules  fur  Doctor,  a  knaws  naw  moor  nor  a  fioy; 
Git  ma  my  aale  I  tell  tha,  an'  if  I  mun  doy  I  mun  doy. 


NORTHERN   FARMER. 

NEW   STYLE. 


Dosn't  thou  'ear  my  'erse's  legs,  as  they  canters  awaay? 
Proputty,  proputty,  proputty  —  that's  what  I  'ears  'em  saay. 
Proputty,  proputty,  proputty  —  Sam,  thou's  an  ass  for  thy  paalns: 
Theer's  moor  sense  i'  one  o'  'is  legs  nor  in  all  thy  braalns. 

11. 

Woa  — theer's  a  craw  to  pluck  wi'  tha,  Sam:  yon's  parson's  'ouse- 
Dosn't  thou  knaw  that  a  man  mun  be  eather  a  man  or  a  mouse? 
Time  to  think  on  it  then;   for  thou'll  be  twenty  to  weeak.1 
Proputty,  proputty  — woa  then  woa  —  let  ma  'ear  mysen  speak. 

1  This  week. 


226  NORTHERN  FARMER. 


m. 


Me  an'  thy  muther,  Sammy,  'as  bean  a-talkin'  o'  thee; 
Thou's  bean  talkin'  to  muther,  an'  she  bean  a  tellin'  it  me. 
Thou'll  not  marry  for  munny  —  thou's  sweet  upo'  parson's  lass  — 
Noa  —  thou'll  marry  for  luvv  —  an'  we  boath  on  us  thinks  tha  an  ass. 


IV. 


Seea'd  her  todaay  goa  by  —  Saaint's-daay  —  they  was  ringing  the  bells 
She's  a  beauty  thou  thinks  —  an'  soa  is  scoors  o'  gells, 
Them  as  'as  munny  an'  all  —  wot's  a  beauty? —  the  flower  as  blaws. 
But  proputty,  proputty  sticks,  an'  proputty,  proputty  graws. 


v. 


Do'ant  be  stunt : *  taake  time  :  I  knaws  what  maakes  tha  sa^mai 
Warn't  I  craazed  fur  the  lasses  mysen  when  I  wur  a  lad?     / 
But  I  knaw'd  a  Quaaker  feller  as  often  'as  towd  ma  this : 
'  Doant  thou  marry  for  munny,  but  goa  wheer  munny  is ! ' 


An'  I  went  wheer  munny  war :  an'  thy  muther  coom  to  'and, 
Wi'  lots  o'  munny  laai'd  by,  an'  a  nicetish  bit  o'  land. 
Maaybe  she  warn't  a  beauty :  —  I  niver  giv  it  a  thowt  — 
But  warn't  she  as  good  to  cuddle  an'  kiss  as  a  lass  as  'ant  nowt? 

VII. 

Parson's  lass  'ant  nowt,  an'  she  weant  'a  nowt  when  'e's  dead, 
Mun  be  a  guvness,  lad,  or  summut,  and  addle  2  her  bread : 
Why?  fur  'e's  nobbut  a  curate,  an'  weant  niver  git  hissen  clear, 
An'  'e  maade  the  bed  as  'e  ligs  on  afoor  'e  coom'd  to  the  shere. 

VIII. 

'An  thin  'e  coom'd  to  the  parish  wi'  lots  o'  Varsity  debt, 
Stook  to  his  taail  they  did,  an'  'e  'ant  got  shut  on  'em  yet. 
An'  'e  ligs  on  'is  back  i'  the  grip,  wi'  noan  to  lend  'im  a  shuvv, 
Woorse  nor  a  far-welter'd  8  yowe :  fur,  Sammy,  'e  married  fur  luvv. 

IX. 

Luvv?  what's  luvv?  thou  can  luvv  thy  lass  an'  'er  munny  too, 
Maakin'  'em  goa  togither  as  they've  good  right  to  do. 
Couldn  I  luvv  thy  muther  by  cause  o'  'er  munny  laaid  by? 
Naay  —  fur  I  luvv'd  'er  a  vast  sight  moor  fur  it :  reason  why. 


Ay  an'  thy  muther  says  thou  wants  to  marry  the  lass, 
Cooms  of  a  gentleman  burn  :  an'  we  boath  on  us  thinks  tha  an  ass. 
Woa  then,  proputty,  wiltha?  —  an  ass  as  near  as  mays  nowt4  — 
Woa  then,  wiltha?  dangtha !  —  the  bees  is  as  fell  as  owt.6 

Obstinate.  2  Earn.  8  Or  fow-welter'd,  —  said  of  a  sheep  lying  on  its  back. 

4  Makes  nothing.  6  The  flies  are  as  fierce  as  anything. 


NORTHERN  FARMER— THE  DAISY. 


227 


XI. 

Break  me  a  bit  o'  the  esh  for  his  'ead,  lad,  out  o'  the  fence ! 
Gentleman  burn !  what's  gentleman  burn?  is  it  shillins  an'  pence? 
Proputty,  proputty's  ivrything  'ere,  an',  Sammy,  I'm  blest 
If  it  isn't  the  saame  oop  yonder,  fur  them  as  'as  it's  the  best. 


Tis'n  them  as  'as  munny  as  breaks  into  'ouses  an'  steals, 
Them  as  'as  coats  to  their  backs  an'  taakes  their  regular  meals. 
Noa,  but  it's  them  as  niver  knaws  wheer  a  meal's  to  be  'ad. 
Taake  my  word  for  it,  Sammy,  the  poor  in  a  loomp  is  bad. 

XIII. 

Them  or  thir  feythers,  tha  sees,  mun  'a  bean  a  laazy  lot, 

Fur  work  mun  'a  gone  to  the  gittin'  whiniver  munny  was  got. 

Feyther  'ad  ammost  nowt;   leastways  'is  munny  was  'id. 

But  'e  tued  an'  moil'd  'issen  dead,  an'  'e  died  a  good  un,  'e  did. 

XIV. 

Loook  thou  theer  wheer  Wrigglesby  beck  cooms  out  by  the  'ill ! 
Feyther  run  oop  to  the  farm,  an'  I  runs  oqp  to  the  mill; 
An'  I'll  run  oop  to  the  brig,  an'  that  thou'll  live  to  see; 
And  if  thou  marries  a  good  un  I'll  leave  the  land  to  thee. 


Thim's  my  noations,  Sammy,  wheerby  I  means  to  stick; 
But  if  thou  marries  a  bad  un,  I'll  leave  the  land  to  Dick.  — 
Coom  oop,  proputty,  proputty  —  that's  what  I  'ears  'im  saay  — 
Proputty,  proputty,  proputty  —  canter  an'  canter  awaay. 


THE  DAISY. 

WRITTEN   AT   EDINBURGH. 

O    LOVE,  what    hours    were    thine    and 

mine, 
In  lands  of  palm  and  southern  pine; 

In  lands  of  palm,  of  orange-blossom, 
Of  olive,  aloe,  and  maize  and  vine. 

What  Roman  strength  Turbia  show'd 
In  ruin,  by  the  mountain  road; 

How  like  a  gem,  beneath,  the  city 
Of  little  Monaco,  basking,  glow'd. 

How  richly  down  the  rocky  dell 
The  torrent  vineyard  streaming  fell 

To  meet  the  sun  and  sunny  waters, 
That  only  heaved  with  a  summer  swell. 


What  slender  campanili  grew 
By  bays,  the  peacock's  neck  in  hue; 
Where,    here    and    there,    on    sandy 
beaches 
A  milky-bell'd  amaryllis  blew. 

How  young  Columbus  seem'd  to  rove, 
Yet  present  in  his  natal  grove, 

Now  watching  high  on  mountain  cor- 
nice, 
And  steering,  now,  from  a  purple  cove, 

Now  pacing  mute  by  ocean's  rim; 
Till,  in  a  narrow  street  and  dim, 

I  stay'd  the  wheels  at  Cogoletto, 
And  drank,  and  loyally  drank  to  him. 

Nor  knew  we  well  what  pleased  us  most, 
Not  the  dipt  palm  of  which  they  boast; 


228 


THE  DAISY. 


But  distant  colour,  happy  hamlet, 
A  moulder'd  citadel  on  the  coast, 

Or  tower,  or  high  hill-convent,  seen 
A  light  amid  its  olives  green; 

Or  olive-hoary  cape  in  ocean; 
Or  rosy  blossom  in  hot  ravine, 

Where  oleanders  flush' d  the  bed 
Of  silent  torrents,  gravel-spread; 

And,  crossing,  oft  we  saw  the  glisten 
Of  ice,  far  up  on  a  mountain  head. 

We  loved  that  hall,  tho'  white  and  cold, 
Those  niched  shapes  of  noble  mould, 

A  princely  people's  awful  princes, 
The  grave,  severe  Genovese  of  old. 

At  Florence  too  what  golden  hours, 
In  those  long  galleries,  were  ours ; 

What  drives  about  the  fresh  Cascine, 
Or  walks  in  Boboli's  ducal  bowers. 

In  bright  vignettes,  and  each  complete, 
Of  tower  or  duomo,  sunny-sweet, 

Or  palace,  how  the  city  glitter'd, 
Thro'  cypress  avenues,  at  our  feet. 

But  when  we  crost  the  Lombard  plain 
Remember  what  a  plague  of  rain ; 

Of  rain  at  Reggio,  rain  at  Parma ; 
At  Lodi,  rain,  Piacenza,  rain. 

And  stern  and  sad  (so  rare  the  smiles 
Of  sunlight)  look'd  the  Lombard  piles; 

Porch-pillars  on  the  lion  resting, 
And  sombre,  old,  colonnaded  aisles. 

0  Milan,  O  the  chanting  quires, 
The  giant  windows'  blazon'd  fires, 

The  height,  the  space,  the  gloom,  the 
glory ! 
A  mount  of  marble,  a  hundred  spires ! 

1  climb' d  the  roofs  at  break  of  day 
Sun-smitten  Alps  before  me  lay. 

I  stood  among  the  silent  statues, 
And  statued  pinnacles,  mute  as  they. 

How  faintly-flush'd,  how  phantom-fair, 
Was  Monte  Rosa,  hanging  there 

A  thousand  shadowy-pencill'd  valleys 
&nd  snowy  dells  in  a  golden  air. 


Remember  how  we  came  at  last 
To  Como;   shower  and  storm  and  blast 
Pfad  blown  the  lake  beyond  his  limit, 
And  all  was  flooded;   and  how  we  past 

From  Como,  when  the  light  was  gray, 
And  in  my  head,  for  half  the  day, 

The  rich  Virgilian  rustic  measure 
Of  Lari  Maxume,  all  the  way, 

Like  ballad-burthen  music,  kept,_^ 
As  on  the  Lariano  crept 

To  that  fair  port  beloy^  the  castle 
Of  Queen  Theodolind/where-we'slept; 

Or  hardly  slept,  but  watch'd  awake 
A  cypress  in  the  moonlight  shake, 

The   moonlight   touching   o'er   a   ter- 
race 
One  tall  Agave  above  the  lake. 

What  more?  we  took  our  last  adieu, 
And  up  the  snowy  Splugen  drew, 

But  ere  we  reach'd  the  highest  sum- 
mit 
I  pluck'd  a  daisy,  I  gave  it  you. 

It  told  of  England  then  to  me, 
And  now  it  tells  of  Italy. 

O  love,  we  two  shall  go  no  longer 
To  lands  of  summer  across  the  sea; 

So  dear  a  life  your  arms  enfold 
Whose  crying  is  a  cry  for  gold : 

Yet  here  to-night  in  this  dark  city, 
When  ill  and  weary,  alone  and  cold, 

I  found,  tho'  crush'd  to  hard  and  dry, 
This  nurseling  of  another  sky 

Still  in  the  little  book  you  lent  me, 
And  where  you  tenderly  laid  it  by : 

And  I  forgot  the  clouded  Forth, 
The    gloom   that   saddens   Heaven   and 
Earth, 
The  bitter  east,  the  misty  summer 
And  gray  metropolis  of  the  North. 

Perchance,  to  lull  the  throbs  of  pain, 
Perchance,  to  charm  a  vacant  brain, 
Perchance,  to  dream  you  still  beside 
me, 
My  fancy  fled  to  the  Soujh  again. 


TO    THE  REV.   F.   D.    MAURICE— WILL. 


229 


TO    THE    REV.    F.    D.    MAURICE. 

Come,  when  no  graver  cares  employ, 
Godfather,  come  and  see  your  boy : 

Your  presence  will  be  sun  in  winter, 
Making  the  little  one  leap  for  joy. 

For,  being  of  that  honest  few, 
Who  give  the  Fiend  himself  his  due, 
Should  eighty-thousand  college-coun- 
cils 
Thunder  'Anathema,'  friend,  at  you; 

Should  all  our  churchmen  foam  in  spite 
At  you,  so  careful  of  the  right, 

Yet   one   lay-hearth   would   give   you 
welcome 
(Take  it  and  come)  to  the  Isle  of  Wight; 

Where,  far  from  noise  and  smoke  of  town, 
I  watch  the  twilight  falling  brown 

All  round  a  careless-order'd  garden 
Close  to  the  ridge  of  a  noble  down. 

You'll  have  no  scandal  while  you  dine, 
But  honest  talk  and  wholesome  wine, 

And  only  hear  the  magpie  gossip 
Garrulous  under  a  roof  of  pine  : 

For  groves  of  pine  on  either  hand, 
To  break  the  blast  of  winter,  stand; 

And  further  on,  the  hoary  Channel 
Tumbles  a  billow  on  chalk  and  sand; 

Where,  if  below  the  milky  steep 
Some  ship  of  battle  slowly  creep, 

And  on  thro'  zones  of  light  and  shadow 
Glimmer  away  to  the  lonely  deep, 

We  might  discuss  the  Northern  sin 
Which  made  a  selfish  war  begin; 

Disputethe  claims,  arrange  the  chances; 
Emperor,  Ottoman,  which  shall  win : 

Or  whether  war's  avenging  rod 
Shall  lash  all  Europe  into  blood; 

Till  you  should  turn  to  dearer  matters, 
Dear  to  the  man  that  is  dear  to  God; 

How  best  to  help  the  slender  store, 
How  mend  the  dwellings,  of  the  poor; 

How  gain  in  life,  as  life  advances, 
Valour  and  charity  more  and  more. 


Come,  Maurice,  come :  the  lawn  as  yet 
Is  hoar  with  rime,  or  spongy-wet; 

But  when  the  wreath  of  March  has 
blossom'd, 
Crocus,  anemone,  violet, 

Or  later,  pay  one  visit  here, 

For  those  are  few  we  hold  as  dear; 

Nor  pay  but  one,  but  come  for  many, 
Many  and  many  a  happy  year. 


January,  1854. 


WILL. 


O  well  for  him  whose  will  is  strong ! 
He  suffers,  but  he  will  not  suffer  long; 
He  suffers,  but  he  cannot  suffer  wrong : 
For   him   nor   moves   the   loud   world's 

random  mock, 
Nor  all  Calamity's  hugest  waves  confound, 
Who  seems  a  promontory  of  rock, 
That,    compass'd   round   with    turbulent 

sound, 
In  middle  ocean  meets  the  surging  shock, 
Tempest-buffeted,  citadel-crown'd. 

11. 

But  ill  for  him  who,  bettering  not  with 
time, 

Corrupts  the  strength  of  heaven-de- 
scended Will, 

And  ever  weaker  grows  thro'  acted  crime, 

Or  seeming-genial  venial  fault, 

Recurring  and  suggesting  still ! 

He  seems  as  one  whose  footsteps  halt, 

Toiling  in  immeasurable  sand, 

And  o'er  a  weary  sultry  land, 

Far  beneath  a  blazing  vault, 

Sown  in  a  wrinkle  of  the  monstrous  hill, 

The  city  sparkles  like  a  grain  of  salt. 

IN  THE  VALLEY  OF 
CAUTERETZ. 

All  along  the  valley,  stream  that  flashest 

white, 
Deepening  thy  voice  with  the  deepening 

of  the  night, 
All    along  the  valley,  where  thy  waters 

flow, 


230      IN  THE   GARDEN  AT  SWAINSTON—  THE  SAILOR  BOY. 


I  walk'd  with  one  I  loved  two  and  thirty 

years  ago. 
All  along  the  valley,  while  I  walk'd  to- 
day, 
The  two  and  thirty  years  were  a  mist  that 

rolls  away; 
For  all  along  the  valley,  down  thy  rocky 

bed, 
Thy  living  voice  to  me  was  as  the  voice 

of  the  dead, 
And   all  along  the  valley,  by  rock  and 

cave  and  tree, 
The  voice  of  the  dead  was  a  living  voice 

to  me. 


IN   THE  GARDEN  AT 
SWAINSTON. 

Nightingales  warbled  without, 
Within  was  weeping  for  thee : 

Shadows  of  three  dead  men 
Walk'd  in  the  walks  with  me, 
Shadows  of  three  dead  men  and  thou 
wast  one  of  the  three. 

Nightingales  sang  in  his  woods  : 

The  Master  was  far  away  : 
Nightingales  warbled  and  sang 

Of  a  passion  that  lasts  but  a  day ; 

Still  in  the  house  in  his  coffin  the  Prince 
of  courtesy  lay. 

Two  dead  men  have  I  known 
In  courtesy  like  to  thee : 

Two  dead  men  have  I  loved 
With  a  love  that  will  ever  be : 
Three  dead  men  have  I  loved  and  thou 
art  last  of  the  three. 


THE  FLOWER. 

Once  in  a  golden  hour 
I  cast  to  earth  a  seed. 

Up  there  came  a  flower, 
The  people  said,  a  weed. 

To  and  fro  they  went 
Thro'  my  garden-bower, 

And  muttering  discontent 
Cursed  me  and  my  flower. 


Then  it  grew  so  tall 

It  wore  a  crown  of  light, 

But  thieves  from  o'er  the  wall 
Stole  the  seed  by  night. 

Sow'd  it  far  and  wide 

By  every  town  and  tower, 

Till  all  the  people  cried, 
'  Splendid  is  the  flower.' 

Read  my  little  fable / 
He  that  runs  may  read. 

Most  can  raise  the  flowers  now, 
For  all  have  got  the  seed. 

And  some  are  pretty  enough, 
And  some  are  poor  indeed; 

And  now  again  the  people 
Call  it  but  a  weed. 


REQUIESCAT. 

Fair  is  her  cottage  in  its  place. 

Where  yon  broad  water  sweetly  slowly 
glides. 
It  sees  itself  from  thatch  to  base 

Dream  in  the  sliding  tides. 

And  fairer  she,  but  ah  how  soon  to  die ! 

Her  quiet  dream  of  life  this  hour  may 
cease. 
Her  peaceful  being  slowly  passes  by 

To  some  more  perfect  peace. 


THE  SAILOR  BOY. 

He  rose  at  dawn  and,  fired  with  hope, 
Shot  o'er  the  seething  harbour-bar, 

And   reach'd  the   ship   and  caught  the 
rope, 
And  whistled  to  the  morning  star. 

And  while  he  whistled  long  and  loud 
He  heard  a  fierce  mermaiden  cry, 

1 0  boy,  tho'  thou  art  young  and  proud, 
I  see  the  place  where  thou  wilt  lie. 

'  The  sands  and  yeasty  surges  mix 
In  caves  about  the  dreary  bay, 

And  on  thy  ribs  the  limpet  sticks, 

And  in  thy  heart  the  scrawl  shall  play.' 


THE  ISLET—  CHILD-SONGS. 


231 


'  Fool,'  he  answer'd,  '  death  is  sure 
To  those  that  stay  and  those  that  roam, 

But  I  will  nevermore  endure 

To  sit  with  empty  hands  at  home. 

1  My  mother  clings  about  my  neck, 
My  sisters  crying,  "  Stay  for  shame;  " 

My  father  raves  of  death  and  wreck, 
They  are  all  to  blame,  they  are  all  to 
blame. 

1  God  help  me  !  save  I  take  my  part 
Of  danger  on  the  roaring  sea, 

A  devil  rises  in  my  heart, 

Far  worse  than  any  death  to  me.' 


THE   ISLET. 

1  Whither,  O  whither,  love,  shall  we  go,' 
For  a  score  of  sweet  little  summers  or  so  ? 
The  sweet  little  wife  of  the  singer  said, 
On  the  day  that  follow'd  the  day  she  was 

wed, 
1  Whither,  O  whither,  love,  shall  we  go? ' 
And  the  singer  shaking  his  curly  head 
Turn'd  as  he  sat,  and  struck  the  keys 
There  at  his  right  with  a  sudden  crash, 
Singing,  '  And  shall  it  be  over  the  seas 
With   a   crew  that  is  neither  rude  nor 

rash, 
But  a  bevy  of  Eroses  apple-cheek'd, 
In  a  shallop  of  crystal  ivory-beak'd, 
With  a  satin  sail  of  a  ruby  glow, 
To  a  sweet  little  Eden  on  earth  that  I 

know, 
A  mountain  islet  pointed  and  peak'd? 
Waves  on  a  diamond  shingle  dash, 
Cataract  brooks  to  the  ocean  run, 
Pairily-delicate  palaces  shine 
Mixt  with  myrtle  and  clad  with  vine, 
And  overstream'd  and  silvery-streak'd 
With  many  a   rivulet   high   against  the 

Sun 
The  facets  of  the  glorious  mountain  flash 
Above  the  valleys  of  palm  and  pine.' 

*  Thither,  O  thither,  love,  let  us  go.' 

'No,  no,  no ! 

For  in  all  that  exquisite  isle,  my  dear, 
There   is   but   one   bird  with  a  musical 
throat, 


And  his  compass  is  but  of  a  single  note, 
That  it  makes  one  weary  to  hear.' 

*  Mock  me  not !  mock  me  not !  love,  let 
us  go.' 

'  No,  love,  no. 

For  the  bud  ever  breaks  into  bloom  on 

the  tree, 
And  a  storm  never  wakes  on  the  lonely 

sea, 
And  a  worm  is  there  in  the  lonely  wood  ; 
That  pierces  the  liver  and  blackens  the 

blood ; 
And  makes  it  a  sorrow  to  be.' 


CHILD-SONGS. 


1. 

THE  CITY  CHILD.. 

Dainty  little  maiden,  whither  would  you 
wander? 
Whither  from   this   pretty  home,  the 
home  where  mother  dwells? 
1  Far  and  far  away,'  said  the  dainty  little 

maiden, 
'  All    among     the     gardens,     auriculas, 
anemones, 
Roses  and  lilies  and  Canterbury-bells. ' 

Dainty  little  maiden,  whither  would  you 
wander? 
Whither  from  this  pretty  house,  this 
city-house  of  ours? 

1  Far  and  far  away,'  said  the  dainty  little 
maiden, 

'  All  among  the  meadows,  the  clover  and 
the  clematis, 
Daisies  and  kingcups  and  honeysuckle- 
flowers.' 


II. 
MINNIE  AND  WINNIE. 

Minnie  and  Winnie 

Slept  in  a  shell. 
Sleep,  little  ladies ! 

And  they  slept  well. 

Pink  was  the  shell  within, 
Silver  without: 


232 


THE   SPITEFUL  LETTER—  THE    VICTIM. 


Sounds  of  the  great  sea 
Wander'd  about. 

Sleep,  little  ladies ! 

Wake  not  soon ! 
Echo  on  echo 

Dies  to  the  moon. 

Two  bright  stars 

Peep'd  into  the  shell. 

'  What  are  they  dreaming  of? 
Who  can  tell?' 

Started  a  green  linnet 

Out  of  the  croft; 
Wake,  little  ladies, 

The  sun  is  aloft ! 


THE  SPITEFUL  LETTER. 

Here,  it  is  here,  the  close  of  the  year, 

And  with  it  a  spiteful  letter. 
My  name  in  song  has  done  him  much 
wrong, 

For  himself  has  done  much  better.' 

0  little  bard,  is  your  lot  so  hard, 
If  men  neglect  your  pages? 

1  think  not  much  of  yours  or  of  mine, 
I  hear  the  roll  of  the  ages. 

Rhymes  and  rhymes  in  the  range  of  the 
times ! 

Are  mine  for  the  moment  stronger? 
Yet  hate  me  not,  but  abide  your  lot, 

I  last  but  a  moment  longer. 

This  faded  leaf,  our  names  are  as  brief; 

What  room  is  left  for  a  hater? 
Yet  the  yellow   leaf  hates  the  greener 
leaf, 

For  it  hangs  one  moment  later. 

Greater  than  I  —  is  that  your. cry? 

And  men  will  live  to  see  it. 
Well  —  if  it  be  so  —  so  it  is,  you  know; 

And  if  it  be  so,  so  be  it. 

Brief,  brief  is  a  summer  leaf, 
But  this  is  the  time  of  hollies. 

O  hollies  and  ivies  and  evergreens, 
How  I  hate  the  spites  and  the  follies ! 


LITERARY   SQUABBLES. 

Ah  God  !  the  petty  fools  of  rhyme 
That  shriek  and  sweat  in  pigmy  wars 

Before  the  stony  face  of  Time, 
And  look'd  at  by  the  silent  stars : 

Who  hate  each  other  for  a  song, 
And  do  their  little  best  to  bite 

And  pinch  their  brethren  in  the  throng, 
AndscratcrTthe  very  dead  for  spite : 

And  strain  to  make  an  inch  of  room 
For  their  sweet  selves,  and  cannot  hear 

The  sullen  Lethe  rolling  doom 

On  them  and  theirs  and  all  things  here : 

When  one  small  touch  of  Charity 

Could  lift  them  nearer  God-like  state 

Than  if  the  crowded  Orb  should  cry 
Like  those  who  cried  Diana  great : 

And  I  too,  talk,  and  lose  the  touch 

I  talk  of.     Surely,  after  all, 
The  noblest  answer  unto  such 

Is  perfect  stillness  when  they  brawl. 

THE  VICTIM. 


A  plague  upon  the  people  fell, 
A  famine  after  laid  them  low, 
Then  thorpe  and  byre  arose  in  fire, 

For  on  them  brake  the  sudden  foe; 
So  thick  they  died  the  people  cried, 

'The  Gods  are  moved  against  the  land. 
The  Priest  in  horror  about  his  altar 
To  Thor  and  Odin  lifted  a  hand : 
'  Help  us  from  famine 
And  plague  and  strife  ! 
What  would  you  have  of  us? 
Human  life? 
Were  it  our  nearest, 
Were  it  our  dearest, 
(Answer,  O  answer) 
We  give  you  his  life.' 

II. 

But  still  the  foeman  spoil'd  and  burn'd, 
And  cattle  died,  and  deer  in  wood, 

And  bird  in  air,  and  fishes  turn'd 
And  whiten'd  all  the  rolling  flood; 


THE    VICTIM— WAGES. 


233 


And  dead  men  lay  all  over  the  way, 

They  have  taken  our  son, 

Or   down    in    a   furrow   scathed  with 

They  will  have  his  life. 

flame : 

Is  he  your  dearest? 

And  ever  and  aye  the  Priesthood  moan'd, 

Or  I,  the  wife?' 

Till  at  last  it  seem'd  that  an  answer 

came. 

v. 

'  The  King  is  happy 

The  King  bent  low,  with  hand  on  brow, 

In  child  and  wife; 

He  stay'd  his  arms  upon  his  knee : 

Take  you  his  dearest, 

•  O  wife,  what  use  to  answer  now? 

Give  us  a  life.' 

For  now  the  Priest  has  judged  for  me.' 

The  King  was  shaken  with  holy  fear; 

III. 

'The  Gods,'  he  said, '  would  have  chosen 

The  Priest  went  out  by  heath  and  hill; 

well ; 

The  King  was  hunting  in  the  wild; 

Yet  both  are  near,  and  both  are  dear, 

They  found  the  mother  sitting  still; 

And  which  the  dearest  I  cannot  tell !  ' 

She  cast  her  arms  about  the  child. 

But  the  Priest  was  happy, 

The  child  was  only  eight  summers  old, 

His  victim  won : 

His   beauty    still    with    his   years   in- 

' We  have  his  dearest, 

creased, 

His  only  son ! ' 

His  face  was  ruddy,  his  hair  was  gold, 

He  seem'd  a  victim  due  to  the  priest. 

VI. 

The  Priest  beheld  him, 

The  rites  prepared,  the  victim  bared, 

And  cried  with  joy, 

The  knife  uprising  toward  the  blow 

'  The  Gods  have  answer'd : 

To  the  altar-stone  she  sprang  alone, 

We  give  them  the  boy.' 

1  Me,  not  my  darling,  no !  • 

He  caught  her  away  with  a  sudden  cry; 

IV. 

Suddenly  from  him  brake  his  wife, 

The  King  return'd  from  out  the  wild, 

And  shrieking  '  /  am  his  dearest,  I  — 

He  bore  but  little  game  in  hand; 

/   am   his   dearest !  '    rush'd    on    the 

The  mother  said,  '  They  have  taken  the 

knife. 

child 

And  the  Priest  was  happy, 

To  spill  his  blood  and  heal  the  land : 

'0,  Father  Odin, 

The  land  is  sick,  the  people  diseased, 

We  give  you  a  life. 

And    blight    and    famine    on   all    the 

Which  was  his  nearest? 

lea: 

Who  was  his  dearest? 

The  holy  Gods,  they  must  be  appeased, 

The  Gods  have  answer'd ; 

So  I  pray  you  tell  the  truth  to  me. 

We  give  them  the  wife ! ' 

WAGES. 

Glory  of  warrior,  glory  of  orator,  glory  of  song, 

Paid  with  a  voice  flying  by  to  be  lost  on  an  endless  sea  — 

Glory  of  Virtue,  to  fight,  to  struggle,  to  right  the  wrong  — 
Nay,  but  she  aim'd  not  at  glory,  no  lover  of  glory  she : 

Give  her  the  glory  of  going  on,  and  still  to  be. 

The  wages  of  sin  is  death :  if  the  wages  of  Virtue  be  dust, 

Would  she  have  heart  to  endure  for  the  life  of  the  worm  and  the  fly? 

She  desires  no  isles  of  the  blest,  no  quiet  seats  of  the  just, 
To  rest  in  a  golden  grove,  or  to  bask  in  a  summer  sky : 

Give  her  the  wages  of  going  on,  and  not  to  die. 


234 


THE  HIGHER  PANTHEISM. 


THE  HIGHER  PANTHEISM. 

The  sun,  the  moon,  the  stars,  the  seas,  the  hills  and  the  plains  — 
Are  not  these,  O  Soul,  the  Vision  of  Him  who  reigns? 

Is  not  the  Vision  He?  tho'  He  be  not  thafVhich  He  seems?    - 
Dreams  are  true  while  they  last,  and  do  we  not  live  in  dreams? 

Earth,  these  solid  stars,  this  weight  of  body  and  limb, 
Are  they  not  sign  and  symbol  of  thy  division  from  Him? 

Dark  is  the  world  to  thee  :  thyself  art  the  reason  why; 

For  is  He  not  all  but  that  which  has  power  to  feel  '  I  am  I '? 

Glory  about  thee,  without  thee;   and  thou  fulfillest  thy  doom 
Making  Him  broken  gleams,  and  a  stifled  splendour  and  gloom. 

Speak  to  Him  thou  for  He  hears,  and  Spirit  with  Spirit  can  meet  - 
Closer  is  He  than  breathing,  and  nearer  than  hands  and  feet. 

God  is  law,  say  the  wise;  O  Soul,  and  let  us  rejoice, 
For  if  He  thunder  by  law  the  thunder  is  yet  His  voice. 

Law  is  God,  say  some :  no  God  at  all,  says  the  fool; 

For  all  we  have  power  to  see  is  a  straight  staff  bent  in  a  pool; 

And' the  ear  of  man  cannot  hear,  and  the  eye  of  man  cannot  see; 
But  if  we  could  see  and  hear,  this  Vision  —  were  it  not  He  ? 


THE  VOICE  AND  THE  PEAK. 


The  voice  and  the  Peak 

Far  over  summit  and  lawn, 
The  lone  glow  and  long  roar 

Green-rushing  from  the  rosy  thrones 
of  dawn ! 

II. 

All  night  have  I  heard  the  voice 

Rave  over  the  rocky  bar, 
But  thou  wert  silent  in  heaven, 

Above  thee  glided  the  star. 

III. 

Hast  thou  no  voice,  O  Peak, 
That  standest  high  above  all? 

'I  am  the  voice  of  the  Peak, 
I  roar  and  rave  for  I  fall. 


IV. 

'  A  thousand  voices  go 

To  North,  South,  East,  and  West; 
They  leave  the  heights  and  are  troubled, 

And  moan  and  sink  ,>o  their  rest. 

v. 

'  The  fields  are  fair  beside  them, 
The  chestnut  towers  in  his  bloom; 

But   they  —  they  feel  the   desire  of  the 
deep  — 
Fall,  and  follow  their  doom. 


VI. 

'The  deep  has  power  on  the  height, 
And   the    height    has   power    on 
deep; 

They  are  raised  for  ever  and  ever, 
And  sink  again  into  sleep.' 


the 


THE    VOICE  AND    THE  PEAK—BOADIC&A. 


235 


Not  raised  for  ever  and  ever, 
But  when  their  cycle  is  o'er, 

The  valley,  the  voice,  the  peak,  the  star 
Pass,  and  are  found  no  more. 


The  Peak  is  high  and  flush'd 
At  his  highest  with  sunrise  fire; 

The  Peak  is  high,  and  the  stars  are  high, 
And  the  thought  of  a  man  is  higher. 


IX. 


A  deep  below  the  deep, 

And  a  height  beyond  the  height ! 
Our  hearing  is  not  hearing, 

And  our  seeing  is  not  sight. 


The  voice  and  the  Peak 

Far  into  heaven  withdrawn, 
The  lone  glow  and  long  roar 

Green-rushing  from  the   rosy  thrones 
of  dawn ! 


Flower  in  the  crannied  wall, 
I  pluck  you  out  of  the  crannies, 


I  hold  you  here,  root  and  all,  in  my  hand, 
Little  flower  —  but  if  I  could  understand 
What  you  are,  root  and  all,  and  all  in  all, 
I  should  know  what  God  and  man  is. 


A  DEDICATION. 

Dear,  near   and  true  —  no   truer  Time 

himself 
Can  prove  you,  tho'  he  make  you  ever- 
more 
Dearer  and  nearer,  as  the  rapid  of  life 
Shoots  to  the  fall  — take  this  and  pray 

that  he 
Who  wrote  it,  honouring  your  sweet  faith 

in  him, 
May  trust  himself;   and  after  praise  and 

scorn, 
As    one    who    feels    the    immeasurable 

world, 
Attain  the  wise  indifference  of  the  wise; 
And  after  Autumn  past  —  if  left  to  pass 
His  autumn  into  seeming-leafless  days  — 
Draw  toward  the  long  frost  and  longest 

night, 
Wearing    his   wisdom    lightly,   like   the 

fruit 
Which  in  our  winter  woodland  looks  a 

flower.1 

1  The  fruit  of  the   Spindle-tree  (Euonymus 
Europceus) . 


EXPERIMENTS 


BOADICEA. 

While  about  the  shore  of  Mona  those  Neronian  legionaries 
Burnt  and  broke  the  grove  and  altar  of  the  Druid  and  Druidess, 
Far  in  the  East  Boadicea,  standing  loftily  charioted, 
Mad  and  maddening  all  that  heard  her  in  her  fierce  volubility, 
Girt  by  half  the  tribes  of  Britain,  near  the  colony  Camulodtine, 
YelPd  and  shriek'd  between  her  daughters  o'er  a  wild  confederacy. 

'They  that  scorn  the  tribes  and  call  us  Britain's  barbarous  populaces, 
Did  they  hear  me,  would  they  listen,  did  they  pity  me  supplicating? 
Shall  I  heed  them  in  their  anguish?  shall  I  brook  to  be  supplicated? 
Hear  Icenian,  Catieuchlanian,  hear  Coritanian,  Trinobant ! 
Must  their  ever-ravening  eagle's  beak  and  talon  annihilate  us? 
Tear  the  noble  heart  of  Britain,  leave  it  gorily  quivering? 
Bark  an  answer,  Britain's  raven  !  bark  and  blacken  innumerable, 


236  BOADIC&A. 


Blacken  round  the  Roman  carrion,  make  the  carcase  a  skeleton, 

Kite  and  kestrel,  wolf  and  wolfkin,  from  the  wilderness,  wallow  in  it, 

Till  the  face  of  Bel  be  brighten'd,  Taranis  be  propitiated. 

Lo  their  colony  half-defended  !  lo  their  colony,  Camuloddne  ! 

There  the  horde  of  Roman  robbers  mock  at  a  barbarous  adversary. 

There  the  hive  of  Roman  liars  worship  an  emperor-idiot. 

Such  is  Rome,  and  this  her  deity :  hear  it,  Spirit  of  Cassiveladn ! 

1  Hear  it,  Gods !   the  Gods  have  heard  it,  O  Icenian,  O  Coritanian ! 
Doubt  not  ye  the  Gods  have  answer'd,  Catieuchlanian,  Trinobant. 
These  have  told  us  all  their  anger  in  miraculous  utterances, 
Thunder,  a  flying  fire  in  heaven,  a  murmur  heard  aerially, 
Phantom  sound  of  blows  descending,  moan  of  an  enemy  massacred, 
Phantom  wail  of  women  and  children,  multitudinous  agonies. 
Bloodily  flow'd  the  Tamesa  rolling  phantom  bodies  of  hojses  and  men; 
Then  a  phantom  colony  smoulder'd  on  the  refluent  estuary  ; 
Lastly  yonder  yester-even,  suddenly  giddily  tottering  — 
There  was  one  who  watch'd  and  told  me  —  down  their  statue  of  Victory  fell. 
Lo  their  precious  Roman  bantling,  lo  the  colony  Camuloddne, 
Shall  we  teach  it  a  Roman  lesson?  shall  we  care  to  be  pitiful? 
Shall  we  deal  with  it  as  an  infant?  shall  we  dandle  it  amorously? 

*  Hear  Icenian,  Catieuchlanian,  hear  Coritanian,  Trinobant ! 
While  I  roved  about  the  forest,  long  and  bitterly  meditating, 
There  I  heard  them  in  the  darkness,  at  the  mystical  ceremony, 
Loosely  robed  in  flying  raiment,  sang  the  terrible  prophetesses, 
"  Fear  not,  isle  of  blowing  woodland,  isle  of  silvery  parapets ! 
Tho'  the  Roman  eagle  shadow  thee,  tho'  the  gathering  enemy  narrow  thee, 
Thou  shalt  wax  and  he  shall  dwindle,  thou  shalt  be  the  mighty  one  yet ! 
Thine  the  liberty,  thine  the  glory,  thine  the  deeds  to  be  celebrated, 
Thine  the  myriad-rolling  ocean,  light  and  shadow  illimitable, 
Thine  the  lands  of  lasting  summer,  many-blossoming  Paradises, 
Thine  the  North  and  thine  the  South  and  thine  the  battle-thunder  of  God," 
So  they  chanted:  how  shall  Britain  light  upon  auguries  happier? 
So  they  chanted  in  the  darkness,  and  there  cometh  a  victory  now. 

'  Hear  Icenian,  Catieuchlanian,  hear  Coritanian,  Trinobant ! 
iVIe  the  wife  of  rich  Prasdtagus,  me  the  lover  of  liberty, 
Me  they  seized  and  me  they  tortured,  me  they  lash'd  and  humiliated, 
Me  the  sport  of  ribald  Veterans,  mine  of  ruffian  violators! 
See  they  sit,  they  hide  their  faces,  miserable  in  ignominy ! 
Wherefore  in  me  burns  an  anger,  not  by  blood  to  be  satiated. 
Lo  the  palaces  and  the  temple,  lo  the  colony  Camuloddne ! 
There  they  ruled,  and  thence  they  wasted  all  the  flourishing  territory, 
Thither  at  their  will  they  haled  the  yellow-ringleted  Britoness  — 
Bloodily,  bloodily  fall  the  battle-axe,  unexhausted,  inexorable. 
Shout  Icenian,  Catieuchlanian,  shout  Coritanian,  Trinobant, 
Till  the  victim  hear  within  and  yearn  to  hurry  precipitously 
Like  the  leaf  in  a  roaring  whirlwind,  like  the  smoke  in  a  hurricane  whirl'd. 
Lo  the  colony,  there  they  rioted  in  the  city  of  Cdnobeline ! 
There  they  drank  in  cups  of  emerald,  there  at  tables  of  ebony  lay, 
Rolling  on  their  purple  couches  in  their  tender  effeminacy. 
There  they  dwelt  and  there  they  rioted;   there  —  there  —  they  dwell  no  more. 


BOADIC&A  —  IN  QUANTITY. 


237 


Burst  the  gates,  and  burn  the  palaces,  break  the  works  of  the  statuary, 

Take  the  hoary  Roman  head  and  shatter  it,  hold  it  abominable, 

Cut  the  Roman  boy  to  pieces  in  his  lust  and  voluptuousness, 

Lash  the  maiden  into  swooning,  me  they  lash'd  and  humiliated, 

Chop  the  breasts  from  off  the  mother,  dash  the  brains  of  the  little  one  out, 

Up  my  Britons,  on  my  chariot,  on  my  chargers,  trample  them  under  us.' 

So  the  Queen  Boadicea,  standing  loftily  charioted, 
Brandishing  in  her  hand  a  dart  and  rolling  glances  lioness-like, 
Yell'd  and  shriek'd  between  her  daughters  in  her  fierce  volubility. 
Till  her  people  all  around  the  royal  chariot  agitated, 
Madly  dash'd  the  darts  together,  writhing  barbarous  lineaments, 
Made  the  noise  of  frosty  woodlands,  when  they  shiver  in  January, 
Roar'd  as  when  the  roaring  breakers  boom  and  blanch  on  the  precipices, 
Yell'd  as  when  the  winds  of  winter  tear  an  oak  on  a  promontory. 
So  the  silent  colony  hearing  her  tumultuous  adversaries 
Clash  the  darts  and  on  the  buckler  beat  with  rapid  unanimous  hand, 
Thought  on  all  her  evil  tyrannies,  all  her  pitiless  avarice, 
Till  she  felt  the  heart  within  her  fall  and  flutter  tremulously, 
Then  her  pulses  at  the  clamouring  of  her  enemy  fainted  away. 
Out  of  evil  evil  flourishes,  out  of  tyranny  tyranny  buds. 
Ran  the  land  with  Roman  slaughter,  multitudinous  agonies. 
Perish'd  many  a  maid  and  matron,  many  a  valorous  legionary, 
Fell  the  colony,  city,  and  citadel,  London,  Verulam,  Camuloddne. 


IN  QUANTITY. 

ON  TRANSLATIONS  OF  HOMER. 

Hexameters  and  Pentameters. 

These  lame  hexameters  the  strong-wing'd  music  of  Homer ! 

No — but  a  most  burlesque  barbarous  experiment. 
When  was  a  harsher  sound  ever  heard,  ye  Muses,  in  England? 

When  did  a  frog  coarser  croak  upon  our  Helicon? 
Hexameters  no  worse  than  daring  Germany  gave  us, 

Barbarous  experiment,  barbarous  hexameters. 


MILTON. 

Alcaics. 

O    mighty-mouth'd    inventor    of   har- 
monies, 
O  skill'd  to  sing  of  Time  or  Eternity, 
God-gifted  organ-voice  of  England, 
Milton,  a  name  to  resound  for  ages; 
Whose   Titan    angels,   Gabriel,    Abdiel, 
Starr'd    from    Jehovah's    gorgeous    ar- 
mouries, 


Tower,  as  the  deep- domed  empyrean 
Rings  to  the  roar  of  an  angel  onset  — 
Me  rather  all  that  bowery  loneliness, 
The  brooks  of  Eden  mazily  murmuring, 
And  bloom  profuse  and  cedar  arches 
Charm,  as  a  wanderer  out  in  ocean, 
Where  some  refulgent  sunset  of  India 
Streams  o'er  a  rich  ambrosial  ocean  isle, 
And    crimson-hued  the   stately  palm- 
woods 
Whisper  in  odorous  heights  of  even. 


238 


TRANSLATION  OF  THE  ILIAD. 


Hendecasyllabics. 

O  YOU  chorus  of  indolent  reviewers, 
Irresponsible,  indolent  reviewers, 
Look,  I  come  to  the  test,  a  tiny  poem 
All  composed  in  a  metre  of  Catullus, 
All  in  quantity,  careful  of  my  motion, 
Like  the  skater  on  ice  that  hardly  bears 

him, 
Lest  I  fall  unawares  before  the  people, 
Waking  laughter  in  indolent  reviewers. 
Should  I  flounder  awhile.without  a  tumble 
Thro'  this  metrification  of  Catullus, 
They  should  speak  to  me  not  without  a 

welcome, 
All  that  chorus  of  indolent  reviewers. 
Hard,    hard,    hard    is    it,    only   not    to 

tumble, 
So  fantastical  is  the  dainty  metre. 
Wherefore   slight    me    not   wholly,   nor 

believe  me  , 

Too  presumptuous,  indolent  reviewers. 
O  blatant  Magazines,  regard  me  rather  — 
Since  I   blush  to  belaud  myself  a  mo- 
ment— 
As  some  rare  little  rose,  apiece  of  inmost 
Horticultural  art,  or  half  coquette-like 
Maiden,  not  to  be  greeted  unbenignly. 

SPECIMEN  OF  A  TRANSLATION 
OF  THE  ILIAD  IN  BLANK 
VERSE. 

So    Hector  spake;    the   Trojans    roar'd 

applause; 
Then  loosed  their  sweating  horses  from 

the  yoke, 


And  each  beside  his  chariot  bound  his 

own; 
And    oxen   from   the    city,    and   goodly 

sheep 
In  haste  they  drove,  and  honey-hearted 

wine 
And  bread  from  out  the  houses  brought, 

and  heap'd 
Their  firewood,  and  the  winds  from  off 

the  plain 
RolPd    the    rich    vapour    far    into    the 

heaven. 
And  these  all  night  upon  the  bridge l  of 

war 
Sat  glorying;    many  a  fire  before  them 

blazed : 
As  when  in  heaven  the  stars  about  the 

moon 
Look  beautiful,  when  all  the  winds  are 

laid, 
And  every  height  comes  out,  and  jutting 

peak 
And  valley,  and  the  immeasurable  heavens 
Break  open  to  their  highest,  and  all  the 

stars 
Shine,  and  the  Shepherd  gladdens  in  his 

heart : 
So  many  a  fire  between  the   ships  and 

stream 
Of  Xanthus  blazed  before  the  towers  of 

Troy, 
A  thousand  on  the  plain;   and  close  by 

each 
Sat  fifty  in  the  blaze  of  burning  fire; 
And  eating  hoary  grain  and  pulse   the 

steeds, 
Fixt   by  their   cars,   waited   the   golden 

dawn.  Iliad  viu.  542-561. 


1  Or,  ridge. 


THE    WINDOW. 


239 


THE   WINDOW; 

OR,   THE   SONG   OF   THE   WRENS. 

Four  years  ago  Mr.  Sullivan  requested  me  to  write  a  little  song-cycle,  German  fashion,  for  him  to 
exercise  his  art  upon.  He  had  been  very  successful  in  setting  such  old  songs  as  '  Orpheus  with  his 
lute,'  and  I  drest  up  for  him,  partly  in  the  old  style,  a  puppet,  whose  almost  only  merit  is,  perhaps, 
that  it  can  dance  to  Mr.  Sullivan's  instrument.  I  am  sorry  that  my  four-year-old  puppet  should 
have  to  dance  at  all  in  the  dark  shadow  of  these  days ;  but  the  music  is  now  completed,  and  I  am 
bound  by  my  promise. 

December,  1870.  A-  Tennyson. 

THE  WINDOW. 


ON   THE   HILL. 

The  lights  and  shadows  fly ! 
Yonder  it  brightens  and  darkens  down 
on  the  plain. 
A  jewel,   a  jewel    dear    to   a  lover's 
eye ! 
Oh  is  it  the  brook,  or  a   pool,  or  her 
window-pane, 
When    the   winds  are    up    in    the 
morning? 

Gouds  that  are  racing  above, 
And  winds  and  lights  and  shadows  that 
cannot  be  still, 
All  running  on  one  way  to  the  home 
of  my  love, 
You  are  all  running  on,  and  I  stand  on 
the  slope  of  the  hill, 
And  the  winds  are  up  in  the  morn- 
ing! 

Follow,  follow  the  chase  ! 
And  my  thoughts  are  as  quick  and  as 
quick,  ever  on,  on,  on. 
O  lights,  are  you  flying  over  her  sweet 
little  face? 
And  my  heart  is  there  before  you  are 
come,  and  gone, 
When    the   winds    are    up    in   the 
morning ! 

Follow  them  down  the  slope ! 
And  I  follow  them  down  to  the  window- 
pane  of  my  dear, 
And   it    brightens    and    darkens   and 
brightens  like  my  hope, 
And  it  darkens  and  brightens  and  darkens 
like  my  fear, 
And     the    winds    are    up    in    the 
morning. 


AT  THE  WINDOW. 

Vine,  vine  and  eglantine, 
Clasp  her  window,  trail  and  twine  ! 
Rose,  rose  and  clematis, 
Trail  and  twine  and  clasp  and  kiss, 
Kiss,  kiss;   and  make  her  a  bower 
All  of  flowers,  and  drop  me  a  flower, 
Drop  me  a  flower. 

Vine,  vine  and  eglantine, 
Cannot  a  flower,  a  flower,  be  mine? 
Rose,  rose  and  clematis, 
Drop  me  a  flower,  a  flower,  to  kiss, 
Kiss,  kiss  —  and  out  of  her  bower 
All  of  flowers,  a  flower,  a  flower, 
Dropt,  a  flower. 

GONE. 

Gone ! 

Gone,  till  the  end  of  the  year, 

Gone,  and  the  light  gone  with  her,  and 

left  me  in  shadow  here ! 
Gone  —  flitted  away, 
Taken  the  stars  from  the  night  and  the 

sun  from  the  day ! 
Gone,  and  a  cloud   in  my  heart,  and  a 

storm  in  the  air! 
Flown  to  the  east  or  the  west,  flitted  I 

know  not  where ! 
Down  in  the  south  is  a  flash  and  a  groan : 

she  is  there  !  she  is  there  ! 


The  frost  is  here, 

And  fuel  is  dear, 

And  woods  are  sear, 

And  fires  burn  clear, 

And  frost  is  here 

And  has  bitten  the  heel  of  the  going  year. 


240 


THE    WINDOW. 


Bite,  frost,  bite ! 

You  roll  up  away  from  the  light 

The   blue   wood-louse,   and    the    plump 

dormouse, 
And  the  bees  are  still'd,  and  the  flies  are 

kill'd, 
And  you  bite  far  into  the  heart  of  the 

house,  • 

But  not  into  mine. 

Bite,  frost,  bite ! 

The  woods  are  all  the  searer, 

The  fuel  is  all  the  dearer, 

The  fires  are  all  the  clearer, 

My  spring  is  all  the  nearer, 

You   have   bitten  into  the  heart  of  the 

earth, 
But  not  into  mine. 

SPRING. 

Birds'  love  and  birds'  song 

Flying  here  and  there, 
Birds'  song  and  birds'  love, 

And  you  with  gold  for  hair ! 
Birds'  song  and  birds'  love, 

Passing  with  the  weather, 
Men's  song  and  men's  love, 

To  love  once  and  for  ever. 

Men's  love  and  birds'  love, 

And  women's  love  and  men's ! 
And  you  my  wren  with  a  crown  of  gold, 

You  my  queen  of  the  wrens ! 
You  the  queen  of  the  wrens  — 

We'll  be  birds  of  a  feather, 
I'll  be  King  of  the  Queen  of  the  wrens, 

And  all  in  a  nest  together. 

THE  LETTER. 

Where  is  another  sweet  as  my  sweet, 
Fine  of  the  fine,  and  shy  of  the  shy? 

Fine  little  hands,  fine  little  feet  — 
Dewy  blue  eye. 

Shall  I  write  to  her?  shall  I  go? 
Ask  her  to  marry  me  by  and  by? 

Somebody  said  that  she'd  say  no; 
Somebody  knows  that  she'll  say  ay ! 

Ay  or  no,  if  ask'd  to  her  face? 

Ay  or  no,  from  shy  of  the  shy? 
Go,  little  letter,  apace,  apace, 
Fly; 


Fly  to  the  light  in  the  valley  below  — 
Tell  my  wish  to  her  dewy  blue  eye : 

Somebody  said  that  she'd  say  no; 
Somebody  knows  that  she'll  say  ay ! 

NO  ANSWER. 

The  mist  and  the  rain,  the  mist  and  the 
rain ! 
Is  it  ay  or  no?  is  it  ay  or  no? 
And  never  a  glimpse  of  her  window-pane  ! 
And  I  may  die  but  the  grass  will  grow, 
And  the  grass  will  grow  when  I  am  gone, 
And  the  wet  west  wind  and  the  world 
will  go  on. 

Ay  is  the  song  of  the  wedded  spheres, 
No  is  trouble  and  cloud  and  storm, 

Ay  is  life  for  a  hundred  years, 

No  will  push  me  down  to  the  worm, 

And  when  I  am  there  and  dead  and  gone, 

The  wet  west  wind  and  the  world  will 
go  on. 

The  wind  and  the  wet,  the  wind  and  the 
wet ! 
Wet  west  wind  how  you  blow,  you  blow ! 
And  never  a  line  from  my  lady  yet ! 

Is  it  ay  or  no  ?  is  it  ay  or  no  ? 
Blow  then,  blow,  and  when  I  am  gone, 
The  wet  west  wind  and  the  world  may 
go  on. 

NO  ANSWER. 

Winds  are  loud  and  you  are  dumb, 
Take  my  love,  for  love  will  come, 

Love  will  come  but  once  a  life. 
Winds  are  loud  and  winds  will  pass ! 
Spring  is  here  with  leaf  and  grass: 

Take  my  love  and  be  my  wife. 
After-loves  of  maids  and  men 
Are  but  dainties  drest  again : 
Love  me  now,  you'll  love  me  then : 

Love  can  love  but  once  a  life. 

THE  ANSWER. 

Two  little  hands  that  meet, 
Claspt  on  her  seal,  my  sweet ! 
Must  I  take  you  and  break  you, 
Two  little  hands  that  meet? 
I  must  take  you,  and  break  you, 
And  loving  hands  must  part  — 


THE    WINDOW. 


241 


Take,  take  —  break,  break  — 

'  A  year  hence,  a  year  hence.' 

Break  —  you  may  break  my  heart. 

'  We  shall  both  be  gray.' 

Faint  heart  never  won  — 

'  A  month  hence,  a  month  hence. 

Break,  break,  and  all's  done. 

1  Far,  far  away.' 
*A  week  hence,  a  week  hence.' 

AY. 

'Ah,  the  long  delay.' 
'  Wait  a  little,  wait  a  little, 

Be  merry,  all  birds,  to-day, 

You  shall  fix  a  day.' 

Be  merry  on  earth  as  you  never  were 

merry  before, 

*  To-morrow,  love,  to-morrow, 

Be  merry  in  heaven,  0   larks,  and 

far 

And  that's  an  age  away.' 

away, 

Blaze  upon  her  window,  sun, 

And  merry  for  ever  and  ever,  and 

one 

And  honour  all  the  day. 

day  more. 

Why? 

MARRIAGE   MORNING. 

For  it's  easy  to  find  a  rhyme. 

Look,  look,  how  he  flits, 

Light,  so  low  upon  earth, 

The  fire-crown'd   king   of  the  wrens. 

You  send  a  flash  to  the  sun. 

from  out  of  the  pine ! 

Here  is  the  golden  close  of  love, 

Look  how  they  tumble  the  blossom, 

the 

All  my  wooing  is  done. 

mad  little  tits ! 

Oh,  the  woc;ds  and  the  meadows, 

'  Cuck-00  !   Cuck-00  ! '  was  ever  a 

May 

Woods  where  we  hid  from  the  wet, 

so  fine  ? 

Stiles  where  we  stay'd  to  be  kind, 

Why? 
For  it's  easy  to  find  a  rhyme. 

Meadows  in  which  we  met ! 

0  merry  the  linnet  and  dove, 

Light,  so  low  in  the  vale 

And  swallow  and  sparrow  and  throstle, 

You  flash  and  lighten  afar, 

and  have  your  desire  ! 

For  this  is  the  golden  morning  of  love, 

0  merry  my  heart,  you  have  gotten 

the 

And  you  are  his  morning  star. 

wings  of  love, 
And  flit  like  the  king  of  the  wrens 
a  crown  of  fire. 

Flash,  I  am  coming,  I  come, 

with 

By  meadow  and  stile  and  wood, 

Oh,  lighten  into  my  eyes  and  my  heart, 

Why? 

Into  my  heart  and  my  blood ! 

For  it's  ay  ay,  ay  ay. 

Heart,  are  you  great  enough 
For  a  love  that  never  tires  ? 

WHEN. 

0  heart,  are  you  great  enough  for  love? 
I  have  heard  of  thorns  and  briers. 

Sun  comes,  moon  comes, 

Over  the  thorns  and  briers, 

Time  slips  away. 

Over  the  meadows  and  stiles, 

Sun  sets,  moon  sets, 

Over  the  world  to  the  end  of  it 

Love,  fix  a  day. 

Flash  for  a  million  miles. 

IN    MEMORIAM   A.   H.   H. 

OBIIT  MDCCCXXXIII. 


Strong  Son  of  God,  immortal  Love, 

Whom  we,  that  have  not  seen  thy 

face, 
By  faith,  and  faith  alone,  embrace, 
Believing  where  we  cannot  prove; 
R 


Thine  are  these  orbs  of  light  and  shade; 

Thou  madest  Life  in  man  and  brute; 

Thou  madest   Death;     and  lo,  thy 
foot 
Is  on  the  skull  which  thou  hast  made. 


242 


IN  MEMORIAM. 


Thou  wilt  not  leave  us  in  the  dust : 

Thou   madest  man,  he  knows  not 

why, 
He  thinks  he  was  not  made  to  die; 

And  thou  hast  made  him :  thou  art  just. 

Thou  seemest  human  and  divine, 

The  highest,  holiest  manhood,  thou : 
Our  wills  are   ours,  we   know  not 
how; 

Our  wills  are  ours,  to  make  them  thine. 

Our  little  systems  have  their  day; 

They  have  their  day  and  cease  to  be : ' 
They  are  but  broken  lights  of  thee, 

And  thou,  O  Lord,  art  more  than  they. 

We  have  but  faith :  we  cannot  know; 

For  knowledge  is  of  things  we  see; 

And  yet  we  trust  it  comes  from  thee, 
A  beam  in  darkness :  let  it  grow. 

Let  knowledge  grow  from  more  to  more, 
But  more  of  reverence  in  us  dwell; 
That  mind  and  soul,  according  well, 

May  make  one  music  as  before, 

But  vaster.     We  are  fools  and  slight; 
We  mock  thee  when  we  do  not  fear : 
But  help  thy  foolish  ones  to  bear; 

Help  thy  vain  worlds  to  bear  thy  light. 

Forgive  what  seem'd  my  sin  in  me; 

What    seem'd    my  worth    since    I 
began ; 

For  merit  lives  from  man  to  man, 
And  not  from  man,  O  Lord,  to  thee. 

Forgive  my  grief  for  one  removed, 

Thy  creature,  whom  I  found  so  fair. 
I  trust  he  lives  in  thee,  and  there 

I  find  him  worthier  to  be  loved. 

Forgive  these  wild  and  wandering  cries, 
Confusion?  of  a  wasted  youth ; 
Forgive  them  where  they  fail  in  truth, 

And  in  thy  wisdom  make  me  wise. 

1849. 
I. 

I  HELD  it  truth,  with  him  who  sings 

1       To  one  clear  harp  in  divers  tones, 
That  men  may  rise  on  stepping-stones 

Of  their  dead  selves  to  higher  things. 


But  who  shall  so  forecast  the  years 
And  find  in  loss  a  gain  to  match? 
Or  reach  a  hand  thro'  time  to'catch 

The  far-off  interest  of  tears? 

Let  Love  clasp  Grieflest  both  be  drown'd, 
'    Let  darkness  keep  her  raven  gloss  :• 
Ah,  sweeter  to  be  drunk  with  loss, 
To  dance  with  death,  to  beat  the  ground, 

Than  that  the  victor  Hours  should  scorn 
The  long  result  of  Love,  and  boast, 
'  Behold   the    man   that    loved   and 
lost, 

But  all  he  was  is  overworn.' 


11. 

Old  Yew,  which  graspest  at  the  stones 
That  name  the  under-lying  dead, 
Thy  fibres  net  the  dreamless  head, 

Thy  roots  are  wrapt  about  the  bones. 

The  seasons  bring  the  flower  again, 

And  bring  the  firstling  to  the  flock; 
And  in  the  dusk  of  thee,  the  clock 

Beats  out  the  little  lives  of  men. 

O  not  for  thee  the  glow,  the  bloom, 
Who  changest  not  in  any  gale, 
Nor  branding  summer  suns  avail 

To  touch  thy  thousand  years  of  gloom : 

And  gazing  on  thee,  sullen  tree, 

Sick  for  thy  stubborn  hardihood, 
I  seem  to  fail  from  out  my  blood 

And  grow  incorporate  into  thee. 


O  Sorrow,  cruel  fellowship, 

O  Priestess  in  the  vaults  of  Death, 
O  sweet  and  bitter  in  a  breath, 

What  whispers  from  thy  lying  lip? 

'The stars,'  she  whispers,  'blindly  run; 

A  web  is  wov'n  across  the  sky; 

From  out  waste  places  comes  a  cry, 
And  murmurs  from  the  dying  sun : 

'And  all  the  phantom,  Nature,  stands  — 
With  all  the  music  in  her  tone, 
A  hollow  eoho  of  my  own,  — 

A  hollow  form  with  empty  hands.' 


IN  MEMORIAM. 


243 


And  shall  I  take  a  thing  so  blind, 

Embrace  her  as  my  natural  good; 
Or  crush  her,  like  a  vice  of  blood, 

Upon  the  threshold  of  the  mind? 


To  Sleep  I  give  my  powers  away; 

My  will  is  bondsman  to  the  dark; 

I  sit  within  a  h  el  ml  ess  barkr 
And  with  my  heart  I  muse  and  say : 

0  heart,  how  fares  it  with  thee  now, 

That   thou   should'st  fail  from   thy 

desire, 
Who  scarcely  darest  to  inquire, 
*  What  is  it  makes  me  beat  so  low? ' 

Something  it  is  which  thou  hast  lost, 

Some  pleasure  from  thine  early  years. 
Break,  thou  deep  vase  of  chilling 
tears, 

That  grief  hath  shaken  into  frost ! 

Such  clouds  of  nameless  trouble  cross 
All  night  below  the  darken'd  eyes; 
With  morning  wakes  the  will,  and 
cries, 

1  Thou  shalt  not  be  the  fool  of  loss.'  v 

v. 

I  sometimes  hold  it  half  a  sin 

To  put  in  words  the  grief  I  feel; 
For  words,  like  Nature,  half  reveal 

And  half  conceal  the  Soul  within. 

But,  for  the  unquiet  heart  and  brain, 
A  use  in  measured  language  lies; 
The  sad  mechanic  exercise, 

Like  dull  narcotics,  numbing  pain. 

In  words,  like  weeds,  I'll  wrap  me  o'er, 
Like   coarsest   clothes   against    the 

cold: 
But   that    large    grief  which   these 
enfold 
Is  given  in  outline  and  no  more. 


One  writes,  that  'Other  friends  remain,' 
That '  Loss  is  common  to  the  race ' — 
And  common  is  the  commonplace, 

And  vacant  chaff  well  meant  for  grain. 


That  loss  is  common  would  not  make 
My  own  less  bitter,  rather  more  : 
Too  common  !   Never  morning  wore 

To  evening,  but  some  heart  did  break. 

O  father,  wheresoe'er  thou  be, 

Who  pledgest  now  thy  gallant  son; 
A  shot,  ere  half  thy  draught  be  done, 

Hath  still'd  the  life  that  beat  from  thee. 

O  mother,  praying  God  will  save 

Thy  sailor,  —  while  thy  head  is  bow'd, 
His  heavy-shotted  hammock-shroud 

Drops  in  his  vast  and  wandering  grave. 

Ye  know  no  more  than  I  who  wrought 
At  that  last  hour  to  please  him  well; 
Who  mused  on  all  I  had  to  tell, 

And   something  written,  something 
thought; 

Expecting  still  his  advent  home; 
And  ever  met  him  on  his  way 
With  wishes,  thinking, '  here  to-day,' 

Or  '  here  to-morrow  will  he  come.' 

O  somewhere,  meek,  unconscious  dove, 
That  sittest  ranging  golden  hair; 
And  glad  to  find  thyself  so  fair, 

Poor  child,  that  waitest  for  thy  love ! 

For  now  her  father's  chimney  glows 

In  expectation  of  a  guest; 

And  thinking,  '  this  will  please  him 
best/ 
She  takes  a  ribjjid  or  a  rose; 

For  he  will  see  them  on  to-night; 

And  with  the  thought  her  colour 
burns; 

And,  having  left  the  glass,  she  turns 
Once  more  to  set  a  ringlet  right; 

And,  even  when  she  turn'd,  the  curse 
Had  fallen,  and  her  future  Lord 
Was  drown'd  in  passing  thro'  the 
ford, 

Or  kill'd  in  falling  from  his  horse. 

O  what  to  her  shall  be  the  end? 

And  what  to  me  remains  of  good? 

To  her,  perpetual  maidenhood, 
And  unto  me  no  second  friend. 


244 


IN  MEMORIAM. 


VII. 


J 


Dark  house,  by  which  once  more  I  stand 
Here  in  the  long  unlovely  street, 
Doors,  where  my  heart  was  used  to 
beat 

So  quickly,  waiting  for  a  hand, 

A  hand  that  can  be  clasp'd  no  more  — 
"'""'Behold  me,  for  I  cannot  sleep, 
And  like  a  guilty  thing  I  creep 
At  earliest  morning  to  the  door. 

He  is  not  here;   but  far  away 

The  noise  of  life  begins  again, 
And  ghastly  thro'  the  drizzling  rain 

On   the    bald    street    breaks   the   blank 
day. 

VIII.     . 

A  happy  lover  who  has  come 

To  look  on  her  that  loves  him  well, 
Who  'lights  and  rings  the  gateway 
bell, 

And  learns  her  gone  and  far  from  home; 

He  saddens,  all  the  magic  light 

Dies  off  at  once   from   bower  and 

hall, 
And  all  the  place  is  dark,  and  all 

The  chambers  emptied  of  delight : 

So  find  I  every  pleasant  spot 

In    which   we    two   were   wont    to 

meet, 
The    field,    the    chamber   and    the 
street, 
For  all  is  dark  where  thou  art  not. 

Yet  as  that  other,  wandering  there 

In  those  deserted  walks,  may  find 
A  flower  beat  with  rain  and  wind, 

Which  once  she  foster'd  up  with  care; 

So  seems  it  in  my  deep  regret, 

0  my  forsaken  heart,  with  thee 
And  this  poor  flower  of  poesy 

Which  little  cared  for  fades  not  yet. 

But  since  it  pleased  a  vanish'd  eye, 

1  go  to  plant  it  on  his  tomb, 
That  if  it  can  it  there  may  bloom, 

Or  dying,  there  at  least  may  die. 


IX. 

Fair  ship,  that  from  the  Italian  shore 
Sailest  the  placid  ocean-plains 
With    my   lost    Arthur's    loved    re- 
mains, 

Spread  thy  full  wings,  and  waft  him  o'er. 

So  draw  him  home  to  those  that  mourn 
In  vain;   a  favourable  speed 
Ruffle  thy  mirror'd  mast,  and  lead 

Thro'  prosperous  floods  his  holy  urn. 

All  night  no  ruder  air  perplex 

Thy  sliding  keel,  till  Phosphor,  bright 
As  our  pure  love,  thro'  early  light 

Shall  glimmer  on  the  dewy  decks. 

Sphere  all  your  lights  around,  above; 
Sleep,   gentle   heavens,   before   the 

prow; 
Sleep,   gentle  winds,   as  he  sleeps 
now, 
My  friend,  the  brother  of  my  love; 

My  Arthur,  whom  I  shall  not  see 

Till  all  my  widow'd  race  be  run; 
Dear  as  the  mother  to  the  son, 

More  than  my  brothers  are  to  me. 

X. 

I  hear  the  noise  about  thy  keel; 

I  hear  the  bell  struck  in  the  night : 
I  see  the  cabin- window  bright; 

I  see  the  sailor  at  the  wheel. 

Thou  bring'st  the  sailor  to  his  wife, 

And    travell'd    men    from    foreign 

lands; 
And  letters  unto  trembling  hands; 

And,  thy  dark  freight,  a  vanish'd  life. 

So  bring  him :  we  have  idle  dreams : 
This  look  of  quiet  flatters  thus 
Our  home-bred  fancies :  O  to  us, 

The  fools  of  habit,  sweeter  seems 

To  rest  beneath  the  clover  sod, 

That   takes  the  sunshine   and   the 

rains, 
Or  where  the  kneeling  hamlet  drains 

The  chalice  of  the  grapes  of  God; 


IN  MEMORIAM. 


245 


Than  if  with  thee  the  roaring  wells 

Should   gulf    him    fathom-deep    in 

brine; 
And  hands  so  often  clasp'd  in  mine, 

Should  toss  with  tangle  and  with  shells. 


xi.    w^ 

Calm  is  the  morn  without  a  sound, 
Calm  as  to  suit  a  calmer  grief, 
Andlmly  thro'  tne  laaea  leaf 

The  chestnut  pattering  to  the  ground : 

Calm  and  deep  peace  on  this  high  wold, 
And  on  these  dews  that  drench  the 

furze, 
And  all  the  silvery  gossamers 

That  twinkle  into  green  and  gold : 

Calm  and  still  light  on  yon  great  plain 
That   sweeps   with    all    its   autumn 

bowers, 
And  crowded   farms  and    lessening 
towers, 
To  mingle  with  the  bounding  main : 

Calm  and  deep  peace  in  this  wide  air, 
These  leaves  that  redden  to  the  fall; 
And  in  my  heart,  if  calm  at  all, 

If  any  calm,  a  calm  despair : 

Calm  on  the  seas,  and  silver  sleep, 

And  waves  that  sway  themselves  in 

rest, 
And  dead  calm  in  that  noble  breast 

Which  heaves  but  with  the  heaving  deep. 


Lo,  as  a  dove  when  up  she  springs 

To  bear  thro'  Heaven  a  tale  of  woe, 
Some  dolorous  message  knit  below 

The  wild  pulsation  of  her  wings; 

Like  her  I  go;   I  cannot  stay; 

I  leave  this  mortal  ark  behind, 

A  weight  of  nerves  without  a  mind, 

And  leave  the  cliffs,  and  haste  away 

O'er  ocean-mirrors  rounded  large, 

And   reach    the    glow   of  southern 

skies, 
And  see  the  sails  at  distance  rise, 

And  linger  weeping  on  the  marge, 


And  saying :  '  Comes  he  thus,  my  friend  ? 
Is  this  the  end  of  all  my  care? ' 
And  circle  moaning  in  the  air : 

'  Is  this  the  end?     Is  this  the  end? ' 

And  forward  dart  again,  and  play 

About  the  prow,  and  back  return 
To  where  the  body  sits,  and  learn 

That  I  have  been  an  hour  away. 

XIII. 

Tears  of  the  widower,  when  he  sees 
A  late-lost  form  that  sleep  reveals, 
And  moves  his  doubtful  arms,  ami 
feels 

Her  place  is  empty,  fall  like  these; 

Which  weep  a  loss  for  ever  new, 

A  void  where  heart  on  heart  reposed ; 
And,  where  warm  hands  have  prest 
and  closed, 

Silence,  till  I  be  silent  too. 

Which  weep  the  comrade  of  my  choice, 
An  awful  thought,  a  life  removed, 
The  human-hearted  man  I  loved, 

A  Spirit,  not  a  breathing  voice. 

Come  Time,  and  teach  me,  many  years, 
I  do  not  suffer  in  a  dream ; 
For  now  so  strange  do  these  things 
seem, 

Mine  eyes  have  leisure  for  their  tears; 

My  fancies  time  to  rise  on  wing, 

And  glance  about  the  approaching 

sails, 
As  tho'  they  brought  but  merchants' 
bales, 
And  not  the  burthen  that  they  bring. 

XIV. 

If  one  should  bring  me  this  report, 

That  thou  hadst  touch'd  the  land 

to-day, 
And  I  went  down  unto  the  quay, 

And  found  thee  lying  in  the  port; 

And  standing,  muffled  round  with  woe, 
Should  see  thy  passengers  in  rank 
Come    stepping    lightly    down   the 
plank, 

And  beckoning  unto  those  they  know; 


246 


IN  MEMORIAM. 


And  if  along  with  these  should  come 
The  man  I  held  as  half-divine; 
Should  strike  a  sudden  hand  in  mine, 

And  ask  a  thousand  things  of  home; 

And  I  should  tell  him  all.  my  pain, 

And  how  my  life  had  droop'd  of  late, 
And  he  should  sorrow  o'er  my  state 

And  marvel  what  possess'd  my  brain; 

And  I  perceived  ho  touch  of  change, 
No  hint  of  death  in  all  his  frame, 
But  found  him  all  in  all  the  same, 

I  should  not  feel  it  to  be  strange. 

XV. 

To-night  the  winds  begin  to  rise 

And  roar  from  yonder  dropping  day : 
The  last  red  leaf  is  whirl'd  away, 

The  rooks  are  blown  about  the  skies; 

The  forest  crack'd,  the  waters  curl'd, 
The  cattle  huddled  on  the  lea;  ' 
And  wildly  dash'd  on  tower  and  tree 

The  sunbeam  strikes  along  the  world  : 

And  but  for  fancies,  which  aver 

That  all  thy  motions  gently  pass 
Athwart  a  plane  of  molten  glass, 

I  scarce  could  brook  the  strain  and  stir 

That  makes  the  barren  branches  loud; 
And  but  for  fear  it  is  not  so, 
The  wild  unrest  that  lives  in  woe 

Would  dote  and  pore  on  yonder  cloud 

That  rises  upward  always  higher, 

And  onward  drags  a  labouring  breast, 
And  topples  round  the  dreary  west, 

A  looming  bastion  fringed  with  fire. 


What  words  are  these  have  fall'n  from  me  ? 
Can  calm  despair  and  wild  unrest 
Be  tenants  of  a  single  breast, 

Or  sorrow  such  a  changeling  be? 

Or  doth  she  only  seem  to  take 

The  touch  of  change  in  calm  or 
storm; 

But  knows  no  more  of  transient  form 
In  her  deep  self,  than  some  dead  lake 


That  holds  the  shadow  of  a  lark 

Hung  in  the  shadow  of  a  heaven? 
Or  has  the  shock,  so  harshly  given, 

Confused  me  like  the  unhappy  bark 

That  strikes  by  night  a  craggy  shelf, 
And  staggers  blindly  ere  she  sink? 
And  stunn'd  me  from  my  power  to 
think 

And  all  my  knowledge  of  myself; 

And  made  me  that  delirious  man 
Whose  fancy  fuses  old  and  new, 
And  flashes  into  false  and  true, 

And  mingles  all  without  a  plan  ? 

XVII. 

Thou   comest,  much  wept  for:    such  a 
breeze 
Compell'd  thy  canvas,  and  my  prayer 
Was  as  the  whisper  of  an  air 

To  breathe  thee  over  lonely  seas. 

For  I  in  spirit  saw  thee  move 

Thro'  circles  of  the  bounding  sky, 
Week  after  week  :  the  days  go  by : 

Come  quick,  thou  bringest  all  I  love. 

Henceforth,  wherever  thou  may'st  roam, 
My  blessing,  like  a  line  of  light, 
Is  on  the  waters  day  and  night, 

And  like  a  beacon  guards  thee  home. 

So  may  whatever  tempest  mars 

Mid-ocean, spare  thee,  sacred  bark; 
And  balmy  drops  in  summer  dark 

Slide  from  the  bosom  of  the  stars. 

So  kind  an  office  hath  been  done, 

Such  precious  relics  brought  by  thee; 
The  dust  of  him  I  shall  not  see 

Till  all  my  widow'd  race  be  run. 

XVIII. 

'Tis  well;  'tis  something;  we  may  stand 
Where  he  in  English  earth  is  laid, 
And  from  his  ashes  may  be  made 

The  violet  of  his  native  land. 

'Tis  little ;   but  it  looks  in  truth 

As  if  the  quiet  bones  were  blest 
Among  familiar  names  to  rest 

And  in  the  places  of  his  youth. 


IN  MEMORIAM. 


247 


Come  then,  pure   hands,  and  bear  the 
head 
That  sleeps  or  wears  the  mask   of 

sleep, 
And  come,  whatever  loves  to  weep, 
And  hear  the  ritual  of  the  dead. 

Ah  yet,  ev'n  yet,  if  this  might  be, 
I,  falling  on  his  faithful  heart, 
Would  breathing  thro'  his  lips  im- 
part 

The  life  that  almost  dies  in  me; 

That  dies  not,  but  endures  with  pain, 
And  slowly  forms  the  firmer  mind, 
Treasuring  the  look  it  cannot  find, 

The  words  that  are  not  heard  again. 

XIX. 

The  Danube  to  the  Severn  gave 

The   darken'd   heart   that   beat   no 

more; 
They  laid  him  by  the  pleasant  shore, 

And  in  the  hearing  of  the  wave. 

There  twice  a  day  the  Severn  fills; 
The  salt  sea-water  passes  by, 
And  hushes  half  the  babbling  Wye, 

And  makes  a  silence  in  the  hills. 

The  Wye  is  hush'd  nor  moved  along, 
And  hush'd  my  deepest  grief  of  all, 
When   fill'd  with  tears  that  cannot 
fall, 

I  brim  with  sorrow  drowning  song. 

The  tide  flows  down,  the  wave  again 
Is  vocal  in  its  wooded  walls; 
My  deeper  anguish  also  falls, 

And  I  can  speak  a  little  then. 

XX. 

The  lesser  griefs  that  may  be  said, 

That  breathe  a  thousand  tender  vows, 
Are  but  as  servants  in  a  house 

Where  lies  the  master  newly  dead; 

Who  speak  their  feeling  as  it  is, 

And    weep    the    fulness    from   the 

mind: 
'  It  will  be  hard,'  they  say,  '  to  find 

Another  service  such  as  this.' 


My  lighter  moods  are  like  to  these, 
That  out  of  words  a  comfort  win; 
But  there  are  other  griefs  within, 

And  tears  that  at  their  fountain  freeze; 

For  by  the  hearth  the  children  sit 

Cold  in  that  atmosphere  of  Death, 
And    scarce   endure   to    draw    the 
breath, 

Or  like  to  noiseless  phantoms  flit : 

But  open  converse  is  there  none, 
So  much  the  vital  spirits  sink 
To  see  the  vacant  chair,  and  think, 

*  How    good !    how    kind !    and,  he    is 
gone.' 

XXI. 

I  sing  to  him  that  rests  below, 

And,  since   the   grasses   round   me 
wave, 

I  take  the  grasses  of  the  grave, 
And  make  them  pipes  whereon  to  blow. 

The  traveller  hears  me  now  and  then, 
And    sometimes    harshly    will    he 

speak : 
'  This  fellow  would  make  weakness 
weak, 
And  melt  the  waxen  hearts  of  men.' 

Another  answers,  '  Let  him  be, 

He  loves  to  make  parade  of  pain, 
That  with  his  piping  he  may  gain 

The  praise  that  comes  to  constancy.' 

A  third  is  wroth :  '  Is  this  an  hour 
For  private  sorrow's  barren  song, 
When  more  and  more   the   people 
throng 

The  chairs  and  thrones  of  civil  power? 

*A  time  to  sicken  and  to  swoon, 

When    Science   reaches    forth    her 

arms 
To   feel    from  world  to  world,  and 
charms 
Her  secret  from  the  latest  moon?' 

Behold,  ye  speak  an  idle  thing: 

Ye  never  knew  the  sacred  dust : 
I  do  but  sing  because  I  must, 

And  pipe  but  as  the  linnets  sing : 


248 


IN  MEMORIAM. 


And  one  is  glad;   her  note  is  gay, 

For  now  her  little  ones  have  ranged ; 
And  one  is  sad ;  her  note  is  changed, 

Because  her  brood  is  stol'n  away. 

XXII. 

The  path  by  which  we  twain  did  go, 

Which  led  by  tracts  that  pleased  us 

well, 
Thro'  four  sweet  years  arose  and  fell, 

From  flower  to  flower,  from  snow  to  snow : 

And  we  with  singing  cheer'd  the  way, 
And,  crown'd  with   all   the   season 

lent, 
From  April  on  to  April  went, 

And  glad  at  heart  from  May  to  May  : 

But  where  the  path  we  walk'd  began 
To  slant  the  fifth  autumnal  slope, 
As  we  descended  following  Hope 

There  sat  the  Shadow  fear'd  of  man; 

Who  broke  our  fair  companionship, 

And   spread   his   mantle   dark   and 

cold, 
And  wrapt  thee  formless  in  the  fold, 

And  dull'd  the  murmur  on  thy  lip, 

And  bore  thee  where  I  could  not  see 
Nor  follow,  tho'  I  walk  in  haste, 
And  think,  that  somewhere  in  the 
waste 

The  Shadow  sits  and  waits  for  me. 

XXIII. 

Now,  sometimes  in  my  sorrow  shut, 
Or  breaking  into  song  by  fits, 
Alone,  alone,  to  where  he  sits, 

The  Shadow  cloak'd  from  head  to  foot, 

Who  keeps  the  keys  of  all  the  creeds, 
I  wander,  often  falling  lame, 
And  looking  back  to  whence  I  came, 

Or  on  to  where  the  pathway  leads; 

And  crying,  How  changed  from  where  it 
ran 
Thro'   lands  where    not   a  leaf  was 

dumb; 
But  all  the  lavish  hills  would  hum 
The  murmur  of  a  happy  Pan  : 


When  each  by  turns  was  guide  to  each, 
And     Fancy     light     from      Fancy 

caught, 
And  Thought  leapt  out  to  wed  with 
Thought 
Ere    Thought    could    wed    itself    with 
Speech; 

And  all  we  met  was  fair  and  good, 

And  all  was  good  that  Time  could 

bring, 
And  all  the  secret  of  the  Spring 

Moved  in  the  chambers  of  the  blood; 

And  many  an  old  philosophy 

On  Argive  heights  divinely  sang, 
And  round  us  all  the  thicket  rang 

To  many  a  flute  of  Arcady. 

XXIV. 

And  was  the  day  of  my  delight 
As  pure  and  perfect  as  I  say? 
The  very  source  and  fount  of  Day 

Is  dash'd  with  wandering  isles  of  night. 

If  all  was  good  and  fair  we  met, 

This  earth  had  been  the  Paradise 
It  never  look'd  to  human  eyes 

Since  our  first  Sun  arose  and  set. 

And  is  it  that  the  haze  of  grief 

Makes    former    gladness    loom   so 

great? 
The  lowness  of  the  present  state, 

That  sets  the  past  in  this  relief? 

Or  that  the  past  will  always  win 
A  glory  from  its  being  far; 
And  orb  into  the  perfect  star 

We  saw  not,  when  we  moved  therein? 


I  know  that  this  was  Life,  —  the  track 
Whereon  with  equal  feet  we  fared; 
And    then,   as   now,    the   day   pre 
pared 

The  daily  burden  for  the  back. 

But  this  it  was  that  made  me  move 
As  light  as  carrier-birds  in  air; 
1  loved  the  weight  I  had  to  bear, 

Because  it  needed  help  of  Love : 


IN  MEMORIAM. 


249 


i- 


The  time  draws  near  the  birth  of  Christ : 
The  moon  is  hid;  the  night  is  still; 
The  Christmas  bells  from  hill  to  hill 

Answer  each  other  in  the  mist. 

Four  voices  of  four  hamlets  round, 

From  far  and  near,   on   mead   and 

moor, 
Swell  out  and  fail,  as  if  a  door 

Were  shut  between  me  and  the  sound : 

Each  voice  four  changes  on  the  wind, 
That  now  dilate,  and  now  decrease, 
Peace  and  goodwill,   goodwill   and 
peace, 

Peace  and  goodwill,  to  all  mankind. 

This  year  I  slept  and  woke  with  pain, 
I  almost  wish'd  no  more  to  wake, 
And  that  my  hold  on  life  would  break 

Before  I  heard  those  bells  again  : 

But  they  my  troubled  spirit  rule, 

For  they  controll'd  me  when  a  boy; 
They  bring  me  sorrow  touch'd  with 

joy, 

The  merry  merry  bells  of  Yule. 


With  such  compelling  cause  to  grieve 
As  daily  vexes  household  peace, 
And  chains  regret  to  his  decease, 

How  dare  we  keep  our  Christmas-eve; 

Which  brings  no  more  a  welcome  guest 
To  enrich  the  threshold  of  the  night 
With  shower'd  largess  of  delight 

In  dance  and  song  and  game  and  jest? 

Yet  go,  and  while  the  holly  boughs 
Entwine  the  cold  baptismal  font, 
Make  one  wreath  more  for  Use  and 
Wont, 

That  guard  the  portals  of  the  house; 

Old  sisters  of  a  day  gone  by, 

Gray  nurses,  loving  nothing  new; 
Why  should  they  miss  their  yearly 
due 

Before  their  time?     They  too  will  die. 


Nor  could  I  weary,  heart  or  limb, 

When  mighty  Love  would  cleave  in 

twain 
The  lading  of  a  single  pain, 

And  part  it,  giving  half  to  him. 

XXVI. 

Still  onward  winds  the  dreary  way; 
I  with  it;   for  I  long  to  prove 
No    lapse    of   moons    can    canker 
Love, 

Whatever  fickle  tongues  may  say. 

And  if  that  eye  which  watches  guilt 

And  goodness,  and  hath  power  to 

see 
Within    the    green    the    moulder'd 
tree, 
And  towers  fall'n  as  soon  as  built  — 

Oh,  if  indeed  that  eye  foresee 

Or  see  (in  Him  is  no  before) 
In  more  of  life  true  life  no  more 

And  Love  the  indifference  to  be, 

Then  might  I  find,  ere  yet  the  morn 
Breaks  hither  over  Indian  seas, 
That     Shadow    waiting    with     the 
keys, 

To  shroud  me  from  my  proper  scorn. 


I  envy  not  in  any  moods 

The  captive  void  of  noble  rage, 
The  linnet  born  within  the  cage, 

That  never  knew  the  summer  woods : 

I  envy  not  the  beast  that  takes 

His  license  in  the  field  of  time, 
Unfetter'd  by  the  sense  of  crime, 

To  whom  a  conscience  never  wakes; 

Nor,  what  may  count  itself  as  blest, 

The  heart  that  never  plighted  troth 
But    stagnates    in    the    weeds    of 
sloth; 

Nor  any  want-begotten  rest. 

I  hold  it  true,  whate'er  befall; 

I  feel  it,  when  I  sorrow  most; 

'Tis  better  to  have  loved  and  lost 
Than  never  to  have  loved  at  all. 


250 


IN  MEMORIAM. 


XXX. 

With  trembling  fingers  did  we  weave 
The     holly    round     the     Christmas 

hearth ; 
A  rainy  cloud  possess'd  the  earth, 

And  sadly  fell  our  Christmas-eve. 

At  our  old  pastimes  in  the  hall 

We  gamboll'd,  making  vain  pretence 
Of  gladness,  with  an  awful  sense 

Of^one  mute  Shadow  Watching  all. 

We  paused :  the  winds  were  in  the  beech : 
We   heard   them  sweep  the  winter 

land; 
And  in  a  circle  hand-in-hand 

Sat  silent,  looking  each  at  each. 

Then  echo-like  our  voices  rang; 

We  sung,  tho'  every  eye  was  dim, 
A  merry  song  we  sang  with  him 

Last  year :  impetuously  we  sang : 

We  ceased  :  a  gentler  feeling  crept 
Upon  us :  surely  rest  is  meet : 
•  They  rest,'  we  said,  '  their  sleep  is 
swe  eV 

And  silence  follow'd,  and  we  wept. 

Our  voices  took  a  higher  range; 

Once  more  we  sang :  '  They  do  not 
die 

Nor  lose  their  mortal  sympathy, 
Nor  change  to  us,  altho'  they  change; 

•  Rapt  from  the  fickle  and  the  frail 

With  gather'd  power,  yet  the  same, 
Pierces  the  keen  seraphic  flame 

From  orb  to  orb,  from  veil  to  veil.' 

Rise,  happy  morn,  rise,  holy  morn, 

Draw  forth  the   cheerful    day  from 

night : 
O  Father,  touch  the  east,  and  light 
The   light   that  shone  when    Hope  was 
born. 


When  Lazarus  left  his  charnel-cave, 

And  home  to  Mary's  house  return'd, 
Was  this  demanded  —  if  he  yearn'd 

To  hear  her  weeping  by  his  grave? 


'Where   wert   thou,  brother,  those  four 
days?' 
There  lives  no  record  of  reply, 
Which  telling  what  it  is  to  die 

Had  surely  added  praise  to  praise. 

From  every  house  the  neighbours  met, 
The   streets   were  fill'd  with  joyful 

sound, 
A  solemn  gladness  even  crown'd 

The  purple  brows  of  Olivet. 

Behold  a  man  raised  up  by  Christ ! 

The  rest  remaineth  unreveal'd; 

He  told  it  not;   or  something  seal'd 
The  lips  of  that  Evangelist. 

XXXII. 

Her  eyes  are  homes  of  silent  prayer, 

Nor  other  thought  her  mind  admits 
But,  he  was  dead,  and  there  he  sits, 

And  he  that  brought  him  back  is  there. 

Then  one  deep  love  doth  supersede 
All  other,  when  her  ardent  gaze 
Roves  from  the  living  brother's  face, 

And  rests  upon  the  Life  indeed. 

All  subtle  thought,  all  curious  fears, 

Borne  down  by  gladness  so  complete, 
She  bows,  she  bathes  the  Saviour's 
feet 

With  costly  spikenard  and  with  tears. 

Thrice   blest   whose    lives    are    faithful 
prayers, 
Whose  loves  in  higher  love  endure; 
What   souls   possess   themselves  so 
pure, 
Or  is  there  blessedness  like  theirs? 

XXXIII. 

O  thou  that  after  toil  and  storm 

Mayst  seem  to  have  reach'd  a  purer 

air, 
Whose  faith  has  centre  everywhere, 

Nor  cares  to  fix  itself  to  form, 

Leave  thou  thy  sister  when  she  prays, 
Her  early  Heaven,  her  happy  views; 
Nor  thou  with  shadow'd  hint  confuse 

A  life  that  leads  melodious  days. 


IN  MEMORIAM. 


251 


Her  faith  thro'  form  is  pure  as  thine, 

And  Love  would  answer  with  a  sigh, 

Her  hands  are  quicker  unto  good : 

'  The  sound  of  that  forgetful  shore 

Oh,  sacred  be  the  flesh  and  blood 

Will  change  my  sweetness  more  and 

To  which  she  links  a  truth  divine ! 

more, 

Half-dead  to  know  that  I  shall  die.' 

See  thou,  that  countest  reason  ripe 

In  holding  by  the  law  within, 

0  me,  whr.t  profits  it  to  put 

Thou  fail  not  in  a  world  of  sin, 

An  i     •  case?     If  Death  were  seen 

And  ev'n  for  want  of  such  a  type. 

At  fi    .  as  Death,  Love  had  not  been, 

Or  been  in  narrowest  working  shut, 

XXXIV. 

Mere  fellowship  of  sluggish  moods, 

My  own  dim  life  should  teach  me  this, 

Or  in  his  coarsest  Satyr-shape 

That  life  shall  live  for  evermore, 

Had  bruised  the  herb  and  crush'd 

Else  earth  is  darkness  at  the  core, 

the  grape, 

And  dust  and  ashes  all  that  is; 

And  bask'd  and  batten'd  in  the  woods. 

This  round  of  green,  this  orb  of  flame, 

XXXVI. 

Fantastic  beauty;   such  as  lurks 

Tho'  truths  in  manhood  darkly  join, 

In  some  wild  Poet,  when  he  works 

Deep-seated  in  our  mystic  frame, 

Without  a  conscience  or  an  aim. 

We  yield  all  blessing  to  the  name 

Of  Him  that  made  them  current  coin; 

What  then  were  God  to  such  as  I  ? 

'Twere    hardly  worth   my  while   to 

For  Wisdom  dealt  with  mortal  powers, 

choose 

Where  truth  in  closest  words  shall 

Of  things  all  mortal,  or  to  use 

fail, 

A  little  patience  ere  I  die; 

When  truth  embodied  in  a  tale 

Shall  enter  in  at  lowly  doors. 

'Twere  best  at  once  to  sink  to  peace, 

Like   birds   the    charming    serpent 

And    so    the    Word    had    breath,    and 

draws, 

wrought 

To  drop  head-foremost  in  the  jaws 

With    human    hands   the   creed    of 

Of  vacant  darkness  and  to  cease. 

creeds 

In  loveliness  of  perfect  deeds, 

XXXV. 

More  strong  than  all  poetic  thought; 

Yet  if  some  voice  that  man  could  trust 

Which  he  may  read  that  binds  the  sheaf, 

Should    murmur    from   the   narrow 

Or  builds  the  house,  or  digs  the  grave, 

house, 

And  those  wild  eyes  that  watch  the 

'The    cheeks    drop    in;    the    body 

wave 

bows; 

In  roarings  round  the  coral  reef. 

Man  dies :  nor  is  there  hope  in  dust : ' 

XXXVII. 

Might  I  not  say?  'Yet  even,  here, 

Urania  speaks  with  darken'd  brow : 

But  for  one  hour,  O  Love,  I  strive 

'Thou  pratest  here  where  thou  art 

To  keep  so  sweet  a  thing  alive  : ' 

least ; 

But  I  should  turn  mine  ears  and  hear 

This  faith  has  many  a  purer  priest, 

And  many  an  abler  voice  than  thou. 

The  moanings  of  the  homeless  sea, 

The  sound  of  streams  that  swift  or 

'Go  down  beside  thy  native  rill, 

slow 

On  thy  Parnassus  set  thy  feet, 

Draw  down  Ionian  hills,  and  sow 

And  hear  thy  laurel  whisper  sweet 

The  dust  of  continents  to  be; 

About  the  ledges  of  the  hill.' 

252 


IN  MEMORIAM. 


And  my  Melpomene  replies, 

A  touch  of  shame  upon  her  cheek  : 
*  I  am  not  worthy  ev'n  to  speak 

Of  thy  prevailing  mysteries; 

'For  I  am  but  an  earthly  Muse, 
And  owning  but  a  little  art 
To  lull  with  song  an  aching  heart, 

And  render  human  love  his  dues; 

1  But  brooding  on  the  dear  one  dead, 
And  all  he  said  of  things  divine, 
(And  dear  to  me  as  sacred  wine 

To  dying  lips  is  all  he  said), 

•  I  murmur'd,  as  I  came  along, 

Of  comfort  clasp'd  in  truth  reveal'd: 
And  loiter'd  in  the  master's  field, 

And  darken'd  sanctities  with  song.' 


With  weary  steps  I  loiter  on, 

Tho'  always  under  alter'd  skies 
The  purple  from  the  distance  dies, 

My  prospect  and  horizon  gone. 

No  joy  the  blowing  season  gives, 
The  herald  melodies  of  spring, 
But  in  the  songs  I  love  to  sing 

A  doubtful  gleam  of  solace  lives. 

If  any  care  for  what  is  here 

Survive  in  spirits  render'd  free, 
Then  are  these  songs  I  sing  of  thee 

Not  all  ungrateful  to  thine  ear. 

xxxix. 

Old  warder  of  these  buried  bones, 

And    answering    now    my    random 

stroke 
With  fruitful  cloud  and  living  smoke, 

Dark  yew,  that  graspest  at  the  stones 

And  dippest  toward  the  dreamless  head, 
To  thee  too  comes  the  golden  hour 
When  flower  is  feeling  after  flower; 

But  Sorrow  —  fixt  upon  the  dead, 

And  darkening  the  dark  graves  of  men, — 
What  whisper'd  from  her  lying  lips? 
Thy  gloom  is  kindled  at  the  tips, 

And  passes  into  gloom  again. 


Could  we  forget  the  widow'd  hour 

And  look  on  Spirits  breathed  away, 
As  on-  a  maiden  in  the  day 

When  first  she  wears  her  orange-flower ! 

When   crown'd  with  blessing  she   doth 
rise 
To  take  her  latest  leave  of  home, 
And   hopes   and   light  regrets  that 
come 
Make  April  of  her  tender  eyes; 

And  doubtful  joys  the  father  move, 

And  tears  are  on  the  mother's  face, 
As  parting  with  a  long  embrace 

She  enters  other  realms  of  love; 

Her  office  there  to  rear,  to  teach, 
Becoming  as  is  meet  and  fit 
A  link  among  the  days,  to  knit 

The  generations  each  with  each; 

And,  doubtless,  unto  thee  is  given 
A  life  that  bears  immortal  fruit 
In  those  great  offices  that  suit 

The  full-grown  energies  of  heaven. 

Ay  me,  the  difference  I  discern ! 

How  often  shall  her  old  fireside 
Be  cheer'd  with  tidings  of  the  bride, 

How  often  she  herself  return, 

And  tell  them  all  they  would  have  told, 
And  bring  her  babe,  and  make  her 

boast, 
Till    even    those    that    miss'd    her 
most 
Shall  count  new  things  as  dear  as  old : 

But  thou  and  I  have  shaken  hands, 
Till  growing  winters  lay  me  low; 
My  paths  are  in  the  fields  I  know, 

And  thine  in  undiscover'd  lands. 


Thy  spirit  ere  our  fatal  loss 

Did  ever  rise  from  high  to  higher; 

As   mounts   the   heavenward   altar- 
fire, 
As  flies  the  lighter  thro'  the  gross. 


IN  MEMORIAM. 


253 


But  thou  art  turn'd  to  something  strange, 
And  I  have  lost  the  links  that  bound 
Thy  changes;  here  upon  the  ground, 

No  more  partaker  of  thy  change. 

Deep  folly !  yet  that  this  could  be  — 

That   I    could   wing   my   will   with 

might 
To  leap  the  grades  of  life  and  light, 

And  flash  at  once,  my  friend,  to  thee. 

For  tho'  my  nature  rarely  yields 

To  that  vague  fear  implied  in  death; 
Nor  shudders  at  the  gulfs  beneath, 

The  howlings  from  forgotten  fields; 

Yet  oft  when  sundown  skirts  the  moor 
An  inner  trouble  I  behold, 
A  spectral  doubt  which  makes  me 
cold, 

That  I  shall  be  thy  mate  no  more, 

Tho'  following  with  an  upward  mind 

The    wonders    that    have    come   to 

thee, 
Thro'  all  the  secular  to-be, 

But  evermore  a  life  behind. 


I  vex  my  heart  with  fancies  dim : 

He  still  outstript  me  in  the  race; 
It  was  but  unity  of  place 

That    made   me    dream    I    rank'd    with 
him. 

And  so  may  Place  retain  us  still, 

And  he  the  much-beloved  again, 
A  lord  of  large  experience,  train 

To  riper  growth  the  mind  and  will: 

And  what  delights  can  equal  those 
That  stir  the  spirit's  inner  deeps, 
When  one  that  loves  but  knows  not, 
reaps 

A  truth  from  one  that  loves  and  knows? 


If  Sleep  and  Death  be  truly  one, 
And  every  spirit's  folded  bloom 
Thro'  all  its  intervital  gloom 

In    some    long    trance    should    slumber 
on; 


Unconscious  of  the  sliding  hour, 
Bare  of  the  body,  might  it  last, 
And  silent  traces  of  the  past 

Be  all  the  colour  of  the  flower : 

So  then  were  nothing  lost  to  man; 
So  that  still  garden  of  the  souls 
In  many  a  figured  leaf  enrolls 

The  total  world  since  life  began; 

And  love  will  last  as  pure  and  whole 

As    when    he    loved    me    here    in 

Time, 
And  at  the  spiritual  prime 

Rewaken  with  the  dawning  soul. 


How  fares  it  with  the  happy  dead? 

For    here    the    man    is    more    and 
more; 

But  he  forgets  the  days  before 
God  shut  the  doorways  of  his  head. 

The  days  have  vanish'd,  tone  and  tint, 
And  yet  perhaps  the  hoarding  sense 
Gives  out   at  times  (he  knows  not 
whence) 

A  little  flash,  a  mystic  hint; 

And  in  the  long  harmonious  years 

(If  Death  so  taste  Lethean  springs), 
May   some    dim    touch    of    earthly 
things 

Surprise  thee  ranging  with  thy  peers. 

If  such  a  dreamy  touch  should  fall, 

O    turn    thee    round,    resolve    the 

doubt; 
My  guardian  angel  will  speak  out 

In  that  high  place,  and  tell  thee  all. 


The  baby  new  to  earth  and  sky, 

What  time  his  tender  palm  is  prest 
Against  the  circle  of  the  breast, 

Has  never  thought  that  '  this  is  I : ' 

But  as  he  grows  he  gathers  much, 

And    learns    the    use    of   '  I,'    and 
'me,' 
'  And  finds  '  I  am  not  what  I  see, 
And  other  than  the  things  I  touch.' 


254 


IN  MEMORIAM. 


So  rounds  he  to  a  separate  mind 

From    whence   clear    memory   may 

begin, 
As  thro'  the  frame  that  binds  him  in 

His  isolation  grows  defined. 

This  use  may  lie  in  blood  and  breath, 
Which  else  were  fruitless  of  their 

due, 
Had  man  to  learn  himself  anew 

Beyond  the  second  birth  of  Death. 


We  ranging  down  this  lower  track, 

The   path  we   came   by,  thorn  and 

flower, 
Is  shadow'd  by  the  growing  hour, 

Lest  life  should  fail  in  looking  back. 

So  be  it :  there  no  shade  can  last 

In  that  deep  dawn  behind  the  tomb, 
But  clear  from  marge  to  marge  shall 
bloom 

The  eternal  landscape  of  the  past; 

A  lifelong  tract  of  time  reveal'd ; 

The  fruitful  hours  of  still  increase; 

Days  order'd  in  a  wealthy  peace, 
And  those  five  years  its  richest  field. 

O  Love,  thy  province  were  not  large, 
A    bounded    field,    nor    stretching 

far; 
Look  also,  Love,  a  brooding  star, 

A  rosy  warmth  from  marge  to  marge. 


That  each,  who  seems  a  separate  whole, 
Should  move  his  rounds,  and  fusing 

all 
The  skirts  of  self  again,  should  fall 

Remerging  in  the  general  Soul, 

Is  faith  as  vague  as  all  unsweet : 
Eternal  form  shall  still  divide 
The  eternal  soul  from  all  beside; 

And  I  shall  know  him  when  we  meet : 

And  we  shall  sit  at  endless  feast, 

Enjoying  each  the  other's  good  : 
What  vaster  dream  can  hit  the  niood 

Of  Love  on  earth?     He  seeks  at  least 


Upon  the  last  and  sharpest  height, 
Before  the  spirits  fade  away, 
Some   landing-place,   to   clasp  and 
say, 

1  Farewell !     We  lose  ourselves  in  light.' 

XLVIII. 

If  these  brief  lays,  of  Sorrow  born, 
Were  taken  to  be  such  as  closed 
Grave  doubts  and  answers  here  pro- 
posed, 
Then   these   were   such   as   men   might 
scorn  : 

Her  care  is  not  to  part  and  prove; 

She    takes,    when    harsher    moods 

remit, 
What  slender  shade  of  doubt  may 
flit, 
And  makes  it  vassal  unto  love : 

And   hence,  indeed,  she   sports   with 
words, 
But  better  serves  a  wholesome  law, 
And  holds  it  sin  and  shame  to  draw 

The  deepest  measure  from  the  chords : 

Nor  dare  she  trust  a  larger  lay, 

But  rather  loosens  from  the  lip 
SJiort  swallow-flights  of  song,  that 
dip 

Their  wings  in  tears,  and  skim  away. 


From  art,  from  nature,  from  the  schools, 
Let  random  influences  glance, 
Like  light  in  many  a  shiver'd  lance 

That  breaks  about  the  dappled  pools : 

The  lightest  wave  of  thought  shall  lisp, 
The  fancy's  tenderest  eddy  wreathe, 
The  slightest  air  of  song  shall  breathe 

To  make  the  sullen  surface  crisp. 

And  look  thy  look,  and  go  thy  way, 

But  blame  not  thou  the  winds  that 

make 
The  seeming-wanton  ripple  break, 

The  tender-pencill'd  shadow  play. 

Beneath  all  fancied  hopes  and  fears 
Ay  me,  the  sorrow  deepens  down, 


IN  MEMORIAM. 


255 


Whose   muffled    motions    blindly 
drown 
The  bases  of  my  life  in  tears. 

0 

Be_jie^r^ne_whejijny4igbfris-4©w, 

WTie^TlheHood   creeps,    and    the 

nerves  prick 
And  tingle;   and  the  heart  is  sick, 

And  all  the  wheels  of  Being  slow. 

Be  near  me  when  the  sensuous  frame 
Is  rack'd  with  pangs  that  conquer 

trust; 
And  Time,  a  maniac  scattering  dust, 

And  Life,  a  Fury  slinging  flame. 

Be  near  me  wher|  my  faith-js  dry, 

And  men  the  flies  of  latter  spring, 
That  lay  their  eggs,  and  sting  and 
sing 

And  weave  their  petty  cells  and  die. 

Be  near  me  when  I  fade  away, 

To  point  the  term  of  human  strife, 
And  on  the  low  dark  verge  of  life 

The  twilight  of  eternal  day. 

LI. 

Do  we  indeed  desire  the  dead 

Should  still  be  near  us  at  our  side? 
Is    there    no    baseness    we    would 
hide? 

No  inner_vileness  that  we  dread? 

Shall  he  for  whose  applause  I  strove, 
I  had  such  reverence  for  his  blame, 
See   with    clear    eye    some   hidden 
shame 

And  I_be'lessen'd  in  his  love? 

I  wrong  the  grave  with  fears  untrue : 

Shall   love  be  blamed   for  want   of 

faith? 
There  must   be  wisdom  with   great 
Death : 
The  dead  shall  look  me  thro'  and  thro'. 

Be  near  us  when  we  climb  or  fall : 

Ye  watch,  like  God,  the  rolling  hours 
With  larger  other  eyes  than  ours, 

To  make  allowance  for  us  all. 


I  cannot  love  thee  as  I  ought, 

For  love  reflects  the  thing  beloved; 

My  words  are  only  words,  and  moved 
Upon  the  topmost  froth  of  thought. 

« Yet  blame  not  thou  thy  plaintive  song,' 
The  Spirit  of  true  love  replied; 
'  Thou  canst  not  move  me  from  thy 
side, 

Nor  human  frailty  do  me  wrong. 

*  What  keeps  a  spirit  wholly  true 
To  that  ideal  which  he  bears? 
WThat  record?    not  the  sinless  years 

That  breathed  beneath  the  Syrian  blue  : 

'  So  fret-not,  like  an  idle  girl, 

Thatjifeus_diisk'd_mitli-fleeks  of  sin. 

Abide  :  thy  wealth  is  gather'd  in, 
WhenTtrhe   hath   sunder'd   shell   from 
pearl. ' 

LIII. 

How  many  a  father  have  I  seen, 
A  sober  man,  among  his  boys, 
Whose    youth   was    full   of    foolish 
noise, 

Who  wears  his  manhood  hale  and  green : 

And  dare  we  to  this  fancy  give, 

That    had    the    wild   oat   not  been 

sown, 
The    soil,   left    barren,   scarce    had 
grown 
The  grain  by  which  a  man  may  live? 

Or,  if  we  held  the  doctrine  sound 
For  life  outliving  heats  of  youth, 
Yet  who  would  preach  it  as  a  truth 

To  those  that  eddy  round  and  round? 

Hold  thou  the  good :  define  it  well : 
For  fear  divine  Philosophy 
Should  push  beyond  her  mark,  and  be 

Procuress  to  the  Lords  of  Hell. 

uv. 

Oh  yet  wejtrjist  that  somehow  good 
Will  be  the  final  goal  of  ill, 
To  pangs  of  nature,  sins  of  will, 

Defects  of  doubt,  and  taints  of  blood ; 


256 


IN  MEMORIAM. 


That  nothing  walks  with. aimless  feet; 
That  not  one  life  shall  be  destroy'd, 
Or  cast  as  rubbish  to  the  void, 

When  God  hath  made  the  pile  complete; 

That  not  a  worm  is  cloven  in  vain; 
That  not  a  moth  with  vain  desire 
Is  shrivell'd  in  a  fruitless  fire, 

Or  but  subserves  another's  gain. 

Behold,  we  know  not  anything; 

I  can  but  trust  that  good  shall  fall 
At  last  —  far  off —  at  last,  to  all, 

And  every  winter  change  to  spring. 

So  runs  my  dream :  but  what  am  I? 
An  infant  crying  in  the  night: 
An  infant  crying  for  the  light : 

And  with  no  language  but  a  cry. 


The  wish,  that  of  the  living  whole 

No  life  may  fail  beyond  the  grave, 
Derives  it  not  from  what  we  have 

The  likest  God  within  the  soul? 

Are  God  and  Nature  then  at  strife, 

That  Nature  lends  such  evil  dreams? 
So  careful  of  the  type  she  seems, 

So  careless  of  the  single  life; 

That  I,  considering  everywhere 

Her  secret  meaning  in  her  deeds, 
And  finding  that  of  fifty  seeds 

She  often  brings  but  one  to  bear, 

I  falter  where  Infirmly  trod, 

And  falling  with  my  weight  of  cares 
Upon  the  great  "world's  altar-stairs 
That  slope  thro'  darkness  up  to  God, 

I  stretch  lame  hands  of  faith,  and  grope, 
~Alid~gaT[hef\diTst  and  chaff,  and  call 
To  what  I  feel  is  Lord  of  all, 
And  faintly  trust  the  larger  hope. 

LVI. 

'  So  careful  of  the  type? '  but  no. 

From  scarped  cliff  and  quarried  stone 
She   cries,  'A   thousand   types   are 
gone  : 

I  care  for  nothing,  all  shall  go. 


'Thou  makest  thine  appeal  to  me: 
I  bring  to  life,  I  bring  to  death  : 
The_spirit  does  but  meanjthebreath : 

I  know  no  more'     And  he,  shall  lie, 

Man,  her  last  work,  who  seem'd  so  fair, 
Such  splendid  purpose  in  his  eyes, 
Who    roll'd    the    psalm    to    wintry 
skies, 

Who  built  him  fanes  of  fruitless  prayer, 

Who  trusted  God  was  lovejndeed 

And  love  Creation's  final  law  — 
Th.o'  Nature,  red  in  tooth  and  claw 
With  ravine,  shriek'd  against  his  creed  — 

Who  loved,  who  suffer'd  countless  ills, 
Who  battled  for  the  True,  the  Just, 
BeJilown  about  the  desert  dust, 

Or  seal'd  within  the  iron  hills? 

No  more  ?     A  monstfir  Jthen,  a  dream. 
A-diseord.     Dragons  of  the  prime, 
That  tare  each  other  in  their  slime, 

Were  mellow  music  match'd  with  him. 

0  life  as  futile,  then,  as  frail ! 

O  for  thy  voice  to  soothe  and  bless ! 
What  hope  of  answer,  or  redress? 
Behind-  the  veil,,  hehind-the-reil. 

LVII. 

Peace;   come  away:  the  song  of  woe 
Is  after  all  an  earthly__aong : 
Peace;    come    away:    we    do   him 
wrong 

To  sing  so  wildly :  let  us  go. 

Come;   let  us  go  :  your  cheeks  are  pale; 
But  half  my  life  I  leave  behind : 
Methinks  my  friend  is  richly  shrined; 

But  I  shall  pass;   my  work  will-foil. 

Yet  in  these  ears,  till  hearing  dies, 

One  set  slow  bell  will  seem  to  toll 
The  passing  of  the  sweetest  soul 

That  ever  look'd  with  human  eyes. 

1  hear  it  now,  and  o'er  and  o'er, 

Eternal  greetings  to  the  dead; 
And  ■  Ave,  Ave,  Ave,'  said, 
'  Adieu,  adieu,'  for  evermore. 


IN  MEMORIAM. 


257 


LVIII. 

In  those  sad  words  I  took  farewell : 
Like  echoes  in  sepulchral  halls, 
As  drop  by  drop  the  water  falls 

In  vaults  and  catacombs,  they  fell; 

And,  falling,  idly  broke  the  peace 

Of  hearts  that  beat  from  day  to  day, 
Half-conscious  of  their  dying  clay, 

And  those  cold  crypts  where  they  shall 


The  high   Muse   answer'd :    '  Wherefore 
grieve 

Thy  brethren  with  a  fruitless  tear? 

Abide  a  little  longer  here, 
And  thou  shalt  take  a  nobler  leave.' 

LIX. 

O  Sorrow,  wilt  thou  live  with  me 
No  casual  mistress,  but  a  wife, 
My  bosom-friend  and  half  of  life; 

As  I  confess  it  needs  must  be; 

O  Sorrow,  wilt  thou  rule  my  blood, 
Be  sometimes  lovely  like  a  bride, 
And  put  thy  harsher  moods  aside, 

If  thou  wilt  have  me  wise  and  good. 

My  centred  passion  cannot  move, 
Nor  will  it  lessen  from  to-day; 
But  I'll  have  leave  at  times  to  play 

As  with  the  creature  of  my  love; 

And  set  thee  forth,  for  thou  art  mine, 
With   so   much    hope    for   years  to 

come, 
That,  howsoe'er  I  know  thee,  some 

Could  hardly  tell  what  name  were  thine. 

LX. 

He  past;   a  soul  of  nobler  tone : 

My  spirit  loved  and  loves  him  yet, 
Like  some  poor  girl  whose  heart  is 
set 

On  one  whose  rank  exceeds  her  own 

He  mixing  with  his  proper  sphere, 
She  finds  the  baseness  of  her  lot, 
Half  jealous  of  she  knows  not  what, 

And  envying  all  that  meet  him  there. 


The  little  village  looks  forlorn; 

She  sighs  amid  her  narrow  days, 
Moving  about  the  household  ways, 

In  that  dark  house  where  she  was  born. 

The  foolish  neighbours  come  and  go, 
And  tease  her  till  the  day  draws  by : 
At    night    she    weeps,   '  How   vain 
am  I ! 

How  should  he  love  a  thing  so  low  ? ' 

LXI. 

If,  in  thy  second  state  sublime, 

Thy  ransom'd  reason  change  replies 
With  all  the  circle  of  the  wise, 

The  perfect  flower  of  human  time; 

And  if  thou  cast  thine  eyes  below, 

How  dimly  character'd  and  slight, 
How  dwarf'd  a  growth  of  cold  and 
night, 

How  blanch'd  with  darkness  must  I  grow ! 

Yet  turn  thee  to  the  doubtful  shore, 

Where  thy  first  form  was  made  a 

man; 
I  loved  thee,  Spirit,  and  love,  nor  can 

The  soul  of  Shakspeare  love  thee  more. 

LXII. 

Tho'  if  an  eye  that's  downward  cast 

Could  make  thee  somewhat  blench 

or  fail, 
Then  be  my  love  an  idle  tale, 

And  fading  legend  of  the  past; 

And  thou,  as  one  that  once  declined, 
When  he  was  little  more  than  boy, 
On  some  unworthy  heart  with  joy, 

But  lives  to  wed  an  equal  mind; 

And  breathes  a  novel  world,  the  while 
His  other  passion  wholly  dies, 
Or  in  the  light  of  deeper  eyes 

Is  matter  for  a  flying  smile. 


Yet  pity  for  a  horse  o'er-driven, 

And  love  in  which  my  hound  has 

part, 
Can  hang  no  weight  upon  my  heart 

In  its  assumptions  up  to  heaven; 


258 


IN  MEMORIAM. 


And  I  am  so  much  more  than  these, 

As  thou,  perchance,  art  more  than  I, 
And  yet  I  spare  them  sympathy, 

And  I  would  set  their  pains  at  ease. 

So  mayst  thou  watch  me  where  I  weep, 
As,  unto  vaster  motions  bound, 
The  circuits  of  thine  orbit  round 

A  higher  height,  a  deeper  deep. 


Dost  thou  look  back  on  what  hath  been, 
As  some  divinely  gifted  man, 
Whose  life  in  low  estate  began 

And  on  a  simple  village  green; 

Who  breaks  his  birth's  invidious  bar, 
And    grasps    the    skirts   of    happy 

chance, 
And   breasts  the  blows  of  circum- 
stance, 
And  grapples  with  his  evil  star; 

Who  makes  by  force  his  merit  known 
And  lives  to  clutch  the  golden  keys, 
To  mould  a  mighty  state's  decrees, 

And  shape  the  whisper  of  the  throne; 

And  moving  up  from  high  to  higher, 

Becomes  on  Fortune's  crowning  slope 
The  pillar  of  a  people's  hope, 

The  centre  of  a  world's  desire; 

Yet  feels,  as  in  a  pensive  dream, 

When  all  his  active  powers  are  still, 
A  distant  dearness  in  the  hill, 

A  secret  sweetness  in  the  stream, 

The  limit  of  his  narrower  fate, 

While  yet  beside  its  vocal  springs 
He  play'd  at  counsellors  and  kings, 

With  one  that  was  his  earliest  mate; 

Who  ploughs  with  pain  his  native  lea 
And  reaps  the  labour  of  his  hands, 
Or  in  the  furrow  musing  stands; 

'  Does  my  old  friend  remember  me?' 

LXV. 

Sweet  soul,  do  with  me  as  thou  wilt; 

I  lull  a  fancy  trouble-tost 

With  '  Love's  too  precious  to  be  lost, 
A  little  grain  shall  not  be  spilt.' 


And  in  that  solace  can  I  sing, 

Till  out  of  painful  phases  wrought 
There  flutters  up  a  happy  thought, 

Self-balanced  on  a  lightsome  wing : 

Since  we  deserved  the  name  of  friends, 
And  thine  effect  so  lives  in  me, 
A  part  of  mine  may  live  in  thee 

And  move  thee  on  to  noble  ends. 

LXVI. 

You  thought  my  heart  too  far  diseased; 
You  wonder  when  my  fancies  play 
To  find  me  gay  among  the  gay, 

Like  one  with  any  trifle  pleased. 

The  shade  by  which  my  life  was  crost, 
Which  makes  a  desert  in  the  mind, 
Has  made  me  kindly  with  my  kind, 

And  like  to  him  whose  sight  is  lost; 

Whose  feet  are  guided  thro'  the  land, 
Whose  jest    among   his   friends   is 

free, 
Who  takes  the  children  on  his  knee, 

And  winds  their  curls  about  his  hand : 

He  plays  with  threads,  he  beats  his  chair 
For  pastime,  dreaming  of  the  sky; 
His  inner  day  can  never  die, 

His  night  of  loss  is  always  there. 

LXVII. 

When  on  my  bed  the  moonlight  falls, 
I  know  that  in  thy  place  of  rest 
By  that  broad  water  of  the  west, 

There  comes  a  glory  on  the  walls : 

Thy  marble  bright  in  dark  appears, 
As  slowly  steals  a  silver  flame 
Along  the  letters  of  thy  name, 

And  o'er  the  number  of  thy  years. 

The  mystic  glory  swims  away; 

From  off  my  bed  the  moonlight  dies; 

And  closing  eaves  of  wearied  eyes 
I  sleep  till  dusk  is  dipt  in  gray : 

And  then  I  know  the  mist  is  drawn 
A  lucid  veil  from  coast  to  coast, 
And  in  the  dark  church  like  a  ghost 

Thy  tablet  glimmers  to  the  dawn. 


IN  MEMORIAM. 


259 


When  in  the  down  I  sink  my  head, 

Sleep,    Death's   twin-brother,   times 

my  breath; 
Sleep,  Death's  twin-brother,  knows 
not  Death, 
Nor  can  I  dream  of  thee  as  dead : 

I  walk  as  ere  I  walk'd  forlorn, 

When  all  our  path  was  fresh  with 
dew, 

And  all  the  bugle  breezes  blew 
Reveillee  to  the  breaking  morn. 

But  what  is  this?     I  turn  about, 
I  find  a  trouble  in  thine  eye, 
Which  makes  me  sad  I  know  not 
why, 

Nor  can  my  dream  resolve  the  doubt : 

But  ere  the  lark  hath  left  the  lea 

I  wake,  and  I  discern  the  truth; 
It  is  the  trouble  of  my  youth 

That  foolish  sleep  transfers  to  thee. 

LXIX. 

I   dream'd   there   would   be    Spring   no 
more, 
That  Nature's   ancient   power   was 

lost: 
The  streets  were  black  with  smoke 
and  frost, 
They  chatter'd  trifles  at  the  door : 

I  wander'd  from  the  noisy  town, 

I  found  a  wood  with  thorny  boughs  : 
I  took  the  thorns  to  bind  my  brows, 

I  wore  them  like  a  civic  crown : 

x  met  with  scoffs,  I  met  with  scorns 

From   youth   and   babe   and   hoary 

hairs : 
They  call'd  me  in  the  public  squares 

The  fool  that  wears  a  crown  of  thorns : 

They    call'd    me    fool,   they   call'd    me 
child : 
I  found  an  angel  of  the  night ; 
The  voice   was  low,  the   look   was 
bright; 
He  look'd  upon  my  crown  and  smiled : 


He  reach'd  the  glory  of  a  hand, 

That  seem'd  to  touch  it  into  leaf: 
The  voice  was  not  the  voice  of  grief, 

The  words  were  hard  to  understand. 


I  cannot  see  the  features  right, 

When  on  the  gloom  I  strive  to  paint 
The  face  I  know;    the  hues  are  faint 

And  mix  with  hollow  masks  of  night; 

Cloud-towers  by  ghostly  masons  wrought, 
A  gulf  that  ever  shuts  and  gapes, 
A  hand  that  points,  and  palled  shapes 

In  shadowy  thoroughfares  of  thought; 

And  crowds  that  stream  from  yawning 
doors, 

And  shoals  of  pucker'd  faces  drive; 

Dark  bulks  that  tumble  half  alive, 
And  lazy  lengths  on  boundless  shores; 

Till  all  at  once  beyond  the  will 
I  hear  a  wizard  music  roll, 
And  thro'  a  lattice  on  the  soul 

Looks  thy  fair  face  and  makes  it  still. 

LXXI. 

Sleep,  kinsman  thou  to  death  and  trance 
And  madness,  thou  hast  forged  at 

last 
A  night-long  Present  of  the  Past 

In  which  we  went  thro'  summer  France. 

Hadst  thou  such  credit  with  the  soul? 
Then  bring  an  opiate  trebly  strong, 
Drug  down  the  blindfold   sense   of 
wrong 

That  so  my  pleasure  may  be  whole; 

While  now  we  talk  as  once  we  talk'd 
Of   men    and    minds,   the    dust    of 

change, 
The  days   that   grow  to  something 
strange, 
In  walking  as  of  old  we  walk'd 

Beside  the  river's  wooded  reach, 

The    fortress,    and    the     mountain 

ridge, 
The     cataract     flashing     from    the 
bridge, 
The  breaker  breaking  on  the  beach. 


26o 


IN  MEMORIAM. 


Risest  thou  thus,  dim  dawn,  again, 
And  howlest,  issuing  out  of  night, 
With   blasts   that   blow  the   poplar 
white, 
And    lash    with    storm    the    streaming 
pane? 

Day,  when  my  crown'd  estate  begun 
To  pine  in  that  reverse  of  doom, 
Which  sicken'd  every  living  bloom, 

And  blurr'd  the  splendour  of  the  sun; 

Who  ushe'rest  in  the  dolorous  hour 

With  thy  quick  tears  that  make  the 

rose 
Pull  sideways,  and  the  daisy  close 

Her  crimson  fringes  to  the  shower; 

Who  might'st   have   heaved    a  windless 
flame 
Up  the  deep   East,  or,  whispering, 

play'd 
A  chequer-work  of  beam  and  shade 
Along  the  hills,  yet  look'd  the  same. 

As  wan,  as  chill,  as  wild  as  now; 

Day,  mark'd  as  with  some  hideous 

crime, 
When  the  dark  hand  struck  down 
thro'  time, 
And  cancell'd  nature's  best :  but  thou 

Lift  as  thou  may'st  thy  burthen'd  brows 
Thro'  clouds  that  drench  the  morn- 
ing star, 
And  whirl  the  ungarner'd  sheaf  afar, 

And  sow  the  sky  with  flying  boughs, 

And  up  thy  vault  with  roaring  sound 

Climb    thy    thick    noon,    disastrous 

day; 
Touch  thy  dull  goal  of  joyless  gray, 

And  hide  thy  shame  beneath  the  ground. 

LXXIII. 

So  many  worlds,  so  much  to  do, 

So  little  done,  such  things  to  be, 
How   know    I    what  had    need   of 
thee, 

For  thou  wert  strong  as  thou  wert  true  ? 


The  fame  is  quench 'd  that  I  foresaw, 

The   head   hath   miss'd   an   earthly 

wreath  : 
I  curse  not  nature,  no,  nor  death; 

For  nothing  is  that  errs  from  law. 

We  pass;  the  path  that  each  man  trod 
Is  dim,  or  will  be  dim,  with  weeds : 
What  fame  is  left  for  human  deeds 

In  endless  age?     It  rests  with  God. 

O  hollow  wraith  of  dying  fame, 

Fade  wholly,  while  the  soul  exults, 
And  self-infolds  the  large  results 

Of    force    that    would    have    forged    a 
name. 


As  sometimes  in  a  dead  man's  face, 

To   those    that  watch  it  more   and 

more, 
A  likeness,  hardly  seen  before, 

Comes  out  —  to  some  one  of  his  race: 

So,  dearest,  now  thy  brows  are  cold, 

I  see  thee  what  thou  art,  and  know 
Thy  likeness  to  the  wise  below, 

Thy  kindred  with  the  great  of  old. 

But  there  is  more  than  I  can  see, 
And  what  I  see  I  leave  unsaid, 
Nor  speak  it,  knowing   Death   has 
made 

His  darkness  beautiful  with  thee. 


I  leave  thy  praises  unexpress'd 

In  verse  that  brings  myself  relief, 
And  by  the  measure  of  my  grief 

I  leave  thy  greatness  to  be  guess'd; 

What  practice  howsoe'er  expert 

In  fitting  aptest  words  to  things, 
Or    voice    the    richest-toned    that 
sings, 

Hath  power  to  give  thee  as  thou  wert? 

I  care  not  in  these  fading  days 

To  raise  a  cry  that  lasts  not  long, 
And  round  thee  with  the  breeze  of 
song 

To  stir  a  little  dust  of  praise. 


IN  MEMORIAM. 


261 


Thy  leaf  has  perish'd  in  the  green, 

And,  while  we  breathe  beneath  the 

sun, 
The  world  which  credits  what  is  done 

Is  cold  to  all  that  might  have  been. 

So  here  shall  silence  guard  thy  fame; 
But  somewhere,  out  of  human  view, 
Whate'er  thy  hands  are  set  to  do 

Is  wrought  with  tumult  of  acclaim. 


Take  wings  of  fancy,  and  ascend, 
And  in  a  moment  set  thy  face 
Where    all    the    starry  heavens   of 
space 

Are  sharpen'd  to  a  needle's  end; 

Take  wings  of  foresight;   lighten  thro' 
The  secular  abyss  to  come, 
And  lo,  thy  deepest  lays  are  dumb 

Before  the  mouldering  of  a  yew; 

And  if  the  matin  songs,  that  woke 
The  darkness  of  our  planet,  last, 
Thine  own  shall  wither  in  the  vast, 

Ere  half  the  lifetime  of  an  oak. 

Ere  these  have   clothed  their  branchy 
bowers 
With  fifty  Mays,  thy  songs  are  vain; 
And  what  are  they  when  these  re- 
main 
The  ruin'd  shells  of  hollow  towers? 


What  hope  is  here  for  modern  rhyme 
To  him,  who  turns  a  musing  eye 
On  songs,  and  deeds,  and  lives,  that 
lie 

Foreshorten'd  in  the  tract  of  time? 

These  mortal  lullabies  of  pain 

May  bind  a  book,  may  line  a  box, 
May  serve  to  curl  a  maiden's  locks; 

Or  when  a  thousand  moons  shall  wane 

A  man  upon  a  stall  may  find, 

And,  passing,   turn   the   page   that 

tells 
A  grief,  then  changed  to  something 
else, 
Sung  by  a  long-forgotten  mind. 


But  what  of  that?     My  darken'd  ways 
Shall  ring  with  music  all  the  same; 
To  breathe  my  loss   is   more   than 
fame, 

To  utter  love  more  sweet  than  praise. 


Again  alXhrJstoras  did  we  weave 

The    holly    round     the     Christmas 

hearth ; 
The  silent  snow  possess'd  the  earth, 

And  calmly  fell  our  Christmas-eve : 

The  yule-clog  sparkled  keen  with  frost, 
No  wing  of  wind  the  region  swept, 
But  over  all  things  brooding  slept 

The  quiet  sense  of  something  lost. 

As  in  the  winters  left  behind, 

Again  our  ancient  games  had  place, 
The  mimic  picture's  breathing  grace, 

And  dance  and  song  and  hoodman-blind. 

Who  show'd  a  token  of  distress? 

No  single  tear,  no  mark  of  pain : 

0  sorrow,  then  can  sorrow  wane? 
O  grief,  can  grief  be  changed  to  less? 

O  last  regret,  regret  can  die  ! 

No  —  mixt  with  all  this  mystic  frame, 
Her  deep  relations  are  the  same, 

But  with  long  use  her  tears  are  dry. 

LXXIX. 

*  More  than  my  brothers  are  to  me,'  — 
Let  this  not  vex  thee,  noble  heart ! 

1  know   thee   of  what   force   thou 
art 

To  hold  the  costliest  love  in  fee. 

But  thou  and  I  are  one  in  kind, 

As  moulded  like  in  Nature's  mint; 
And  hill   and  wood   and   field   did 
print 

The  same  sweet  forms  in  either  mind. 

For  us  the  same  cold  streamlet  curl'd 
Thro'   all   his   eddying   coves;    the 

same 
All   winds   that   roam   the    twilight 
came 
In  whispers  of  the  beauteous  world. 


262 


IN  MEMORIAM. 


At  one  dear  knee  we  proffer'd  vows, 

One  lesson  from  one  book  we  learn'd, 
Ere  childhood's  flaxen  ringlet  turn'd 

To  black  and  brown  on  kindred  brows. 

And  so  my  wealth  resembles  thine, 

But  he  was  rich  where  I  was  poor, 
And  he  supplied  my  want  the  more 

As  his  unlikeness  fitted  mine. 

J*  ^  LXXX. 

'  ^    If  any  vague  desire  should  rise, 

J  That  holy  Death  ere  Arthur  died 

Had   moved    me    kindly    from    his 
side, 
And  dropt  the  dust  on  tearless  eyes; 

Then  fancy  shapes,  as  fancy  can, 

The  grief  my  loss  in  him  had  wrought, 
A- grief  as  deep  as  life  or  thought, 

But  stay'd  in  peace  with  God  and  man. 

I  make  a  picture  in  the  brain; 

I  hear  the  sentence  that  he  speaks; 

He  bears  the  burthen  of  the  weeks 
But  turns  his  burthen  into  gain. 

His  credit  thus  shall  set  me  free; 

And,   influence-rich  to   soothe   and 
save, 

Unused  example  from  the  grave 
Reach  out  dead  hands  to  comfort  me. 


Could  I  have  said  while  he  was  here, 
'  My    love    shall    now    no    further 

range; 
There    cannot    come    a     mellower 
change, 
For  now  is  love  mature  in  ear.' 

Love,  then,  had  hope  of  richer  store : 
What  end  is  here  to  my  complaint? 
•     This   haunting   whisper   makes   me 
faint, 
'  More    years   had  made  me   love  thee 
mors.' 

But  Death  returns  an  answer  sweet : 
'  My  sudden  frost  was  sudden  gain, 
And  gave  all  ripeness  to  the  grain, 

It  might  have  drawn  from  after-heat.' 


LXXXII. 

I  wage  not  any  feud  with  Death 

For  changes  wrought  on  form  and 

face ; 
No  lower  life  that    earth's  embrace 
May   breed    with    him,    can    fright    my 
faith. 

Eternal  process  moving  on, 

From  state  to  state  the  spirit  walks; 

And    these    are    but   the    shatter'd 
stalks, 
Or  ruin'd  chrysalis  of  one. 

Nor  blame  I  Death,  because  he  bare 
The  use  of  virtue  out  of  earth  : 
I  know  transplanted  human  worth 

Will  bloom  to  profit,  otherwhere. 

For  this  alone  on  Death  I  wreak 

The  wrath  that  garners  in  my  heart : 
He  put  our  lives  so  far  apart 

We  cannot  hear  each  other  speak. 

LXXXIII. 

Dip  down  upon  the  northern  shore, 
O  sweet  new-year  delaying  long; 
Thou  doest  expectant  nature  wrong; 

Delaying  long,  delay  no  more. 

What  stays  tjhee  from  the  clouded  noons, 
Thy  sweetness  from  its  proper  place? 
Can  trouble  live  with  April  days, 

Or  sadness  in  the  summer  moons? 

Bring  orchis,  bring  the  foxglove  spire, 
The  little  speedwell's  darling  blue, 
Deep  tulips  dash'd  with  fiery  dew, 

Laburnums,  dropping-wells  of  fire. 

O  thou  new-year,  delaying  long, 

Delayest  the  sorrow  in  my  blood, 
That  longs  to  burst  a  frozen  bud 

And  flood  a  fresher  throat  with  song. 

LXXXIV. 

When  I  contemplate  all  alone 

The  life  that  had  been  thine  below, 
And  fix  my  thoughts  on  all  the  glow 

To    which    thy    crescent     would     have 
grown; 


IN  MEMORIAM. 


263 


I  see  thee  sitting  crown'd  with  good, 
A  central  warmth  diffusing  bliss 
In  glance  and  smile,  and  clasp  and 
kiss, 

On  all  the  branches  of  thy  blood; 

Thy  blood,  my  friend,  and  partly  mine; 
For  now  the  day  was  drawing  on, 
When  thou   should'st   link  thy  life 
with  one 

Of  mine  own  house,  and  boys  of  thine 

Had  babbled  '  Uncle  '  on  my  knee; 
But  that  remorseless  iron  hour 
Made  cypress  of  her  orange  flower, 

Despair  of  Hope,  and  earth  of  thee. 

I  seem  to  meet  their  least  desire, 

To  clap  their  cheeks,  to  call  them 

mine. 
I  see  their  unborn  faces  shine 

Beside  the  never-lighted  fire. 

I  see  myself  an  honour'd  guest, 

Thy  partner  in  the  flowery  walk 
Of  letters,  genial  table-talk, 

Or  deep  dispute,  and  graceful  jest; 

While  now  thy  prosperous  labour  fills 
The  lips  of  men  with  honest  praise, 
And  sun  by  sun  the  happy  days 

Descend  below  the  golden  hills 

With  promise  of  a  morn  as  fair; 

And  all  the  train  of  bounteous  hours 
Conduct  by  paths  of  growing  powers, 

To  reverence  and  the  silver  hair; 

Till  slowly  worn  her  earthly  robe, 

Her  lavish  mission  richly  wrought, 
Leaving  great  legacies  of  thought, 

Thy  spirit  should  fail  from  off  the  globe ; 

What  time  mine  own  might  also  flee, 
As  link'd  with  thine  in  love  and  fate, 
And,    hovering    o'er   the    dolorous 
strait 

To  the  other  shore,  involved  in  thee, 

Arrive  at  last  the  blessed  goal, 

And  He  that  died  in  Holy  Land 
Would  reach  us  out  the  shining  hand 

And  take  us  as  a  single  soul. 


What  reed  was  that  on  which  I  leant? 
Ah,  backward  fancy,  wherefore  wake 
The  old  bitterness  again,  and  break 

The  low  beginnings  of  content. 

LXXXV. 

This  truth  came  borne  with  bier  and  pall, 
I  felt  it,  "when  I  sorrow'd  most, 
'Tis  better  to  have  loved  and  lost, 

Than  never  to  have  loved  at  all  — 

O  true  in  word,  and  tried  in  deed, 
Demanding,  so  to  bring  relief 
To  this  which  is  our  common  grief, 

What  kind  of  life  is  that  I  lead; 

And  whether  trust  in  things  above 

Be  dimm'd  of  sorrow,  or  sustain'd; 
And   whether   love    for    him   have 
drain'd 

My  capabilities  of  love; 

Your  words  have  virtue  such  as  draws 
A  faithful  answer  from  the  breast, 
Thro'  light  reproaches,  half  exprest, 

And  loyal  unto  kindly  laws. 

My  blood  an  even  tenor  kept, 

Till  on  mine  ear  this  message  falls, 
That  in  Vienna's  fatal  walls 

God's  finger  touch'd  him,  and  he  slept. 

The  great  Intelligences  fair 

That  range  above  our  mortal  state, 
In  circle  round  the  blessed  gate, 

Received  and  gave  him  welcome  there; 

And  led  him  thro'  the  blissful  climes, 

And  show'd  him  in  the  fountain  fresh 
All  knowledge  that  the  sons  of  flesh 

Shall  gather  in  the  cycled  times. 

But  I  remain'd,  whose  hopes  were  dim, 
Whose  life,  whose  thoughts  were  little 

worth, 
To  wander  on  a  darken'd  earth, 
Where  all  things  round  me  breathed  of 
him. 

O  friendship,  equal-poised  control, 

O  heart,  with  kindliest  motion  warm, 
O  sacred  essence,  other  form, 

O  solemn  ghost,  O  crowned  soul ! 


264 


IN  MEMORIAM. 


Yet  none  could  better  know  than  I, 
How  much  of  act  at  human  hands 
*     The  sense  of  human  will  demands 
By  which  we  dare  to  live  or  die. 

Whatever  way  my  days  decline, 
I  felt  and  feel,  tho'  left  alone, 
His  being  working  in  mine  own, 

The  footsteps  of  his  life  in  mine ; 

A  life  that  all  the  Muses  deck'd 

With  gifts  of  grace,  that  might  ex- 
press 
All-comprehensive  tenderness, 

All-subtilising  intellect : 

And  so  my  passion  hath  not  swerved 
To  works  of  weakness,  but  I  find 
An  image  comforting  the  mind, 

And  in  my  grief  a  strength  reserved. 

Likewise  the  imaginative  woe, 

That  loved  to  handle  spiritual  strife, 
Diffused    the    shock    thro'    all    my 
life, 

But  in  the  present  broke  the  blow. 

My  pulses  therefore  beat  again 

For  other  friends  that  once  I  met; 
Nor  can  it  suit  me  to  forget 

The  mighty  hopes  that  make  us  men. 

I  woo  your  love :  I  count  it  crime 
To  mourn  for  any  overmuch; 
I,  the  divided  half  of  such 

A  friendship  as  had  master'd  Time; 

Which  masters  Time  indeed,  and  is 
Eternal,  separate  from  fears  : 
The  all-assuming  months  and  years 

Can  take  no  part  away  from  this : 

But  Summer  on  the  steaming  floods, 

And  Spring  that  swells  the  narrow 

brooks, 
And  Autumn,  with  a  noise  of  rooks, 

That  gather  in  the  waning  woods, 

And  every  pulse  of  wind  and  wave 

Recalls,     in     change    of    light    or 

gloom, 
My  old  affection  of  the  tomb, 

And  my  prime  passion  in  the  grave 


My  old  affection  of  the  tomb, 

A  part  of  stillness,  yearns  to  speak : 
'Arise,  and  get  thee  forth  and  seek 

A  friendship  for  the  years  to  come. 

'I  watch  thee  from  the  quiet  shore; 

Thy  spirit  up  to  mine  can  reach; 

But  in  dear  words  of  human  speech 
We  two  communicate  no  more.' 

And  I,  '  Can  clouds  of  nature  stain 
The  starry  clearness  of  the  free  ? 
How  is  it?     Canst  thou  feel  for  me 

Some  painless  sympathy  with  pain  ? ' 

And  lightly  does  the  whisper  fall; 

•  'Tis  hard  for  thee  to  fathom  this; 

I  triumph  in  conclusive  bliss, 
And  that  serene  result  of  all.' 

So  hold  I  commerce  with  the  dead; 

Or   so    methinks    the    dead    would 
say; 

Or  so  shall  grief  with  symbols  play 
And  pining  life  be  fancy-fed. 

Now  looking  to  some  settled  end, 

That  these  things  pass,  and  I  shall 

prove 
A   meeting    somewhere,   love   with 
love, 
I  crave  your  pardon,  O  my  friend; 

If  not  so  fresh,  with  love  as  true, 
I,  clasping  brother-hands,  aver 
I  could  not,  if  I  would,  transfer 

The  whole  I  felt  for  him  to  you. 

For  which  be  they  that  hold  apart 

The  promise  of  the  golden  hours? 
First    love,    first    friendship,    equal 
powers, 

That  marry  with  the  virgin  heart. 

Still  mine,  that  cannot  but  deplore, 
That  beats  within  a  lonely  place, 
That  yet  remembers  his  embrace, 

But  at  his  footstep  leaps  no  more, 

My  heart,  tho'  widow'd,  may  not  rest 
Quite  in  the  love  of  what  is  gone, 
But  seeks  to  beat  in  time  with  one 

That  warms  another  living  breast. 


IN  MEMORIAM. 


265 


Ah,  take  the  imperfect  gift  I  bring, 

Knowing  the  primrose  yet  is  dear, 
The  primrose  of  the  later  year, 

As  not  unlike  to  that  of  Spring. 

LXXXVI. 

Sweet  after  showers,  ambrosial  air, 

That     rollest     from    the     gorgeous 

gloom 
Of  evening  over  brake  and  bloom 

And  meadow,  slowly  breathing  bare 

The  round  of  space,  and  rapt  below 
Thro'  all  the  dewy-tassell'd  wood, 
And   shadowing   down  the   horned 
flood 

In  ripples,  fan  my  brows  and  blow 

The  fever  from  my  cheek,  and  sigh 

The  full    new   life  that   feeds   thy 

breath 
Throughout   my   frame,   till   Doubt 
and  Death, 
111  brethren,  let  the  fancy  fly 

From  belt  to  belt  of  crimson  seas 

On  leagues  of  odour  streaming  far, 
To  where  in  yonder  orient  star 

A  hundred  spirits  whisper  '  Peace.' 

LXXXVII. 

I  past  beside  the  reverend  walls 

In  which  of  old  I  wore  the  gown; 
I  roved  at  random  thro'  the  town, 

And  saw  the  tumult  of  the  halls; 

And  heard  once  more  in  college  fanes 
The   storm  their   high-built   organs 

make, 
And  thunder-music,  rolling,  shake 

The  prophet  blazon'd  on  the  panes; 

And  caught  once  more  the  distant  shout, 
The  measured  pulse  of  racing  oars 
Among  the  willows ;  paced  the  shores 

And  many  a  bridge,  and  all  about    „ 

The  same  gray  flats  again,  and  felt 

The  same,  but  not  the  same;    and 

last 
Up  that  long  walk  of  limes  I  past 

To  see  the  rooms  in  which  he  dwelt. 


Another  name  was  on  the  door : 

I  linger'd;   all  within  was  noise 
Of  songs,  and  clapping  hands,  and 
boys 

That  crash'd  the  glass  and  beat  the  floor; 

Where  once  we  held  debate,  a  band 

Of  youthful  friends,   on  mind   and 

art, 
And     labour,    and     the     changing 
mart, 
And  all  the  framework  of  the  land; 

When  one  would  aim  an  arrow  fair, 

But  send  it  slackly  from  the  string; 
And    one   would    pierce    an    outer 
ring, 

And  one  an  inner,  here  and  there; 

And  last  the  master-bowman,  he, 

Would  cleave  the  mark.     A  willing 

ear 
We  lent   him.     Who,  but  hung  to 
hear 
The  rapt  oration  flowing  free 

From   point  to  point,  with   power   and 
grace 
And  music  in  the  bounds  of  law, 
To  those  conclusions  when  we  saw 

The  God  within  him  light  his  face, 

And  seem  to  lift  the  form,  and  glow 
In  azure  orbits  heavenly- wise; 
And  over  those  ethereal  eyes 

The  bar  of  Michael  Angelo. 


Wild  bird,  whose  warble,  liquid  sweet, 
Rings  Eden  thro'  the  budded  quicks, 

0  tell  me  where  the  senses  mix, 
O  tell  me  where  the  passions  meet, 

Whence  radiate :  fierce  extremes  employ 
Thy  spirits  in  the  darkening  leaf, 
And  in  the  midmost  heart  of  grief 

Thy  passion  clasps  a  secret  joy : 

And  I  —  my  harp  would  prelude  woe  — 

1  cannot  all  command  the  strings; 
The  glory  of  the  sum  of  things 

Will  flash  along  the  chords  and  go. 


266 


IN  MEMORIAM. 


LXXXIX. 

Witch-elms  that  counterchange  the  floor 
Of    this  flat    lawn  with    dusk    and 

bright; 
And  thou,  with  all  thy  breadth  and 
height 
Of  foliage,  towering  sycamore; 

How  often,  hither  wandering  down, 

My  Arthur  found  your  shadows  fair, 
And  shook  to  all  the  liberal  air 

The  dust  and  din  and  steam  of  town : 

He  brought  an  eye  for  all  he  saw; 

He  mixt  in  all  our  simple  sports; 

They  pleased  him,  fresh  from  brawl- 
ing courts 
And  dusty  purlieus  of  the  law. 

O  joy  to  him  in  this  retreat, 

Immantled  in  ambrosial  dark, 
To  drink  the  cooler  air,  and  mark 

The  landscape  winking  thro'  the  heat : 

O  sound  to  rout  the  brood  of  cares," 

The   sweep    of   scythe   in   morning 

dew, 
The   gust    that   round    the    garden 
flew, 
And  tumbled  half  the  mellowing  pears ! 

O  bliss,  when  all  in  circle  drawn 

About  him,  heart  and  ear  were  fed 
To  hear  him  as  he  lay  and  read 

The  Tuscan  poets  on  the  lawn : 

Or  in  the  all-golden  afternoon 

A  guest,  or  happy  sister,  sung, 
Or  here  she  brought  the  harp  and 
flung 

A  ballad  to  the  brightening  moon  : 

Nor  less  it  pleased  in  livelier  moods, 
Beyond  the  bounding  hill  to  stray, 
And  break  the  livelong  summer  day 

With  banquet  in  the  distant  woods; 

Whereat   we    glanced    from    theme    to 
theme, 
Discuss'd  the  books  to  love  or  hate, 
Or  touch'd  the  changes  of  the  state, 

Or  threaded  some  Socratic  dream; 


But  if  I  praised  the  busy  town, 

He  loved  to  rail  against  it  still, 
For  '  ground  in  yonder  social  mill 

We  rub  each  other's  angles  down, 

'And    merge,'   he   said,    'in    form   and 
gloss 
The  picturesque  of  man  and  man.' 
We  talk'd:    the  stream  beneath  us 
ran, 
The  wine-flask  lying  couch'd  in  moss, 

Or  cool'd  within  the  glooming  wave; 
And  last,  returning  from  afar, 
Before  the  crimson-circled  star 

Had  fall'n  into  her  father's  grave, 

And  brushing  ankle-deep  in  flowers, 

We  heard  behind  the  woodbine  veil 
The  milk  that  bubbled  in  the  pail, 

And  buzzings  of  the  honied  hours. 


xc. 

He  tasted  love  with  half  his  mind, 

Nor  ever  drank  the  inviolate  spring 
Where   nighest    heaven,    who    first 
could  fling 

This  bitter  seed  among  mankind; 

That  could  the  dead,  whose  dying  eyes 
Were  closed  with  wail,  resume  their 

life, 
They  would  but  find  in  child  and  wife 

An  iron  welcome  when  they  rise : 

'Twas  well,  indeed,  when  warm  with  wine, 
To  pledge  them  with  a  kindly  tear, 
To  talk  them  o'er,  to  wish  them  here, 

To  count  their  memories  half  divine; 

But  if  they  came  who  past  away, 

Behold  their  brides  in  other  hands; 
The   hard    heir   strides   about  their 
lands, 

And  will  not  yield  them  for  a  day. 

Yea,  tho'  their  sons  were  none  of  these, 
Not   less   the   yet-loved   sire  would 

make 
Confusion   worse    than   death,   and 
shake 
The  pillars  of  domestic  peace. 


IN  MEMORIAM. 


267 


Ah  dear,  but  come  thou  back  to  me : 
Whatever   change   the   years    have 

wrought, 
I  find  not  yet  one  lonely  thought 

That  cries  against  my  wish  for  thee. 

xci. 

When  rosy  plumelets  tuft  the  larch, 

And     rarely     pipes    the     mounted 

thrush ; 
Or  underneath  the  barren  bush 

Flits  by  the  sea-blue  bird  of  March; 

Come,  wear  the  form  by  which  I  know 
Thy  spirit  in  time  among  thy  peers; 
The  hope  of  unaccomplish'd  years 

Be  large  and  lucid  round  thy  brow. 

When  summer's  hourly-mellowing  change 
May  breathe,  with  many  roses  sweet, 
Upon  the  thousand  waves  of  wheat, 

That  ripple  round  the  lonely  grange; 

Come :  not  in  watches  of  the  night, 

But   where   the  sunbeam  broodeth 

warm, 
Come,  beauteous  in  thine  after  form, 

And  like  a  finer  light  in  light. 

XCII. 

If  any  vision  should  reveal 

Thy  likeness,  I  might  count  it  vain 
As  but  the  canker  of  the  brain; 

Yea,  tho'  it  spake  and  made  appeal 

To  chances  where  our  lots  were  cast 
Together  in  the  days  behind, 
I  might  but  say,  I  hear  a  wind 

Of  memory  murmuring  the  past. 

Yea,  tho'  it  spake  and  bared  to  view 
A  fact  within  the  coming  year; 
And  tho'  the  months,  revolving  near, 

Should  prove  the  phantom-warning  true, 

They  might  not  seem  thy  prophecies, 
But  spiritual  presentiments, 
And  such  refraction  of  events 

As  often  rises  ere  they  rise. 

xcm. 

I  shall  not  see  thee.     Dare  I  say 
No  spirit  ever  brake  the  band 


That  stays  him  from  the  native  land 
Where  first  he  walk'd  when  claspt  in  clay  ? 

No  visual  shade  of  some  one  lost, 

But  he,  the  Spirit  himself,  may  come 
Where   all  the    nerve   of    sense    is 
numb; 

Spirit  to  Spirit,  Ghost  to  Ghost. 

O,  therefore  from  thy  sightless  range 
With  gods  in  unconjectured  bliss, 
O,  from  the  distance  of  the  abyss 

Of  tenfold-complicated  change, 

Descend,  and  touch,  and  enter;  hear 
The   wish   too   strong  for  words  to 

name; 
That  in  this  blindness  of  the  frame 

My  Ghost  may  feel  that  thine  is  near. 


How  pure  at  heart  and  sound  in  head, 
With  what  divine  affections  bold 
Should  be  the  man  whose  thought 
would  hold 

An  hour's  communion  with  the  dead. 

In  vain  shalt  thou,  or  any,  call 

The  spirits  from  their  golden  day, 
Except,  like  them,  thou  too  canst  say, 

My  spirit  is  at  peace  with  all. 

They  haunt  the  silence  of  the  breast, 
Imaginations  calm  and  fair, 
The  memory  like  a  cloudless  air, 

The  conscience  as  a  sea  at  rest : 

But  when  the  heart  is  full  of  din, 

And  doubt  beside  the  portal  waits, 
They  can  but  listen  at  the  gates, 

And  hear  the  household  jar  within. 


By  night  we  linger'd  on  the  lawn, 
For  underfoot  the  herb  was  dry; 
And  genial  warmth;  and  o'er  the  sky 

The  silvery  haze  of  summer  drawn; 

And  calm  that  let  the  tapers  burn 

Unwavering :  not  a  cricket  chirr'd : 
The  brook  alone  far-off  was  heard, 

And  on  the  board  the  fluttering  urn : 


268 


IN  MEMORIAM. 


And  bats  went  round  in  fragrant  skies, 
And  wheel'd  or  lit  the  filmy  shapes 
That  haunt  the  dusk,  with  ermine 
capes 

And  woolly  breasts  and  beaded  eyes; 

While  now  we  sang  old  songs  that  peal'd 
From  knoll  to  knoll,  where,  couch'd 

at  ease, 
The  white  kine  glimmer'd,  and  the 
trees 
Laid  their  dark  arms  about  the  field. 

But  when  those  others,  one  by  one, 

Withdrew  themselves  from  me  and 

night, 
And  in  the  house  light  after  light 

Went  out,  and  I  was  all  alone, 

A  hunger  seized  my  heart;   I  read 

Of  that  glad  year  which  once  had 

been, 
In  those  fall'n  leaves  which  kept  their 
green, 
The  noble  letters  of  the  dead : 

And  strangely  on  the  silence  broke 

The     silent-speaking     words,     and 

•  strange 
Was  love's  dumb  cry  defying  change 

To  test  his  worth;   and  strangely  spoke 

The  faith,  the  vigour,  bold  to  dwell 

On   doubts   that  drive   the   coward 

back, 
And  keen  thro'  wordy  snares  to  track 

Suggestion  to  her  inmost  cell. 

So  word  by  word,  and  line  by  line, 

The  dead  man  touch'd  me  from  the 

past, 
And  all  at  once  it  seem'd  at  last 

The  living  soul  was  flash'd  on  mine, 

And  mine  in  this  was  wound,  and  whirl'd 
About  empyreal  heights  of  thought, 
And  came  on  that  which  is,  and 
caught 

The  deep  pulsations  of  the  world, 

vEonian  music  measuring  out 

The  steps  of  Time  —  the  shocks  of 
Chance  — 


The  blows  of  Death.      At  length  my 
trance 
Was  cancell'd,  stricken  thro'  with  doubt. 

Vague    words!    but    ah,   how    hard    to 
frame 
In  matter-moulded  forms  of  speech, 
Or  ev'n  for  intellect  to  reach 

Thro'  memory  that  which  I  became  : 

Till  now  the  doubtful  dusk  reveal'd 

The  knolls  once  more  where,  couch'd 

at  ease, 
The  white  kine  glimmer'd,  and  the 
trees 
Laid  their  dark  arms  about  the  field : 

And  suck'd  from  out  the  distant  gloom 
A  breeze  began  to  tremble  o'er 
The  large  leaves  of  the  sycamore, 

And  fluctuate  all  the  still  perfume, 

And  gathering  freshlier  overhead, 

Rock'd  the  full-foliaged  elms,  and 

swung 
The  heavy-folded  rose,  and  flung 

The  lilies  to  and  fro,  and  said, 

1  The  dawn,  the  dawn,'  and  died  away; 
And    East    and    West,    without    a 

breath, 
Mixt  their  dim  lights,  like  life  and 
death, 
To  broaden  into  boundless  day. 

xcvi. 

You  say,  but  with  no  touch  of  scorn, 

Sweet-hearted,  you,  whose  light-blue 

eyes 
Are  tender  over  drowning  flies, 

You  tell  me,  doubt  is  Devil-born. 

I  know  not:  one  indeed  I  knew 

In  many  a  subtle  question  versed, 
Who  touch'd  a  jarring  lyre  at  first, 

But  ever  strove  to  make  it  true : 

Perplext  in  faith,  but  pure  in  deeds, 
At  last  he  beat  his  music  out. 
There    lives  more    faith  in   honest 
doubt, 

Believe  me,  than  in  half  the  creeds. 


IN  MEMORIAM. 


269 


He    fought    his    doubts    and    gather'd 
strength, 
He   would  not   make  his  judgment 

blind, 
He  faced  the  spectres  of  the  mind 
And  laid  them :  thus  he  came  at  length 

To  find  a  stronger  faith  his  own; 

And    Power   was   with  him  in    the 

night, 
Which  makes  the  darkness  and  the 
light, 
And  dwells  not  in  the  light  alone, 

But  in  the  darkness  and  the  cloud, 
As  over  Sinai's  peaks  of  old, 
While  Israel  made  their  gods  of  gold, 

Altho'  the  trumpet  blew  so  loud. 

XCVII. 

My  love  has  talk'd  with  rocks  and  trees; 
He  finds  on  misty  mountain-ground 
His  own  vast  shadow  glory-crown'd ; 

He  sees  himself  in  all  he  sees. 

Two  partners  of  a  married  life  — 

I  look'd  on  these  and  thought  of  thee 
In  vastness  and  in  mystery, 

And  of  my  spirit  as  of  a  wife. 

These  two  —  they  dwelt  with  eye  on  eye, 
Their  hearts  of  old  have  beat  in  tune, 
Their  meetings  made  December  June, 

Their  every  parting  was  to  die. 

Their  love  has  never  past  away; 
The  days  she  never  can  forget 
Are  earnest  that  he  loves  her  yet, 

Whate'er  the  faithless  people  say. 

Her  life  is  lone,  he  sits  apart, 

He  loves  her  yet,  she  will  not  weep, 
Tho'  rapt  in  matters  dark  and  deep 

He  seems  to  slight  her  simple  heart. 

He  thrids  the  labyrinth  of  the  mind, 
He  reads  the  secret  of  the  star, 
He  seems  so  near  and  yet  so  far, 

He  looks  so  cold:  she  thinks  him  kind. 

She  keeps  the  gift  of  years  before, 
A  wither'd  violet  is  her  bliss : 


She  knows  not  what  his  greatness  is, 
For  that,  for  all,  she  loves  him  more. 

For  him  she  plays,  to  him  she  sings 
Of  early  faith  and  plighted  vows; 
She  knows  but  matters  of  the  house, 

And  he,  he  knows  a  thousand  things. 

Her  faith  is  fixt  and  cannot  move, 

She  darkly  feels  him  great  and  wise, 
She  dwells  on  him  with  faithful  eyes, 

'  I  cannot  understand  :  I  love.' 

XCVIII. 

You  leave  us :  you  will  see  the  Rhine, 
And  those  fair  hills  I  sail'd  below, 
When  I  was  there  with  him ;  and  go 

By  summer  belts  of  wheat  and  vine 

To  where  he  breathed  his  latest  breath, 
That  City.     All  her  splendour  seems 
No  livelier  than  the  wisp  that  gleams 

On  Lethe  in  the  eyes  of  Death. 

Let  her  great  Danube  rolling  fair 

Enwind  her  isles,  unmark'd  of  me : 
I  have  not  seen,  I  will  not  see 

Vienna;   rather  dream  that  there, 

A  treble  darkness,  Evil  haunts 

The  birth,  the  bridal;    friend  from 
friend 

Is  oftener  parted,  fathers  bend 
Above  more  graves,  a  thousand  wants 

Gnarr  at  the  heels  of  men,  and  prey 

By  each  cold   hearth,  and  sadness 

flings 
Her  shadow  on  the  blaze  of  kings : 

And  yet  myself  have  heard  him  say, 

That  not  in  any  mother  town 

With  statelier  progress  to  and  fro 
The  double  tides  of  chariots  flow 

By  park  and  suburb  under  brown 

Of  lustier  leaves;  nor  more  content, 
He  told  me,  lives  in  any  crowd, 
When  all  is   gay  with    lamps,   and 
loud 
With    sport    and    song,    in    booth    and 
tent, 


270 


IN  MEMORIAM. 


Imperial  halls,  or  open  plain, 

And  wheels  the  circled  dance,  and 
breaks 

The  rocket  molten  into  flakes 
Of  crimson  or  in  emerald  rain. 

XCIX. 

Risest  thou  thus,  dim  dawn,  again, 
So  loud  with  voices  of  the  birds, 
So  thick  with  lowings  of  the  herds, 

Day,  when  I  lost  the  flower  of  men; 

Who  tremblest  thro'  thy  darkling  red 
On  yon  swoll'n  brook  that  bubbles 

fast 
By  meadows  breathing  of  the  past, 

And  woodlands  holy  to  the  dead; 

Who  murmurest  in  the  foliaged  eaves 
A    song    that    slights    the    coming 

care, 
And  Autumn  laying  here  and  there 

A  fiery  finger  on  the  leaves; 

Who  wakenest  with  thy  balmy  breath 
To  myriads  on  the  genial  earth, 
Memories  of  bridal,  or  of  birth, 

And  unto  myriads  more,  of  death. 

0  wheresoever  those  may  be, 

Betwixt  the  slumber  of  the  poles, 
To-day  they  count  as  kindred  souls; 
They  know  me  not,  but  mourn  with  me. 

c. 

1  climb  the  hill :  from  end  to  end 

Of  all  the  landscape  underneath, 
I  find  no  place  that  does  not  breathe 
Some  gracious  memory  of  my  friend; 

No  gray  old  grange,  or  lonely  fold, 

Or  low  morass  and  whispering  reed, 
Or  simple  stile  from  mead  to  mead, 

Or  sheepwalk  up  the  windy  wold; 

Nor  hoary  knoll  of  ash  and  haw 

That  hears  the  latest  linnet  trill, 
Nor  quarry  trenched  along  the  hill 

And  haunted  by  the  wrangling  daw; 

Nor  runlet  tinkling  from  the  rock; 
Nor  pastoral  rivulet  that  swerves 


To   left   and   right   thro'    meadowy 
curves, 
That  feed  the  mothers  of  the  flock; 

But  each  has  pleased  a  kindred  eye, 
And  each  reflects  a  kindlier  day; 
And,  leaving  these,  to  pass  away, 

I  think  once  more  he  seems  to  die. 

CI. 

Unwatch'd,  the  garden  bough  shall  sway, 
The  tender  blossom  flutter  down, 
Unloved,    that    beech    will    gather 
brown, 

This  maple  burn  itself  away; 

Unloved,  the  sun-flower,  shining  fair, 

Ray  round  with  flames  her  disk  of 

seed, 
And  many  a  rose-carnation  feed 

With  summer  spice  the  humming  air; 

Unloved,  by  many  a  sandy  bar, 

The  brook  shall   babble    down  the 

plain, 
At  noon  or  when  the  lesser  wain 

Is  twisting  round  the  polar  star; 

Uncared  for,  gird  the  windy  grove, 

And  flood  the  haunts  of  hern  and 

crake; 
Or  into  silver  arrows  break 

The  sailing  moon  in  creek  and  cove; 

Till  from  the  garden  and  the  wild 

A  fresh  association  blow, 

And   year  by  year    the    landscape 
grow 
Familiar  to  the  stranger's  child; 

As  year  by  year  the  labourer  tills 

His    wonted    glebe,    or    lops    the 

glades; 
And  year  by  year  our  memory  fades 

From  all  the  circle  of  the  hills. 

en. 

We  leave  the  well-beloved  place 

Where  first  we  gazed  upon  the  sky; 
The  roofs,  that   heard  our   earliest 
cry, 

Will  shelter  one  of  stranger  race. 


IN  MEMORIAM. 


271 


We  go,  but  ere  we  go  from  home, 

As  down  the  garden-walks  I  move, 
Two  spirits  of  a  diverse  love 

Contend  for  loving  masterdom. 

One  whispers,  '  Here  thy  boyhood  sung 
Long    since    its    matin    song,   and 

heard 
The  low  love-language  of  the  bird 

In  native  hazels  tassel-hung.' 

The  other  answers,  '  Yea,  but  here 

Thy  feet  have  stray'd  in  after  hours 
With    thy   lost   friend    among    the 
bowers, 

And  this  hath  made  them  trebly  dear.' 

These  two  have  striven  half  the  day, 

And  each  prefers  his  separate  claim, 
Poor  rivals  in  a  losing  game, 

That  will  not  yield  each  other  way. 

I  turn  to  go  :  my  feet  are  set 

To   leave   the    pleasant    fields    and 
farms; 

They  mix  in  one  another's  arms 
To  one  pure  image  of  regret. 


On  that  last  night  before  we  went 

From  out  the  doors  where  I  was  bred, 
I  dream'd  a  vision  of  the  dead, 

Which  left  my  after-mom  content. 

Methought  I  dwelt  within  a  hall, 

And  maidens  with  me  :  distant  hills 
From  hidden  summits  fed  with  rills 

A  river  sliding  by  the  wall. 

The  hall  with  harp  and  carol  rang. 

They  sang  of  what  is  wise  and  good 
And  graceful.     In  the  centre  stood 

A  statue  veil'd,  to  which  they  sang; 

And  which,  tho'  veil'd,  was  known  to  me, 
The  shape  of  him  I  loved,  and  love 
For  ever :  then  flew  in  a  dove 

And  brought  a  summons  from  the  sea : 

And  when  they  learnt  that  I  must  go 
They  wept  and  wail'd,  but  led  the 
way 


To  where  a  little  shallop  lay 
At  anchor  in  the  flood  below; 

And  on  by  many  a  level  mead, 

And  shadowing  bluff  that  made  the 

banks, 
We  glided  winding  under  ranks 

Of  iris,  and  the  golden  reed; 

And  still  as  vaster  grew  the  shore 

And   rolled   the   floods   in   grander 

space, 
The  maidens  gather'd  strength  and 
grace 
And  presence,  lordlier  than  before; 

And  I  myself,  who  sat  apart 

And  watch'd  them,  wax'd  in  every 
limb; 

I  felt  the  thews  of  Anakim, 
The  pulses  of  a  Titan's  heart; 

As  one  would  sing  the  death  of  war, 
And  one  would  chant  the  history 
Of  that  great  race,  which  is  to  be, 

And  one  the  shaping  of  a  star; 

Until  the  forward-creeping  tides 

Began  to  foam,  and  we  to  draw 
From  deep  to  deep,  to  where  we  saw 

A  great  ship  lift  her  shining  sides. 

The  man  we  loved  was  there  on  deck, 
But  thrice  as  large  as  man  he  bent 
To  greet  us.     Up  the  side  I  went, 

And  fell  in  silence  on  his  neck : 

Whereat  those  maidens  with  one  mind 
Bewail' d  their  lot;  I  did  them  wrong : 
'  We  served  thee  here,'  they  said, 
•  so  long, 

And  wilt  thou  leave  us  now  behind?' 

So  rapt  I  was,  they  could  not  win 
An  answer  from  my  lips,  but  he 
Replying,  '  Enter  likewise  ye 

And  go  with  us : '  they  enter'd  in. 

And  while  the  wind  began  to  sweep 
A  music  out  of  sheet  and  shroud, 
We  steer'd  her  toward   a   crimson 
cloud 

That  landlike  slept  along  the  deep. 


272 


IN  MEMORIAM. 


civ. 

The  time  draws  near  the  birth  of  Christ; 

The  moon  is  hid,  the  night  is  still; 

A  single  church  below  the  hill 
Is  pealing,  folded  in  the  mist. 

A  single  peal  of  bells  below, 

That  wakens  at  this  hour  of  rest 
A  single  murmur  in  the  breast, 

That  these  are  not  the  bells  I  know. 

Like  strangers'  voices  here  they  sound, 
In  lands  where  not  a  memory  strays, 
Nor  landmark  breathes  of  other  days, 

But  all  |s  new  unhallow'd  ground. 


To-night  ungather'd  let  us  leave 
This  laurel,  let  this  holly  stand : 
We  live  within  the  stranger's  land, 

And  strangely  falls  our  Christmas-eve. 

Our  father's  dust  is  left  alone 

And  silent  under  other  snows : 
There   in   due   time   the   woodbine 
blows, 

The  violet  comes,  but  we  are  gone. 

No  more  shall  wayward  grief  abuse 

lhe^gcrrhrt  ■buuv.  whQ  mask    and 

mime; 
For  change  of  place,  like  growth  of 
time, 
Has  broke  the  bond  of  dying  use. 

Let  cares  that  petty  shadows  cast, 

By    which    our    lives    are    chiefly 

proved, 
A  little  spare  the  night  I  loved, 

And  hold  it  solemn  to  the  past. 

But  let  no  footstep  beat  the  floor, 

Nor  bowl  of  wassail  mantle  warm; 
For  who  would  keep  an  ancient  form 

Thro'  which  the  spirit  breathes  no  more? 

Be  neither  song,  nor  game,  nor  feast; 

Nor  harp  be  touch'd,  nor  flute  be 
blown; 

No  dance,  no  motion,  save  alone 
What  lightens  in  (he  lucid  east 


Of  rising  worlds  by  yonder  wood. 

Long  sleeps  the  summer  in  the  seed; 

Run   out  your  measured  arcs,  and 
lead 
The  closing  cycle  rich  in  good. 

CVI. 

Ring  out,  wild  bells,  to  the  wild  sky, 
The  flying  cloud,  the  frosty  light : 
The  year  is  dying  in  the  night; 

Ringout,  wild  bells,  and  let  him  die. 

Ring  out  the  old,  ring  in  the  new, 

Ring,  happy  bells,  across  the  snow : 
The  year  is  going,  let  him  go; 

Ring  out  the  false,  ring  in  the  true. 

Ring  out  the  grief  that  saps  the  mind, 
For  those  that  here  we  see  no  more; 
Ring  out  the  feud  of  rich  and  poor, 

Ring  in  redress  to  all  mankind. 

Ring  out  a  slowly  dying  cause, 

And  ancient  forms  of  party  strife; 
Ring  in  the  nobler  modes  of  life, 

With  sweeter  manners,  purer  laws. 

Ring  out  the  want,  the  care,  the  sin, 
The  faithless  coldness  of  the  times; 
Ring    out,   ring__aut  —my-  nieurnful . 
rhymes, 

But  ring  the  fuller  minstrel  in. 

Ring  out  false  pride  in  place  and  blood, 
The  civic  slander  and  the  spite; 
Ring  in  the  love  of  truth  and  right, 

Ring  in  the  common  love  of  good. 

Ring  out  old  shapes  of  foul  disease; 

Ring  out  the  narrowing  lust  of  gold; 

Ring  out  the  thousand  wars  of  old, 
Ring  in  the  thousand  years  of  peace. 

Ring  in  the  valiant  man  and  free, 

The  larger  heart,  the  kindlier  hand; 
Ring  out  the  darkness  of  the  land, 

Ring  in  the  Christ  that  is  to  be. 


It  is  the  day  when  he  was  born, 
A  bitter  day  that  early  sank 
Behind  a  purple-frosty  bank 

Of  vapour,  leaving  night  forlorn. 


IN  MEMORIAM. 


273 


The  time  admits  not  flowers  or  leaves 
To    deck    the    banquet.       Fiercely 

flies 
The  blast  of  North  and  East,  and 
ice 
Makes  daggers  at  the  sharpen'd  eaves, 

And  bristles  all  the  brakes  and  thorns 
To  yon  hard  crescent,  as  she  hangs 
Above  the  wood  which  grides  and 
clangs 

Its  leafless  ribs  and  iron  horns 

Together,  in  the  drifts  that  pass 
To  darken  on  the  rolling  brine 
That  breaks  the  coast.     But  fetch 
the  wine, 

Arrange  the  board  and  brim  the  glass; 

Bring  in  great  logs  and  let  them  lie, 
To  make  a  solid  core  of  heat; 
Be  cheerful-minded,  talk  and  treat 

Of  all  things  ev'n  as  he  were  by; 

We  keep  the  day.  With  festal  cheer, 
With  books  and  music,  surely  we 
Will  drink  to  him,  whate'er  he  be, 

And  sing  the  songs  he  loved  to  hear. 

CVIII. 

I  will  not  shut  me  from  my  kind, 
And,  lest  I  stiffen  into  stone, 
I  will  not  eat  my  heart  alone, 

Nor  feed  with  sighs  a  passing  wind : 

What  profit  lies  in  barren  faith, 

And  vacant  yearning,  tho'  with  might 
To  scale  the  heaven's  highest  height, 

Or  dive  below  the  wells  of  Death? 

What  find  I  in  the  highest  place, 

But  mine   own   phantom    chanting 

hymns  ? 
And  on  the  depths  of  death  there 
swims 
The  reflex  of  a  human  face. 

I'll  rather  take  what  fruit  may  be 
Of  sorrow  under  human  skies : 
'Tis    held    that    sorrow    makes    us 
wise, 

Whatever  wisdom  sleep  with  thee. 

T 


cix. 

Heart-affluence  in  discursive  talk 

From    household    fountains    never 

dry; 
The  critic  clearness  of  an  eye, 

That  saw  thro'  all  the  Muses'  walk; 

Seraphic  intellect  and  force 

To  seize  and  throw  the  doubts  of 
man; 

Impassion'd  logic,  which  outran 
The  hearer  in  its  fiery  course; 

High  nature  amorous  of  the  good, 

But  touch'd  with  no  ascetic  gloom; 
And  passion  pure  in  snowy  bloom 

Thro'  all  the  years  of  April  blood; 

A  love  of  freedom  rarely  felt, 

Of  freedom  in  her  regal  seat 
Of    England;     not    the    schoolboy 
heat, 

The  blind  hysterics  of  the  Celt; 

And  manhood  fused  with  female  grace 
In  such  a  sort,  the  child  would  twine 
A  trustful  hand,  unask'd,  in  thine, 

And  find  his  comfort  in  thy  face; 

All  these  have  been,  and  thee  mine  eyes 
Have  look'd  on :    if  they  look'd  in 

vain, 
My  shame  is  greater  who  remain, 

Nor  let  thy  wisdom  make  me  wise. 

ex. 

Thy  converse  drew  us  with  delight, 
The  men  of  rathe  and  riper  years : 
The  feeble  soul,  a  haunt  of  fears, 

Forgot  his  weakness  in  thy  sight. 

On  thee  the  loyal-hearted  hung, 

The    proud   was    half    disarm'd   of 

pride, 
Nor  cared  the  serpent  at  thy  side 

To  flicker  with  his  double  tongue. 

The  stern  were  mild  when  thou  wert  by, 
The  flippant  put  himself  to  school 
And  heard  thee,  and  the  brazen  fool 

Was  soften'd,  and  he  knew  not  why; 


274 


IN  MEMORIAM. 


While  I,  thy  nearest,  sat  apart, 

And  felt  thy  triumph  was  as  mine; 
And  loved  them  more,  that  they  were 
thine, 

The  graceful  tact,  the  Christian  art; 

Nor  mine  the  sweetness  or  the  skill, 

But  mine  the  love  that  will  not  tire, 
And,  born  of  love,  the  vague  desire 

That  spurs  an  imitative  will. 

CXI. 

ihe  churl  in  spirit,  up  or  down 

Along  the  scale  of  ranks,  thro'  all, 
To  him  who  grasps  a  golden  ball, 

By  blood  a  king,  at  heart  a  clown; 

The  churl  in  spirit,  howe'er  he  veil 

His  want  in  forms  for  fashion's  sake, 
Will  let  his  coltish  nature  break 

At  seasons  thro'  the  gilded  pale : 

For  who  can  always  act?  but  he, 

To  whom  a  thousand  memories  call, 
Not  being  less  but  more  than  all 

The  gentleness  he  seem'd  to  be, 

Best  seem'd  the  thing  he  was,  and  join'd 
Each  office  of  the  social  hour 
To  noble  manners,  as  the  flower 

And  native  growth  of  noble  mind; 

Nor  ever  narrowness  or  spite, 
Or  villain  fancy  fleeting  by, 
Drew  in  the  expression  of  an  eye, 

Where  God  and  Nature  met  in  light; 

And  thus  he  bore  without  abuse 

Thejjrand .old  name  of  gentleman, 
Defamed  by  every  charlatan, 

And  soil'd  with  all  ignoble  use. 

CXII. 

High  wisdom  holds  my  wisdom  less, 

That  I,  who  gaze  with  temperate  eyes 
On  glorious  insufficiencies, 

Set  light  by  narrower  perfectness. 

But  thou,  that  fillest  all  the  room 
Of  all  my  love,  art  reason  why 
I  seem  to  cast  a  careless  eye 

On  souls,  the  lesser  lords  of  doom. 


For  what  wert  thou?  some  novel  power 
Sprang  up  for  ever  at  a  touch, 
And   hope   could    never    hope   too 
much, 

In  watching  thee  from  hour  to  hour, 

Large  elements  ia^pj^erbroaght, 

And   tracts   of   caTnTlrorn   tempest 

made, 
And  world-wide  fluctuation  sway'd 

In  vassal  tides  that  follow'd  thought. 


'Tis  held  that  sorrow  makes  us  wise; 

Yet  how  much  wisdom  sleeps  with 
thee 

Which  not  alone  had  guided  me, 
But  served  the  seasons  that  may  rise; 

For  can  I  doubt,  who  knew  thee  keen 
In  intellect,  with  force  and  skill 
To  strive,  to  fashion,  to  fulfil  — 

I  doubt    not   what   thou  wouldst   have 
been: 

A  life  in  civic  action  warm, 

A  soul  on  highest  mission  sent, 
A  potent  voice  of  Parliament, 

A  pillar  steadfast  in  the  storm, 

Should  licensed  boldness  gather  force, 
Becoming,  when  the  time  has  birth, 
A  lever  to  uplift  the  earth 

And  roll  it  in  another  course, 

With  thousand  shocks  that  come  and  go, 
With  agonies,  with  energies, 
With  overthrowings,  and  with  cries, 

And  undulations  to  and  fro. 

Ccxiv. 

Who  loves  not  Knowledge?     Who  shall 
rail 
Against  her  beauty?     May  she  mix 
With  men  and  prosper !     Who  shall 
fix 
Her  pillars?     Let  her  work  prevail. 

But  on  her  forehead  sits  a  fire : 

She  sets  her  forward  countenance 
And  leaps  into  the  future  chance, 

Submitting  all  things  to  desire. 


IN  MEMORIAM. 


275 


Half-grown  as  yet,  a  child,  and  vain  — 
She  cannot  fight  the  fear  of  death. 
What  is  she,  cut  from  love  and  faith, 

But  some  wild  Pallas  from  the  brain 

Of  Demons?  fiery-hot  to  burst 

All  barriers  in  her  onward  race 
For  power.    Let  her  know  her  place; 

She  is  the  second,  not  the  first. 

A  higher  hand  must  make  her  mild, 
If  all  be  not  in  vain ;  and  guide 
Her  footsteps,  moving  side  by  side 

With  wisdom,  like  the  younger  child : 

For  she  is  earthly  of  the  mind, 

But  Wisdom  heavenly  of  the  soul. 
O  friend,  who  earnest  to  thy  goal 

So  early,  leaving  me  behind, 

I  would  the  great  world  grew  like  thee, 
Who  grewest  not  alone  in  power 
And   knowledge,   but   by  year   and 
hour 

In  reverence  and  in  chanty. 


Now  fades  the  last  long  streak  of  snow, 
Now  burgeons  every  maze  of  quick 
About   the   flowering    squares,   and 
thick 

By  ashen  roots  the  violets  blow. 

Now  rings  the  woodland  loud  and  long, 
The  distance  takes  a  lovelier  hue, 
And  drown'd  in  yonder  living  blue 

The  lark  becomes  a  sightless  song. 

Now  dance  the  lights  on  lawn  and  lea, 
The  flocks  are  whiter  down  the  vale, 
And  milkier  every  milky  sail 

On  winding  stream  or  distant  sea; 

Where  now  the  seamew  pipes,  or  dives 
In  yonder  greening  gleam,  and  fly 
The  happy  birds,  that  change  their 
sky 

To  build  and  brood;   that  live  their  lives 

From  land  to  land;   and  in  my  breast 
Spring  wakens  too ;    and  my  regret 
Becomes  an  April  violet, 

And  buds  and  blossoms  like  the  rest. 


CXVI. 

Is  it,  then,  regret  for  buried  time 

That  keenlier  in  sweet  April  wakes, 
And  meets  the  year,  and  gives  and 
takes 

The  colours  of  the  crescent  prime? 

Not  all :  the  songs,  the  stirring  air, 
The  life  re-orient  out  of  dust, 
Cry  thro'  the  sense  to  hearten  trust 

In  that  which  made  the  world  so  fair. 

Not  all  regret :  the  facejwill  shine 
Upon  me,  while  I  muse  alone; 
And   that   dear  voice,  I  once  have 
known, 

Still  speak  to  me  of  me  and  mine : 

Yet  less  of  sorrow  lives  in  me 

For  days  of  happy  commune  dead; 

Less    yearning    for    the    friendship 
fled, 
Than  some  strong  bond  which  is  to.be. 


O  days  and  hours,  your  work  is  this, 
To  hold  me  from  my  proper  place, 
A  little  while  from  his  embrace, 

For  fuller  gain  of  after  bliss  : 

That  out  of  distance  might  ensue 

Desire  of  nearness  doubly  sweet; 
And  unto  meeting  when  we  meet, 

Delight  a  hundredfold  accrue, 

For  every  grain  of  sand  that  runs, 

And    every    span     of    shade    that 

steals, 
And  every  kiss  of  toothed  wheels, 

And  all  the  courses  of  the  suns. 

CXVIII. 

Contemplate  all  this  work  of  Time, 
The  giant  labouring  in  his  youth; 
Nor  dream  of  human  love  and  truth, 

As  dying  Nature's  earth  and  lime; 

But  trust  that  those  we  call  the  dead 
Are  breathers  of  an  ampler  day 
For"ever  nobler  ends.     They  say, 

The  solid  earth  whereon  we  tread 


276 


IN  MEMORIAM. 


In  tracts  of  fluent  heat  began, 

AnoTgrevv  to  seeming-random  forms, 
The  seeming  prey  of  cyclic  storms, 

Till  at  the  last  arose  the  man; 

Who  throve  and  branch'd  from  clime  to 
clime, 
The  herald  of  a  higher  race, 
And  of  himself  in  higher  place, 

If  so  he  type  this  work  of  time 

Within  himself,  from  more  to  more; 
Or,  crown'd  with  attributes  of  woe 
Like  glories,  move  his  course,  and 
show 

That  life  is  not  as  idle  ore, 

But  iron  dug  from  central  gloom, 

And  heated  hot  with  burning  fears, 
And  dipt  in  baths  of  hissing  tears, 

And  ba,tter'd  with  the  shocks  of  doom 

To  shape  and  use.     Arise  and  fly 

The  reeling  Faun,  the  sensual  feast; 
Move  upward,  working  out  the  beast 

And  let  the  ape  and  tiger  die. 

CXIX. 

Doors,  where  my  heart  was  used  to  beat 
So  quickly,  not  as  one  that  weeps 
I  come  once  more;   the  city  sleeps; 

I  smell  the  meadow  in  the  street; 

I  hear  a  chirp  of  birds;   I  see 

Betwixt  the  black  fronts  long-with- 
drawn 

A  light-blue  lane  of  early  dawn, 
And  think  of  early  days  and  thee, 

And  bless  thee,  for  thy  lips  are  bland, 
And  bright  the  friendship  of  thine 

eye; 
And  in  my  thoughts  with  scarce  a 
sigh 
I  take  the  pressure  of  thine  hand. 

cxx. 

I  trust  I  have  not  wasted  breath : 

I  think  we  are  not  wholly  brain, 
Magnetic  mockeries ;  not  in  vain, 

Like   Paul  with   beasts,   I   fought   with 
Death; 


Not  only  cunning  casts  in  clay  : 

Let  Science  prove  we  are,  and  then 
What  matters  Science  unto  men, 

At  least  to  me?     I  would  not  stay. 

Let  him,  the  wiser  man  who  springs 

Hereafter,  up  from  childhood  shape 
His  action  like  the  greater  ape, 

But  I  was  born  to  other  things. 


Sad  Hesper  o'er  the  buried  sun 

And  ready,  thou,  to  die  with  him, 
Thou  watchest  all  things  ever  dim 

And  dimmer,  and  a  glory  done : 

The  team  is  loosen'd  from  the  wain, 

The  boat  is  drawn  upon  the  shore; 
Thou  listenest  to  the  closing  door, 

And  life  is  darken'd  in  the  brain. 

Bright  Phosphor,  fresher  for  the  night, 
By  thee  the  world's   great  work  is 

heard 
Beginning,  and  the  wakeful  bird ; 

Behind  thee  comes. the  greater  light: 

The  market  boat  is  on  the  stream, 

And  voices  hail  it  from  the  brink; 
Thou   hear'st   the   village    hammer 
clink, 

And  see'st  the  moving  of  the  team. 

Sweet  Hesper- Phosphor,  double  name 
For  what  is  one,  the  first,  the  last, 
Thou,    like    my    present    and    my 
past, 

Thy  place  is  changed;  thou  art  the  same. 

fxxn) 

Oh,  wast  thou  with  me,  dearest,  then, 
While  I  rose  up  against  my  doom, 
And   yearn'd  to   burst    the    folded 
gloom, 

To  bare  the  eternal  Heavens  again, 

To  feel  once  more,  in  placid  awe, 
The  strong  imagination  roll 
A  sphere  of  stars  about  my  soul, 

In  all  her  motion  one  with  law; 

If  thou  wert  with  me,  and  the  grave 
Divide  us  not,  be  with  me  now, 


IN  MEMORIAM. 


277 


And  enter  in  at  breast  and  brow 
Till  all  my  blood,  a  fuller  wave, 

Be  quicken'd  with  a  livelier  breath, 
And  like  an  inconsiderate  boy, 
As  in  the  former  flash  of  joy, 

I  slip  the  thoughts  of  life  and  death; 

And  all  the  breeze  of  Fancy  blows, 
And  every  dew-drop  paints  a  bow, 
The  wizard  lightnings  deeply  glow, 

And  every  thought  breaks  out  a  rose. 

CXXIII. 

There  rolls  the  deep  where  grew  the  tree. 

0  earth,   what   changes   hast   thou 
seen! 

There  where    the   long  street  roars 
hath  been 
The  stillness  of  the  central  sea. 

The  hills  are  shadows,  and  they  flow 

From   form   to    form,  and   nothing 

stands; 
They  melt  like  mist,  the  solid  lands, 
Like  clouds  they  shape  themselves  and 
go- 

BuLin  my  spirit  will  I  dwell, 

*   And  dream  my  dream,  and  hold  it 
true; 
For  tho'  my  lips  may  breathe  adieu, 
I  cannot  think  the  things  farewell. 

CXXIV. 

That  which  we  dare  invoke  to  bless; 

Our   dearest    faith;     our    ghastliest 

doubt ; 
He,  They,  One,  All;    within,  with- 
out; 
The  Power  in  darkness  whom  we  guess; 

I  found  Him  not  in  world  or  sun, 
Or  eagle's  wing,  or  insect's  eye; 
Nor  thro'  the   questions   men   may 

try, 

The  petty  cobwebs  we  have  spun : 

If  e'er  when  faith  had  fall'n  asleep, 

1  heard  a  voice,  '  Believe  no  more ' 
And  heard  an  ever-breaking  shore 

That  tumbled  in  the  Godless  deep; 


A  warmth  within  the  breast  would  melt 
The  freezing  reason's  colder  part, 
And  like  a  man  in  wrath  the  heart 

Stood^ip^arjd^nswer'd,  *  I  haygjjelt.' 

No,  like  a  child  in  doubt  and  fear : 

But   that   blind   clamour   made  me 

wise; 
Then  was  I  as  a  child  that  cries, 

But,  crying,  knows  his  father  near; 

And  what  I  am  beheld  again 

What  is,  and  no  man  understands; 

And gut    of   darkness — came—the 

hands 

That  reach  thro'  nature,  moulding  men. 

cxxv. 

Whatever  I  have  said  or  sung, 

Some  bitter  notes  my  harp  would 
give, 

Yea,  tho'  there  often  seemM  to  live 
A  contradiction  on  the  tongue, 

Yet  Hope  had  never  lost  her  youth ; 

She  did  but  look  through  dimmer 

eyes; 
Or  Love  but  play'd  with  gracious 
lies, 
Because  he  felt  so  fix'd  in  truth : 

And  if  the  song  were  full  of  care, 

He  breathed  the  spirit  of  the  song; 
And  if  the  words  were  sweet  and 
strong 

He  set  his  royal  signet  there; 

Abiding  with  me  till  I  sail 

To  seek  thee  on  the  mystic  deeps, 
And  this  electric  force,  that  keeps 

A  thousand  pulses  dancing,  fail. 

CXXVI. 

Love  is  and  was  my  Lord  and  King, 
And  in  his  presence  I  attend 
To  hear  the  tidings  of  my  friend, 

Which  every  hour  his  couriers  bring. 

Love  is  and  was  my  King  and  Lord, 
And  will  be,  tho'  as  yet  I  keep 
Within  his  court  on  earth,  and  sleep 

Encompass'd  by  his  faithful  guard, 


278 


IN  MEMORIAM. 


And  hear  at  times  a  sentinel 

Who  moves  about  from  place  to 
place, 

And  whispers  to  the  worlds  of  space, 
In  the  deep  night,  that  all  is  well. 


And  all  is  well,  tho'  faith  and  form 
Be  sunder'd  in  the  night  of  fear ; 
Well  roars  the  storm  to  those  that 
hear 

A  deeper  voice  across  the  storm, 

Proclaiming  social  truth  shall  spread, 
And  justice,  ev'n  tho'  thrice  again 
The  red  fool-fury  of  the  Seine 

Should  pile  her  barricades  with  dead. 

But  ill  for  him  that  wears  a  crown, 
And  him,  the  lazar,  in  his  rags : 
They  tremble,  the  sustaining  crags; 

The  spires  of  ice  are  toppled  down, 

And  molten  up,  and  roar  in  flood; 

The  fortress  crashes  from  on  high, 
The  brute  earth  lightens  to  the  sky, 

And  the  great  yEon  sinks  in  blood, 

And  compass'd  by  the  fires  of  Hell; 

While  thou,  dear  spirit,  happy  star, 
O'erlook'st  the  tumult  from  afar, 

And  smilest,  knowing  all  is  well. 

CXXVIII. 

The  love  that  rose  on  stronger  wings, 
Unpalsied  when  he  met  with  Death, 
Is  comrade  of  the  lesser  faith 

That  sees  the  course  of  human  things. 

No  doubt  vast  eddies  in  the  flood 

Of  onward  time  shall  yet  be  made, 
And  throned  races  may  degrade; 

Yet  O  ye  mysteries  of  good, 

Wild  Hours  that  fly  with  Hope  and  Fear, 
If  all  your  office  had  to  do 
With  old  results  that  look  like  new; 

If  this  were  all  your  mission  here, 

To  draw,  to  sheathe  a  useless  sword, 

To  fool  the  crowd  with  glorious  lies, 
To  cleave  a  creed  in  sects  and  cries, 

To  change  the  bearing  of  a  word, 


To  shift  an  arbitrary  power, 

To  cramp  the  student  at  his  desk, 
To  make  old  bareness  picturesque, 

And  tuft  with  grass  a  feudal  tower; 

Why  then  my  scorn  might  well  descend 
On  you  and  yours.     I  see  in  part 
That  all,  as  in  some  piece  of  art,l 

Is  toil  cooperant  to  an  end. 

cxxix. 

Dear  friend,  far  off,  my  lost  desire, 
So  far,  so  near  in  woe  and  weal; 
O  loved  the  most,  when  most  I  feel 

There  is  a  lower  and  a  higher; 

Known  and  unknown;    human,  divine; 

Sweet  human  hand  and  lips  and  eye; 

Dear  heavenly  friend  that  canst  not 
die, 
Mine,  mine,  for  ever,  ever  mine; 

Strange  friend,  past,  present,  and  to  be; 

Loved  deeplier,  darklier  understood; 

Behold,  I  dream  a  dream  of  good, 
And  mingle  all  the  world  with  thee. 


Thy  voice  is  on  the  rolling  air; 

I  hear  thee  where  the  waters  run;, 
Thou  standest  in  the  rising  sun, 

And  in  the  setting  thou  art  fair. 

What  art  thou  then?  I  cannot  guess; 
But  tho'  I  seem  in  star  and  flower 
To  feel  thee  some  diffusive  power, 

I  do  not  therefore  love  thee  less : 

My  love  involves  the  love  before; 
My  love  is  vaster  passion  now; 

I         Tho'   mix'd  with    God  and   Nature 
jEauT 
I  seem  to  love  thee  more  and  more. 

Far  ofi>thau  art,  but  ever  nigh; 

T  have  thee  still,  and  I  rejojce; 

I  prosper,  circled  with  thy  voice ; 
I  shall  not  lose  thee  tho'  I  die. 

cxxxi. 

O  living  will  that  shalt  endure 

When   all    that   seems  shall   suffer 
shock, 


IN  MEMORIAM. 


279 


Rise  in  the  spiritual  rock, 
Flow  thro'  our  deeds  and  make  them  pure, 

That  we  may  lift  from  out  of  dust 
A  voice  as  unto  him  that  hears, 
A  cry  above  the  conquer'd  years 

To  one  that  with  us  works,  and  trust, 

With  faithjthat  comes  of  self-control, 
The  truths  that  neverTan  be  proved 
Until  we  close  with  all  we  loved, 

And  ail  we  flow  from,  soul  in  soul. 


O  true  and  tried,  so  well  and  long, 
Demand  not  thou  a  marriage  lay; 
In  that  it  is  thy  marriage  day 

Is  music  more  than  any  song. 

Nor  have  I  felt  so  much  of  bliss 

Since  first  he  told  me  that  he  loved 
A  daughter  of  our  house ;  nor  proved 

Since  that  dark  day  a  day  like  this; 

Tho'  I  since  then  have  number'd  o'er 
Some  thrice  three  years :  they  went 

and  came, 
Remade  the  blood  and  changed  the 
frame, 
And  yet  is  love  not  less,  but  more; 

No  longer  caring  to  embalm 

In  dying  songs  a  dead  regret, 
But  like  a  statue  solid-set, 

And  moulded  in  colossal  calm. 

Regret  is  dead,  but  love  is  more 

Than  in  the  summers  that  are  flown, 
For  I  myself  with  these  have  grown 

To  something  greater  than  before; 

Which  makes  appear  the  songs  I  made 
As  echoes  out  of  weaker  times, 
As  half  but  idle  brawling  rhymes, 

The  sport  of  random  sun  and  shade. 

But  where  is  she,  the  bridal  flower, 

That  must  be  made  a  wife  ere  noon? 
She  enters,  glowing  like  the  moon 

Of  Eden  on  its  bridal  bower : 

On  me  she  bends  her  blissful  eyes 

And  then  on  thee;  they  meet  thy  look 


And  brighten  like  the  star  that  shook 
Betwixt  the  palms  of  paradise. 

O  when  her  life  was  yet  in  bud, 

He  too  foretold  the  perfect  rose. 
For  thee  she  grew,  for  thee  she  grows 

For  ever,  and  as  fair  as  good! 

And  thou  art  worthy;  full  of  power; 
As  gentle;   liberal-minded,  great, 
Consistent;  wearing  all  that  weight 

Of  learning  lightly  like  a  flower. 

But  now  set  out :  the  noon  is  near, 
And  I  must  give  away  the  bride; 
She  fears  not,  or  with  thee  beside 

And  me  behind  her  will  not  fear: 

For  I  that  danced  her  on  my  knee, 

That  watch'd  her  on  her  nurse's  arm, 
That  shielded  all  her  life  from  harm 

At  last  must  part  with  her  to  thee; 

Now  waiting  to  be  made  a  wife, 

Her  feet,  my  darling,  on  the  dead; 
Their  pensive  tablets  round  her  head, 

And  the  most  living  words  of  life 

Breathed  in  her  ear.     The  ring  is  on, 
The  '  wilt  thou '  answer'd,  and  again 
The  *  wilt  thou '  ask'd,  till  out  of  twain 

Her  sweet  '  I  will '  has  made  you  one. 

Now  sign  your  names,  which  shall  be  read. 
Mute  symbols  of  a  joyful  morn, 
By  village  eyes  as  yet  unborn; 

The  names  are  sign'd,  and  overhead 

Begins  the  clash  and  clang  that  tells 
The  joy  to  every  wandering  breeze; 
The  blind  wall  rocks,  and  on  the  trees 

The  dead  leaf  trembles  to  the  bells. 

O  happy  hour,  and  happier  hours 

Await  them.     Many  a  merry  face 
Salutes  them  —  maidens  of  the  place, 

That  pelt  us  in  the  porch  with  flowers. 

O  happy  hour,  behold  the  bride 

With  him  to  whom  her  hand  I  gave 
They  leave  the  porch,  they  pass  the 
grave 

That  has  to-day  its  siftiny  side. 


28o 


IN  MEMORIAM. 


To-day  the  grave  is  bright  for  me, 

For  them  the  light  of  life  increased, 
Who  stay  to  share  the  morning  feast, 

Who  rest  to-night  beside  the  sea. 

Let  all  my  genial  spirits  advance 

To  meet  and  greet  a  whiter  sun; 
My  drooping  memory  will  not  shun 

The  foaming  grape  of  eastern  France. 

It  circles  round,  and  fancy  plays, 

And  hearts  are  warm'd   and    faces 

bloom, 
As    drinking   health    to    bride    and 
groom 
We  wish  them  store  of  happy  days. 

Nor  count  me  all  to  blame  if  I 
Conjecture  of  a  stiller  guest, 
Perchance,perchance,amongtherest, 

And,  tho'  in  silence,  wishing  joy. 

But  they  must  go,  the  time  draws  on, 
And  those  white-favour'd  horses  wait ; 
They  rise,  but  linger;   it  is  late; 

Farewell,  we  kiss,  and  they  are  gone. 

A  shade  falls  on  us  like  the  dark 

From  little  cloudlets  on  the  grass, 
But  sweeps  away  as  out  we  pass 

To  range  the  woods,  to  roam  the  park, 

Discussing  how  their  courtship  grew, 
And  talk  of  others  that  are  wed, 
And  how  she  look'd ,  and  what  he  said, 

And  back  we  come  at  fall  of  dew. 

Again  the  feast,  the  speech,  the  glee, 

The  shade  of  passing  thought,  the 

wealth 
Of  words  and  wit,  the  double  health, 

The  crowning  cup,  the  three-times-three, 

And  last  the  dance;  — till  I  retire : 

Dumb  is  that  tower  which  spake  so 

loud, 
And  high  in  heaven  the  streaming 
cloud, 
And  on  the  downs  a  rising  fire : 


And  rise,  O  moon,  from  yonder  down, 
Till  over  down  and  over  dale 
All  night  the  shining  vapour  sail 

And  pass  the  silent-lighted  town, 

The  white-faced  halls,  the  glancing  rills, 
And  catch  at  every  mountain  head, 
And  o'er  the  friths  that  branch  and 
spread 

Their  sleeping  silver  thro'  the  hills; 

And  touch  with  shade  the  bridal  doors, 
With    tender   gloom   the   roof,  the 

wall; 
And  breaking  let  the  splendour  fall 

To  spangle  all  the  happy  shores 

By  which  they  rest,  and  ocean  sounds, 
And,  star  and  system  rolling  past, 
A  soul  shall  draw  from  out  the  vast 

And  strike  his  being  into  bounds, 

And,  moved  thro'  life  of  lower  phase, 
Result  in  man,  be  born  and  think, 
And  act  and  love,  a  closer  link 

Betwixt  us  and  the  crowning  race 

Of  those  that,  eye  to  eye,  shall  look 

On  knowledge;   under  whose  com- 
mand 
Is  Earth  and  Earth's,  and  in  their 
hand 
Is  Nature  like  an  open  book; 

No  longer  half-akin  to  brute, 

For  all  we  thought  and  loved  and 
did, 

And  hoped,  and  suffer'd,  is  but  seed 
Of  what  in  them  is  flower  and  fruit ; 

Whereof  the  man,  that  with  me  trod 
This  planet,  was  a  noble  type 
Appearing  ere  the  times  were  ripe, 

That  friend  of  mine  who  lives  in  God, 

That  God,  which  ever  lives  and  loves, 
One  God,  one  law,  one  element, 

And  one  far-off  divihe'event, 
To  which  the  whole  creation  moves. 


MAUD.  281 


MAUD;   A    MONODRAMA. 

PART   I. 


IT,  XV 


I  HATE  the  dreadful  hollow  behind  the  little  wood, 
Its  lips  in  the  field  above  are  dappled  with  blood-red  heath, 
The  red-ribb'd  ledges  drip  with  a  silent  horror  of  blood, 
And  Echo  there,  whatever  is  ask'd  her,  answers  '  Death.' 


For  there  in  the  ghastly  pit  long  since  a  body  was  found, 
His  who  had  given  me  life  —  O  father  !  O  God !  was  it  well?  — 
Mangled,  and  flatten'd,  and  crush'd,  and  dinted  into  the  ground: 
There  yet  lies  the  rock  that  fell  with  him  when  he  fell. 

hi. 

Did  he  fling  himself  down?  who  knows?  for  a  vast  speculation  had  fail'd, 
And  ever  he  mutter'd  and  madden'd,  and  ever  wann'd  with  despair, 
And  out  he  walk'd  when  the  wind  like  a  broken  worldling  wail'd, 
And  the  flying  gold  of  the  ruin'd  woodlands  drove  thro'  the  air. 


I  remember  the  time,  for  the  roots  of  my  hair  were  stirr'd 
By  a  shuffled  step,  by  a  dead  weight  trail'd,  by  a  whisper'd  fright, 
And  my  pulses  closed  their  gates  with  a  shock  on  my  heart  as  I  heard 
The  shrill-edged  shriek  of  a  mother  divide  the  shuddering  night. 


Villainy  somewhere !  whose?    One  says,  we  are  villains  all. 
Not  he;  his  honest  fame  should  at  least  by  me  be  maintained: 
But  that  old  man,  now  lord  of  the  broad  estate  and  the  Hall, 
Dropt  off  gorged  from  a  scheme  that  had  left  us  flaccid  and  drain'd. 

VI. 

Why  do  they  prate  of  the  blessings  of  Peace?  we  have  made  them  a  curse, 

Pickpockets,  each  hand  lusting  for  all  that  is  not  its  own; 

And  lust  of  gain,  in  the  spirit  of  Cain,  is  it  better  or  worse 

Than  the  heart  of  the  citizen  hissing  in  war  on  his  own  hearthstone? 

VII. 

But  these  are  the  days  of  advance,  the  works  of  the  men  of  mind, 
When  who  but  a  fool  would  have  faith  in  a  tradesman's  ware  or  his  word? 
Is  it  peace  or  war?     Civil  war,  as  I  think,  and  that  of  a  kind 
The  viler,  as  underhand,  not  openly  bearing  the  sword. 


282  MAUD. 


Sooner  or  later  I  too  may  passively  take  the  print 

Of  the  golden  age  — why  not?     I  have  neither  hope  nor  trust; 

May  make  my  heart  as  a  millstone,  set  my  face  as  a  flint, 

Cheat  and  be  cheated,  and  die:  who  knows?  we  are  ashes  and  dust. 

IX. 

Peace  sitting  under  her  olive,  and  slurring  the  days  gone  by, 

When  the  poor  are  hovell'd  and  hustled  together,  each  sex,  like  swine. 

When  only  the  ledger  lives,  and  when  only  not  all  men  lie; 

Peace  in  her  vineyard  —  yes !  —  but  a  company  forges  the  wine. 


And  the  vitriol  madness  flushes  up  in  the  ruffian's  head, 
Till  the  filthy  by-lane  rings  to  the  yell  of  the  trampled  wife, 
And  chalk  and  alum  and  plaster  are  sold  to  the  poor  for  bread, 
And  the  spirit  of  murder  works  in  the  very  means  of  life, 

XI. 

And  Sleep  must  lie  down  arm'd,  for  the  villainous  centre-bits 
Grind  on  the  wakeful  ear  in  the  hush  of  the  moonless  nights, 
While  another  is  cheating  the  sick  of  a  few  last  gasps,  as  he  sits 
To  pestle  a  poison'd  poison  behind  his  crimson  lights. 


When  a  Mammonite  mother  kills  her  babe  for  a  burial  fee, 
And  Timour-Mammon  grins  on  a  pile  of  children's  bones, 
Is  it  peace  or  war?  better,  war !  loud  war  by  land  and  by  sea, 
War  with  a  thousand  battles,  and  shaking  a  hundred  thrones. 

XIII. 

For  I  trust  if  an  enemy's  fleet  came  yonder  round  by  the  hill, 
And  the  rushing  battle-boat  sang  from  the  three-decker  out  of  the  foam, 
That  the  smooth-faced  snubnosed  rogue  would  leap  from  his  counter  and  till, 
And  strike,  if  he  could,  were  it  but  with  his  cheating  yardwand,  home. 


What !  am  I  raging  alone  as  my  father  raged  in  his  mood? 
Must  /  too  creep  to  the  hollow  and  dash  myself  down  and  die 
Rather  than  hold  by  the  law  that  I  made,  nevermore  to  brood 
On  a  horror  of  shatter'd  limbs  and  a  wretched  swindler's  lie? 

XV. 

Would  there  be  sorrow  for  met  there  was  love  in  the  passionate  shriek, 
Love  for  the  silent  thing  that  had  made  false  haste  to  the  grave  — 
Wrapt  in  a  cloak,  as  I  saw  him,  and  thought  he  would  rise  and  speak 
And  rave  at  the  lie  and  the  liar,  ah  God,  as  he  used  to  rave. 


MA  UD.  283 


XVI. 


I  am  sick  of  the  Hall  and  the  hill,  I  am  sick  of  the  moor  and  the  main. 
"Why  should  I  stay?  can  a  sweeter  chance  ever  come  to  me  here? 
O,  having  the  nerves  of  motion  as  well  as  the  nerves  of  pain, 
Were  it  not  wise  if  I  fled  from  the  place  and  the  pit  and  the  fear? 


Workmen  up  at  the  Hall !  — they  are  coming  back  from  abroad; 
The  dark  old  place  will  be  gilt  by  the  touch  of  a  millionaire : 
I  have  heard,  I  know  not  whence,  of  the  singular  beauty  of  Maud; 
I  play'd  with  the  girl  when  a  child;   she  promised  then  to  be  fair. 

XVIII. 

Maud  with  her  venturous  climbings  and  tumbles  and  childish  escapes, 
Maud  the  delight  of  the  village,  the  ringing  joy  of  the  Hall, 
Maud  with  her  sweet  purse-mouth  when  my  father  dangled  the  grapes, 
Maud  the  beloved  of  my  mother,  the  moon-faced  darling  of  all,  — 

XIX. 

What  is  she  now?     My  dreams  are  bad.     She  may  bring  me  a  curse. 
No,  there  is  fatter  game  on  the  moor :  she  will  let  me  alone. 
Thanks,  for  the  fiend  best  knows  whether  woman  or  man  be  the  worse. 
I  will  bury  myself  in  myself,  and  the  Devil  may  pipe  to  his  own. 

II. 

Long  have  I  sigh'd  for  a  calm :  God  grant  I  may  find  it  at  last ! 

It  will  never  be  broken  by  Maud,  she  has  neither  savour  nor  salt, 

But  a  cold  and  clear-cut  face,  as  I  found  when  her  carriage  past, 

Perfectly  beautiful :  let  it  be  granted  her:  where  is  the  fault? 

All  that  I  saw  (for  her  eyes  were  downcast,  not  to  be  seen) 

Faultily  faultless,  icily  regular,  splendidly  null, 

Dead  perfection,  no  more;   nothing  more,  if  it  had  not  been 

For  a  chance  of  travel,  a  paleness,  an  hour's  defect  of  the  rose, 

Or  an  underlip,  you  may  call  it  a  little  too  ripe,  too  full, 

Or  the  least  little  delicate  aquiline  curve  in  a  sensitive  nose, 

From  which  I  escaped  heart-free,  with  the  least  little  touch  of  spleen. 

III. 

Cold  and  clear-cut  face,  why  come  you  so  cruelly  meek, 
Breaking  a  slumber  in  which  all  spleenful  folly  was  drown'd, 
Pale  with  the  golden  beam  of  an  eyelash  dead  on  the  cheek, 
Passionless,  pale,  cold  face,  star-sweet  on  a  gloom  profound; 
Womanlike,  taking  revenge  too  deep  for  a  transient  wrong 
Done  but  in  thought  to  your  beauty,  and  ever  as  pale  as  before 
Growing  and  fading  and  growing  upon  me  without  a  sound, 
Luminous,  gemlike,  ghostlike,  deathlike,  half  the  night  long 
Growing  and  fading  and  growing,  till  I  could  bear  it  no  more, 
But  arose,  and  all  by  myself  in  my  own  dark  garden  ground, 


284  MAUD. 


Listening  now  to  the  tide  in  its  broad-flung  shipwrecking  roar, 
Now  to  the  scream  of  a  madden'd  beach  dragg'd  down  by  the  wave, 
Walk'd  in  a  wintry  wind  by  a  ghastly  glimmer,  and  found 
The  shining  daffodil  dead,  and  Orion  low  in  his  grave. 


IV. 


A  million  emeralds  break  from  the  ruby-budded  lime 
In  the  little  grove  where  I  sit  —  ah,  wherefore  cannot  I  be 
Like  things  of  the  season  gay,  like  the  bountiful  season  bland, 
When  the  far-off  sail  is  blown  by  the  breeze  of  a  softer  clime, 
Half-lost  in  the  liquid  azure  bloom  of  a  crescent  of  sea, 
The  silent  sapphire-spangled  marriage  ring  of  the  land? 

II. 

Below  me,  there,  is  the  village,  and  looks  how  quiet  and  small ! 
And  yet  bubbles  o'er  like  a  city,  with  gossip,  scandal,  and  spite; 
And  Jack  on  his  ale-house  bench  has  as  many  lies  as  a  Czar; 
And  here  on  the  landward  side,  by  a  red  rock,  glimmers  the  Hall; 
And  up  in  the  high  Hall-garden  I  see  her  pass  like  a  light; 
But  sorrow  seize  me  if  ever  that  light  be  my  leading  star ! 


When  have  I  bow'd  to  her  father,  the  wrinkled  head  of  the  race? 

I  met  her  to-day  with  her  brother,  but  not  to  her  brother  I  bow'd : 

I  bow'd  to  his  lady-sister  as  she  rode  by  on  the  moor; 

But  the  fire  of  a  foolish  pride  flash'd  over  her  beautiful  face. 

O  child,  you  wrong  your  beauty,  believe  it,  in  being  so  proud  ; 

Your  father  has  wealth  well-gotten,  and  I  am  nameless  and  poor. 


I  keep  but  a  man  and  a  maid,  ever  ready  to  slander  and  steal; 

I  know  it,  and  smile  a  hard-set  smile,  like  a  stoic,  or  like 

A  wiser  epicurean,  and  let  the  world  have  its  way : 

For  nature  is  one  with  rapine,  a  harm  no  preacher  can  heal; 

The  Mayfly  is  torn  by  the  swallow,  the  sparrow  spear'd  by  the  shrike, 

And  the  whole  little  wood  where  I  sit  is  a  world  of  plunder  and  prey. 

v. 

We  are  puppets,  Man  in  his  pride,  and  Beauty  fair  in  her  flower; 
Do  we  move  ourselves,  or  are  moved  by  an  unseen  hand  at  a  game 
That  pushes  us  off  from  the  board,  and  others  ever  succeed? 
Ah  yet,  we  cannot  be  kind  to  each  other  here  for  an  hour; 
We  whisper,  and  hint,  and  chuckle,  and  grin  at  a  brother's  shame; 
However  we  brave  it  out,  we  men  are  a  little  breed. 

VI. 

A  monstrous  eft  was  of  old  the  Lord  and  Master  of  Earth, 
For  him  did  his  high  sun  flame,  and  his  river  billowing  ran, 


MAUD. 


285 


And  he  felt  himself  in  his  force  to  be  Nature's  crowning  race. 
As  nine  months  go  to  the  shaping  an  infant  ripe  for  his  birth, 
So  many  a  million  of  ages  have  gone  to  the  making  of  man : 
He  now  is  first,  but  is  he  the  last?  is  he  not  too  base? 

VII. 

The  man  of  science  himself  is  fonder  of  glory,  and  vain, 
An  eye  well-practised  in  nature,  a  spirit  bounded  and  poor; 
The  passionate  heart  of  the  poet  is  whirl'd  into  folly  and  vice. 
I  would  not  marvel  at  either,  but  keep  a  temperate  brain; 
For  not  to  desire  or  admire,  if  a  man  could  learn  it,  were  more 
Than  to  walk  all  day  like  the  sultan  of  old  in  a  garden  of  spice. 

VIII. 

For  the  drift  of  the  Maker  is  dark,  an  Isis  hid  by  the  veil. 

Who  knows  the  ways  of  the  world,  how  God  will  bring  them  about  ? 

Our  planet  is  one,  the  suns  are  many,  the  world  is  wide. 

Shall  I  weep  if  a  Poland  fall?  shall  I  shriek  if  a  Hungary  fail? 

Or  an  infant  civilisation  be  ruled  with  rod  or  with  knout? 

/  have  not  made  the  world,  and  He  that  made  it  will  guide. 


Be  mine  a  philosopher's  life  in  the  quiet  woodland  ways, 

Where  if  I  cannot  be  gay  let  a  passionless  peace  be  my  lot, 

Far-off  from  the  clamour  of  liars  belied  in  the  hubbub  of  lies; 

From  the  long-neck'd  geese  of  the  world  that  are  ever  hissing  dispraise 

Because  their  natures  are  little,  and,  whether  he  heed  it  or  not, 

Where  each  man  walks  with  his  head  in  a  cloud  of  poisonous  flies. 

X. 

And  most  of  all  would  I  flee  from  the  cruel  madness  of  love, 
The  honey  of  poison-flowers  and  all  the  measureless  ill. 
Ah  Maud,  you  milkwhite  fawn,  you  are  all  unmeet  for  a  wife. 
Your  mother  is  mute  in  her  grave  as  her  image  in  marble  above; 
Your  father  is  ever  in  London,  you  wander  about  at  your  will; 
You  have  but  fed  on  the  roses  and  lain  in  the  lilies  of  life. 


A  voice  by  the  cedar  tree 

In  the  meadow  under  the  Hall ! 

She  is  singing  an  air  that  is  known  to  me, 

A  passionate  ballad  gallant  and  gay, 

A  martial  song  like  a  trumpet's  call ! 

Singing  alone  in  the  morning  of  life, 

In  the  happy  morning  of  life  and  of  May, 

Singing  of  men  that  in  battle  array, 

Ready  in  heart  and  ready  in  hand, 

March  with  banner  and  bugle  and  fife 

To  the  death,  for  their  native  land. 


Maud  with  her  exquisite  face, 

And  wild  voice  pealing  up  to  the  sunny 

sky, 
And  feet  like  sunny  gems  on  an  English 

green, 
Maud  in  the  light  of  her  youth  and  her 

grace, 
Singing  of  Death,  and  of  Honour  that 

cannot  die, 
Till  I  well  could  weep  for  a  time  so  sordid 

and  mean, 
And  myself  so  languid  and  base. 


286 


MAUD. 


in. 

Silence,  beautiful  voice ! 

Be  still,  for  you  only  trouble  the  mind 

With  a  joy  in  which  I  cannot  rejoice, 

A  glory  I  shall  not  find. 

Still !  I  will  hear  you  no  more, 

For  your  sweetness  hardly  leaves  me  a 

choice 
But  to  move  to  the  meadow  and  fall  before 
Her  feet  on  the  meadow  grass,  and  adore, 
Not  her,  who  is  neither  courtly  nor  kind, 
Not  her,  not  her,  but  a  voice. 


VI. 


Morning  arises  stormy  and  pale, 

No  sun,  but  a  wannish  glare 

In  fold  upon  fold  of  hueless  cloud, 

And  the  budded  peaks  of  the  wood  are 

bow'd 
Caught  and  cuff  d  by  the  gale  : 
I  had  fancied  it  would  be  fair. 

II. 

Whom  but  Maud  should  I  meet 

Last  night,  when  the  sunset  burn'd 

On  the  blossom'd  gable-ends 

At  the  head  of  the  village  street, 

Whom  but  Maud  should  I  meet? 

And  she  touch'd  my  hand  with  a  smile  so 

sweet, 
She  made  me  divine  amends 
For  a  courtesy  not  return'd. 

III. 

And  thus  a  delicate  spark 
Of  glowing  and  growing  light 
Thro'  the  livelong  hours  of  the  dark 
Kept   itself  warm   in   the   heart  of  my 

dreams, 
Ready  to  burst  in  a  colour'd  flame; 
Till  at  last  when  the  morning  came 
In  a  cloud,  it  faded,  and  seems 
But  an  ashen-gray  delight. 


What  if  with  her  sunny  hair, 
And  smile  as  sunny  as  cold, 
She  meant  to  weave  me  a  snare 
Of  some  coquettish  deceit, 


Cleopatra-like  as  of  old 

To  entangle  me  when  we  met, 

To  have  her  lion  roll  in  a  silken  net 

And  fawn  at  a  victor's  feet. 


Ah,  what  shall  I  be  at  fifty 

Should  Nature  keep  me  alive, 

If  I  find  the  world  so  bitter 

When  I  am  but  twenty-five? 

Yet,  if  she  were  not  a  cheat, 

If  Maud  were  all  that  she  seem'd, 

And  her  smile  were  all  that  I  dream'd* 

Then  the  world  were  not  so  bitter 

But  a  smile  could  make  it  sweet. 


What  if  tho'  her  eye  seem'd  full 
Of  a  kind  intent  to  me, 
What  if  that  dandy-despot,  he, 
That  jewell'd  mass  of  millinery, 
That  oil'd  and  curl'd  Assyrian  Bull 
Smelling  of  musk  and  of  insolence, 
Her  brother,  from  whom  I  keep  aloof, 
Who  wants  the  finer  politic  sense 
To  mask,  tho'  but  in  his  own  behoof, 
With  a  glassy  smile  his  brutal  scorn  — 
What  if  he  had  told  her  yestermorn 
How  prettily  for  his  own  sweet  sake 
A  face  of  tenderness  might  be  feign'd, 
And  a  moist  mirage  in  desert  eyes, 
That  so,  when  the  rotten  hustings  shake 
In  another  month  to  his  brazen  lies, 
A  wretched  vote  may  be  gain'd. 


For  a  raven  ever  croaks,  at  my  side, 
Keep  watch  and  ward,  keep  watch  and 

ward, 
Or  thou  wilt  prove  their  tool 
Yea,  too,  myself  from  myself  I  guard, 
For  often  a  man's  own  angry  pride 
Is  cap  and  bells  for  a  fool. 


Perhaps  the  smile  and  tender  tone 
Came  out  of  her  pitying  womanhood, 
For  am  I  not,  am  I  not,  here  alone 
So  many  a  summer  since  she  died, 
My  mother,  who  was  so  gentle  and  good? 
Living  alone  in  an  empty  house, 
Here  half-hid  in  the  gleaming  wood, 


MAUD. 


287 


Where     I    hear    the     dead    at    midday 

moan, 
And  the  shrieking  rush  of  the  wainscot 

mouse, 
And    my    own    sad    name    in    corners 

cried, 
When   the  shiver  of  dancing   leaves   is 

thrown 
About  its  echoing  chambers  wide, 
Till    a   morbid   hate    and    horror    have 

grown 
Of  a  world  in  which  I  have  hardly  mixt, 
And  a  morbid  eating  lichen  fixt 
On  a  heart  half-turn'd  to  stone. 

IX. 

O  heart  of  stone,  are  you  flesh,  and  caught 
By  that  you  swore  to  withstand? 
For  what  was  it  else  within  me  wrought 
But,    I    fear,  the    new   strong    wine    of 

love, 
That  made  my  tongue  so  stammer  and 

trip 
When  I  saw  the  treasured  splendour,  her 

hand, 
Come  sliding  out  of  her  sacred  glove, 
And  the  sunlight  broke  from  her  lip? 


I  have  play'd  with  her  when  a  child; 

She  remembers  it  now  we  meet. 

Ah  well,  well,  well,  I  may  be  beguiled 

By  some  coquettish  deceit. 

Yet,  if  she  were  not  a  cheat, 

If  Maud  were  all  that  she  seem'd, 

And  her  smile  had  all  that  I  dream'd, 

Then  the  world  were  not  so  bitter 

But  a  smile  could  make  it  sweet. 

VII. 


Did  I  hear  it  half  in  a  doze 

Long  since,  I  know  not  where? 

Did  I  dream  it  an  hour  ago, 
When  asleep  in  this  arm-chair? 


Men  were  drinking  together, 
Drinking  and  talking  of  me; 

*  Well,  if  it  prove  a  girl,  the  boy 
Will  have  plenty :  so  let  it  be.' 


Is  it  an  echo  of  something 
Read  with  a  boy's  delight, 

Viziers  nodding  together 
In  some  Arabian  night? 

IV. 

Strange,  that  I  hear  two  men, 
Somewhere,  talking  of  me; 

'  Well,  if  it  prove  a  girl,  my  boy 
Will  have  plenty :  so  let  it  be.' 

VIII. 

She  came  to  the  village  church, 

And  sat  by  a  pillar  alone; 

An  angel  watching  an  urn 

Wept  over  her,  carved  in  stone; 

And  once,  but  once,  she  lifted  her  eyes, 

And  suddenly,  sweetly,  strangely  blush'd 

To  find  they  were  met  by  my  own; 

And   suddenly,  sweetly,  my  heart  beat 

stronger 
And  thicker,  until  I  heard  no  longer 
The  snowy-banded,  dilettante, 
Delicate-handed  priest  intone; 
And  thought,  is  it  pride,  and  mused  and 

sigh'd 
1  No  surely,  now  it  cannot  be  pride.' 

IX. 

I  was  walking  a  mile, 
More  than  a  mile  from  the  shore, 
The  sun  look'd  out  with  a  smile 
Betwixt  the  cloud  and  the  moor 
And  riding  at  set  of  day 
Over  the  dark  moor  land, 
Rapidly  riding  far  away, 
She  waved  to  me  with  her  hand. 
There  were  two  at  her  side, 
Something  flash'd  in  the  sun, 
Down  by  the  hill  I  saw  them  ride, 
In  a  moment  they  were  gone  : 
Like  a  sudden  spark 
Struck  vainly  in  the  night, 
Then  returns  the  dark 
With  no  more  hope  of  light. 

X. 

1. 

Sick,  am  I  sick  of  a  jealous  dread? 
Was  not  one  of  the  two  at  her  side 


288 


MAUD. 


This   new-made   lord,   whose   splendour 

plucks 
The  slavish  hat  from  the  villager's  head  ? 
Whose  old  grandfather  has  lately  died, 
Gone  to  a  blacker  pit,  for  whom 
Grimy  nakedness  dragging  his  trucks 
And  laying  his  trams  in  a  poison'd  gloom 
Wrought,   till   he   crept   from   a   gutted 

mine 
Master  of  half  a  servile  shire, 
And  left  his  coal  all  turn'd  into  gold 
To  a  grandson,  first  of  his  noble  line, 
Rich  in  the  grace  all  women  desire, 
Strong  in  the  power  that  all  men  adore, 
And  simper  and  set  their  voices  lower, 
And  soften  as  if  to  a  girl,  and  hold 
Awe-stricken  breaths  at  a  work  divine, 
Seeing  his  gewgaw  castle  shine, 
New  as  his  title,  built  last  year, 
There  amid  perky  larches  and  pine, 
And  over  the  sullen-purple  moor 
(Look  at  it)  pricking  a  cockney  ear. 

II. 

What,  has  he  found  my  jewel  out? 
For  one  of  the  two  that  rode  at  her  side 
Bound  for  the  Hall,  I  am  sure  was  he : 
Bound  for  the  Hall,  and  I  think  for  a 

bride. 
Blithe  would  her  brother's  acceptance  be. 
Maud  could  be  gracious  too,  no  doubt 
To  a  lord,  a  captain,  a  padded  shape, 
A  bought  commission,  a  waxen  face, 
A  rabbit  mouth  that  is  ever  agape  — 
Bought?  what  is  it  he  cannot  buy? 
And  therefore  splenetic,  personal,  base, 
A  wounded  thing  with  a  rancorous  cry, 
At  war  with  myself  and  a  wretched  race, 
Sick,  sick  to  the  heart  of  life,  am  I. 

III. 

Last  week  came  one  to  the  country  town, 
To  preach  our  poor  little  army  down, 
And  play  the  game  of  the  despot  kings, 
Tho'  the  state   has   done  it  and   thrice 

as  well: 
This    broad-brimm'd    hawker    of    holy 

things, 
Whose  ear  is  cramm'd  with  his  cotton, 

and  rings 
Even  in  dreams  to  the  chink  of  his  pence, 
This  huckster  put  down  war !  can  he  tell 


Whether  war  be  a  cause  or  a  consequence? 
Put  down  the  passions  that  make  earth 

Hell! 
Down  with  ambition,  avarice,  pride, 
Jealousy,  down  !  cut  off  from  the  mind 
The  bitter  springs  of  anger  and  fear; 
Down  too,  down  at  your  own  fireside, 
With  the  evil  tongue  and  the  evil  ear, 
For  each  is  at  war  with  mankind. 

IV. 

I  wish  I  could  hear  again 

The  chivalrous  battle-song 

That  she  warbled  alone  in  her  joy ! 

I  might  persuade  myself  then 

She  would  not  do  herself  this  great  wrong, 

To  take  a  wanton  dissolute  boy 

For  a  man  and  leader  of  men. 


Ah   God,  for   a  man  with   heart,  head, 

hand, 
Like  some  of  the  simple  great  ones  gone 
For  ever  and  ever  by, 
One  still  strong  man  in  a  blatant  land, 
Whatever  they  call  him,  what  care  I, 
Aristocrat,  democrat,  autocrat  —  one 
Who  can  rule  and  dare  not  lie. 

VI. 

And  ah  for  a  man  to  arise  in  me, 
That  the  man  I  am  may  cease  to  be ! 

XI. 

I. 

0  let  the  solid  ground 
Not  fail  beneath  my  feet 

Before  my  life  has  found 

What  some  have  found  so  sweet; 
Then  let  come  what  come  may, 
What  matter  if  I  go  mad, 

1  shall  have  had  my  day. 


Let  the  sweet  heavens  endure, 
Not  close  and  darken  above  me 

Before  I  am  quite  quite  sure 
That  there  is  one  to  love  me; 

Then  let  come  what  come  may 

To  a  life  that  has  been  so  sad, 

I  shall  have  had  my  day. 


MAUD. 


289 


XII. 


Birds  in  the  high  Hall-garden 
When  twilight  was  falling, 

Maud,  Maud,  Maud,  Maud, 
They  were  crying  and  calling. 

II. 

Where  was  Maud?  in  our  wood; 

And  I,  who  else,  was  with  her, 
Gathering  woodland  lilies, 

Myriads  blow  together. 

ill. 

Birds  in  our  wood  sang 
Ringing  thro'  the  valleys, 

Maud  is  here,  here,  here 
In  among  the  lilies. 

IV. 

I  kiss'd  her  slender  hand, 
She  took  the  kiss  sedately; 

Maud  is  not  seventeen, 
But  she  is  tall  and  stately. 


I  to  cry  out  on  pride 

Who  have  won  her  favour ! 

0  Maud  were  sure  of  Heaven 
If  lowliness  could  save  her. 

*vi. 

1  know  the  way  she  went 

Home  with  her  maiden  posy, 
For  her  feet  have  touch'd  the  meadows 
And  left  the  daisies  rosy. 

VII. 

Birds  in  the  high  Hall-garden 
Were  crying  and  calling  to  her, 

Where  is  Maud,  Maud,  Maud? 
One  is  come  to  woo  her. 

VIII. 

Look,  a  horse  at  the  door, 

And  little  King  Charley  snarling, 

Go  back,  my  lord,  across  the  moor, 
You  are  not  her  darling, 
u 


XIII. 


Scorn'd,  to  be  scorn'd  by  one  that  I  scorn, 
Is  that  a  matter  to  make  me  fret? 
That  a  calamity  hard  to  be  borne? 
WTell,  he  may  live  to  hate  me  yet. 
Fool  that  I  am  to  be  vext  with  his  pride ! 
I  past  him,  I  was  crossing  his  lands; 
He  stood  on  the  path  a  little  aside; 
His  face,  as  I  grant,  in  spite  of  spite, 
Has  a  broad-blown  comeliness,  red  and 

white, 
And  six  feet  two,  as  I  think,  he  stands; 
But  his  essences  turn'd  the  live  air  sick, 
And  barbarous  opulence  jewel-thick 
Sunn'd  itself  on  his  breast  and  his  hands. 

11. 

Who  shall  call  me  ungentle,  unfair, 
I  long'd  so  heartily  then  and  there 
To  give  him  the  grasp  of  fellowship; 
But  while  I  past  he  was  humming  an  air, 
Stopt,  and  then  with  a  riding  whip 
Leisurely  tapping  a  glossy  boot, 
And  curving  a  contumelious  lip, 
Gorgonised  me  from  head  to  foot 
With  a  stony  British  stare. 

in. 

Why  sits  he  here  in  his  father's  chair? 
That  old  man  never  comes  to  his  place : 
Shall  I  believe  him  ashamed  to  be  seen? 
For  only  once,  in  the  village  street, 
Last  year,  I  caught  a  glimpse  of  his  face, 
A  gray  old  wolf  and  a  lean. 
Scarcely,  now,  would  I  call  him  a  cheat; 
For  then,  perhaps,  as  a  child  of  deceit, 
She  might  by  a  true  descent  be  untrue ; 
And  Maud  is  as  true  as  Maud  is  sweet  : 
Tho'  I  fancy  her  sweetness  only  due 
To  the  sweeter  blood  by  the  other  side; 
Her  mother  has  been  a  thing  complete, 
However  she  came  to  be  so  allied. 
And  fair  without,  faithful  within, 
Maud  to  him  is  nothing  akin : 
Some  peculiar  mystic  grace 
Made  her  only  the  child  of  her  mother, 
And  heap'd  the  whole  inherited  sin 
On  that  huge  scapegoat  of  the  race, 
All,  all  upon  the  brother. 


290 


MAUD. 


IV. 

Peace,  angry  spirit,  and  let  him  be ! 
Has  not  his  sister  smiled  on  me? 


XIV. 
I. 

Maud  has  a  garden  of  roses 
And  lilies  fair  on  a  lawn; 
There  she  walks  in  her  state 
And  tends  upon  bed  and  bower, 
And  thither  I  climb'd  at  dawn 
And  stood  by  her  garden-gate; 
A  lion  ramps  at  the  top, 
He  is  claspt  by  a  passion-flower. 


Maud's  own  little  oak-room 

(Which  Maud,  like  a  precious  stone 

Set  in  the  heart  of  the  carven  gloom, 

Lights  with  herself,  when  alone 

She  sits  by  her  music  and  books 

And  her  brother  lingers  late 

With  a  roystering  company)  looks 

Upon  Maud's  own  garden-gate  : 

And  I  thought  as  I  stood,  if  a  hand,  as 

white 
As  ocean-foam  in  the  moon,  were  laid 
On   the    hasp  of  the  window,  and   my 

Delight 
Had  a  sudden  desire,  like  a  glorious  ghost, 

to  glide, 
Like  a  beam  of  the  seventh  Heaven,  down 

to  my  side, 
There  were  but  a  step  to  be  made. 

ill. 

The  fancy  flatter'd  my  mind, 

And  again  seem'd  overbold; 

Now  I  thought  that  she  cared  for  me, 

Now  I  thought  she  was  kind 

Only  because  she  was  cold. 

IV. 

I  heard  no  sound  where  I  stood 
But  the  rivulet  on  from  the  lawn 
Running  down  to  my  own  dark  wood; 
Or  the  voice  of  the  long  sea-wave  as  it 

swell'd 
Now  and  then  in  the  dim-gray  dawn; 


But  I  look'd,  and  round,  all  round  the 

house  I  beheld 
The  death-white  curtain  drawn; 
Felt  a  horror  over  me  creep, 
Prickle  my  skin  and  catch  my  breath, 
Knew  that  the  death-white  curtain  meant 

but  sleep, 
Yet  I  shudder'd  and  thought  like  a  fool 

of  the  sleep  of  death. 

XV. 

So  dark  a  mind  within  me  dwells, 
And  I  make  myself  such  evil  cheer, 

That  if  /  be  dear  to  some  one  else, 
Then  some  one  else  may  have  much  to 
fear; 

But  if  /  be  dear  to  some  one  else, 

Then  I  should  be  to  myself  more  dear. 

Shall  I  not  take  care  of  all  that  I  think, 

Yea  ev'n  of  wretched  meat  and  drink,   * 

If  I  be  dear, 

If  I  be  dear  to  some  one  else. 

XVI. 


This  lump  of  earth  has  left  his  estate 
The  lighter  by  the  loss  of  his  weight; 
And  so  that  he   find  what  he  went  to 

seek, 
And    fulsome    Pleasure    clog    him,   and 

drown 
His  heart  in  the  gross  mud-honey  of  town, 
He  may  stay  for  a  year  who  has  gone  for 

a  week : 
But  this  is  the  day  when  I  must  speak 
And  I  see  my  Oread  coming  down, 
O  this  is  the  day  ! 

0  beautiful  creature,  what  am  I 
That  I  dare  to  look  her  way; 
Think  I  may  hold  dominion  sweet, 
Lord  of  the  pulse  that  is  lord  of  her  breast, 
And  dream  of  her  beauty  with  tender 

dread, 
From  the  delicate  Arab  arch  of  her  feet 
To  the  grace  that,  bright  and  light  as  the 

crest 
Of  a  peacock,  sits  on  her  shining  head, 
And  she  knows  it  not :  O,  if  she  knew  it, 
To  know  her  beauty  might  half  undo  it. 

1  know  it  the  one  bright  thing  to  save 
My  yet  young  life  in  the  wilds  of  Time, 


MAUD. 


291 


Perhaps    from    madness,   perhaps    from 

crime, 
Perhaps  from  a  selfish  grave. 


11. 


What, 


if  she   be   fasten'd   to   this   fool 

lord, 
Dare  I  bid  her  abide  by  her  word? 
Should  I  love  her  so  well  if  she 
Had  given  her  word  to  a  thing  so  low? 
Shall  I  love  her  as  well  if  she 
Can  break   her  word  were  it  even  for 

me? 
I  trust  that  it  is  not  so. 


Catch    not    my    breath,    O    clamorous 

heart, 
Let   not  my  tongue  be  a  thrall  to  my 

eye, 
For  I  must  tell  her  before  we  part, 
I  must  tell  her,  or  die. 

XVII. 

Go  not,  happy  day, 

From  the  shining  fields, 
Go  not,  happy  day, 

Till  the  maiden  yields. 
Rosy  is  the  West, 

Rosy  is  the  South, 
Roses  are  her  cheeks, 

And  a  rose  her  mouth 
When  the  happy  Yes 

Falters  from  her  lips, 
Pass  and  blush  the  news 

Over  glowing  ships; 
Over  blowing  seas, 

Over  seas  at  rest, 
Pass  the  happy  news, 

Blush  it  thro'  the  West; 
Till  the  red  man  dance 

By  his  red  cedar-tree, 
And  the  red  man's  babe 

Leap,  beyond  the  sea. 
Blush  from  West  to  East, 

Blush  from  East  to  West, 
Till  the  West  is  East, 

Blush  it  thro'  the  West. 
Rosy  is  the  West, 

Rosy  is  the  South, 
Roses  are  her  cheeks, 

And  a  rose  her  mouth. 


XVIII. 
1. 

I  have  led  her  home,  my  love,  my  only 

friend. 
There  is  none  like  her,  none. 
And  never  yet  so  warmly  ran  my  blood 
And  sweetly,  on  and  on, 
Calming    itself    to    the    long-wish'd-for 

end, 
Full  to  the  banks,  close  on  the  promised 

good. 


None  like  her,  none. 

Just  now  the  dry-tongued  laurels'  patter- 
ing talk 

Seem'd  her  light  foot  along  the  garden 
walk, 

And  shook  my  heart  to  think  she  comes 
once  more; 

But  even  then  I  heard  her  close  the 
door, 

The  gates  of  Heaven  are  closed,  and  she 
is  gone. 

III. 

There  is  none  like  her,  none, 

Nor  will  be  when  our  summers  have  de- 
ceased. 

O,  art  thou  sighing  for  Lebanon 

In  the  long  breeze  that  streams  to  thy 
delicious  East, 

Sighing  for  Lebanon, 

Dark  cedar,  tho'  thy  limbs  have  here 
increased, 

Upon  a  pastoral  slope  as  fair, 

And  looking  to  the  South,  and  fed 

With  honey'd  rain  and  delicate  air, 

And  haunted  by  the  starry  head 

Of  her  whose  gentle  will  has  changed 
my  fate, 

And  made  my  life  a  perfumed  altar- 
flame; 

And  over  whom  thy  darkness  must  have 
spread 

With  such  delight  as  theirs  of  old,  thy 
great 

Forefathers  of  the  thornless  garden, 
there 

Shadowing  the  snow-limb'd  Eve  from 
whom  she  came. 


292 


MAUD. 


IV. 

Here  will  I  lie,  while  these  long  branches 

sway, 
And  you  fair  stars  that  crown  a  happy 

day 
Go  in  and  out  as  if  at  merry  play, 
Who  am  no  more  so  all  forlorn, 
As  when  it  seem'd  far  better  to  be  born 
To    labour    and    the    mattock-harden'd 

hand, 
Than  nursed  at  ease  and  brought  to  un- 
derstand 
A  sad  astrology,  the  boundless  plan 
That  makes  you  tyrants  in  your  iron 

skies, 
Innumerable,  pitiless,  passionless  eyes, 
Cold  fires,  yet  with  power  to  burn  and 

brand 
His  nothingness  into  man. 


But  now  shine  on,  and  what  care  I, 
Who  in  this  stormy  gulf  have   found  a 

pearl 
The  countercharm  of  space  and  hollow 

sky, 
And  do  accept  my  madness,  and  would 

die 
To  save   from  some  slight   shame   one 

simple  girl. 


Would   die;    for  sullen-seeming  Death 

may  give 
More  life  to  Love  than  is  or  ever  was 
In  our  low  world,  where  yet  'tis  sweet  to 

live. 
Let  no  one  ask  me  how  it  came  to  pass; 
It  seems  that  I  am  happy,  that  to  me 
A  livelier  emerald  twinkles  in  the  grass, 
A  purer  sapphire  melts  into  the  sea. 

VII. 

Not  die;  but  live  a  life  of  truest  breath, 

And  teach  true  life  to  fight  with  mortal 
wrongs. 

O,  why  should  Love,  like  men  in  drink- 
ing-songs, 

Spice  his  fair  banquet  with  the  dust  of 
death  ? 

Make  answer,  Maud  my  bliss, 


Maud  made  my  Maud  by  that  long  lov- 
ing kiss, 

Life  of  my  life,  wilt  thou  not  answer  this  ? 

'The  dusky  strand  of  Death  inwoven 
here 

With  dear  Love's  tie,  makes  Love  him- 
self more  dear.' 

VIII. 

Is  that  enchanted  moan  only  the  swell 
Of  the  long  waves  that  roll  in  yonder  bay? 
And   hark    the  clock  within,  the   silver 

knell 
Of  twelve  sweet  hours  that  past  in  bridal 

white, 
And  died  to  live,  long  as  my  pulses  play; 
But  now  by  this  my  love  has  closed  her 

sight 
And   given   false   death   her  hand,  and 

stol'n  away 
To  dreamful  wastes  where  footless  fan- 
cies dwell 
Among  the  fragments  of  the  golden  day. 
May   nothing   there    her   maiden   grace 

affright ! 
Dear  heart,  I  feel  with  thee  the  drowsy 

spell. 
My  bride  to  be,  my  evermore  delight, 
My  own  heart's  heart,  my  ownest  own, 

farewell ; 
It  is  but  for  a  little  space  I  go : 
And  ye  meanwhile  far  over  moor  and  fell 
Beat  to  the  noiseless  music  of  the  night ! 
Has  our  whole  earth  gone  nearer  to  the 

glow 
Of  your  soft  splendours  that  you  look  so 

bright? 
/  have  climb'd  nearer  out  of  lonely  Hell. 
Beat,   happy   stars,   timing   with   things 

below, 
Beat   with   my   heart  more    blest    than 

heart  can  tell, 
Blest,  but   for   some  dark   undercurrent 

woe 
That  seems  to  draw  — 

be  so: 
Let  all  be  well,  be  well. 

XIX. 


Her  brother  is  coming  back  to-night, 
Breaking  up  my  dream  of  delight. 


but  it  shall  not 


MAUD. 


293 


My  dream?  do  I  dream  of  bliss? 

I  have  walk'd  awake  with  Truth. 

0  when  did  a  morning  shine 

So  rich  in  atonement  as  this 

For  my  dark-dawning  youth, 

Darken-d  watching  a  mother  decline 

And  that   dead  man   at  her  heart  and 

mine : 
For  who  was  left  to  watch  her  but  I? 
Yet  so  did  I  let  my  freshness  die. 


I  trust  that  I  did  not  talk 

To  gentle  Maud  in  our  walk 

(For  often  in  lonely  wanderings 

I  have  cursed  him  even  to  lifeless  things) 

But  I  trust  that  I  did  not  talk, 

Not  touch  on  her  father's  sin  : 

I  am  sure  I  did  but  speak 

Of  my  mother's  faded  cheek 

When  it  slowly  grew  so  thin, 

That  I  felt  she  was  slowly  dying 

Vext  with  lawyers  and  harass'd  with  debt : 

For  how  often  I  caught   her  with  eyes 

all  wet, 
Shaking  her  head  at  her  son  and  sighing 
A  world  of  trouble  within  ! 

IV. 

And  Maud  too,  Maud  was  moved 

To  speak  of  the  mother  she  loved 

As  one  scarce  less  forlorn, 

Dying  abroad  and  it  seems  apart 

From  him  who  had  ceased  to  share  her 

heart, 
And  ever  mourning  over  the  feud, 
The  household  Fury  sprinkled  with  blood 
By  which  our  houses  are  torn  : 
How  strange  was  what  she  said, 
When  only  Maud  and  the  brother 
Hung  over  her  dying  bed  — 
That  Maud's  dark  father  and  mine 
Had  bound  us  one  to  the  other, 
Betrothed  us  over  their  wine, 
On  the  day  when  Maud  was  born; 
Seal'd   her   mine   from    her   first   sweet 

breath. 
Mine,  mine  by  a  right,  from  birth   till 

death. 
Mine,  mine  —  our  fathers  have  sworn. 


V. 

But  the  true  blood  spilt  had  in  it  a  heat 
To  dissolve  the  precious  seal  on  a  bond 
That,   if  left  uncanceled,  had   been  so 

sweet : 
And  none  of  us  thought  of  a  something 

beyond, 
A  desire  that  awoke  in  the  heart  of  the 

child, 
As  it  were  a  duty  done  to  the  tomb, 
To  be  friends  for  her  sake,  to  be  recon- 
ciled ; 
And  I  was  cursing  them  and  my  doom, 
And   letting    a   dangerous   thought   run 

wild 
While  often  abroad  in  the  fragrant  gloom 
Of  foreign  churches  —  I  see  her  there, 
Bright  English  lily,  breathing  a  prayer 
To  be  friends,  to  be  reconciled ! 


But  then  what  a  flint  is  he ! 

Abroad,  at  Florence,  at  Rome, 

I  find  whenever  she  touch'd  on  me 

This  brother  had  laugh'd  her  down, 

And  at  last,  when  each  came  home, 

He  had  darken'd  into  a  frown, 

Chid  her,  and  forbid  her  to  speak 

To  me,  her  friend  of  the  years  before; 

And   this  was  what   had   redden'd   her 

cheek 
When  I  bow'd  to  her  on  the  moor. 

VII. 

Yet  Maud,  altho'  not  blind 

To  the  faults  of  his  heart  and  mind, 

I  see  she  cannot  but  love  him, 

And  says  he  is  rough  but  kind, 

And  wishes  me  to  approve  him, 

And  tells  me,  when  she  lay 

Sick  once,  with  a  fear  of  worse, 

That  he  left  his  wine  and  horses  and  play, 

Sat  with  her,  read  to  her,  night  and  day, 

And  tended  her  like  a  nurse. 


Kind?  but  the  deathbed  desire 
Spurn'd  by  this  heir  of  the  liar  — 
Rough  but  kind?  yet  I  know 
He  has  plotted  against  me  in  this, 
That  he  plots  against  me  still. 
Kind  to  Maud?  that  were  not  amiss. 


294 


MAUD. 


Well,  rough  but  kind;   why  let  it  be  so: 

For  shall  not  Maud  have  her  will ! 

II. 

But  to-morrow  if  we  live, 

IX. 

Our  ponderous  squire  will  give 

For,  Maud,  so  tender  and  true, 

A  grand  political  dinner 

As  long  as  my  life  endures 

To  half  the  squirelings  near; 

I  feel  I  shall  owe  you  a  debt, 

And  Maud  will  wear  her  jewels, 

That  I  never  can  hope  to  pay; 

And  the  bird  of  prey  will  hover, 

And  if  ever  I  should  forget 

And  the  titmouse  hope  to  win  her 

That  I  owe  this  debt  to  you 

With  his  chirrup  at  her  ear. 

And  for  your  sweet  sake  to  yours; 

0  then,  what  then  shall  I  say?  — 

in. 

If  ever  I  should  forget, 

May  God  make  me  more  wretched 

A  grand  political  dinner 

Than  ever  I  have  been  yet ! 

To  the  men  of  many  acres, 

A  gathering  of  the  Tory, 

X. 

A  dinner  and  then  a  dance 

So  now  I  have  sworn  to  bury 
All  this  dead  body  of  hate, 
I  feel  so  free  and  so  clear 

For  the  maids  and  marriage-makers, 
And  every  eye  but  mine  will  glance 
At  Maud  in  all  her  glory. 

By  the  loss  of  that  dead  weight, 

That  I  should  grow  light-headed,  I  fear, 

u. 

Fantastically  merry; 

But  that  her  brother  comes,  like  a  blight 

For  I  am  not  invited, 

On  my  fresh  hope,  to  the  Hall  to-night. 

But,  with  the  Sultan's  pardon, 

I  am  all  as  well  delighted, 

For  I  know  her  own  rose-garden, 

XX. 

And  mean  to  linger  in  it 

i. 

Till  the  dancing  will  be  over; 

And  then,  oh  then,  come  out  to  me 

Strange,  that  I  felt  so  gay, 

For  a  minute,  but  for  a  minute, 

Strange,  that  /  tried  to-day 

Come  out  to  your  own  true  lover, 

To  beguile  her  melancholy; 

That  your  true  lover  may  see 

The  Sultan,  as  we  name  him,  — 

Your  glory  also,  and  render 

She  did  not  wish  to  blame  him  — 

All  homage  to  his  own  darling, 

But  he  vext  her  and  perplext  her 

Queen  Maud  in  all  her  splendour. 

With  his  worldly  talk  and  folly : 

Was  it  gentle  to  reprove  her 

XXI. 

For  stealing  out  of  view 

P'rom  a  little  lazy  lover 

Rivulet  crossing  my  ground, 

Who  but  claims  her  as  his  due? 

And  bringing  me  down  from  the  Hall 

Or  for  chilling  his  caresses 

This  garden-rose  that  I  found, 

By  the  coolness  of  her  manners, 

Forgetful  of  Maud  and  me, 

Nay,  the  plainness  of  her  dresses? 

And  lost  in  trouble  and  moving  round 

Now  I  know  her  but  in  two, 

Here  at  the  head  of  a  tinkling  fall, 

Nor  can  pronounce  upon  it 

And  trying  to  pass  to  the  sea; 

If  one  should  ask  me  whether 

()  Rivulet,  born  at  the  Hall, 

The  habit,  hat,  and  feather, 

My  Maud  has  sent  it  by  thee 

Or  the  frock  and  gipsy  bonnet 

(If  I  read  her  sweet  will  right) 

Be  the  neater  and  completer; 

On  a  blushing  mission  to  me, 

For  nothing  can  be  sweeter 

Saying  in  odour  and  colour, '  Ah,  be 

Than  maiden  Maud  in  either. 

Among  the  roses  to-night.' 

MAUD. 


295 


XXII. 
1. 

Come  into  the  garden,  Maud, 

For  the  black  bat,  night,  has  flown, 

Come  into  the  garden,  Maud, 
I  am  here  at  the  gate  alone; 

And   the   woodbine    spices    are   wafted 
abroad, 
And  the  musk  of  the  rose  is  blown. 


For  a  breeze  of  morning  moves, 
And  the  planet  of  Love  is  on  high, 

Beginning  to  faint  in  the  light  that  she 
loves 
On  a  bed  of  daffodil  sky, 

To  faint  in  the  light  of  the  sun  she  loves, 
To  faint  in  his  light,  and  to  die. 

III. 

All  night  have  the  roses  heard 

The  flute,  violin,  bassoon; 
All   night   has   the   casement  jessamine 
stirr'd 

To  the  dancers  dancing  in  tune; 
Till  a  silence  fell  with  the  waking  bird, 

And  a  hush  with  the  setting  moon. 

IV. 

I  said  to  the  lily,  '  There  is  but  one 

With  whom  she  has  heart  to  be  gay. 
When  will  the  dancers  leave  her  alone? 

She  is  weary  of  dance  and  play.' 
Now  half  to  the  setting  moon  are  gone, 

And  half  to  the  rising  day; 
Low  on  the  sand  and  loud  on  the  stone 

The  last  wheel  echoes  away. 


I  said  to  the  rose,  'The  brief  night  goes 
In  babble  and  revel  and  wine. 

O  young  lord-lover,  what  sighs  are  those, 
For  one  that  will  never  be  thine? 

But  mine,  but  mine,'  so  I  sware  to  the  rose, 
'  For  ever  and  ever,  mine.' 

VI. 

And  the  soul  of  the  rose  went  into  my 
blood, 
As  the  music  clash'd  in  the  hall; 


And  long  by  the  garden  lake  I  stood, 

For  I  heard  your  rivulet  fall 
From  the  lake  to  the  meadow  and  on  to 
the  wood, 

Our  wood,  that  is  dearer  than  all; 


From  the  meadow  your  walks  have  left 
so  sweet 

That  whenever  a  March-wind  sighs 
He  sets  the  jewel-print  of  your  feet 

In  violets  blue  as  your  eyes, 
To  the  woody  hollows  in  which  we  meet 

And  the  valleys  of  Paradise. 

VIII. 

The  slender  acacia  would  not  shake 

One  long  milk-bloom  on  the  tree; 
The  white  lake-blossom  fell  into  the  lake 

As  the  pimpernel  dozed  on  the  lea; 
But  the  rose  was  awake  all  night  for  your 
sake, 

Knowing  your  promise  to  me ; 
The  lilies  and  roses  were  all  awake, 

They  sigh'd  for  the  dawn  and  thee. 


Queen  rose  of  the  rosebud  garden  of  girls, 
Come  hither,  the  dances  are  done, 

In  gloss  of  satin  and  glimmer  of  pearls, 
Queen  lily  and  rose  in  one; 

Shine  out,  little  head,  sunning  over  with 
curls, 
To  the  flowers,  and  be  their  sun. 


There  has  fallen  a  splendid  tear 

From  the  passion-flower  at  the  gate. 
She  is  coming,  my  dove,  my  dear; 

She  is  coming,  my  life,  my  fate; 
The  red  rose  cries,  '  She  is  near,  she  is 
near;  ' 

And   the  white   rose  weeps,   '  She   is 
late ; ' 
The  larkspur  listens,  '  I  hear,  I  hear;' 

And  the  lily  whispers,  '  I  wait.' 


She  is  coming,  my  own,  my  sweet; 

Were  it  ever  so  airy  a  tread, 
My  heart  would  hear  her  and  beat, 

Were  it  earth  in  an  earthy  bed; 


296 


MAUD. 


My  dust  would  hear  her  and  beat, 
Had  I  lain  for  a  century  dead; 

Would  start  and  tremble  under  her  feet, 
And  blossom  in  purple  and  red. 


PART  II. 
I. 
1. 

-The    fault    was    mine,   the   fault    was 

mine'  — 
Why  am  I  sitting  here  so  stunn'd  and  still, 
Plucking  the  harmless  wild-flower  on  the 

hill?  — 
It  is  this  guilty  hand  !  — 
And  there  rises  ever  a  passionate  cry 
From  underneath  in  the  darkening  land — 
What  is  it  that  has  been  done? 
O  dawn  of  Eden  bright  over  earth  and 

sky, 
The  fires  of  Hell  brake  out  of  thy  rising 

sun, 
The  fires  of  Hell  and  of  Hate; 
For  she,  sweet  soul,  had  hardly  spoken  a 

word, 
When  her  brother  ran  in  his  rage  to  the 

gate, 
He  came  with  the  babe-faced  lord; 
Heap'd  on  her  terms  of  disgrace, 
And  while  she  wept,  and  I  strove  to  be 

cool, 
He  fiercely  gave  me  the  lie, 
Till  I  with  as  fierce  an  anger  spoke, 
And  he   struck  me,  madman,  over  the 

face, 
Struck  me  before  the  languid  fool, 
Who  was  gaping  and  grinning  by : 
Struck  for  himself  an  evil  stroke; 
Wrought  for  his  house  an  irredeemable 

woe; 
For  front  to  front  in  an  hour  we  stood, 
And  a  million  horrible  bellowing  echoes 

broke 
From  the  red-ribb'd  hollow  behind  the 

wood, 
And  thunder'd  up  into  Heaven  the  Christ- 
less  code, 
That  must  have  life  for  a  blow. 
Ever  and  ever  afresh  they  seem'd  to  grow. 
Was  it  he  lay  there  with  a  fading  eye? 
'  The  fault  was  mine,'  he  whisper'd, '  fly  ! ' 


Then  glided  out  of  the  joyous  wood 
The  ghastly  Wraith  of  one  that  I  know; 
And  there  rang  on  a  sudden  a  passionate 

cry, 
A  cry  for  a  brother's  blood : 
It  will  ring  in  my  heart  and  my  ears,  till 

I  die,  till  I  die. 

11. 

Is  it  gone  ?  my  pulses  beat  — 

What  was  it?  a  lying  trick  of  the  brain? 

Yet  I  thought  I  saw  her  stand, 

A  shadow  there  at  my  feet, 

High  over  the  shadowy  land. 

It  is  gone;   and  the   heavens  fall   in   a 

gentle  rain, 
When  they  should  burst  and  drown  with 

deluging  storms 
The  feeble  vassals  of  wine  and  anger  and 

lust, 
The  little  hearts  that  know  not  how  to 

forgive : 
Arise,  my  God,  and  strike,  for  we  hold 

Thee  just, 
Strike    dead    the   whole   weak  race   of 

venomous  worms, 
That  sting  each  other  here  in  the  dust; 
We  are  not  worthy  to  live. 


II. 


See  what  a  lovely  shell, 
Small  and  pure  as  a  pearl, 
Lying  close  to  my  foot, 
Frail,  but  a  work  divine, 
Made  so  fairily  well 
With  delicate  spire  and  whorl, 
How  exquisitely  minute, 
A  miracle  of  design  ! 


What  is  it?  a  learned  man 
Could  give  it  a  clumsy  name. 
Let  him  name  it  who  can, 
The  beauty  would  be  the  same. 


The  tiny  cell  is  forlorn, 
Void  of  the  little  living  will 
That  made  it  stir  on  the  shore. 
Did  he  stand  at  the  diamond  door 


MAUD. 


m 


Of  his  house  in  a  rainbow  frill  ? 

One  would  think  that  it  well 

Did  he  push,  when  he  was  uncurl'd, 

Might  drown  all  life  in  the  eye,  — 

A  golden  foot  or  a  fairy  horn 

That  it  should,  by  being  so  overwrought. 

Thro'  his  dim  water- world? 

Suddenly  strike  on  a  sharper  sense 

For  a  shell,  or  a  flower,  little  things 

IV. 

Which  else  would  have  been  past  by ! 

Slight,  to  be  crush'd  with  a  tap 

And  now  I  remember,  I, 

Of  my  finger-nail  on  the  sand, 

When  he  lay  dying  there, 

Small,  but  a  work  divine, 

I  noticed  one  of  his  many  rings 

Frail,  but  of  force  to  withstand, 

(For   he   had   many,  poor   worm)    and 

Year  upon  year,  the  shock 

thought 

Of  cataract  seas  that  snap 

It  is  his  mother's  hair. 

The  three  decker's  oaken  spine 

Athwart  the  ledges  of  rock, 

IX. 

Here  on  the  Breton  strand ! 

Who  knows  if  he  be  dead? 

Whether  I  need  have  fled? 

v. 

Am  I  guilty  of  blood? 

Breton,  not  Briton;   here 

However  this  may  be, 

Like  a  shipwreck'd  man  on  a  coast 

Comfort    her,   comfort    her,   all    things 

Of  ancient  fable  and  fear  — 

good, 

Plagued  with  a  flitting  to  and  fro, 

While  I  am  over  the  sea ! 

A  disease,  a  hard  mechanic  ghost 

Let  me  and  my  passionate  love  go  by, 

That  never  came  from  on  high 

But   speak   to   her   all  things  holy  and 

Nor  ever  arose  from  below, 

high, 

But  only  moves  with  the  moving  eye, 

Whatever  happen  to  me ! 

Flying  along  the  land  and  the  main  — 

Me  and  my  harmful  love  go  by; 

Why  should  it  look  like  Maud? 

But  come  to  her  waking,  find  her  asleep, 

Am  I  to  be  overawed 

Powers   of  the   height,    Powers   of    the 

By  what  I  cannot  but  know 

deep, 

Is  a  juggle  born  of  the  brain? 

And  comfort  her  tho'  I  die. 

VI. 

Back  from  the  Breton  coast, 

III. 

Courage,  poor  heart  of  stone ! 
I  will  not  ask  thee  why 

Sick  of  a  nameless  fear, 

Back  to  the  dark  sea-line 

Thou  canst  not  understand 

Looking,  thinking  of  all  I  have  lost; 

.  That  thou  art  left  for  ever  alone : 

An  old  song  vexes  my  ear; 

Courage,  poor  stupid  heart  of  stone.  — 

But  that  of  Lamech  is  mine. 

Or  if  I  ask  thee  why, 

VII. 

Care  not  thou  to  reply : 

She  is  but  dead,  and  the  time  is  at  hand 

For  years,  a  measureless  ill, 

When  thou  shalt  more  than  die. 

For  years,  for  ever,  to  part  — 

But  she,  she  would  love  me  still; 

IV. 

And  as  long,  O  God,  as  she 

Have  a  grain  of  love  for  me, 

I. 

So  long,  no  doubt,  no  doubt, 

O  that  'twere  possible 

Shall  I  nurse  in  my  dark  heart, 

After  long  grief  and  pain 

However  weary,  a  spark  of  will 

To  find  the  arms  of  my  true  love 

Not  to  be  trampled  out. 

Round  me  once  again  ! 

VIII. 

Strange,  that  the  mind,  when  fraught 

II. 
When  I  was  wont  to  meet  her 

With  a  passion  so  intense 

In  the  silent  woody  places 

298 


MAUD. 


By  the  home  that  gave  me  birth, 
We  stood  tranced  in  long  embraces 
Mixt  with  kisses  sweeter  sweeter 
Than  anything  on  earth. 


A  shadow  flits  before  me, 

Not  thou,  but  like  to  thee : 

Ah  Christ,  that  it  were  possible 

For  one  short  hour  to  see 

The  souls  we  loved,  that  they  might  tell  us, 

What  and  where  they  be. 

IV. 

It  leads  me  forth  at  evening, 

It  lightly  winds  and  steals 

In  a  cold  white  robe  before  me, 

When  all  my  spirit  reels 

At  the  shouts,  the  leagues  of  lights, 

And  the  roaring  of  the  wheels. 

v. 

Half  the  night  I  waste  in  sighs, 
Half  in  dreams  I  sorrow  after 
The  delight  of  early  skies; 
In  a  wakeful  doze  I  sorrow 
For  the  hand,  the  lips,  the  eyes, 
For  the  meeting  of  the  morrow, 
The  delight  of  happy  laughter, 
The  delight  of  low  replies. 


'Tis  a  morning  pure  and  sweet, 
And  a  dewy  splendour  falls 
On  the  little  flower  that  clings 
To  the  turrets  and  the  walls; 
'Tis  a  morning  pure  and  sweet, 
And  the  light  and  shadow  fleet ; 
She  is  walking  in  the  meadow, 
And  the  woodland  echo  rings; 
In  a  moment  we  shall  meet; 
She  is  singing  in  the  meadow 
And  the  rivulet  at  her  feet 
Ripples  on  in  light  and  shadow 
To  the  ballad  that  she  sings. 


Do  I  hear  her  sing  as  of  old, 
My  bird  with  the  shining  head, 
My  own  dove  with  the  tender  eye? 
But  there  rings  on  a  sudden  a  passionate 
cry, 


There  is  some  one  dying  or  dead, 
And  a  sullen  thunder  is  roll'd; 
For  a  tumult  shakes  the  city, 
And  I  wake,  my  dream  is  fled; 
In  the  shuddering  dawn,  behold, 
Without  knowledge,  without  pity, 
By  the  curtains  of  my  bed 
That  abiding  phantom  cold. 

VIII. 

Get  thee  hence,  nor  come  again, 
Mix  not  memory  with  doubt, 
Pass,  thou  deathlike  type  of  pain, 
Pass  and  cease  to  move  about ! 
'Tis  the  blot  upon  the  brain 
That  will  show  itself  without. 

IX. 

Then  I  rise,  the  eavedrops  fall, 
And  the  yellow  vapours  choke 
The  great  city  sounding  wide; 
The  day  comes,  a  dull  red  ball 
Wrapt  in  drifts  of  lurid  smoke 
On  the  misty  river-tide. 


Thro'  the  hubbub  of  the  market 

I  steal,  a  wasted  frame, 

It  crosses  here,  it  crosses  there, 

Thro'  all  that  crowd  confused  and  loud, 

The  shadow  still  the  same; 

And  on  my  heavy  eyelids 

My  anguish  hangs  like  shame. 

XI. 

Alas  for  her  that  met  me, 

That  heard  me  softly  call, 

Came  glimmering  thro'  the  laurels 

At  the  quiet  evenfall, 

In  the  garden  by  the  turrets 

Of  the  old  manorial  hall. 

XII. 

Would  the  happy  spirit  descend, 
From  the  realms  of  light  and  song, 
In  the  chamber  or  the  street, 
As  she  looks  among  the  blest, 
Should  I  fear  to  greet  my  friend 
Or  to  say,  '  Forgive  the  wrong,' 
Or  to  ask  her,  'Take  me,  sweet, 
To  the  regions  of  thy  rest '  ? 


MAUD. 


299 


But  the  broad  light  glares  and  beats, 

And  the  shadow  flits  and  fleets 

And  will  not  let  me  be; 

And  I  loathe  the  squares  and  streets, 

And  the  faces  that  one  meets, 

Hearts  \vith  no  love  for  me  : 

Always  I  long  to  creep 

Into  some  still  cavern  deep, 

There  to  weep,  and  weep,  and  weep 

My  whole  soul  out  to  thee. 


V. 


Dead,  long  dead, 

Long  dead ! 

And  my  heart  is  a  handful  of  dust, 

And  the  wheels  go  over  my  head, 

And  my  bones  are  shaken  with  pain, 

For  into  a  shallow  grave  they  are  thrust, 

Only  a  yard  beneath  the  street, 

And  the  hoofs  of  the  horses  beat,  beat, 

The  hoofs  of  the  horses  beat, 

Beat  into  my  scalp  and  my  brain, 

With   never   an   end   to   the   stream  of 

passing  feet, 
Driving,  hurrying,  marrying,  burying, 
Clamour   and   rumble,  and  ringing  and 

clatter, 
And  here  beneath  it  is  all  as  bad, 
For  I  thought  the  dead  had  peace,  but  it 

is  not  so; 
To  have  no  peace  in  the  grave,  is  that 

not  sad? 
But  up  and  down  and  to  and  fro, 
Ever  about  me  the  dead  men  go; 
And  then  to  hear  a  dead  man  chatter 
Is  enough  to  drive  one  mad. 


11. 


Wretchedest  age  since  Time  began, 

They  cannot  even  bury  a  man; 

And  tho'  we  paid  our  tithes  in  the  days 

that  are  gone, 
Not  a  bell  was  rung,  not  a  prayer  was 

read; 
It  is  that  which  makes  us  loud   in    the 

world  of  the  dead; 
There   is  none  that  does  his  work,  not 

one; 


A    touch    of    their    office    might    have 

sufficed, 
But  the  churchmen  fain  would  kill  their 

church, 
As  the  churches  have  kill'd  their  Christ. 

in. 

See,  there  is  one  of  us  sobbing, 

No  limit  to  his  distress; 

And  another,  a  lord  of  all  things,  praying 

To  his  own  great  self,  as  I  guess; 

And  another,  a  statesman  there,  betraying 

His  party-secret,  fool,  to  the  press; 

And  yonder  a  vile  physician,  blabbing 

The  case  of  his  patient  —  all  for  what? 

To  tickle  the  maggot  born  in  an  empty 

head, 
And  wheedle  a  world  that  loves  him  not, 
For  it  is  but  a  world  of  the  dead. 

IV. 

Nothing  but  idiot  gabble ! 

For  the  prophecy  given  of  old 

And  then  not  understood, 

Has  come  to  pass  as  foretold; 

Not   let   any  man   think   for  the  public 

good, 
But  babble,  merely  for  babble. 
For  I  never  whisper'd  a  private  affair 
Within  the  hearing  of  cat  or  mouse, 
No,  not  to  myself  in  the  closet  alone, 
But  I  heard  it  shouted  at  once  from  the 

top  of  the  house; 
Everything  came  to  be  known. 
Who  told  him  we  were  there? 


Not  that  gray  old  wolf,  for  he  came  not 

back 
From  the  wilderness,  full  of  wolves,  where 

he  used  to  lie; 
He  has  gather'd  the  bones  for  his  o'er- 

grown  whelp  to  crack; 
Crack  them  now  for  yourself,  and  howl, 

and  die. 

VI. 

Prophet,  curse  me  the  blabbing  lip, 
And  curse  me  the  British  vermin,  the  rat; 
I   know   not   whether   he   came  in  the 

Hanover  ship, 
But  I  know  that  he  lies  and  listens  mute 


3°° 


MAUD. 


In   an   ancient   mansion's  crannies  and 

holes : 
Arsenic,  arsenic,  sure,  would  do  it, 
Except  that  now  we  poison  our  babes, 

poor  souls ! 
It  is  all  used  up  for  that. 


Tell  him  now :  she  is  standing  here  at  my 

head; 
Not  beautiful  now,  not  even  kind; 
He  may  take  her   now;    for  she  never 

speaks  her  mind, 
But  is  ever  the  one  thing  silent  here. 
She  is  not  of  us,  as  I  divine; 
She  comes  from  another  stiller  world  of 

the  dead, 
Stiller,  not  fairer  than  mine. 


But  I  know  where  a  garden  grows, 
Fairer  than  aught  in  the  world  beside, 
All  made  up  of  the  lily  and  rose 
That  blow  by  night,  when  the  season  is 

good, 
To  the  sound  of  dancing  music  and  flutes : 
It  is  only  flowers,  they  had  no  fruits, 
And  I  almost  fear  they  are  not  roses,  but 

blood; 
For  the  keeper  was  one,  so  full  of  pride, 
He  linkt  a  dead  man  there  to  a  spectral 

bride ; 
For  he,  if  he  had  not  been  a  Sultan  of 

brutes, 
Would  he  have  that  hole  in  his  side? 


But  what  will  the  old  man  say? 
He  laid  a  cruel  snare  in  a  pit  , 
To  catch  a   friend  of  mine  one  stormy 

day; 
Yet   now   I   could   even  weep  to  think 

of  it; 
For  what  will  the  old  man  say?' 
When  he  comes  to  the  second  corpse  in 

the  pit? 

x. 

Friend,  to  be  struck  by  the  public  foe, 
Then  to  strike  him  and  lay  him  low, 
That  were  a  public  merit,  far, 
Whatever  the  Quaker  holds,  from  sin; 
But    the    red    life    spilt    for    a    private 

blow  — 
I  swear  to  you,  lawful  and  lawless  war 
Are  scarcely  even  akin. 


XI. 


0  me,  why  have  they  not  buried  me  deep 

enough  ? 
Is  it  kind  to  have  made  me  a  grave  so 

rough, 
Me,  that  was  never  a  quiet  sleeper? 
Maybe  still  I  am  but  half-dead; 
Then  I  cannot  be  wholly  dumb; 

1  will  cry  to  the  steps  above  my  head 
And  somebody,  surely,  some  kind  heart 

will  come 
To  bury  me,  bury  me 
Deeper,  ever  so  little  deeper. 


PART  III. 
VI. 


My  life  has  crept  so  long  on  a  broken  wing 

Thro'  cells  of  madness,  haunts  of  horror  and  fear, 

That  I  come  to  be  grateful  at  last  for  a  little  thing : 

My  mood  is  changed,  for  it  fell  at  a  time  of  year 

When  the  face  of  night  is  fair  on  the  dewy  downs, 

And  the  shining  daffodil  dies,  and  the  Charioteer 

And  starry  Gemini  hang  like  glorious  crowns 

Over  Orion's  grave  low  down  in  the  west, 

That  like  a  silent  lightning  under  the  stars 

She  seem'd  to  divide  in  a  dream  from  a  band  of  the  blest, 


MAUD. 


301 


And  spoke  of  a  hope  for  the  world  in  the  coming  wars 
'  And  in  that  hope,  dear  soul,  let  trouble  have  rest, 
Knowing  I  tarry  for  thee,'  and  pointed  to  Mars 
As  he  glow'd  like  a  ruddy  shield  on  the  Lion's  breast. 


And  it  was  but  a  dream,  yet  it  yielded  a  dear  delight 

To  have  look'd,  tho'  but  in  a  dream,  upon  eyes  so  fair, 

That  had  been  in  a  weary  world  my  one  thing  bright; 

And  it  was  but  a  dream,  yet  it  lighten'd  my  despair 

When  I  thought  that  a  war  would  arise  in  defence  of  the  right, 

That  an  iron  tyranny  now  should  bend  or  cease, 

The  glory  of  manhood  stand  on  his  ancient  height, 

Nor  Britain's  one  sole  God  be  the  millionaire : 

No  more  shall  commerce  be  all  in  all,  and  Peace 

Pipe  on  her  pastoral  hillock  a  languid  note, 

And  watch  her  harvest  ripen,  her  herd  increase, 

Nor  the  cannon-bullet  rust  on  a  slothful  shore, 

And  the  cobweb  woven  across  the  cannon's  throat 

Shall  shake  its  threaded  tears  in  the  wind  no  more. 


III. 

And  as  months  ran  on  and  rumour  of  battle  grew, 

'  It  is  time,  it  is  time,  O  passionate  heart,'  said  I 

(For  I  cleaved  to  a  cause  that  I  felt  to  be  pure  and  true), 

'  It  is  time,  O  passionate  heart  and  morbid  eye, 

That  old  hysterical  mock-disease  should  die.' 

And  I  stood  on  a  giant  deck  and  mix'd  my  breath 

With  a  loyal  people  shouting  a  battle  cry, 

Till  I  saw  the  dreary  phantom  arise  and  fly 

Far  into  the  North,  and  battle,  and  seas  of  death. 


IV. 

Let  it  go  or  stay,  so  I  wake  to  the  higher  aims 

Of  a  land  that  has  lost  for  a  little  her  lust  of  gold, 

And  love  of  a  peace  that  was  full  of  wrongs  and  shames, 

Horrible,  hateful,  monstrous,  not  to  be  told ; 

And  hail  once  more  to  the  banner  of  battle  unroll' d ! 

Tho'  many  a  light  shall  darken,  and  many  shall  weep 

For  those  that  are  crush'd  in  the  clash  of  jarring  claims, 

Yet  God's  just  wrath  shall  be  wreak'd  on  a  giant  liar; 

And  many  a  darkness  into  the  light  shall  leap, 

And  shine  in  the  sudden  making  of  splendid  names, 

And  noble  thought  be  freer  under  the  sun, 

And  the  heart  of  a  people  beat  with  one  desire; 

For  the  peace,  that  I  deem'd  no  peace,  is  over  and  done. 

And  now  by  the  side  of  the  Black  and  the  Baltic  deep, 

And  deathful-grinning  mouths  of  the  fortress,  flames 

The  blood-red  blossom  of  war  with  a  heart  of  fire. 


302 


IDYLLS   OF   THE  KING. 


Let  it  flame  or  fade,  and  the  war  roll  down  like  a  wind, 
We  have  proved  we  have  hearts  in  a  cause,  we  are  noble  still, 
And  myself  have  awaked,  as  it  seems,  to  the  better  mind; 
It  is  better  to  fight  for  the  good  than  to  rail  at  the  ill; 
I  have  felt  with  my  native  land,  I  am  one  with  my  kind, 
I  embrace  the  purpose  of  God,  and  the  doom  assign'd. 


IDYLLS   OF   THE    KING. 


IN   TWELVE  BOOKS. 

Flos  Regum  Arthur  us.'  —  Joseph  of  Exeter. 

DEDICATION. 


These  to  His  Memory  —  since  he  held 

them  dear, 
Perchance  as  finding  there  unconsciously 
Some  image  of  himself —  I  dedicate, 
I  dedicate,  I  consecrate  with  tears  — 
These  Idylls. 

And  indeed  He  seems  to  me 
Scarce  other  than  myuung^Videal  knight, 
'  Who  reverenced  his  conscience  as  his 

king; 
Whose    glory    was,    redressing    human 

wrong ; 
Who  spake  no  slander,  no,  nor  listen'd 

to  it; 
Who  loved  one  only  and  who  clave  to 

her  — ' 
Her  —  over  all  whose  realms  to  their  last 

isle, 
Commingled  with  the  gloom  of  imminent 

war, 
The  shadow  of  His  loss  drew  like  eclipse, 
Darkening   the    world.      We    have   lost 

him  :  he  is  gone  : 
We  know  him  now:  all  narrow  jealousies 
Are  silent;   and  we  see  him  as  he  moved, 
Mow   modest,    kindly,    all-accomplish'd, 

wise, 
With  what  sublime  repression  of  himself, 
And  in  what  limits,  and  how  tenderly; 
Not  swaying  to  this  faction  or  to  that*, 
Not  making  his  high  place  the  lawless 

perch 
Of    wing'd    ambitions,    nor   a   vantage- 
ground 


For  pleasure;   but  thro'  all  this  tract  of 

years 
Wearing  the  white  flower  of  a  blameless 

life, 
Before  a  thousand  peering  littlenesses, 
In  that  fierce  light  which  beats  upon  a 

throne, 
And  blackens  every  blot :  for  where  is  he, 
Who  dares  foreshadow  for  an  only  son 
A   lovelier   life,  a  more  unstain'd   than 

his? 
Or  how  should  England  dreaming  of  his 

sons 
Hope  more  for  these  than  some  inheri- 
tance 
Of  such  a  life,  a  heart,  a  mind  as  thine, 
Thou  noble  Father  of  her  Kings  to  be, 
Laborious  for  her  people  and  her  poor  — 
Voice  in  the  rich  dawn   of  an   ampler 

day  — 
Far-sighted  summoner  of  War  and  Waste 
To  fruitful  strifes  and  rivalries  of  peace  — 
Sweet   nature    gilded    by    the    gracious 

gleam 
Of  letters,  dear  to  Science,  dear  to  Art, 
Dear  to   thy   land   and   ours,   a   Prince 

indeed, 
Beyond  all  titles,  and  a  household  name, 
Hereafter,   thro'    all    times,   Albert    the 

Good. 

Break  not,  O  woman's-heart,  but  still 
endure; 
Break  not,  for  thou  art  Royal,  but  endure, 
Remembering  all  the  beauty  of  that  star 


THE    COMING    OF  ARTHUR. 


303 


Which  shone  so  close  beside  Thee  that 

The   love   of    all    Thy   sons   encompass 

ye  made 

Thee, 

One  light  together,  but  has  past  and  leaves 

The  love  of  all  Thy  daughters  cherish 

The  Crown  a  lonely  splendour. 

Thee, 

The    love    of   all    Thy    people    comfort 

May  all  love, 

Thee, 

His  love,  unseen  but  felt,  o'ershadowThee, 

Till  God's  love  set  Thee  at  his  side  again ! 

THE  COMING 

Leodogran,  the  King  of  Cameliard, 
Had  one  fair  daughter,  and  none  other 

child; 
And  she  was  fairest  of  all  flesh  on  earth, 
Guinevere,  and  in  her  his  one  delight. 

For   many   a   petty   king   ere   Arthur 

came 
Ruled  in  this  isle,  and  ever  waging  war 
Each  upon  other,  wasted  all  the  land; 
And  still  from  time  to  time  the  heathen 

host 
Swarm'd  overseas,  and  harried  what  was 

left. 
And  so  there  grew  great  tracts  of  wilder- 
ness, 
Wherein  the  beast  was  ever  more  and 

more, 
But  man  was  less  and   less,  till   Arthur 

came. 
For  first  Aurelius  lived,  and  fought  and 

died, 
And  after  him  King  Uther  fought  and 

died, 
But  either  fail'd  to  make  the  kingdom 

one. 
And  after  these  King  Arthur  for  a  space, 
And   thro'  the   puissance    of  his   Table 

Round, 
Drew  all  their  petty  princedoms  under 

him, 
Their  king  and  head,  and  made  a  realm, 

and  reign'd. 

And  thus  the  land   of  Cameliard  was 

waste, 
Thick  with  wet  woods,  and  many  a  beast 

therein, 
And  none  or  few  to  scare  or  chase   the 

beast; 
So  that  wild  dog,  and  wolf  and  boar  and 

bear 


OF  ARTHUR. 

Came  night  and  day,  and  rooted  in  the 

fields, 
And  wallow'd  in  the  gardens  of  the  King. 
And  ever  and  anon  the  wolf  would  steal 
The  children  and  devour,  but  now  and 

then, 
Her  own  brood  lost  or  dead,  lent  her 

fierce  teat 
To  human  sucklings;   and  the  children, 

housed 
In   her  foul   den,   there    at   their   meat 

would  growl, 
And  mock  their  foster-mother   on   four 

feet, 
Till,  straighten'd,  they  grew  up  to  wolf- 
like men, 
Worse    than   the   wolves.       And   King 

Leodogran 
Groan'd   for  the    Roman    legions   here 

again, 
And  Caesar's  eagle:  then  his  brother  king, 
Urien,    assail'd    him:     last    a    heathen 

horde, 
Reddening    the    sun    with   smoke   and 

earth  with  blood, 
And  on  the  spike  that  split  the  mother's 

heart 
Spitting   the   child,  brake  on  him,  till, 

amazed, 
He  knew  not  whither  he  should  turn  for 

aid. 

But  —  for  he  heard  of  Arthur  newly 

crown'd, 
Tho'  not   without   an   uproar   made   by 

those 
Who  cried,  '  He  is  not  Uther's   son'  — 

the  King 
Sent  to  him,  saying,  •  Arise,  and  help  us 

thou! 
For  here  between  the  man  and  beast  we 

die.' 


3°4 


THE    COMING    OF  ARTHUR. 


And  Arthur  yet  had  done  no  deed  of 

arms, 
But    heard    the    call,    and    came :    and 

Guinevere 
Stood  by  the  castle  walls  to  watch  him 

pass; 
But   since  he  neither  wore  on  helm  or 

shield 
^The  golden  symbol  of  his  kinglihood, 
But   rode    a   simple   knight   among   his 

knights, 
*    And  many  of  these  in  richer  arms  than 
k  he, 

J    She  saw  him  not,  or  mark'd  not,  if  she 

saw, 
One  among  many,  tho'  his  face  was  bare. 
But  Arthur,  looking  downward  as  he  past, 
Felt  the  light  of  her  eyes  into  his  life 
Smite  on  the  sudden,  yet  rode  on,  and 

pitch'd 
His   tents  beside  the  forest.      Then  he 

drave 
The  heathen;   after,  slew  the  beast,  and 

fell'd 
The  forest,  letting  in  the  sun,  and  made 
Broad  pathways  for  the  hunter  and  the 

knight 
And  so  return'd. 

For  while  he  linger'd  there, 
A   doubt   that   ever   smoulder'd    in   the 

hearts 
Of  those  great  Lords  and  Barons  of  his 

realm 
Flash'd  forth  and  into  war:  for  most  of 

these, 
Colleaguing  with  a  score  of  petty  kings, 
Made  head  against  him,  crying,  '  Who  is 

he 
That  he  should  rule  us?  who  hath  provdn 

him 
King  Uther's  son?   for  lo!   we   look  at 

him, 
And  find  nor  face  nor  bearing,  limbs  nor 

voice, 
Are   like  to  those  of  Uther  whom   we 

knew. 
This  is  the  son  of  Gorlois,  not  the  King; 
This  is  the  son  of  Anton,  not  the  King.' 

And  Arthur,  passing  thence  to  battle, 
felt 
Travail,  and  throes  and  agonies  of  the  life, 


Desiring  to  be  join'd  with  Guinevere; 
And  thinking  as  he  rode,  '  Her   father 

said 
That  there  between  the  man   and  beast 

they  die. 
Shall  I  not  lift   her  from   this   land   of 

beasts 
Up  to  my  throne,  and  side  by  side  with 

me? 
4  What  happiness  to  reign  a  lonely  king, 
Vext  —  O  ye  stars  that  shudder  over  mej 

0  earth  that  soundest  hollow  under  me, 
Vext  with  waste  dreams  ?  for  saving  I  be 

join'd 
To  her  that  is  the  fairest  under  heaven, 

1  seem  as  nothing  in  the  mighty  world, 
And  cannot  will  my  will,  nor  work  my 

work 
Wholly,  nor  make  myself  in  mine  own 

realm 
Victor  and  lord.     But  were  I  join'd  with 

her, 
Then  might  we  live  together  as  one  life, 
And  reigning  with  one  will  in  everything 
Have  power  on  this  dark  land  to  lighten  it, 
And  power  on  this  dead  world  to  make 

it  live.' 

Thereafter  —  as  he  speaks  who  tells  the 

tale  — 
When   Arthur    reach'd    a  field-of-battle 

bright 
With  pitch'd  pavilions  of  his   foe,   the 

world 
Was  all  so  clear  about  him,  that  he  saw 
The  smallest  rock  far  on  the  faintest  hill, 
And  even  in  high  day  the  morning  star. 
So  when  the  King  had  set  his  banner 

broad, 
At  once  from  either  side,  with  trumpet- 
blast, 
And  shouts,  and  clarions  shrilling  unto 

blood, 
The  long-lanced  battle  let  their  horses 

run. 
And  now  the  Barons  and  the  kings  pre- 

vail'd, 
And  now  the  King,  as  here  and  there 

that  war 
Went   swaying;     but    the    Powers   who 

walk  the  world 
Made  lightnings  and  great  thunders  over 

him, 


THE    COMING    OF  ARTHUR. 


305 


And  dazed  all  eyes,  till  Arthur  by  main 

might, 
And  mightier   of  his  hands  with   every 

blow, 
And  leading  all  his  knighthood  threw  the 

kings 
Carados,  Urien,  Cradlemont  of  Wales, 
Claudius,  and  Clariance  of  Northumber- 
land, 
The  King  Brandagoras  of  Latangor, 
With  Anguisant  of  Erin,  Morganore, 
And  Lot  of  Orkney.      Then,  before  a 

voice 
As   dreadful   as  the   shout  of  one  who 

sees 
To   one   who   sins,   and   deems  himself 

alone 
And  all  the  world  asleep,  they  swerved 

and  brake 
Flying,   and   Arthur   call'd   to   stay   the 

brands 
That  hack'd  among  the  flyers, ■  Ho  !  they 

yield ! ' 
So  like  a  painted  battle  the  war  stood 
Silenced,  the  living  quiet  as  the  dead, 
And  in  the  heart  of  Arthur  joy  was  lord. 
He  laugh'd  upon  his  warrior  whom  he 

loved 
And   honour'd   most.      'Thou   dost   not 

doubt  me  King, 
So  well  thine  arm  hath  wrought  for  me 

to-day.' 
'  Sir  and  my  liege,'  he  cried,  '  the  fire  of 

God 
Descends  upon  thee  in  the  battle-field : 
I  know  thee  for  my  King ! '  Whereat  the 

two, 
For  each  had  warded  either  in  the  fight, 
Sware  on  the  field  of  death  a  deathless 

love. 
And  Arthur  said,  •  Man's  word  is  God  in 

man : 
Let  chance  what  will,  I  trust  thee  to  the 

death.' 

Then  quickly  from  the  foughten  field 

he  sent 
Ulfius,  and  Brastias,  and  Bedivere, 
His  new-made  knights,  to  King  Leodo- 

gran, 
Saying,  *  If  I  in  aught  have  served  thee 

well, 
Give  me  thy  daughter  Guinevere  to  wife.' 

X 


Whom  when  he  heard,  Leodogran  in 
heart 
Debating  — '  How  should   I  that  am  a 

king, 
However  much  he  holp  me  at  my  need, 
Give  my  one  daughter  saving  to  a  king, 
And  a  king's  son? '  —  lifted  his  voice,  and 

called 
A  hoary  man,  his  chamberlain,  to  whom 
He   trusted  all  things,  and  of  him  re- 
quired 
His  counsel :  •  Knowest   thou  aught  of 
Arthur's  birth?' 

Then  spake  the  hoary  chamberlain  and 

said, 
'  Sir  King,  there  be  but  two  old  men  that 

know : 
And  each  is  twice  as  old  as  I;  and  one 
Is  Merlin,  the  wise  man  that  ever  served 
KingUther  thro'  his  magic  art;   and  one 
Is   Merlin's   master  (so   they  call  him) 

Bleys, 
Who  taught  him  magic;  but  the  scholar 

ran 
Before  the  master,  and  so  far,  that  Bleys 
Laid  magic  by,  and  sat  him  down,  and 

wrote 
All  things  and  whatsoever  Merlin  did 
In  one  great  annal-book,  where  after-years 
Will  learn  the  secret  of  our  Arthur's  birth.' 

To  whom  the  King  Leodogran  replied, 
'O  friend,   had  I  been  holpen  half  as 

well 
By  this  King  Arthur  as  by  thee  to-day, 
Then  beast  and  man  had  had  their  share 

of  me : 
But  summon  here  before  us  yet  once  more 
Ulfius,  and  Brastias,  and  Bedivere.' 

Then,  when  they  came  before  him,  the 

King  said, 
1 1  have  seen  the  cuckoo  chased  by  lesser 

fowl, 
And  reason  in  the  chase :  but  wherefore 

now 
Do  these  your  lords  stir  up  the  heat  of 

war, 
Some  calling  Arthur  born  of  Gorlois, 
Others  of  Anton  ?    Tell  me,  ye  yourselves, 
Hold  ye  this  Arthur  for   King  Uther's 

son?' 


306 


THE    COMING    OF  ARTHUR. 


And  Ulfius  and  Brastias  answer'd, '  Ay.' 
Then  Bedivere,  the  first  of  all  his  knights 
Knighted   by   Arthur   at   his    crowning, 

spake  — 
For  bold  in  heart  and  act  and  word  was 

he, 
Whenever  slander  breathed  against  the 

King  — 

'  Sir,  there  be  many  j  rumours  on  this 
head :  ' 

For  there  be  those  who  hate  him  in  their 

hearts, 
Call  him  baseborn,  and  since  his  ways  are 

sweet, 
And  theirs  are  bestial,  hold  him  less  than 

man: 
And  there  be  those  who  deem  him  more 

than  man, 
And  dream  he  dropt  from  heaven :  but 

my  belief 
In  all  this  matter —  so  ye  care  to  learn  — 
Sir,  for  ye  know  that  in  King  Uther's  time 
The  prince  and  warrior  Gorlois,  he  that 

held 
Tintagil  castle  by  the  Cornish  sea, 
Was  wedded  with  a  winsome  wife,  Ygerne  : 
And  daughters  had  she  borne  him,  —  one 

whereof, 
Lot's  wife,  the  Queen  of  Orkney,  Belli- 

'cent,  ' 

Hath  ever  like  a  loyal  sister  cleaved 

To  Arthur,  —  but  a  son  she  had  not  borne. 

And  Uther  cast  upon  her  eyes  of  love : 

But  she,  a  stainless  wife  to  Gorlois, 

So  loathed  the  bright  dishonour  of  his 

love, 
That  Gorlois  and  King  Uther  went  to  war : 
And  overthrown  was  Gorlois  and  slain. 
Then  Uther  in  his  wrath  and   heat  be- 
sieged 
Ygerne  within  Tintagil,  where  her  men, 
Seeing   the   mighty   swarm   about   their 

walls, 
Left  her  and  fled,  and  Uther  enter'd  in, 
And  there  was  none  to  call  to  but  him- 
self. 
So,  compass'd  by  the  power  of  the  King, 
Enforced  she  was  to  wed  him  in  her  tears, 
And   with  a  shameful   swiftness:    after- 
ward, 
Not  many  moons,  King  Uther  died  him- 
self, 


Moaning  and  wailing  for  an  he.ir  to  rule 
After  him,  lest  the  realm  should  go  to 

wrack. 
And  that  same  night,   the  night  of  the 

new  year, 
By  reason  of  the  bitterness  and  grief 
That  vext  his  mother,  all  before  his  time 
Was  Arthur  born,  and  all  as  soon  as  born 
Deliver'd  at  a  secret  postern-gate 
To  Merlin,  to  be  holden  far  apart 
Until  his  hour  should  come;   because  the 

lords 
Of  that  fierce  day  were  as  the  lords  of  this, 
Wild  beasts,  and  surely  would  have  torn 

the  child 
Piecemeal  among  them,  had  they  known; 

for  each 
But  sought  to  rule  for  his  own  self  and 

hand, 
And  many  hated  Uther  for  the  sake 
Of  Gorlois.     Wherefore  Merlin  took  the 

child, 
And  gave  him  to  Sir  Anton,  an  old  knight 
And  ancient  friend  of  Uther;  and  his  wife 
Nursed  the  young  prince,  and  rear'd  him 

with  her  own; 
And  no  man  knew.     And  ever  since  the 

lords 
Have  foughten  like  wild  beasts  among 

themselves, 
So  that  the  realm  has  gone  to  wrack :  but 

now, 
This  year,  when  Merlin  (for  his  hour  had 

come) 
Brought  Arthur  forth,  and  set  him  in  the 

hall, 
Proclaiming,  u  Here  is  Uther's  heir,  your 

king," 
A  hundred  voices  cried, "  Away  with  him  ! 
No  king  of  ours  !  a  son  of  Gorlois  he, 
Or  else  the  child  of  Anton,  and  no  king, 
Or  else  baseborn."     Yet  Merlin  thro'  his 

craft, 
And  while  the  people    clamour'd  for  a 

king, 
Had  Arthur  crown'd;  but  after,  the  great 

lords 
Banded,  and  so  brake  out  in  open  war.' 

Then  while  the  King  debated  with  him- 
self 
If  Arthur  were  the  child  of  shame  fulness, 
Or  born  the  son  of  Gorlois,  after  death, 


THE    COMING    OF  ARTHUR. 


307 


Or  Uther's  son,  and  born  before  his  time, 
Or  whether  there  were  truth  in  anything 
Said  by  these  three,  there  came  to  Came- 

liard, 
With  Gawain  and  young  Modred,  her  two 

sons, 
Lot's  wife,  the  Queen  of  Orkney,  Belli- 

cent; 
Whom  as  he  could,  not  as  he  would,  the 

King 
Made  feast  for,  saying,  as  they  sat  at  meat, 

'A  doubtful  throne  is  ice  on  summer 

seas. 
Ye  come  from  Arthur's  court.     Victor  his 

men 
Report  him !     Yea,  but  ye  —  think  ye  this 

king  — 
So  many  those    that   hate    him,  and  so 

strong, 
So  few  his  knights,  however  brave  they 

be  — 
Hath    body    enow    to   hold   his   foemen 

down  ? ' 

'O  King,'  she   cried,  'and  I  will  tell 

thee :   few, 
Few,  but  all  brave,  all  of  one  mind  with 

him; 
For  I  was  near  him  when  the  savage  yells 
Of  Uther's  peerage  died,  and  Arthur  sat 
Crown'd   on   the   dais,  and  his  warriors 

cried, 
"  Be  thou  the  king,  and  we  will  work  thy 

will 
Who  love  thee."     Then  the  King  in  low 

deep  tones, 
And  simpfe  words  of  great  authority, 
Bound  them  by  so  strait  vows  to  his  own 

self, 
That   when    they    rose,   knighted    from 

kneeling,  some 
Were  pale  as  at  the  passing  of  a  ghost, 
Some  flush'd,  and  others  dazed,  as  one 

who  wakes 
Half-blinded  at  the  coming  of  a  light. 

1  But  when  he  spake  and  cheer'd  his 
Table  Round 
With  large,  divine,  and  comfortable  words, 
Beyond  my  tongue  to  tell  thee  —  I  beheld 
From  eye  to  eye  thro'  all  their  Order  flash 
A  momentary  likeness  of  the  King : 


And  ere  it  left  their  faces,  thro'  the  cross 
And  those  around  it  and  the  Crucified, 
Down  from  the    casement  over  Arthur, 

smote 
Flame-colour,  vert  and   azure,  in   three 

rays, 
One  falling  upon  each  of  three  fair  queens, 
Who  stood  in  silence  near  his  throne,  the 

friends 
Of  Arthur,  gazing  on  him,  tall,  with  bright 
Sweet   faces,  who  will  help   him   at  his 

need. 

*  And  there  I  saw  mage  Merlin,  whose 

vast  wit 
And  hundred  winters  are  but  as  the  hands 
Of  loyal  vassals  toiling  for  their  liege. 

*  And  near  him  stood  the  Lady  of  the'' 

Lake, 
Who   knows   a   subtler  magic  than  his 

own  — 
Clothed  in  white  samite,  mystic,  wonder- 
ful. 
She  gave  the  King  his  huge  cross-hilted 

sword, 
Whereby  to  drive  the  heathen  out :  a  mist 
Of  incense  curl'd  about  her,  and  her  face 
Wellnigh    was    hidden    in    the    minster 

gloom; 
But   there  was   heard   among   the   holy 

hymns 
A  voice  as  of  the  waters,  for  she  dwells 
Down  in  a  deep ;   calm,  whatsoever  storms 
May   shake   the   world,   and   when   the 

surface  rolls, 
Hath  power  to  walk  the  waters  like  our 

Lord. 

*  There  likewise  I  beheld  Excalibur 
Before  him   at  his  crowning  borne,  the 

sword 
That  rose  from  out  the  bosom  of  the  lake, 
And  Arthur  row'd  across  and  took  it  — 

rich 
With  jewels,  elfin  IJrjm,  on  the  hilt, 
Bewildering  heart  and  eye  —  the  blade  so 

bright 
That  men  are  blinded  by  it  —  on  one  side, 
Graven  in  the  oldest  tongue  of  all  this 

world, 
"Take  me,"  but  turn  the  blade  and  ye 

shall  see, 


THE    COMING    OF  ARTHUR. 


And  written  in  the  speech  ye  speak  your- 
self, 

"  Cast  me  away !  "  And  sad  was  Arthur's 
face 

Taking  it,  but  old  Merlin  counsell'd  him, 

"  Take  thou  and  strike  !  the  time  to  cast 
away 

Is  yet  far-off."  So  this  great  brand  the 
king 

Took,  and  by  this  will  beat  his  foemen 
down.' 

Thereat      Leodogran     rejoiced,     but 

thought 
To  sift  his  dQubJtiflgs  to  the  last,  and  ask'd, 
Fixing  full  eyes  of  question  on  her  face, 
'  The  swallow  and  the  swift  are  near  akin, 
But  thou  art  closer  to  this  noble  prince, 
Being  his  own  dear  sister;'  and  she  said, 
'  Daughter  of  Gorlois  and  Ygerne  am  I ;  ' 
'And   therefore   Arthur's   sister?'  ask'd 

the  King. 
She  answer'd,  'These  be  secret  things,' 

and  sign'd 
To  those  two  sons  to  pass,  and  let  them  be. 
And  Gawain  went,  and  breaking  into  song 
Sprang  out,  and  follow'd  by  his  flying  hair 
Ran  like  a  colt,  and  leapt  at  all  he  saw : 
But  Modred  laid  his  ear  beside  the  doors, 
JT    And   there   half-heard;     the   same   that 

afterward 
Struck  for  the  throne,  and  striking  found 

his  doom. 

And  then  the   Queen   made   answer, 

'What  know  I? 
For  dark  my  mother  was  in  eyes  and  hair, 
And  dark  in  hair  and  eyes  am  I ;  and  dark 
Was  Gorlois,  yea  and  dark  was  Uther  too, 
Wellnigh  to  blackness;  but  this  King  is 

fair 
Beyond  the  race  of  Britons  and  of  men. 
Moreover,  always  in  my  mind  I  hear 
A  cry  from  out  the  dawning  of  my  life, 
A  mother  weeping,  and  I  hear  her  say, 
"  O  that  ye  had  some  brother,  pretty  one, 
To  guard  thee  on  the  rough  ways  of  the 

world." ' 

'Ay,'  said  the  King,  'and  hear  ye  such 
a  cry? 
But  when  did  Arthur  chance  upon  thee 
first?' 


1 0  King ! '  she  cried,  '  and  I  will  tell 

thee  true : 
He  found  me  first  when  yet  a  little  maid : 
Beaten  had  I  been  for  a  little  fault 
Whereof  I  was  not  guilty;  and  out  I  ran 
And   flung   myself  down   on  a  bank  of 

heath, 
And  hated  this  fair  world  and  all  therein, 
And  wept,  and  wish'd  that  I  were  dead; 

and  he  — 
I  know  not  whether  of  himself  he  came, 
Or   brought   by   Merlin,  who,  they   say, 

can  walk 
Unseen  at  pleasure  —  he  was  at  my  side, 
And  spake  sweet  words,  and  comforted 

my  heart, 
And  dried  my  tears,  being  a  child  with  me. 
And  many  a  time  he  came,  and  evermore 
As  I  grew  greater  grew  with  me;   and  sad 
At  times  he  seem'd,  and  sad  with   him 

was  I, 
Stern  too  at  times,  and  then  I  loved  him 

not, 
But  sweet  again,  and  then  I  loved  him 

well. 
And  now  of  late  I  see  him  less  and  less, 
But  those  first  days  had  golden  hours  for 

me, 
For  then  I  surely  thought  he  would  be 

king. 

'  But  let  me  tell  thee  now  another  tale : 
For  Bleys,  our  Merlin's  master,  as  they  say, 
Died  but  of  late,  and  sent  his  cry  to  me, 
To  hear  him  speak  before  he  left  his  life. 
Shrunk  like   a   fairy  changeling  lay  the 

mage; 
And  when  I  enter'd  told  me  that  himself 
And  Merlin  ever  served  about  the  King, 
Uther,  before  he  died;  and  on  the  night 
When  Uther  in  Tintagil  past  away 
Moaning  and  wailing  for  an  heir,  the  two 
Left  the  still  King,  and  passing  forth  to 

breathe, 
Then   from   the   castle   gateway  by  the 

chasm 
Descending  thro'  the   dismal   night  —  a 

night 
In  which  the  bounds  of  heaven  and  earth 

were  lost  — 
Beheld,  so  high  upon  the  dreary  deeps 
It  seem'd  in  heaven,  a  ship,  the  shape 

thereof 


THE    COMING    OF  ARTHUR. 


309 


A  dragon  wing'd,  and  all  from  stem  to 

stem 
Bright  with  a  shining  people  on  the  decks, 
And  gone  as  soon  as  seen.     And  then 

the  two 
Dropt  to  the  cove,  and  watch'd  the  great 

sea  fall, 
Wave  after  wave,  each  mightier  than  the 

last, 
Till  last,  a  ninth  one,  gathering  half  the 

deep 
And  full  of  voices,  slowly  rose  and  plunged 
Roaring,  and  all  the  wave  was  in  a  flame  : 
And  down  the  wave  and  in  the  flame  was 

borne 
A  naked  babe,  and  rode  to  Merlin's  feet, 
Who  stoopt  and  caught  the   babe,  and 

cried  "  The  King ! 
Here  is  an  heir  for  Uther !  "     And  the 

fringe 
Of  that  great  breaker,  sweeping  up  the 

strand, 
Lash'd  at  the  wizard  as  he  spake  the  word, 
And  all  at  once  all  round  him  rose  in  fire, 
So  that  the  child  and  he  were  clothed  in 

fire. 
And  presently  thereafter  follow'd  calm, 
Free  sky  and  stars:     "And  this   same 

child,"  he  said, 
"Is  he  who  reigns;   nor  could  I  part  in 

peace 
Till  this  were  told."     And  saying  this  the 

seer 
Went  thro'  the  strait  and  dreadful  pass  of 

death, 
Nor  ever  to  be  question'd  any  more 
Save  on  the  further  side ;   but  when  I  met 
Merlin,  and  ask'd  him  if  these  things  were 

truth  — 
The  shining  dragon  and  the  naked  child 
Descending  in  the  glory  of  the  seas  — 
He  laugh'd  as  is  his  wont,  and  answer'd 

me 
In  riddling  triplets  of  old  time,  and  said : 

1 "  Rain,  rain,  and  sun !  a  rainbow  in 
the  sky ! 
A  young  man  will  be  wiser  by  and  by; 
An  old  man's  wit  may  wander  ere  he  die. 
Rain,  rain,  and  sun !  a  rainbow  on  the 
lea! 
And  truth  is  this  to  me,  and  that  to  thee; 
And  truth  or  clothed  or  naked  let  it  be. 


Rain,   sun,   and   rain !     and    the   free 

blossom  blows : 
Sun,  rain,  and  sun  !  and  where  is  he  who 

knows? 
From  the  great  deep  to  the  great  deep  he 

goes." 

'So  Merlin  riddling  anger'd  me;  but 

thou 
Fear  not  to  give  this  King  thine  only  child, 
Guinevere :    so  great  bards  of  him  will 

sing 
Hereafter;   and  dark  sayings  from  of  old 
Ranging  and  ringing  thro'  the  minds  of 

men, 
And  echo'd  by  old  folk  beside  their  fires 
For  comfort  after  their  wage-work  is  done, 
Speak  of  the  King;   and  Merlin  in  our    ) 

timf>  / 


N: 


Hath  spoken  also,  not  in  jest,  and  sworn 
Tho'  men  may  wound  him  that  he  will 

not  die, 
But  pass,  again  to  come;   and  then  or  now 
Utterly  smite  the  heathen  underfoot, 
Till  these  and  all  men  hail  him  for  their 

king.'  J  ^ 

She  spake  and  King  Leodogran  re- 
joiced, 
But  musing  '  Shall  I  answer  yea  or  nay? ' 
Doubted,  and  drowsed,  nodded  and  slept, 

and  saw, 
Dreaming,  a  slope  of  land  that  ever  grew, 
Field  after  field,  up  to  a  height,  the  peak 
Haze-hidden,   and   thereon   a    phantom 

king, 
Now  looming,  and  now  lost;   and  on  the 

slope 
The  sword  rose,  the  hind  fell,  the  herd 

was  driven, 
Fire  glimpsed;    and  all  the    land  from 

roof  and  rick, 
In  drifts  of  smoke  before  a  rolling  wind, 
Stream'd  to  the  peak,  and  mingled  with 

the  haze 
And  made  it  thicker;   while  the  phantom 

king 
Sent  out  at  times  a  voice;   and  here  or 

there 
Stood  one  who  pointed  toward  the  voice, 

the  rest 
Slew  on  and  burnt,  crying, '  No  king  of 

ours, 


316 


THE    COMING    OF  ARTHUR. 


No  son  of  Uther,  and  no  king  of  ours;  ' 
Till  with  a  wink  his  dream  was  changed, 

the  haze 
Descended,  and  the  solid  earth  became 
As  nothing,  but  the  King  stood  out  in 

heaven, 
Crown'd.     And  Leodogran  awoke,  and 

sent 
Ulfius,  and  Brastias  and  Bedivere, 
Back  to  the  court  of  Arthur  answering 

yea. 

Then  Arthur  charged  his  warrior  whom 

he  loved 
And  honour'd  most,  Sir  Lancelot,  to  ride 

forth 
And  bring  the  Queen ;  —  and  watch'd  him 

from  the  gates : 
And    Lancelot    past    away    among    the 

flowers, 
(For  then  was  latter  April)  and  return'd 
Among  the  flowers,  in  May,  with  Guine- 
vere. 
To   whom  arrived,  by  Dubric  the  high 

saint, 
Chief  of  the  church  in  Britain,  and  before 
The   stateliest   of  her  altar-shrines,   the 

King 
That  morn  was  married,  while  in  stainless 

white, 
The  fair  beginners  of  a  nobler  time, 
And  glorying  in  their  vows  and  him,  his 

knights 
Stood  round  him,  and  rejoicing  in  his  joy. 
Far  shone  the  fields  of  May  thro'  open 

door, 
The  sacred  altar  blossom'd  white  with  May, 
The  Sun  of  May  descended  on  their  King, 
They  gazed  on  all  earth's  beauty  in  their 

Queen, 
Roll'd  incense,  and  there  past  along  the 

hymns 
A  voice  as  of  the  waters,  while  the  two 
Sware  at  the  shrine  of  Christ  a  deathless 

love : 
And  Arthur  said,  '  Behold,  thy  doom  is 

mine. 
Let  chance  what  will,  I  love  thee  to  the 

death  ! ' 
To  whom  the  Queen  replied  with  drooping 

eyes, 
'  King  and  my  lord,  I  love  thee  to  the 

death ! ' 


And  holy  Dubric  spread  his  hands  and 

spake, 
'  Reign  ye,  and  live  and  love,  and  make 

the  world 
Other,  and  may  thy  Queen  be  pne  with 

thee, 
And  all  this  Order  of  thy  Table  Round 
Fulfil    the   boundless  purpose   of    their 

King ! ' 

So  Dubric  said;   but  when  they  left  the 

shrine 
Great  Lords  from  Rome  before  the  portal 

stood, 
In  scornful  stillness  gazing  as  they  past ; 
Then  while  they  paced  a  city  all  on  fire 
With  sun  and  cloth  of  gold,  the  trumpets 

blew, 
And  Arthur's  knighthood  sang  before  the 

King :  — 

'  Blow  trumpet,  for  the  world  is  white 

with  May; 
Blow  trumpet,  the  long  night  hath  roll'd 

away ! 
Blow  thro'  the  living  world  — "  Let  the 

King  reign." 

*  Shall    Rome    or    Heathen    rule    in 

Arthur's  realm? 
Flash  brand  and  lance,  fall  battleaxe  upon 

helm, 
Fall  battleaxe,  and  flash  brand  !    Let  the 

King  reign. 

'  Strike   for   the   King   and   live !    his 

knights  have  heard 
That  God  hath  told  the  King  a  secret 

word. 
Fall  battleaxe  and  flash  brand  !     Let  the 

King  reign. 

'  Blow  trumpet !    he  will  lift  us  from 

the  dust. 
Blow  trumpet !  live  the  strength  and  die 

the  lust ! 
Clang  battleaxe,  and  clash  brand !     Let 

the  King  reign. 

•  Strike  for  the  King  and  die !  and  if 

thou  diest, 
The    King  is  King,  and  ever  wills  the 
highest. 


GARETH  AND  LYNETTE. 


3* 


Clang  battleaxe,  and  clash  brand  !     Let 
the  King  reign. 

'  Blow,  for  our  Sun  is  mighty  in  his  May  ! 
Blow,  for  our  Sun  is  mightier  day  by  day  ! 
Clang  battleaxe,  and  clash  brand !     Let 
the  King  reign. 

1  The  King  will  follow  Christ,  and  we 

the  King 
In  whom  high  God  hath  breathed  a  secret 

thing. 
Fall  battleaxe,  and  flash  brand  !     Let  the 

King  reign.' 

So  sang  the  knighthood,  moving  to  their 

hall. 
There  at  the  banquet  those  great  Lords 

from  Rome, 
The  slowly-fading  mistress  of  the  world. 
Strode  in,  and  claim'd  their  tribute  as  of 

yore. 
But   Arthur   spake,    '  Behold,    for   these 

have  sworn 


To  wage  my  wars,  and  worship  me  their 

King;  y 

The  old  order  changeth,  yielding  place   * 

to  new; 
And   we    that   fight   for  our  fair  father 

Christ, 
Seeing  that  ye  be  grown  too  weak  and 

old 
To  drive  the  heathen  from  your  Roman 

wall, 
No  tribute  will  we  pay :  '  so  those  great 

lords 
Drew  back  in  wrath,  and  Arthur  strove 

with  Rome. 


Ttcot   -/ 


"V 


And  Arthur  and  his  knighthood  for  a 
space 

Were  all  one  will,  and  thro'  that  strength 
the  King 

Drew  in  the  petty  princedoms  under  him, 

Fought,  and  in  twelve  great  battles  over- 
came 

The  heathen  hordes,  and  made  a  realm 
and  reign'd. 


THE   ROUND  TABLE. 


GARETH   AND   LYNETTE. 
THE   MARRIAGE  OF  GERAINT. 
GERAINT  AND  ENID. 
BALIN   AND   BALAN. 
MERLIN   AND   VIVIEN. 

GARETH   AND   LYNETTE. 

The  last  tall  son  of  Lot  and  Bellicent, 
And  tallest,  Gareth,  in  a  showerful  spring 
Stared  at  the  spate.     A  slender-shafted 

Pine 
Lost   footing,   fell,  and   so   was  whirl'd 

away, 
f  How  he  went  down,'  said  Gareth,  '  as  a 

false  knight 
Or  evil  king  before  my  lance  if  lance 
Were  mine  to  use  —  O  senseless  cataract, 
Bearing  all  down  in  thy  precipitancy  — 
And  yet  thou  art  but  swollen  with  cold 

snows 
And  mine  is  living  blood :  thou  dost  His 

will, 
The  Maker's,    and   not  knowest,   and  I 

that  know, 
Have   strength     and   wit,    in    my   good 

mother's  hall 


LANCELOT   AND    ELAINE. 
THE   HOLY   GRAIL. 
PELLEAS   AND   ETTARRE. 
THE   LAST  TOURNAMENT. 
GUINEVERE. 

Linger  with  vacillating  obedience, 
Prison'd,     and    kept    and    coax'd     and 

whistled  to  — 
Since  the  good  mother  holds  me  still  a 

child ! 
Good  mother  is  bad  mother  unto  me  ! 
A   worse    were     better;     yet    no  worse 

would  I. 
Heaven  yield    her  for  it,  but  in  me  put 

force 
To  weary  her  ears  with  one  continuous 

prayer, 
Until  she  let  me  fly  discaged  to  sweep 
In  ever-highering  eagle-circles  up 
To  the  great  Sun  of  Glory,  and  thence 

swoop 
Down   upon  all  things  base,   and  dash 

them  dead, 
A  knight  of  Arthur,  working  out  his  will, 
To    cleanse   the   world.     Why,  Gawain, 

when  he  came 


312 


GARETH  AND  LYNETTE. 


With  Modred  hither  in  the  summer- 
time, 

Ask'd  me  to  tilt  with  him,  the  proven 
knight. 

Modred  for  want  of  worthier  was  the 
judge. 

Then  I  so  shook  him  in  the  saddle,  he 
said, 

"Thou  hast  half  prevail'd  against  me," 
said  so  —  he  — 

Tho'  Modred  biting  his  thin  lips  was 
mute, 

For  he  is  alway  sullen :  what  care  I  ? ' 

And  Gareth  went,  and  hovering  round 

her  chair 
Ask'd,  '  Mother,   tho'   ye  count  me  still 

the  child, 
Sweet   mother,   do  ye   love  the  child?' 

She  laugh'd, 
'  Thou  art  but  a  wild-goose  to  question 

it.' 
'Then,  mother,  and   ye  love  the  child,' 

he  said, 
'  Being  a  goose  and  rather  tame   than 

wild, 
Hear  the  child's  story.'     *  Yea,  my  well- 
beloved, 
An  'twere  but  of  the  goose  and  golden 

eggs.' 

And  Gareth  answer'd  her  with  kind- 
ling eyes, 

'  Nay,  nay,  good  mother,  but  this  egg  of 
mine 

Was  finer  gold  than  any  goose  can  lay; 

For  this  an  Eagle,  a  royal  Eagle,  laid 

Almost  beyond  eye-reach,  on  such  a 
palm 

As  glitters  gilded  in  thy  Book  of  Hours. 

And  there  was  ever  haunting  round  the 
palm 

A  lusty  youth,  but  poor,  who  often  saw 

The  splendour  sparkling  from  aloft,  and 
thought 

"  An  I  could  climb  and  lay  my  hand  upon 
it, 

Then  were  I  wealthier  than  a  leash  of 
kings." 

But  ever  when  he  reach'd  a  hand  to 
climb, 

One  that  had  loved  him  from  his  child- 
hood, caught 


And  stay'd  him,   "  Climb  not  lest  thou 

break  thy  neck, 
I  charge  thee  by  my  love,"  and  so  the 

boy, 
Sweet  mother,  neither  clomb,  nor  brake 

his  neck, 
And  brake  his  very  heart  in  pining  for  it, 
And  past  away.' 

To  whom  the  mother  said, 
1  True  love,  sweet  son,  had  risk'd  himself 

and  climb'd, 
And  handed  down  the  golden  treasure  to 

him.' 

And  Gareth  answer'd  her  with  kindling 

eyes, 
'Gold?  said  I  gold?  —  ay  then,  why  he, 

or  she, 
Or  whosoe'er  it  was,  or  half  the  world 
Had  ventured  —  had  the  thing  I  spake  of 

been 
Mere  gold  —  but  this  was  all  of  that  true 

steel, 
Whereof  they  forged  the  brand  Excalibur, 
And  lightnings  play'd  about   it   in   the 

storm, 
And  all  the  little  fowl  were  flurried  at  it, 
And  there  were  cries  and  clashings  in  the 

nest, 
That  sent  him  from  his  senses :  let  me  go.' 

Then  Bellicent  bemoan'd  herself  and 

said, 
'Hast  thou  no  pity  upon  my  loneliness? 
Lo,   where  thy   father    Lot   beside   the 

hearth 
Lies  like  a  log,  and  all  but  smoulder'd 

out! 
For  ever  since  when  traitor  to  the  King 
He  fought  against  him  in  the  Barons'  war, 
And  Arthur  gave  him  back  his  territory, 
His  age  hath  slowly  droopt,  and  now  lies 

there 
A  yet-warm  corpse,  and  yet  unburiable, 
No    more;     nor    sees,   nor    hears,    nor 

speaks,  nor  knows. 
And  both   thy  brethren  are  in  Arthur's 

hall, 
Albeit  neither  loved  with  that  full  love 
I  feel  for  thee,  nor  worthy  such  a  love : 
Stay  therefore  thou;  red  berries  charm 

the  bird, 


GARETH  AND  LYNETTE. 


3*3 


And  thee,  mine  innocent,  the  jousts,  the 

wars, 
Who  never  knewest  finger-ache,  nor  pang 
Of  wrench'd  or  broken  limb  —  an  often 

chance 
In    those    brain-stunning    shocks,    and 

tourney-falls, 
Frights   to  my  heart;    but   stay:   follow 

the  deer 
By   these    tall    firs   and   our   fast-falling 

burns; 
So  make  thy  manhood  mightier  day  by 

day; 
Sweet  is  the  chase :  and  I  will  seek  thee 

out 
Some  comfortable  bride  and  fair,  to  grace 
Thy  climbing  life,  and  cherish  my  prone 

year, 
Till  falling  into  Lot's  forgetfulness 
I  know  not  thee,  myself,  nor  anything. 
Stay,  my  best  son !  ye  are  yet  more  boy 

than  man.' 

Then  Gareth,  '  An  ye  hold  me  yet  for 

child, 
Hear   yet   once   more   the  story  of  the 

child. 
For,  mother,  there  was  once  a  King,  like 

ours. 
The  prince  his  heir,  when  tall  and  mar- 
riageable, 
Ask'd   for  a  bride;    and   thereupon  the 

King 
Set    two    before    him.     One    was    fair, 

strong,  arm'd  — 
But  to  be  won  by  force  —  and  many  men 
Desired   her;    one,  good   lack,  no  man 

desired. 
And   these  were   the  conditions  of  the 

King: 
That  save  he  won  the  first  by  force,  he 

needs 
Must   wed    that   other,   whom   no   man 

desired, 
A  red-faced  bride  who  knew  herself  so 

vile, 
That   evermore  she  long'd  to  hide  her- 
self, 
Nor  fronted  man  or  woman,  eye  to  eye  — 
Yea  —  some   she   cleaved    to,   but   they 

died  of  her. 
And  one  —  they  call'd   her  Fame;    and 

one,  —  O  mother, 


How  can  ye  keep  me  tether'd  to  you  — 
Shame. 

Man  am  I  grown,  a  man's  work  must  I 

do.  _ . 

Follow  the  deer?  follow  the  Christ,  the 
King, 

Live  pure,  speak  true,  right  wrong,  fol- 
low the  King  — 

Else,  wherefore  born  ?  ' 

To  whom  the  mother  said, 
'  Sweet  son,  for  there  be  many  who  deem 

him  not, 
Or  will   not   deem   him,  wholly  proven 

King  — 
Albeit  in  mine  own  heart  I   knew  him 

King, 
When  I  was  frequent  with   him  in  my 

youth,  ) 

And     heard    him     Kingly    speak,    and 

doubted  him 
No  more  than  he,  himself;   but  felt  him 

mine, 
Of  closest   kin  to  me:  yet  —  wilt   thou    . 

leave 
Thine  easeful  biding  here,  and  risk  thine 

all, 
Life,  limbs,  for  one  that  is  not   proven 

King? 
Stay,  till   the  cloud   that   settles   round 

his  birth 
Hath  lifted  but  a  little.    Stay,  sweet  son.' 

And   Gareth   answer'd   quickly,  '  Not 

an  hour, 
So  that  ye  yield  me  —  I  will  walk  thro' 

fire, 
Mother,  to  gain  it  —  your  full  leave  to  go. 
Not    proven,   who    swept    the    dust    of 

ruin'd  Rome 
From   off  the   threshold   of   the   tfealm, 

and  crush'd 
The  Idolaters,  and  made  the  people  free? 
Who   should    be    King   save    him   who 

makes  us  free?' 

So  when   the  Queen,  who   long   had 

sought  in  vain 
To  break  him  "from  the  intent  to  which 

he  grew, 
Found  her  son's  will  unwaveringly  one, 
She   answer'd    craftily,    '  Will    ye   walk 

thro'  fire? 


3*4 


GARETH  AND  LYNETTE. 


Who  walks   thro'  fire  will   hardly  heed 

the  smoke. 
Ay,  go  then,  an  ye  must :  only  one  proof, 
Before  thou  ask  the  King  to  make  thee 

knight, 
Of  thine  obedience  and  thy  love  to  me, 
Thy  mother,  —  I  demand.' 

And  Gareth  cried, 
'  A  hard  one,  or  a  hundred,  so  I  go. 
Nay  —  quick !    the    proof   to   prove   me 
to  the  quick ! ' 

But  slowly  spake  the  mother  looking 
at  him, 

1  Prince,  thou  shalt  go  disguised  to 
Arthur's  hall, 

And  hire  thyself  to  serve  for  meats  and 
drinks 

Among  the  scullions  and  the  kitchen- 
knaves, 

And  those  that  hand  the  dish  across  the 
bar. 

Nor  shalt  thou  tell  thy  name  to  any  one. 

And  thou  shalt  serve  a  twelvemonth  and 
a  day.' 

For  so  the  Queen  believed  that  when 
her  son 
Beheld  his  only  way  to  glory  lead 
Low  down  thro'  villain  kitchen-vassalage, 
Her  own  true  Gareth  was  too  princely- 
proud 
To  pass  thereby;   so  should  he  rest  with 

her, 
Closed  in  her  castle  from  the  sound  of 


Silent  awhile  was  Gareth,  then  replied, 
'  The  thrall  in  person  may  be  free  in  soul, 
And  I  shall  see  the  jousts.  Thy  son  am  I, 
And  since  thou  art  my  mother,  must  obey. 
I  therefore  yield  me  freely  to  thy  will; 
For   hence    will   I,  disguised,   and   hire 

myself 
To  serve  with  scullions  and  with  kitchen- 
knaves; 
Nor  tell  my  name  to  any  —  no,  not  the 
King.' 

Gareth  awhile  linger'd.     The  mother's 
eye 
Full  of  the  wistful  fear  that  he  would  go, 


And  turning  toward  him  wheresoe'er  he 

turn'd, 
Perplext  his  outward  purpose,  till  an  hour, 
When  waken'd  by  the  wind  which  with 

full  voice 
Swept   bellowing  thro'  the  darkness  on 

to  dawn, 
He  rose,  and  out  of  slumber  calling  two 
That  still  had  tended  on  him  from  his 

birth, 
Before  the  wakeful  mother  heard   him, 

went. 

The  three  were  clad  like  tillers  of  the 

soil. 
Southward    they   set    their    faces.     The 

birds  made 
Melody  on  branch,  and  melody  in  mid 

air. 
The    damp    hill-slopes   were    quicken'd 

into  green, 
And   the   live   green   had   kindled   into 

flowers, 
For  it  was  past  the  time  of  Easterday. 

So,  when  their  feet  were  planted  on 

the  plain 
That  broaden'd  toward  the  base  of  Came- 

lot, 
Far  off  they  saw  the  silver-misty  morn 
Rolling    her    smoke    about    the    Royal 

mount, 
That  rose   between  the   forest  and   the 

field. 
At    times  the  summit  of  the   high    city 

flash'd; 
At  times  the  spires  and  turrets  half-way 

down 
Prick'd    thro'   the   mist;    at    times   the 

great  gate  shone 
Only,  that  open'd  on  the  field  below : 
Anon,  the  whole  fair  city  had  disappear'd. 

Then   those   who   went   with    Gareth 

were  amazed, 
One  crying,  '  Let  us  go  no  further,  lord. 
Here  is  a  city  of  Enchanters,  built 
By    fairy   Kings.'     The    second    echo'd 

him, 
'Lord,  we   have    heard    from   our   wise 

man  at  home 
To  Northward,  that  this  King  is  not  the 

King, 


GARETH  AND  LYNETTE. 


315 


But  only  changeling  out  of  Fairyland, 
Who  drave  the  heathen  hence  by  sorcery 
And  Merlin's  glamour.'     Then  the  first 

again, 
'  Lord,  there  is  no  such  city  anywhere, 
But  all  a  vision.' 

Gareth  answer'd  them 
With  laughter,  swearing  he  had  glamour 

enow 
In  his  own  blood,  his  princedom,  youth 

and  hopes, 
To  plunge  old    Merlin  in  the   Arabian 

sea; 
So  push'd  them  all  unwilling  toward  the 

gate. 
And  there  was   no   gate   like   it   under 

heaven. 
For  barefoot  on  the  keystone,  which  was 

lined 
And  rippled  like  an  ever-fleeting  wave, 
The    Lady  of  the  Lake  stood :    all  her 

dress 
Wept  from  her  sides  as  water  flowing 

away; 
But  like  the"  cross  her  great  and  goodly 

arms 
Stretch'd  under  all  the  cornice  and  up- 
held : 
And   drops   of  water    fell    from    either 

hand; 
And  down  from  one  a  sword  was  hung, 

from  one 
A   censer,  either   worn  with   wind   and 

storm ; 
And  o'er  her  breast  floated  the  sacred 

(  fish;. 
And  in  the  space  to  left  of  her,  and  right, 
"Were    Arthur's   wars    in    weird    devices 

done, 
New   things   and   old   co-twisted,    as   if 
i  Time 

tWere  rTofhfrig,  so  inveterately,  that  men 
Were  giddy  gazing  there;  and  over  all 
High    on    the    top    were    those    three 

Queens,  the  friends 
Of  Arthur,  who  should  help  him  at  his 

need. 

Then  those  with  Gareth  for  so  long  a 
space 
Stared    at    the    figures,    that    at    last    it 
seem'd 


The  dragon-boughts  and  elvish  emblem- 

ings 
Began  to  move,  seethe,  twine  and  curl : 

they  call'd 
To  Gareth,  '  Lord,  the  gateway  is  alive.' 

And  Gareth  likewise  on  them  fixt  his 

eyes 
So  long,  that  ev'n  to  him  they  seem'd  to 

move. 
Out  of  the  city  a  blast  of  music  peal'd. 
Back  from  the  gate  started  the  three,  to 

whom 
From  out  thereunder   came  an  ancient 

man, 
Long-bearded,  saying,  '  Who  be  ye,  my 

sons?' 

Then  Gareth, '  We  be  tillers  of  the  soil, 
Who  leaving  share  in  furrow  come  to  see 
The  glories  of  our  King :  but  these,  my 

men, 
(Your  city  moved  so  weirdly  in  the  mist) 
Doubt  if  the  King  be  King  at   all,   or 

come 
From   Fairyland;    and  whether  this   be 

built 
By    magic,    and    by    fairy    Kings    and 

Queens; 
Or  whether  there  be  any  city  at  all, 
Or  all  a  vision :   and  this  music  now 
Hath   scared   them   both,  but   tell    thou 

these  the  truth.' 

Then  that  old  Seer  made  answer  play- 
ing on  him 

And  saying,  '  Son,  I  have  seen  the  good 
ship  sail 

Keel  upward,  and  mast  downward,  in 
the  heavens, 

And  solid  turrets  topsy-turvy  in  air : 

And  here  is  truth;  but  an  it  please  thee 
not, 

Take  thou  the  truth  as  thou  hast  told  it 
me. 

For  truly  as  thou  sayest,  a  Fairy  King 

And  Fairy  Queens  have  built  the  city, 
son; 

They  came  from  out  a  sacred  mountain- 
cleft 

Toward  the  sunrise,  each  with  harp  in 
hand, 

And  built  it  to  the  music  of  their  harps 


iarps. 


316 


GARETH  AND   LYNETTE. 


And,   as   thou   sayest,   it   is    enchanted, 

son, 
For  there  is  nothing  in  it  as  it  seems 
Saving  the    King;    tho'  some  there   be 

that  hold 
The  King  a  shadow,  and  the  city  real : 
Yet  take  thou  heed  of  him,  for,  so  thou 

pass 
Beneath   this   archway,   then   wilt   thou 

become 
A  thrall  to   his   enchantments,   for   the 

King 
Will  bind   thee    by  such   vows,  as  is    a 

shame 
A  man  should  not  be  bound  by,  yet  the 

which 
No  man  can  keep;    but,  so  thou  dread 

to  swear, 
Pass    not    beneath    this    gateway,    but 

abide 
Without,  among  the  cattle  of  the  field. 
For  an  ye  heard  a  music,  like  enow 
They  are  building  still,  seeing  the  city  is 

built 
To  music,  therefore  never  built  at  all, 
And  therefore  built  for  ever.' 

Gareth  spake 
Anger'd,  'Old  Master,  reverence    thine 

own  beard 
That  looks  as  white  as  utter  truth,  and 

seems 
Wellnigh  as  long  as  thou  art  statured 

tall! 
Why  mockest  thou  the  stranger  that  hath 

been 
To  thee  fair-spoken?' 

But  the  Seer  replied, 
'  Know  ye  not  then  the  Riddling  of  the 

Bards? 
"  Confusion,  and  illusion,  and   relation, 
Elusion,  and  occasion,  and  evasion"? 
I  mock  thee  not  but  as   thou   mockest 

me, 
And  all  that  see  thee,  for  thou  art  not 

who 
Thou   seemest,    but    I    know   thee   who 

thou  art. 
And  now  thou  goest   up  to   mock    the 

King, 
Who  cannot  brook  the  shadow  of  any 

lie.' 


Unmockingly  the  rriocker  ending  here 
Turn'd  to  the  right,  and  past  along  the 

plain ; 
Whom  Gareth  looking   after  said,  '  My 

men, 
Our  one  white  lie  sits  like  a  little  ghost 
Here  on  the  threshold  of  our  enterprise. 
Let  love  be  blamed  for  it,  not  she,  nor  I : 
Well,  we  will  make  amends.' 

With  all  good  cheer 
He  spake  and  laugh'd,  then  enter'd  with 

his  twain 
Camelot,  a  city  of  shadowy  palaces 
And   stately,    rich   in   emblem   and   the 

work 
Of  ancient  kings  who  did  their  days  in 

stone; 
Which    Merlin's    hand,    the    Mage    at 

Arthur's  court, 
Knowing  all  arts,  had  touch'd,  and  every- 
where 
At  Arthur's  ordinance,  tipt  with  lessening 

peak 
And  pinnacle,  and  had  made  it  spire  to 

heaven. 
And  ever  and  anon  a  knight  would  pass 
Outward,  or  inward  to  the  hall :  his  arms 
Clash'd;    and   the   sound   was   good   to 

Gareth's  ear. 
And  out  of  bower  and   casement  shyly 

glanced 
Eyes  of  pure  women,  wholesome  stars  of 

love; 
And  all  about  a  healthful  people   stept 
As  in  the  presence  of  a  gracious  king. 

Then  into  hall  Gareth  ascending  heard 
A  voice,  the  voice  of  Arthur,  and  beheld 
Far  over  heads  in  that  long-vaulted  hall 
The  splendour  of  the  presence  of  the 

King 
Throned,    and    delivering    doom  —  and 

look'd  no  more  — 
But  felt  his  young  heart  hammering  in 

his  ears, 
And  thought,  *  For  this  half-shadow  of  a 

lie 
The  truthful  King  will  doom  me  when  I 

speak.' 
Yet  pressing  on,  tho'  all  in  fear  to  find 
Sir  Gawain  or  Sir  Modred,  saw  nor  one 
Nor  other,  but  in  all  the  listening  eyes 


GARETH  AND  LYNETTE. 


317 


Of  those  tall  knights,  that  ranged  about 

the  throne, 
Clear  honour  shining  like  the  dewy  star 
Of  dawn,  and  faith  in  their  great  King, 

with  pure 
Affection,  and  the  light  of  victory, 
And  glory  gain'd,  and  evermore  to  gain. 

Then  came  a  widow  crying  to  the  King, 
f  A  boon,  Sir  King !     Thy  father,  Uther, 

reft 
From  my  dead  lord  a  field  with  violence  : 
For  howsoe'er  at  first  he  proffer'd  gold, 
Yet,  for  the  field  was  pleasant  in  our  eyes, 
We  yielded  not;   and  then  he  reft  us  of  it 
Perforce,  and  left  us  neither  gold  nor 

field.' 

Said  Arthur, '  Whether  would  ye?  gold 

or  field?' 
To  whom  the  woman  weeping,  '  Nay,  my 

lord, 
The  field  was  pleasant  in  my  husband's 

eye.' 

And  Arthur,  '  Have  thy  pleasant  field 

again, 
And   thrice   the   gold    for    Uther's    use 

thereof, 
According  to  the  years.    No  boon  is  here, 
But  justice,  so  thy  say  be  proven  true. 
Accursed,  who  from  the  wrongs  his  father 

did 
Would  shape  himself  a  right ! ' 

And  While  she  past, 
Came  yet  another  widow  crying  to  him, 
'  A  boon,  Sir  King  !    Thine  enemy,  King, 

am  I. 
With  thine  own  hand  thou  slewest  my 

dear  lord, 
A  knight  of  Uther  in  the  Barons'  war, 
vVhen  Lot  and  many  another  rose  and 

fought 
Against   thee,  saying   thou   wert   basely 

born. 
I  held  with  these,  and  loathe  to  ask  thee 

aught. 
Yet  lo !    my  husband's  brother  had  my 

son 
Thrall'd  in  his  castle,  and  hath  starved 

him  dead; 
And  standeth  seized  of  that  inheritance 


Which  thou  that  slewest  the  sire  hast  left 

the  son. 
So  tho'  I  scarce  can  ask  it  thee  for  hate, 
Grant  me  some  knight  to  do  the  battle 

for  me, 
Kill  the  foul  thief,  and  wreak  me  for  my 

son.' 

Then  strode  a  good  knight  forward, 

crying  to  him, 
'  A  boon,  Sir  King  !    I  am  her  kinsman,  I. 
Give  me  to  right  her  wrong,  and  slay  the 

man.' 

Then  came  Sir  Kay,  the  seneschal,  and 

cried, 
1  A  boon,  Sir  King !  ev'n  that  thou  grant 

her  none, 
This  railer,  that  hath  mock'd  thee  in  full 

hall  — 
None;    or  the  wholesome  boon  of  gyve 

and  gag.' 

But  Arthur,  '  We  sit  King,  to  help  the 

wrong'd 
Thro'  all  our  realm.     The  woman  loves 

her  lord. 
Peace  to  thee,  woman,  with  thy  loves  and 

hates ! 
The  kings  of  old  had  doom'd  thee  to  the 

flames, 
Aurelius  Emrys  would  have  scourged  thee 

dead, 
And  Uther  slit  thy  tongue  :  but  get  thee 

hence  — 
Lest  that  rough  humour  of  the  kings  of 

old 
Return  upon   me !     Thou   that  art   her 

kin, 
Go  likewise;  lay  him  low  and  slay  him 

not, 
But  bring  him  here,  that  I  may  judge  the 

right, 
According  to  the  justice  of  the  King  : 
Then,  be  he  guilty,  by  that  deathless  King 
Who  lived  and  died  for  men,  the  man 

shall  die.' 

Then  came  in  hall  the  messenger  of 

Mark, 
A  name  of  evil  savour  in  the  land, 
The  Cornish  king.      In  either  hand  he 

bore 


3i8 


GARETH  AND  LYNETTE. 


What  dazzled  all,  and  shone  far-off  as 

shines 
A  field  of  charlock  in  the  sudden  sun 
Between  two  showers,  a  cloth  of  palest 

gold, 
Which  down  he  laid  before  the  throne, 

and  knelt, 
Delivering,  that  his  lord,  the  vassal  king, 
Was  ev'n  upon  his  way  to  Camelot; 
For  having  heard  that  Arthur  of  his  grace 
Had  made  his  goodly  cousin,  Tristram, 

knight, 
And,  for  himself  was  of  the  greater  state, 
Being  a  king,  he  trusted  his  liege-lord 
Would  yield  him  this  large  honour  all  the 

more; 
So  pray'd  him  well  to  accept  this  cloth  of 

gold, 
In  token  of  true  heart  and  fealty.     ' 

Then  Arthur  cried  to  rend  the  cloth,  to 

rend 
In  pieces,  and  so  cast  it  on  the  hearth. 
An    oak-tree   smoulder'd    there.      '  The 

goodly  knight ! 
What!    shall  the  shield  of  Mark  stand 

among  these?' 
For,  midway  down  the  side  of  that  long 

hall 
A  stately  pile,  —  whereof  along  the  front, 
Some   blazon'd,  some   but   carven,   and 

some  blank, 
There    ran    a    treble    range    of    stony 

shields,  — 
Rose,  and  high-arching  overbrow'd  the 

hearth. 
And  under  every  shield   a   knight  was 

named : 
For  this  was  Arthur's  custom  in  his  hall; 
When  some  good  knight  had  done  one 

noble  deed, 
His  arms  were  carven  only;   but  if  twain 
His  arms  were  blazon'd  also ;   but  if  none, 
The  shield  was  blank  and  bare  without  a 

sign 
Saving  the  name  beneath;    and  Gareth 

saw 
The  shield  of  Gawain  blazon'd  rich  and 

bright, 
And    Modred's    blank    as    death;     and 

Arthur  cried 
To  rend  the   cloth  and   cast  it  on  the 

hearth. 


•  More  like  are  we  to  reave  him  of  his 

crown 
Than  make  him  knight  because  men  call 

him  king. 
The  kings  we  found,  ye  know  we  stay'd 

their  hands 
From   war   among   themselves,  but   left 

them  kings; 
Of  whom  were  any  bounteous,  merciful, 
Truth-speaking,  brave,  good  livers,  them 

we  enroll'd 
Among  us,  and  they  sit  within  our  hall. 
But  Mark  hath  tarnish'd  the  great  name 

of  king, 
As  Mark   would  sully  the  low  state  of 

'  churl : 
And,  seeing  he  hath  sent  us   cloth   of 

gold, 
Return,  and  meet,  rnd  hold  him  from 

our  eyes, 
Lest  we  should  lap  him  up  in  cloth  of 

lead, 
Silenced  for  ever  —  craven  —  a  man  of 

plots, 
Crafts,  poisonous  counsels,  wayside  am- 

bushings  — 
No  fault  of  thine :  let  Kay  the  seneschal 
Look  to  thy  wants,  and  send  thee  satis- 
fied- 
Accursed,  who  strikes  nor  lets  the  hand 

be  seen ! ' 

And   many  another   suppliant   crying 
came 
With  noise  of  ravage  wrought  by  beast 

and  man, 
And  evermore  a  knight  would  ride  away. 

Last,  Gareth  leaning  both  hands  heavily 

Down  on  the  shoulders  of  the  twain,  his 
men, 

Approach'd  between  them  toward  the 
King,  and  ask'd, 

'A  boon,  Sir  King  (his  voice  was  all 
ashamed), 

For  see  ye  not  how  weak  and  hungerworn 

I  seem  —  leaning  on  these?  grant  me  to 
serve 

For  meat  and  drink  among  thy  kitchen- 
knaves 

A  twelvemonth  and  a  day,  nor  seek  my 
name. 

Hereafter  I  will  fight.' 


GARETH  AND  LYNETTE. 


319 


To  him  the  King, 
'  A  goodly  youth  and  worth  a  goodlier 

boon  ! 
But  so  thou  wilt  no  goodlier,  then  must 

Kay, 
The  master  of  the  meats  and  drinks,  be 

thine.' 

He  rose  and  past;   then  Kay,  a  man 
of  mien 
Wan-sallow  as  the  plant  that  feels  itself 
Root-bitten  by  white  lichen, 

'  Lo  ye  now ! 
This  fellow  hath  broken  from  some  Abbey, 

where, 
God  wot,  he  had  not  beef  and  brewis 

enow, 
However  that  might  chance  !  but  an  he 

work, 
Like  any  pigeon  will  I  cram  his  crop, 
And  sleeker  shall  he  shine  than  any  hog.' 

Then    Lancelot    standing    near,    '  Sir 

Seneschal, 
Sleuth-hound    thou   knowest,  and  gray, 

and  all  the  hounds; 
A  horse  thou  knowest,  a  man  thou  dost 

not  know : 
Broad  brows  and  fair,  a  fluent  hair  and 

fine, 
High  nose,  a  nostril  large  and  fine,  and 

hands 
Large,  fair  and  fine  !  —  Some  young  lad's 

mystery  — 
But,  or  from  sheepcot  or  king's  hall,  the 

boy 
Is   noble-natured.      Treat  him  with    all 

grace, 
Lest  he  should  come  to  shame  thy  judging 

of  him.' 

Then  Kay,  '  What  murmurest  thou  of 
mystery? 

Think  ye  this  fellow  will  poison  the 
King's  dish? 

Nay,  for  he  spake  too  fool-like :  mys- 
tery ! 

Tut,  an  the  lad  were  noble,  he  had  ask'd 

For  horse  and  armour:  fair  and  fine, 
forsooth ! 

Sir  Pine-face,  Sir  Fair-hands?  but  see 
thou  to  it 


That  thine  own  fineness,  Lancelot,  some 

fine  day 
Undo  thee  not  —  and  leave  my  man  to  me.' 

So  Gareth  all  for  glory  underwent 
The  sooty  yoke  of  kitchen-vassalage; 
Ate  with  young  lads  his  portion  by  the 

door, 
And  couch'd  at  night  with  grimy  kitchen- 
knaves. 
And  Lancelot  ever  spake  him  pleasantly, 
But  Kay  the  seneschal,  who  loved  him  not, 
Would  hustle  and  harry  him,  and  labour 

him 
Beyond  his  comrade  of  the  hearth,  and  set 
To  turn  the  broach,  draw  water,  or  hew 

wood, 
Or   grosser    tasks;     and   Gareth    bow'd 

himself 
With    all   obedience   to   the   King,   and 

wrought 
All  kind  of  service  with  a  noble  ease 
That  graced  the  lowliest  act  in  doing  it. 
And  when  the   thralls  had  talk  among 

themselves, 
And  one  would  praise  the  love  that  linkt 

the  King 
And  Lancelot  —  how  the  King  had  saved 

his  life 
In  battle  twice,  and  Lancelot  once  the 

King's  — 
For  Lancelot  was  the  first  in  Tournament, 
But  Arthur  mightiest  on  the  battle-field  — 
Gareth  was  glad.  Or  if  some  other  told, 
How  once  the  wandering  forester  at  dawn, 
Far  over  the  blue  tarns  and  hazy  seas, 
On  Caer-Eryri's  highest  found  the  King, 
A  naked   babe,  of  whom   the    Prophet 

spake, 
'  He  passes  to  the  Isle  Avilion, 
He  passes  and  is  heal'd  and  cannot  die '  — 
Gareth  was  glad.     But  if  their  talk  were 

foul, 
Then  would  he  whistle  rapid  as  any  lark, 
Or  carol  some  old  roundelay,  and  so  loud 
That  first  they  mock'd,  but,  after,  rever- 
enced him. 
Or  Gareth  telling  some  prodigious  tale 
Of  knights,  who  sliced  a  red  life-bubbling 

way 
Thro'  twenty  folds  of  twisted  dragon,  held 
All  in  agap-mouth'd  circle  his  good  mates 
Lying  or  sitting  round  him,  idle  hands, 


320 


GARETH  AND  LYNETTE. 


Charm'd;     till   Sir   Kay,   the    seneschal, 

would  come 
Blustering   upon    them,    like    a    sudden 

wind 
Among  dead  leaves,  and  drive  them  all 

apart. 
Or  when   the  thralls  had  sport  among 

themselves, 
So  there  were  any  trial  of  mastery, 
He,  by  two  yards  in  casting  bar  or  stone 
Was  counted  best;   and  if  there  chanced 

a  joust, 
So  that  Sir  Kay  nodded  him  leave  to  go, 
Would  hurry  thither,  and  when  he  saw 

the  knights 
Clash  like  the  coming  and  retiring  wave, 
And  the  spear  spring,  and  good  horse 

reel,  the  boy 
Was  half  beyond  himself  for  ecstasy. 

So  for  a  month  he  wrought  among  the 

thralls; 
But  in  the  weeks  that  follow'd,  the  good 

Queen, 
Repentant  of  the  word  she  made  him 

swear, 
And   saddening  in  her  childless  castle, 

sent, 
Between  the  in-crescent  and  de-crescent 

moon, 
Arms  for  her  son,  and  loosed  him  from 

his  vow. 

This,  Gareth  hearing  from  a  squire  of 

Lot 
With  whom  he  used  to  play  at  tourney 

once, 
When  both  were  children,  and  in  lonely 

haunts 
Would  scratch  a  ragged  oval  on  the  sand, 
And    each    at    either   dash   from    either 

end  — 
Shame    never   made    girl    redder    than 

Gareth  joy. 
He   laugh'd;    he  sprang.     'Out  of  the 

smoke,  at  once 
I  leap  from  Satan's  foot  to  Peter's  knee  — 
These  news  be  mine,  none  other's  —  nay, 

the  King's  — 
Descend    into    the    city : '    whereon   he 

sought 
The  King  alone,  and  found,  and  told  him 

all. 


'  I  have  stagger'd  thy  strong  Gawain  in 

a  tilt 
For  pastime;   yea,  he  said  it :  joust  can  I. 
Make  me  thy  knight  —  in  secret !  let  my 

name 
Be  hidd'n,  and  give  me  the  first  quest,  I 

spring 
Like  flame  from  ashes.' 

Here  the  King's  calm  eye 
Fell  on,  and  check'd,  and  made  him  flush, 

and  bow 
Lowly,  to  kiss  his  hand,  who  answer'd 

him, 
\  Son,  the  good  mother  let  me  know  thee 

here, 
And  sent  her  wish  that  I  would  yield  thee 

thine. 
Make  thee  my  knight?  my  knights  are 

sworn  to  vows 
Of  utter  hardihood,  utter  gentleness, 
And,  loving,  utter  faithfulness  in  love, 
And  uttermost  obedience  to  the  King.' 

Then   Gareth,  lightly  springing   from 

his  knees, 
'  My  King,  for  hardihood  I  can  promise 

thee. 
For  uttermost  obedience  make  demand 
Of  whom  ye  gave  me  to,  the  Seneschal, 
No   mellow   master   of    the    meats   and 

drinks ! 
And  as  for  love,  God  wot,  I  love  not  yet, 
But  love  I  shall,  God  willing.' 

And  the  King  — 
'Make  thee  my  knight  in  secret?  yea, 

but  he, 
Our  noblest  brother,  and  our  truest  man, 
And  one  with  me  in  all,  he  needs  must 

know.' 

'  Let   Lancelot   know,   my   King,    let 
Lancelot  know, 
Thy  noblest  and  thy  truest ! ' 

And  the  King  — 
'  But   wherefore  would   ye   men   should 

wonder  at  you? 
Nay,  rather  for  the  sake  of  me,  their  King, 
And  the  deed's  sake  my  knighthood  do 

the  deed, 
Than  to  be  noised  of.' 


GARETH  AND  LYNETTE. 


3^1 


Merrily  Gareth  ask'd, 
'Have  I  not  earn'd  my  cake  in  baking 

of  it? 
Let  be  my  name  until  I  make  my  name  ! 
My  deeds  will  speak  :  it  is  but  for  a  day.' 
So  with  a  kindly  hand  on  Gareth's  arm 
Smiled  the  great  King,  and  half-unwill- 

ingty 
Loving  his   lusty  youthhood  yielded   to 

him. 
Then,  after  summoning  Lancelot  privily, 
•  I  have  given  him  the  first  quest :  he  is 

not  proven. 
Look  therefore  when  he  calls  for  this  in 

hall, 
Thou   get   to  horse  and  follow  him  far 

away. 
Cover  the  lions  on  thy  shield,  and  see 
Far  as  thou  mayest,  he  be  nor  ta'en  nor 

slain.' 

Then  that  same  day  there  past  into 
the  hall 

A  damsel  of  high  lineage,  and  a  brow 

May-blossom,  and  a  cheek  of  apple- 
blossom, 

Hawk-eyes;  and  lightly  was  her  slender 
nose 

Tip-tilted  like  the  petal  of  a  flower; 

She  into  hall  past  with  her  page  and 
cried, 

'  O  King,  for  thou  hast  driven  the  foe 
without, 
See  to  the  foe  within  !  bridge,  ford,  beset 
By  bandits,  everyone  that  owns  a  tower 
The  Lord  for  half  a  league.     Why  sit  ye 

there  ? 
Rest  would  I  not,  Sir  King,  an  I  were 

king, 
Till  ev'n  the  lonest  hold  were  all  as  free 
From  cursed  bloodshed,  as   thine  altar- 
cloth 
From  that  best  blood  it  is  a  sin  to  spill.' 

1  Comfort  thyself,'  said  Arthur,  '  I  nor 
mine 
Rest :  so  my  knighthood  keep  the  vows 

they  swore, 
The  wastest  moorland  of  our  realm  shall 

be 
Safe,  damsel,  as  the  centre  of  this  hall. 
What  is  thy  name?  thy  need?' 
Y 


4  My  name  ?  '  she  said  — 
'Lynette  my  name;   noble;   my  need,  a 

knight 
To  combat  for  my  sister,  Lyonors, 
A  lady  of  high  lineage,  of  great  lands, 
And  comely,  yea,  and  comelier  than  my- 
self. 
She  lives  in  Castle  Perilous  :  a  river 
Runs   in   three   loops   about   her   living 

place; 
And  o'er  it  are  three  passings,  and  three 

knights 
Defend    the    passings,  brethren,  and   a 

fourth 
And   of  that    four  the   mightiest,  holds 

her  stayed 
In  her  own  castle,  and  so  besieges  her 
To  break   her  will,  and   make  her  wed 

with  him: 
And  but  delays  his  purport  till  thou  send 
To  do  the  battle  with  him,  thy  chief  man 
Sir   Lancelot  whom   he  trusts   to  over- 
throw, 
Then  wed,  with  glory :  but  she  will  not 

wed 
Save  whom  she  loveth,  or  a  holy  life. 
Now  therefore  have  I  come  for  Lancelot.' 

Then   Arthur   mindful   of  Sir  Gareth 

ask'd, 
'  Damsel,  ye   know  this  Order   lives   to 

crush 
All  wrongers   of  the   Realm.     But  say, 

these  four, 
Who   be   they  ?     What  the   fashion   of 

the  men  ? ' 

'  They  be  of  foolish  fashion,  O  Sir  King, 
The  fashion  of  that  old  knight-errantry 
Who  ride  abroad,  and  do  but  what  they 

will; 
Courteous  or   bestial  from  the  moment, 

such 
As  have  nor  law  nor  king;   and  three  of 

these 
Proud   in   their   fantasy  call  themselves 

the  Day, 
Morning-Star,  and  Noon-Sun,  and  Even- 
ing-Star, 
Being   strong   fools;    and   never  a  whit 

more  wise 
The  fourth,  who  always  rideth  arm'd  in 

black, 


322 


GARETH  AND  LYNETTE. 


A  huge  man-beast  of  boundless  sav- 
agery. 

He  names  himself  the  Night  and  oftener 
Death, 

And  wears  a  helmet  mounted  with  a 
skull, 

And  bears  a  skeleton  figured  on  his 
arms, 

To  show  that  who  may  slay  or  scape  the 
three, 

Slain  by  himself,  shall  enter  endless  night. 

And  all  these  four  be  fools,  but  mighty 
men, 

And  therefore  am  I  come  for  Lancelot.' 

Hereat   Sir  Gareth  call'd  from  where 

he  rose, 
A   head  with   kindling   eyes   above  the 

throng, 
'A  boon,  Sir  King  —  this  quest!'  then 

—  for  he  mark'd 
Kay  near  him  groaning  like  a  wounded 

bull  — 
'  Yea,  King,  thou   knowest  thy  kitchen 

knave  am  I, 
And  mighty  thro'  thy  meats  and  drinks 

am  I, 
And  I  can  topple  over  a  hundred  such. 
Thy  promise,    King,'  and  Arthur   glan- 
cing at  him, 
Brought     down     a     momentary     brow. 

1  Rough,  sudden, 
And  pardonable,  worthy  to  be  knight  — 
Go    therefore,'    and    all    hearers    were 

amazed. 

But  on  the  damsel's  forehead  shame, 
pride,  wrath 

Slew  the  May-white :  she  lifted  either 
arm, 

'  Fie  on  thee,  King !  I  ask'd  for  thy  chief 
knight, 

And  thou  hast  given  me  but  a  kitchen- 
knave.' 

Then  ere  a  man  in  hall  could  stay  her, 
turn'd, 

Fled  down  the  lane  of  access  to  the  King, 

Took  horse,  descended  the  slope  street, 
and  past 

The  weird  white  gate,  and  paused  with- 
out, beside 

The  field  of  tourney,  murmuring  'kitchen- 
knave.' 


Now  two  great  entries  open'd  from  the 

hall, 
At  one  end  one,  that  gave  upon  a  range 
Of  level  pavement  where  the  King  would 

pace 
At  sunrise,  gazing  over  plain  and  wood; 
And  down   from   this  a   lordly  stairway 

sloped 
Till   lost   in  blowing   trees   and  tops  of 

towers; 
And  out  by  this  main  doorway  past  the 

King. 
But  one  was  counter  to  the  hearth,  and 

rose 
High  that  the  highest-crested  helm  could 

ride 
Therethro'  nor  graze :   and  by  this  entry 

fled 
The  damsel  in  her  wrath,  and  on  to  this 
Sir  Gareth  strode,  and  saw  without  the 

door 
King  Arthur's  gift,  the  worth  of  half  a 

town, 
A  warhorse  of  the  best,  and  near  it  stood 
The  two  that  out  of  north  had  follow'd 

him: 
This   bare   a   maiden   shield,  a  casque; 

that  held 
The  horse,  the  spear;   whereat  Sir  Ga- 
reth loosed 
A  cloak  that  dropt  from  collar-bone  to 

heel, 
A  cloth    of  roughest  web,  and   cast   it 

down, 
And  from  it  like  a  fuel-smother'd  fire, 
That  lookt  half-dead,  brake  bright,  and 

fiash'd  as  those 
Dull-coated   things,   that    making    slide 

apart 
Their  dusk  wing-cases,  all  beneath  there 

burns 
A  jewell'd  harness,  ere  they  pass  and  fly. 
So  Gareth  ere  he  parted  flash'd  in  arms. 
Then  as  he  donn'd  the  helm,  and  took 

the  shield 
And  mounted  horse  and  graspt  a  spear, 

of  grain 
Storm-strengthen'd  on  a  windy  site,  and 

tipt 
With  trenchant  steel,  around  him  slowly 

prest 
The   people,  while  from  out  of  kitchen 

came 


GARETH  AND  LYNETTE. 


323 


The  thralls  in  throng,  and  seeing  who 
had  work'd 

Lustier  than  any,  and  whom  they  could 
but  love, 

Mounted  in  arms,  threw  up  their  caps  and 
cried, 

*  God  bless  the  King,  and  all  his  fellow- 
ship !  ' 

And  on  thro'  lanes  of  shouting  Gareth 
rode 

Down  the  slope  street,  and  past  without 
the  gate. 

So  Gareth  past  with  joy;  but  as  the  cur 
Pluckt  from  the  cur  he  fights  with,  ere  his 

cause 
Be    cool'd   by    fighting,    follows,   being 

named, 
His  owner,  but  remembers  all,  and  growls 
Remembering,  so  Sir  Kay  beside  the  door 
Mutter'd  in  scorn  of  Gareth  whom  he  used 
To  harry  and  hustle. 

*  Bound  upon  a  quest 
With  horse  and  arms  —  the  King  hath 

past  his  time  — 
My  scullion  knave  !    Thralls  to  your  work 

again, 
For  an  your  fire  be  low  ye  kindle  mine  ! 
Will  there  be  dawn  in  West  and  eve  in 

East? 
Begone  !  —  my  knave  !  —  belike  and  like 

enow 
Some  old  head-blow  not  heeded  in  his 

youth 
So  shook  his  wits   they  wander   in   his 

prime  — 
Crazed!     How  the  villain  lifted  up   his 

voice, 
Nor  shamed  to  bawl  himself  a  kitchen- 
knave. 
Tut:  he  was  tame  and  meek  enow  with 

me, 
Till  peacock'dup  with  Lancelot's  noticing. 
Well  —  I  will  after  my  loud  knave,  and 

learn 
Whether  he  know  me  for  his  master  yet. 
Out  of  the  smoke  he  came,  and  so  my 

lance 
Hold,  by  God's  grace,  he  shall  into  the 

mire  — 
Thence,  if  the  King  awaken  from  his  craze, 
Into  the  smoke  again.' 


But  Lancelot  said, 
'  Kay,  wherefore  wilt  thou  go  against  the 

King, 
For  that  did  never  he  whereon  ye  rail, 
But  ever  meekly  served  the  King  in  thee? 
Abide:   take  counsel;  for  this  lad  is  great 
And  lusty,  and  knowing  both  of  lance  and 

sword.' 
'Tut,  tell   not   me,'    said   Kay,  'ye   are 

overfine 
To  mar  stout  knaves  with  foolish  courte- 
sies : ' 
Then  mounted,  on  thro'  silent  faces  rode 
Down  the  slope  city,  and  out  beyond  the 
gate. 

But  by  the  field  of  tourney  lingering  yet 
Mutter'd  the  damsel,  '  Wherefore  did  the 

King 
Scorn  me?  for,  were  Sir  Lancelot  lackt, 

at  least 
He  might  have  yielded  to  me  one  of  those 
Who  tilt  for  lady's  love  and  glory  here, 
Rather   than  —  O  sweet  heaven !    O  fie 

upon  him  — 
His  kitchen-knave.' 

To  whom  Sir  Gareth  drew 
(And  there  were  none  but  few  goodlier 

than  he) 
Shining  in  arms,  '  Damsel,  the  quest  is 

mine. 
Lead,  and  I  follow.'     She  thereat,  as  one 
That  smells  a  foul-flesh'd  agaric  in  the 

holt, 
And  deems  it  carrion  of  some  woodland 

thing, 
Or  shrew,  or  weasel,   nipt    her  slender 

nose 
With  petulant  thumb  and  finger,  shrilling, 

'  Hence ! 
Avoid,  thou  smellest  all  of  kitchen-grease. 
And  look  who  comes  behind,'  for  there 

was  Kay. 
'  Knowest  thou  not  me?  thy  master?  I 

am  Kay. 
We  lack  thee  by  the  hearth.' 

And  Gareth  to  him, 
'  Master  no  more  !  too  well  I  know  thee, 

ay  — 
The  most   ungentle   knight  in  Arthur's 

hall.' 


324 


GARETH  AND  LYNETTE. 


Have   at   thee    then,'    said    Kay :    they 

shock'd,  and  Kay 
Fell    shoulder-slipt,   and    Gareth    cried 

again, 
'  Lead,  and  I  follow,'  and  fast  away  she 

fled. 

But  after  sod  and  shingle  ceased  to  fly 
Behind  her,  and  the  heart  of  her  good  horse 
Was  nigh  to  burst  with  violence  of  the  beat, 
Perforce  she  stay'd,  and  overtaken  spoke. 

'What    doest    thou,   scullion,   in   my 

fellowship? 
Deem'st  thou  that  I  accept  thee  aught  the 

more 
Or  love  thee  better,  that  by  some  device 
Full  cowardly,  or  by  mere  unhappiness, 
Thou    hast    overthrown    and   slain   thy 

master  —  thou !  — 
Dish-washer  and  broach-turner,  loon  !  — 

to  me 
Thou  smellest  all  of  kitchen  as  before.' 

'Damsel,'  Sir  Gareth  answer'd  gently, 
'  say 
Whate'er  ye  will,  but  whatsoe'er  ye  say, 
I  leave  not  till  I  finish  this  fair  quest, 
Or  die  therefore.' 

'Ay,  wilt  thou  finish  it? 
Sweet  lord,  how  like  a  noble  knight  he 

talks ! 
The  listening  rogue  hath  caught  the  man- 
ner of  it. 
But,  knave,  anon  thou  shalt  be  met  with, 

knave, 
And  then  by  such  a  one  that  thou  for  all 
The  kitchen  brewis  that  was  ever  supt 
Shalt  not  once  dare  to  look  him  in  the 
face.' 

'  I  shall  assay,'  said  Gffeth  with  a  smile 
That  madden'd  her,  and  away  she  fiash'd 

again 
Down  the  long  avenues  of  a  boundless 

wood, 
And  Gareth  following  was  again  beknaved. 

'  Sir  Kitchen-knave,  I  have  miss'd  the 
only  way 
Where  Arthur's  men  are  set   along  the 
wood; 


The  wood  is   nigh  as  full  of  thieves  as 

leaves : 
If  both  be  slain,  I  am  rid  of  thee;  but 

yet, 
Sir  Scullion,  canst  thou  use  that  spit  of 

thine? 
Fight,  an  thou  canst :  I  have  miss'd  the 

only  way.' 

So  till  the  dusk  that    follow'd  even- 
song 
Rode  on  the  two,  reviler  and  reviled; 
Then  after  one  long  slope  was  mounted, 

saw, 
Bowl-shaped,  thro'  tops  of  many  thousand 

pines 
A  gloomy-gladed  hollow  slowly  sink 
To  westward  —  in  the  deeps  whereof  a 

mere, 
Round  as  the  red  eye  of  an  Eagle-owl, 
Under  the  half-dead  sunset  glared;  and 

shouts 
Ascended,   and    there    brake    a    serving 

man 
Flying  from  out  of  the  black  wood,  and 

crying, 
'They  have  bound  my  lord  to  cast  him  in 

the  mere.' 
Then  Gareth,  '  Bound  am  I  to  right  the 

wrong'd, 
But  straitlier  bound  am  I  to  bide  with 

thee.' 
And  when  the  damsel  spake  contempt- 
uously, 
'  Lead,  and  I  follow,'  Gareth  cried  again, 
'  Follow,  I  lead ! '  so  down   among   the 

pines 
He  plunged;   and  there,  blackshadow'd 

nigh  the  mere, 
And    mid-thigh-deep   in   bulrushes    and 

reed, 
Saw  six  tall  men  haling  a  seventh  along, 
A  stone  about  his  neck  to  drown  him 

in  it. 
Three  with  good  blows  he  quieted,  but 

three 
Fled  thro'  the  pines;   and  Gareth  loosed 

the  stone 
From  off  his  neck,  then  in  the  mere  beside 
Tumbled  it;   oilily  bubbled  up  the  mere. 
Last,  Gareth  loosed  his  bonds  and  on  free 

feet 
Set  him,  a  stalwart  Baron,  Arthur's  friend. 


GARETH  AND  LYNETTE. 


325 


'  Well   that    ye   came,   or    else    these 

caitiff  rogues 
Had  wreak'd  themselves  on  me;    good 

cause  is  theirs 
To  hate  me,  for  my  wont  hath  ever  been 
To  catch  my  thief,  and  then  like  vermin 

here 
Drown  him,  and  with  a  stone  about  his 

neck; 
And  under  this  wan  water  many  of  them 
Lie  rotting,  but  at  night  let  go  the  stone, 
And  rise,  and  flickering  in  a  grimly  light 
Dance  on  the  mere.     Good  now,  ye  have 

saved  a  life 
Worth  somewhat  as  the  cleanser  of  this 

wood. 
And  fain  would  I  reward  thee  worship- 
fully. 
What  guerdon  will  ye  ? ' 

Gareth  sharply  spake, 
1  None !  for  the  deed's  sake  have  I  done 

the  deed, 
In  uttermost  obedience  to  the  King. 
But  wilt  thou  yield  this  damsel  harbour- 
age?' 

Whereat   the   Baron    saying,   '  I   well 

believe 
You  be  of  Arthur's  Table/  a  light  laugh 
Broke  from  Lynette, '  Ay,  truly  of  a  truth, 
And   in  a  sort,  being  Arthur's  kitchen- 
knave  !  — 
But   deem  not  I  accept  thee  aught  the 

more, 
Scullion,    for   running   sharply  with    thy 

spit 
Down  on  a  rout  of  craven  foresters. 
A  thresher  with   his  flail  had  scatter'd 

them. 
Nay  —  for   thou  smellest  of  the  kitchen 

still. 
But  an  this  lord  will  yield  us  harbourage, 

well.' 

So  she  spake.     A  league  beyond  the 

wood, 
All  in  a  full-fair  manor  and  a  rich, 
His  towers  where  that  day  a  feast  had 

been 

Held  in  high  hall,  and  many  a  viand  left, 
And   many  a   costly  cate,    received   the 

three. 


And  there  they  placed  a  peacock  in  his 

pride 
Before  the  damsel,  and  the  Baron  set 
Gareth  beside  her,  but  at  once  she  rose. 

'  Meseems,  that  here  is  much  dis- 
courtesy, 

Setting  this  knave,  Lord  Baron,  at  my 
side. 

Hear  me  —  this  morn  I  stood  in  Arthur's 
hall, 

And  pray'd  the  King  would  grant  me 
Lancelot 

To  fight  the  brotherhood  of  Day  and 
Night  — 

The  last  a  monster  unsubduable 

Of  any  save  of  him  for  whom  I  call'd  — 

Suddenly  bawls  this  frontless  kitchen- 
knave, 

"The  quest  is  mine;  thy  kitchen-knave 
am  I, 

And  mighty  thro'  thy  meats  and  drinks 
am  I." 

Then  Arthur  all  at  once  gone  mad 
replies, 

"  Go  therefore,"  and  so  gives  the  quest 
to  him  — 

Him  —  here  —  a  villain  fitter  to  stick 
swine 

Than  ride  abroad  redressing  woman's 
wrong, 

Or  sit  beside  a  noble  gentlewoman.' 

Then  half-ashamed  and   part-amazed, 
the  lord 
Now  look'd  at  one  and  now  at  other,  left 
The  damsel  by  the  peacock  in  his  pride, 
And,  seating  Gareth  at  another  board, 
Sat  down  beside  him,  ate  and  then  began. 

'  Friend,    whether    thou    be    kitchen- 
knave,  op  not, 
Or  whether  it  be  the  maiden's  fantasy, 
And  whether   she  be  mad,  or   else  the 

King, 
Or  both  or  neither,  or  thyself  be  mad, 
I  ask  not :    but  thou    strikest    a  strong 

stroke, 
For  strong  thou    art  and   goodly  there- 
withal, 
And  saver  of  my  life;   and  therefore  now, 
For  here  be  mighty  men  to  joust  with, 
weigh 


326 


GARETH  AND  LYNETTE. 


Whether  thou  wilt  not  with  thy  damsel 

back 
To  crave  again  Sir  Lancelot  of  the  King. 
Thy  pardon;   I  but  speak  for  thine  avail, 
The  saver  of  my  life.' 

And  Gareth  said, 
'  Full  pardon,  but  I  follow  up  the  quest, 
Despite  of  Day  and  Night  and   Death 
and  Hell.' 

So  when,  next  morn,  the  lord  whose 
life  he  saved 
Had,  some  brief  space,  convey'd  them  on 

their  way 
And  left  them  with  God-speed,  Sir  Gareth 

spake, 
Lead,    and    I  follow.'      Haughtily   she 
replied, 

'I  fly  no  more :    I  allow  thee  for  an 

hour. 
Lion    and    stoat    have    isled   together, 

knave, 
In   time    of  flood.      Nay,    furthermore, 

methinks 
Some  i;ulh-is  mine  for  thee.     Back  wilt 

thou,  fool? 
For  hard  by  here  is  one  will  overthrow 
And  slay  thee  :  then  will  I  to  court  again, 
And  shame  the  King  for  only  yielding 

me 
My    champion    from   the   ashes    of    his 

hearth.' 

To  whom  Sir  Gareth  answer'd  cour- 
teously, 

•  Say  thou  thy  say,  and  I  will  do  my 
deed. 

Allow  me  for  mine  hour,  and  thou  wilt 
find 

My  fortunes  all  as  fair  as  hers  who  lay 

Among  the  ashes  and  wedded  the  King's 
son.' 

Then  to  the  shore  of  one  of  those  long 

loops 
Wherethro'  the  serpent  river  coil'd,  they 

came. 
Rough-thicketed   were    the    banks    and 

steep;  the  stream 
Full,  narrow;  this  a  bridge  of  single  arc 
Took  at  a  leap;  and  on  the  further  side 


Arose  a  silk  pavilion,  gay  with  gold 

In  streaks  and  rays,  and  all  Lent-lily  in 

hue, 
Save    that   the    dome   was    purple,   and 

above, 
Crimson,  a  slender  banneret  fluttering. 
And     therebefore    the    lawless    warrior 

paced  * 

Unarm' d.  and  calling, '  Damsel,  is  this  he, 
The    champion  thou  hast  brought  from 

Arthur's  hall? 
For   whom   we    let   thee   pass.'     '  Nay, 

nay,'  she  said, 
1  Sir  Morning-Star.     The  King  in  utter 

scorn 
Of  thee  and  thy  much  folly  hath  sent  thee 

here 
His   kitchen-knave :  and   look   thou   to 

thyself: 
See  that  he  fall  not  on  thee  suddenly, 
And  slay  thee  unarm'd :  he  is  not  knight 

but  knave.' 

Then  at  his  call,  '  O  daughters  of  the 
Dawn, 

And  servants  of  the  Morning-Star,  ap- 
proach, 

Arm  me,'  from  out  the  silken  curtain- 
folds 

Bare-footed  and  bare-headed  three  fair 
girls 

In  gilt  and  rosy  raiment  came:  their  feet 

In  dewy  grasses  glisten'd;  and  the  hair 

All  over  glanced  with  dewdrop  or  with 
gem 

Like  sparkles  in  the  stone  Avanturine. 

These  arm'd  him  in  blue  arms,  and  gave 
a  shield 

Blue  also,  and  thereon  the  morning  star. 

And  Gareth  silent  gazed  upon  the  knight, 

Who  stood  a  moment,  ere  his  horse  was 
brought, 

Glorying;  and  in  the  stream  beneath 
him,  shone 

Immingled  with  Heaven's  azure  waver- 
ingly, 

The  gay  pavilion  and  the  naked  feet, 

His  arms,  the  rosy  raiment,  and  the  star. 

Then  she  that  watch'd  him,  ■  Where- 
fore stare  ye  so? 
Thou   shakest  in  thy  fear:  there  yet  is 
time: 


GARETH  AND  LYNETTE. 


327 


Flee  down    the  valley  before  he  get  to 

horse. 
Who   will   cry   shame?      Thou   art   not 

knight  but  knave.' 

Said  Gareth,  '  Damsel,  whether  knave 

or  knight, 
Far  liefer  had  I  fight  a  score  of  times 
Then  hear  thee  so  missay  me  and  revile. 
Fair  words  were  best  for  him  who  fights 

for  thee; 
But  truly  foul  are  better,  for  they  send 
That  strength  of  anger  thro'  mine  arms, 

I  know 
That  I  shall  overthrow  him.' 

And  he  that  bore 
The  star,  when  mounted,  cried  from  o'er 

the  bridge, 
'  A  kitchen-knave,  and  sent  in  scorn  of 

me  ! 
Such  fight  not  I,  but  answer  scorn  with 

scorn. 
For  this  were  shame  to  do  him  further 

wrong 
Than  set  him  on  his  feet,  and  take  his 

horse 
And   arms,  and   so   return    him   to  the 

King. 
Come,  therefore,  leave  thy  lady  lightly, 

knave. 
Avoid  :  for  it  beseemeth  not  a  knave 
To  ride  with  such  a  lady.' 

• 

1  Dog,  thou  liest. 
I  spring  from  loftier  lineage  than  thine 

own.' 
He  spake;  and  all  at  fiery  speed  the  two 
Shock'd  on  the  central  bridge,  and  either 

spear 
Bent  but  not  brake,  and  either  knight  at 

once, 
Hurl'd  as  a  stone  from  out  of  a  catapult 
Beyond    his    horse's    crmoper    and    the 

bridge, 
Fell,  as   if  dead;   but  quickly  rose  and 

drew, 
And  Gareth    lash'd   so  fiercely  with  his 

brand 
He  drave  his  enemy  backward  down  the 

bridge, 
The     damsel      crying,      •  Well-stricken, 

kitchen-knave  ! ' 


Till  Gareth's  shield  was 'cloven;   but  one 

stroke 
Laid  him  that  clove  it  grovelling  on  the 

ground. 

Then  cried  the  fall'n,  'Take  not  my 

life:   I  yield.' 
And  Gareth, '  So  this  damsel  ask  it  of  me 
Good  —  I  accord  it  easily  as  a  grace.' 
She  reddening,  •  Insolent  scullion :  I  of 

thee? 
I  bound  to  thee  for  any  favour  ask'd  S  ' 
1  Then  shall  he  die.'     And  Gareth  there 

unlaced 
His    helmet    as    to   slay   him,   but   she 

shriek'd, 
'  Be  not  so  hardy,  scullion,  as  to  slay 
One  nobler  than  thyself.'     '  Damsel,  thy 

charge 
Is  an  abounding  pleasure  to  me.    Knight, 
Thy  life  is  thine  at  her  command.     Arise 
And  quickly  pass  to  Arthur's  hall,  and 

say 
His  kitchen-knave  hath  sent  thee.     See 

thou  crave 
His    pardon    for    thy    breaking    of    his 

laws. 
Myself,   when   I   return,  will   plead   for 

thee.     » 
Thy    shield     is    mine  —  farewell;     and, 

damsel,  thou, 
Lead,  and  I  follow.' 

And  fast  away  she  fled. 
Then  when   he  came  upon   her,  spake, 

'  Methought, 
Knave,  when  I  watch'd  thee  striking  on 

the  bridge 
The  savour  of  thy  kitchen  came  upon 

me 
A   little    faintlier:    but   the   wind    hath 

changed : 
I  scent  it  twenty-fold.'     And   then   she 

sang, 
'  "  O  morning  star  "  (not  that  tall  felon ' 

there 
Whom  thou  by  sorcery  or  unhappiness 
Or  some  device,  hast  foully  overthrown), 
"  O  morning  star  that  smilest  in  the  blue, 
O  star,  my  morning  dream  hath  prcven 

true, 
Smile  sweetly,  thou !  my  love  hath  smiled 

on  me." 


328 


GARETH  AND  LYNETTE. 


*  But  thou  begone,  take  counsel,  and 
away, 
For  hard  by  here  is  one  that  guards  a 

ford  — 
The  second  brother  in  their  fool's  para- 
ble- 
Will  pay  thee  all  thy  wages,  and  to  boot. 
Care  not  for  shame :  thou  art  not  knight 
but  knave.' 

To  whom  Sir  Gareth  answer'd  laugh- 
ingly, 

'  Parables?    Hear  a  parable  of  the  knave. 

When  I  was  kitchen-knave  among  the 
rest 

Fierce  was  the  hearth,  and  one  of  my 
co-mates 

Own'd  a  rough  dog,  to  whom  he  cast  his 
coat, 

"  Guard  it,"  and  there  was  none  to  med- 
dle with  it. 

And  such  a  coat  art  thou,  and  thee  the 
King 

Gave  me  to  guard,  and  such  a  dog  am  I, 

To  worry,  and  not  to  flee  —  and  —  knight 
or  knave  — 

The  knave  that  doth  thee  service  as  full 
knight 

Is  all  as  good,  meseems,  as  any  knight 

Toward  thy  sister's  freeing.' 

1  Ay,  Sir  Knave  ! 
Ay,  knave,  because   thou   strikest   as  a 

knight, 
Being   but   knave,  I   hate  thee   all   the 

more.' 

1  Fair  damsel,  you  should  worship  me 
the  more, 
That,  being   but   knave,  I   throw   thine 
enemies.' 

'  Ay,  ay,'  she  said, '  but  thou  shalt  meet 
thy  match.' 

So  when  they  touch'd  the  second  river- 
loop, 

Huge  on  a  huge  red  horse,  and  all  in  mail 

Burnish'd  to  blinding,  shone  the  Noon- 
day Sun 

Beyond  a  raging  shallow.  As  if  the 
flower, 

That  blows  a  globe  of  after  arrowlets, 


Ten  thousand-fold  had  grown,  flash'd  the 

fierce  shield, 
All   sun;    and   Gareth's  eyes  had  flying 

blots 
Before  them  when  he  turn'd  from  watch- 
ing him. 
He    from   beyond   the   roaring    shallow 

roar'd, 
'  What  doest  thou,  brother,  in  my  marches 

here?' 
And   she   athwart    the    shallow    shrill'd 

again, 
'  Here  is  a  kitchen-knave  from  Arthur's 

hall 
Hath  overthrown  thy  brother,  and  hath 

his  arms.' 

•  Ugh  ! '  cried  the  Sun,  and  vizoring  up  a 

red 
And  cipher  face  of  rounded  foolishness, 
Push'd  horse  across  the  foamings  of  the 

ford, 
Whom  Gareth  met  midstream :  no  room 

was  there 
For  lance  or  tourney-skill  :  four  strokes 

they  struck 
With  sword,  and  these  were  mighty;  the 

new  knight 
Had  fear  he  might  be  shamed;  but  as  the 

Sun 
Heaved  up  a  ponderous  arm  to  strike  the 

fifth, 
The  hoof  of  his  horse  slipt  in  the  stream, 

the  stream 
Descended,   and    the    Sun    was   wash'd 

away. 

Then  Gareth  laid  his  lance  athwart  the 

ford; 
So  drew  him  home;   but  he  that  fought 

no  more, 
As  being  all  bone-batter'd  on  the  rock, 
Yielded;    and   Gareth   sent   him   to  the 

King. 
'Myself  when    I    return  will   plead   for 

thee.' 
1  Lead,  and  I  follow.'     Quietly  she  led. 

•  Hath    not    the    good     wind,     damsel, 

changed   again  ? ' 
'Nay,  not  a  point:   nor  art  thou  victor 

here. 
There  lies  a  ridge  of  slate  across  the  ford ; 
His  horse  thereon  stumbled  —  ay,  for  I 

saw  it. 


GARETH  AND  LYNETTE. 


329 


'"O  Sun"  (not  this  strong  fool  whom 

Larded  .  thy  last,  except  thou  turn  and 

thou,  Sir  Knave, 

fly. 

Hast  overthrown  thro'  mereunhappiness), 

There    stands   the    third   fool   of    their 

"0   Sun,    that  wakenest  all  to    bliss  or 

allegory.' 

pain, 

0  moon,  that  layest  all  to  sleep  again, 

For  there  beyond  a  bridge  of  treble 

Shine    sweetly :     twice    my    love    hath 

bow, 

smiled  on  me." 

All  in  a  rose-red  from  the  west,  and  all 

Naked   it   seem'd,   and   glowing  in   the 

•  What  knowest  thou  of  lovesong  or  of 

broad 

love? 

Deep-dimpled    current   underneath,   the 

Nay,  nay,  God  wot,  so  thou  wert  nobly 

knight, 

born, 

That  named  himself  the  Star  of  Evening, 

Thou   hast   a   pleasant    presence.     Yea, 

stood. 

perchance,  — 

And    Gareth,   '  Wherefore    waits    the 

' "  0  dewy  flowers  that   open  to  the 

madman  there 

sun, 

Naked  in  open   dayshine?'     'Nay,'  she 

0  dewy  flowers  that  close  when  day  is 

cried, 

done, 

'  Not  naked,  only  wrapt  in  harden'd  skins 

Blow  sweetly :  twice  my  love  hath  smiled 

That  fit  him  like   his  own;    and  so  ye 

on  me." 

cleave 

His  armour  off  him,  these  will  turn  the 

'  What  knowest  thou  of  flowery  except, 

blade.' 

belike, 

To   garnish   meats  with?   hath  not   our 

Then  the   third  brother  shouted  o'er 

good  King 

the  bridge, 

Who  lent  me  thee,  the  flower  of  kitchen- 

'0  brother-star,   why  shine  ye  here  so 

dom, 

low? 

A  foolish  love  for  flowers?  what  stick  ye 

Thy  ward  is  higher  up  :  but  have  ye  slain 

round 

The  damsel's  champion? '  and  the  damsel 

The  pasty?  wherewithal  deck  the  boar's 

cried, 

head? 

Flowers?  nay,  the  boar  hath  rosemaries 

'  No  star  of  thine,  but  shot  from  Arthur's 

and  bay. 

heaven 

With  all  disaster  unto  thine  and  thee ! 

• "  0  birds,  that  warble  to  the  morning 

For  both  thy  younger  brethren  have  gone 

sky, 

down 

0  birds  that  warble  as  the  day  goes  by, 

Before  this  youth;   and  so  wilt  thou,  Sir 

Sing  sweetly  :  twice  my  love  hath  smiled 

Star; 

on  me." 

Art  thou  not  old  ? ' 

'What   knowest   thou  of  birds,  lark, 

'Old,  damsel,  old  and  hard, 

mavis,  merle, 

Old,  with  the  might  and  breath  of  twenty 

Linnet?  what  dream  ye  when  they  utter 

boys.' 

forth 

Said    Gareth,   '  Old,    and    over-bold    in 

May-music   growing  with    the    growing 

brag! 

light, 

But  that  same  strength  which  threw  the 

Their  sweet  sun-worship?   these  be  for 

Morning  Star 

the  snare 

Can  throw  the  Evening.' 

(So  runs  thy  fancy),  these  be  for  the  spit, 

Larding   and    basting.      See  thou   have 

Then  that  other  blew 

not  now 

A  hard  and  deadly  note  upon  the  horn. 

33° 


GARETH  AND  LYNETTE. 


'  Approach   and   arm    me  ! '     With  slow 

steps  from  out 
An  old  storm-beaten,  russet,  many-stain'd 
Pavilion,  forth  a  grizzled  damsel  came, 
And  arm'd  him  in  old  arms,  and  brought 

a  helm 
With  but  a  drying  evergreen  for  crest, 
And  gave  a  shield  whereon  the  Star  of 

Even 
Half-tarnish'd  and  half-bright,  his  em- 
blem, shone. 
But  when  it  glitter'd  o'er  the  saddle-bow, 
They  madly  hurl'd  together  on  the  bridge; 
And  Gareth  overthrew  him,  lighted,  drew, 
There  met  him  drawn,  and  overthrew  him 

again, 
But  up  like  fire  he  started :  and  as  oft 
As  Gareth  brought  him  grovelling  on  his 

knees, 
So  many  a  time  he  vaulted  up  again; 
Till  Gareth  panted  hard,  and  his  great 

heart, 
Foredooming  all  his  trouble  was  in  vain, 
Labour'd  within  him,  for  he  seem'd  as  one 
That  all  in  later,  sadder  age  begins 
To  war  against  ill  uses  of  a  life, 
But  these  from  all  his  life  arise,  and  cry, 
1  Thou  hast  made  us  lords,  and  canst  not 

put  us  down ! ' 
He  half  despairs;    so  Gareth  seem'd  to 

strike 
Vainly,thedamselclamouringall  the  while, 
*  Well  done,  knave-knight,  well  stricken, 

O  good  knight-knave  — 
O   knave,  as   noble   as   any   of   all   the 

knights  — 
Shame  me  not,  shame  me  not.     I  have 

prophesied  — 
Strike,    thou   art   worthy   of    the   Table 

Round  — 
His  arms  are  old,  he  trusts  the  harden'd 

skin  — 
Strike  —  strike  —  the    wind    will     never 

change  again.' 
And  Gareth  hearing  ever  stronglier  smote, 
And  hew'd  great  pieces  of  his  armour  off 

him, 
But  lash'd  in  vain  against  the  harden'd 

skin, 
And  could  not  wholly  bring  him  under, 

more 
Than  loud  Southwesterns,  rolling  ridge 

on  ridge, 


The  buoy  that  rides  at  sea,  and  dips  and 

SDrings 
For  ever;  till  at  length  Sir  Gareth's  brand 
Clash'd  his,  and  brake  it  utterly  to  the 

hilt. 
•  I  have  tnee  now;  '  but  forth  that  other 

sprang, 
And,  all  unknightlike,  writhed  his  wiry 

arms 
Around  him,  till  he  felt,  despite  his  mail, 
Strangled,  but   straining   ev'n  his  utter- 
most 
Cast,  and  so  hurl'd  him  headlong  o'er  the 

bridge 
Down  to  the  river,  sink  or  swim,  and 

cried, 
'  Lead,  and  I  follow.' 

But  the  damsel  said, 
'  I  lead  no  longer;   ride  thou  at  my  side; 
Thou  art   the  kingliest   of  all   kitchen- 
knaves. 

'"O   trefoil,    sparkling   on   the   rainy 

plain, 
O  rainbow  with  three  colours  after  rain, 
Shine    sweetly :    thrice    my    love    hath 

smiled  on  me." 

'Sir,  —  and,   good   faith,    I   fain    had 

added  —  Knight, 
But   that    I   heard   thee   call   thyself    a 

knave,  — 
Shamed  am  I  that  I  so  rebuked,  reviled, 
Missaid  thee;   noble  I  am;   and  thought 

the  King 
Scorn'd   me    and   mine;     and   now   thy 

pardon,  friend, 
For  thou  hast  ever  answer'd  courteously, 
And   wholly   bold   thou   art,  and   meek 

withal 
As  any  ot  Arthur's  best,  but,  being  knave, 
Hast  mazed  my  wit :  I  marvel  what  thou 

art.' 

i  Damsel,'  he  said,  '  you  be  not  all  to 

blame, 
Saving   that   you   mistrusted    our    good 

King 
Would  handle  scorn,  or  yield  you,  asking, 

one 
Not   fit   to  cope   your  quest.     You  said 

your  say; 


GARETH  AND  LYNETTE. 


33* 


Mine    answer    was    my    deed.        Good 

sooth  !  I  hold 
He  scarce  is  knight,  yea  but  half-man, 

nor  meet 
To  fight  for  gentle  damsel,  he,  who  lets 
His  heart  be  stirr'd  with  any  foolish  heat 
At  any  gentle  damsel's  waywardness. 
Shamed !     care    not !    thy    foul    sayings 

fought  for  me : 
And  seeing  now  thy  words  are  fair,  me- 

thinks 
There  rides  no  knight,  not  Lancelot,  his 

great  self, 
Hath  force  to  quell  me.' 

Nigh  upon  that  hour 
When  the  lone  hern  forgets  his  melan- 
choly, 
Lets  down  his  other  leg,  and  stretching, 

dreams 
Of  goodly  supper  in  the  distant  pool, 
Then  turn'd  the  noble  damsel  smiling  at 

him, 
And  told  him  of  a  cavern  hard  at  hand, 
Where  bread  and  baken  meats  and  good 

red  wine 
Of  Southland,  which  the  Lady  Lyonors 
Had  sent  her  coming  champion,  waited 
him. 

Anon  they  past  a  narrow  comb  wherein 

Were  slabs  of  rock  with  figures,  knights 
on  horse 

Sculptured,  and  deckt  in  slowly-waning 
hues. 

1  Sir  Knave,  my  knight,  a  hermit  once 
was  here, 

Whose  holy  hand  hath  fashion'd  on  the 
rock 

The  war  of  Time  against  the  soul  of  man. 

And  yon  four  fools  have  suck'd  their  alle- 
gory 

From  these  damp  walls,  and  taken  but 
the  form. 

Know  ye  not  these?'  and  Gareth  lookt 
and  read  — 

In  letters  like  to  those  the  vexillary 

Hath  left  crag-carven  o'er  the  streaming 
Gelt  — 

1  Phosphorus,'  then '  Meridies  ' — '  Hes- 
perus '  — 

1  Nox  ' — '  Mors,'  beneath  five  figures, 
armed  men, 


Slab  after  slab,  their  faces  forward  all, 
And  running  down  the  Soul,  a  Shape  that 

fled 
With   broken  wings,  torn  raiment   and 

loose  hair, 
For  help  and  shelter  to  the  hermit's  cave. 
'  Follow  the  faces,  and  we  find  it.    Look, 
Who  comes  behind ! ' 

For  one  —  delay'd  at  first 
Thro'  helping  back  the  dislocated  Kay 
To   Camelot,   then   by   what    thereafter 

chanced, 
The  damsel's  headlong  error  thro'  the 

wood  — 
Sir   Lancelot,    having   swum   the    river- 
loops  — 
His  blue  shield-lions  cover'd  • —  softly  drew 
Behind  the  twain,  and  when  he  saw  the 

star 
Gleam,  on  Sir  Gareth's  turning  to  him, 

cried, 
'  Stay,  felon  knight,  I  avenge  me  for  my 

friend.' 
And  Gareth  crying  prick'd  against  the  cry ; 
But  when  they  closed  —  in  a  moment  —  at 

one  touch 
Of  that  skill'd  spear,  the  wonder  of  the 

world  — 
Went  sliding  down  so  easily,  and  fell, 
That  when  he  found  the  grass  within  his 

hands 
He   laugh'd;    the   laughter  jarr'd   upon 

Lynette : 
Harshly  she  ask'd him,  'Shamed  and  over- 
thrown, 
And  tumbled  back  into  the  kitchen-knave, 
Why  laugh  ye?  that  ye  blew  your  boast 

in  vain  ? ' 
'  Nay,  noble  damsel,  but  that  I,  the  son 
Of  old  King  Lot  and  good  Queen  Belli- 

cent, 
And  victor  of  the  bridges  and  the  ford, 
And  knight  of  Arthur,  here  lie  thrown  by 

whom 
I  know  not,  all  thro'  mere  unhappiness  — 
Device  and  sorcery  and  unhappiness  — 
Out,   sword ;    we    are    thrown !  '      And 

Lancelot  answer'd  *  Prince, 
O  Gareth  —  thro'  the  mere  unhappiness 
Of  one  who  came  to  help  thee,  not  to  harm, 
Lancelot,  and  all  as  glad  to  find  thee  whole, 
As  on  the  day  when  Arthur  knighted  him.' 


332 


GAKETH  AND  LYNETTE. 


Then    Gareth,    '  Thou  —  Lancelot !  — 

thine  the  hand 
That  threw  me  ?    And  some  chance  to  mar 

the  boast 
Thy  brethren  of  thee  make — which  could 

not  chance  — 
Had    sent    thee   down    before   a   lesser 

spear, 
Shamed  had  I  been,  and  sad  —  O  Lancelot 

—  thou! ■ 

Whereat  the  maiden,  petulant, '  Lance- 
lot, 
Why   came   ye   not,   when    call'd?   and 

wherefore   now 
Come  ye,  not   call'd?     I  gloried  in  my 

knave, 
Who  being  still  rebuked,  would  answer 

still 
Courteous  as  any  knight  —  but   now,  if 

knight, 
The   marvel  dies,  and  leaves  me  fool'd 

and  tricked, 
And   only  wondering   wherefore   play'd 

upon : 
And  doubtful   whether   I   and   mine   be 

scorn'd. 
Where  should  be  truth  if  not  in  Arthur's 

hall, 
In  Arthur's   presence?     Knight,  knave, 

prince  and  fool, 
I  hate  thee  and  for  ever.' 

And  Lancelot  said, 
'  Blessed   be   thou,   Sir   Gareth !   knight 

art  thou 
To  the  King's  best  wish.     O  damsel,  be 

you  wise 
To  call  him   shamed,  who  is  but  over- 
thrown? 
Thrown  have  I  been,  nor  once,  but  many 

a  time. 
Victor  from  vanquish'd  issues  at  the  last, 
And  overthrower  from  being  overthrown. 
With  sword  we  have  not  striven;  and  thy 

good  horse 
And  thou  are  weary;   yet  not  less  I  felt 
Thy  manhood  thro'  that  wearied   lance 

of  thine. 
Well  hast  thou  done;   for  all  the  stream 

is  freed, 
And  thou  hast  wreak'd  his  justice  on  his 

foes, 


And  when  reviled,  hast  answer'd  gra- 
ciously, 

And  makest  merry  when  overthrown. 
Prince,  Knight, 

Hail,  Knight  and  Prince,  and  of  our 
Table  Round !  * 

And  then  when  turning  to  Lynette  he 

told 
The  tale  of  Gareth,  petulantly  she  said, 
'  Ay  well  —  ay  well  —  for  worse  than  being 

fool'd 
Of  others,  is  to  fool  one's  self.     A  cave, 
Sir  Lancelot,  is  hard  by,  with  meats  and 

dilnks 
And  forage  for  the  horse,  and  flint  for  fire. 
But  all  about  it  flies  a  honeysuckle. 
Seek,    till    we    find.'      And   when    they 

sought  and  found, 
Sir  Gareth  drank  and  ate,  and  all  his  life 
Past  into  sleep;   on  whom  the   maiden 

gazed. 
•  Sound  sleep  be  thine !  sound  cause  to 

sleep  hast  thou. 
Wake  lusty  !    Seem  I  not  as  tender  to  him 
As  any  mother?     Ay,  but  such  a  one 
As  all  day  long  hath  rated  at  her  child, 
And  vext  his  day,  but  blesses  him  asleep — 
Good  lord,  how  sweetly  smells  the  honey- 
suckle 
In  the  hush'd  night,  as  if  the  world  were 

one 
Of  utter  peace,  and  love,  and  gentleness ! 
O  Lancelot,   Lancelot '  —  and  she  clapt 

her  hands  — 
'  Full  merry  am  I  to  find  my  goodly  knave 
Is  knight  and   noble.     See   now,  sworn 

have  I, 
Else  yon  black  felon  had  not  let  me  pass, 
To  bring  thee  back  to  do  the  battle  with 

him. 
Thus  an  thou  goest,  he  will  fight  thee  first: 
Who    doubts    thee   victor?    so   will    my 

knight-knave 
Miss  the  full  flower  of  this  accomplish- 
ment.' 

Said  Lancelot,  '  Peradventure  he,  you 

name, 
May  knew  my  shield.     Let  Gareth,  an 

he  will, 
Change  his  for  mine,  and  take  my  charger, 

fresh, 


GARETH  AND  LYNETTE. 


333 


Not  to  be  spurr'd,  loving  the  battle  as  well 
As  he  that  rides  him.'     '  Lancelot-like,' 

she  said, 
1  Courteous  in  this,  Lord  Lancelot,  as  in 

all.' 

And  Gareth,  wakening,  fiercely  clutch'd 

the  shield; 
'Rampye  lance-splintering  lions,  on  whom 

all  spears 
Are  rotten  sticks !  ye  seem  agape  to  roar ! 
Yea,  ramp  and  roar  at  leaving  of  your 

lord !  — 
Care  not,  good  beasts,  so  well  I  care  for 

you. 

0  noble  Lancelot,  from  my  hold  on  these 
Streams  virtue  —  fire  —  thro'  one  that  will 

not  shame 
Even  the  shadow  of  Lancelot  Under  shield. 
Hence :  let  us  go.' 

Silent  the  silent  field 
They    traversed.       Arthur's    harp    tho' 

summer-wan, 
In  counter  motion  to  the  clouds,  allured 
The  glance  of  Gareth   dreaming  on  his 

liege. 
A  star  shot :  '  Lo,'  said  Gareth,  \  the  foe 

falls !  ' 
An  owl  whoopt :  '  Hark  the  victor  peal- 
ing there ! ' 
Suddenly  she  that  rode  upon  his  left 
Clung  to  the   shield   that   Lancelot  lent 
him,  crying, 

1  Yield,  yield  him  this  a'gain  :   'tis  he  must 

fight: 
I  curse  the  tongue  that  all  thro'  yesterday 
Reviled    thee,    and    hath    wrought    on 

Lancelot  now 
To  lend  thee  horse  and  shield :  wonders 

ye  have  done; 
Miracles  ye  cannot.:  here  is  glory  enow 
In  having  flung  the  three :   I  see  thee 

maim'd, 
Mangled :    I  swear  thou  canst  not  fling 

the  fourth.' 

'And  wherefore,  damsel?  tell  me  all 

ye  know. 
You  cannot  scare  me;   nor  rough  face,  or 

voice, 
Brute  bulk  of  limb,  or  boundless  savagery 
Appall  me  from  the  quest.' 


'Nay,  Prince,'  she  cried, 
'  God  wot,  I  never  look'd  upon  the  face, 
Seeing  he  never  rides  abroad  by  day; 
But  watch'd  him  have  I  like  a  phantom 

pass 
Chilling  the  night :  nor  have  I  heard  the 

voice. 
Always  he  made  his  mouthpiece  of  a  page 
Who  came  and  went,  and  still  reported 

him 
As  closing  in  himself  the  strength  of  ten, 
And  when  his  anger  tare  him,  massacring 
Man,  woman,  lad  and  girl  —  yea,  the  soft 

babe ! 
Some  hold  that  he  hath  swallow'd  infant 

flesh, 
Monster  !    O  Prince,  I  went  for  Lancelot 

first, 
The  quest  is  Lancelot's :  give  him  back 

the  shield.' 

Said  Gareth  laughing,  '  An  he  fight  for 
this, 
Belike  he  wins  it  as  the  better  man : 
Thus  —  and  not  else  ! ' 

But  Lancelot  on  him  urged 
All  the  devisings  of  their  chivalry 
When  one  might  meet  a  mightier  than 

himself; 
How  best  to  manage  horse,  lance,  sword 

and  shield, 
And  so  fill  up  the  gap  where  force  might 

fail 
With   skill   and  fineness.     Instant  were 

his  words. 

Then  Gareth,  '  Here  be  rules.     I  know 

but  one  — 
To   dash   against    mine   enemy   and    to 

win. 
Yet  have  I  watch'd  thee  victor  in  the 

joust, 
And  seen  thy  way.'    '  Heaven  help  thee,' 

sigh'd  Lynette. 

Then  for  a  space,  and  under  cloud  that 

grew 
To  thunder-gloom  palling  all  stars,  they 

rode 
In  converse  till  she  made  her  palfrey  halt, 
Lifted    an    arm,    and    softly    whisper'd, 

'There.' 


334 


GARETH  AND  LYNETTE. 


And   all   the   three   were    silent   seeing, 

pitch'd 
Beside  the  Castle  Perilous  on  flat  field, 
A  huge  pavilion  like  a  mountain  peak 
Sunder    the    glooming    crimson   on   the 

marge, 
Black,  with    black  banner,   and  a  long 

black  horn 
Beside   it   hanging;    which    Sir   Gareth 

graspt, 
And  so,  before  the  two  could  hinder  him, 
Sent  all  his  heart  and  breath  thro'-all  the 

horn. 
Echo'cLthe  walls;  a  light  twinkled;  anon 
Came  lights  and  lights,  and  once  again 

he  blew; 
Whereon  were  hollow  tramplings  up  and 

down 
And  muffled  voices  heard,  and  shadows 

past; 
Till  high   above   him,   circled  with   her 

maids, 
The  Lady  Lyonors  at  a  window  stood, 
Beautiful  among  lights,  and  waving  to  him 
White  hands,  and  courtesy;    but  when 

the  Prince 
Three  times  had  blown  —  after  long  hush 

—  at  last  — 
The  huge  pavilion  slowly  yielded  up, 
Thro'   those  black  foldings,  that  which 

housed  therein. 
High  on  a  nightblack  horse,  in  nightblack 

arms, 
With  white  breast-bone,  and  barren  ribs 

of  Death, 
And   crown'd  with  fleshless  laughter  — 

some  ten  steps  — 
In  the  half-light  —  thro'  the  dim  dawn  — 

advanced 
The  monster,  and  then  paused,  and  spake 

no  word. 

But  Gareth  spake  and  all  indignantly, 
'  Fool,  for  thou  hast,  men  say,  the  strength 

often, 
Canst  thou  not  trust  the  limbs  thy  God 

hath  given, 
But  must,  to  make  the  terror  of  thee  more, 
Trick  thyself  out  in  ghastly  imageries 
Of  that  which  Life  hath  done  with,  and 

the  clod, 
Less    dull    than    thou,    will    hide    with 

mantling  flowers 


As  if  for  pity? '     But  he  spake  no  word; 
Which  set  the  horror  higher :  a  maiden 

swoon'd; 
The  Lady  Lyonors  wrung  her  hands  and 

wept, 
As  doom'd  to  be  the  bride  of  Night  and 

Death; 
Sir  Gareth's  head  prickled  beneath  his 

helm; 
And  ev'n  Sir  Lancelot  thro'   his  warm 

blood  felt 
Ice  strike,  and  all  that  mark'd  him  were 

aghast. 

At  once  Sir  Lancelot's  charger  fiercely 

neigh'd, 
And   Death's    dark   war-horse    bounded 

forward  with  him. 
Then  thc3^  that  did  not  blink  the  terror, 

saw 
That   Death   was    cast   to   ground,   and 

sicwly  rose. 
But  with  one  stroke  Sir  Gareth  split  the 

skull. 
Half  fell  to  right  and  half  to  left  and 

lay. 
Then  witn  a  stronger  buffet  he  clove  the 

helm 
As  throughly  as  the  skull;   and  out  from 

this 
Issued   the   bright   face   of  a   blooming 

boy 
Fresh  as  a  flower  new-born,  and  crying, 

'  Knight, 
Slay  me  not :  my  three  brethren  bade  me 

do  it, 
To  make  a  horror  all  about  the  house, 
And  stav  the  world  from  Lady  Lyonors. 
They  never  dream'd  the  passes  would  be 

past.' 
Answer'd  Sir  Gareth  graciously  to  one 
Not  manv  a  moon  his  younger,  '  My  fair 

child, 
What  m?  -ness  made  thee  challenge  the 

chief  knight 
Of  Arthur'-  hall? '     ■  Fair  Sir,  they  bade 

me  do  it. 
They  hate  the  King,  and  Lancelot,  the 

King's  friend, 
They  hoped  to  slay  him  somewhere  on 

the  stream, 
They  never  dream'd  the  passes  could  be 

past.' 


THE  MARRIAGE    OF  GERAINT. 


335 


Then   sprang   the   happier    day   from 

underground; 
And  Lady  Lyonors  and  her  house,  with 

dance 
And  revel  and  song,  made  merry  over 

Death, 
As  being  after  all  their  foolish  fears 
And  horrors  only  proven  a  blooming  boy. 
So  large  mirth  lived  and  Gareth  won  the 

quest. 

And  he  that  told  the  tale  in  older  times 
Says  that  Sir  Gareth  wedded  Lyonors, 
But  he,  that  told  it  later,  says  Lynette. 

THE   MARRIAGE  OF   GERAINT. 

The  brave  Geraint,  a  knight  of  Arthur's 

court, 
A  tributary  prince  of  Devon,  one 
Of  that  great  Order  of  the  Table  Round, 
Had  married  Enid,  Yniol's  only  child, 
And  loved  her,  as  he  loved  me  light  of 

Heaven. 
*And  as  the  light  of  Heaven  varies,  now 
At  sunrise,  now  at  sunset,  now  by  night 
With  moon  and  trembling  stars,  so  loved 

Geraint 
To  make  her  beauty  vary  day  by  day. 
In  crimsons  and  in  purples  and  in  gems. 
And  Enid,  but  to  please  her  husband's 

eye, 
Who  first  had  found  and  loved  her  in  a 

state 
Of  broken  fortunes,  daily  fronted  him 
In  some  fresh  splendour;  and  the  Queen 

herself, 
Grateful   to    Prince   Geraint  for  service 

done, 
Loved  her,  and  often  with  her  own  white 

«     hands 
Array'd  and  deck'd  her,  as  the  loveliest, 
Next  after  her  own  self,  in  all  the  court. 
And  Enid  loved  the  Queen,  and  with  true 

heart 
Adored  her,  as  the  stateliest  and  the  best 
And  loveliest  of  all  women  upon  earth. 
And  seeing  them  so  tender  and  so  close, 
Long   in    their    common    love    rejoiced 

Geraint. 
But    when    a    rumour    rose    about    the 

Queen, 
Touching  her  guilty  love  for  Lancelot, 


Tho'  yet  there  lived  no  proof,  nor   yet 

was  heard 
The  world's  loud  whisper  breaking  into 

storm, 
Not  less  Geraint  believed  it;   and  there 

fell 
A  horror  on  him,  lest  his  gentle  wife, 
Thro'  that  great  tenderness  for  Guinevere, 
Had  suffer'd,  or  should  suffer  any  taint 
In  nature :  wherefore  going  to  the  King, 
He  made  this  pretext,  that  his  princedom 

lay 
Close  on  the  borders  of  a  territory, 
Wherein  were  bandit   earls,  and   caitiff 

knights, 
Assassins,  and  all  flyers  from  the  hand 
Of  Justice,  and  whatever  loathes  a  law : 
And    therefore,    till    the    King    himself 

should  please 
To  cleanse  this  common  sewer  of  all  his 

realm, 
He  craved  a  fair  permission  to  depart, 
And  there  defend  his  marches;   and  the 

King, 
Mused  for  a  little  on  his  plea,  but,  last, 
Allowing  it,  the  Prince  and  Enid  rode, 
And  fifty  knights  rode  with  them,  to  the 

shores 
Of  Severn,  and  they  past  to  their  own 

land; 
Where,  thinking,  that  if  ever  yet  was  wife 
True  to  her  lord,  mine  shall  be  so  to  me, 
He  compass'd  her  with  sweet  observances 
And  worship,  never  leaving  her,  and  grew 
Forgetful  of  his  promise  to  the  King, 
Forgetful  of  the  falcon  and  the  hunt, 
Forgetful  of  the  tilt  and  tournament, 
Forgetful  of  his  glory  and  his  name, 
Forgetful  of  his  princedom  and  its  cares. 
And  this  forgetfulness  was  hateful  to  her. 
And  by  and  by  the  people,  when  they 

met 
In  twos  and  threes,  or  fuller  companies, 
Began  to  scoff  and  jeer  and  babble  of  him 
As  of  a  prince  whose  manhood  was  all 

gone, 
And  molten  down  in  mere  uxoriousness. 
And  this  she  gather'd  from  the  people's 

eyes : 
This   too   the   women   who   attired   her 

head, 
To  please  her,  dwelling  on  his  boundless 

love, 


336 


THE   MARRIAGE    OF  G ERA  INT. 


Told  Enid,  and  they  sadden'd   her  the 

more : 
And  day  by  day  she  thought  to  tell  Geraint, 
But  could  not  out  of  bashful  delicacy; 
While  he  that  watched  her  sadden,  was 

the  more 
Suspicious  that  her  nature  had  a  taint. 

At  last,  it  chanced  that  on  a  summer 

morn 
(They  sleeping  each  by  either)  the  new 

sun 
Beat  thro'  the  Windless  casement  of  the 

room, 
And   heated  the  strong  warrior   in   his 

dreams; 
Who,  moving,  cast  the  coverlet  aside, 
And  bared  the  knotted  column  of  his 

throat, 
The  massive  square  of  his  heroic  breast, 
And  arms  on  which  the  standing  muscle 

sloped, 
As  slopes  a  wild  brook  o'er  a  little  stone, 
Running  too  vehemently  to  break  upon  it. 
And  Enid  woke  and  sat  beside  the  couch, 
Admiring  him,  and  thought  within  herself, 
Was  ever  man  so  grandly  made  as  he  ? 
Then,  like  a  shadow,  past  the  people's  talk 
And  accusation  of  uxoriousness 
Across  her  mind,  and  bowing  over  him, 
Low  to  her  own  heart  piteously  she  said : 

*  O  noble  breast  and  all-puissant  arms, 
Am  I  the  cause,  I  the  poor  cause  that  men 
Reproach  you,  saying  all  your  force  is 

gone  ? 
I  am  the  cause,  because  I  dare  not  speak 
And  tell  him  what  I  think  and  what  they 

say. 
And  yet  I  hate  that  he  should  linger  here; 
I  cannot  love  my  lord  and  not  his  name. 
Far  liefer  had  I  gird  his  harness  on  him, 
And  ride  with  him  to  battle  and  stand  by, 
And  watch   his   mightful  hand  striking 

great  blows 
At  caitiffs  and  at  wrongers  of  the  world. 
Far  better  were  I  laid  in  the  dark  earth, 
Not  hearing  any  more  his  noble  voice, 
Not  to  be  folded  more  in  these  dear  arms, 
And  darken'd  from  the  high  light  in  his 

eyes, 
Than  that  my  lord  thro'  me  should  suffer 

shame. 


Am  I  so  bold,  and  could  I  so  stand  by, 
And  see  my  dear  lord  wounded  in  the 

strife, 
Or  maybe  pierced  to  death  before  mine 

eyes, 
And  yet  not  dare  to  tell  him  what  I  think, 
And  how  men  slur  him,  saying  all  his  force 
Is  melted  into  mere  effeminacy? 

0  me,  I  fear  that  I  am  no  true  wife.' 

Half  inwardly,  half  audibly  she  spoke, 
And  the  strong  passion  in  her  made  her 

weep 
True   tears  upon  his   broad   and  naked 

breast, 
And  these  awoke  him,  and  by  great  mis- 
chance 
He  heard  but  fragments  of  her  later  words, 
And  that  she  fear'd  she  was  not  a  true 

wife. 
And  then  he  thought,  '  In  spite  of  all  my 

care, 
For  all  my  pains,  poor  man,  for  all  my 

pains, 
She  is  not  faithful  to  me,  and  I  see  her    ■ 
Weeping  for  some  gay  knight  in  Arthur's 

hall.' 
Then  tho'  he  loved  and  reverenced  her 

too  much 
To  dream"  she  could  be  guilty  of  foul  act, 
Right  thro'  his  manful  breast  darted  the 

pang  ^ 

That  makes  a  man,  in  the  sweet  face  of 

her 
Whom  he  loves  most,  lonely  and  miser- 
able. 
At  this  he  hurl'd  his  huge  limbs  out  of 

bed, 
And  shook  his  drowsy  squire  awake  and 

cried, 
'My  charger  and  her  palfrey;  '  then  to 

her, 
1 1  will  ride  forth  into  the  wilderness; 
For  tho'  it  seems  my  spurs   are  yet  to 

win, 

1  have  not  fall'n  so  low  as  some  would 

wish. 
And  thou,  put  on  thy  worst  and  meanest 

dress 
And  ride  with    me.'     And  Enid   ask'd, 

amazed, 
1  If  Enid  errs,  let  Enid  learn  her  fault.' 
But  he, '  I  charge  thee,  ask  not,  but  obey.' 


THE  MARRIAGE    OE  GERAINT. 


337 


Then  she  bethought  her  of  a  faded  silk, 
A  faded  mantle  and  a  faded  veil, 
And  moving  toward  a  cedarn  cabinet, 
Wherein  she  kept  them  folded  reverently 
With  sprigs  of  summer  laid  between  the 

folds, 
She    took    them,    and    array'd     herself 

therein, 
Remembering  when  first  he  came  on  her 
Drest  in  that  dress,  and  how  he  loved 

her  in  it, 
And  all  her  foolish  fears  about  the  dress, 
And  all  his  journey  to  her,  as  himself 
Had  told  her,  and  their  coming  to  the 

court. 

For  Arthur  on  the  Whitsuntide  before 
Held  court  at  old  Caerleon  upon  Usk. 
There  on  a  day,  he  sitting  high  in  hall, 
Before  him  came  a  forester  of  Dean, 
Wet   from    the  woods,  with  notice  of  a 

hart 
Taller  than  all  his  fellows,  milky-white, 
First  seen  that  day  :  these  things  he  told 

the  King. 
Then  the  good  King  gave  order  to  let 

blow 
His  horns  for  hunting  on  the  morrow 

morn. 
And  when  the  Queen  petition'd  for  his 

leave 
To  see  the  hunt,  allow'd  it  easily. 
So  with  the  morning  all  the  court  were 

gone. 
But  Guinevere  lay  late  into  the  morn, 
Lost  in  sweet  dreams,  and  dreaming  of 

her  love 
For  Lancelot,  and  forgetful  of  the  hunt; 
But  rose  at  last,  a  single  maiden  with  her, 
Took  horse,  and  forded  Usk,  and  gain'd 

the  wood; 
There,  on  a  little  knoll  beside  it,  stay'd 
Waiting  to  hear  the  hounds;   but  heard 

instead 
A   sudden    sound    of  hoofs,    for   Prince 

Geraint, 
Late  also,  wearing  neither  hunting-dress 
Nor  weapon,  save  a  golden-hilted  brand, 
Came  quickly  flashing  thro'  the  shallow 

ford 
Behind    them,  and   so    gallop'd    up  the 

knoll. 
A  purple  scarf,  at  either  end  whereof 
z 


There  swung  an  apple  of  the  purest  gold, 
Sway'd  round  about  him,  as  he  gallop'd 

up 
To  join  them,  glancing  like  a  dragon-fly 
In  summer  suit  and  silks  of  holiday. 
Low  bow'd  the  tributary  Prince,  and  she, 
Sweetly  and  statelily,  and  with  all  grace 
Of  womanhood  and  queenhood,  answer'd 

him: 
'Late,  late,  Sir  Prince,' she  said,  'later 

than  we ! ' 
'Yea,  noble   Queen,'  he  answer'd,  'and 

so  late 
That  I  but  come  like  you  to  see  the  hunt, 
Not  join  it.'     '  Therefore  wait  with  me,' 

she  said; 
'  For  on  this  little  knoll,  if  anywhere, 
There  is  good  chance  that  we  shall  hear 

the  hounds : 
Here  often  they  break  covert  at  our  feet.' 

And  while  they  listen'd  for  the  distant 
♦       hunt, 
And  chiefly  for  the  baying  of  Cavall, 
King  Arthur's  hound  of  deepest  mouth, 

there  rode 
Full  slowly  by  a  knight,  lady,  and  dwarf; 
Whereof  the  dwarf  lagg'd  latest,  and  the 

knight 
Had   vizor   up,    and   show'd  a  youthful 

face, 
Imperious,  and  of  haughtiest  lineaments. 
And  Guinevere,  not  mindful  of  his  face 
In  the  King's  hall,  desired  his  name,  and 

sent 
Her  maiden  to  demand  it  of  the  dwarf; 
Who  being  vicious,  old  and  irritable, 
And   doubling   all  his   master's   vice  of 

pride, 
Made  answer  sharply  that  she  should  not 

know. 
'  Then  will  I  ask  it  of  himself,'  she  said. 
'  Nay,  by  my  faith,  thou  shalt  not,'  cried 

the  dwarf; 
'Thou  art  not  worthy  ev'n  to  speak  of 

him;' 
And  when  she  put  her  horse  toward  the 

knight, 
Struck  at  her  with  his  whip,  and  she  re- 
turn'd 
Indignant  to  the  Queen;  whereat  Geraint 
Exclaiming,     '  Surely   I   will    learn   the 

name,' 


338 


THE  MARRIAGE    OF  GERAINT. 


Made  sharply  to  the  dwarf,  and  ask'd  it 

of  him, 
Who  answer'd  as  before;   and  when  the 

Prince 
Had  put  his  horse  in  motion  toward  the 

knight, 
Struck  at  him  with  his  whip,  and  cut  his 

cheek. 
The  Prince's  blood  spirted  upon  the  scarf, 
Dyeing  it;  and  his  quick,  instinctive  hand 
Caught  at  the  hilt,  as  to  abolish  him : 
But  he,  from  his  exceeding  manfulness 
And  pure  nobility  of  temperament, 
Wroth  to  be  wroth  at  such  a  worm,  re- 

frain'd 
From  ev'n  a  word,  and  so  returning  said  : 

'I  will  avenge  this  insult,  noble  Queen, 
Done  in  your  maiden's  person  to  yourself : 
And   I   will  track    this  vermin  to  their 

earths : 
For  tho'  I  ride  unarm'd,  I  do  not  doubt 
To  find,  at  some  place  I  shall  come  *at, 

arms 
On  loan,  or  else  for  pledge;   and,  being 

found, 
Then  will  I  fight  him,  and  will  break  his 

pride, 
And  on  the  third  day  will  again  be  here, 
So  that  I  be  not  fall'n  in  fight.   Farewell.' 

'Farewell,  fair    Prince,'  answer'd   the 

stately  Queen. 
'Be  prosperous  in  this  journey,  as  in  all; 
And  may  you  light  on  all  things  that  you 

love, 
And  live  to  wed  with  her  whom  first  you 

love : 
But  ere   you   wed  with  any,  bring  your 

bride, 
And  I,  were  she  the  daughter  of  a  king, 
Yea,  tho'  she  were  a  beggar  from  the 

hedge, 
Will  clothe  her  for  her  bridals  like  the 


And  Prince  Geraint,  now  thinking  that 

he  heard 
The  noble  hart  at  bay,  now  the  far  horn, 
A  little  vext  at  losing  of  the  hunt, 
A.  little  at  the  vile  occasion,  rode, 
By  ups  and  downs,  thro'  many  a  grassy 

glade 


And  valley,  with  fixt  eye  following  the 

three. 
At   last   they  issued  from   the  world  oi 

wood, 
Apd  climb'd  upon  a  fair  and  even  ridge, 
And  show'd  themselves  against  the  sky, 

and  sank. 
And  thither  came  Geraint,  and   under- 
neath 
Beheld  the  long  street  of  a  little  town 
In  a  long  valley,  on  one  side  whereof, 
White  from  the  mason's  hand,  a  fortress 

rose; 
And  on  one  side  a  castle  in  decay, 
Beyond   a   bridge    that    spann'd   a   dry 

ravine  : 
And  out  of  town  and  valley  came  a  noise 
As  of  a  broad  brook  o'er  a  shingly  bed 
Brawling,  or  like  a  clamour  of  the  rooks 
At  distance,  ere  they  settle  for  the  night. 

And  onward  to  the  fortress  rode  the 

three, 
And  enter'd,  and  were  lost  behind  the 

walls. 
'  So,'    thought    Geraint, '  I   have   track'd 

him  to  his  earth/ 
And  down  the  long  street  riding  wearily, 
Found  every  hostel  full,  and  everywhere 
Was  hammer  laid  to  hoof,  and  the  hot 

hiss 
And  bustling  whistle  of  the  youth  who 

scour'd 
His  master's  armour;   and  of  such  a  one 
He  ask'd,  '  What  means   the   tumult  in 

the  town?' 
Who    told    him,    scouring    still,    'The 

sparrow-hawk ! ' 
Then  riding  close  behind  an  ancient  churl, 
Who,  smitten  by  the  dusty  sloping  beam, 
Went    sweating    underneath    a    sack   of 

corn, 
Ask'd  yet   once   more  what  meant  the 

hubbub  here? 
Who  answer'd  gruffly, '  Ugh  !  the  sparrow- 
hawk.' 
Then  riding  further  past  an  armourer's, 
Who,  with  back  turn'd,  and  bow'd  above 

his  work, 
Sat  riveting  a  helmet  on  his  knee, 
He  put  the  self-same  query,  but  the  man 
Not  turning  round,  nor  looking  at  him, 

said; 


THE  MARRIAGE    OF  GERAINT. 


339 


'Friend,  he  that  labours  for  the  sparrow- 
hawk 

Has  little  time  for  idle  questioners.' 

Whereat  Geraint  flash'd  into  sudden 
spleen : 

'A  thousand  pips  eat  up  your  sparrow- 
hawk! 

Tits,  wrens,  and  all  wing'd  nothings  peck 
him  dead  ! 

Ye  think  the  rustic  cackle  of  your  bourg 

The  murmur  of  the  world !  What  is  it 
to  me? 

O  wretched  set  of  sparrows,  one  and  all, 

Who  pipe  of  nothing  but  of  sparrow- 
hawks  ! 

Speak,  if  ye  be  not  like  the  rest,  hawk- 
mad, 

Where  can  I  get  me  harbourage  for  the 
night? 

And  arms,  arms,  arms  to  fight  my  enemy  ? 
Speak ! ' 

Whereat  the  armourer  turning  all  amazed 

And  seeing  one  so  gay  in  purple  silks, 

Came  forward  with  the  helmet  yet  in 
hand 

And  answer'd,  'Pardon  me,  O  stranger 
knight ; 

We  hold  a  tourney  here  to-morrow  morn, 

And  there  is  scantly  time  for  half  the  work. 

Arms?  truth!  I  know  not:  all  are 
wanted  here. 

Harbourage?  truth,  good  truth,  I  know 
not,  save, 

It  may  be,  at  Earl  Yniol's,  o'er  the  bridge 

Yonder.'  He  spoke  and  fell  to  work 
again. 

Then  rode  Geraint,  a  little   spleenful 

yet, 
Across  the  bridge  that  spann'd  the  dry 

ravine. 
There  musing  sat  the  hoary-headed  Earl, 
(His  dress  a  suit  of  fray'd  magnificence, 
Once   fit   for   feasts   of   ceremony)    and 

said: 
'Whither,  fair   son?'  to  whom    Geraint 

replied, 
'O  friend,  I  seek  a  harbourage  for  the 

night.' 
Then  Yniol, '  Enter  therefore  and  partake 
The  slender  entertainment  of  a  house 
Once   rich,   now   poor,  but   ever   open- 

door'd.' 


'  Thanks,  venerable  friend,'  replied 
Geraint; 

'  So  that  ye  do  not  serve  me  sparrow- 
hawks 

For  supper,  I  will  enter,  I  will  eat 

With  all  the  passion  of  a  twelve  hours' 
fast.' 

Then  sigh'd  and  smiled  the  hoary-headed 
Earl, 

And  answer'd,  '  Graver  cause  than  yours 
is  mine 

To  curse  this  hedgerow  thief,  the  sparrow- 
hawk  : 

But  in,  go  in;   for  save  yourself  desire  it, 

We  will  not  touch  upon  him  ev'n  in  jest.' 

Then  rode  Geraint  into  the  castle  court, 
His  charger  trampling  many  a  prickly  star 
Of  sprouted  thistle  on  the  broken  stones. 
He  look'd  and  saw  that  all  was  ruinous. 
Here  stood  a  shatter'd  archway  plumed 

with  fern; 
And   here   had   fall'n  a  great  part  of  a 

tower, 
Whole,  like  a  crag  that  tumbles  from  the 

cliff, 
And  like   a   crag  was  gay  with  wilding 

flowers : 
And  high  above  a  piece  of  turret  stair, 
Worn  by  the  feet  that  now  were  silent, 

wound 
Bare  to  the  sun,  and  monstrous  ivy-stems, 
Claspt   the  gray  walls  with   hairy-fibred 

arms, 
And  suck'd  the  joining  of  the  stones,  and 

look'd 
A  knot,  beneath,  of  snakes,  aloft,  a  grove. 

And  while  he  waited  in  the  castle  court, 
The  voice  of  Enid,  Yniol's  daughter,  rang 
Clear  thro'  the  open  casement  of  the  hall, 
Singing;  and  as  the  sweet  voice  of  a  bird, 
Heard  by  the  lander  in  a  lonely  isle, 
Moves  him  to  think  what  kind  of  bird  it  is 
That  sings  so  delicately  clear,  and  make 
Conjecture  of  the  plumage  and  the  form : 
So  the  sweet  voice  of  Enid  moved  Geraint ; 
And  made  him  like  a  man  abroad  at  morn 
When  first  the  liquid  note  beloved  of  men 
Comes  flying  over  many  a  windy  wave 
To  Britain,  and  in  April  suddenly 
Breaks  from  a  coppice  gemm'd  with  green 
and  red, 


34Q 


THE  MARRIAGE    OF  GERAINT. 


And   he   suspends   his   converse  with  a 

friend, 
Or  it  may  be  the  labour  of  his  hands, 
To  think  or  say, '  There  is  the  nightingale ; ' 
So  fared  it  with    Geraint,  who   thought 

and  said, 
*  Here,  by  God's  grace,  is  the  one  voice 

for  me.' 

It  chanced  the  song  that   Enid   sang 
was  one 
Of  Fortune  and  her  wheel,   and   Enid 
sang: 

'Turn,  Fortune,  turn   thy  wheel   and 

lower  the  proud; 
Turn    thy   wild   wheel    thro'    sunshine, 

storm,  and  cloud; 
Thy  wheel  and  thee  we  neither  love  nor 

hate. 

'Turn,  Fortune,  turn  thy  wheel  with 

smile  or  frown; 
With  that  wild  wheel  we  go  not  up  or 

down; 
Our   hoard    is   little,  but  our  hearts  are 

great. 

'  Smile  and  we  smile,  the  lords  of  many 

lands; 
Frown  and  we   smile,  the  lords  of  our 

own  hands; 
For  man  is  man  and  master  of  his  fate. 

'  Turn,  turn  thy  wheel  above  the  staring 

crowd ; 
Thy  wheel  and  thou  are  shadows  in  the 

cloud; 
Thy  wheel  and  thee  we  neither  love  nor 

hate.' 

*  Hark,  by  the  bird's  song  ye  may  learn 
the  nest,' 
Said  Yniol;   'enter   quickly.'      Entering 

then, 
Right  o'er  a  mount  of  newly-fallen  stones, 
The  dusky-rafter'd  many-cobwebb'd  hall, 
He  found  an  ancient  dame  in  dim  bro- 
cade; 
And  near  her,  like   a   blossom  vermeil- 
white, 
That  lightly  breaks  a  faded  flower-sheath, 
Moved  the  fair  Enid,  all  in  faded  silk, 


Her  daughter.     In   a   moment   thought 

Geraint, 
'  Here  by  God's  rood  is  the  one  maid  for 

me.' 
But  none  spake  word  except  the  hoary 

Earl: 
'  Enid,  the  good  knight's  horse  stands  in 

the  court; 
Take  him  to  stall,  and  give  him  corn,  and 

then 
Go  to  the  town  and   buy  us   flesh    and 

wine; 
And  we  will  make  us  merry  as  we  may. 
Our  hoard  is '  little,  but  our   hearts   are 

great.' 

He  spake :    the  Prince,  as  Enid  past 
him,  fain 
To  follow,  strode  a  stride,  but  Yniol  caught 
His  purple  scarf,. and  held,  and  said, '  For- 
bear! 
Rest !  the  good  house,  tho'  ruin'd,  O  my 

son, 
Endures  not  that  her  guest  should  serve 

himself.' 
And  reverencing  the  custom  of  the  house 
Geraint,  from  utter  courtesy,  forbore. 

So  Enid  took  his  charger  to  the  stall; 
And  after  went  her  way  across  the  bridge, 
And  reach'd   the    town,  and  while  the 

Prince  and  Earl 
Yet  spoke  together,  came  again  with  one, 
A  youth,  that  following  with  a  costrel  bore 
The  means  of  goodly  welcome,  flesh  and 

wine. 
And  Enid  brought  sweet  cakes  to  make 

them  cheer, 
And  in  her  veil  enfolded,  manchet  bread. 
And  then,  because  their  hall  must  also 

serve 
For  kitchen,  boil'd  the  flesh,  and  spread 

the  board, 
And  stood  behind,  and  waited  on   the 

three. 
And  seeing  her  so  sweet  and  serviceable, 
Geraint  had  longing  in  him  evermore 
To  stoop  and  kiss  the  tender  little  thumb, 
That  crost  the  trencher  as  she  laid  it  down  : 
But  after  all  had  eaten,  then  Geraint, 
For  now  the  wine  made  summer  in  his 

veins, 
Let  his  eye  rove  in  following,  or  rest 


THE  MARRIAGE    OF  GERAINT. 


341 


On  Enid  at  her  lowly  handmaid-work, 
Now  here,  now  there,  about  the   dusky 

hall; 
Then  suddenly  addrest  the  hoary  Earl : 

'  Fair  Host  and  Earl,  I  pray  your  cour- 
tesy; 
This  sparrow-hawk,  what  is  he?  tell  me 

of  him. 
His  name?  but  no,  good  faith,  I  will  not 

have  it : 
For  if  he  be  the  knight  whom  late  I  saw 
Ride  into  that  new  fortress  by  your  town, 
White  from  the  mason's  hand,  then  have 

I  sworn 
From   his   own   lips   to  have  it  —  I  am 

Geraint 
Of  Devon  —  for  this  morning  when  the 

Queen 
Sent   her   own   maiden  to  demand   the 

name, 
His  dwarf,  a  vicious  under-shapen  thing, 
Struck  at  her  with  his  whip,  and  she  re- 

turn'd 
Indignant  to  the  Queen ;  and  then  I  swore 
That  I  would  track  this  caitiff  to  his  hold, 
And  fight  and  break  his  pride,  and  have 

it  of  him. 
And  all  unarm'd  I  rode,  and  thought  to 

find 
Arms  in  your  town,  where  all  the  men  are 

mad; 
They   take  the   rustic  murmur  of  their 

bourg 
For  the  great  wave  that  echoes  round  the 

world ; 
They  would  not  hear  me  speak :  but  if  ye 

know 
Where  I  can  light  on  arms,  or  if  yourself 
Should  have  them,  tell  me,  seeing  I  have 

sworn 
That  I  will  break  his  pride  and  learn  his 

name, 
Avenging    this    great    insult    done    the 

Queen.' 

Then  cried  Earl  Yniol,  'Art  thou  he 

indeed, 
Geraint,  a  name  far-sounded  among  men 
For  noble  deeds?  and  truly  I,  when  first 
I  saw  you  moving  by  me  on  the  bridge, 
Felt  ye  were  somewhat,  yea,  and  by  your 

state 


And  presence  might  have  guess'd  you  one 

of  those 
That  eat  in  Arthur's  hall  at  Camelot. 
Nor  speak  I  now  from  foolish  flattery; 
For  this  dear  child  hath  often  heard  me 

praise 
Your  feats  of  arms,  and  often  when  I 

paused 
Hath  ask'd  again,  and  ever  loved  to  hear; 
So  grateful  is  the  noise  of  noble  deeds 
To  noble   hearts   who   see    but   acts   of 

wrong : 

0  never  yet  had  woman  such  a  pair 

Of  suitors  as  this  maiden;    first  Limours, 
A  creature  wholly  given  to  brawls  and 

wine, 
Drunk  even  when  he  woo'd;   and  be  he 

dead 

1  know  not,  but  he  past  to  the  wild  land. 
The  second  was  your  foe,  the  sparrow- 
hawk, 

My  curse,  my  nephew  —  I  will  not  let  his 

name 
Slip  from  my  lips  if  I  can  help  it  —  he, 
When  I  that  knew  him  fierce  and  turbu- 
lent 
Refused  her  to  him,  then  his  pride  awoke; 
And  since  the  proud  man  often  is  the 

mean, 
He  sow'd  a  slander  in  the  common  ear, 
Affirming  that  his  father  left  him  gold, 
And  in  my  charge,  which  was  not  ren- 

der'd  to  him; 
Bribed  with  large  promises  the  men  who 

served 
About  my  person,  the  more  easily 
Because  my  means  were  somewhat  broken 

into 
Thro'  open  doors  and  hospitality; 
Raised  my  own  town  against  me  in  the 

night 
Before  my  Enid's   birthday,  sack'd  my 

house; 
From  mine  own  earldom  foully  ousted 

me; 
Built  that  new  fort  to  overawe  my  friends, 
For  truly  there  are  those  who  love  me 

yet; 
And  keeps  me  in  this  ruinous  castle  here, 
Where  doubtless  he  would  put  me  soon 

to  death, 
But  that  his  pride  too  much  despises  me : 
And  I  myself  sometimes  despise  myself; 


342 


THE  MARRIAGE    OF  GERAINT. 


For  I  have  let  men  be,  and  have  their  way ; 
Am  much  too  gentle,  have  not  used  my 

power : 
Nor  know  I  whether  I  be  very  base 
Or  very  manful,  whether  very  wise 
Or  very  foolish;   only  this  I  know, 
That  whatsoever  evil  happen  to  me, 
I  seem  to  suffer  nothing  heart  or  limb, 
But  can  endure  it  all  most  patiently.' 

*  Well  said,  true  heart,'  replied  Geraint, 

•  but  arms, 
That  if  the  sparrow-hawk,  this  nephew, 

fight 
In  next  day's  tourney  I  may  break  his 

pride.' 

AndYniol  answer'd,  'Arms, indeed,  but 
old 
And  rusty,  old  and  rusty,  Prince  Geraint, 
Are  mine,  and  therefore  at  thine  asking, 

thine. 
But  in  this  tournament  can  no  man  tilt, 
Except  the  lady  he  loves  best  be  there. 
Two    forks    are   fixt    into    the   meadow 

ground, 
And  over  these  is  placed  a  silver  wand, 
And  over  that  a  golden  sparrow-hawk, 
The  prize  of  beauty  for  the  fairest  there. 
And  this,  what  knight  soever  be  in  field 
Lays  claim  to  for  the  lady  at  his  side, 
And  tilts  with  my  good  nephew  there- 
upon, 
Who  being  apt  at  arms  and  big  of  bone 
Has  ever  won  it  for  the  lady  with  him, 
And  toppling  over  all  antagonism 
Has  earn'd  himself  the  name  of  sparrow- 
hawk. 
But  thou,  that  hast  no  lady,  canst  not 
fight.' 

To  whom  Geraint  with  eyes  all  bright 
replied, 
Leaning  a  little  toward  him,  *  Thy  leave  ! 
Let  me  lay  lance  in  rest,  O  noble  host, 
For  this  dear  child,  because  I  never  saw, 
Tho'  having  seen  all  beauties  of  our  time, 
Nor  can  see  elsewhere,  anything  so  fair. 
And  if  I  fall  her  name  will  yet  remain 
Untarnish'd  as  before ;   but  if  I  live, 
So  aid  me  Heaven  when  at  mine  utter- 
most, 
As  I  will  make  her  truly  my  true  wife.' 


Then,  howsoever  patient,  Yniol's  heart 
Danced  in  his  bosom,  seeing  better  days. 
And   looking   round   he   saw   not    Enid 

there, 
(Who  hearing  her  own  name  had  stol'n 

away) 
But  that  old  dame,  to  whom  full  tenderly 
And  fondling  all  her  hand  in  his  he  said, 
'  Mother,  a  maiden  is  a  tender  thing, 
And  best  by  her  that  bore  her  under- 
stood. 
Go  thou  to  rest,  but  ere  thou  go  to  rest 
Tell  her,  and  prove  her  heart  toward  the 
Prince.' 

So  spake  the  kindly-hearted  Earl,  and 

she 
With  frequent  smile  and  nod  departing 

found, 
Half  disarray'd  as  to  her  rest,  the  girl; 
Whom  first  she  kiss'd  on  either  cheek, 

and  then 
On  either  shining  shoulder  laid  a  hand 
And  kept  her  off  and  gazed  upon  her 

face, 
And  told  her  all  their  converse  in  the 

hall, 
Proving  her  heart :  but  never  light  and 

shade 
Coursed    one    another    more    on   open 

ground 
Beneath  a  troubled  heaven,  than  red  and 

pale 
Across  the  face  of  Enid  hearing  her; 
While  slowly  falling  as  a  scale  that  falls, 
When  weight   is   added   only   grain   by 

grain, 
Sank   her   sweet  head  upon  her  gentle 

breast; 
Nor  did  she  lift  an  eye  nor  speak  a  word, 
Rapt  in  the  fear  and  in  the  wonder  of  it; 
So  moving  without  answer  to  her  rest 
She  found  no  rest,  and  ever  fail'd  to  draw 
The  quiet  night  into  her  blood,  but  lay 
Contemplating  her  own  unworthiness ; 
And  when  the  pale  and  bloodless  east 

began 
To  quicken  to  the  sun,  arose,  and  raised 
Her  mother  too,  and  hand  in  hand  they 

moved 
Down  to  the  meadow  where  the  jousts 

were  held, 
And  waited  there  for  Yniol  and  Geraint. 


THE  MARRIAGE   OF  GERAINT. 


343 


And  thither  came  the  twain,  and  when 

The  dew  of  their  great  labour,  and  the 

Geraint 

blood 

Beheld  her  first  in  field,  awaiting  him, 

Of  their  strong  bodies,  flowing,  drain'd 

He   felt,  were  she  the  prize   of  bodily 

their  force. 

force, 

But  either's  force  was  match'd  till  Yniol's 

Himself  beyond  the  rest  pushing  could 

cry, 

move 

•  Remember   that   great  insult  done  the 

The  chair  of  Idris.     Yniol's  rusted  arms 

Queen,' 

Were  on  his  princely  person,  but  thro' 

Increased    Geraint's,    who    heaved    his 

these 

blade  aloft, 

Princelike  his  bearing  shone;   and  errant 

And  crack'd  the  helmet  thro',  and  bit  the 

knights 

bone, 

And  ladies  came,  and  by  and  by  the  town 

And  fell'd  him,  and   set  foot  upon  his 

Flow'd   in,  and  settling   circled  all  the 

breast, 

lists. 

And  said,  'Thy  name?'     To  whom  the 

And   there   they  fixt  the  forks  into  the 

fallen  man 

ground, 

Made  answer,  groaning,  '  Edyrn,  son  of 

And  over  these  they  placed  the  silver 

Nudd! 

wand, 

Ashamed  am  I  that  I  should  tell  it  thee. 

And  over  that  the  golden  sparrow-hawk. 

My  pride  is  broken :  men  have  seen  my 

Then    Yniol's    nephew,    after    trumpet 

fall.' 

blown, 

'Then,   Edyrn,   son    of    Nudd,'   replied 

Spake  to  the  lady  with  him   and   pro- 

Geraint, 

claim'd, 

'  These  two  things  shalt  thou  do,  or  else 

1  Advance  and  take,  as  fairest  of  the  fair, 

thou  diest. 

What  I  these  two  years  past  have  won 

First,  thou  thyself,  with  damsel  and  with 

for  thee, 

dwarf, 

The  prize  of  beauty.'     Loudly  spake  the 

Shalt  ride  to  Arthur's  court,  and  coming 

Prince, 

there, 

1  Forbear :  there  is  a  worthier,'  and  the 

Crave  pardon  for  that  insult  done  the 

knight 

Queen, 

With  some  surprise  and  thrice  as  much 

And  shalt  abide    her    judgment  on  it; 

disdain 

next, 

Turn'd,  and  beheld  the  four,  and  all  his 

Thou  shalt  give  back  their  earldom  to 

face 

thy  kin. 

Glow'd  like  the  heart  of  a  great  fire  at 

These  two  things  shalt  thou  do,  or  thou 

Yule, 

shalt  die.' 

So   burnt   he  was  with   passion,  crying 

And  Edyrn  answer'd,  '  These  things  will 

out, 

I  do, 

'Do  battle  for  it  then,'  no  more;    and 

For  I  have  never  yet  been  overthrown, 

thrice 

And  thou  hast  overthrown  me,  and  my 

They  clash'd    together,  and   thrice  they 

pride 

brake  their  spears. 

Is  broken  down,  for  Enid  sees  my  fall ! ' 

Then  each,  dishorsed  and  drawing,  lash'd 

And    rising    up,    he    rode    to    Arthur's 

at  each 

court, 

So  often  and  with  such  blows,  that  all 

And  there  the  Queen  forgave  him  easily. 

the  crowd 

And  being  young,  he  changed  and  came 

Wonder'd,  and  now  and  then  from  distant 

to  loathe 

walls 

His  crime  of  traitor,  slowly  drew  him- 

There came  a  clapping  as  of  phantom 

self 

hands. 

Bright  from  his  old  dark  life,  and  fell  at 

So   twice  they  fought,  and   twice   they 

last 

breathed,  and  still 

In  the  great  battle  fighting  for  the  King. 

344 


THE  MARRIAGE    OF  GERAINT. 


But  when  the  third  day  from  the  hunt- 
ing-morn 
Made  a  low  splendour  in  the  world,  and 

wings 
Moved  in  her  ivy,  Enid,  for  she  lay 
With   her   fair  head  in  the  dim-yellow 

light, 
Among  the  dancing  shadows  of  the  birds, 
Woke  and  bethought  her  of  her  promise 

given 
No  later  than  last  eve  to  Prince  Geraint — 
So  bent  he  seem'd  on  going  the  third  day, 
He  would  not  leave  her,  till  her  promise 

given  — 
To  ride  with  him  this  morning  to  the 

court, 
And  there  be  made  known  to  the  stately 

Queen, 
And    there    be   wedded   with    all    cere- 
mony. 
At    this    she    cast   her    eyes   upon    her 

dress. 
And  thought  it  never  yet  had  look'd  so 

mean. 
For  as  a  leaf  in  mid-November  is 
To  what  it  was  in  mid-October,  seem'd 
The  dress  that  now  she  look'd  on  to  the 

dress 
She  look'd  on  ere  the  coming  of  Geraint. 
And  still  she  look'd,  and  still  the  terror 

grew 
Of  that  strange  bright  and  dreadful  thing, 

a  court, 
All  staring  at  her  in  her  faded  silk : 
And  softly  to  her  own  sweet  heart  she 

said: 

'  This  noble  prince  who  won  our  earl- 
dom back, 
So  splendid  in  his  acts  and  his  attire, 
Sweet  heaven,  how  much  I  shall  discredit 

him ! 
Would    he    could    tarry   with    us   here 

awhile, 
But  being  so  beholden  to  the  Prince, 
It  were  but  little  grace  in  any  of  us, 
Bent  as  he  seem'd  on  going  this  third 

day, 
To  seek  a  second  favour  at  his  hands. 
Yet  if  he  could  but  tarry  a  day  or  two, 
Myself  would  work  eye  dim,  and  finger 

lame, 
Far  liefer  than  so  much  discredit  him.' 


And  Enid  fell  in  longing  for  a  dress 
All  branch'd  and   flower'd  with  gold,  a 

costly  gift 
Of  her  good  mother,  given  her  on  the 

night 
Before  her  birthday,  three  sad  years  ago, 
That  night  of  fire,  when  Edyrn  sack'd 

their  house, 
And  scatter'd   all  they  had  to  all   the 

winds : 
For  while  the  mother  show'd  it,  and  the 

two 
Were  turning  and  admiring  it,  the  work 
To  both  appear'd  so  costly,  rose  a  cry 
That   Edyrn's   men  were  on  them,  and 

they  fled 
With  little  save  the  jewels  they  had  on, 
Which  being  sold  and  sold  had  bought 

them  bread : 
And  Edyrn's  men  had  caught   them  in 

their  flight, 
And  placed  them  in  this  ruin;   and  she 

wish'd 
The  Prince  had  found  her  in  her  ancient 

home; 
Then  let  her  fancy  flit  across  the  past, 
And   roam  the   goodly  places   that   she 

knew; 
And  last   bethought  her  how  she  used 

to  watch, 
Near   that  old  home,  a  pool  of  golden 

carp; 
And   one  was  patch'd  and  blurr'd   and 

lustreless 
Among  his   burnish'd   brethren   of    the 

pool; 
And  half  asleep  she  made  comparison 
Of  that  and  these  to  her  own  faded  self 
And  the  gay  court,  and  fell  asleep  again ; 
.And   dreamt   herself  was   such  a  faded 

form 
Among  her  burnish'd  sisters  of  the  pool; 
But  this  was  in  the  garden  of  a  king; 
And  tho'  she  lay  dark  in  the  pool,  she 

knew 
That  all  was  bright;   that  all  about  were 

birds 
Of  sunny  plume  in  gilded   trellis-work; 
That  all  the  turf  was  rich  in  plots  that 

look'd 
Each  like  a  garnet  or  a  turkis  in  it; 
And  lords  and  ladies  of  the  high  court 

went 


THE  MARRIAGE    OF  G ERA/NT. 


345 


In  silver  tissue  talking  things  of  state; 
And   children   of  the   King  in  cloth  of 

gold 
Glanced  at  the  doors  or  gamboll'd  down 

the  walks; 
And  while  she  thought  'They  will  not 

see  me,'  came 
A  stately  queen  whose  name  was  Guine- 
vere, 
And  all  the  children  in   their  cloth  of 

gold 
R.an  to  her,  crying,  '  If  we  have  fish  at  all 
Let    them   be    gold;     and    charge    the 

gardeners  now 
To   pick    the   faded   creature    from    the 

pool, 
And  cast  it  on  the  mixen  that  it  die.' 
And  therewithal  one  came  and  seized  on 

her, 
And  Enid  started  waking,  with  her  heart 
All  overshadow'd  by  the  foolish  dream, 
And  lo !  it  was  her  mother  grasping  her 
To  get  her  well  awake;  and  in  her  hand 
A  suit  of  bright  apparel,  which  she  laid 
Flat  on  the  couch,  and  spoke  exultingly : 

'  See   here,  my  child,  how   fresh   the 

colours  look, 
How   fast  they  hold  like  colours   of  a 

shell 
That  keeps  the  wear  and  polish  of  the 

wave. 
Why   not?     It   never   yet   was  worn,   I 

trow: 
Look  on  it,  child,  and  tell  me  if  ye  know 

it.' 

And  Enid  look'd,  but  all  confused  at 
first, 

Could  scarce  divide  it  from  her  foolish 
dream  : 

Then  suddenly  she  knew  it  and  rejoiced, 

And  answer'd,  'Yea,  I  know  it;  your 
good  gift, 

So  sadly  lost  on  that  unhappy  night; 

Your  own  good  gift!'  'Yea,  surely,' 
said  the  dame, 

1  And  gladly  given  again  this  happy 
morn. 

For  when  the  jousts  were  ended  yester- 
day, 

Went  Yniol  thro'  the  town,  and  every- 
where 


He  found  the  sack  and  plunder  of  our 

house 
All   scatter'd   thro'   the    houses    of    the 

town; 
And  gave  command  that  all  which  once 

was  ours 
Should  now  be  ours  again :  and  yester-eve, 
While  ye  were  talking  sweetly  with  your 

Prince, 
Came  one  with  this  and  laid  it  in   my 

hand, 
For  love  or  fear,  or  seeking  favour  of  us, 
Because    we    have    our    earldom    back 

again. 
And  yester-eve  I  would  not  tell  you  of  it, 
But  kept  it  for  a  sweet  surprise  at  morn. 
Yea,  truly  is  it  not  a  sweet  surprise? 
For  I  myself  unwillingly  have* worn 
My  faded  suit,  as  you,  my  child,  have 

yours, 
And  howsoever  patient,  Yniol  his. 
Ah,  dear,  he   took   me   from   a   goodly 

house, 
With  store  of  rich  apparel,  sumptuous 

fare, 
And  page,  and  maid,  and  squire,    and 

seneschal, 
And  pastime  both  of  hawk  and  hound, 

and  all 
That  appertains  to  noble  maintenance. 
Yea,  and  he  brought  me  to   a   goodly 

house; 
But  since  our  fortune  swerved  from  sun 

to  shade, 
And  all  thro'  that  young  traitor,  cruel 

need 
Constrain'd  us,  but   a   better   time    has 

come ; 
So  clothe  yourself  in  this,  that  better  fits 
Our   mended    fortunes    and    a    Prince's 

bride : 
For  tho'  ye  won  the  prize  of  fairest  fair, 
And  tho'  I  heard  him  call  you  fairest  fair, 
Let  never  maiden  think,  however  fair, 
She  is  not  fairer  in  new  clothes  than  old. 
And  should  some  great  court-lady  say, 

the  Prince 
Hath   pick'd   a   ragged-robin    from   the 

hedge, 
And  like  a  madman  brought  her  to  the 

court, 
Then  were  ye  shamed,  and,  worse,  might 

shame  the  Prince 


346 


THE  MARRIAGE    OF  GERAINT. 


To  whom  we  are  beholden;   but  I  know, 
When  my  dear  child  is  set  forth  at  her 

best, 
That  neither  court  nor  country,  tho'  they 

sought 
Thro'  all  the  provinces  like  those  of  old 
That  lighted  on  Queen  Esther,  has  her 

match.' 

Here  ceased  the  kindly  mother  out  of 

breath; 
And  Enid  listen'd  brightening  as  she  lay; 
Then,  as  the  white  and  glittering  star  of 

morn 
Parts  from  a  bank  of  snow,  and  by  and 

by 
Slips  into  golden  cloud,  the  maiden  rose, 
And  left  her  maiden  couch,  and  robed 

herself, 
Help'd  by  the  mother's  careful  hand  and 

eye, 
Without  a  mirror,  in  the  gorgeous  gown; 
Who,  after,  turn'd  her  daughter  round, 

and  said, 
She  never  yet  had  seen  her  half  so  fair; 
And  call'd  her  like  that  maiden  in  the 

tale, 
Whom  Gwydion  made   by  glamour  out 

of  flowers, 
And  sweeter  than  the  bride  of  Cassive- 

laun, 
Flur,  for  whose  love  the  Roman  Caesar 

first 
Invaded  Britain,  '  But  we  beat  him  back, 
As  this  great  Prince  invaded  us,  and  we, 
Not  beat  him  back,  but  welcomed  him 

with  joy. 
And  I   can   scarcely   ride    with   you   to 

court, 
For  old  am  I,  and  rough  the  ways  and 

wild; 
But  Yniol  goes,  and  I  full  oft  shall  dream 
I  see  my  princess  as  I  see  her  now, 
Clothed  with  my  gift,  and  gay  among 

the  gay.' 

But  while  the   women  thus    rejoiced, 

Geraint 
Woke  where  he  slept  in  the  high  hall, 

and  call'd 
For  Enid,  and  when  Yniol  made  report 
Of  that  good  mother  making  Enid  gay 
In  such  apparel  as  might  well  beseem 


His  princess,  or  indeed  the  stately  Queen, 
He  answer'd :  '  Earl,  entreat  her  by  my 

love, 
Albeit  I  give  no  reason  but  my  wish, 
That  she  ride  with  me  in  her  faded  silk.' 
Yniol  with  that  hard  message  went;    it 

fell 
Like  flaws  in  summer  laying  lusty  corn : 
For  Enid,  all  abash'd  she  knew  not  why, 
Dared  not  to  glance  at  her  good  mother's 

face, 
But  silently,  in  all  obedience, 
Her  mother  silent  too,  nor  helping  her, 
Laid  from  her  limbs  the  costly-broider'd 

gift, 
And   robed   them    in    her    ancient    suit 

again, 
And  so  descended.     Never  man  rejoiced 
More   than   Geraint   to   greet   her    thus 

attired; 
And  glancing  all  at  once  as  keenly  at  her 
As  careful  robins  eye  the  delver's  toil, 
Made  her  cheek  burn  and  either  eyelid 

fall, 
But  rested  with  her  sweet  face  satisfied; 
Then  seeing   cloud   upon   the   mother's 

brow, 
Her    by   both    hands    he    caught,   and 

sweetly  said, 

'O  my  new  mother,  be  not  wroth  or 

grieved 
At  thy  new  son,  for  my  petition  to  her. 
When   late   I    left   Caerleon,   our   great 

Queen, 
In  words  whose  echo  lasts,  they  were  so 

sweet, 
Made   promise,   that   whatever   bride   I 

brought, 
Herself  would  clothe   her   like  the  sun 

in  Heaven. 
Thereafter,  when    I   reach'd    this  ruin'd 

hall, 
Beholding  one  so  bright  in  dark  estate, 
I  vow'd  that  could  I  gain  her,  our  fair 

Queen, 
No   hand    but   hers,  should   make  your 

Enid  burst 
Sunlike     from     cloud  —  and      likewise 

thought  perhaps, 
That   service    done  so  graciously  would 

bind 
The  two  together;   fain  I  would  the  two 


GERAINT  AND  ENID. 


347 


Should  love  each  other  :  how  can  Enid  find 
A  nobler  friend?     Another  thought  was 

mine; 
I  came  among  you  here  so  suddenly, 
That  tho'  her  gentle  presence  at  the  lists 
Might  well  have  served  for  proof  that  I 

was  loved, 
I  doubted  whether  daughter's  tenderness, 
Or  easy  nature,  might  not  let  itself 
Be  moulded  by  your  wishes  for  her  weal; 
Or  whether  some  false  sense  in  her  own 

self 
Of  my  contrasting  brightness,  overbore 
Her  fancy  dwelling  in  this  dusky  hall; 
And  such  a  sense  might  make  her  long 

for  court 
And    all    its    perilous    glories:    and    I 

thought, 
That  could  I  someway  prove  such  force 

in  her 
Link'd  with  such   love   for  me,  that  at 

a  word 
(No  reason  given   her)  she  could   cast 

aside 
A  splendour  dear  to  women,  new  to  her, 
And  therefore  dearer;   or  if  not  so  new, 
Yet  therefore  tenfold  dearer  by  the  power 
Of  intermitted  usage;   then  I  felt 
That  I  could  rest,  a  rock   in  ebbs  and 

flows, 
Fixt  on  her  faith.     Now,  therefore,  I  do 

rest, 
A  prophet  certain. of  my  prophecy, 
That  never  shadow  of  mistrust  can  cross 
Between  us.     Grant  me  pardon  for  my 

thoughts : 
And  for  my  strange  petition  I  will  make 
Amends  hereafter  by  some  gaudy-day, 
When  your   fair   child   shall   wear  your 

costly  gift 
Beside  your  own  warm  hearth,  with,  on 

her  knees, 
Who  knows?   another  gift  of  the   high 

God, 
Which,  maybe,  shall  have  learn'd  to  lisp 

you  thanks.' 

He   spoke:    the   mother   smiled,    but 

half  in  tears, 
Then  brought  a  mantle  down  and  wrapt 

her  in  it, 
And  claspt  and  kiss'd  her,  and  they  rode 

away. 


Now  thrice    that   morning    Guinevere 

had  climb'd 
The  giant  tower,  from  whose  high  crest, 

they  say, 
Men  saw  the  goodly  hills  of  Somerset, 
And  white  sails  flying  on  the  yellow  sea; 
But  not  to  goodly  hill  or  yellow  sea 
Look'd  the  fair  Queen,  but  up  the  vale 

of  Usk, 
By  the   flat  meadow,  till  she  saw  them 

come; 
And    then  descending  met  them  at  the 

gates, 
Embraced    her  with   all   welcome    as   a 

friend, 
And  did  her  honour  as  the  Prince's  bride, 
And  clothed  her  for  her  bridals  like  the 

sun; 
And  all  that  week  was  old  Caerleon  gay, 
For  by  the  hands  of  Dubric,  the  high 

saint, 
They  twain  were  wedded  with  all  cere- 
mony. 

And  this  was  on  the  last  year's  Whit- 
suntide. 
But  Enid  ever  kept  the  faded  silk, 
Remembering  how  first  he  came  on  her, 
Drest  in  that  dress,  and   how  he  loved 

her  in  it, 
And  all  her  foolish  fears  about  the  dress, 
And  all  his  journey  toward  her,  as  him- 
self 
Had  told  her,  and  their  coming  to  the 
court. 

And  now  this  morning  when  he  said 
to  her, 
1  Put  on  your  worst  and  meanest  dress,' 

she  found 
And  took  it,  and  array'd  herself  therein. 

GERAINT  AND   ENID. 

O  purblind  race  of  miserable  men, 
How  many  among  us  at  this  very  hour 
Do  forge  a  life -long  trouble  for  ourselves, 
By  taking  true  for  false,  or  false  for  true; 
Here,  thro'   the   feeble  twilight  of  this 

world 
Groping,  how  many,  until  we  pass  and 

reach 
That  other,  where  we  see  as  we  are  seen  1 


348 


GERAINT  AND  ENID. 


So  fared  it  with  Geraint,  who  issuing 

forth 
That  morning,  when  they  both  had  got 

to  horse, 
Perhaps  because  he  loved   her  passion- 
ately, 
And   felt  that  tempest   brooding  round 

his  heart, 
Which,  if  he  spoke  at  all,  would  break 

perforce 
Upon  a  head  so  dear  in  thunder,  said : 
'  Not   at   my  side.     I   charge    thee  ride 

before, 
Ever  a  good  way  on  before;   and  this 
I  charge  thee,  on  thy  duty  as  a  wife, 
Whatever  happens,  not  to  speak  to  me, 
No,  not  a  word ! '  and  Enid  was  aghast; 
And    forth   they  rode,  but  scarce  three 

paces  on, 
When  crying  out,  '  Effeminate  as  I  am, 
I  will  not  tight  my  way  with  gilded  arms, 
All  shall  be  iron;  '  he  loosed  a  mighty 

purse, 
Hung  at  his  belt,  and  hurl'd  it  toward 

the  squire. 
So  the  last  sight  that  Enid  had  of  home 
Was  all   the  marble  threshold   flashing, 

strown 
With   gold   and   scatter'd   coinage,  and 

the  squire 
Chafing    his   shoulder:    then    he    cried 

again, 
'To  the  wilds!  '  and  Enid  leading  down 

the  tracks 
Thro'  which  he  bade  her  lead  him  on, 

they  past 
The    marches,    and    by   bandit-haunted 

holds, 
Gray  swamps  and  pools,  waste  places  of 

the  hern, 
And  wildernesses,  perilous   paths,  they 

rode : 
Round  was  their  pace  at  first,  but  slack- 

en'd  soon : 
A   stranger   meeting    them    had    surely 

thought 
They  rode  so  slowly  and  they  look'd  so 

pale, 
That  each  had  suffer'd  some  exceeding 

wrong. 
For  he  was  ever  saying  to  himself, 
*  O  I  that  wasted  time  to  tend  upon  her, 
To  compass  her  with  sweet  observances, 


To  dress  her  beautifully  and    keep   her 

true '  — 
And  there  he  broke  the  sentence  in  his 

heart 
Abruptly,  as  a  man  upon  his  tongue 
May  break  it,  when  his  passion  masters 

him. 
And   she   was   ever    praying   the   sweet 

heavens 
To  save  her   dear  lord  whole  from  any 

wound. 
And  ever  in  her  mind  she  cast  about 
For  that  unnoticed  failing  in  herself, 
Which  made  him  look  so  cloudy  and  so 

cold; 
Till   the   great    plover's   human   whistle 

amazed 
Her  heart,  and  glancing  round  the  waste 

she  fear'd 
In    every    wavering    brake    an    ambus- 
cade. 
Then  thought  again,  '  If  there  be  such  in 

me, 
I    might    amend    it    by    the    grace    of 

Heaven, 
If  he  would  only  speak  and  tell  me  of  it.' 

But  when  the  fourth  part  of  the  day 

was  gone, 
Then    Enid    was  aware    of    three    tall 

knights 
On  horseback,  wholly  arm'd,  behind  a 

rock 
In  shadow,  waiting  for  them,  caitiffs  all; 
And   heard   one    crying    to    his   fellow, 

4  Look, 
Here  comes  a  laggard  hanging  down  his 

head, 
Who    seems   no  bolder   than   a   beaten 

hound; 
Come,  we  will  slay  him   and   will   have 

his  horse 
And  armour,  and   his   damsel   shall  be 

ours.' 

Then  Enid  ponder'd  in  her  heart,  and 

said: 
'  I  will  go  back  a  little  to  my  lord, 
And  I  will  tell  him  all  their  caitiff  talk; 
For,  be  he  wroth  even  to  slaying  me, 
Far  liefer  by  his  dear  hand  had  I  die, 
Than  that  my  lord  should  suffer  loss  or 

shame.' 


GERAINT  AND  ENID. 


349 


Then   she  went   back  some  paces  of 

return, 
Met  his  full  frown  timidly  firm,  and  said; 
1  My   lord,   I   saw   three  bandits  by  the 

rock 
Waiting  to  fall  on  you,  and  heard  them 

boast 
That  they  would  slay  you,  and  possess 

your  horse 
And  armour,  and  your  damsel  should  be 

theirs.' 

He  made  a  wrathful  answer :   •  Did  I 
wish 
Your  warning  or  your  silence?  one  com- 
mand 
I  laid  upon  you,  not  to  speak  to  me, 
And  thus  ye  keep  it !     Well  then,  look 

—  for  now, 
Whether  ye  wish  me  victory  or  defeat, 
Long    for   my   life,   or    hunger    for   my 

death, 
Yourself  shall  see  my  vigour  is  not  lost.' 

Then  Enid  waited,  pale  and  sorrowful, 
And  down   upon   him   bare  the    bandit 

three. 
And  at   the   midmost   charging,   Prince 

Geraint 
Drave  the  long  spear  a  cubit   thro'  his 

breast 
And  out  beyond;   and  then  against  his 

brace 
Of  comrades,  each  of  whom  had  broken 

on  him 
A  lance  that  splinter'd  like  an  icicle, 
Swung  from   his  brand   a  windy  buffet 

out 
Once,  twice,  to  right,  to  left,  and  stunn'd 

the  twain 
Or  slew  them,  and  dismounting  like  a 

man 
That  skins  the  wild  beast  after  slaying 

him, 
Stript   from    the  three    dead   wolves  of 

woman  born 
The  three  gay  suits  of  armour  which  they 

wore, 
And  let  the  bodies   lie,  but  bound  the 

suits 
Of   armour    on    their    horses,    each    on 

each, 
And  tied  the  bridle-reins  of  all  the  three 


Together,  and  said  to  her,  •  Drive  them 

on 
Before  you;  '  and  she  drove  them  thro' 

the  waste. 

He  follow'd   nearer  :    ruth   began   to 

work 
Against    his    anger    in    him,    while   he 

watch'd 
The  being  he  loved  best  in  all  the  world, 
With  difficulty  in  mild  obedience 
Driving  them  on:  he  fain  had  spoken  to 

her, 
And  loosed  in  words  of  sudden  fire  the 

wrath 
And   smoulder'd  wrong  that  burnt  him 

all  within; 
But  evermore  it  seem'd  an  easier  thing 
At   once  without  remorse  to  strike  her 

dead, 
Than  to   cry   '  Halt,'   and   to   her  own 

bright  face 
Accuse  her  of  the  least  immodesty : 
And  thus  tongue-tied,  it  made  him  wroth 

the  more 
That  she  could  speak  whom  his  own  ear 

had  heard 
Call  herself  false :  and  suffering  thus  he 

made 
Minutes  an  age  :  but  in  scarce  longer  time 
Than  at  Caerleon  the  full-tided  Usk, 
Before  he  turn  to  fall  seaward  again, 
Pauses,  did  Enid,  keeping  watch,  behold 
In  the  first  shallow  shade  of  a  deep  wood, 
Before  a  gloom  of  stubborn-shafted  oaks, 
Three  other   horsemen   waiting,   wholly 

arm'd, 
Whereof  one  seem'd  far  larger  than  her 

lord, 
And  shook  her  pulses,  crying,  '  Look,  a 

prize ! 
Three  horses  and  three  goodly  suits  of 

arms, 
And  all  in  charge  of  whom ?  a  girl:    set 

on.' 
'Nay,'  said  the  second,  '  yonder  comes  a 

knight.' 
The  third,  ■  A  craven;  how  he  hangs  his 

head.' 
The  giant  answer'd   merrily,   'Yea,   but 

one? 
Wait  here,  and  when  he  passes  fall  upon 

him.' 


35° 


GERATNT  AND   ENID. 


And  Enid  ponder'd  in  \^x  heart  and 
said, 
I  will  abide  the^Coming  of  my  lord, 
And  I  will  tplfnim  all  their  villainy. 
My  lord  is^weary  with  the  fight  before, 
And  they  will  fall  upon  him  unawares. 
I  needs  must  disobey  him  for  his  good; 
How   should   I   dare   obey   him   to   his 

harm? 

feeds  must  I  speak,  and  tho'  he  kill  me 
for  it, 
I  save  a  life  dearer  to  me  than  mine.' 

And  she  abode  his  coming,   and  said 

to  him 
^ith  timid  firmness,   '  Have  I  leave  to 
\         speak  ? ' 

He  said,  '  Ye  take  it,  speaking,'  and  she 
spoke. 

'There  lurk  three  villains  yonder  in  the 

wood, 
And  each  of  them  is  wholly  arm'd,  and 

one 
Is  larger-limb'd  than  you  are,  and  they 

say 
That   they  will  fall  upon  you  while  ye 

pass.' 

To  which  he  flung  a  wrathful  answer 
back  : 
'And  if  there  were  an  hundred  in  the 

wood, 
And  every  man  were  larger-limb'd  than  I, 
And  all  at  once  should  sally  out  upon  me, 
I  swear  it  would  not  ruffle  me  so  much 
As  you  that  not  obey  me.     Stand  aside, 
And  if  I  fall,  cleave  to  the  better  man.' 

And  Enid  stood  aside  to  wait  the  event, 
Not    dare   to  watch   the   combat,   only 

breathe 
Short  fits  of  prayer,  at   every  stroke   a 

breath. 
And  he,  she  dreaded  most,  bare  down 

upon  him. 
Aim'd  at  the  helm,  his  lance  err'd;   but 

Geraint's, 
A  little  in  the  late  encounter  strain'd, 
Struck  thro'  the  bulky  bandit's  corselet 

home, 
And  then   brake   short,  and  down   his 

enemy  roll'd, 


And  there  lay  still;   as  he  that  tells  the 

tale 
Saw  once  a  great  piece  of  a  promontory, 
That  had  a  sapling  growing  on  it,  slide 
From  the  long  shore-cliff's  windy  walls  to 

the  beach, 
And  there  lie  still,  and  yet  the  sapling 

grew: 
So  lay  the  man  transfixt.       His  craven 

pair 
Of    comrades    making    slowlier   at   the 

Prince, 
When  now  they  saw  their  bulwark  fallen, 

stood; 
On  whom  the  victor,  to  confound  them 

more, 
Spurr'd  with  his  terrible  war-cry;   for  as 

one, 
That    listens   near  a  torrent   mountain- 
brook, 
All  thro'  the  crash  of  the  near  cataract 

hears 
The  drumming  thunder  of  the  huger  fall 
At  distance,  were  the   soldiers  wont  to 

hear 
His  voice  in  battle,  and  be  kindled  by  it, 
And  foemen  scared,  like  that  false  pair 

who  turn'd 
Flying,  but,  overtaken,  died  the  death 
Themselves  had   wrought   on   many  an 

innocent. 

Thereon  Geraint,  dismounting,  pick'd 

the  lance 
That  pleased  him  best,  and  drew  from 

those  dead  wolves 
Their  three  gay  suits  of  armour,  each  from 

each, 
And  bound  them  on  their  horses,  each  on 

each, 
And  tied  the  bridle-reins  of  all  the  three 
Together,  and  said  to  her, '  Drive  them  on 
Before  you,'  and  she  drove  them  thro'  the 

wood. 

He  follow'd  nearer  still :  the  pain  she 

had 
To  keep  them  in  the  wild  ways  of  the 

wood, 
Two  sets  of  three  laden  with  jingling  arms, 
Together,  served  a  little  to  disedge 
The  sharpness  of  that  pain  about   hei 

heart : 


GERAINT  AND  ENID. 


351 


And  they  themselves,  like  creatures  gently 

born 
But  into  bad  hands  fall'n,  and  now  so  long 
By  bandits  groom'd,  prick'd  their  light 

ears,  and  felt 
Her  low  firm  voice  and  tender  government. 

So  thro'  the  green  gloom  of  the  wood 

they  past, 
And  issuing  under  open  heavens  beheld 
A  little  town  with  towers,  upon  a  rock, 
And  close  beneath,  a  meadow  gemlike 

chased 
In  the  brown  wild,  and  mowers  mowing 

in  it: 
And  down  a  rocky  pathway  from  the  place 
There  came  a  fair-hair'd  youth,  that  in  his 

hand 
Bare  victual  for  the  mowers  :  and  Geraint 
Had  ruth  again  on  Enid  looking  pale : 
Then,  moving  downward  to  the  meadow 

ground, 
He,  when  the  fair-hair'd  youth  came  by 

him,  said, 
'Friend,  let  her  eat;    the  damsel  is  so 

faint.' 

•  Yea,  willingly,'  replied  the  youth;    '  and 

thou, 
My  lord,  eat  also,  tho'  the  fare  is  coarse, 
And   only  meet  for  mowers;'  then  set 

down 
His  basket,  and  dismounting  on  the  sward 
They  let  the  horses  graze,  and  ate  them- 
selves. 
And  Enid  took  a  little  delicately, 
Less  having  stomach  for  it  than  desire 
To  close  with   her  lord's  pleasure;    but 

Geraint 
Ate  all  the  mowers'  victual  unawares, 
And   when    he   found    all    empty,    was 

amazed ; 
And  '  Boy,'  said  he,  '  I  have  eaten  all, 

but  take 
A  horse  and  arms  for  guerdon;   choose 

the  best.' 
He,  reddening  in  extremity  of  delight, 
'  My  lord,  you  overpay  me  fifty- fold.' 
'  Ye  will  be  all  the  wealthier,'  cried  the 

Prince. 
'  I  take  it  as  free  gift,  then,'  said  the  boy, 

*  Not  guerdon ;   for  myself  can  easily, 
While   your  good  damsel  rests,  return, 

and  fetch 


Fresh  victual  for  these  mowers  of  our 

Earl; 
For  these  are  his,  and  all  the  field  is  his, 
And  I  myself  am  his;   and  I  will  tell  him 
How  great  a  man  thou  art :  he  loves  to 

know 
When  men  of  mark  are  in  his  territory : 
And  he  will  have  thee  to  his  palace  here, 
And  serve  thee  costlier  than  with  mowers' 

fare.' 

Then  said  Geraint,  '  I  wish  no  better 

fare: 
I  never  ate  with  angrier  appetite 
Than  when  I  left  your  mowers  dinnerless. 
And  into  no  Earl's  palace  will  I  go. 
I  know,  God  knows,  too  much  of  palaces  ! 
And  if  he  want  me,  let  him  come  to  me. 
But  hire  us  some  fair  chamber  for  the 

night, 
And  stalling  for  the  horses,  and  return 
With  victual  for  these  men,  and  let  us 

know.' 

'Yea,  my  kind  lord,'  said  the  glad 

youth,  and  went, 
Held  his  head  high,  and  thought  himself 

a  knight, 
And  up  the  rocky  pathway  disappear'd, 
Leading  the  horse,  and  they  were  left 

alone. 

But  when  the  Prince  had  brought  his 

errant  eyes 
Home  from  the  rock,  sideways   he   let 

them  glance 
At  Enid,  where  she  droopt :  his  own  false 

doom, 
That  shadow  of  mistrust  should  never  cross 
Betwixt  them,  came  upon  him,  and  he 

sigh'd; 
Then  with   another  humorous   ruth  re- 

mark'd 
The  lusty  mowers  labouring  dinnerless, 
And  watch'd  the  sun  blaze  on  the  turning 

scythe, 
And  after  nodded  sleepily  in  the  heat. 
But  she,  remembering  her  old  ruin'd  hall, 
And  all  the  windy  clamour  of  the  daws 
About   her   hollow   turret,    pluck'd    the 

grass 
There  growing  longest  by  the  meadow's 

edge, 


352 


GERAINT  AND  ENID. 


And  into  many  a  listless  annulet, 

Now   over,  now   beneath    her   marriage 

ring, 
Wove  and  unwove  it,  till  the  boy  return'd 
And  told  them  of  a  chamber,  and  they 

went; 
Where,  after  saying  to  her,  '  If  ye  will, 
Call   for  the  woman  of  the    house,'   to 

which 
She  answer'd,  'Thanks,  my  lord;  '    the 

two  remain'd 
Apart  by  all  the    chamber's  width,  and 

mute 
As  creatures  voiceless  thro'  the  fault  of 

birth, 
Or  two  wild  men  supporters  of  a  shield, 
Painted,  who  stare  at  open  space,  nor 

glance 
The  one  at  other,  parted  by  the  shield. 

On  a  sudden,  many  a  voice  along  the 

street, 
And  heel  against  the  pavement  echoing, 

burst 
Their  drowse;   and  either  started  while 

the  door, 
Push'd  from  without,  drave  backward  to 

the  wall, 
And  midmost  of  a  rout  of  roisterers, 
Femininely  fair  and  dissolutely  pale, 
Her  suitor  in  old  years  before  Geraint, 
Enter'd,   the   wild   lord    of    the    place, 

Li  m  ours. 
He  moving  up  with  pliant  courtliness, 
Greeted  Geraint  full  face,  but  stealthily, 
In  the  mid- warmth  of  welcome  and  graspt 

hand, 
Found  Enid  with  the  corner  of  his  eye, 
And  knew  her  sitting  sad  and  solitary. 
Then  cried  Geraint  for  wine  and  goodly 

cheer 
To  feed  the  sudden  guest,  and  sumptu- 
ously 
According  to  his  fashion,  bade  the  host 
Call  in  what  men  soever  were  his  friends, 
And  feast  with  these  in  honour  of  their 

Earl; 
'And  care  not  for  the  cost;   the  cost  is 


And  wine  and  food  were  brought,  and 
Earl  Li m ours 
Drank  till  he  jested  with  all  ease,  and  told 


Free  tales,  and  took  the  word  and  play'd 

upon  it, 
And  made  it  of  two  colours;   for  his  talk, 
When  wine  and  free  companions  kindled 

him, 
Was  wont  to  glance  and  sparkle  like  a  gem 
Of  fifty  facets;   thus  he  moved  the  Prince 
To  laughter  and  his  comrades  to  applause. 
Then,  when  the  Prince  was  merry,  ask'd 

Limours, 
'  Your  leave,  my  lord,  to  cross  the  room, 

and  speak 
To  your  good  damsel  there  who  sits  apart, 
And  seems  so  lonely?  '     '  My  free  leave,' 

he  said; 
•  Get  her  to  speak :  she  doth  not  speak  to 

me.' 
Then  rose  Limours,  and  looking  at  his 

feet, 
Like  him  who  tries  the  bridge  he  fears 

may  fail, 
Crost  and  came  near,  lifted  adoring  eyes, 
Bow'd  at  her  side  and  utter'd  whisper- 

ingly : 

'  Enid,  the  pilot  star  of  my  lone  life, 
Enid,  my  early  and  my  only  love, 
Enid,  the  loss  of  whom  hath  turn'd  me 

wild  — 
What  chance  is  this?  how  is  it  I  see  you 

here? 
Ye  are  in  my  power  at  last,  are  in  my 

power. 
Yet  fear  me  not :  I  call  mine  own  self 

wild, 
But  keep  a  touch  of  sweet  civility 
Here  in  the  heart  of  waste  and  wilderness. 
I    thought,  but   that   your   father   came 

between, 
In  former  days  you  saw  me  favourably. 
And  if  it  were  so  do  not  keep  it  back : 
Make  me  a  little  happier  :  let  me  know  it : 
Owe  you  me  nothing  for  a  life  half-lost? 
Yea,  yea,  the  whole  dear  debt  of  all  you 

are. 
And,  Enid,  you  and  he,  I  see  with  joy, 
Ye  sit  apart,  you  do  not  speak  to  him, 
You  come  with  no  attendance,  page  or 

maid, 
To  serve  you  —  doth  he  love  you  as  of  old  ? 
For,  call  it  lovers'  quarrels,  yet  I  know 
Tho'  men   may  bicker  with   the  things 

they  love, 


GERAINT  AND  ENID. 


353 


They  would  not  make  them  laughable  in 

all  eyes, 
Not  while  they  loved  them;    and  your 

wretched  dress, 
A  wretched  insult  on  you,  dumbly  speaks 
Your  story,  that  this  man  loves  you  no 

more. 
Your  beauty  is  no  beauty  to  him  now : 
A  common  chance  —  right  well  I  know 

it  —  pall'd  — 
For  I  know  men :  nor  will  ye  win  him 

back, 
For   the   man's   love   once    gone   never 

returns. 
But  here  is  one  who  loves  you  as  of  old; 
With  more  exceeding  passion  than  of  old : 
Good,  speak  the  word  :  my  followers  ring 

him  round : 
He  sits  unarm'd;   I  hold  a  finger  up; 
They  understand:  nay;   I  do  not  mean 

blood : 
Nor  need  ye  look  so  scared  at  what  I 

say: 
My  malice  is  no  deeper  than  a  moat, 
No  stronger  than  a  wall :    there  is  the 

keep; 
He  shall  not  cross  us  more;   speak  but 

the  word : 
Or  speak  it  not;  but  then  by  Him  that 

made  me 
The  one  true  lover  whom  you  ever  own'd, 
I  will  make  use  of  all  the  power  I  have. 
O  pardon  me  !  the  madness  of  that  hour, 
When  first  I  parted  from  thee,  moves  me 

yet.' 

At  this  the  tender  sound  of  his  own 

voice 
And  sweet  self-pity,  or  the  fancy  of  it, 
Made  his  eye  moist;   but  Enid  fear'd  his 

eyes, 
Moist  as  they  were,  wine-heated  from  the 

feast ; 
And  answer'd  with  such  craft  as  women 

use, 
Guilty  or  guiltless,  to  stave  off  a  chance 
That  breaks  upon  them  perilously,  and 

said  : 

*  Earl,  if  you  love   me  as   in   former 
years, 
And  do  not  practise  on  me,  come  with 
morn, 


And  snatch  me  from  him  as  by  violence; 
Leave  me  to-night :  I  am  weary  to  the 
death.' 

Low  at  leave-taking,  with  his  brandish'd 

plume 
Brushing  his  instep,  bow'd  the  all-amorous 

Earl, 
And  the  stout  Prince  bade  him  a  loud 

good-night. 
He  moving  homeward  babbled  to  his  men, 
How  Enid  never  loved  a  man  but  him, 
Nor  cared  a  broken  egg-shell  for  her  lord. 

But  Enid  left  alone  with  Prince  Geraint, 
Debating  his  command  of  silence  given, 
And  that  she  now  perforce  must  violate  it, 
Held  commune  with  herself,  and  while 

she  held 
He  fell  asleep,  and  Enid  had  no  heart 
To  wake  him,  but  hung  o'er  him,  wholly 

pleased 
To  find  him  yet  unwounded  after  fight, 
And  hear  him  breathing  low  and  equally. 
Anon    she    rose,   and    stepping    lightly, 

heap'd   - 
The  pieces  of  his  armour  in  one  place, 
All  to  be  there  against  a  sudden  need; 
Then  dozed  awhile  herself,  but  overtoil'd 
By  that  day's  grief  and  travel,  evermore 
Seem'd  catching  at  a  rootless  thorn,  and 

then 
Went  slipping  down  horrible  precipices. 
And    strongly   striking    out    her    limbs 

awoke; 
Then  thought  she  heard  the  wild  Earl  at 

the  door, 
With  all  his  rout  of  random  followers, 
Sound  on  a  dreadful  trumpet,  summoning 

her; 
Which  was  the  red  cock  shouting  to  the 

light, 
As  the  gray  dawn  stole  o'er  the  dewy 

world, 
And  glimmer'd  on  his  armour  in  the  room. 
And  once  again  she  rose  to  look  at  it, 
But  touch'd  it  unawares :  jangling,  the 

casque 
Fell,  and  he  started  up  and  stared  at  her. 
Then  breaking  his  command  of  silence 

given, 
She  told  him  all  that  Earl  Limours  had 

said, 


554 


GERAINT  AND  ENID. 


Except  the  passage  that  he  loved  her  not; 
Nor  left  untold  the  craft  herself  had  used;- 
But  ended  with  apology  so  sweet, 
Low-spoken,  and  of  so  few  words,  and 

seem'd 
So  justified  by  that  necessity, 
That  tho'  he  thought  '  was  it  for  him  she 

wept 
In  Devon? '  he  but  gave  a  wrathful  groan, 
Saying,  'Your  sweet    faces  make  good 

fellows  fools 
And  traitors.     Call  the  host  and  bid  him 

bring 
Charger  and  palfrey.'     So  she  glided  out 
Among    the    heavy   breathings    of    the 

house, 
And  like  a  household  Spirit  at  the  walls 
Beat,   till   she   woke   the   sleepers,    and 

return'd : 
Then  tending  her  rough   lord,  tho'    all 

unask'd, 
In  silence,  did  him  service  as  a  squire; 
Till  issuing  arm'd  he  found  the  host  and 

cried, 
'Thy    reckoning,   friend?'    and    ere   he 

learnt  it,  '  Take 
Five  horses  and  their  armours;  '  and  the 

host 
Suddenly  honest,  answer'd  in  amaze, 
'  My  lord,  I  scarce  have  spent  the  worth 

of  one ! ' 
'  Ye  will  be  all  the  wealthier,'  said  the 

Prince, 
And  then  to  Enid, '  Forward  !  and  to-day 
I  charge  you,  Enid,  more  especially, 
What  thing  soever  ye  may  hear,  or  see, 
Or  fancy  (tho'  I  count  it  of  small  use 
To  charge  you)  that  ye  speak  not  but 

obey.' 

And    Enid  answer'd,  'Yea,  my  lord, 

I  know 
Your  wish,  and  would  obey ;  but  riding 

first, 
I  hear  the  violent  threats  you  do  not  hear, 
I  see  the  danger  which  you  cannot  see  : 
Then  not  to  give  you  warning,  that  seems 

hard; 
Almost  beyond  me  :  yet  I  would  obey.' 

'Yea  so,'  said  he,  'do  it:  be  not  too 
wise; 
Seeing  that  ye  are  wedded  to  a  man, 


Not  all  mismated  with  a  yawning  clown, 
But  one  with  arms  to  guard  his  head  and 

yours, 
With  eyes  to  find  you  out  however  far, 
^•And  ears  to  hear  you  even  in  his  dreams.' 

With   that   he   turn'd   and   look'd   as 

keenly  at  her 
As  careful  robins  eye  the  delver's  toil; 
And  that  within  her,  which  a  wanton  fool, 
Or  hasty  judger  would  have  call'd   her 

guilt, 
Made  her  cheek  burn  and  either  eyelid  fall. 
And  Geraint  look'd  and  was  not  satisfied. 

Then  forward  by  a  way  which,  beaten 

broad, 
Led  from  the  territory  of  false  Limours 
To  the  waste  earldom  of  another  earl, 
Doorm,  whom  his  shaking  vassals  call'd 

the  Bull, 
Went  Enid  with  her  sullen  follower  on. 
Once  she  look'd  back,  and  when  she  saw 

him  ride 
More  near  by  many  a  rood  than  yester- 

morn, 
It    wellnigh    made    her    cheerful;    till 

Geraint 
Waving  an  angry  hand  as  who  should  say 
'Ye  watch  me,'  sadden'd  all   her   heart 

again. 
But  while  the  sun  yet  beat  a  dewy  blade, 
The  sound  of  many  a  heavily-galloping 

hoof 
Smote  on  her  ear,  and  turning  round  she 

saw 
Dust,  and  the  points  of  lances  bicker  in  it. 
Then  not  to  disobey  her  lord's  behest, 
And  yet  to  give  him  warning,  for  he  rode 
As  if  he  heard  not,  moving  back  she  held 
Her  finger  up,  and  pointed  to  the  dust. 
At  which  the  warrior  in  his  obstinacy, 
Because  she  kept  the  letter  of  his  word, 
Was  in  a  manner  pleased,  and  turning, 

stood. 
And  in  the  moment  after,  wild  Limours, 
Borne  on  a  black  horse,  like  a  thunder- 
cloud 
Whose  skirts  are  loosen' d  by  the  breaking 

storm, 
Half  ridden   off  with  by  the  thing  he 

rode, 
And  all  in  passion  uttering  a  dry  shriek, 


GERAINT  AND  ENID. 


355 


Dash'd  on  Geraint,  who  closed  with  him, 

and  bore 
Down  by  the  length  of  lance  and   arm 

beyond 
The  £rupper,  and  so  left  him  stunn'd  or 


And  overthrew  the  next  that  follow'd  him, 
And  blindly  rush'd  on  all  the  rout  behind. 
But  at  the  flash  and  motion  of  the  man 
They  vanish'd  panic-stricken,  like  a  shoal 
Of  darting  fish,  that  on  a  summer  morn 
Adown  the  crystal  dykes  at  Camelot 
Come  slipping  o'er  their  shadows  on  the 

sand, 
But  if  a  man  who  stands  upon  the  brink 
But  lift  a  shining  hand  against  the  sun, 
There  is  not  left  the  twinkle  of  a  fin 
Betwixt  the  cressy  islets  white  in  flower; 
So,  scared  but  at  the  motion  of  the  man, 
Fled  all  the  boon  companions  of  the  Earl, 
And  left  him  lying  in  the  public  way; 
So  vanish  friendships  only  made  in  wine. 

Then  like   a   stormy  sunlight  smiled 
Geraint, 
Who  saw  the  chargers  of  the  two  that  fell 
Start  from  their  fallen  lords,  and  wildly 

fly, 

Mixt  with  the  flyers.     ■  Horse  and  man,' 

he  said, 
4  All  of  one  mind  and  all  right-honest 

friends ! 
Not  a  hoof  left :  and  I  methinks  till  now 
Was  honest  —  paid  with  horses  and  with 

arms; 
I  cannot  steal  or  plunder,  no  nor  beg : 
And  so  what  say  ye,  shall  we  strip  him 

there 
Your  lover  ?  has  your  palfrey  heart  enough 
To  bear  his  armour?  shall  we   fast,   or 

dine? 
No?  —  then  do  thou,  being  right  honest, 

pray 
That  we  may  meet  the  horsemen  of  Earl 

Doorm, 
I  too  would  still  be  honest.'    Thus  he 

said: 
And  sadly  gazing  on  her  bridle-reins, 
And  answering  not  one  word,  she  led  the 

way. 

But  as  a  man  to  whom  a  dreadful  loss 
Falls  in  a  far  land  and  he  knows  it  not, 


But  coming  back  he  learns  it,  and  the  loss 
So  pains  him  that  he  sickens  nigh   to 

death ; 
So  fared  it  with  Geraint,  who  being  prick'd 
In  combat  with  the  follower  of  Limours, 
Bled  underneath  his  armour  secretly, 
And  so  rode  on,  nor  told  his  gentle  wife 
What  ail'd  him,  hardly  knowing  it  himself, 
Till   his   eye   darken'd   and   his   helmet 

wagg'd; 
And  at  a  sudden  swerving  of  the  road, 
Tho'  happily  down  on  a  bank  of  grass, 
The    Prince,  without   a   word,  from  his 

horse  fell. 

And  Enid  heard  the  clashing  of  his  fall, 
Suddenly  came,  and  at  his  side  all  pale 
Dismounting,  loosed  the  fastenings  of  his 

arms, 
Nor  let  her  true  hand  falter,  nor  blue  eye 
Moisten,  till  she  had  lighted  on  his  wound, 
And  tearing  off  her  veil  of  faded  silk 
Had  bared  her  forehead  to  the  blistering 

sun, 
And  swathed  the  hurt  that  drain'd  her 

dear  lord's  life. 
Then  after  all  was  done  that  hand  could  do, 
She  rested,  and  her  desolation  came 
Upon  her,  and  she  wept  beside  the  way. 

And  many  past,  but  none  regarded  her, 
For  in  that  realm  of  lawless  turbulence, 
A  woman  weeping  for  her  murder'd  mate 
Was  cared  as  much   for   as   a   summer 

shower : 
One  took  him  for  a  victim  of  Earl  Doorm, 
Nor  dared  to  waste  a  perilous  pity  on  him : 
Another  hurrying  past,  a  man-at-arms, 
Rode  on  a  mission  to  the  bandit  Earl; 
Half  whistling  and  half  singing  a  coarse 

song, 
He  drove  the  dust  against  her  veilless 

eyes: 
Another,  flying  from  the  wrath  of  Doorm 
Before  an  ever-fancied  arrow,  made 
The  long  way  smoke  beneath  him  in  his 

fear; 
At  which  her  palfrey  whinnying  lifted 

heel, 
And  scour'd  into  the  coppices  and  was 

lost, 
While  the  great  charger  stood,  grieved 

like  a  man. 


356 


GERAINT  AND  ENID. 


But  at  the  point  of  noon  the  huge  Earl 

Doorm, 
Broad-faced  with  under-fringe  of  russet 

beard, 
Bound  on  a  foray,  rolling  eyes  of  prey, 
Came  riding  with  a  hundred  lances  up; 
But  ere  he  came,  like  one  that  hails  a  ship, 
Cried  out  with  a  big  voice,  •  What,  is  he 

dead?' 
1  No,  no,  not  dead  ! '  she  answer'd  in  all 

haste. 
1  Would  some  of  your  kind  people  take 

him  up, 
And  bear  him  hence  out  of  this  cruel  sun? 
Most  sure  am  I,  quite  sure,  he  is  not  dead.' 

Then  said  Earl  Doorm:  'Well,  if  he 

be  not  dead, 
Why  wail  ye  for  him  thus?  ye  seem  a  child. 
And  be  he  dead,  I  count  you  for  a  fool; 
Your  wailing  will  not  quicken  him  :  dead 

or  not, 
Ye  mar  a  comely  face  with  idiot  tears. 
Yet,  since  the  face  is  comely  —  some  of 

you, 
Here,  take  him  up,  and  bear  him  to  our 

hall: 
And  if  he  live,  we  will  have  him  of  our 

band; 
And  if  he  die,  why  earth  has  earth  enough 
To  hide  him.    See  ye  take  the  charger  too, 
A  noble  one.' 

He  spake,  and  past  away, 
But    left    two    brawny    spearmen,   who 

advanced, 
Each  growling  like  a  dog,  when  his  good 

bone 
Seems  to  be  pluck'd  at  by  the  village  boys 
Who  love  to  vex  him  eating,  and  he  fears 
To  lose  his  bone,  and  lays  his  foot  upon  it, 
Gnawing  and  growling:    so  the  ruffians 

growl'd, 
Fearing  to  lose,  and  all  for  a  dead  man, 
Their  chance  of  booty  from  the  morning's 

raid, 
Yet  raised  and  laid  him  on  a  litter-bier, 
Such  as  they  brought  upon  their  forays 

out 
For  those  that  might  be  wounded;   laid 

him  on  it 
All  in  the  hollow  of  his  shield,  and  took 
And  bore  him  to  the  naked  hall  of  Doorm 
(His  gentle  charger  following  him  unled), 


And  cast  him  and  the  bier  in  which  he 

lay 
Down  on  an  oaken  settle  in  the  hall, 
And  then  departed,  hot  in  haste  to  join 
Their    luckier    mates,    but   growling   as 

before, 
And  cursing  their  lost  time,  and  the  dead 

man, 
And  their  own  Earl,  and  their  own  souls, 

and  her. 
They  might  as  well  have  blest  her :  she 

was  deaf 
To  blessing  or  to  cursing  save  from  one. 

So  for  long  hours  sat  Enid  by  her  lord, 
There  in  the  naked   hall,  propping   his 

head, 
And  chafing  his  pale  hands,  and  calling 

to  him. 
Till  at  the  last  he  waken'd  from  his  swoon, 
And  found  his  own  dear  bride  propping 

his  head, 
And  chafing  his  faint  hands,  and  calling 

to  him; 
And  felt  the  warm  tears  falling  on  his  face; 
And  said  to  his  own  heart,  •  She  weeps  for 

me: ' 
And  yet  lay  still,  and  feign'd  himself  as 

dead, 
That  he  might  prove  her  to  the  uttermost, 
And  say  to  his  own  heart, <  She  weeps  for 

me.' 

But  in  the  falling  afternoon  return'd 
The  huge  Earl  Doorm  with  plunder  to 

the  hall. 
His   lusty   spearmen   follow'd   him  with 

noise  : 
Each  hurling  down  a  heap  of  things  that 

rang 
Against  the  pavement,  cast  his  lance  aside, 
And   doffd   his   helm :    and   then   there 

flutter'd  in, 
Half-bold,  half-frighted,  with  dilated  eyes, 
A  tribe  of  women,  dress'd  in  many  hues, 
And   mingled  with  the  spearmen:    and 

Earl  Doorm 
Struck  with  a  knife's  haft  hard  against 

the  board, 
And  call'd  for  flesh  and  wine  to  feed  his 

spears. 
And   men    brought   in  whole   hogs   and 

quarter  beeves, 


GERAINT  AND  ENID. 


357 


And  all  the  hall  was  dim  with  steam  of 

flesh: 
And  none  spake  word,  but  all  sat  down 

at  once, 
And  ate  with  tumult  in  the  naked  hall, 
Feeding  like  horses  when  you  hear  them 

feed; 
Till  Enid  shrank  far  back  into  herself, 
To  shun  the  wild  ways  of  the  lawless  tribe. 
But  when  Earl  Doorm  had  eaten  all  he 

would, 
He  roll'd  his  eyes  about  the  hall,  and 

found 
A  damsel  drooping  in  a  corner  of  it. 
Then  he  remember'd  her,  and  how  she 

wept; 
And  out  of  her  there  came  a  power  upon 

him; 
And  rising  on  the  sudden  he  said,  '  Eat ! 
I  never  yet  beheld  a  thing  so  pale. 
God's  curse,  it  makes  me  mad  to  see  you 

weep. 
Eat !     Look   yourself.     Good   luck  had 

your  good  man, 
For  were  I  dead  who  is  it  would  weep  for 

me? 
Sweet  lady,  never  since  I  first  drew  breath 
Have  I  beheld  a  lily  like  yourself. 
And  so  there  lived  some  colour  in  your 

cheek, 
There  is  not  one  among  my  gentlewomen 
Were  fit  to  wear  your  slipper  for  a  glove. 
But  listen  to  me,  and  by  me  be  ruled, 
And  I  will  do  the  thing  I  have  not  done, 
For  ye  shall  share  my  earldom  with  me, 

girl, 
And  we  will  live  like  two  birds  in  one 

nest, 
And  I  will  fetch  you  forage  from  all  fields, 
For  I  compel  all  creatures  to  my  will.' 

He  spoke :    the  brawny  spearman  let 

his  cheek 
Bulge  with  the  unswallow'd   piece,  and 

turning  stared; 
While  some,  whose  souls  the  old  serpent 

long  had  drawn 
Down,  as  the  worm  draws  in  the  wither'd 

leaf 
And  makes  it  earth,  hiss'd  each  at  other's 

ear 
What   shall   not   be   recorded  —  women 

they, 


Women,  or  what  had  been  those  gracious 

things, 
But  now  desired  the  humbling  of  their 

best, 
Yea,  would  have  help'd  him  to  it :  and 

all  at  once 
They  hated  her,  who  took  no  thought  of 

them, 
But  answer'd  in  low  voice,  her  meek  head 

yet 
Drooping,  '  I  pray  you  of  your  courtesy, 
He  being  as  he  is,  to  let  me  be.' 

She  spake  so  low  he  hardly  heard  her 
speak, 
But  like  a  mighty  patron,  satisfied 
With  what  himself  had  done  so  graciously, 
Assumed  that  she  had  thank'd  him,  add- 
ing, 'Yea, 
Eat  and  be  glad,  for  I  account  you  mine.' 

She  answer'd  meekly,  '  How  should  I 
be  glad 
Henceforth  in  all  the  world  at  anything, 
Until  my  lord  arise  and  look  upon  me?' 

Here  the  huge  Earl  cried  out  upon  her 

talk, 
As  all  but  empty  heart  and  weariness 
And  sickly  nothing ;  suddenly  seized  on 

her, 
And   bare  her  by  main  violence  to  the 

board, 
And  thrust  the  dish  before  her,  crying, 

'  Eat.' 

'  No,  no,'  said  Enid,  vext, '  I  will  not  eat 
Till  yonder  man  upon  the  bier  arise, 
And   eat   with   me.'     '  Drink,  then,'  he 

answer'd.     '.Here !  ' 
(And  fill'd  a  horn  with  wine  and  held  it 

to  her,) 
'  Lo  !  I,  myself,  when  flush'd  with  fight, 

or  hot, 
God's  curse,  with  anger  —  often  I  myself, 
Before  I  well  have  drunken,  scarce  can 

eat: 
Drink  therefore  and  the  wine  will  change 

your  will.' 

'  Not  so,'  she  cried,  '  by  Heaven,  I  will 
not  drink 
Till  my  dear  lord  arise  and  bid  me  do  it, 


358 


GERAINT  AND  ENID. 


And  drink  with  me;    and  if  he  rise  no 

more, 
I  will  not  look  at  wine  until  I  die.' 

At  this  he  turn'd  all  red  and  paced  his 

hall, 
Now  gnaw'd  his  under,  now  his   upper 

lip, 
And  coming  up  close  to  her,  said  at  last : 
'  Girl,  for  I  see  ye  scorn  my  courtesies, 
Take    warning :    yonder   man   is   surely 

dead; 
And  I  compel  all  creatures  to  my  will. 
Not  eat  nor  drink?     And  wherefore  wail 

for  one, 
Who  put  your  beauty  to  this  flout  and 

scorn 
By  dressing  it  in  rags?     Amazed  am  I, 
Beholding  how  ye  butt  against  my  wish, 
That  I   forbear  you  thus :    cross  me  no 

more. 
At  least  put  off  to  please  me  this  poor 

gown, 
This    silken    rag,    this    beggar-woman's 

weed: 
I  love  that  beauty  should  go  beautifully : 
For  see  ye  not  my  gentlewomen  here, 
How  gay,  how  suited  to  the  house  of  one 
Who  loves  that  beauty  should  go  beauti- 
fully? 
Rise    therefore;    robe   yourself  in  this: 

obey.' 

He  spoke,  and  one  among  his  gentle- 
women 

Display'd  a  splendid  silk  of  foreign  loom, 

Where  like  a  shoaling  sea  the  lovely 
blue 

Play'd  into  green,  and  thicker  down  the 
front 

With  jewels  than  the  sward  with  drops  of 
dew, 

When  all  night  long  a  cloud  clings  to  the 
hill, 

And  with  the  dawn  ascending  lets  the  day 

Strike  where  it  clung :  so  thickly  shone 
the  gems. 

But  Enid  answer'd,  harder  to  be  moved 

Than  hardest  tyrants  in  their  day  of  power, 

With  life-long  injuries  burning  unavenged, 

And    now   their   hour    has   come;    and 

Enid  said : 


'  In  this  poor  gown  my  dear  lord  found 

me  first, 
And  loved  me  serving  in  my  father's  hall : 
In  this  poor  gown  I  rode  with  him  to 

court, 
And  there  the  Queen  array'd  me  like  the 

sun: 
In  this  poor  gown  he  bade  me  clothe 

myself, 
When  now  we  rode  upon  this  fatal  quest 
Of  honour,    where    no    honour   can   be 

gain'd : 
And  this  poor  gown  I  will  not  cast  aside 
Until  himself  arise  a  living  man, 
And  bid  me  cast  it.    I  have  griefs  enough  : 
Pray  you  be  gentle,  pray  you  let  me  be : 
I  never  loved,  can  never  love  but  him : 
Yea,  God,  I  pray  you  of  your  gentleness, 
He  being  as  he  is,  to  let  me  be.' 

Then  strode  the  brute  Earl  up   and 

down  his  hall, 
And  took  his  russet  beard  between  his 

teeth; 
Last,  coming  up  quite  close,  and  in  his 

mood 
Crying,  '  I  count  it  of  no  more  avail, 
Dame,  to  be  gentle  than  ungentle  with 

you; 
Take  my  salute,'  unknightly  with  flat  hand, 
However  lightly,  smote  her  on  the  cheek. 

Then  Enid,  in  her  utter  helplessness, 
And   since   she   thought,  *  He   had  not 

dared  to  do  it, 
Except  he  surely  knew  my  lord  was  dead,' 
Sent  forth  a  sudden  sharp  and  bitter  cry, 
As  of  a  wild  thing  taken  in  the  trap, 
Which  sees  the  trapper  coming  thro'  the 

wood. 

This  heard  Geraint,  and  grasping  at 

his  sword 
(It  lay  beside  him  in  the  hollow  shield), 
Made  but  a  single   bound,  and  with  a 

sweep  of  it 
Shore  thro'  the  swarthy  neck,  and  like  a 

ball 
The   russet-bearded  head  roll'd  on   the 

floor. 
So  died  Earl  Doorm  by  him  he  counted 

dead. 
And  all  the  men  and  women  in  the  hall 


GERAINT  AND  ENID. 


359 


Rose  when  they  saw  the  dead  man  rise, 

and  fled 
Yelling  as  from  a  spectre,  and  the  two 
Were  left  alone  together,  and  he  said : 

'  Enid,  I  have   used   you  worse  than 

that  dead  man; 
Done   you  more  wrong :  we  both  have 

undergone 
That   trouble  which  has  left  me  thrice 

your  own : 
Henceforward  I  will  rather  die  than  doubt  J/ 
And  here  I  lay  this  penance  on  myself, 
Not,   tho'   mine    own    ears    heard    you 

yestermorn  — 
You  thought  me  sleeping,  but  I   heard 

you  say, 
I  heard  you  say,  that  you  were  no  true 

wife: 
I  swear  I  will  not  ask  your  meaning  in  it : 
I  do  believe  yourself  against  yourself, 
And  will  henceforward   rather  die  than 

doubt.' 

And  Enid   could  not  say  one  tender 

word, 
She  felt  so  blunt  and  stupid  at  the  heart : 
She   only   pray'd    him,   '  Fly,    they   will 

return 
And  slay  you;   fly,  your  charger  is  with- 
out, 
My  palfrey  lost.'     ■  Then,  Enid,  shall  you 

ride 
Behind  me.'    '  Yea,'  said  Enid, '  let  us  go.' 
And  moving  out  they  found  the  stately 

horse, 
Who  now  no  more  a  vassal  to  the  thief, 
But  free  to  stretch  his  limbs  in  lawful 

fight, 
Neigh'd  with  all  gladness  as  they  came, 

and  stoop'd 
With  a  low  whinny  toward  the  pair :  and 

she 
Kiss'd   the  white   star   upon   his   noble 

front, 
Glad  also;   then  Geraint  upon  the  horse 
Mounted,  and  reach'd  a  hand,  and  on  his 

foot 
She  set  her  own  and  climb'd;   he  turn'd 

his  face 
And  kiss'd  her  climbing,  and  she  cast 

her  arms 
About  him,  and  at  once  they  rode  away. 


And  never  yet,  since  high  in  Paradise 
O'er  the  four  rivers  the  first  roses  blew, 
Came  purer  pleasure  unto  mortal  kind 
Than  lived  thro'  her,  who  in  that  perilous 

hour 
Put  hand  to  hand  beneath  her  husband's 

heart, 
And  felt  him  hers  again :   she  did  not 

weep, 
But  o'er  her  meek  eyes  came  a  happy 

mist 
Like  that  which  kept  the  heart  of  Eden 

green 
Before  the  useful  trouble  of  the  rain  : 
Yet  not  so  misty  were   her   meek  blue 

eyes 
As  not  to  see  before  them  on  the  path, 
Right  in  the  gateway  of  the  bandit  hold, 
A  knight  of  Arthur's  court,  who  laid  his 

lance 
In  rest,  and  made  as  if  to  fall  upon  him. 
Then,  fearing  for  his  hurt  and  loss  of 

blood, 
She,  with  her  mind  all  full  of  what  had 

chanced, 
Shriek'd  to  the  stranger '  Slay  not  a  dead 

man!' 
'The  voice  of  Enid,'  said  the  knight; 

but  she, 
Beholding  it  was  Edyrn  son  of  Nudd, 
Was   moved   so    much    the    more,   and 

shriek'd  again, 
'  O  cousin,  slay  not  him  who  gave  you 

life.' 
And  Edyrn  moving  frankly  forward  spake : 
•  My  lord  Geraint,  I  greet  you  with  all 

love; 
I  took  you  for  a  bandit  knight  of  Doorm ; 
And  fear  not,  Enid,  I  should  fall  upon 

him, 
Who  love  you,  Prince,  with  something  of 

the  love 
Wherewith   we    love    the    Heaven   that 

chastens  us. 
For  once,  when  I  was  up  so  high  in  pride 
That  I  was  halfway  down  the  slope  to 

Hell, 
By  overthrowing  me  you  threw  me  higher. 
Now,  made  a  knight  of  Arthur's  Table 

Round, 
And  since  I  knew  this  Earl,  when  I  my- 
self 
Was  half  a  bandit  in  my  lawless  hour, 


36o 


GERAINT  AND  ENID. 


I  come  the  mouthpiece  of  our  King  to 

Doorm 
(The  King  is  close  behind  me)  bidding 

him 
Disband  himself,  and  scatter  all  his  powers, 
Submit,  and  hear  the  judgment  of  the 

King.' 

•  He  hears  the  judgment  of  the  King  of 

kings,' 
Cried    the   wan    Prince;     'and   lo,    the 

powers  of  Doorm 
Are  scatter'd,'  and  he  pointed  to  the  field, 
Where,  huddled  here  and  there  on  mound 

and  knoll, 
Were  men  and  women  staring  and  aghast, 
While  some  yet  fled ;  and  then  he  plainlier 

told 
How  the  huge  Earl  lay  slain  within  his 

hall. 
But   when    the    knight    besought    him, 

'  Follow  me, 
Prince,  to  the  camp,  and  in  the  King's 

own  ear 
Speak    what    has    chanced;     ye   surely 

have  endured 
Strange  chances  here  alone;'  that  other 

flush'd, 
And  hung  his  head,  and  halted  in  reply, 
Fearing  the  mild  face  of  the  blameless 

King, 
And  after  madness  acted  question  ask'd : 
Till  Edyrn  crying,  ■  If  ye  will  not  go 
To  Arthur,  then  will  Arthur  come  to  you,' 
•  Enough,'  he  said,  '  I  follow/  and  they 

went. 
But  Enid  in  their  going  had  two  fears, 
One  from  the  bandit  scatter'd  in  the  field, 
And  one  from  Edyrn.     Every  now  and 

then, 
When   Edyrn  rein'd  his  charger  at  her 

side, 
She  shrank  a  little.     In  a  hollow  land, 
From  which  old  fires  have  broken,  men 

may  fear 
Fresh  fire  and  ruin.  He,  perceiving,  said  : 

'  Fair  and  dear  cousin,  you  that  most 

had  cause 
To  fear  me,  fear  no  longer,  I  am  changed. 
Yourself  were  first  the  blameless  cause  to 

make 
My  nature's  prideful  sparkle  in  the  blood 


Break  into  furious  flame;   being  repulsed 
By  Yniol  and   yourself,  I  schemed   and 

wrought 
Until  I  overturn'd  him;   then  set  up 
(With  one  main  purpose  ever  at  my  heart) 
My  haughty  jousts,  and  took  a  paramour; 
Did  her  mock-honour  as  the  fairest  fair, 
Arid,  toppling  over  all  antagonism, 
So  wax'd  in  pride,  that  I  believed  myself 
Unconquerable,  for  I  was  wellnigh  mad  : 
And,  but  for  my  main  purpose  in  these 

jousts, 
I  should  have  slain   your  father,  seized 

yourself. 
I  lived  in  hope  that  sometime  you  would 

come 
To  these  my  lists  with  him  whom  best 

you  loved; 
And  there,  poor  cousin,  with  your  meek 

blue  eyes, 
The    truest    eyes    that    ever    answer'd 

Heaven, 
Behold  me  overturn  and  trample  on  him. 
Then,  had  you  cried,  or  knelt,  or  pray'd 

to  me, 
I  should  not  less  have  kill'd  him.     And 

you  came,  — 
But   once   you   came,  —  and   with   your 

own  true  eyes 
Beheld  the  man  you  loved  (I  speak  as 

one 
Speaks  of  a  service  done  him)  overthrow 
My  proud   self,  and  my  purpose  three 

years  old, 
And  set  his  foot  upon  me,  and  give  me 

life. 
There  was  I  broken  down;   there  was  I 

saved : 
Tho'   thence  I  rode   all-shamed,  hating 

the  life 
He  gave  me,  meaning  to  be  rid  of  it. 
And  all  the  penance  the  Queen  laid  upon 

me 
Was  but  to  rest  awhile  within  her  court; 
Where  first  as  sullen  as  a  beast  new-caged, 
And  waiting  to  be  treated  like  a  wolf, 
Because  I  knew  my  deeds  were  known, 

I  found,. 
Instead  of  scornful  pity  or  pure  scorn, 
Such  fine  reserve  and  noble  reticence, 
Manners  so  kind,  yet  stately,  such  a  grace 
Of  tenderest  courtesy,  that  I  began 
To  glance  behind  me  at  my  former  life, 


GERAINT  AND  ENID. 


36i 


And   find   that   it   had   been   the  wolfs 

indeed : 
And  oft  I  talk'd  with  Dubric,  the  high 

saint, 
Who,  with  mild  heat  of  holy  oratory, 
Subdued  me  somewhat  to  that  gentleness, 
Which,    when    it   weds   with    manhood, 

makes  a  man. 
And    you   were   often   there   about   the 

Queen, 
But  saw  me  not,  or  mark'd  not  if  you 

saw; 
Nor  did  I  care  or  dare  to  speak  with  you, 
But  kept  myself  aloof  till  I  was  changed; 
And   fear   not,  cousin;     I   am   changed 

indeed.' 

He  spoke,  and  Enid  easily  believed, 
Like  simple  noble  natures,  credulous 
Of  what  they  long  for,  good  in  friend  or 

foe, 
There  most  in  those  who  most  have  done 

them  ill. 
And  when  they  reach'd  the   camp  the 

King  himself 
Advanced  to  greet  them,  and  beholding 

her 
Tho'  pale,  yet  happy,  ask'd  her  not  a 

word, 
But  went  apart  with  Edyrn,  whom  he  held 
In  converse  for  a  little,  and  return'd, 
And,   gravely   smiling,   lifted    her   from 

horse, 
And  kiss'd  her  with  all  pureness,  brother* 

like, 
And  show'd  an  empty  tent  allotted  her, 
And  glancing  for  a  minute,  till  he  saw  her 
Pass  into  it,  turn'd   to   the  Prince,  and 

said: 

'  Prince,  when  of  late  ye  pray'd  me  for 

my  leave 
To  move  to  your  own  land,  and  there 

defend 
Your  marches,  I  was  prick'd  with  some 

reproof, 
As  one  that  let  foul  wrong  stagnate  and  be, 
By  having  look'd  too  much  thro'  alien 

eyes, 
And   wrought   too   long  with  delegated 

hands, 
Not  used  mine  own  :  but  now  behold  me 

come 


To  cleanse  this  common  sewer  of  all  my 

'  realm, 
With  Edyrn  and  with  others:   have  ye 

look'd 
At    Edyrn?    have    ye   seen   how   nobly 

changed? 
This  work  of  his  is  great  and  wonderful. 
His  very  face  with  change  of  heart  is 

changed. 
The  world  will  not  believe  a  man  repents  : 
And  this  wise  world  of  ours  is  mainly 

right. 
Full  seldom  doth  a  man  repent,  or  use 
Both  grace  and  will  to  pick  the  vicious 

quitch 
Of  blood  and  custom  wholly  out  of  him, 
And  make  all  clean,  and  plant  himself 

afresh. 
Edyrn  has  done  it,  weeding  all  his  heart 
As  I  will  weed  this  land  before  I  go. 
I,   therefore,    made   him   of   our   Table 

Round, 
Not  rashly,  but  have  proved  him  every- 
way 
One  of  our  noblest,  our  most  valorous, 
Sanest  and  most  obedient :  and  indeed 
This  work  of  Edyrn  wrought  upon  him- 
self 
After  a  life  of  violence,  seems  to  me 
A  thousand-fold  more  great  and  wonderful 
Than  if  some  knight  of  mine,  risking  his 

life, 
My  subject  with  my  subjects  under  him, 
Should  make  an  onslaught   single  on  a 

realm 
Of  robbers,  tho'  he  slew  them  one  by  one, 
And  were  himself  nigh  wounded  to  the 
death.' 

So   spake  the   King;    low  bow'd   the 

Prince,  and  felt 
His  work  was  neither  great  nor  wonder- 
ful, 
And  past   to    Enid's   tent;    and   thither 

came 
The   King's  own  leech  to  look  into  his 

hurt; 
And   Enid   tended   on   him  there;    and 

there 
Her  constant  motion  round  him,  and  the 

breath 
Of   her  sweet   tendance   hovering   over 

him, 


362 


BALIN  AND  BALAN. 


Fill'd  all  the  genial  courses  of  his  blood 
With  deeper  and  with  ever  deeper  love, 
As  the  south-west  that  blowing  Bala  lake 
Fills  all  the   sacred   Dee.     So   past  the 
days. 

But  while  Geraint  lay  healing  of  his 
hurt, 
The  blameless  King  went  forth  and  cast 

his  eyes 
On  each  of  all  whom  Uther  left  in  charge 
Long  since,  to  guard  the  justice  of  the 

King: 
He  look'd  and  found  them  wanting;   and 

as  now 
Men  weed  the  white  horse  on  the  Berk- 
shire hills 
To  keep  him  bright  and  clean  as  hereto- 
fore, 
He  rooted  out  the  slothful  officer 
Or  guilty,  which  for  bribe  had  wink'd  at 

wrong, 
And  in  their  chairs  set  up  a  stronger  race 
With  hearts  and  hands,  and  sent  a  thou- 
sand men 
To  till  the  wastes,  and  moving  everywhere 
Clear'd  the  dark  places  and  let  in  the  law, 
And  broke  the  bandit  holds  and  cleansed 
the  land. 

Then,  when  Geraint  was  whole  again, 

they  past 
With  Arthur  to  Caerleon  upon  Usk. 
There  the  great  Queen  once  more  em- 
braced her  friend, 
And  clothed  her  in  apparel  like  the  day. 
And  tho'  Geraint  could  never  take  again 
That  comfort  from  their  converse  which 

he  took 
Before  the  Queen's  fair  name  was  breathed 

upon, 
He  rested  well  content  that  all  was  well. 
Thence  after  tarrying  for  a  space  they 

rode, 
And  fifty  knights  rode  with  them  to  the 

shores 
Of  Severn,  and  they  past  to  their  own 

land. 
And  there  he  kept  the  justice  of  the  King 
So  vigorously  yet  mildly,  that  all  hearts 
Applauded,  and  the  spiteful  whisper  died : 
And  being  ever  foremost  in  the  chase, 
A.nd  victor  at  the  tilt  and  tournament, 


They  call'd  him  the  great  Prince  and  man 

of  men. 
But  Enid,  whom  her  ladies  loved  to  call 
Enid  the  Fair,  a  grateful  people  named 
Enid  the  Good;   and  in  their  halls  arose 
The  cry  of  children,  Enids  and  Geraints 
Of  times  to  be;    nor  did  he  doubt  her 

more, 
But  rested  in  her  fealty,  till  he  crown'd 
A  happy  life  with  a  fair  death,  and  fell 
Against  the  heathen  of  the  Northern  Sea 
In  battle,  fighting  for  the  blameless  King. 

BALIN  AND   BALAN. 

Pellam  the  King,  who  held  and  lost  with 

Lot 
In  that  first  war,  and  had  his  realm  restored 
But  render'd  tributary,  fail'd  of  late 
To  send   his  tribute;    wherefore  Arthur 

call'd 
His  treasurer,  one   of  many  years,  and 

spake, 
'  Go  thou  with  him  and  him  and  bring  it 

to  us, 
Lest  we  should  set  one  truer  on  his  throne. 
•  Man's  word  is  God  in  man.' 

His  Baron  said 
*  We  go  but  harken :  there  be  two  strange 

knights 
Who  sit  near  Camelot  at  a  fountain-side, 
A  mile  beneath  the  forest,  challenging 
And    overthrowing    every    knight    who 

comes. 
Wilt  thou  I  undertake  them  as  we  pass, 
And  send  them  to  thee?  ' 

Arthur  laugh'd  upon  him. 
'Old   friend,  too   old  to   be   so  young, 

depart, 
Delay  not  thou  for  aught,  but  let  them 

sit, 
Until  they  find  a  lustier  than  themselves.' 

So   these   departed.     Early,   one   fair 

dawn, 
The    light-wing'd    spirit   of    his    youth 

return'd 
On  Arthur's  heart;   he  arm'd  himself  and 

went, 
So  coming  to  the  fountain-side  beheld 
Balin  and  Balan  sitting  statuelike, 


BALIN  AND  BALAN. 


363 


Brethren,  to  right  and  left  the  spring,  that 

down, 
From  underneath  a  plume  of  lady-fern, 
Sang,  and  the  sand  danced  at  the  bottom 

of  it. 
And  on  the  right  of  Balin  Balin's  horse 
Was  fast-  beside  an  alder,  on  the  left 
Of  Balan  Balan's  near  a  poplartree. 
'  Fair  Sirs,'  said   Arthur,  '  wherefore  sit 

ye  here?' 
Balin  and  Balan  answer'd,  '  For  the  sake 
Of  glory;   we  be  mightier  men  than  all 
In   Arthur's   court;    that   also   have  we 

proved; 
For  whatsoever  knight  against  us  came 
Or  I  or  he  have  easily  overthrown.' 
'  I   too,'   said    Arthur,  '  am  of  Arthur's 

hall, 
But  rather  proven  in  his  Paynim  wars 
Than  famous  jousts;   but  see,  or  proven 

or  not, 
Whether  me  likewise  ye  can  overthrow.' 
And  Arthur  lightly  smote  the   brethren 

down, 
And  lightly  so  return'd,  and  no  man  knew. 

Then  Balin  rose,  and  Balan,  and  beside 
The  carolling  water  set  themselves  again, 
And  spake  no  word   until   the   shadow 

turn'd; 
When  from  the  fringe  of  coppice  round 

them  burst 
A  spangled  pursuivant,  and  crying  '  Sirs, 
Rise,    follow !     ye    be    sent   for   by    the 

King,' 
They  follow'd ;  whom  when  Arthur  seeing 

ask'd 
'Tell  me  your  names;   why  sat  ye  by  the 

well?' 
Balin  the  stillness  of  a  minute  broke 
Saying,  '  An  unmelodious  name  to  thee, 
Balin,    "  the    Savage  "  —  that    addition 

thine  — 
My  brother  and  my  better,  this  man  here, 
Balan.     I  smote  upon  the  naked  skull 
A  thrall  of  thine  in  open  hall,  my  hand 
Was   gauntleted,  half  slew  him;     for   I 

heard 
He  had  spoken  evil  of  me;   thy  just  wrath 
Sent  me  a  three-years'  exile  from  thine 

eyes. 
I  have  not  lived  my  life  delightsomely : 
For  I  that  did  that  violence  to  thy  thrall, 


Had  often  wrought  some  fury  on  myself, 
Saving  for  Balan :    those  three  kingless 

years 
Have   past  —  were   wormwood-bitter   to 

me.     King, 
Methought  that  if  we  sat  beside  the  well, 
And  hurl'd  to  ground  what  knight  soever 

spurr'd 
Against  us,  thou  would'st  take  me  gladlier 

back, 
And  make,  as  ten-times  worthier  to  be 

thine 
Than   twenty   Balins,   Balan   knight.     I 

have  said. 
Not  so  —  not  all.     A  man  of  thine  to-day 
Abash'd  us  both,  and   brake   my  boast. 

Thy  will?' 
Said   Arthur,  'Thou    hast    ever    spoken 

truth; 
Thy  too  fierce  manhood  would  not  let 

thee  lie. 
Rise,  my  true  knight.    As  children  learn, 

be  thou 
Wiser   for   falling!    walk  with   me,  and 

move 
To  music  with  thine  Order  and  the  King. 
Thy   chair,  a  grief  to  all  the  brethren, 

stands 
Vacant,  but  thou  retake  it,  mine  again ! ' 

Thereafter,  when  Sir  Balin  enter'd  hall, 

The  Lost  one  Found  was  greeted  as  in 
Heaven 

With  joy  that  blazed  itself  in  woodland 
wealth 

Of  leaf,  and  gayest  garlandage  of  flowers, 

Along  the  walls  and  down  the  board; 
they  sat, 

And  cup  clash'd  cup;  they  drank  and 
some  one  sang, 

Sweet-voiced,  a  song  of  welcome,  where- 
upon 

Their  common  shout  in  chorus,  mount- 
ing, made 

Those  banners  of  twelve  battles  overhead 

Stir,  as  they  stirr'd  of  old,  when  Arthur's 
host 

Proclaim'd  him  Victor,  and  the  day  was 
won. 

Then  Balan  added  to  their  Order  lived 
A  wealthier  life  than  heretofore  with  these 
And  Balin,  till  their  embassage  return'd. 


3^4 


BAL1N  AND  BALAN. 


'  Sir  King,'  they  brought  report,  '  we 

hardly  found, 
So  bush'd  about  it  is  with  gloom,  the  hall 
Of  him  to  whom  ye  sent  us,  Pellam,  once 
A  Christless  foe  of  thine  as  ever  dash'd 
Horse  against  horse;   but  seeing  that  thy 

realm 
Hath  prosper'd  in  the  name  of  Christ,  the 

King  % 

Took,  as  in  rival  heat,  to  holy  things; 
And  finds  himself  descended  from  the 

Saint 
Arimathaean  Joseph;   him  who  first 
Brought  the  great  faith  to  Britain  over 

seas; 
He  boasts  his  life  as  purer  than   thine 

own; 
Eats  scarce  enow  to  keep  his  pulse  abeat; 
Hath  push'd  aside  his  faithful  wife,  nor  lets 
Or  dame  or  damsel  enter  at  his  gates 
Lest  he  should  be  polluted.     This  gray 

King 
Show'd  us  a  shrine  wherein  were  wonders 

—  yea  — 
Rich  arks  with  priceless  bones  of  martyr- 
dom, 
Thorns  of  the  crown  and  shivers  of  the 

cross, 
And   therewithal  (for  thus  he  told  us) 

brought 
By  Holy  Joseph  hither,  that  same  spear 
"Wherewith  the  Roman  pierced  the  side 

of  Christ. 
He  much   amazed   us;    after,  when  we 

sought 
The  tribute,  answer'd  "  1  have  quite  fore- 
gone 
All  matters  of  this  world :  Garlon,  mine 

heir, 
Of  him  demand  it,"  which  this  Garlon  gave 
With  much  ado,  railing  at  thine  and  thee. 

*  But  when  we  left,  in  those  deep  woods 

we  found 
A  knight  of  thine   spear-stricken   from 

behind, 
Dead,  whom  we  buried;   more  than  one 

of  us 
Cried  out  on  Garlon,  but  a  woodman  there 
Reported  of  some  demon  in  the  woods 
Was   once   a  man,  who  driven  by  evil 

tongues 
From  all  his  fellows,  lived  alone,  and  came 


To  learn  black  magic,  and  to  hate  his  kind 
With  such  a  hate,  that  when  he  died,  his 

soul 
Became  a  Fiend,  which,  as  the  man  in  life 
Was  wounded  by  blind  tongues  he  saw 

not  whence, 
Strikes   from    behind.      This   woodman 

show'd   the   cave^ 
From  which  he  sallies,  and  wherein  he 

dwelt. 
We  saw  the   hoof-print  of  a  horse,  no 

more.' 

Then  Arthur,  'Let  who   goes  before 

me,  see 
He  do  not  fall  behind  me :  foully  slain 
And  villainously !  who  will  hunt  for  me 
This  demon  of  the  woods? '    Said  Balan, 

'I!' 
So  claim'd  the  quest  and  rode  away,  but 

first, 
Embracing    Balin,    '■  Good   my    brother, 

hear ! 
Let  not  thy  moods  prevail,  when  I  am 

gone 
Who  used  to  lay  them !  hold  them  outer 

fiends, 
Who  leap  at  thee  to   tear  thee;   shake 

them  aside, 
^Dreams  ruling  when  wit  sleeps !  yea,  but 
'  to  dream 
That   any  of  these  would  wrong  thee, 

wrongs  thyself. 
Witness  their  flowery  welcome.     Bound 

are  they 
To  speak  no  evil.     Truly  save  for  fears, 
My  fears  for  thee,  so  rich  a  fellowship 
Would  make  me  wholly  blest :  thou  one 

of  them, 
Be  one  indeed :  consider  them,  and  all 
Their  bearing  in  their  common  bond  of 

love, 
No  more  of  hatred  than  in  Heaven  itself, 
No  more  of  jealousy  than  in  Paradise.' 

So   Balan   warn'd,   and   went;    Balin 

remain'd: 
Who  —  for  but  three   brief  moons   had 

glanced  away 
From  being  knighted  till  he  smote  the 

thrall, 
And  faded  from  the  presence  into  years 
Of  exile —  now  would  strictlier  set  himself 


BALIN  AND   BALAN. 


36S 


To  learn  what  Arthur  meant  by  courtesy, 
Manhood,    and    knighthood;    wherefore 

hover'd  round 
Lancelot,  but  when  he  mark'd  his  high 

sweet  smile 
In  passing,  and  a  transitory  word 
Make  knight  or  churl  or  child  or  damsel 

seem 
From  being  smiled  at  happier  in  them- 
selves — 
Sigh'd,  as  a  boy  lame-born    beneath   a 

height, 
That  glooms  his  valley,  sighs  to  see  the 

peak 
Sun-flush'd,  or  touch  at  night  the  north- 
ern star; 
For  one  from  out  his  village  lately  climb'd 
And  brought  report  of  azure  lands  and  fair, 
Far  seen  to  left  and  right;  and  he  himself 
Hath  hardly  scaled  with  help  a  hundred 

feet 
Up  from  the  base:   so  Balin  marvelling 

oft 
How  far  beyond  him  Lancelot  seem'd  to 

move, 
Groan'd,   and   at    times   would    mutter, 

'These  be  gifts, 
Born  with  the  blood,  not  learnable,  divine, 
Beyond  my  reach.    Well  had  I  foughten 

—  well  — 

In  those  fierce  wars,  struck  hard — and 

had  I  crown'd 
With  my  slain  self  the  heaps  of  whom  I 

slew  — 
So  —  better !  —  But  this  worship  of  the 

Queen, 
That  honour  too  wherein  she  holds  him 

—  this, 

This  was  the  sunshine  that  hath  given  the 

man 
A  growth,  a  name  that  branches  o'er  the 

rest, 
And  strength  against  all  odds,  and  what 

the  King 
So  prizes  —  overprizes — gentleness. 
Her  likewise  would  I  worship  an  I  might. 
I  never  can  be  close  with  her,  as  he 
That  brought  her  hither.    Shall  I  pray  the 

King 
To  let  me  bear  some  token  of  his  Queen 
Whereon  to    gaze,  remembering  her  — 

forget 
My  heats  and  violences  ?  live  afresh  ? 


What,  if  the  Queen  disdain'd  to  grant  it ! 

nay 
Being  so  stately-gentle,  would  she  make 
My  darkness  blackness?  and  with  how 

sweet  grace 
She  greeted  my  return  !    Bold  will  I  be  — 
Some  goodly  cognizance   of  Guinevere, 
In  lieu  of  this  rough  beast  upon  my  shield, 
Langued  gules,  and  tooth'd  with  grinning 

savagery.' 

And  Arthur,  when  Sir   Balin   sought 

him,  said 
'  What  wilt  thou  bear  ? '    Balin  was  bold, 

and  ask'd 
To    bear    her    own    crown-royal    upon 

shield, 
Whereat  she  smiled  and  turn'd  her  to  the 

King, 
Who  answer'd,  'Thou  shalt  put  the  crown 

to  use. 
The  crown   is   but   the   shadow   of  the 

King, 
And   this  a  shadow's   shadow,   let   him 

have  it, 
So  this  will  help  him  of  his  violences ! ' 
'  No  shadow,'  said  Sir  Balin,  'O  my  Queen, 
But  light  to  me  !  no  shadow,  O  my  King, 
But  golden  earnest  of  a  gentler  life  ! ' 

So  Balin  bare  the  crown,  and  all  the 
knights 
Approved  him,  and  the  Queen,  and  all 

the  world 
Made  music,  and  he  felt  his  being  move 
In  music  with  his  Order,  and  the  King. 

The  nightingale,  full-toned  in  middle 

May, 
Hath  ever  and  anon  a  note  so  thin 
It  seems  another  voice  in  other  groves; 
Thus,  after  some  quick  burst  of  sudden 

wrath, 
The  music  in  him  seem'd  to  change,  and 

grow 
Faint  and  far-off. 

And  once  he  saw  the  thrall 
His  passion  half  had  gauntleted  to  death, 
That  causer  of  his  banishment  and  shame, 
Smile  at  him,  as  he  deem'd,  presumptu- 
ously : 
His  arm  half  rose  to  strike  again,  but  fell : 


366 


BALIN  AND  BALAN. 


The  memory  of  that  cognizance  on  shield 
Weighted   it   down,  but   in   himself  he 
moan'd : 

'Too  high  this  mount  of  Camelot  for 

me  : 
These  high-set  courtesies  are  not  for  me. 
Shall  I  not  rather  prove  the  worse  for 

these  ? 
Fierier   and   stormier    from    restraining, 

break 
Into    some    madness    ev'n    before    the 

Queen?' 

Thus,  as  a  hearth  lit  in  a  mountain 

home, 
And  glancing  on  the  window,  when  the 

gloom 
Of  twilight  deepens  round  it,   seems  a 

flame 
That  rages  in  a  woodland  far  below, 
So  when  his  moods  were  darken'd,  court 

and  King 
And  all  the  kindly  warmth  of  Arthur's 

hall 
Shadow'd   an    angry   distance :    yet    he 

strove 
To  learn  the  graces  of  their  Table,  fought 
Hard  with  himself,  and  seem'd  at  length 

in  peace. 

Then  chanced,  one  morning,  that  Sir 

Balin  sat 
Close-bower'd  in  that  garden  nigh  the 

hall. 
A  walk  of  roses  ran  from  door  to  door; 
A  walk  of  lilies  crost  it  to  the  bower  : 
And  down  that  range  of  roses  the  great 

Queen 
Came  with  slow  steps,  the  morning  on 

her  face; 
And  all  in  shadow  from  the  counter  door 
Sir   Lancelot   as   to  meet   her,  then   at 

once, 
As  if  he   saw  not,  glanced  aside,  and 

paced 
The  long  white  walk  of  lilies  toward  the 

bower. 
Follow'd  the  Queen;  Sir  Balin  heard  her 

1  Prince, 
Art  thou  so  little  loyai  to  thy  Queen, 
As  pass   without   good  morrow  to   thy 

Queen? » 


To  whom  Sir  Lancelot  with  his  eyes  on 

earth, 
1  Fain  would  I  still  be  loyal  to  the  Queen.' 
'  Yea  so,'  she  said,  '  but  so  to  pass  me 

by- 
So  loyal  scarce  is  loyal  to  thyself, 
Whom  all  men  rate  the  king  of  courtesy. 
Let   be :    ye    stand,    fair   lord,   as   in   a 
^  dream.' 

Then  Lancelot  with  his  hand  among 

the  flowers, 
'Yea  —  for  a   dream.     Last  night  me- 

thought  I  saw 
That  maiden  Saint  who  stands  with  lily 

in  hand     u\f\iK>t 
In  yonder  shrine.     All  round  her  prest 

the  dark, 
And  all  the  light  upon  her  silver  face 
Flow'd  from  the  spiritual  lily .  that  she 

held. 
Lo !  these  her  emblems  drew  mine  eyes 

—  away : 
For  see,  how  perfect-pure !     As  light  a 

flush 
As  hardly  tints  the  blossom  of  the  quince 
Would    mar    their    charm    of    stainless 

maidenhood.' 

'  Sweeter  to  me,'  she  said, '  this  garden 

rose 
Deep-hued   and    many-folded!    sweeter 

still 
The  wild-wood  hyacinth  and  the  bloom 

of  May. 
Prince,  we  have  ridd'n  before  among  the 

flowers 
In  those  fair  days  —  not  all  as  cool  as 

these, 
Tho'  season-earlier.    Art  thou  sad?  or 

sick? 
Our  noble  King  will  send  thee  his  own 

leech  — 
Sick?  or  for  any  matter  anger'd  at  me?' 

Then  Lancelot  lifted  his  large  eyes; 

they  dwelt 
Deep-tranced  on  hers,  and  could  not  fall : 

her  hue 
Changed  at  his  gaze :  so  turning  side  by 

side 
They  past,  and   Balin  started  from  his 

bower. 


/ 


BALIN  AND  BALAN. 


3^7 


'Queen?  subject?  but  f  see  not  what 

I  see. 
Damsel    and    lover?    hear   not   what   I 

hear. 
My  father  hath  begotten  me  in  his  wrath. 
I    suffer    from    the    things    before    me, 

know, 
Learn   nothing;    am   not  worthy  to    be 

knight; 
A  churl,  a  clown  ! '  and  in  him  gloom  on 

gloom 
Deepen'd:  he  sharply  caught  his  lance 

and  shield, 
Nor  stay'd  to  crave  permission   of  the 

King, 
But,  mad  for  strange  adventure,  dash'd 

away. 

He  took  the  selfsame  track  as  Balan, 

saw 
The  fountain  where  they  sat   together, 

sigh'd, 
!  Was  I  not  better  there  with  him?  '  and 

rode 
The  skyless  woods,  but  under  open  blue 
Came   on  the  hoarhead  woodman  at  a 

bough 
Wearily   hewing.      '  Churl,    thine   axe  !  ' 

he  cried, 
Descended,  and  disjointed  it  at  a  blow: 
To  whom  the  woodman  utter'd  wonder- 

ingly, 
'  Lord,   thou   couldst   lay   the    Devil   of 

these  woods 
If  arm  of  flesh  could  lay  him.'     Balin 

cried, 
'Him,  or  the  viler  devil  who  plays  his 

part, 
To  lay  that  devil  would  lay  the  Devil  in 

me.' 
'Nay,'    said   the   churl,  'our   devil    is   a 

truth, 
I  saw  the  flash  of  him  but  yestereven. 
And  some  do  say  that  our  Sir  Garlon  too 
Hath  learn'd  black  magic,   and  to  ride 

unseen. 
Look  to  the  cave.'     But  Balin  answer'd 

him, 
^  '  Old  fabler,  these  be  fancies  of  the  churl, 
Look  to  thy  woodcraft,'  and  so  leaving 

him, 
Now  with  slack  rein  and  careless  of  him- 
self, 


Now  with  dug  spur  and  raving  at  him- 
self, 
Now  with  droopt  brow  down  the  long 

glades  he  rode; 
So  mark'd  not  on  his  right  a  cavern-chasm 
Yawn    over    darkness,   where,    not    far 

within, 
The  whole  day  died,  but,  dying,  gleam'd 

on  rocks 
Roof-pendent,  sharp;    and   others  from 

the  floor, 
Tusklike,  arising,  made   that  mouth  of 

night 
Whereout   the   Demon   issued   up  from 

Hell. 
He  mark'd  not  this,  but  blind  and  deaf 

to  all 
Save  that  chain'd  rage,  which  ever  yelpt 

within, 
Past  eastward  from  the  falling  sun.     At 

once 
He  felt  the  hollow-beaten  mosses  thud 
And  tremble,  and  then  the  shadow  of  a 

spear, 
Shot   from   behind   him,  ran  along  the 

ground. 
Sideways  he  started  from  the  path,  and 

saw, 
With   pointed   lance   as  if  to  pierce,  a 

shape, 
A  light  of  armour  by  him  flash,  and  pass 
And  vanish  in  the  woods;   and  follow'd 

this, 
But  all  so  blind  in  rage  that  unawares 
He  burst  his  lance  against  a  forest  bough 
Dishorsed  himself,  and  rose  again,  and 

fled 
Far,  till  the  castle  of  a  King,  the  hall 
Of  Pellam,  lichen-bearded,  grayly  draped 
With  streaming  grass,  appear'd,  low-built 

but  strong; 
The  ruinous  donjon  as  a  knoll  of  moss, 
The  battlement  overtopt  with  ivytods, 
A  home  of  bats,  in  every  tower  an  owl. 

Then  spake  the  men  of  Pellam  crying, 

'  Lord, 
Why   wear   ye    this    crown-royal    upon 

shield?' 
Said  Balin,  '  For  the  fairest  and  the  best 
Of  ladies  living  gave  me  this  to  bear.' 
So  stall'd  his  horse,  and  strode  across  the 

court, 


368 


BALIN  AND  BALAN. 


But  found  the  greetings  both  of  knight 

and  King 
Faint  in  the  low  dark  hall  of  banquet : 

leaves 
Laid    their   green  faces  flat  against  the 

panes, 
Sprays  grated,  and  the  canker'd  boughs 

without 
Whined  in  the  wood;   for  all  was  hush'd 

within, 
Till   when   at  feast  Sir  Garlon   likewise 

ask'd 
'Why  wear  ye  that  crown-royal  ?'  Balin 

said 
'The   Queen    we   worship,  Lancelot,   I, 

and  all, 
As  fairest,  best  and  purest,  granted  me 
To  bear  it ! '    Such  a  sound  (for  Arthur's 

knights 
Were    hated   strangers   in   the   hall)   as 

makes 
The   white   swan-mother,  sitting,   when 

she  hears 
A   strange    knee  rustle  thro'  her  secret 

reeds, 
Made   Garlon,    hissing;    then  he  sourly 

smiled. 
*  Fairest  I  grant  her-  I  have  seen;   but 

best, 
Best,   purest?  thou   from   Arthur's   hall, 

and  yet 
So   simple !    hast  thou   eyes,   or  if,  are 

these 
So  far  besotted  that  they  fail  to  see 
This   fair   wife-worship   cloaks  a   secret 

shame? 
Truly,  ye  men  of  Arthur  be  but  babes.' 

A   goblet    on    the    board    by    Balin, 

boss'd 
With  holy  Joseph's  legend,  on  his  right 
Stood,  all  of  massiest  bronze:  one  side 

had  sea 
And  ship  and  sail  and  angels  blowing  on 

it: 
And  one  was  rough  with  wattling,  and 

the  walls 
Of  that  low  church  he  built  at  Glaston- 
bury. 
This   Balin    graspt,  but  while  in  act  to 

hurl, 
Thro'    memory   of    that    token   on   the 

shield 


Relax'd  his  hold :  '  I  will  be  gentle,*  he 

thought, 
'And   passing  gentle,'    caught  his  hand 

away. 
Then  fiercely  to  Sir  Garlon,  '  Eyes  have  I 
That  saw  to-day  the  shadow  of  a  spear, 
Shot   from   behind   me,   run   along   the 

ground; 
Eyes   too   that   long  have  watch' d  how 

Lancelot  draws 
From   homage    to   the  best  and  purest, 

might, 
Name,    manhood,    and     a    grace,    but 

scantly  thine, 
Who,    sitting   in   thine  own   hall,  canst 

endure 
To   mouth  so  huge  a  foulness  —  to  thy 

guest, 
Me,  me  of  Arthur's  Table.     Felon  talk  ! 
Let  be  !  no  more  ! ' 

But  not  the  less  by  night 
The  scorn  of  Garlon,  poisoning  all  his 

rest, 
Stung  him  in   dreams.     At  length,  and 

dim  thro*" leaves 
Blink t  the  white    morn,   sprays   grated, 

and  old  boughs 
Whined   in    the    wood.     He   rose,   de- 
scended, met 
The  scorner  in  the  castle  court,  and  fain, 
For  hate  and  loathing,  would  have  past 

him  by; 
But  when  Sir   Garlon    utter'd  mocking- 

wise, 
'  What,  wear   ye  still  that  same  crown- 
scandalous?' 
His     countenance    blacken'd,    and    his 

forehead  veins 
Bloated,  and  branch'd;   and  tearing  out 

of  sheath 
The  brand,  Sir  Balin  with  a  fiery  '  Ha ! 
So  thou  be  shadow,  here   I  make  thee 

ghost,' 
Hard   upon   helm   smote    him,  and  the 

blade  flew 
Splintering   in  six,  and  clinkt   upon  the 

stones. 
Then  Garlon,  reeling   slowly  backward, 

fell, 
And  Balin  by  the  banneret  of  his  helm 
Dragg'd  him,  and  struck,  but  from  the 

castle  a  cry 


BALIN  AND  BALAN. 


369 


Sounded  across  the  court,  and  —  men-at- 

'  I  have  shamed  thee  so  that  now  thou 

arms, 

shamest  me, 

A  score  with  pointed  lances,  making  at 

Thee  will  I  bear  no  more,'  high   on  a 

him  — 

branch 

He  dash'd  the  pummel  at  the  foremost 

Hung  it,  and  turn'd  aside  into  the  woods, 

face, 

And   there   in   gloom   cast    himself    all 

Beneath  a  low  door  dipt,  and  made  his 

along, 

feet 

Moaning  '  My  violences,  my  violences ! ' 

Wings  thro'  a  glimmering  gallery,  till  he 

mark'd 

But  now  the  wholesome  music  of  the 

The  portal  of  King  Pellam's  chapel  wide 

wood 

And  inward  to  the  wall ;   he  stept  behind ; 

Was  dumb'd  by  one  from  out  the  hall  of 

Thence  in  a  moment  heard  them  pass 

Mark, 

like  wolves 

A  damsel-errant,  warbling,  as  she  rode 

Howling;   but  while  he  stared  about  the 

The  woodland  alleys,  Vivien,  with    her 

shrine, 

Squire. 

In  which  he  scarce  could  spy  the  Christ 

for  Saints, 

'The  fire   of  Heaven   has   kill'd   the 

Beheld  before  a  golden  altar  lie 

barren  cold, 

The  longest  lance  his  eyes  had  ever  seen, 

And   kindled  all  the  plain  and    all  the 

Point-painted  red;  and  seizing  thereupon 

wold. 

Push'd  thro'   an  open   casement   down, 

The  new  leaf  ever  pushes  off  the  old. 

lean'd  on  it, 

The  fire  of  Heaven  is  not  the  flame  of 

Leapt  in  a  semicircle,  and  lit  on  earth; 

Hell. 

Then  hand  at  ear,  and  harkening  from 

what  side 

4  Old   priest,  who  mumble  worship  in 

The   blindfold   rummage   buried   in  the 

your  quire  — 

walls 

Old  monk  and  nun,  ye  scorn  the  world's 

Might  echo,  ran  the  counter  path,  and 

desire, 

found 

Yet  in  your  frosty  cells  ye  feel  the  fire ! 

His  charger,  mounted  on  him  and  away. 

The  fire  of  Heaven  is  not  the  flame  of 

An  arrow  whizz'd  to  the  right,  one  to  the 

left, 
One  overhead;   and  Pellam's  feeble  cry 

Hell. 

'The  fire  of  Heaven  is  on  the  dusty 

'  Stay,  stay   him !    he    defileth   heavenly 

ways. 

things 

The  wayside  blossoms  open  to  the  blaze. 

With  earthly  uses  ' — made  him  quickly 

The  whole  wood-world  is  one  full  peal 

dive 

of  praise. 

Beneath  the  boughs,  and  race  thro'  many 

The  fire  of  Heaven  is  not  the  flame  of 

a  mile 

Hell. 

Of  dense  and  open,  till  his  goodly  horse, 

Arising  wearily  at  a  fallen  oak, 

'  The  fire  of  Heaven  is  lord  of  all  things 

Stumbled  headlong,  and  cast  him  face  to 

good, 

ground. 

And  starve  not  thou  this  fire  within  thy 

blood, 

Half-wroth  he  had  not  ended,  but  all 

But  follow  Vivien  thro'  the  fiery  flood ! 

glad, 

The  fire  of  Heaven  is  not  the  flame  of 

Knightlike,  to  find  his  charger  yet  un- 

Hell ! ' 

lamed, 

Sir  Balin  drew  the  shield  from  off  his 

Then  turning  to  her  Squire,  'This  fire 

neck, 

of  Heaven, 

Stared  at  the  priceless  cognizance,  and 

This    old    sun-worship,    boy,    will    rise 

thought 

again, 

2B 


37° 


BALIN  AND  BALAN. 


And  beat  the  cross  to  earth,  and  break 

the  King 
And  all  his  Table.' 

Then  they  reach'd  a  glade, 
Where  under  one  long  lane  of  cloudless 

air 
Before  another  wood,  the  royal  crown 
Sparkled,  and  swaying  upon  a  restless  elm 
Drew  the  vague  glance  of  Vivien,  and  her 

Squire; 
Amazed   were    these;    *  Lo   there,'    she 

cried,  '  a  crown  — 
Borne    by    some    high    lord-prince    of 

Arthur's  hall-, 
And  there  ahorse!  the  rider?  where  is 

he? 
See,  yonder   lies   one   dead  within   the 

wood. 
Not  dead;    he  stirs! — but  sleeping.     I 

will  speak. 
Hail,  royal  knight,  we  break  on  thy  sweet 

rest, 
Not,   doubtless,   all   unearn'd   by   noble 

deeds. 
But  bounden  art  thou,  if  from  Arthur's 

hall, 
To  help  the  weak.     Behold,  I  fly  from 

shame, 
A  lustful  King,  who  sought  to  win  my 

love 
Thro'  evil  ways :  the  knight,  with  whom 

I  rode, 
Hath    suffer'd    misadventure,    and    my 

squire 
Hath  in  him  small  defence;    but  thou, 

Sir  Prince, 
Wilt  surely  guide  me  to  the  warrior  King, 
Arthur  the  blameless,  pure  as  any  maid, 
To  get  me  shelter  for  my  maidenhood. 
I  charge  thee  by  that  crown  upon  thy 

shield, 
And  by  the  great  Queen's  name,  arise 

and  hence.' 

And   Balin   rose,   '  Thither  no  more ! 

nor  Prince 
Nor   knight   am    I,   but   one    that   hath 

defamed 
The   cognizance   she  gave  me :    here  I 

dwell 
Savage  among  the  savage  woods,  here 

die  — 


Die :  let  the  wolves'  black  maws  en- 
sepulchre 

Their  brother  beast,  whose  anger  was  his 
lord. 

0  me,  that  such  a  name  as  Guinevere's, 
Which  our  high  Lancelot  hath  so  lifted 

up, 
And  been  thereby  uplifted,  should  thro' 

me, 
My  violence,  and  my  villainy,  come  to 

shame.' 

Thereat    she    suddenly    laugh'd    and 

shrill,  anon 
Sigh'd  all  as  suddenly.     Said  Balin  to  her 
'Is  this  thy  courtesy  —  to  mock  me,  ha? 
Hence,  for  I  will  not  with  thee.'     Again 

she  sigh'd 
'  Pardon,  sweet  lord !  we  maidens  often 

laugh 
When   sick   at   heart,    when   rather   we 

should  weep. 

1  knew  thee  wrong'd.     I  brake  upon  thy 

rest, 
And  now  full  loth  am  I  to  break  thy 

dream, 
But  thou  art  man,  and  canst  abide  a  truth, 
Tho'   bitter.      Hither,  boy  —  and*  mark 

me  well. 
Dost  thou  remember  at  Caerleon  once  — 
A  year  ago  —  nay,  then  I  love  thee  not  — 
Ay,  thou  rememberest  well — one  summer 

dawn  — 
By    the    great    tower  —  Caerleon    upon 

Usk  — 
Nay,   trulv  we  were   hidden:    this  fair 

lord, 
The  flower  of  all  their  vestal  knighthood, 

knelt 
In  amorous  homage  —  knelt  — what  else? 

—  Oay 
Knelt,    and    drew   down    from    out    his 

night-black  hair 
And    mumbled  that  white   hand  whose 

ring'd  caress 
Had    wander'd   from    her    own    King's 

golden  head, 
And    lost    itself    in    darkness,    till    she 

cried  — 
I  thought  the  great  tower  would  crash 

down  on  both  — 
"  Rise,  my  sweet  King,  and  kiss  me  on 

the  lips, 


BALIN  AND  BALAN. 


3V 


Thou   art  my  King."     This  lad,  whose 

That  weird  yell, 

lightest  word 

Unearthlier   than  all  shriek   of  bird  or 

Is  mere  white  truth  in  simple  nakedness, 

beast, 

Saw  them  embrace :  he  reddens,  cannot 

Thrill'd    thro'    the    woods;     and    Balan 

speak, 

lurking  there 

So  bashful,  he  !  but  all  the  maiden  Saints, 

(His  quest  was  unaccomplish'd)   heard 

The    deathless    mother-maidenhood    of 

and  thought 

Heaven, 

'  The  scream  of  that  Wood-devil  I  came 

Cry  out  upon  her.     Up  then,  ride  with 

to  quell ! ' 

me ! 

Then  nearing  '  Lo !  he  hath  slain  some 

Talk  not  of  shame !  thou  canst  not,  an 

brother-knight, 

thou  would'st, 

And  tramples  on  the  goodly  shield  to 

Do  these  more  shame  than  these  have 

show 

done  themselves.' 

His  loathing  of  our  Order  and  the  Queen. 

My  quest,  meseems,  is  here.     Or  devil 

She  lied  with  ease;  but  horror-stricken 

or  man 

he, 

Guard  thou  thine  head.'     Sir  Balin  spake 

Remembering  that  dark  bower  at  Came- 

not  word, 

lot, 

But  snatch'd  a  sudden  buckler  from  the 

Breathed    in    a    dismal    whisper    'It    is 

Squire, 

truth.' 

And  vaulted  on  his  horse,  and  so  they 

crash 'd 

Sunnily  she  smiled  '  And  even  in  this 

In  onset,  and  King  Pellam's  holy  spear, 

lone  wood> 

Reputed  to  be  red  with  sinless  blood, 

Sweet  lord,  ye  do  right  well  to  whisper 

Redden'd   at  once  with  sinful,  for   the 

this. 

point 

Fools  prate,  and  perish  traitors.     Woods 

Across  the  maiden  shield  of  Balan  prick'd 

have  tongues, 

The  hauberk  to  the  flesh;  and  Balin's 

As  walls  have  ears:   but  thou  shalt  go 

horse 

with  me, 

Was  wearied  to  the  death,  and,  when 

And   we  will   speak    at   first   exceeding 

they  clash'd, 

low. 

Rolling  back  upon  Balin,  crush'd  the  man 

Meet  is  it  the  good  King  be  not  deceived. 

Inward,  and  either  fell,  and  swoon'd  away. 

See   now,  I  set   thee   high  on  vantage 

ground, 

Then    to    her     Squire    mutter'd    the 

From  whence  to  watch   the   time,  and 

damsel  •  Fools ! 

eagle-like 

This  fellow  hath  wrought  some  foulness 

Stoop  at  thy  will  on  Lancelot  and  the 

with  his  Queen : 

Queen.' 

Else  never  had  he  borne  her  crown,  nor 

raved 

She  ceased;   his  evil  spirit  upon  him 

And  thus  foam'd  over  at  a  rival  name : 

leapt, 

But   thou,  Sir   Chick,   that   scarce   hast 

He  ground   his   teeth   together,  sprang 

broken  shell, 

with  a  yell, 

Art    yet    half-yolk,   not   even   come    to 

Tore  from  the  branch,  and  cast  on  earth, 

down  — 

the  shield, 

Who  never  sawest  Caerleon  upon  Usk  — 

Drove  his  mail'd  heel  athwart  the  royal 

And  yet  hast  often  pleaded  for  my  love  — 

crown, 

See  what  I  see,  be  thou  where  I  have 

Stampt  all  into  defacement,  hurl'd  it  from 

been, 

him  • 

Or  else  Sir  Chick  —  dismount  and  loose 

Among  the  forest  weeds,  and  cursed  the 

their  casques, 

tale, 

I  fain  would  know  what  manner  of  men 

The  told-of,  and  the  teller. 

they  be.' 

372 


BALIN  AND  BALAN. 


And  when  the  Squire  had  loosed  them, 

•Goodly!— look! 
They  might  have  cropt  the  myriad  flower 

of  May, 
And  butt  each  other  here,  like  brainless 

bulls, 
Dead  for  one  heifer ! ' 

Then  the  gentle  Squire 
'I  hold  them  happy,  so  they  died  for 

love : 
And,  Vivien,  tho'  ye  beat  me  like  your 

dog, 
I  too  could  die,  as  now  I  live,  for  thee.' 

'Live   on,    Sir   Boy,'   she   cried.       'I 

better  prize 
The  living  dog  than  the  dead  lion :  away  ! 
I  cannot  brook  to  gaze  upon  the  dead.' 
Then  leapt  her  palfrey  o'er  the  fallen  oak, 
And  bounding  forward  '  Leave  them  to 

the  wolves.' 

But   when    their    foreheads   felt    the 

cooling  air, 
Balin  first  woke,  and  seeing   that  true 

face, 
Familiar  up  from  cradle-time,  so  wan, 
Crawl'd  slowly  with  low  moans  to  where 

he  lay, 
And  on  his  dying  brother  cast  himself 
Dying;   and  he  lifted  faint  eyes;   he  felt 
One  near  him;   all   at  once  they  found 

the  world, 
Staring  wild-wide;   then  with  a  childlike 

wail, 
And  drawing  down  the  dim   disastrous 

brow 
That  o'er  him  hung,  he  kiss'd  it,  moan'd 

and  spake : 

'O  Balin,  Balin,  I  that  fain  had  died 
To  save  thy  life,  have  brought  thee  to 

thy  death. 
Why  had  ye  not  the  shield  I  knew?  and 

why 
Trampled  ye  thus  on  that  which  bare  the 

Crown  ? ' 

Then  Balin  told  him  brokenly,  and  in 
gasps, 
All  that  had  chanced,  and  Balan  moan'd 
again. 


*  Brother,  I  dwelt  a   day  in   PellamV 

hall: 
This  Garlon  mock'd  me,  but  I  heeded 

not. 
And   one  said   "  Eat   in   peace !    a  liar 

is  he, 
And  hates  thee  for   the   tribute !  "  this 

good  knight 
Told  me  that   twice    a   wanton   damsel 

came, 
And    sought    for   Garlon   at  the   castle- 
gates, 
Whom    Pellam   drove   away   with    holy 

heat. 
I  well  believe  this  damsel,  and  the  one 
Who  stood  beside  thee  even  now,  the 

same. 
"  She  dwells  among  the  woods,"  he  said, 

"  and  meets 
And  dallies  with  him  in  the  Mouth  of 

Hell." 
Foul  are  their  lives;   foul  are  their  lips; 

they  lied. 
Pure   as   our   own   true   Mother  is  our 

Queen.' 

*  O  brother,'  answer'd  Balin,  '  woe  is 

me ! 
My  madness   all  thy  life  has  been  thy 

doom, 
Thy  curse,  and  darken'd   all   thy  day; 

and  now 
The  night  has  come.     I  scarce  can  see 

thee  now. 
Goodnight !  for  we  shall  never  bid  again 
Goodmorrow — Dark  my  doom  was  here, 

and  dark 
It  will  be  there.     I   see   thee  now  no 

more. 
I  would  not  mine  again  should  darken 

thine, 
Goodnight,  true  brother.' 

Balan  answer'd  low 

'Goodnight,  true  brother  here!  good- 
morrow  there ! 

We  two  were  born  together,  and  we 
die 

Together  by  one  doom : '  and  while  he 
spoke 

Closed  his  death-drowsing  eyes,  and  slept 
the  sleep 

With  Balin,  either  lock'd  in  either's  arm. 


' 


MERLIN  AND    VIVIEN. 


373 


MERLIN  AND   VIVIEN. 

A   storm   was  coming,    but    the   winds 

were  still, 
And  in  the  wild  woods  of  Broceliande, 
Before  an  oak,  so  hollow,  huge  and  old 
It  look'd  a  tower  of  ivied  masonwork, 
At  Merlin's  feet  the  wily  Vivien  lay. 

For   he    that   always   bare    in    bitter 
grudge 
The  slights   of  Arthur   and   his   Table, 

Mark 
The  Cornish  King,  had  heard  a  wander- 
ing voice, 
A  minstrel  of  Caerleon  by  strong  storm 
Blown  into  shelter  at  Tintagil,  say 
That  out  of  naked  knightlike  purity 
Sir  Lancelot  worshipt  no  unmarried  girl 
But  the  great  Queen  herself,  fought  in 

her  name, 
Sware   by  her  —  vows   like   theirs,    that 

high  in  heaven 
Love  most,  but  neither  marry,  nor  are 

given 
In  marriage,  angels  of  our  Lord's  report. 

He    ceased,    and    then — for    Vivien 
sweetly  said 
(She   sat    beside    the   banquet    nearest 

Mark), 
'  And  is  the  fair  example  follow'd,  Sir, 
In  Arthur's  household? ' — answer'd  inno- 
cently : 

'  Ay,  by  some  few  —  ay,  truly  —  youths 

that  hold 
It  more  beseems  the  perfect  virgin  knight 
To  worship  woman  as  true  wife  beyond 
All  hopes  of  gaining,  than  as   maiden 

girl. 
They  place  their  pride  in  Lancelot  and 

the  Queen. 
So  passionate  for  an  utter  purity 
Beyond  the  limit  of  their  bond,  are  these, 
For  Arthur  bound  them  not  to  singleness, 
Brave  hearts  and  clean!  and  yet  —  God 

guide  them  —  young.' 

Then  Mark  was  half  in  heart  to  hurl 
his  cup 
Straight  at  the  speaker,  but  forbore :  he 
rose 


To  leave  the  hall,  and,  Vivien  following 
him,  ^.^^ 

Turn'd  to  her :  '  Here  are  snakes  within 

the  grass; 
And  you  methinks,  O   Vivien,  save  ye 

fear 
The  monkish  manhood,  and  the  mask  of 

pure 
Worn  by  this  court,  can  stir  them  till 

they  sting.' 

And   Vivien  answer'd,  smiling  scorn- 
fully, 
1  Why  fear  ?  because  that  foster'd  at  thy 

court 
I  savour  of  thy  —  virtues?  fear  them?  no. 
As  Love,  if  Love  be  perfect,  casts  out 

fear, 
So  Hate,  if  Hate  be  perfect,  casts  out 

fear. 
My   father   died   in   battle    against   the 

King, 
My  mother  on  his  corpse  in  open  field; 
She  bore  me  there,  for  born  from  death 

was  I 
Among   the  dead   and  sown   upon   the 

wind  — 
And  then  on  thee  !  and  shown  the  truth 

betimes, 
That  old  true  filth,  and  bottom  of  the 

well, 
Where  Truth  is  hidden.    Gracious  lessons 

thine 
And  maxims  of  the  mud !    "  This  Arthur 

pure! 
Great  Nature  thro'  the  flesh  herself  hath 

made 
Gives  him  the  lie !     There  is  no  being 

pure, 
My  cherub;     saith   not  Holy  Writ  the 

same?"  — 
If  I  were  Arthur,  I  would  have  thy  blood. 
Thy  blessing,  stainless  King!     I   bring 

thee  back, 
When  I  have  ferreted  out  their  burro w- 

ings, 
The   hearts   of  all   this  Order  in   mine 

hand  — 
Ay  —  so  that   fate   and   craft   and  folly 

*  close, 
Perchance,  one  curl  of  Arthur's  golden 

beard. 
To  me  this  narrow  grizzled  fork  of  thine 


374 


MERLIN  AND    VIVIEN. 


Is  cleaner-fashion'd  —  Well,  I  loved  thee 

first, 
That  warps  the  wit.' 

Loud  laugh'd  the  graceless  Mark. 
But  Vivien,  into  Camelot  stealing,  lodged 
Low  in  the  city,  and  on  a  festal  day 
When  Guinevere  was  crossing  the  great 

hall 
Cast  herself  down,  knelt  to  the  Queen, 

and  wail'd. 

'  Why  kneel  ye  there?   What  evil  have 
ye  wrought? 

Rise !  '  and  the  damsel  bidden  rise  arose 

And  stood  with  folded  hands  and  down- 
ward eyes 

Of  glancing  corner,  and  all  meekly  said, 

'None  wrought,   but   suffer'd  much,  an 
orphan  maid  ! 

My  father  died  in  battle  for  thy  King, 

My   mother    on    his    corpse  —  in   open 
field, 

The  sad  sea-sounding  wastes  of  Lyon- 
esse  — 

Poor  wretch  —  no  friend  !  —  and  now  by 
Mark  the  King 

For  that  small  charm  of  feature  mine, 
pursued  — 

If  any  such  be  mine  —  I  fly  to  thee. 

Save,  save  me  thou —  Woman  of  women 
—  thine 

The  wreath  of  beauty,  thine  the  crown  of 
power, 
^     Be  thine  the  balm  of  pity,  O  Heaven's 
own  white 

Earth-angel,  stainless  bride  of  stainless 
King  — 

Help,  for  he  follows!    take  me  to  thy- 
self! 

O  yield  me  shelter  for  mine  innocency 

Among  thy  maidens ! ' 

Here  her  slow  sweet  eyes 
Fear-tremulous,  but  humbly  hopeful,  rose 
Fixt  on  her  hearer's,   while  the  Queen 

who  stood 
All  glittering  like  May  sunshine  on  May 

leaves 
In   green   and   gold,   and    plumed   with 

green  replied, 
'  Peace,  child !    of  overpraise  and  over- 
blame 


We  choose  the  last.     Our  noble  Arthur, 

him 
Ye  scarce  can  overpraise,  will  hear  and 

know. 
Nay —  we  believe  all  evil  of  thy  Mark  — 
Well,  we  shall  .test  thee  farther;   but  this 

hour 
We  ride  a-hawking  with  Sir  Lancelot. 
He  hath  given  us  a  fair  falcon  which  he 

train'd; 
We  go  to  prove  it.     Bide  ye  here  the 

while.' 

She  past;  and  Vivien  murmur'd  after, 
'Go! 

I  bide  the  while.'  Then  thro'  the  portal- 
arch 

Peering  askance,  and  muttering  broken- 
wise, 

As  one  that  labours  with  an  evil  dream, 

Beheld  the  Queen  and  Lancelot  get  to 
horse. 

'Is  that  the  Lancelot?  goodly  —  ay, 

but  gaunt : 
Courteous  —  amends     for     gauntness  — 

takes  her  hand  — 
That  glance  of  theirs,  but  for  the  street, 

had  been 
A   clinging   kiss  —  how  hand  lingers  in 

hand  ! 
Let  go  at  last !  —  they  ride   away  —  to 

hawk 
For  waterfowl.     Royaller  game  is  mine. 
For  such  a  supersensual  sensual  bond 
As   that   gray  cricket  chirpt   of  at   our 

hearth  — 
Touch   flax  with   flame  —  a   glance  will 

serve  —  the  liars ! 
Ah  little  rat  that  borest  in  the  dyke 
Thy  hole  by  night  to  let  the  boundless  deep 
Down    upon    far-off    cities    while    they 

dance  — 
Or  dream  —  of  thee  they  dream'd  not  — 

nor  of  me 
These  —  ay,  but  each  of  either :  ride,  and 

dream 
The   mortal   dream   that  never  yet  was 

mine  — 
Ride,  ride  and  dream  until  ye  wake  — 

to  me ! 
Then,   narrow  court   and   lubber   King, 

farewell ! 


<y 


MERLIN  AND    VIVIEN. 


375 


For  Lancelot  will  be  gracious  to  the  rat, 
And  our  wise  Queen,  if  knowing  that  I 

know, 
Will  hate,  loathe,  fear  —  but  honour  me 

the  more.' 

Yet  while  they  rode  together  down  the 

plain, 
Their  talk  was  all  of  training,  terms  of  art, 
Diet  and  seeling,  jesses,  leash  and  lure. 
'  She  is  too  noble,'  he  said,  '  to  check  at 

pies, 
Nor  will  she  rake :  there  is  no  baseness 

in  her.' 
Here  when  the  Queen  demanded  as  by 

chance, 
'Know  ye  the  stranger  woman?  '     '  Let 

her  be,' 
Said  Lancelot  and  unhooded  casting  off 
The   goodly   falcon   free;    she   tower'd; 

her  bells, 
Tone  undertone,  shrill'd;   and  they  lifted 

up 
Their    eager    faces,   wondering    at    the 

strength, 
Boldness   and   royal  knighthood  of  the 

bird 
Who  pounced  her   quarry  and  slew  it. 

Many  a  time 
As  once  —  of  old  —  among  the  flowers  — 

they  rode. 

But  Vivien  half-forgotten  of  the  Queen 
Among  her  damsels  broidering  sat,  heard, 

watch'd 
And  whisper'd :  thro'  the  peaceful  court 

she  crept 
And  whisper'd:    then  as  Arthur  in  the 

highest 
Leaven'd   the  world,   so  Vivien   in    the 

lowest, 
Arriving  at  a  time  of  golden  rest, 
And  sowing  one  ill  hint  from  ear  to  ear, 
While  all  the  heathen  lay  at  Arthur's  feet, 
And  no  quest  came,  but  all  was  joust  and 

play, 
Leaven'd  his  hall.     They  heard  and  let 

her  be. 

Thereafter  as  an  enemy  that  has  left 
Death   in   the  living  waters,   and  with- 
drawn, 
The  wily  Vivien  stole  from  Arthur's  court. 


She  hated  all  the  knights,  and  heard 
in  thought 
Their   lavish    comment  when  her  name 

was  named. 
For  once,  when  Arthur  walking  all  alone, 
Vext  at  a  rumpur  issued  from  herself 
Of    some    corruption   crept   among    his 

knights, 
Had  met  her,  Vivien,  being  greeted  fair, 
Would  fain  have  wrought  upon  his  cloudy 

mood 
With   reverent  eyes  mock-loyal,  shaken 

voice, 
And  flutter'd  adoration,  and  at  last 
With    dark    sweet   hints   of   some   who 

prized  him  more 
Than  who    should    prize   him  most;    at 

which  the  King 
Had  gazed  upon  her  blankly  and  gone 

by; 
But  one  had  watch'd,  and  had  not  held 

his  peace : 
It  made  the  laughter  of  an  afternoon 
That  Vivien  should  attempt  the  blame- 
less King. 
And  after  that,  she  set  herself  to  gain 
Him,  the  most  famous  man  of  all  those 

times, 
Merlin,  who  knew  the  range  of  all  their 

arts, 
Had  built  the  King  his  havens,  ships, 

and  halls, 
Was   also    Bard,   and   knew   the    starry 

heavens; 
The  people  call'd  him  Wizard ;   whom  at 

first 
She  play'd  about  with  slight  and  sprightly 

talk, 
And  vivid   smiles,   and   faintly-venom'd 

points 
Of  slander,  glancing   here  and   grazing 

there; 
And  yielding  to  his  kindlier  moods,  the 

Seer 
Would  watch  her  at .  her  petulance,  and 

play, 
Ev'n  when  they  seem'd  unlovable,  and 

laugh 
As  those   that  watch  a  kitten;   thus  he 

grew 
Tolerant  of  what  he  half  disdain'd,  and 

she, 
Perceiving  that  she  was  but  half  disdain'd, 


376 


MERLIN  AND    VIVIEN. 


Began  to  break  her  sports  with  graver  fits, 
Turn  red  or  pale,  would  often  when  they 

met 
Sigh  fully,  or  all-silent  gaze  upon  him 
With  such  a  fixt   devotion,  that  the  old 

man,  . 

Tho'   doubtful,  felt  the   flattery,  and  at 

times 
Would  flatter  his  own  wish  in  age  for  love, 
And  half  believe  her  true:  for  thus  at 

times 
He  waver'd;  but  that  other  clung  to  him, 
Fixt  in  her  will,  and  so  the  seasons  went. 

Then  fell  on  Merlin  a  great  melancholy; 
He   walk'd  with  dreams  and  darkness, 

and  he  found 
A  doom  that  ever  poised  itself  to  fall, 
An  ever-moaning  battle  in  the  mist, 
World-war   of  dying   flesh    against    the 

life, 
Death  in  all  life  and  lying  in  all  love, 
The   meanest    having   power    upon   the 

highest, 
And  the    high   purpose  broken  by   the 

worm. 

So  leaving  Arthur's  court  he  gain'd  the 
beach; 

There  found  a  little  boat,  and  stept  into  it; 

And  Vivien  follow'd,  but  he  mark'd  her 
not. 

She  took  the  helm  and  he  the  sail;  the 
boat 

Drave  with  a  sudden  wind   across  the 
deeps, 

And   touching    Breton   sands,  they   dis- 
embark'd. 

And  then  she  follow'd  Merlin  all  the  way, 

Ev'n  to  the  wild  woods  of  Broceliande. 

For  Merlin  once  had  told  her  of  a  charm, 

The  which  if  any  wrought  on  any  one 
I  With  woven  paces  and  with  waving  arms, 

The  man  so  wrought  on  ever  seem'd  to  lie 

Closed  in  the  four  walls  of  a  hollow  tower, 

From  which  was  no  escape  for  evermore; 

And  none  could  find  that  man  for  ever- 
more, 

Nor  could  he  see  but  him  who  wrought 
the  charm 

Coming  and  going,  and  he  lay  as  dead 

And  lost  to  life  and  use  and  name  and 
fame. 


And   Vivien   ever   sought   to   work   the 

charm 
Upon  the  great  Enchanter  of  the  Time, 
As  fancying  that  her  glory  would  be  great 
According   to   his   greatness  whom  she 

quench'd. 

There  lay  she  all  her  length  and  kiss'd 

his  feet, 
As  if  in  deepest  reverence  and  in  love. 
A  twist  of  gold  was  round  her  hair;   a 

robe 
Of    samite     without    price,    that    more 

exprest 
Than  hid  her,  clung  about  her  lissome 

limbs, 
In  colour  like  the  satin-shining  palm 
On  sallows  in  the  windy  gleams  of  March : 
And     while    she    kiss'd    them,    crying, 

'Trample  me, 
Dear  feet,  that  I  have  follow'd  thro'  the 

world, 
And  I  will  pay  you  worship;   tread  me 

down 
And  I  will  kiss  you  for  it;'  he  was  mute : 
So   dark  a  forethought  roll'd  about  his 

brain, 
As  on  a  dull  day  in  an  Ocean  cave 
The  blind  wave  feeling  round  his  long 

sea-hall 
In  silence  :  wherefore,  when  she  lifted  up 
A  face  of  sad  appeal,  and  spake  and  said, 
1  O  Merlin,  do  ye  love  me? '  and  again, 
'O  Merlin,  do  ye  love  me?'  and  once 

more, 
'Great  Master,  do  ye  love  me?'  he  was 

mute. 
And  lissome  Vivien,  holding  by  his  heel, 
Writhed  toward  him,  slided  up  his  knee 

and  sat, 
Behind  his  ankle  twined  her  hollow  feet 
Together,  curved  an  arm  about  his  neck, 
Clung  like  a  snake;   and  letting  her  left 

hand 
Droop  from  his  mighty  shoulder,  as  a  leaf, 
Made  with  her  right  a  comb  of  pearl  to 

part 
The  lists  of  such  a  beard  as  youth  gone 

out 
Had   left  in  ashes:  then  he  spoke  and 

said, 
Not  looking  at  her,  '  Who  are  wise  in 

love 


MERLIN  AND    VIVIEN. 


377 


Love    most,  say   least,'  and   Vivien   an- 

swer'd  quick, 
•  I  saw  the  little  elf-god  eyeless  once 
In  Arthur's  arras  hall  at  Camelot : 
But  neither  eyes  nor  tongue  —  O  stupid 

child ! 
Yet  you  are  wise  who  say  it;  let  me  think 
Silence  is  wisdom  :  I  am  silent  then, 
And  ask  no  kiss; '  then  adding  all  at  once, 
'And   lo,  I  clothe  myself  with  wisdom,' 

drew 
The  vast  and  shaggy  mantle  of  his  beard 
Across  her  neck  and  bosom  to  her  knee, 
And  call'd  herself  a  gilded  summer  fly 
Caught   in   a   great   old    tyrant   spider's 

web, 
Who  meant  to  eat  her  up  in  that  wild 

wood 
Without  one  word.    So  Vivien  call'd  her- 
self, 
But  rather  seem'd  a  lovely  baleful  star 
Veil'd   in   gray   vapour;     till    he    sadly 

smiled : 
'To  what  request  for  what  strange  boon,' 

he  said, 
'  Are  these  your  pretty  tricks  and  fooleries, 

0  Vivien,  the  preamble?  yet  my  thanks, 
For  these  have  broken  up  my  melancholy.' 

And  Vivien  answer'd  smiling  saucily, 
'  What,   O   my   Master,  have   ye   found 
your  voice? 

1  bid  the  stranger  welcome.     Thanks  at 

last! 
But  yesterday  you  never  open'd  lip, 
Except  indeed  to  drink  :  no  cup  had  we  : 
In   mine   own   lady  palms  I    cull'd  the 

spring 
That   gather'd  trickling   dropwise   from 

the  cleft, 
And  made  a  pretty  cup  of  both  my  hands 
And  offer'd  you  it  kneeling :   then  you 

drank 
And  knew  no   more,  nor  gave  me  one 

poor  word ; 
O  no  more   thanks  than  might   a  goat 

have  given 
With  no  more  sign  of  reverence  than  a 

beard. 
And  when  we  halted  at  that  other  well, 
And  I  was  faint  to  swooning,  and  you  lay 
Foot-gilt   with   all   the   blossom-dust    of 

those 


Deep  meadows  we   had   traversed,    did 

you  know 
That  Vivien  bathed  your  feet  before  her 

own? 
And  yet  no  thanks :  and  all  thro'  this  wild 

wood 
And   all   this   morning  when  I  fondled 

you : 
Boon,  ay,  there  was  a  boon,  one  not  so 

strange  — 
How  had  I  wrong'd  you?  surely  ye  are 

wise, 
But  such  a  silence  is  more  wise  than  kind.' 

And  Merlin  lock'd  his  hand  in  hers  and 
said : 

'  O  did  ye  never  lie  upon  the  shore, 

And  watch  the  curl'd  white  of  the  com- 
ing wave 

Glass'd  in  the  slippery  sand  before  it 
breaks? 

Ev'n  such  a  wave,  but  not  so  pleasurable, 

Dark  in  the  glass  of  some  presageful 
m«od, 

Had  I  for  three  days  seen,  ready  to  fall. 

And  then  I  rose  and  fled  from  Arthur's 
court 

To  break  the  mood.  You  follow'd  me 
unask'd ; 

And  when  I  look'd,  and  saw  you  follow- 
ing still, 

My  mind  involved  yourself  the  nearest 
thing 

In  that  mind-mist :  for  shall  I  tell  you 
truth? 

You  seem'd  that  wave  about  to  break 
upon  me 

And  sweep  me  from  my  hold  upon  the 
world, 

My  use  and  name  and  fame.  Your  par- 
don, child. 

Your  pretty  sports  have  brighten'd  all 
again. 

And  ask  your  boon,  for  boon  I  owe  you 
thrice, 

Once  for  wrong  done  you  by  confusion, 
next 

For  thanks  it  seems  till  now  neglected, 
last 

For  these  your  dainty  gambols:  where- 
fore ask;  "*-— — ~ 

And  take  this  boon  so  strange  and  not  so 
strange.' 


378 


MERLIN  AND    VIVIEN. 


And  Vivien  answer'd  smiling  mourn- 
fully : 
*  0  not  so  strange  as  my  long  asking  it, 
Not  yet  so  strange  as  you  yourself  are 

strange, 
Nor  half  so  strange  as  that  dark  mood  of 

yours. 
I  ever  fear'd  ye  were  not  wholly  mine; 
And  see,  yourself  have  own'd  ye  did  me 

wrong. 
The  people  call  you  prophet :  let  it  be : 
But  not  of  those  that  can  expound  them- 
selves. 
Take  Vivien  for  expounder;   she  will  call 
That  three-days-long  presageful  gloom  of 

yours 
No   presage,   but    the   same   mistrustful 

mood 
That  makes  you  seem  less  noble   than 

yourself, 
Whenever  I  have  ask'd  this  very  boon, 
Now  ask'd  again :  for  see  you  not,  dear 

love, 
That  such  a  mood  as  that,  which  lately 

gloom'd 
Your  fancy  when  ye  saw  me  following 

you, 
Must  make  me  fear  still  more  you  are  not 

mine, 
Must  make  me  yearn  still  more  to  prove 

you  mine, 
And  make  me  wish  still  more  to  learn 

this  charm 
Of  woven  paces  and  of  waving  hands, 
As  proof  of  trust.    O  Merlin,  teach  it  me. 
The  charm  so  taught  will  charm  us  both 

to  rest. 
For,  grant  me  some  slight  power  upon 

your  fate, 
I,  feeling  that  you  felt  me  worthy  trust, 
Should  rest  and  let  you  rest,  knowing  you 

mine. 
And  therefore  be  as  great  as  ye  are  named, 
Not  muffled  round  with  selfish  reticence. 
How  hard  you  look  and  how  denyingly ! 
O,  if  you  think  this  wickedness  in  me, 
That  I  should  prove  it  on  you  unawares, 
That  makes  me  passing  wrathful;   then 

our  bond 
Had  best  be  loosed  for  ever :  but  think 

or  not, 
By  Heaven  that  hears  I  tell  you  the  clean 

truth, 


As  clean  as  blood  of  babes,  as  white  as 
milk : 

0  Merlin,  may  this  earth,  if  ever  I, 

If  these  unwitty  wandering  wits  of  mine, 
Ev'n  in  the  jumbled  rubbish  of  a  dream, 
Have  tript  on  such  conjectural  treachery  — 
May  this  hard  earth  cleave  to  the  Nadir 

hell 
Down,  down,  and  close  again,  and  nip  me 

flat, 
If  I  be  such  a  traitress.     Yield  my  boon, 
Till  which  I  scarce  can  yield  you  all  I  am; 
And  grant  my  re-reiterated  wish, 
The  great  proof  of  your  love  :  because  I 

think, 
However  wise,  ye  hardly  know  me  yet.' 

And  Merlin  loosed  his  hand  from  hers 

and  said, 
•  I  never  was  less  wise,  however  wise, 
Too  curious  Vivien,  tho'  you  talk  of  trust, 
Than  when  I   told   you  first  of  such  a 

charm. 
Yea,  if  ye  talk  of  trust  I  tell  you  this, 
Too  much  I  trusted  when  I  told  you  that, 
And  stirr'd  this  vice  in  you  which  ruin'd 

man 
Thro'  woman  the  first  hour;  for  howsoe'er 
In  children  a  great  curiousness  be  well, 
Who  have  to  learn  themselves  and  all  the 

world, 
In  you,  that  are  no  child,  for  still  I  find 
Your  face  is  practised  when  I  spell  the 

lines, 

1  call  it,  —  well,  I  will  not  call  it  vice : 
But  since  you  name  yourself  the  summer 

fly, 

I  well  could  wish  a  cobweb  for  the  gnat, 
That  settles,  beaten  back,  and  beaten  back 
Settles,  till  one  could  yield  for  weariness : 
But  since  I  will  not   yield  to  give  you 

power 
Upon  my  life  and  use  and  name  and  fame, 
Why  will  ye  never  ask  some  other  boon? 
Yea,  by  God's  rood,  I  trusted  you  too 

much.' 

And  Vivien,  like  the  tenderest-hearted 

maid 
That  ever  bided  tryst  at  village  stile, 
Made  answer,  either  eyelid  wet  with  tears : 
'Nay,  Master,  be  not  wrathful  with  your 

maid; 


MERLIN  AND    VIVIEN. 


379 


Caress  her :  let  her  feel  herself  forgiven 
Who  feels  no  heart  to  ask  another  boon. 
I  think  ye  hardly  know  the  tender  rhyme 
Of  "  trust  me  not  at  all  or  all  in  all." 
I  heard  the  great  Sir  Lancelot  sing  it 

once, 
And  it  shall  answer  for  me.     Listen  to  it. 

*  "  In  Love,  if  Love  be  Love,  if  Love  be 

ours, 
Faith  and   unfaith  can   ne'er   be   equal 

powers : 
Unfaith  in  aught  is  want  of  faith  in  all. 

' "  It  is  the  little  rift  within  the  lute, 
That  by  and  by  will  make  the  music  mute, 
And  ever  widening  slowly  silence  all. 

1  "The  little  rift  within  the  lover's  lute 
Or  little  pitted  speck  in  garner'd  fruit, 
That  rotting  inward  slowly  moulders  all. 

' "  It  is  not  worth  the  keeping :  let  it  go : 
But  shall  it?  answer,  darling,  answer,  no. 
And  trust  me  not  at  all  or  all  in  all." 

O  Master,  do  ye  love  my  tender  rhyme  ?  ' 

And  Merlin  look'd  and  half  believed 

her  true, 
So  tender  was  her  voice,  so  fair  her  face, 
So  sweetly  gleam'd  her  eyes  behind  her 

tears 
Like   sunlight    on   the   plain   behind    a 

shower : 
And  yet  he  answer'd  half  indignantly : 

1  Far  other  was  the  song  that  once  I 

heard 
By  this  huge  oak,  sung  nearly  where  we 

sit: 
For  here  we  met,  some  ten  or  twelve  of 

us, 
To   chase   a  creature   that   was  current 

then 
In  these  wild  woods,  the  hart  with  golden 

horns. 
It  was  the  time  when  first  the  question 

rose 
About  the  founding  of  a  Table  Round, 
That  was  to  be,  for  love  of  God  and  men 
And  noble  deeds,  the  flower  of  all  the 

world. 


And  each  incited  each  to  noble  deeds. 
And  while  we  waited,  one,  the  youngest 

of  us, 
We  could  not  keep   him  silent,  out  he 

flash'd, 
And  into  such  a  song,  such  fire  for  fame, 
Such  trumpet-blowings  in  it,  coming  down 
To  such  a  stern  and  iron-clashing  close, 
That  when  he  stopt  we  long'd   to  hurl 

together, 
And  should  have  done  it;   but  the  beau- 
teous beast 
Scared  by  the  noise  upstarted  at  our  feet, 
And  like  a  silver  shadow  slipt  away 
Thro'  the  dim  land;    and   all   day  long 

we  rode 
Thro'  the   dim   land   against  a  rushing 

wind, 
That   glorious   roundel   echoing   in   our 

ears, 
And   chased   the   flashes  of  his  golden 

horns 
Until  they  vanish'd  by  the  fairy  well 
That   laughs  at   iron  —  as  our  warriors 

did  — 
Where  children  cast  their  pins  and  nails, 

and  cry, 
"  Laugh,  little  well !  "  but  touch  it  with 

a  sword, 
It  buzzes  fiercely  round  the  point;   and 

there 
We   lost   him :    such   a  noble  song  was 

that. 
But,   Vivien,   when   you   sang   me    that 

sweet  rhyme, 
I  felt  as  tho'  you  knew  this  cursed  charm, 
Were  proving  it  on  me,  and  that  I  lay 
And  felt  them  slowly  ebbing,  name  and 

fame.' 

And  Vivien  answer'd,  smiling  mourn- 
fully : 

1  O  mine  have  ebb'd  away  for  evermore, 

And  all  thro'  following  you  to  this  wild 
wood, 

Because  I  saw  you  sad,  to  comfort  you. 

Lo  now,  what  hearts  have  men !  they 
never  mount 

As  high  as  woman  in  her  selfless  mood. 

And  touching  fame,  howe'er  ye  scorn  my 
song, 

Take  one  verse  more — the  lady  speaks 
it  —  this : 


38o 


MERLIN  AND   VIVIEN. 


*  "  My  name,  once  mine,  now  thine,  is 

closelier  mine, 
For  fame,  could  fame  be  mine,  that  fame 

were  thine, 
And  shame,  could  shame  be  thine,  that 

shame  were  mine. 
So  trust  me  not  at  all  or  all  in  all." 

'Says  she  not  well?  and  there  is  more 

—  this  rhyme 
Is   like   the    fair   pearl-necklace  of  the 

Queen, 
That  burst  in  dancing,  and   the   pearls 

were  split; 
Some   lost,  some  stolen,  some  as  relics 

kept. 
But  nevermore  the  same  two  sister  pearls 
Ran  down  the  silken  thread  to  kiss  each 

other 
On  her  white  neck  —  so  is  it  with  this 

rhyme : 
It  lives  dispersedly  in  many  hands, 
And  every  minstrel  sings  it  differently; 
Yet  is  there  one  true  line,  the  pearl  of 

pearls : 
"  Man    dreams   of  Fame   while   woman 

wakes  to  love." 
Yea !  Love,  tho'  Love  were  of  the  gross- 
est, carves 
A  portion  from  the  solid  present,  eats 
And  uses,  careless  of  the  rest;  but  Fame, 
The  Fame  that  follows  death  is  nothing 

to  us; 
And  what  is  Fame  in  life  but  half-dis- 

fame, 
And  counterchanged  with  darkness?  ye 

yourself 
Know  well  that  Envy  calls  you  Devil's  son, 
And  since  ye  seem  the  Master  of  all  Art, 
They  fain  would   make  you  Master   of 

all  vice.' 

And  Merlin  lock'd   his  hand  in  hers 

and  said, 
'I  once  was  looking  for  a  magic  weed, 
And  found  a  fair  young  squire  who  sat 

alone, 
Had  carved  himself  a  knightly  shield  of 

wood, 
And  then  was  painting  on  it  fancied  arms, 
Azure,  an  Eagle  rising,  or  the  Sun 
In   dexter   chief;    the   scroll   "I    follow 

fame." 


And  speaking  not,  but  leaning  over  him, 
I  took  his  brush  and  blotted  out  the  bird, 
And  made  a  Gardener  putting  in  a  graff, 
With  this  for  motto,  "  Rather  use  than 

fame." 
You  should   have  seen  him  blush;    but 

afterwards 
He  made  a  stalwart  knight.     O  Vivien, 
For  you,  methinks  you  think   you  love 

me  well; 
For  me,  I  love  you  somewhat;   rest:  and 

Love 
Should  have  some  rest  and  pleasure  in 

himself, 
Not  ever  be  too  curious  for  a  boon, 
Too  prurient  for  a  proof  against  the  grain 
Of  him  ye  say  ye  love :  but  Fame  with 

men, 
Being  but  ampler  means  to  serve  man- 
kind, 
Should   have  small  rest  or  pleasure  in 

herself, 
But  work  as  vassal  to  the  larger  love, 
That  dwarfs  the  petty  love  of  one  to  one. 
Use  gave  me  Fame  at  first,  and   Fame 

again 
Increasing  gave  me  use.     Lo,  there  my 

boon ! 
What  other?  for  men  sought   to   prove 

me  vile, 
Because  I  fain  had  given  them  greater 

wits: 
And  then  did  Envy  call  me  Devil's  son  : 
The   sick  weak   beast   seeking   to   help 

herself 
By  striking  at  her  better,  miss'd,   and 

brought 
Her  own  claw  back,  and  wounded  her 

own  heart. 
Sweet  were   the  days  when   I   was  all 

unknown, 
But  when  my  name  was   lifted   up,  the 

storm 
Brake  on  the  mountain  and  I  cared  not 

for  it. 
Right  well   know  I   that  Fame  is  half- 

disfame, 
Yet  needs  must  work   my  work.    That 

other  fame, 
To  one  at  least,  who  hath  not  children, 

vague, 
The  cackle  of  the  unborn  about  the  grave, 
I  cared  not  for  it :  a  single  misty  star, 


MERLIN  AND    VIVIEN. 


381 


Which  is  the  second  in  a  line  of  stars 
That  seem  a  sword   beneath    a   belt   of 

three, 
I  never  gazed  upon  it  but  I  dreamt 
Of  some  vast  charm  concluded  in  that 

star 
To  make  fame  nothing.     Wherefore,  if 

I  fear, 
Giving  you   power   upon  me   thro'   this 

charm, 
That  you  might  play  me  falsely,  having. 

power, 
However  well  ye  think  ye  love  me  now 
(As  sons  of  kings  loving  in  pupilage 
Have  turn'd  to  tyrants  when  they  came 

to  power), 
I  rather  dread  the  loss  of  use  than  fame; 
If  you  —  and  not  so  much  from  wicked- 
ness, 
As  some  wild  turn  of  anger,  or  a  mood 
Of  overstrain'd  affection,  it  may  be, 
To  keep  me  all  to  your  own  self, —  or  else 
A  sudden  spurt  of  woman's  jealousy,  — 
Should  try  this  charm  on  whom  ye  say 

ye  love.' 

And   Vivien   answer'd    smiling   as   in 

wrath : 
'Have  I  not  sworn?     I  am  not  trusted. 

Good ! 
Well,  hide  it,  hide  it;   I  shall  find  it  out; 
And  being  found  take  heed  of  Vivien. 
A  woman  and  not  trusted,  doubtless  I 
Might   feel  some  sudden  turn  of  anger 

born 
Of  your  misfaith;   and  your  fine  epithet 
Is  accurate  too,  for  this  full  love  of  mine 
Without  the  full  heart  back  may  merit  well 
Your  term  of  overstrain'd.     So  used  as  I, 
My  daily  wonder  is,  I  love  at  all. 
And  as  to  woman's  jealousy,  O  why  not? 

0  to  what  end,  except  a  jealous  one, 
And  one  to  make  me  jealous  if  I  love, 
Was  this  fair  charm  invented  by  yourself? 

1  well  believe  that  all  about  this  world 
Ye  cage  a  buxom  captive  here  and  there, 
Closed  in  the  four  walls  of  a  hollow  tower 
From  which  is  no  escape  for  evermore.' 

Then  the  great  Master  merrily  answer'd 
her: 
'Full  many  a  love  in  loving  youth  was 
mine; 


I  needed  then  no  charm  to  keep  them 

mine 
But  youth  and  love;   and  that  full  heart 

of  yours 
Whereof  ye  prattle,  may  now  assure  you 

mine; 
So    live    uncharm'd.       For    those    who 

wrought  it  first, 
The  wrist  is  parted  from  the  hand  that 

waved, 
The  feet  unmortised   from   their   ankle- 
bones 
Who   paced  it,  ages  back :    but  will  ye 

hear      <       ^^^ 
The  legend  as  in  guerdoji  for  your  rhyme  ? 

'  There  lived  a  king  in  the  most  Eastern 

East, 
Less  old  than  I,  yet  older,  for  my  blood 
Hath  earnest  in  it  of  far  springs  to  be. 
A  tawny  pirate  anchor'd  in  his  port, 
Whose  bark  had  plunder'd  twenty  name- 
less isles; 
And   passing  one,  at  the  high   peep    of 

dawn, 
He  saw  two  cities  in  a  thousand  boats 
All  fighting  for  a  woman  on  the  sea. 
And  pushing  his  black  craft  among  them 

all, 
He  lightly  scatter'd  theirs  and  brought 

her  off, 
With  loss  of  half  his  people  arrow-slain; 
A  maid  so  smooth,  so  white,  so  wonderful, 
They  said  a  light  came  from  her  when 

she  moved : 
And  since  the  pirate  would  not  yield  her 

up, 
The  King  impaled  him  for  his  piracy; 
Then  made  her  Queen :    but  those  isle- 
nurtured  eyes 
Waged    such    unwilling   tho'    successful 

war 
On  all  the  youth,  they  sicken'd;   councils 

thinn'd, 
And  armies  waned,  for  magnet-like  she 

drew 
The  rustiest  iron  of  old  fighters'  hearts; 
And   beasts   themselves  would  worship; 

camels  knelt 
Unbidden,  and  the  brutes  of  mountain 

back 
That  carry  kings  in  castles,  bow'd  black 

knees 


382 


MERLIN  AND    VIVIEN 


Of  homage,  ringing  with   their   serpent 

hands, 
To  make  her  smile,  her  golden  ankle-bells. 
What  wonder,  being  jealous,  that  he  sent 
His  horns  of  proclamation  out  thro'  all 
The   hundred    under-kingdoms   that   he 

sway'd 
To  find  a  wizard  who  might    teach  the 

King 
Some  charm,  which  being  wrought  upon 

the  Queen 
Might  keep  her  all  his  own:  to  such  a 

one 
He  promised   more  than  ever  king  has 

given, 
A  league  of  mountain  full  of  golden  mines, 
A  province  with  a  hundred  miles  of  coast, 
A  palace  and  a  princess,  all  for  him : 
But  on  all  those  who  tried  and  fail'd,  the 

King 
Pronounced  a  dismal  sentence,  meaning 

by  it 
To  keep  the  list  low  and  pretenders  back, 
Or  like  a  king,  not  to  be  trifled  with  — 
Their  heads  should  moulder  on  the  city 

gates. 
And  many  tried  and  fail'd,  because  the 

charm 
Of  nature  in  her  overbore  their  own : 
And  many  a  wizard  brow  bleach'd  on  the 

walls : 
And  many  weeks  a  troop  of  carrion  crows 
Hung  like  a  cloud  above  the   gateway 

towers.' 

And  Vivien  breaking  in  upon  him,  said : 
1 1  sit  and  gather  honey;   yet,  methinks, 
Thy  tongue  has  tript  a  little :  ask  thyself. 
The  lady  never  made  unwilling  war 
With  those  fine  eyes :  she  had  her  pleas- 
ure in  it, 
And   made  her  good   man  jealous  with 

good  cause. 
And  lived  there  neither  dame  nor  damsel 

then 
Wroth  at  a  lover's  loss?  were  all  as  tame, 
I  mean,  as  noble,  as  their  Queen  was  fair? 
Not  one  to  flirt  a  venom  at  her  eyes, 
Or  pinch  a  murderous  dust  into  her  drink, 
Or  make  her  paler  with  a  poison'd  rose? 
Well,  those  were  not  our  days :   but  did 

they  find 
A  wizard  ?    Tell  me,  was  he  like  to  thee  ? ' 


She  ceased,  and  made  her  lithe   arm 

round  his  neck 
Tighten,  and  then  drew  back,  and  let  her 

eyes 
Speak  for   her,  glowing  on  him,  like  a 

bride's 
On  her  new  lord,  her  own,  the  first  of 

men. 

He  answer'd  laughing,  '  Nay,  not  like 

to  me. 
At    last    they   found  —  his   foragers   for 

charms  — 
A  little  glassy-headed  hairless  man, 
Who  lived  alone  in  a  great  wild  on  grass; 
Read  but   one   book,  and  ever  reading 

grew 
So   grated    down   and   filed   away   with 

thought, 
So  lean  his  eyes  were  monstrous;   while 

the  skin 
Clung  but  to  crate  and  basket,  ribs  and 

spine. 
And  since  he  kept  his  mind  on  one  sole 

aim, 
Nor  ever  touch'd  fierce  wine,  nor  tasted 

flesh, 
Nor  own'd  a  sensual  wish,  to  him  the  wall 
That  sunders  ghosts  and  shadow-casting 

men 
Became  a  crystal,  and  he  saw  them  thro'  it, 
And  heard  their  voices  talk  behind  the 

wall, 
And  learnt  their  elemental  secrets,  powers 
And  forces;  often  o'er  the  sun's  bright  eye 
Drew  the  vast  eyelid  of  an  inky  cloud, 
And  lash'd  it  at  the  base  with  slanting 

storm ; 
Or  in  the  noon  of  mist  and  driving  rain, 
When  the  lake  whiten'd  and  the  pine- 
wood  roar'd, 
And  the  cairn'd  mountain  was  a  shadow, 

sunn'd 
The  world  to  peace  again :  here  was  the 

man. 
And  so  by  force  they  dragg'd  him  to  the 

King. 
And  then  he  taught  the  King  to  charm 

the  Queen 
In  such-wise,  that  no  man  could  see  her 

more, 
Nor  saw  she  save  the  King,  who  wrought 

the  charm, 


MERLIN  AND    VIVIEN. 


383 


Coming  and  going,  and  she.  lay  as  dead, 
And  lost  all  use  of  life:    but  when  the 

King 
Made   proffer   of  the   league  of  golden 

mines, 
The   province  with  a  hundred   miles  of 

coast, 
The   palace  and  the  princess,  that   old 

man 
Went  back  to  his  old  wild,  and  lived  on 

grass, 
And  vanish'd,  and  his  book  came  down 

to  me.' 

And  Vivien  answer'd  smiling  saucily : 
1  Ye  have  the  book  :  the  charm  is  written 

in  it: 
Good  :  take  my  counsel :  let  me  know  it 

at  once : 
For  keep  it  like  a  puzzle  chest  in  chest, 
With  each   chest   lock'd  and  padlock'd 

thirty-fold, 
And  whelm   all   this   beneath  as  vast  a 

mound 
As  after  furious  battle  turfs  the  slain 
On  some  wild  down  above  the  windy  deep, 
I  yet  should  strike  upon  a  sudden  means 
To  dig,  pick,  open,  find   and   read  the 

charm : 
Then,  if  I  tried  it,  who  should  blame  me 

then?' 

And  smiling  as  a  master  smiles  at  one 
That  is  not  of  his  school,  nor  any  school 
But  that  where  blind  and  naked  Ignorance 
Delivers  brawling  judgments,  unashamed, 
On  all  things  all  day  long,  he  answer'd 
her: 

•  Thou  read  the  book,  my  pretty  Vivien ! 
O  ay,  it  is  but  twenty  pages  long, 
But  every  page  having  an  ample  marge, 
And  every  marge  enclosing  in  the  midst 
A  square  of  text  that  looks  a  little  blot, 
The   text  no  larger   than   the   limbs  of 

fleas; 
And  every  square  of  text  an  awful  charm, 
Writ  in  a  language  that  has  long  gone  by. 
So  long,  that  mountains  have  arisen  since 
With  cities  on  their  flanks  —  thou  read 

the  book ! 
And  every  margin  scribbled,  crost,  and 

cramm'd 


With    comment,    densest    condensation, 

hard 
To  mind  and  eye;   but  the  long  sleepless 

nights 
Of  my  long  life    have  made  it  easy  to 

me. 
And  none  can  read  the  text,  not  even  I ; 
And  none    can  read    the   comment  but 

myself; 
And  in  the  comment  did  I  find  the  charm. 
O,  the  results  are  simple;   a  mere  child 
Might  use  it  to  the  harm  of  any  one, 
And  never  could  undo  it :  ask  no  more  : 
For  tho'  you  should  not  prove  it  upon 

me, 
But  keep  that  oath  ye  sware,  ye  might, 

perchance, 
Assay  it  on  some  one  of  the  Table  Round, 
And  all  because  ye  dream  they  babble 

of  you.' 

And  Vivien,  frowning  in  true  anger, 
said: 

1  What  dare  the  full-fed  liars  say  of  me? 

They  ride  abroad  redressing  human 
wrongs ! 

They  sit  with  knife  in  meat  and  wine  in 
horn! 

They  bound  to  holy  vows  of  chastity ! 

Were  I  not  woman,  I  could  tell  a  tale. 

But  you  are  man,  you  well  can  under- 
stand 

The  shame  that  cannot  be  explain'd  for 
shame. 

Not  one  of  all  the  drove  should  touch 
me :  swine  !  ' 

Then  answer'd  Merlin  careless  of  her 

words: 
'  You  breathe   but   accusation  vast  and 

vague, 
Spleen-born,  I  think,  and  proofless.     If 

ye  know, 
Set  up  the  charge  ye  know,  to  stand  or 

fall !  ' 

And  Vivien  answer'd  frowning  wrath- 

fully : 
*  O  ay,  what  say  ye  to  Sir  Valence,  him 
Whose   kinsman  left  him   watcher   o'er 

his  wife 
And  two  fair  babes,  and  went  to  distant 

lands; 


384 


MERLIN  AND    VIVIEN 


Was  one  year  gone,  and  on  returning 
found 

Not  two  but  three?  there  lay  the  reck- 
ling, one 

But  one  hour  old  !  What  said  the  happy 
sire? 

A  seven-months'  babe  had  been  a  truer 
gift. 

Those  twelve  sweet  moons  confused  his 
fatherhood.' 

Then  answer'd  Merlin,  '  Nay,  I  know 

the  tale. 
Sir  Valence    wedded  with   an   outland 

dame  : 
Some  cause  had  kept  him  sunder'd  from 

his  wife : 
One  "child  they  had:  it  lived  with  her: 

she  died : 
His  kinsman  travelling  on  his  own  affair 
Was  charged  by  Valence  to  bring  home 

the  child. 
He  brought,  not  found  it  therefore :  take 

the  truth.' 

'O  ay,'  said  Vivien,  '  overtrue  a  tale. 
What  say  ye  then  to  sweet  Sir  Sagramore, 
That  ardent  man  ?  "  to  pluck  the  flower 

in  season," 
So  says  the  song,  "  I  trow  it  is  no  trea- 
son." 

0  Master,  shall  we  call  him  overquick 
To  crop  his  own  sweet   rose  before  the 

hour? ' 

And  Merlin  answer'd,  '  Overquick  art 

thou 
To  catch  a  loathly  plume  fall'n  from  the 

wing 
Of  that  foul  bird  of  rapine  whose  whole 

prey 
Is  man's  good  name :  he  never  wrong'd 

his  bride. 

1  know   the   tale.      An   angry   gust   of 

wind 
Puff  d  out  his  torch  among  the  myriad- 

room'd 
And  many-corridor'd  complexities 
Of  Arthur's  palace :    then   he  found   a 

door, 
And  darkling  felt  the  sculptured  ornament 
That  wreathen  round  it  made  it  seem  his 

own: 


And  wearied  out  made  for  the  couch  and 

slept, 
A  stainless  man  beside  a  stainless  maid; 
And  either  slept,  nor  knew  of  other  there; 
Till  the  high  dawn  piercing  the  royal  rose 
In  Arthur's  casement  glimmer'd  chastely 

down, 
Blushing  upon  them  blushing,  and  at  once 
He  rose  without  a  word  and  parted  from 

her: 
But  when  the  thing  was  blazed  about  the 

court, 
The  brute  world  howling  forced  them  into 

bonds, 
And  as  it  chanced  they  are  happy,  being 

pure.' 

'  O  ay,'  said  Vivien,  f  that  were  likely 

too. 
What  say  ye  then  to  fair  Sir  Percivale 
And    of    the   horrid    foulness    that    he 

wrought, 
The  saintly  youth,  the  spotless  lamb  of 

Christ, 
Or  some  black  wether  of  St.  Satan's  fold. 
What,  in  the  precincts  of  the  chapel-yard, 
Among  the  knightly  brasses  of  the  graves, 
And  by  the  cold  Hie  Jacets  of  the  dead ! ' 

And  Merlin  answer'd  careless  of  her 
charge, 

'A  sober  man  is  Percivale  and  pure; 

But  once  in  life  was  fluster'd  with  new 
wine, 

Then  paced  for  coolness  in  the  chapel- 
yard; 

Where  one  of  Satan's  shepherdesses 
caught 

And  meant  to  stamp  him  with  her  mas- 
ter's mark; 

And  that  he  sinn'd  is  not  believable; 

For,  look  upon  his  face !  —  but  if  he 
sinn'd, 

The  sin  that  practice  burns  into  the  blood, 

And  not  the  one  dark  hour  which  brings 
remorse, 

Will  brand  us,  after,  of  whose  fold  we  be  : 

Or  else  were  he,  the  holy  king,  whose 
hymns 

Are  chanted  in  the  minster,  worse  than 
all. 

But  is  your  spleen  froth'd  out,  or  have  ye 
more? ' 


MERLIN  AND    VIVIEN. 


385 


And  Vivien  answer'd  frowning  yet  in 

wrath : 
'  O   ay ;  what   say   ye  to   Sir    Lancelot, 

friend  ? 
Traitor  or  true?  that  commerce  with  the 

Queen, 
I  ask  you,  is  it  clamour'd  by  the  child, 
Or  whisper'd  in  the  corner?  do  ye  know 

it?' 

To  which  he  answer'd  sadly,  •  Yea,  I 

know  it. 
Sir  Lancelot  went  ambassador,  at  first, 
To  fetch  her,  and  she  watch'd  him  from 

her  walls. 
A  rumour  runs,  she  took  him  for  the  King, 
So  fixt  her  fancy  on  him  :  let  them  be. 
But  have  ye  no  one  word  of  loyal  praise 
For  Arthur,  blameless  King  and  stainless 

man?  ' 

She  answer'd  with  a  low  and  chuckling 
laugh : 

y  Man  !  is  he  man  at  all,  who  knows  and 
winks? 

Sees  what  his  fair  bride  is  and  does,  and 
winks? 

By  which  the  good  King  means  to  blind 
himself, 

And  blinds  himself  and  all  the  Table 
Round 

To  all  the  foulness  that  they  work.  My- 
self 

Could  call  him  (were  it  not  for  woman- 
hood) 

The  pretty,  popular  name  such  manhood 
earns, 

Could  call  him  the  main  cause  of  all 
their  crime; 

Yea,  were  he  not  crown'd  King,  coward, 
and  fool.' 

Then  Merlin  to  his  own  heart,  loath- 
ing, said : 
'  O   true  and  tender !     O  my  liege   and 

King! 
O  selfless  man  and  stainless  gentleman, 
Who  wouldst  against  thine  own  eye-wit- 

Jiess  fain 
Have  all'  men  true  and  leal,  all  women 

pure; 
How,  in  the  mouths  of  base  interpreters, 
From  over-fineness  not  intelligible 

2C 


To  things  with  every  sense  as  false  and 

foul 
As     the    poach'd    filth   that    floods   the 

middle  street, 
Is    thy   white    blamelessuess   accounted 

blame ! ' 

But  Vivien,  deeming  Merlin  overborne 
By  instance,  recommenced,  and  let  her 

tongue 
Rage    like   a   fire    among    the    noblest 

names, 
Polluting,  and  imputing  her  whole  self, 
Defaming  and  defacing,  till  she  left 
Not  even  Lancelot  brave,  nor  Galahad 

clean. 

Her  words  had  issue  other  than  she 

will'd. 
He  dragg'd  his  eyebrow  bushes   down, 

and  made 
A  snowy  penthouse  for  his  hollow  eyes, 
And  mutter'd  in  himself,  'Tell  her  the 

charm ! 
So,  if  she  had  it,  would  she  rail  on  me 
To  snare  the  next,  and  if  she  have  it  not 
So  will  she  rail.     What  did  the  wanton 

say? 
"Not  mount  as  high;  "  we  scarce  can 

sink  as  low : 
For  men  at  most  differ  as  Heaven  and 

earth, 
But  women,  worst  and  best,  as  Heaven 

and  Hell. 
I  know  the  Table  Round,  my  friends  of 

old; 
All  brave,  and  many  generous,  and  some 

chaste. 
She  cloaks  the  scar  of  some  repulse  with 

lies; 
I  well  believe  she  tempted  them  and  fail'd, 
Being  so  bitter :  for  fine  plots  may  fail, 
Tho'  harlots  paint  their  talk  as  well  as  face 
With  colours  of  the  heart  that  are  not 

theirs. 
I  will  not  let  her  know:  nine  tithes  of 

times 
Face-flatterer  and  backbiter  are  the  same. 
And  they,  sweet  soul,  that  most  impute  a 

crime 
Are  pronest  to  it,  and  impute  themselves, 
Wanting  the  mental  range;   or  low  desire 
Not  to  feel  lowest  makes  them  level  all; 


386 


MERLIN  AND    VIVIEN. 


Yea,  they  would  pare  the  mountain  to  the 

plain, 
To  leave  an  equal  baseness;   and  in  this 
Are  harlots  like  the  crowd,  that  if  they 

find 
Some  stain  or  blemish  in  a  name  of  note, 
Not  grieving  that  their  greatest  are  so 

small, 
Inflate  themselves  with  some  insane  de- 
light, 
And  judge  all  nature  from  her  feet  of  clay, 
Without  the  will  to  lift  their  eyes,  and  see 
Her  godlike  head  crown'd  with  spiritual 

fire, 
And  touching  other  worlds.     I  am  weary 
of  her.' 

He   spoke    in   words   part   heard,    in 

whispers  part, 
Half-suffocated  in  the  hoary  fell 
And  many-winter'd  fleece  of  throat  and 

chin. 
But  Vivien,  gathering  somewhat  of  his 

mood, 
And  hearing  '  harlot '  mutter'd  twice  or 

thrice, 
Leapt  from  her  session  on  his  lap,  and 

stood 
Stiff  as  a  viper  frozen;  loathsome  sight, 
How  from  the  rosy  lips  of  life  and  love, 
Flash'd   the    bare-grinning    skeleton   of 

death  ! 
White  was  her  cheek;  sharp  breaths  of 

anger  puff'd 
Her   fairy  nostril   out;    her   hand   half- 

clench'd 
Went  faltering  sideways  downward  to  her 

belt, 
And  feeling;    had  she    found   a   dagger 

there 
(For  in  a  wink  the  false  love  turns  to 

hate) 
She  would    have  stabb'd  him;    but  she 

found  it  not : 
His  eye  was  calm,  and  suddenly  she  took 
To  bitter  weeping  like  a  beaten  child, 
A  long,  long  weeping,  not  consolable. 
Then  her  false  voice  made  way,  broken 

with  sobs: 

'  O  crueller  than  was  ever  told  in  tale, 
Or  sung  in  song !  O  vainly  lavish'd  love  ! 
O  cruel,  there  was  nothing  wild  or  strange, 


Or  seeming  shameful  —  for  what  .shame 

in  love, 
So  love  be  true,  and  not  as  yours  is — 

nothing 
Poor  Vivien  had  not  done  to  win  his  trust 
Who  call'd  her  what  he  call'd  her  —  all 

her  crime, 
All  —  all  —  the  wish  to  prove  him  wholly 

hers.' 

She  mused  a  little,  and  then  clapt  her 

hands 
Together  with  a  wailing  shriek,  and  said  : 
'  Stabb'd  through  the  heart's  affections  to 

the  heart ! 
Seethed  like  the  kid  in  its  own  mother's 

milk ! 
Kill'd  with  a  word  worse  than  a  life  of 

blows ! 
I  thought  that  he  was  gentle,  being  great : 

0  God,  that  I  had  loved  a  smaller  man ! 

1  should   have  found  in  him  a  greater 

heart. 
O,  I,  that  flattering  my  true  passion,  saw 
The  knights,  the  court,  the  King,  dark 

in  your  light, 
Who  loved  to  make  men  darker  than  they 

are, 
Because  of  that  high  pleasure  which  I 

had 
To  seat  you  sole  upon  my  pedestal 
Of  worship  —  I  am  answer'd,  and  hence- 
forth 
The  course  of  life  that  seem'd  so  flowery 

to  me 
With  you  for  guide  and  master,  only  you, 
Becomes   the   sea-cliff  pathway   broken 

short, 
And  ending  in  a  ruin  —  nothing  left, 
But  into  some  low  cave  to   crawl,  and 

there, 
If  the  wolf  spare  me,  weep  my  life  away, 
Kill'd  with  inutterable  unkindliness.' 

She  paused,  she  turn'd  away,  she  hung 

her  head, 
The  snake  of  gold  slid  from  her  hair,  the 

braid 
Slipt  and  uncoil'd  itself,  she  wept  afresh, 
And  the  dark  wood  grew  darker  toward 

the  storm 
In  silence,  while  his  anger  slowly  died 
Within  him,  till  he  let  his  wisdom  go 


MERLIN  AND    VIVIEN. 


387 


For  ease  of  heart,  and  half  believed  her 

true: 
Call'd  her  to  shelter  in  the  hollow  oak, 
'Come  from  the  storm,'  and  having  no 

reply, 
Gazed  at  the  heaving  shoulder,  and  the 

face 
Hand-hidden,   as    for   utmost    grief    or 

shame; 
Then  thrice  essay'd,  by  tenderest-touching 

terms, 
To  sleek  her  ruffled  peace  of  mind,  in 

vain. 
At  last  she  let  herself  be  conquer'd  by 

him, 
And  as  the  cageling  newly  flown  returns, 
The  seeming-injured  simple-hearted  thing 
Came  to  her  old  perch  back,  and  settled 

there. 
There  while  she  sat,  half-falling  from  his 

knees,  • 
Half-nestled  at  his  heart,  and  since  he 

saw 
The  slow  tear  creep  from  her  closed  eye- 
lid yet, 
About  her,  more  in  kindness  than  in  love, 
The  gentle  wizard  cast  a  shielding  arm. 
But  she  dislink'd  herself  at  once  and  rose, 
Her   arms  upon  her  breast  across,  and 

stood, 
A  virtuous  gentlewoman  deeply  wrong'd, 
Upright  and  flush'd  before  him :  then  she 

said: 

1  There  must  be  now  no  passages  of  love 
Betwixt  us  twain  henceforward  evermore; 
Since,  if  I  be  what  I  am  grossly  call'd, 
What  should  be  granted  which  your  own 

gross  heart 
Would  reckon  worth  the  taking?     I  will 

go. 
In   truth,  but    one   thing   now  —  better 

have  died 
Thrice  than  have  ask'd  it  once  —  could 

make  me  stay  — 
That  proof  of  trust  —  so  often  ask'd  in 

vain ! 
How  justly,  after  that  vile  term  of  yours, 
I  find  with  grief!     I  might  believe  you 

then, 
Who  knows?  once  more.    Lo  !  what  was 

once  to  me 
Mere  matter  of  the  fancy,  now  hath  grown 


The  vast  necessity  of  heart  and  life. 
Farewell;   think  gently  of  me,  for  I  fear 
My  fate  or  folly,  passing  gayer  youth 
For  one  so  old,  must  be  to  love  thee 

still. 
But  ere  I  leave  thee  let  me  swear  once 

more 
That  if  I  schemed  against  thy  peace  in 

this, 
May  yon  just  heaven,  that  darkens  o'er 

me,  send 
One  flash,  that,  missing  all  things  else, 

may  make 
My  scheming  brain  a  cinder,  if  I  lie.' 

Scarce  had  she  ceased,  when  out  of 

heaven  a  bolt 
(For  now  the   storm   was   close   above 

them)  struck, 
Furrowing  a  giant  oak,  and  javelining 
With  darted  spikes  and  splinters  of  the 

wood 
The  dark  earth  round.     He  raised   his 

eyes  and  saw 
The  tree   that   shone  white  listed   thro' 

the  gloom. 
But   Vivien,  fearing  heaven   had   heard 

her  oath, 
And  dazzled  by  the  livid-flickering  fork, 
And     deafen'd    with     the     stammering 

cracks  and  claps 
That  follow'd,  flying  back  and  crying  out, 
1 0  Merlin,  tho'  you  do  not  love  me,  save, 
Yet  save  me ! '  clung  to  him  and  hugg'd 

him  close; 
And  call'd   him   dear   protector   in   her 

fright, 
Nor  yet  forgot  her  practice  in  her  fright, 
But  wrought  upon  his  mood  and  hugg'd 

him  close. 
The   pale   blood  of  the  wizard   at   her 

touch 
Took  gayer  colours,  like  an  opal  warm'd. 
She  blamed  herself  for  telling  hearsay 

tales : 
She  shook  from  fear,  and  for  her  fault 

she  wept 
Of  petulancy;    she  call'd  him  lord  and 

liege, 
Her  seer,  her  bard,  her  silver  star  of  eve, 
Her  God,  her  Merlin,  the  one  passionate 

love 
Of  her  whole  life;   and  ever  overhead 


388 


LANCELOT  AND  ELALNE. 


Bellow'd    the    tempest,    and    the    rotten 

branch 
Snapt  in  the  rushing  of  the  river-rain 
Above   them;    and  in  change   of  glare 

and  gloom 
Her  eyes  and  neck  glittering  went  and 

came; 
Till  now  the  storm,  its  burst  of  passion 

spent, 
Moaning  and  calling  out  of  other  lands, 
Had  left  the  ravaged  woodland  yet  once 

more 
To  peace;    and   what  should  not   have 

been  had  been, 
For  Merlin,  overtalk'd  and  overworn, 
Had  yielded,  told  her  all  the  charm,  and 

slept. 

Then,  in  one  moment,  she  put  forth 

the  charm 
Of  woven  paces  and  of  waving  hands, 
And  in  the  hollow  oak  he  lay  as  dead, 
And  lost  to  life  and  use  and  name  and 

fame. 

Then  crying  •  I  have  made  his  glory 

mine,' 
And  shrieking  out  '  O  fool ! '  the  harlot 

leapt 
Adown  the  forest,  and  the  thicket  closed 
Behind  her,  and  the  forest  echo'd  •  fool.' 

LANCELOT  AND   ELAINE. 

Elaine  the  fair,  Elaine  the  lovable, 

Elaine,  the  lily  maid  of  Astolat, 

High  in  her  chamber  up  a  tower  to  the 

east 
Guarded  the  sacred  shield  of  Lancelot; 
Which  first  she  placed  where  morning's 

earliest  ray 
Might  strike  it,  and  awake  her  with  the 

gleam ; 
Then  fearing  rust  or  soilure  fashion'd  for 

it 
A  case  of  silk,  and  braided  thereupon 
All  the  devices  blazon'd  on  the  shield 
In  their  own  tinct,  and  added,  of  her  wit, 
A  border  fantasy  of  branch  and  flower, 
And  yellow-throated  nestling  in  the  nest. 
Nor  rested  thus  content,  but  day  by  day, 
Leaving  her  household  and  good  father, 

climb'd 


That  eastern  tower,  and  entering  barr'd 

her  door, 
Stript  off  the  case,  and  read  the  naked 

shield, 
Now  guess'd  a  hidden  meaning  in  his 

arms, 
Now  made  a  pretty  history  to  herself 
Of  every  dint  a  sword  had  beaten  in  it, 
And  every  scratch    a   lance    had   made 

upon  it, 
Conjecturing  when  and  where :  this  cut 

is  fresh; 
That  ten  years  back;   this  dealt  him  at 

Caerlyle; 
That  at  Caerleon;   this  at  Camelot : 
And  ah  God's  mercy,  what  a  stroke  was 

there ! 
And  here  a  thrust  that  might  have  kill'd, 

but  God 
Broke  the  strong  lance,  and   roll'd   his 

enemy  down, 
And  saved  him :  so  she  lived  in  fantasy. 

How  came  the  lily  maid  by  that  good 

shield 
Of  Lancelot,  she  that  knew  not  ev'n  his 

name? 
He  left  it  with  her,  when  he  rode  to  tilt 
For  the  great  diamond  in  the  diamond 

jousts, 
Which  Arthur  had  ordain'd,  and  by  that 

name 
Had  named  them,  since  a  diamond  was 

the  prize. 

For  Arthur,  long  before  they  crown'd 

him  King, 
Roving    the    trackless    realms    of  Lyo- 

nesse, 
Had   found   a  glen,   gray  boulder  and 

black  tarn. 
A  horror  lived'  about  the  tarn,  and  clave 
Like  its  own  mists  to  all  the  mountain 

side : 
For  here  two  brothers,  one  a  king,  had 

met 
And  fought  together;    but  their  names 

were  lost; 
And  each  had  slain  his  brother  at  a  blow; 
And  down  they  fell  and  made  the  glen 

abhorr'd : 
And  there  they  lay  till  all  their  bones 

were  bleach'd, 


LANCELOT  AND  ELALNE. 


389 


And  lichen'd  into  colour  with  the  crags : 

Now  for  the  central  diamond  and  the 

And  he,  that  once  was  king,  had  on  a 

last 

crown 

And   largest,  Arthur,   holding   then   his 

Of  diamonds,   one   in   front,    and    four 

court 

aside. 

Hard  on  the  river  nigh  the  place  which 

And  Arthur  came,  and  labouring  up  the 

now 

pass, 

Is  this  world's  hugest,  let  proclaim  a  joust 

All  in  a  misty  moonshine,  unawares 

At  Camelot,  and  when  the  time  drew  nigh 

Had  trodden  that  crown'd  skeleton,  and 

Spake  (for  she  had  been  sick)  to  Guine- 

the skull 

vere, 

Brake  from  the  nape,  and  from  the  skull 

'Are  you  so  sick,  my  Queen,  you  cannot 

the  crown 

move 

Roll'd  into  light,  and  turning  on  its  rims 

To  these  fair  jousts?'     'Yea,  lord,'  she 

Fled    like    a    glittering    rivulet    to    the 

said,  'ye  know  it.' 

tarn : 

'Then  will  ye  miss,'  he  answer'd,  'the 

And  down  the  shingly  scaur  he  plunged, 

great  deeds 

and  caught, 

Of  Lancelot,  and  his  prowess  in  the  lists, 

And  set  it  on  his  head,  and  in  his  heart 

A  sight  ye  love  to  look  on.'     And  the 

Heard  murmurs,  '  Lo,  thou  likewise  shalt 

Queen 

be  King.' 

Lifted  her  eyes,  and  they  dwelt  languidly 

On  Lancelot,  where  he  stood  beside  the 

Thereafter,  when  a  King,  he  had  the 

King. 

gems 

He  thinking  that  he  read  her  meaning 

Pluck'd    from    the    crown,   and    show'd 

there, 

them  to  his  knights, 

'Stay  with  me,  I  am  sick;    my  love  is 

Saying,    'These    jewels,    whereupon    I 

more 

chanced 

Than   many  diamonds,'  yielded;    and   a 

Divinely,   are    the    kingdom's,   not    the 

heart 

King's  — 

Love-loyal  to  the  least  wish  of  the  Queen 

For  public  use :  henceforward  let  there 

(However    much   he   yearn'd    to   make 

be, 

complete 

Once  every  year,  a  joust  for  one  of  these  : 

The  tale  of  diamonds  for   his   destined 

For  so  by  nine   years'   proof  we  needs 

boon) 

must  learn 

Urged  him  to  speak   against  the  truth, 

Which  is  our   mightiest,  and   ourselves 

and  say, 

shall  grow 

'  Sir  King,  mine  ancient  wound  is  hardly 

In  use    of  arms   and   manhood,  till  we 

whole, 

drive 

And  lets  me  from  the  saddle;  '  and  the 

The  heathen,  who,  some  say,  shall  rule 

King 

the  land 

Glanced  first  at  him,  then  her,  and  went 

Hereafter,  which  God  hinder.'     Thus  he 

his  way. 

spoke : 

No  sooner  gone  than  suddenly  she  began  : 

And  eight  years  past,  eight  jousts  had 

been,  and  still 

'To    blame,   my   lord    Sir    Lancelot, 

Had  Lancelot  won  the  diamond  of  the 

much  to  blame ! 

year, 

Why  go  ye  not  to  these  fair  jousts?  the 

With  purpose   to  present   them   to   the 

knights 

Queen, 

Are  half  of  them  our  enemies,  and  the 

When  all  were  won;   but  meaning  all  at 

crowd 

once 

Will  murmur,  "Lo  the  shameless  ones, 

To  snare  her  royal  fancy  with  a  boon 

who  take 

Worth  half  her  realm,  had  never  spoken 

Their  pastime  now  the  trustful   King  is 

word. 

gone ! " ' 

39° 


LANCELOT  AND  ELAINE. 


Then    Lancelot  vext   at   having   lied  in 

vain: 
'Are  ye  so  wise?  ye  were  not  once  so 

wise, 
My  Queen,  that  summer,  when  ye  loved 

me  first. 
Then  of  the   crowd   ye   took   no   more 

account 
Than  of  the  myriad  cricket  of  the  mead, 
When  its  own  voice  clings  to  each  blade 

of  grass, 
And    every   voice    is    nothing.      As   to 

knights, 
Them  surely  can  I  silence  with  all  ease. 
But  now  my  loyal  worship  is  allow'd 
Of  all  men  :  many  a  bard,  without  offence, 
Has  link'd  our  names  together  in  his  lay, 
Lancelot,  the  flower  of  bravery,  Guine- 
vere, 
The  pearl  of  beauty :  and  our  knights  at 

feast 
Have  pledged  us  in  this  union,  while  the 

King 
Would   listen   smiling.      How   then?   is 

there  more? 
Has   Arthur    spoken   aught?    or   would 

yourself, 
Now  weary  of  my  service  and  devoir, 
Henceforth   be    truer   to    your   faultless 

lord?' 

She  broke  into  a  little  scornful  laugh  : 
'Arthur,  my   lord,  Arthur,  the    faultless 

King, 
That    passionate    perfection,    my    good 

lord  — 
But  who  can  gaze  upon  the  Sun  in  heaven  ? 
He  never  spake  word  of  reproach  to  me, 
He  never  had  a  glimpse  of  mine  untruth, 
He  cares  not  for  me :  only  here  to-day 
There  gleam'd  a  vague  suspicion  in  his 

eyes: 
Some  meddling  rogue  has  tamper'd  with 

him  —  else 
Rapt  in  this  fancy  of  his  Table  Round, 
And  swearing  men  to  vows  impossible, 
To  make  them  like  himself:  but,  friend, 

to  me 
He  is  all  fault  who  hath  no  fault  at  all : 
For  who  loves  me  must  have  a  touch  of 

earth ; 
The   low  sun   makes  the  colour :    I  am 

yours, 


Not  Arthur's,  as  ye  know,  save  by  the 

bond. 
And  therefore  hear  my  words :  go  to  the 

jousts  : 
The  tiny-trumpeting  gnat  can  break  our 

dream 
When  sweetest;   and  the  vermin  voices 

here 
May  buzz  so  loud  —  we  scorn  them,  but 

they  sting.' 

Then  answer'd  Lancelot,  the  chief  of 

knights :     * 
'And  with  what  face,  after  my  pretext 

made, 
Shall  I  appear,  O  Queen,  at  Camelot,  I 
Before   a   King   who   honours   his   own 

word, 
As  if  it  were  his  God's? ' 

'  Yea,'  said  the  Queen, 
'  A  moral  child  without  the  craft  to  rule, 
Else  had  he  not  lost  me  :  but  listen  to  me, 
If  I  must  find  you  wit :  we  hear  it  said 
That  men  go  down  before  your  spear  at 

a  touch, 
But   knowing   you   are   Lancelot;    your 

great  name, 
This   conquers:    hide   it   therefore;    go 

unknown  : 
Win  !  by  this  kiss  you  will :  and  our  true 

King 
Will   then    allow    your    pretext,   O   my 

knight, 
As  all  for  glory;   for  to  speak  him  true, 
Ye  know  right  well,  how  meek  soe'er  he 

seem, 
No  keener  hunter  after  glory  breathes. 
He   loves   it   in   his  knights  more  than 

himself: 
They  prove  to  him  his  work :  win  and 

return.' 

Then   got    Sir   Lancelot   suddenly   to 

horse, 
Wroth   at   himself.      Not  willing  to  be 

known, 
He  left  the  barren-beaten  thoroughfare, 
Chose  the  green  path  that   show'd  the 

rarer  foot, 
And  there  among  the  solitary  downs, 
Full  often  lost  in  fancy,  lost  his  way; 
Till  as  he  traced  a  faintly-shadow'd  track, 


LANCELOT  AND  ELALNE. 


39' 


That  all  in  loops  and  links  among  the 

dales 
Ran  to  the  Castle  of  Astolat,  he  saw 
Fired  from  the  west,  far  on  a  hill,  the 

towers. 
Thither  he  made,  and  blew  the  gateway 

horn. 
Then     came     an     old,    dumb,    myriad- 
wrinkled  man, 
Who  let  him  into  lodging  and  disarm'd. 
And  Lancelot  marvell'd  at  the  wordless 

man; 
And  issuing  found  the  Lord  of  Astolat 
With  two  strong  sons,  Sir  Torre  and  Sir 

Lavaine, 
Moving  to  meet  him  in  the  castle  court; 
And   close   behind   them  stept   the   lily 

maid 
Elaine,  his  daughter :  mother  of  the  house 
There  was  not:    some  light  jest  among 

them  rose 
With  laughter  dying  down  as  the  great 

knight 
Approach'd   them :     then   the    Lord    of 

Astolat  : 
1  Whence  comest  thou,  my  guest,  and  by 

what  name 
Livest  between  the  lips?  for  by  thy  state 
And  presence  I  might  guess  thee  chief  of 

those, 
After  the  King,  who  eat  in  Arthur's  halls. 
Him  have  I  seen:    the  rest,  his  Table 

Round, 
Known  as  they  are,  to  me  they  are  un- 
known.' 

Then  answer'd  Lancelot,  the  chief  of 

knights : 
1  Known  am  I,  and  of  Arthur's  hall,  and 

known, 
What  I  by  mere  mischance  have  brought, 

my  shield. 
But  since  I  go  to  joust  as  one  unknown 
At  Camelot  for  the  diamond,  ask  me  not, 
Hereafter  ye  shall  know  me  —  and  the 

shield  — 
I  pray  you  lend  me  one,  if  such  you  have, 
Blank,  or  at  least  with  some  device  not 

mine.' 

Then  said  the  Lord  of  Astolat,  'Here 
is  Torre's : 
Hurt  in  his  first  tilt  was  my  son,  Sir  Torre. 


And  so,   God  wot,   his  shield   is   blank 

enough. 
His  ye  can  have.'    Then  added  plain  Sir 

Torre, 
1  Yea,  since  I  cannot  use  it,  ye  may  have 

it.' 
Here  laugh'd  the  father  saying,  ■  Fie,  Sir 

Churl, 
Is  that  an  answer  for  a  noble  knight? 
Allow  him !    but   Lavaine,   my   younger 

here, 
He  is  so  full  of  lustihood,  he  will  ride, 
Joust  for  it,  and  win,  and  bring  it  in  an 

hour, 
And  set  it  in  this  damsel's  golden  hair, 
To  make  her  thrice  as  wilful  as  before.' 

1  Nay,  father,  nay,  good  father,  shame 

me  not 
Before   this   noble   knight,'   said   young 

Lavaine, 
'For  nothing.     Surely  I  but  play'd   on 

Torre : 
He  seem'd  so  sullen,  vext  he  could  not  go  : 
A  jest,  no  more  !  for,  knight,  the  maiden  *\ 

dreamL 
That  some  one  put  this  diamond  in  her 

hand, 
And  that  it  was  too  slippery  to  be  held, 
And   slipt   and   fell   into    some  pool  or 

stream, 
The  castle-well,  belike;   and  then  I  said 
That  if  I  went  and  if  I  fought  and  won  it 
(But  all  was  jest  and  joke  among  our- 
selves) 
Then  must  she  keep  it  safelier.     All  was 

jest. 
But,  father,  give  me  leave,  an  if  he  will, 
To  ride  to  Camelot  with  this  noble  knight : 
Win  shall  I  not,  but  do  my  best  to  win : 
Young  as  I  am,  yet  would  I  do  my  best.' 

'  So    ye    will    grace     me,'    answer'd 

Lancelot, 
Smiling  a  moment,  '  with  your  fellowship 
O'er  these  waste  downs  whereon  I  lost 

myself, 
Then  were  I  glad  of  you  as  guide  and 

friend : 
And  you  shall  win  this  diamond,  —  as  I 

hear 
It  is  a  fair  large  diamond,  —  if  ye  may, 
And  yield  it  to  this  maiden,  if  ye  will.' 


392 


LANCELOT  AND  ELAINE. 


'A  fair  large  diamond,'  added  plain  Sir 

Torre, 
'  Such  be  for  queens,  and  not  for  simple 

maids.' 
Then  she,  who  held  her  eyes  upon  the 

ground, 
Elaine,  and  heard  her  name  so  tost  about, 
Flush'd  slightly  at  the  slight  disparage- 
ment 
Before  the  stranger  knight,  who,  looking 

at  her, 
Full  courtly,  yet  not  falsely,  thus  return'd : 
'  If  what  is  fair  be  but  for  what  is  fair, 
And  only  queens  are  to  be  counted  so, 
Rash  were  my  judgment  then,  who  deem 

this  maid 
Might  wear  as  fair  a  jewel  as  is  on  earth, 
Not  violating  the  bond  of  like  to  like.' 

He  spoke  and  ceased:   the  lily  maid 

Elaine, 
Won   by  the   mellow  voice   before   she 

look'd, 
Lifted  her  eyes,  and  read  his  lineaments. 
The  great  and  guilty  love  he  bare  the 

Queen, 
In  battle  with  the  love  he  bare  his  lord, 
Had  marr'd  his  face,  and  mark'd  it  ere 

his  time. 
Another  sinning  on  such  heights  with  one, 
The  flower  of  all  the  west  and  all  the 

world, 
Had  been  the  sleeker  for  it :  but  in  him 
His   mood  was  often  like  a  fiend,  and 

rose 
And  drove  him  into  wastes  and  solitudes 
For  agony,  who  was  yet  a  living  soul. 
Marr'd  as  he  was,  he  seem'd  the  goodliest 

man 
That*  ever  among  ladies  ate  in  hall, 
And  noblest,  when  she  lifted  up  her  eyes. 
However  marr'd,  of  more  than  twice  her 

years, 
Seam'd  with  an  ancient  swordcut  on  the 

cheek, 
And  bruised  and  bronzed,  she  lifted  up 

her  eyes 
And  loved  him,  with  that  love  which  was 

her  doom. 

Then  the  great  knight,  the  darling  of 
the  court, 
Loved  of  the  loveliest,  into  that  rude  hall 


Stept  with  all  grace,  and  not  with  half 

disdain 
Hid  under  grace,  as  in  a  smaller  time, 
But  kindly  man  moving  among  his  kind  : 
Whom  they  with  meats  and  vintage  of 

their  best 
And  talk  and  minstrel  melody  entertain'd. 
And  much  they  ask'd  of  court  and  Table 

Round, 
And  ever  well  and  readily  answer'd  he : 
But    Lancelot,    when    they   glanced   at 

Guinevere, 
Suddenly  speaking  of  the  wordless  man, 
Heard   from   the  Baron  that,  ten   years 

before, 
The  heathen  caught  and  reft  him  of  his 

tongue. 
'  He  learnt  and  warn'd  me  of  their  fierce 

design 
Against  my  house,  and  him  they  caught 

and  maim'd; 
But  I,  my  sons,  and  little  daughter  fled 
From  bonds  or  death,  and  dwelt  among 

the  woods 
By  the  great  river  in  a  boatman's  hut. 
Dull  days  were  those,  till  our  good  Arthur 

broke 
The  Pagan  yet  once  more  on  Badon  hill.' 

'  O  there,  great  lord,  doubtless,'  Lavaine 

said,  rapt 
By  all  the  sweet  and  sudden  passion  of 

youth 
Toward  greatness  in  its  elder,  'you  have 

fought. 
O  tell  us — for  we  live  apart  —  you  know 
Of  Arthur's  glorious  wars.'   And  Lancelot 

spoke 
And  answer'd  him  at  full,  as  having  been 
With  Arthur  in  the  fight  which  all  day 

long 
Rang  by  the  white  mouth  of  the  violent 

Glem; 
And  in  the  four  loud  battles  by  the  shore 
Of  Duglas;   that  on  Bassa;   then  the  war 
That  thunder'd  in  and  out  the  gloomy 

skirts 
Of  Celidon  the  forest;   and  again 
By  castle   Gurnion,   where  the  glorious 

King 
Had    on    his   cuirass   worn   our    Lady's 

Head, 
Carv'd  of  one  emerald  centr'd  in  a  sun 


LANCELOT  AND  ELALNE. 


393 


Of    silver    rays,    that    lighten'd    as    he 

breathed; 
And  at  Caerleon  had  he  help'd  his  lord, 
When  the  strong  neighings  of  the  wild 

white  Horse 
Set  every  gilded  parapet  shuddering; 
And  up  in  Agned-Cathregonion  too, 
And  down  the  waste  sand-shores  of  Trath 

Treroit, 
Where  many  a  heathen  fell;  '  and  on  the 

mount 
Of  Badon  I  myself  beheld  the  King 
Charge  at  the  head  of  all  his  Table  Round, 
And  all  his  legions  crying  Christ  and  him, 
And  break  them;   and  I  saw  him,  after, 

stand 
High  on  a  heap  of  slain,  from  spur  to 

plume 
Red  as  the  rising  sun  with  heathen  blood, 
And  seeing  me,  with  a  great  voice  he 

cried, 
"  They  are  broken,  they  are  broken !  " 

for  the  King, 
However  mild  he  seems  at  home,  nor 

cares 
For   triumph   in    our    mimic   wars,   the 

jousts 

For  if  his  own  knight  cast  him  down,  he 

laughs 
Saying,  his  knights  are  better  men  than 

he  — 
•Yet  in  this  heathen  war  the  fire  of  God 
Fills  him :  I  never  saw  his  like  :  there  lives 
No  greater  leader.' 

While  he  utter'd  this, 
Low  to  her  own  heart  said  the  lily  maid, 
*  Save   your   great    self,  fair  lord;  '   and 

when  he  fell 
From  talk  of  war  to  traits  of  pleasantry  — 
Being  mirthful  he,  but  in  a  stately  kind  — 
She  still  took  note  that  when  the  living 

smile 
Died   from  his  lips,  across  him  came  a 

cloud 
Of  melancholy  severe,  from  which  again, 
Whenever  in  her  hovering  to  and  fro 
The  lily  maid  had  striven  to  make  him 

cheer, 
There  brake  a  sudden-beaming  tenderness 
Of  manners   and    of.  nature :     and   she 

thought 
That  all  was  nature,  all,  perchance,  for  her. 


And  all  night  long  his  face  before  her, 

lived, 
As  when  a  painter,  poring  on  a  face, 
Divinely  thro'  all  hindrance  finds  the  man 
Behind  it,  and  so  paints  him  that  his  face, 
The  shape  and  colour  of  a  mind  and  life, 
Lives  for  his  children,  ever  at  its  best 
And  fullest;   so  the  face  before  her  lived, 
Dark-splendid,  speaking  in  the  silence, 

full 
Of  noble  things,  and  held  her  from  her 

sleep. 
Till  rathe  she  rose,  half-cheated  in  the 

thought 
She  needs  must   bid    farewell   to  sweet 

Lavaine. 
First  as  in  fear,  step  after  step,  she  stole 
Down  the  long  tower-stairs,  hesitating : 
Anon,  she  heard  Sir  Lancelot  cry  in  the 

court, 
'This  shield,  my  friend,  where  is  it?'  and 

Lavaine 
Past  inward,  as  she  came  from  out  the 

tower. 
There  to  his  proud  horse  Lancelot  turn'd, 

and  smooth'd 
The  glossy  shoulder,  humming  to  himself. 
Half-envious  of  the  flattering  hand,  she 

drew 
Nearer  and  stood.    He  look'd,  and  more 

amazed 
Than  if  seven  men  had  set  upon  him,  saw 
The  maiden  standing  in  the  dewy  light. 
He  had  not  dream'd  she  was  so  beautiful. 
Then  came  on  him  a  sort  of  sacred  fear, 
For  silent,  tho'  he  greeted  her,  she  stood 
Rapt  on  his  face  as  if  it  were  a  God's. 
Suddenly  flash'd  on  her  a  wild  desire, 
That  he  should  wear  her  favour  at  the  tilt. 
She  braved  a  riotous  heart  in  asking  for  it, 
'Fair  lord,  whose  name  I  know  not  — 

noble  it  is, 
I  well  believe,  the  noblest  —  will  you  wear 
My  favour  at  this  tourney?'     'Nay,'  said 

he, 
'  Fair  lady,  since  I  never  yet  have  worn 
Favour  of  any  lady  in  the  lists. 
Such  is  my  wont,  as  those,  who  know  me, 

know.' 
'  Yea,  so,'  she  answer'd;  '  then  in  wearing 

mine 
Needs  must   be  lesser  likelihood,  noble 

lord, 


394 


LANCELOT  AND  ELALNE. 


That  those  who  know  should  know  you.' 

And  he  turn'd 
Her  counsel  up  and  down  within  his  mind, 
And  found  it  true,  and  answer'd,  'True, 

my  child. 
Well,  I  will  wear  it :  fetch  it  out  to  me : 
What  is  it?'  and  she  told  him  'A  red 

sleeve 
Broider'd  with  pearls,'  and   brought  it: 

then  he  bound 
Her  token  on  his  helmet,  with  a  smile 
Saying,  '  I  never  yet  have  done  so  much 
For  any  maiden  living,'  and  the  blood 
Sprang  to  her  face  and   fill'd   her  with 

delight; 
But  left  her  all  the  paler,  when  Lavaine 
Returning    brought    the    yet-unblazon'd 

shield, 
His  brother's ;  which  he  gave  to  Lancelot, 
Who  parted  with  his  own  to  fair  Elaine : 
'  Do  me  this  grace,  my  child,  to  have  my 

shield 
In  keeping  till  I  come.'    '  A  grace  to  me,' 
She  answer'd,  '  twice  to-day.     I  am  your 

squire !  ' 
Whereat   Lavaine    said,  laughing,  '  Lily 

maid, 
For  fear  our  people  call  you  lily  maid 
In  earnest,  let  me  bring  your  colour  back ; 
Once,  twice,  and  thrice :    now  get  you 

hence  to  bed  : ' 
So  kiss'd  her,  and  Sir  Lancelot  his  own 

hand, 
And  thus  they  moved  away :  she  stay'd 

a  minute, 
Then  made  a  sudden  step  to  the  gate, 

and  there  — 
Her  bright  hair  blown  about  the  serious 

face 
Yet  rosy-kindled  with  her  brother's  kiss  — 
Paused   by  the  gateway,  standing   near 

the  shield 
In  silence,  while  she  watch'd  their  arms 

far-off 
Sparkle,  until  they  dipt  below  the  downs. 
Then  to  her  tower  she  climb'd,  and  took 

the  shield, 
There  kept  it,  and  so  lived  in  fantasy. 

Meanwhile  the  new  companions  past 
away 
Far  o'er  the  long  backs  of  the  bushless 
downs, 


To  where  Sir  Lancelot  knew  there  lived 

a  knight 
Not  far  from  Camelot,  now  for  forty  years 
A  hermit,  who  had  pray'd,  labour'd  and 

pray'd, 
And  ever  labouring  had  scoop'd  himself 
In  the  white  rock  a  chapel  and  a  hall 
On  massive  columns,  like  a  shorecliff  cave, 
And  cells  and  chambers :    all  were   fair 

and  dry; 
The  green  light  from  the  meadows  under- 
neath 
Struck  up  and  lived  along  the  milky  roofs; 
And  in  the  meadows  tremulous  aspen-trees 
And   poplars   made   a    noise    of  falling 

showers. 
And  thither  wending  there  that  night  they 
bode. 

But  when   the   next   day  broke   from 

underground, 
And  shot  red  fire  and  shadows  thro'  the 

cave, 
They  rose,  heard  mass,  broke  fast,  and 

rode  away : 
Then  Lancelot  saying,  '  Hear,  but  hold 

my  name 
Hidden,  you  ride  with  Lancelot  of  the 

Lake,' 
Abash'd   Lavaine,  whose  instant  rever- 
ence, 
Dearer  to  true  young  hearts  than  their 

own  praise, 
But   left   him   leave    to  stammer,  'Is  it 

indeed?' 
And  after  muttering  'The  great  Lancelot,' 
At  last  he  got  his  breath  and  answer'd, 

'One, 
One  have  I  seen  —  that  other,  our  liege 

lord, 
The  dread  Pendragon,  Britain's  King  of 

kings, 
Of  whom  the  people  talk  mysteriously, 
He  will  be  there  — then  were  I  stricken 

blind 
That  minute,  I  might  say  that  I  had  seen.' 

So    spake    Lavaine,    and   when    they 
reach'd  the  lists 
By  Camelot  in  the  meadow,  let  his  eyes 
Run  thro'  the  peopled  gallery  which  half 

round 
Lay  like  a  rainbow  fall'n  upon  the  grass, 


LANCELOT  AND  ELAINE. 


395 


Until  they  found  the  clear-faced  King, 
who  sat 

Robed  in  red  samite,  easily  to  be  known, 

Since  to  his  crown  the  golden  dragon 
clung, 

And  down  his  robe  the  dragon  writhed 
in  gold, 

And  from  the  carven-work  behind  him 
crept 

Two  dragons  gilded,  sloping  down  to 
make 

Arms  for  his  chair,  while  all  the  rest  of 
them 

Thro'  knots  and  loops  and  folds  innu- 
merable 

Fled  ever  thro'  the  woodwork,  till  they 
found 

The  new  design  wherein  they  lost  them- 
selves, 

Yet  with  all  ease,  so  tender  was  the 
work  : 

And,  in  the  costly  canopy  o'er  him  set, 

Blazed  the  last  diamond  of  the  nameless 
king. 

Then  Lancelot  answer'd  young  Lavaine 

and  said, 
'  Me  you  call  great :  mine  is  the  firmer 

seat, 
The  truer  lance  :  but  there  is  many  a  youth 
Now  crescent,  who  will  come  to  all  I  am 
And  overcome  it;  and  in  me  there  dwells 
No  greatness,  save  it  be  some  far-off  touch 
Of  greatness  to  know  well  I  am  not  great : 
There  is  the  man.'     And  Lavaine  gaped 

upon  him 
As  on  a  thing  miraculous,  and  anon 
The  trumpets  blew;   and  then  did  either 

side, 
They  that  assail'd,  and  they  that  held  the 

lists, 
Set  lance  in  rest,  strike  spur,  suddenly 

move, 
Meet  in  the  midst,  and  there  so  furiously 
Shock,   that   a   man    far-off  might   well 

perceive, 
If  any  man  that  day  were  left  afield, 
The  hard  earth  shake,  and  a  low  thunder 

of  arms. 
And  Lancelot  bode  a  little,  till  he  saw 
Which  were  the  weaker;   then  he  hurl'd 

into  it 
Against  the  stronger :  little  need  to  speak 


Of  Lancelot  in  his  glory !  King,  duke, 
earl, 

Count,  baron  —  whom  he  smote,  he  over- 
threw. 

But  in  the  field  were  Lancelot's  kith 

and  kin, 
Ranged  with  the  Table  Round  that  held 

the  lists, 
Strong  men,  and  wrathful  that  a  stranger 

knight 
Should  do  and  almost  overdo  the  deeds 
Of  Lancelot;   and  one  said  to  the  other, 

'Lo! 
What  is  he?     I  do  not  mean  the  force 

alone  — 
The  grace  and  versatility  of  the  man ! 
Is  it  not  Lancelot? '     '  When  has  Lance- 
lot worn 
Favour  of  any  lady  in  the  lists? 
Not  such  his  wont,  as  we,  that  know  him, 

know.' 
'How  then?    who  then?'  a  fury  seized 

them  all, 
A  fiery  family  passion  for  the  name 
Of  Lancelot,  and  a  glory  one  with  theirs. 
They  couch'd  their  spears  and   prick'd 

their  steeds,  and  thus, 
Their  plumes  driv'n  backward  by  the  wind 

they  made 
In  moving,  all  together  down  upon  him 
Bare,  as  a  wild  wave  in  the  wide  North- 
sea, 
Green-glimmering    toward    the    summit, 

bears,  with  all 
Its  stormy  crests  that  smoke  against  the 

skies, 
Down  on  a  bark,  and  overbears  the  bark, 
And  him  that  helms  it,  so  they  overbore 
Sir  Lancelot  and  his  charger,  and  a  spear 
Down-glancing  lamed  the  charger,  and  a 

spear 
Prick'd  sharply  his  own  cuirass,  and  the 

head 
Pierced  thro'  his  side,  and  there  snapt, 

and  remain'd. 

Then  Sir  Lavaine  did  well  and  wor- 
ship fully; 

He  bore  a  knight  of  old  repute  to  the 
earth, 

And  brought  his  horse  to  Lancelot  where 
he  lay. 


396 


LANCELOT  AND  ELALNE. 


He  up  the  side,  sweating  with  agony,  got, 
But  thought  to  do  while  he  might  yet 

endure, 
And  being  lustily  holpen  by  the  rest, 
His  party,  —  tho'  it  seem'd  half-miracle 
To  those  he  fought  with,  —  drave  his  kith 

and  kin, 
And  all  the  Table  Round  that  held  the 

lists, 
Back  to  the  barrier;    then  the  trumpets 

blew 
Proclaiming  his  the  prize,  who  wore  the 

sleeve 
Of  scarlet,  and  the  pearls;    and  all  the 

knights, 
His  party,  cried,  '  Advance  and  take  thy 

prize 
Th e  diamond ; '  but  he  answer'd, '  Diamond 

me 
No  diamonds !  for  God's  love,  a  little  air ! 
Prize  me  no  prizes,  for  my  prize  is  death  ! 
Hence  will  I,  and  I  charge  you,  follow 

me  not.' 

He  spoke,  and  vanish'd  suddenly  from 

the  field 
With   young    Lavaine    into   the   poplar 

grove. 
There  from  his  charger  down  he  slid,  and 

sat, 
Gasping  to  Sir  Lavaine, '  Draw  the  lance- 
head  : ' 
'  Ah  my  sweet  lord   Sir   Lancelot,'  said 

Lavaine, 
'  I  dread  me,  if  I  draw  it,  you  will  die.' 
But  he,  '  I  die  already  with  it:  draw  — 
Draw,'  —  and    Lavaine    drew,    and    Sir 

Lancelot  gave 
A  marvellous  great  shriek  and  ghastly 

groan, 
And  half  his  blood  burst  forth,  and  down 

he  sank 
For  the  pure  pain,  and  wholly  swoon'd 

away. 
Then  came  the  hermit  out  and  bare  him 

in, 
There  stanch'd  his  wound;   and  there,  in 

daily  doubt 
Whether  to  live  or  die,  for  many  a  week 
Hid  from  the  wide  world's  rumour  by  the 

grove 
Of  poplars  with   their   noise    of  falling 

showers, 


And  ever-tremulous  aspen-trees,  he  lay. 

But  on  that  day  when  Lancelot  fled  the 
lists, 
His  party,  knights  of  utmost  North  and 

West, 
Lords  of  waste  marches,  kings  of  desolate 

isles, 
Came  round  their  great  Pendragon,  saying 

to  him, 
1  Lo,    Sire,   our    knight,  thro'  whom  we 

won  the  day, 
Hath  gone  sore  wounded,  and  hath  left 

his  prize 
Untaken,  crying  that  his  prize  is  death.' 
'  Heaven   hinder,'  said   the   King,  '  that 

such  an  one, 
So  great  a  knight  as  we  have  seen  to-day  — 
He  seem'd  to  me  another  Lancelot  — 
Yea,  twenty  times  I  thought  him  Lance- 
lot- 
He  must  not  pass  uncared  for.     Where- 
fore, rise, 

0  Gawain,  and  ride  forth  and  find  the 

knight. 
Wounded  and  wearied  needs  must  he  be 
near. 

1  charge  you  that  you  get  at  once  to  horse. 
And,  knights  and  kings,  there  breathes 

not  one  of  you 
Will  deem  this  prize   of  ours  is  rashly 

given : 
His  prowess  was  too  wondrous.     We  will 

do  him 
No  customary  honour  :    since  the  knight 
Came  not  to  us,  of  us  to  claim  the  prize, 
Ourselves  will  send  it   after.     Rise   and 

take 
This  diamond,  and  deliver  it,  and  return, 
And  bring  us  where  he  is,  and  how  he 

fares, 
And  cease  not  from  your  quest  until  ye 

find.' 

So  saying,  from  the  carven  flower  above, 
To  which  it  made  a  restless  heart,  he 

took, 
And  gave,  the  diamond :  then  from  where 

he  sat 
At  Arthur's  right,  with  smiling  face  arose, 
With  smiling  face  and  frowning  heart,  a 

Prince 
In  the  mid  might  and  flourish  of  his  May, 


LANCELOT  AND  ELALNE. 


397 


Gawain,  surnamed   The   Courteous,  fair 

Had   made   the   pretext  of  a  hindering 

and  strong, 

wound, 

And     after      Lancelot,     Tristram,     and 

That  he  might  joust  unknown  of  all,  and 

Geraint 

learn 

And  Gareth,  a  good  knight,  but  there- 

If his  old  prowess  were  in  aught  decay'd; 

withal 

And  added,  "  Our  true  Arthur,  when  he 

Sir  Modred's  brother,  and  the  child  of 

learns, 

Lot, 

Will  well  allow  my  pretext,  as  for  gain 

Nor  often  loyal  to  his  word,  and  now 

Of  purer  glory." ' 

Wroth  that  the  King's  command  to  sally 

forth 

Then  replied  the  King : 

In  quest  of  whom  he  knew  not,  made  him 

'  Far  lovelier  in  our  Lancelot  had  it  been, 

leave 

In  lieu  of  idly  dallying  with  the  truth, 

The  banquet,  and  concourse  of  knights 

To  have  trusted  me  as  he  hath  trusted  thee. 

and  kings. 

Surely  his  King  and  most  familiar  friend 

Might  well  have  kept  his  secret.     True, 

So  all  in  wrath  he  got  to  horse   and 

indeed, 

went; 

Albeit  I  know  my  knights  fantastical, 

While  Arthur   to   the  banquet,  dark  in 

So  fine  a  fear  in  our  large  Lancelot 

mood, 

Must   needs   have  moved  my  laughter : 

Past,  thinking,  'Is  it  Lancelot  who  hath 

now  remains 

come 

But  little  cause  for  laughter :    his   own 

Despite  the  wound  he  spake  of,  all  for 

kin  — 

gain 

111  news,  my  Queen,  for  all  who  love  him, 

Of    glory,    and    hath    added   wound   to 

this !  — 

wound, 

His  kith  and  kin,  not  knowing,  set  upon 

And  ridd'n  away  to  die? '     So  fear'd  the 

him;    . 

King, 

So  that  he  went  sore  wounded  from  the 

And,   after   two    days'    tarriance    there, 

field: 

return'd. 

Yet  good  news  too  :  for  goodly  hopes  are 

Then  when  he  saw  the  Queen,  embra- 

mine 

cing  ask'd, 

That  Lancelot  is  no  more  a  lonely  heart. 

'Love,   are   you   yet   so   sick?'      'Nay, 

He  wore,  against  his  wont,  upon  his  helm 

lord,'  she  said. 

A  sleeve  of  scarlet,  broider'd  with  great 

'And  where   is  Lancelot?'      Then   the 

pearls, 

Queen  amazed, 

Some  gentle  maiden's  gift.' 

'Was  he  not  with  you?  won  he  not  your 

prize  ? ' 

'  Yea,  lord,'  she  said, 

'Nay,  but  one  like  him.'    '  Why  that  like 

'Thy  hopes  are  mine,'  and  saying  that, 

was  he.' 

she  choked, 

And  when  the  King  demanded  how  she 

And  sharply  turn'd  about  to  hide  her  face, 

knew, 

Past   to   her   chamber,  and  there   flung 

Said,  '  Lord,    no  sooner  had    ye  parted 

herself 

from  us, 

Down  on  the  great  King's  couch,  and 

Than  Lancelot  told  me  of  a  common  talk 

writhed  upon  it, 

That  men  went  down  before  his  spear  at 

And  clench'd  her  fingers  till  they  bit  the 

a  touch, 

palm, 

But  knowing  he  was  Lancelot;  his  great 

And  shriek'd  out  'Traitor'  to   the    un- 

name 

hearing  wall, 

Conquer'd;   and  therefore  would  he  hide 

Then   flash'd   into   wild  tears,  and   rose 

his  name 

again, 

From  all  men,  ev'n  the  King,  and  to  this 

And  moved  about  her  palace,  proud  and 

end 

pale. 

398 


LANCELOT  AND  ELAINE. 


Gawain  the  while  thro'  all  the  region 

round 
Rode  with  his  diamond,  wearied  of  the 

quest, 
Touch'd  at  all  points,  except  the  poplar 

grove, 
And  came  at  last,  tho'  late,  to  Astolat : 
Whom  glittering  in  enamell'd  arms  the 

maid 
Glanced  at,  and  cried,  '  What  news  from 

Camelot,  lord? 
What  of  the  knight  with  the  red  sleeve? ' 

'  He  won.' 
:  I  knew  it,'  she  said.     '  But  parted  from 

the  jousts 
Hurt  in  the  side,'  whereat  she  caught  her 

breath ; 
Thro'  her   own  side  she  felt  the  sharp 

lance  go; 
Thereon  she  smote  her  hand:  wellnigh 

she  swoon'd : 
And,  while  he  gazed  wonderingly  at  her, 

came 
The  Lord  of  Astolat  out,  to  whom  the 

Prince 
Reported    who    he   was,   and    on   what 

quest 
Sent,  that  he  bore  the  prize  and  could 

not  find 
The  victor,    but   had   ridd'n  a    random 

round 
To  seek   him,  and  had  wearied   of  the 

search. 
To   whom   the    Lord   of  Astolat,  '  Bide 

with  us, 
And   ride   no   more   at   random,    noble 

Prince ! 
Here  was  the  knight,  and  here  he  left  a 

shield; 
This  will  he  send  or  come  for :   further- 
more 
Our  son  is  with  him;   we  shall  hear  anon, 
Needs  must  we  hear.'     To  this  the  cour- 
teous Prince 
Accorded  with  his  wonted  courtesy, 
Courtesy  with  a  touch  of  traitor  in  it, 
And  stay'd;   and  cast  his  eyes  on  fair 

Elaine : 
Where    could   be   found   face    daintier? 

then  her  shape 
From  forehead  down  to  foot,  perfect  — 

again 
From  foot  to  forehead  exquisitely  turn'd : 


'Well  — if  I  bide,  lo !  this  wild  flower 

for  me ! ' 
And  oft  they  met  among  the  garden  yews, 
And  there  he  set  himself  to  play  upon  her 
With  sallying   wit,  free   flashes   from   a 

height 
Above  her,  graces  of  the  court,  and  songs, 
Sighs,  and  slow  smiles,  and  golden  elo- 
quence 
And  amorous  adulation,  till  the  maid 
Rebell'd  against  it,  saying  to  him, '  Prince, 
O  loyal  nephew  of  our  noble  King, 
Why  ask  you  not  to  see  the  shield  he  left, 
Whence  you  might  learn  his  name?  Why 

slight  your  King, 
And  lose  the  quest  he  sent  you  on,  and 

prove 
No  surer  than  our  falcon  yesterday, 
Who  lost  the  hern  we  slipt  her  at,  and 

went 
To  all  the  winds? '     *  Nay,  by  mine  head,' 

said  he, 
1 1  lose  it,  as  we  lose  the  lark  in  heaven, 

0  damsel,  in  the  light  of  your  blue  eyes; 
But  an  ye  will  it  let  me  see  the  shield.' 
And   when  the  shield  was  brought,  and 

Gawain  saw 
Sir  Lancelot's  azure  lions,  crown'd  with 

gold, 
Ramp  in  the  field,  he  smote  his  thigh, 

and  mock'd : 
'  Right   was   the   King !    our  Lancelot ! 

that  true  man  ! ' 
'And  right  was  I,'  rie  answer'd  merrily, 

'I, 
Who    dream'd    my   knight   the  greatest 

knight  of  all.' 

1  And  if  /  dream'd,'  said  Gawain,  '  that 

you  love 
This   greatest   knight,  your  pardon !  lo, 

ye  know  it ! 
Speak  therefore :  shall  I  waste  myself  in 

vain  ?  ' 
Full  simple  was  her  answer, '  What  know 

I? 
My  brethren    have  been  all  my  fellow- 
ship; 
And  I,  when  often  they  have  talk'd  of 

love, 
Wish'd  it  had  been  my  mother,  for  they 

talk'd, 
Meseem'd,  of  what  they  knew  not;  so 

myself  — 


LANCELOT  AND   ELALNE. 


399 


I  know  not  if  I  know  what  true  love  is, 
But  if  I  know,  then,  if  I  love  not  him, 
I  know  there  is  none  other  I  can  love.' 
'Yea,  by  God's  death,'  said  he,  'ye  love 

him  well, 
But  would  not,  knew  ye  what  all  others 

know, 
And  whom  he  loves.'     *  So  be  it,'  cried 

Elaine, 
And  lifted  her  fair  face  and  moved  away  : 
But   he   pursued   her,    calling,    •  Stay   a 

little ! 
One    golden   minute's   grace !    he    wore 

your  sleeve : 
Would  he  break  faith  with  one  I  may  not 

name?  -c 

Must  our  true  man  change  like  a  leaf  at 

last? 
Nay  ^"ITke   enow :   why  then,  far  be  it 

from  me 
To    cross    our    mighty   Lancelot   in   his 

loves ! 
And,  damsel,  for  I  deem  you  know  full 

well 
Where  your  great  knight  is  hidden,  let 

me  leave 
My  quest  with  you;   the  diamond  also: 

here  ! 
For   if  you   love,   it    will    be    sweet    to 

give  it ; 
And    if   he    love,    it    will   be    sweet   to 

have  it 
From  your  own  hand;   and  whether  he 

love  or  not, 
A  diamond  is  a  diamond.     Fare  you  well 
A  thousand  times !  —  a  thousand  times 

farewell ! 
Yet,  if  he  love,  and  his  love  hold,  we 

two 
May  meet  at  court  hereafter :    there,  I 

think, 
So  ye  will   learn  the  courtesies   of  the 

court, 
We  two  shall  know  each  other.' 

Then  he  gave, 
And  slightly  kiss'd  the  hand  to  which  he 

gave, 
The   diamond,    and   all   wearied  of  the 

quest 
Leapt  on  his  horse,  and  carolling  as  he 

went 
A  true-love  ballad,  lightly  rode  away. 


Thence  to  the  court  he  past;  there  told 
the  King 

What  the  King  knew,  '  Sir  Lancelot  is 
the  knight.' 

And  added,  'Sir,  my  liege,  so  much  I 
learnt; 

But  fail'd  to  find  him,  tho'  I  rode  all 
round 

The  region :  but  I  lighted  on  the  maid 

Whose  sleeve  he  wore;  she  loves  him; 
and  to  her, 

Deeming  our  courtesy  is  the  truest  law, 

I  gave  the  diamond:  she  will  render  it; 

For  by  mine  head  she  knows  his  hiding- 
place.' 

The    seldom-frowning   King    frown'd, 

and  replied, 
'  Too   courteous   truly !    ye   shall   go  no 

more 
On  quest  of  mine,  seeing  that  ye  forget 
Obedience  is  the  courtesy  due  to  kings.' 

He  spake  and  parted.     Wroth,  but  all 

in  awe, 
For  twenty  strokes  of  the  blood,  without 

a  word, 
Linger'd  that  other,  staring  after  him; 
Then    shook    his    hair,    strode    off,    and 

buzz'd  abroad 
About  the  maid  of  Astolat,  and  her  love. 
All  ears  were  prick'd  at  once,  all  tongues 

were  loosed : 
'  The  maid  of  Astolat  loves  Sir  Lance- 
lot, 
Sir  Lancelot  loves  the  maid  of  Astolat.' 
Some    read   the    King's   face,  some    the 

Queen's,  and  all 
Had  marvel  what  the  maid  might  be,  but 

most 
Predoom'd   her  as  unworthy.     One  old 

dame 
Came  suddenly  on  the  Queen  with  the 

sharp  news. 
She,    that    had    heard    the    noise   of    it 

before, 
But    sorrowing    Lancelot    should    have 

stoop'd  so  low, 
Marr'd  her  friend's  aim  with  pale  tran- 
quillity. 
So  ran  the  tale  like  fire  about  the  court, 
Fire  in  dry  stubble  a  nine-days'  wonder 

flared : 


400 


LANCELOT  AND   ELALNE. 


Till  ev'n  the  knights  at  banquet  twice  or 

thrice 
Forgot   to    drink    to    Lancelot   and   the 

Queen, 
And  pledging  Lancelot  and  the  lily  maid 
Smiled  at  each  other,  while  the  Queen, 

who  sat 
With  lips  severely  placid,  felt  the  knot 
Climb  in  her  throat,  and  with  her  feet 

unseen 
Crush'd  the  wild  passion  out  against  the 

floor 
Beneath  the  banquet,  where  the   meats 

became 
As  wormwood,  and  she  hated  all  who 

pledged. 

But  far  away  the  maid  in  Astolat, 
Her  guiltless  rival,  she  that  ever  kept 
The    one-day-seen   Sir   Lancelot  in  her 

heart, 
Crept  to  her  father,  while  he  mused  alone, 
Sat  on  his  knee,  stroked  his  gray  face 

and  said, 
1  Father,  you  call  me  wilful,  and  the  fault 
Is  yours  who  let  me  have  my  will,  and 

now, 
Sweet  father,  will  you  let  me  lose  my 

wits?' 
'  Nay,'    said   he,    '  surely.'      '  Wherefore, 

let  me  hence,' 
She   answer'd,  '  and  find   out  our    dear 

Lavaine.' 
'Ye   will    not   lose   your   wits   for   dear 

Lavaine  : 
Bide,'  answer'd  he :  'we  needs  must  hear 

anon 
Of  him,  and  of  that  other.'     '  Ay,'  she 

said, 
'  And  of  that  other,  for  I  needs  must  hence 
And  find  that  other,  wheresoe'er  he  be, 
And  with  mine  own  hand  give  his  diamond 

to  him, 
Lest  I  be  found  as  faithless  in  the  quest 
As  yon  proud  Prince  who  left  the  quest 

to  me. 
Sweet  father,  I  behold  him  in  my  dreams 
Gaunt  as  it  were  the  skeleton  of  himself, 
Death-pale,  for  lack  of  gentle  maiden's 

aid. 
The  gentler-born  the  maiden,  the  more 

bound, 
My  father,  to  be  sweet  and  serviceable 


To  noble  knights  in  sickness,  as  ye  know 
When  these  have  worn  their  tokens :  let 

me  hence 
I  pray  you.'     Then  her  father  nodding 

said, 
'  Ay,  ay,  the  diamond  :  wit  ye  well,  my 

child, 
Right  fain  were  I  to  learn  this  knight 

were  whole, 
Being  our  greatest :   yea,  and  you  must 

give  it  — 
And  sure  I  think  this  fruit  is  hung  too 

high 
For    any    mouth    to    gape    for    save    a 

queen's  — 
Nay,  I  mean  nothing:  so  then,  get  you 

gone, 
Being  so  very  wilful  you  must  go.' 

Lightly,  her  suit  allow'd,  she  slipt  away, 
And  while  she  made  her  ready  for  her 

ride, 
Her  father's  latest  word  humm'd  in  her 

ear, 
'  Being  so  very  wilful  you  must  go,' 
And  changed  itself  and   echo'd  in  her 

heart, 
•  Being  so  very  wilful  you  must  die.' 
But  she  was  happy  enough  and  shook  it 

off, 
As  we  shake  off  the  bee  that  buzzes  at  us; 
And  in  her  heart  she  answer'd  it  and  said, 
'  What  matter,  so  I  help  him  back  to  life  ? ' 
Then  far  away  with  good  Sir  Torre  for 

guide 
Rode  o'er  the  long  backs  of  the  bushless 

downs 
To  Camelot,  and  before  the  city-gates 
Came  on  her  brother  with  a  happy  face 
Making  a  roan  horse  caper  and  curvet 
For  pleasure  all  about  a  field  of  flowers : 
Whom   when    she    saw,    '  Lavaine,'   she 

cried,  'Lavaine, 
How  fares  my  lord  Sir  Lancelot?'     He 

amazed, 
'Torre    and    Elaine!    why    here?      Sir 

Lancelot ! 
How  know  ye  my  lord's  name  is  Lance- 
lot?' 
But  when  the  maid  had  told  him  all  her 

tale, 
Then  turn'd  Sir  Torre,  anc1  being  in  his 

moods 


LANCELOT  AND   ELAINE. 


401 


Left  them,  and  under  the  strange-statued 

gate, 
Where     Arthur's    wars     were     render'd 

mystically, 
Past  up  the  still  rich  city  to  his  kin, 
His    own    far    blood,    which    dwelt   at 

Camelot; 
And  her,  Lavaine  across  the  poplar  grove 
Led  to  the  caves:  there  first  she  saw  the 

casque 
Of  Lancelot   on   the   wall:    her   scarlet 

sleeve, 
Tho'  carved  and  cut,  and  half  the  pearls 

away, 
Stream'd  from  it  still;   and  in  her  heart 

she  laugh'd, 
Because  he  had  not  loosed  it  from  his 

helm, 
But  meant  once  more  perchance  to  tour- 
ney in  it. 
And  when  they  gain'd  the  cell  wherein 

he  slept, 
His  battle-writhen  arms  and  mighty  hands 
Lay  naked  on  the  wolfskin,  and  a  dream 
Of  dragging  down  his  enemy  made  them 

move. 
Then  she  that  saw  him   lying   unsleek, 

unshorn, 
Gaunt  as  it  were  the  skeleton  of  himself, 
Utter'd  a  little  tender  dolorous  cry. 
The  sound  not  wonted  in  a  place  so  still 
Woke  the  sick  knight,  and  while  he  roll'd 

his  eyes 
Yet  blank  from  sleep,  she  started  to  him, 

saying, 
'  Your  prize  the  diamond  sent  you  by  the 

King:' 
His  eyes  glisten'd :  she  fancied  '  Is  it  for 

me?' 
And  when  the  maid  had  told  him  all  the 

tale 
Of  King  and  Prince,  the  diamond  sent, 

the  quest 
Assign'd  to  her  not  worthy  of  it,  she  knelt 
Full  lowly  by  the  corners  of  his  bed, 
And  laid  the  diamond  in  his  open  hand. 
Her  face  was  near,  and  as  we  kiss  the 

child 
That  does  the  task  assign'd,  he  kiss'd  her 

face. 
At  once  she  slipt  like  water  to  the  floor. 
1  Alas,'  he  said,  '  your  ride  hath  wearied 

you. 

2D 


Rest  must  you  have.'     '  No  rest  for  me,' 

she  said; 
'  Nay,  for  near  you,  fair  lord,  I  am  at  rest.' 
What  might  she  mean  by  that?  his  large 

black  eyes, 
Yet  larger  thro'  his  leanness,  dwelt  upon 

her, 
Till  all  her  heart's  sad  secret  blazed  itself 
In  the  heart's  colours  on  her  simple  face; 
And  Lancelot  look'd  and  was  perplext  in 

mind, 
And  being  weak  in  body  said  no  more ; 
But  did  not   love  the   colour;   woman's 

love, 
Save  one,  he  not  regarded,  and  so  tUrn'd 
Sighing,  and  feign'd  a  sleep  until  he  slept. 

Then  rose  Elaine  and  glided  thro'  the 

fields, 
And  past  beneath  the  weirdly-sculptured 

gates 
Far  up  the  dim  rich  city  to  her  kin; 
There  bode   the    night :  but  woke  with 

dawn,  and  past 
Down  thro'  the  dim  rich  city  to  the  fields, 
Thence  to  the  cave :  so  day  by  day  she 

past 
In  either  twilight  ghost-like  to  and  fro 
Gliding,  and  every  day  she  tended  him. 
And  likewise  many  a  night :  and  Lancelot 
Would,  tho'  he  call'd  his  wound  a  little 

hurt 
Whereof  he  should  be  quickly  whole,  at 

times 
Brain-feverous  in  his   heat   and    agony, 

seem 
Uncourteous,    even   he:    but   the   meek 

maid 
Sweetly  forbore  him  ever,  being  to  him 
Meeker  than  any  child  to  a  rough  nurse, 
Milder  than  any  mother  to  a  sick  child, 
And  never  woman  yet,  since  man's  first 

fall, 
Did  kindlier  unto  man,  but  her  deep  love 
Upbore  her;  till  the  hermit,  skill'd  in  all 
The  simples  and  the  science  of  that  time, 
Told  him  that  her  fine  care  had  saved  his 

life. 
And  the  sick  man  forgot  her  simple  blush, 
Would  call  her  friend  and  sister,  sweet 

Elaine, 
Would  listen  for  her  coming  and  regret 
Her  parting  step,  and  held  her  tenderly, 


402 


LANCELOT  AND   ELALNE. 


And  loved  her  with  all  love  except  the 

love 
Of  man  and  woman  when  they  love  their 

best, 
Closest  and  sweetest,  and  had  died  the 

death 
In  any  knightly  fashion  for  her  sake. 
And  peradventure  had  he  seen  her  rirst 
She  might  have  made  this  and  that  other 

world 
Another  world  for  the  sick  man;  but  now 
The  shackles  of  an  old  love  straiten'd  him, 
rHis  honour  rooted  in  dishonour  stood, 
And  faith  unfaithful  kept  him  falsely  true. 

Yet  the  great  knight  in  his  mid-sick- 
ness made 
Full  many  a  holy  vow  and  pure  resolve. 
These,  as  but  born  of  sickness,  could  not 

live  : 
For  when  the  blood  ran  lustier  in  him 

again, 
Full  often  the  bright  image  of  one  face, 
Making  a  treacherous  quiet  in  his  heart, 
Dispersed  his  resolution  like  a  cloud. 
Then  if  the  maiden,  while  that  ghostly 

grace 
Beam'd  on  his  fancy,  spoke,  he  answer'd 

not, 
Or  short  and  coldly,  and  she  knew  right 

well 
What  the  rough  sickness  meant,  but  what 

this  meant 
She  knew  not,  and  the  sorrow  dimm'd 

her  sight, 
And  drave  her  ere  her  time  across  the 

fields 
Far  into  the  rich  city,  where  alone 
She  murmur'd,  '  Vain,  in  vain:   it  cannot 

be. 
He  will  not  love  me:   how  then?  must 

I  die?' 
Then  as  a  little  helpless  innocent  bird, 
That  has  but  one  plain  passage  of  few 

notes, 
Will  sing  the  simple  passage  o'er  and  o'er 
For  all  an  April  morning,  till  the  ear 
Wearies  to  hear  it,  so  the  simple  maid 
Went  half  the  night  repeating,  ■  Must  I 

die?' 
And  now  to  right  she  turn'd,  and  now  to 

left, 
And  found  no  ease  in  turning  or  in  rest; 


And    '  Him    or    death,'    she    mutter'ds 

'  death  or  him,' 
Again  and  like  a  burthen, '  Him  or  death.' 

But  when  Sir  Lancelot's  deadly  hurt 

was  whole, 
To  Astolat  returning  rode  the  three. 
There  morn  by  morn,  arraying  her  sweet 

self 
In  that  wherein  she  deem'd  she  look'd 

her  best, 
She  came  before  Sir  Lancelot,  for   she 

thought 
1  If  I  be  loved,  these  are  my  festal  robes, 
If  not,  the  victim's  flowers  before  he  fall.' 
And  Lancelot  ever  prest  upon  the  maid 
That  she  should  ask  some  goodly  gift  of 

him 
For  her  own  self  or  hers;  *  and  do  not 

shun 
To  speak  the  wish  most  near  to  your  true 

heart; 
Such  service  have  ye  done  me,  that  I  make 
My  will  of  yours,  and  Prince  and  Lord 

am  I 
In  mine  own  land,  and  what  I  will  I  can.' 
Then  like  a  ghost  she  lifted  up  her  face, 
But  like  a  ghost  without  the  power  to 

speak. 
And  Lancelot  saw  that  she  withheld  her 

wish, 
And  bode  among  them  yet  a  little  space 
Till  he  should  learn  it;   and  one  morn  it 

chanced 
He  found  her  in  among  the  garden  yews, 
And  said,  '  Delay  no  longer,  speak  your 

wish, 
Seeing  I  go  to-day : '  then  out  she  brake  : 
'  Going?  and  we  shall  never  see  you  more. 
And  1  must  die  for  want  of  one  bold  word.' 
•  Speak  :  that  I  live  to  hear,'  he  said,  *  is 

yours.' 
Then    suddenly    and    passionately    she 

spoke : 
'  I  have  gone  mad.     I  love  you:  let  me 

die.' 
'Ah,  sister,'  answer'd  Lancelot,  'what  is 

this?' 
And  innocently  extending  her  white  arms, 
'  Your  love,'  she  said,  '  your  love  —  to  be 

your  wife.' 
And  Lancelot  answer'd,  '  Had  I  chosen 

to  wed, 


LANCELOT  AND   ELALNE. 


403 


I  had  been  wedded  earlier,  sweet  Elaine  : 

Stood  grasping  what  was  nearest,  then 

But  now  there  never  will  be  wife  of  mine.' 

replied : 

'No,  no,'  she  cried,  'I  care   not  to  be 

1  Of  all    this   will   I   nothing;  '    and   so 

wife, 

fell, 

But  to  be  with  you  still,  to  see  your  face, 

And  thus  they  bore  her  swooning  to  her 

To  serve  you,  and  to  follow  yo~u  thro'  the 

tower. 

world.' 

And  Lancelot  answer'd, '  Nay,  the  world, 

Then  spake,  to  whom  thro'  those  black 

the  world, 

walls  of  yew 

All  ear  and  eye,  with  such  a  stupid  heart 

Their  talk  had  pierced,  her  father:  'Ay, 

To   interpret  ear  and  eye,  and   such  a 

a  flash, 

tongue 

I  fear  me,  that  will  strike  my  blossom 

To  blare  its  own  interpretation  —  nay, 

dead. 

Full  ill  then  should  I  quit  your  brother's 

Too  courteous  are  ye,  fair  Lord  Lancelot. 

love, 

I  pray  you,  use  some  rough  discourtesy 

And  your  good  father's  kindness.'     And 
she  said, 

To  blunt  or  break  her  passion.' 

'Not  to  be  with  you,  not  to  see   your 

Lancelot  said, 

face  — 

'  That  were  against   me :    what  I  can  I 

Alas  for  me  then,  my  good   days  are 

will;  ' 

done.' 

And  there  that  day  remain'd,  and  toward 

'Nay,    noble   maid,'   he   answer'd,   'ten 

even 

times  nay ! 

Sent  for  his  shield :  full  meekly  rose  the 

This  is  not  love :  but  love's  first  flash  in 

maid, 

youth, 

Stript  off  the  case,  and  gave  the  naked 

Most  common :  yea,  I  know  it  of  mine 

shield; 

own  self: 

Then,  when  she  heard  his  horse  upon 

And  you  yourself  will  smile  at  your  own 

the  stones, 

self 

Unclasping  flung  the  casement  back,  and 

Hereafter,  when  you  yield  your  flower  of 

look'd 

life 

Down  on  his  helm,  from  which  her  sleeve 

To  one  more  fitly  yours,  not  thrice  your 

had  gone. 

age: 

And    Lancelot   knew  the  little  clinking 

And  then  will  I,  for  true  you  are  and 

sound ; 

sweet 

And  she  by  tact  of  love  was  well  aware 

Beyond  mine  old  belief  in  womanhood, 

That  Lancelot  knew  that  she  was  looking 

More  specially  should  your  good  knight 

at  him. 

be  poor, 

And  yet  he  glanced  not  up,  nor  waved 

Endow  you  with  broad  land  and  territory 

his  hand, 

Even  to  the  half  my  realm  beyond  the 

Nor  bade  farewell,  but  sadly  rode  away. 

seas, 

This   was   the   one   discourtesy  that  he 

So  that  would  make  you  happy :  further- 

used. 

more, 
Ev'n  to  the  death,  as  tho'  ye  were  my 

So  in  her  tower  alone  the  maiden  sat : 

blood, 

His  very  shield  was  gone;   only  the  case, 

In  all  your  quarrels  will  I  be  your  knight. 

Her  own  poor  work,  her  empty  labour, 

This   will   I  do,  dear  damsel,  for  your 

left. 

sake, 

But  still  she  heard  him,  still  his  picture 

And  more  than  this  I  cannot.' 

form'd 

And  grew  between  her  and  the  pictured 

While  he  spoke 

wall. 

She    neither    blush'd    nor    shook,    but 

Then    came    her   father,  saying   in   low 

deathly-pale 

tones, 

4°4 


LANCELOT  AND  ELAINE. 


'  Have     comfort,'    whom     she     greeted 

quietly. 
Then  came  her  brethren  saying,  '  Peace 

to  thee, 
Sweet   sister,'  whom  she  answer'd  with 

all  calm. 
But  when  they  left  her  to  herself  again, 
Death,  like  a  friend's  voice  from  a  distant 

field 
Approaching  thro'  the  darkness,  call'd; 

the  owls 
Wailing  had  power  upon  her,  and  she  mixt 
Her  fancies  with  the  sallow-rifted  glooms 
Of  evening,  and  the  moanings  of  the  wind. 

And  in  those  days  she  made  a  little 

song, 
And  call'd  her  song  *  The  Song  of  Love 

and  Death,' 
And   sang   it:    sweetly  could  she  make 

and  sing. 

1  Sweet  is  true  love  tho'  given  in  vain, 

in  vain; 
And  sweet  is  death  who  puts  an  end  to 

pain: 
I  know  not  which  is  sweeter,  no,  not  I. 

'Love,   art   thou   sweet?    then   bitter 
death  must  be : 
Love,  thou  art  bitter;   sweet  is  death  to 
me. 

0  Love,  if  death  be  sweeter,  let  me  die. 

'Sweet  love,  that  seems  not  made  to 
fade  away, 
Sweet   death,    that   seems    to   make   us 
loveless  clay, 

1  know  not  which  is  sweeter,  no,  not  I. 

'  I  fain  would  follow  love,  if  that  could 

be; 
I  needs  must  follow  death,  who  calls  for 

me; 
Call  and  I  follow,  I  follow !  let  me  die.' 

High  with  the  last  line  scaled  her  voice, 

and  this, 
All  in  a  fiery  dawning  wild  with  wind 
That  shook  her  tower,  the  brothers  heard, 

and  thought 
With  shuddering,  •  Hark  the  Phantom  of 

the  house 


That   ever  shrieks  before  a  death,'  and 

call'd 
The   father,  and  all  three  in  hurry  and 

fear 
Ran  to  her,  and  lo !  the  blood-red  light 

of  dawn 
Flared    on  her  face,   she  shrilling,  '  Let 

me  die ! ' 

And  when  we  dwell  upon  a  word  we 

know, 
Repeating,  till  the  word  we  know  so  well 
Becomes  a  wonder,  and  we  know  not 

why, 
So  dwelt   the   father   on  her  face,  and 

thought 
*  Is  this  Elaine  ? '  till  back  the  maiden 

fell, 
Then  gave  a  languid  hand  to  each,  and 

lay, 
Speaking  a  still   good-morrow  with  her 

eyes. 
At  last  she  said,  '  Sweet  brothers,  yester- 
night 
I  seem'd  a  curious  little  maid  again, 
As  happy  as  when  we  dwelt  among  the 

woods, 
And  when  ye  used  to  take  me  with  the 

flood 
Up   the   great   river   in    the   boatman's 

boat. 
Only  ye  would  not  pass  beyond  the  cape 
That  has  the  poplar  on  it :  there  ye  fixt 
Your  limit,  oft  returning  with  the  tide. 
And  yet  I  cried  because  ye  would  not 

pass 
Beyond  it,  and  far  oip  the  shining  flood 
Until  we  found  the  palace  of  the  King. 
And  yet  ye  would  not;   but  this  night  I 

dream'd 
That  I  was  all  alone  upon  the  flood, 
And  then  I  said,  "Now  shall  I  have  my 

will :  " 
And    there   I   woke,  but   still   the  wish 

remain'd. 
So  let  me  hence  that  I  may  pass  at  last 
Beyond  the  poplar  and  far  up  the  flood, 
Until  I  find  the  palace  of  the  King. 
There  will  I  enter  in  among  them  all, 
And  no  man  there  will  dare  to  mock  a\ 

me; 
But  there  the  fine  Gawain  will  wonder  at 

me, 


LANCELOT  AND  ELALNE. 


405 


And  there  the  great  Sir  Lancelot  muse 

at  me; 
Gawain,  who  bade  a  thousand  farewells  to 

me, 
Lancelot,  who  coldly  went,  nor  bade  me 

one: 
And  there  the  King  will  know  me  and 

my  love, 
And  there  the  Queen  herself  will  pity  me, 
And  all  the  gentle  court  will  welcome  me, 
And  after  my  long  voyage  I  shall  rest ! ' 

'  Peace,'  said  her  father,  '  O  my  child, 
ye  seem 
Light-headed,  for  what  force  is  yours  to 

go 
So  far,  being  sick  ?  and  wherefore  would 

ye  look 
On  this  proud  fellow  again,  who  scorns 

us  all?' 

Then  the  rough  Torre  began  to  heave 

and  move, 
And  bluster  into  stormy  sobs  and  say, 
'  I  never  loved  him :  an  I  meet  with  him, 
I  care  not  howsoever  great  he  be, 
Then  will  I  strike  at  him  and  strike  him 

down, 
Give  me  good  fortune,  I  will  strike  him 

dead, 
For  this   discomfort   he  hath   done   the 

house.' 

To  whom  the  gentle  sister  made  reply, 
'  Fret  not  yourself,  dear  brother,  nor  be 

wroth, 
Seeing  it  is  no  more  Sir  Lancelot's  fault 
Not  to  love  me,  than  it  is  mine  to  love 
Him  of  all  men  who  seems  to  me  the 

highest.' 

'  Highest  ? '  the  father  answer'd,  echo- 
ing '  highest?' 

(He  meant  to  break  the  passion  in  her) 
'nay, 

Daughter,  I  know  not  what  you  call  the 
highest; 

But  this  I  know,  for  all  the  people  know 
it, 

He  loves  the  Queen,  and  in  an  open 
shame : 

And  she  returns  his  love  in  open  shame; 

If  this  be.  high,  what  is  it  to  be  low  ? ' 


Then  spake  the  lily  maid  of  Astolat : 
1  Sweet  father,  all  too  faint  and  sick  am  I 
For  anger :  these  are  slanders :  never  yet 
Was  noble  man  but  made  ignoble  talk. 
He  makes  no  friend  who  never  made  a 

foe. 
But  now  it  is  my  glory  to  have  loved 
One  peerless,  without  stain :  so  let  me. 

pass, 
My  father,  howsoe'er  I  seem  to  you, 
Not  all  unhappy,  having  loved  God's  best 
And  greatest,  tho'  my  love  had  no  return  : 
Yet,  seeing  you  desire  your  child  to  live, 
Thanks,  but  you  work  against  your  own 

desire; 
For  if  I  could  believe  the  things  you  say 
I  should  but  die  the  sooner;  Wherefore 

cease, 
Sweet  father,  and  bid  call  the  ghostly 

man 
Hither,  and  let  me  shrive  me  clean,  and 

die.' 

So  when  the  ghostly  man  had  come  and 

gone, 
She  with  a  face,  bright  as  for  sin  forgiven, 
Besought  Lavaine  to  write  as  she  devised 
A  letter,  word  for  word;    and  when  he 

ask'd 
'  Is  it  for  Lancelot,  is  it  for  my  dear  lord? 
Then  will  I  bear  it  gladly;  '  she  replied, 
1  For  Lancelot  and  the  Queen  and  all  the 

world, 
But  I  myself  must  bear  it.'  Then  he  wrote 
The  letter  she  devised;   which  being  writ 
And  folded,  '  O  sweet  father,  tender  and 

true, 
Deny  me  not,'  she  said  —  'ye  never  yet 
Denied  my  fancies — this,  however  strange, 
My  latest :  lay  the  letter  in  my  hand 
A  little  ere  I  die,  and  close  the  hand 
Upon  it;   I  shall  guard  it  even  in  death. 
And  when  the  heat  is  gone  from  out  my 

heart, 
Then  take  the  little  bed  on  which  I  died 
For  Lancelot's  love,  and  deck  it  like  the 

Queen's 
For  richness,  and  me  also  like  the  Queen 
In  all  I  have  of  rich,  and  lay  me  on  it. 
And  let  there  be  prepared  a  chariot-bier 
To  take  me  to  the  river,  and  a  barge 
Be  ready  on  the  river,  clothed  in  black- 
I  go  in  state  to  court,  to  meet  the  Queen. 


406 


LANCELOT  AND  ELALNE. 


There  surely  I  shall  speak  for  mine  own 

self, 
And  none  of  you  can  speak  for  me  so 

well. 
And  therefore  let  our  dumb  old  man  alone 
Go  with  me,  he  can  steer  and  row,  and  he 
Will  guide  me  to  that  palace,  to  the  doors.' 

She    ceased:    her    father    promised; 

whereupon 
She  grew  so  cheerful  that  they  deem'd 

her  death 
Was  rather  in  the  fantasy  than  the  blood. 
But  ten  slow  mornings  past,  and  on  the 

eleventh 
Her  father  laid  the  letter  in  her  hand, 
And  closed  the  hand  upon  it,  and  she 

died. 
So  that  day  there  was  dole  in  Astolat. 

But  when  the  next  sun  brake  from  un- 
derground, 
Then,  those  two  brethren  slowly  with  bent 

brows, 
Accompanying,  the  sad  chariot-bier 
Past  like  a  shadow  thro'  the  field,  that 

shone 
Full-summer,  to  that  stream  whereon  the 

barge, 
Pall'd  all  its  length  in  blackest  samite, 

lay. 
There   sat   the  lifelong  creature  of  the 

house, 
Loyal,  the  dumb  old  servitor,  on  deck, 
Winking  his  eyes,  and  twisted  all  his  face. 
So  those  two  brethren  from  the  chariot 

took 
And  on  the  black  decks  laid  her  in  her 

bed, 
Set  in  her  hand  a  lily,  o'er  her  hung 
The  silken  case  with  braided  blazonings, 
And  kiss'd  her  quiet  brows,  and  saying  to 

her 
'  Sister,  farewell  for  ever,'  and  again 
'  Farewell,  sweet  sister,'  parted  all  in  tears. 
Then  rose  the  dumb  old  servitor,  and  the 

dead, 
Oar'd  by  the    dumb,  went  upward  with 

the  flood — ' 
In  her  right  hand  the  lily,  in  her  left 
The  letter  —  all  her  bright  hair  streaming 

down  — 
And  all  the  coverlid  was  cloth  of  gold 


Drawn  to  her  waist,  and  she  herself  in 

white 
All  but  her  face,  and  that  clear-featured 

face 
Was  lovely,  for  she  did  not  seem  as  dead, 
But  fast  asleep,  and  lay  as  tho'  she  smiled. 

That  day  Sir  Lancelot  at  the  palace 

craved 
Audience  of  Guinevere,  to  give  at  last 
The  price  of  half  a  realm,  his  costly  gift, 
Hard-won  and  hardly  won  with  bruise  and 

blow, 
With  deaths  of  others,  and  almost  his 

own, 
The  nine-years-fbught-for  diamonds  :  for 

he  saw 
One  of  her  house,  and  sent  him  to  the 

Queen 
Bearing   his   wish,   whereto   the   Queen 

agreed 
With  such  and  so  unmoved  a  majesty 
She  might  have  seem'd  her  statue,  but 

that  he, 
Low-drooping  till  he  wellnigh  kiss'd  her 

feet 
For  loyal  awe,  saw  with  a  sidelong  eye 
The  shadow  of  some  piece  of  pointed 

lace, 
In  the  Queen's  shadow,  vibrate  on  the 

walls, 
And  parted,  laughing  in  his  courtly  heart. 

All  in  an  oriel  on  the  summer  side, 
Vine-clad,  oFArthur's  palace  toward  the 

stream, 
They  met,  and  Lancelot  kneeling  utter'd, 

*  Queen, 
Lady,  my  liege,  in  whom  I  have  my  joy, 
Take,  what  I  had  not  won  except  for  you, 
These  jewels,  and  make  me  happy,  making 

them 
An  armlet  for  the  roundest  arm  on  earth, 
Or   necklace   for   a  neck  to  which    the 

swan's 
Is  tawnier  than  herj^yjjnet's:   these  are 

words : 
Your  beauty  is  your  beauty,  and  I  sin 
In  speaking,  yet  O  grant  my  worship  of  it 
Words,  as  we  grant  grief  tears.     Such  sin 

in  words 
Perchance,  we  both  can  pardon  :  but,  my 

Queen, 


LANCELOT  AND  ELALNE. 


407 


I  hear  of  rumours  flying  thro'  your  court. 
Our  bond,  as  not  the  bond  of  man  and 

wife, 
Should  have  in  it  an  absoluter  trust 
To  make  up  that  defect :  let  rumours  be  : 
When  did  not  rumours  fly?  these,  as  I 

trust 
That  you  trust  me  in  your  own  nobleness, 
I  may  not  well  believe  that  you  believe.' 

While  thus  he  spoke,  half-turn'd  away, 
the  Queen 

Brake  from  the  vast  oriel-embowering 
vine 

Leaf  after  leaf,-  and  tore,  and  cast  them 
off, 

Till  all  the  place  whereon  she  stood  was 
green; 

Then,  when  he  ceased,  in  one  cold  pas- 
sive hand 

Received  at  once  and  laid  aside  the  gems 

There  on  a  table  near  her,  and  replied : 

'  It  may  be,  I  am  quicker  of  belief 
Than  you  believe  me,  Lancelot  of  the 

Lake. 
Our  bond  is  not  the  bond  of  man  and 

wife. 
This  good  is  in  it,  whatsoe'er  of  ill, 
It  can  be  broken  easier.     I  for  you 
This  many  a  year  have  done  despite  and 

wrong 
To  one  whom  ever  in  my  heart  of  hearts 
I  did   acknowledge   nobler.     What  are 

these? 
Diamonds  for  me  !  they  had  been  thrice 

their  worth 
Being  your  gift,  had  you  not  lost  your 

own. 
To  loyal  hearts  the  value  of  all  gifts 
Must  vary  as  the  giver's.     Not  for  me  ! 
For  her  !  for  your  new  fancy.     Only  this 
Grant  me,   I  pray  you:    have  your  joys 

apart. 
I  doubt  not  that  however  changed,  you 

keep 
So  much  of  what  is  graceful :  and  myself 
Would  shun  to  break  those  bounds  of 

courtesy 
In  which  as  Arthur's  Queen  I  move  and 

rule  : 
So  cannot  speak  my  mind.     An  end  to 

this! 


A  strange  one !  yet  I  take  it  with  Amen. 
So  pray  you,  add  my  diamonds  to  het 

pearls  ; 
Deck  her  with  these;   tell  her  she  shines 

me  clown : 
An    armlet    for   an   arm    to    which    the 

Queen's 
Is  haggard,  or  a  necklace  for  a  neck 
O  as  much  fairer  —  as  a  faith  once  fair 
Was  richer  than  these  diamonds  —  hers 

not  mine  — 
Nay,  by  the  mother  of  our  Lord  himself, 
Or  hers  or  mine,  mine  now  to  work  my 

will  — 
She  shall  not  have  them.' 

Saying  which  she  seized, 
And,  thro'  the  casement  standing  wide 

for  heat, 
Flung  them,  and  down  they  flash'd,  and 

smote  the  stream. 
Then  from  the  smitten  surface  flash'd,  as 

it  were, 
Diamonds  to  meet  them,  and  they  past 

away. 
Then  while  Sir   Lancelot  leant,  .in  half 

disdain 
At  love,  life,  all  things,  on  the  window 

ledge, 
Close    underneath   his   eyes,    and    right 

across    • 
Where  these  had  fallen,  slowly  past  the 

barge 
Whereon  the  lily  maid  of  Astolat 
Lay  smiling,  like  a  star  in  blackest  night. 

But  the  wild  Queen,  who  saw  not,  burst 

away 
To  weep  and  wail  in  secret;    and  the 

barge, 
On  to  the  palace-doorway  sliding,  paused. 
There   two    stood   arm'd,   and  kept   the 

door;    to  whom, 
All  up  the  marble  stair,  tier  over  tier, 
Were  added  mouths  that  gaped,  and  eyes 

that  ask'd 
'  What  is  it?'  but  that  oarsman's  haggard 

face, 
As  hard  and  still  as  is  the  face  that  men 
Shape  to  their  fancy's  eye  from  broken 

rocks 
On   some    cliff-side,  appall'd  them,  and 

they  said, 


4Q» 


LANCELOT  AND  ELAINE. 


'He  is  enchanted,  cannot  speak  —  and 

she, 
Look  how  she  sleeps — the  Fairy  Queen, 

so  fair ! 
Yea,  but  how  pale  !  what  are  they?  flesh 

and  blood? 
Or  come  to  take  the  King  to  Fairyland? 
For  some  do  hold  our  Arthur  cannot  die, 
But  that  he  passes  into  Fairyland.' 

While  thus  they  babbled  of  the  King, 

the  King 
Came  girt  with  knights :  then  turn'd  the 

tongueless  man 
From  the  half-face  to  the  full  eye,  and 

rose 
And  pointed    to    the   damsel,   and   the 

doors. 
So  Arthur  bade  the  meek  Sir  Percivale 
And  pure  Sir  Galahad  to  uplift  the  maid; 
And  reverently  they  bore  her  into  hall. 
Then  came  the  fine  Gawain  and  wonder'd 

at  her, 
And  Lancelot  later  came  and  mused  at 

her, 
And  last  the  Queen  herself,  and  pitied 

her: 
But  Arthur  spied  the  letter  in  her  hand, 
Stoopt,  took,  brake  seal,  and   read   it; 

this  was  all : 

*  Most  noble  lord,  Sir  Lancelot  of  the 

Lake, 
I,  sometime  call'd  the  maid  of  Astolat, 
Come,  for  you  left  me  taking  no  farewell, 
Hither,  to  take  my  last  farewell  of  you. 
I  loved  you,  and  my  love  had  no  return, 
And  therefore  my  true  love  has  been  my 

death. 
And  therefore  to  our  Lady  Guinevere, 
And  to  all  other  ladies,  I  make  moan : 
Pray  for  my  soul,  and  yield  me  burial. 
Pray  for  my  soul  thou  too,  Sir  Lancelot, 
As  thou  art  a  knight  peerless.' 

Thus  he  read ; 
And  ever  in  the  reading,  lords  and  dames 
Wept,  looking  often  from  his  face  who 

read 
To  hers  which  lay  so  silent,  and  at  times, 
So  touch'd  were  they,  half-thinking  that 

her  lips, 
Who  had  devised  the  letter,  moved  again. 


Then  freely  spoke  Sir  Lancelot  to  them 

all: 
1  My  lord  liege  Arthur,  and  all  ye  that 

hear, 
Know  that  for  this  most  gentle  maiden's 

death 
Right  heavy  am  I;   for  good  she  was  and 

true, 
But  loved  me  with  a  love  beyond  all  love 
In  women,  whomsoever  I  have  known. 
Yet  to  be  loved  makes  not  to  love  again ; 
Not   at   my   years,   however   it   hold  in 

youth. 
I  swear  by  truth  and  knighthood  that  I 

gave 
No  cause,  not  willingly,  for  such  a  love : 
To  this  I  call  my  friends  in  testimony, 
Her  brethren,  and  her  father,  who  him- 
self 
Besought  me  to  be  plain  and  blunt,  and 

use, 
To  break  her  passion,  some  discourtesy 
Against  my  nature :  what  I  could,  I  did. 
I  left  her  and  I  bade  her  no  farewell; 
Tho',  had   I    dreamt   the  damsel   would 

have  died, 
I  might  have  put  my  wits  to  some  rough 

use, 
And  help'd  her  from  herself.' 

Then  said  the  Queen 
(Sea  was  her  wrath,  yet   working  after 

storm), 
'Ye   might  at   least  have   done  her  so 

much  grace, 
Fair  lord,  as  would  have  help'd  her  from 

her  death.' 
He  raised  his  head,  their  eyes  met  and 

hers  fell, 
He  adding, 

'  Queen,  she  would  not  be  content 
Save  that  I  wedded  her,  which  could  not 

be. 
Then  might  she  follow  me  thro'  the  world, 

she  ask'd; 
It  could  not  be.     I  told  her  that  her  love 
Was  but  the  flash  of  youth,  would  darken 

down 
To  rise  hereafter  in  a  stiller  flame 
Toward  one  more  worthy  of  her  —  then 

would  I, 
More   specially  were   he,   she   wedded, 

poor, 


LANCELOT  AND  ELALNE. 


409 


Estate  them  with  large  land  and  territory 
In  mine  own  realm  beyond  the  narrow 

seas, 
To  keep  them  in  all  joyance :  more  than 

this 
I  could  not;  this  she  would  not,  and  she 

died.' 

He  pausing,  Arthur  answer'd,  'O  my 

knight, 
It  will  be  to  thy  worship,  as  my  knight, 
And    mine,   as   head   of  all   our   Table 

Round, 
To  see  that  she  be  buried  worshipfully.' 

So  toward  that  shrine  which  then  in 

all  the  realm 
Was  richest,  Arthur  leading,  slowly  went 
The   marshall'd    Order   of    their    Table 

Round, 
And  Lancelot  sad  beyond  his  wont,  to  see 
The  maiden  buried,  not  as  one  unknown, 
Nor  meanly,  but  with  gorgeous  obsequies, 
And    mass,   and    rolling   music,   like   a 

queen. 
And   when   the   knights   had    laid    her 

comely  head 
Low  in  the  dust  of  half-forgotten  kings, 
Then   Arthur  spake  among   them,  'Let 

her  tomb 
Be  costly,  and  her  image  thereupon, 
And  let  the  shield  of  Lancelot  at  her 

feet 
Be  carven,  and  her  lily  in  her  hand. 
And  let  the  story  of  her  dolorous  voyage 
For  all   true  hearts  be  blazon'd  on  her 

tomb 
In  letters  gold  and  azure ! '  which  was 

wrought 
Thereafter;  but  when  now  the  lords  and 

dames 
And  people,  from  the  high  door  stream- 
ing, brake 
Disorderly,  as  homeward  each,  the  Queen, 
Who   mark'd    Sir    Lancelot   where    he 

moved  apart, 
Drew  near,  and  sigh'd  in  passing, '  Lance- 
lot, 
Forgive  me;   mine  was  jealousy  in  love.' 
He    answer'd   with    his    eyes    upon    the 

ground, 
4That  is  love's  curse ;   pass  on,  my  Queen, 

forgiven.' 


But  Arthur,  who  beheld  his  cloudy  brows, 
Approach'd  him,  and  with  full  affection 
said, 

*  Lancelot,  my  Lancelot,  thou  in  whom 

I  have 
Most  joy  and  most  affiance,  for  I  know 
What  thou   hast   been  in  battle  by  my 

side, 
And  many  a  time  have  watch'd  thee  at 

the  tilt 
Strike  down  the  lusty  and  long-practised 

knight, 
And  let  the  younger  and  unskill'd  go  by 
To  win  his  honour  and  to  make  his  name, 
And  loved  thy  courtesies  and  thee,  a  man 
Made  to  be  loved;   but  now  I  would  to 

God, 
Seeing  the  homeless  trouble  in  thine  eyes, 
Thou  couldst   have   loved   this  maiden, 

shaped,  it  seems, 
By  God  for  thee  alone,  and  from  her  face, 
If  one  may  judge  the  living  by  the  dead, 
Delicately  pure  and  marvellously  fair, 
Who  might   have  brought   thee,  now  a 

lonely  man 
Wifeless  and  heirless,  noble  issue,  sons 
Born  to  the  glory  of  thy  name  and  fame, 
My  knight,  the   great    Sir   Lancelot   of 

the  Lake.' 

Then   answer'd    Lancelot,   '  Fair    she 

was,  my  King, 
Pure,  as  you  ever  wish  your  knights  to  be. 
To  doubt  her  fairness  were  to  want  an 

eye, 
To  doubt  her  pureness  were  to  want  a 

heart  — 
Yea,  to  be  loved,  if  what  is  worthy  love 
Could  bind  him,  but  free  love  will  not 

be  bound.' 

'  Free  love,  so  bound,  were  freest,'  said 

the  King. 
1  Let  love  be  free ;    free  love  is  for  the 

best: 
And,  after  heaven,  on  our   dull  side  of 

death, 
What  should   be  best,  if  not  so  pure  a 

love 
Clothed  in  so  pure  a  loveliness?  yet  thee 
She  fail'd  to  bind,  tho'  being,  as  I  think, 
Unbound  as  yet,  and  gentle,  as  I  know.' 


THE  HOLY   GRAIL. 


incelot   answer'd   nothing,  but 
went, 
le  inrunning  of  a  little  brook 
Sat  by  the  river  in  a  cove,  and  watch'd 
The  high  reed  wave,  and  lifted  up    his 

eyes 
And   saw   the   barge    that    brought  her 

moving  down, 
Far-off,  a  blot  upon  the  stream,  and  said 
Low  in  himself,  '  Ah,  simple  heart  and 

sweet, 
Ye  loved  me,  damsel,  surely  with  a  love 
Far  tenderer  than  my  Queen's.     Pray  for 

thy  soul? 
Ay,  that  will  I.     Farewell  too  —  now  at 

last  — 
Farewell,  fair  lily.     "Jealousy  in  love?" 
Not  rather  dead  love's  harsh  heir,  jealous 

pride? 
Queen,    if   I   grant   the  jealousy    as    of 

love, 
May  not  your  crescent  fear  for  name  and 

fame 
Speak,  as  it  waxes,  of  a  love  that  wanes? 
Why  did  the  King  dwell  on  my  name  to 

me? 
Mine  own  name  shames  me,  seeming  a 

reproach, 
Lancelot,  whom  the  Lady  of  the  Lake 
Caught    from   his   mother's   arms  —  the 

wondrous  one 
Who  passes  thro'  the  vision  of  the  night  — 
She  chanted  snatches  of  mysterious  hymns 
Heard  on  the  winding  waters,  eve  and 

morn 
She   kiss'd    me  saying,  "Thou  art   fair, 

my  child, 
As  a  king's  son,"  and  often  in  her  arms 
She  bare  me,  pacing  on  the  dusky  mere. 
Would  she  had  drown'd  me  in  it,  wher- 
e'er it  be ! 
For  what   am    I?   what   profits   me   my 

name 
Of  greatest    knight?     I   fought    for   it, 

and  have  it: 
Pleasure    to   have  it,  none;    to   lose  it, 

pain; 
Now  grown  a  part  of  me :  but  what  use 

in  it? 
To  make  men  worse  by  making  my  sin 

known? 
Or   sin    seem   less,   the   sinner   seeming 

great  ? 


Alas  for  Arthur's  greatest  knight,  a  man 
Not  after  Arthur's  heart !     I  needs  must 

break 
These    bonds  that  so    defame  me :    not 

without 
She  wills  it:  would    I,  if  she  will'd  it? 

nay, 
Who  knows?   but  if  I  would  not,  then 

may  God, 
I  pray  him,  send  a  sudden  Angel  down 
To  seize  me  by  the  hair  and  bear  me 

far, 
And   fling   me    deep   in   that    forgottei 

mere, 
Among   the   tumbled   fragments  of  the 

hills.' 

So  groan' d  Sir  Lancelot  in  remorseful 
pain, 
Not  knowing  he  should  die  a  holy  man. 

THE   HOLY  GRAIL. 

From  noiseful  arms,  and  acts  of  prowess 

done 
In  tournament  or  tilt,  Sir  Percivale, 
.Whom  Arthur  and  his  knighthood  call'd 

The  Pure, 
Had  pass'd  into  the  silent  life  of  prayer, 
Praise,  fast,  and  alms;    and  leaving  for 

the  cowl 
The  helmet  in  an  abbey  far  away 
From  Camelot,  there,  and  not  long  after, 

died. 

And  one,  a   fellow-monk   among  the 

rest, 
Ambrosius,  loved  him  much  beyond  the 

rest, 
And   honour'd   him,   and   wrought   into 

his  heart 
A  way  by  love  that  waken'd  love  within, 
To   answer    that   which   came :    and    as 

they  sat 
Beneath  a  world-old  yew-tree,  darkening 

half 
The  cloisters,  on  a  gustful  April  morn 
That  puff  d   the  swaying   branches   into 

smoke 
Above  them,  ere  the  summer  when  he 

died, 
The    monk   Ambrosius    question'd    Per- 
civale : 


THE  HOLY  GRAIL. 


411 


•  O  brother,  I  have  seen  this  yew-tree 

smoke, 
Spring  after  spring,  for  half  a  hundred 

years : 
For  never  have  I  known  the  world  with- 
out, 
Nor  ever  stray'd  beyond  the  pale  :    but 

thee, 
When  first  thou  earnest  —  such  a  courtesy 
Spake  thro'  the  limbs  and  in  the  voice  — 

I  knew 
For  one  of  those  who  eat  in  Arthur's  hall; 
For  good  ye  are  and  bad,  and  like  to  coins, 
Some  true,  some  light,  but  every  one  of  you 
Stamp'd  with  the  image  of  the  King;  and 

now 
fell  me,  what  drove  thee  from  the  Table 

Round, 
My  brother  ?  was  it  earthly  passion  crost  ? ' 

'Nay,'  said  the  knight;    'for  no  such 

passion  mine. 
But  the  sweet  vision  of  the  Holy  Grail 
Drove  me  from  all  vainglories,  rivalries, 
And  earthly  heats  that  spring  and  sparkle 

out 
Among  us  in   the  jousts,  while  women 

watch 
Who   wins,  who   falls;     and   waste   the 

spiritual  strength 
Within  us,  better  offer'd  up  to  Heaven.' 

To    whom    the    monk  :    *  The    Holy 

Grail !  —  I  trust 
We  are  green  in  Heaven's  eyes;  but  here 

too  much 
We   moulder  —  as   to   things   without   I 

mean  — 
Yet  one  of  your  own  knights,  a  guest  of 

ours, 
Told  us  of  this  in  our  refectory, 
But  spake  with  such  a  sadness  and  so  low 
We  heard  not  half  of  what  he  said.    What 

is  it? 
The  phantom  of  a  cup  that  comes  and 

goes  ? ' 

1  Nay,   monk  !    what   phantom  ?  '    an- 
swer'd  Percivale. 
'The  cup,  the  cup  itself,  from  which  our 

Lord 
Drank  at  the  last  sad  supper  with  his  own. 
This,  from  the  blessed  land  of  Aromat  — 


After  the  day  of  darkness,  when  the  dea^ 
Went  wandering  o'er  Moriah  —  the  good 

saint 
Arimathsean  Joseph,  journeying  brought 
To  Glastonbury,  where  the  winter  thorn 
Blossoms   at   Christmas,  mindful  of  our 

Lord. 
And  there  awhile  it  bode;   and  if  a  man 
Could  touch  or  see  it,  he  was  heal'd  at 

once, 
By  faith,  of  all  his  ills.    But  then  the  times 
Grew  to  such  evil  that  the  holy  cup 
Was  caught  away  to  Heaven,  and  disap- 

pear'd.' 

To  whom  the  monk:   ' From  our  old 

books  I  know 
That  Joseph  came  of  old  to  Glastonbury, 
And  there  the  heathen  Prince,  Arviragus, 
Gave  him  an  isle  of  marsh  whereon  to 

build; 
And  there  he  built  with  wattles  from  the 

marsh 
A  little  lonely  church  in  days  of  yore, 
For  so  they  say,  these  books  of  ours,  but 

seem 
Mute  of  this  miracle,  far  as  I  have  read. 
But  who  first  saw  the  holy  thing  to-day?' 

'A   woman,'    answer'd    Percivale,   'a 

nun, 
And  one  no  further  off  in  blood  from  me 
Than  sister ;  and  if  ever  holy  maid 
With  knees  of  adoration  wore  the  stone, 
A  holy  maid;   tho'  never  maiden  glow'd, 
But  that  was  in  her  earlier  maidenhood, 
With  such  a  fervent  flame  of  human  love, 
Which  being  rudely  blunted,  glanced  and 

shot 
Only  to  holy  things;    to  prayer  and  praise 
She  gave  herself,  to  fast  and  alms.     And 

yet, 
Nun  as  she  was,  the  scandal  of  the  Court, 
Sin  against  Arthur  and  the  Table  Round, 
And  the  strange  sound  of  an  adulterous 

race, 
Across  the  iron  grating  of  her  cell 
Beat,  and  she  pray'd  and  fasted  all  the 

more. 

'  And  he  to  whom  she  told  her  sins,  or 
what 
Her  all  but  utter  whiteness  held  for  sin, 


412 


THE  HOLY  GRAIL. 


A  man  wellnigh  a  hundred  winters  old, 
Spake  often  with  her  of  the  Holy  Grail, 
A  legend  handed  down  thro'  five  or  six, 
And  each  of  these  a  hundred  winters  old, 
From  our  Lord's  time.     And  when  King 

Arthur  made 
His  Table  Round,  and  all  men's  hearts 

became 
Clean  for  a  season,  surely  he  had  thought 
That   now  the   Holy  Grail  would   come 

again; 
But  sin  broke   out.     Ah,  Christ,  that   it 

would  come, 
And  heal  the  world  of  all  their  wicked- 
ness ! 
"  O  Father !  "  ask'd  the  maiden,  "  might 

it  come 
To  me  by  prayer  and  fasting?  "     "  Nay," 

said  he, 
"  I  know  not,  for   thy  heart  is  pure   as 

snow." 
And  so  she  pray'd  and  fasted,  till  the  sun 
Shone,  and  the  wind  blew,  thro'  her,  and 

I  thought 
She  might  have  risen  and  floated  when  I 

saw  her. 

*  For  on  a  day  she  sent  to  speak  with 

me. 
And  when  she  came  to  speak,  behold  her 

eyes 
Beyond  my  knowing  of  them,  beautiful, 
Beyond  all  knowing  of  them,  wonderful, 
Beautiful  in  the  light  of  holiness. 
And  "  O  my  brother  Percivale,"  she  said, 
"Sweet   brother,  I  have  seen  the  Holy 

Grail : 
For,  waked  at  dead  of  night,  I  heard  a 

sound 
As  of  a  silver  horn  from  o'er  the  hills 
Blown,  and  I  thought,  '  It  is  not  Arthur's 

use 
To  hunt  by  moonlight;  '  and  the  slender 

sound 
As  from  a  distance  beyond  distance  grew 
Coming  upon  me  —  O  never  harp  nor  horn, 
Nor  aught  we  blow  with  breath,  or  touch 

with  hand, 
Was  like  that  music  as  it  came ;   and  then 
Stream'd  thro'  my  cell  a  cold  and  silver 

beam, 
And  down  the  long  beam  stole  the  Holy 

Grail, 


Rose-red  with  beatings  in  it,  as  if  alive, 
Till  all  the  white  walls  of  my  cell  were 

dyed 
With  rosy  colours  leaping  on  the  wall ; 
And  then  the  music  faded,  and  the  Grail 
Past,  and  the  beam  decay'd,  and  from  the 

walls 
The  rosy  quiverings  died  into  the  night. 
So  now  the  Holy  Thing  is  here  again 
Among   us,  brother,  fast   thou   too   and 

pray, 
And  tell  thy  brother  knights  to  fast  and 

pray, 
That  so  perchance  the  vision  may  be  seen 
By  thee  and  those,  and  all  the  world  be 

heal'd." 

'Then  leaving  the  pale  nun,  I  spake 

of  this 
To    all    men;     and   myself    fasted    and 

pray'd 
Always,   and   many   among   us   many   a 

week 
Fasted  and  pray'd  even  to  the  uttermost, 
Expectant  of  the  wonder  that  would  be. 

'And  one  there  was  among  us,  ever 
moved 

Among  us  in  white  armour,  Galahad. 

"  God  make  thee  good  as  thou  art  beau- 
tiful," 

Said  Arthur,  when  he  dubbM  him  knight; 
and  none 

In  so  young  youth,  was  ever  made  a 
knight 

Till  Galahad;  and  this  Galahad,  when 
he  heard 

My  sister's  vision,  fiU'd  me  with  amaze; 

His  eyes  became  so  like  her  own,  they 
seem'd 

Hers,  and  himself  her  brother  more  than  I. 

'Sister  or  brother  none  had  he;   but 

some 
Call'd  him  a  son  of  Lancelot,  and  some 

said 
Begotten    by    enchantment  —  chatterers 

they, 
Like  birds  of  passage  piping  up  and  down, 
That  gape  for  flies — we  know  not  whence 

they  come; 
For    when    was    Lancelot    wanderingly 

lewd? 


THE  HOLY  GRAIL. 


413 


'  But  she,  the  wan  sweet  maiden,  shore 

away 
Clean  from  her  forehead  all  that  wealth 

of  hair 
Which  made  a  silken  mat-work  for  her 

feet; 
And  out  of  this  she  plaited  broad  and 

long 
A  strong  sword-belt,  and  wove  with  silver 

■thread 
And  crimson  in  the  belt  a  strange  device, 
A  crimson  grail  within  a  silver  beam; 
And    saw   the    bright    boy-knight,   and 

bound  it  on  him, 
Saying,  "  My  knight,  my  love,  my  knight 

of  heaven, 
O  thou,  my  love,  whose  love  is  one  with 

mine, 
I,  maiden,  round  thee,  maiden,  bind  my 

belt. 
Go  forth,  for  thou  shalt  see  what  I  have 

seen, 
And  break  thro'  all,  till  one  will  crown 

thee  king 
Far  in  the  spiritual  city :  "  and  as  she 

spake 
She  sent  the   deathless  passion  in   her 

eyes 
Thro'  him,  and  made  him  hers,  and  laid 

her  mind 
On  him,  and  he  believed  in  her  belief. 

'Then   came   a   year   of  miracle:    O 

brother, 
In  our  great  hall  there  stood  a  vacant 

chair, 
Fashion'd  by  Merlin  ere  he  past  away, 
And  carven  with  strange  figures;   and  in 

and  out 
The  figures,  like  a  serpent,  ran  a  scroll 
Of  letters   in   a   tongue   no  man   could 

read. 
And  Merlin  call'd  it  "The  Siege  peril- 
ous," 
Perilous  for  good  and  ill;   "for  there," 

he  said, 
"No  man  could  sit  but  he  should  lose 

himself:" 
And  once  by  misadvertence  Merlin  sat 
In  his  own  chair,  and  so  was  lost;   but  he, 
Galahad,    when    he   heard   of    Merlin's 

doom, 
Cried,  "  If  I  lose  myself,  I  save  myself !  " 


'  Then  on  a  summer  night  it  came  to 

pass, 
While  the  great  banquet  lay  along  the 

hall, 
That  Galahad  would  sit  down  in  Merlin's 

chair. 

'  And  all  at  once,  as  there  we  sat,  we 

heard 
A  cracking  and  a  riving  of  the  roofs, 
And  rending,  and  a  blast,  and  overhead 
Thunder,  and  in  the  thunder  was  a  cry. 
And  in  the  blast  there  smote  along  the  hall 
A  beam  of  light  seven  times  more  clear 

than  day: 
And  down  the  long  beam  stole  the  Holy 

Grail 
All  over  cover'd  with  a  luminous  cloud, 
And  none  might  see  who  bare  it,  and  it 

past. 
But  every  knight  beheld  his  fellow's  face 
As  in  a  glory,  and  all  the  knights  arose, 
And  staring  each  at  other  like  dumb  men 
Stood,  till  I  found  a  voice  and  sware  a 


'  I  sware  a  vow  before  them  all,  that  I, 
Because  I  had  not  seen  the  Grail,  would 

ride 
A  twelvemonth  and  a  day  in  quest  of  it, 
Until  I  found  and  saw  it,  as  the  nun 
My  sister  saw  it;   and  Galahad  sware  the 

vow, 
And  good  Sir  Bors,  our  Lancelot's  cousin, 

sware, 
And  Lancelot  sware,  and  many  among 

the  knights, 
And  Gawain  sware,  and  louder  than  the 

rest.' 

Then  spake  the  monk  Ambrosius,  ask- 
ing him, 
'  What  said  the  King?     Did  Arthur  take 
the  vow?' 

'Nay,  for  my  lord,'  said  Percivale, 
'the  King, 
Was  not  in  hall :  for  early  that  same  day, 
Scaped  thro'  a  cavern  from  a  bandit  hold, 
An  outraged  maiden  sprang  into  the  hall 
Crying  on  help :  for  all  her  shining  hair 
Was  smear'd  with  earth,  and  either  milky 


4H 


THE  HOLY  GRAIL. 


Red-rent  with  hooks  of  bramble,  and  all 

she  wore 
Torn  as  a  sail  that  leaves  the  rope  is  torn 
In  tempest :  so  the  King  arose  and  went 
To  smoke  the  scandalous  hive  of  those 

wild  bees 
That   made   such    honey   in   his   realm. 

Howbeit 
Some  little  of  this  marvel  he  too  saw, 
Returning  o'er  the  plain  that  then  began 
To  darken  under  Camelot;   whence  the 

King 
Look'd   up,  calling   aloud,  u  Lo,  there ! 

the  roofs 
Of  our  great  hall  are  roll'd  in  thunder- 
smoke  ! 
Pray  Heaven,  they  be  not  smitten  by  the 

bolt." 
For  dear  to  Arthur  was  that  hall  of  ours, 
As  having  there  so  oft  with  all  his  knights 
Feasted,    and    as    the    stateliest    under 

heaven. 

1 0  brother,  had  you  known  our  mighty 

hall, 
Which  Merlin  built  for  Arthur  long  ago  ! 
For  all  the  sacred  mount  of  Camelot, 
And  all  the  dim  rich  city,  roof  by  roof, 
Tower  after  tower,  spire  beyond  spire, 
By  grove,  and  garden-lawn,  and  rushing 

brook, 
Climbs  to   the   mighty  hall  that  Merlin 

built. 
And  four  great  zones  of  sculpture,  set 

betwixt 
With  many  a  mystic  symbol,  gird  the  hall : 
And  in  the  lowest  beasts  are  slaying  men, 
And  in  the  second  men  are  slaying  beasts, 
And  on  the  third  are  warriors,  perfect 

men, 
And  on  the  fourth  are  men  with  growing 

wings, 
And  over  all  one  statue  in  the  mould 
Of  Arthur,  made  by  Merlin,  with  a  crown, 
And  peak'd  wings  pointed  to  the  Northern 

Star. 
And  eastward  fronts  the  statue,  and  the 

crown 
And  both  the  wings  are  made  of  gold, 

and  flame 
At  sunrise  till  the  people  in  far  fields, 
Wasted  so  often  by  the  heathen  hordes, 
Behold  it,  crying,  "  We  have  still  a  King." 


'  And,  brother,  had  you  known  our  hall 

within, 
Broader  and  higher  than  any  in  all  the 

lands ! 
Where    twelve  .great    windows    blazon 

Arthur's  wars, 
And  all  the  light  that  falls  upon  the  board 
Streams  thro'  the  twelve  great  battles  of 

our  King. 
Nay,  one  there  is,  and  at  the  eastern  end, 
Wealthy  with  wandering  lines  of  mount 

and  mere, 
Where  Arthur  finds  the  brand  Excalibur. 
And  also  one  to  the  west,  and  counter  to  it, 
And   blank :    and  who   shall   blazon  it  ? 

when  and  how?  — 
O  there,  perchance,  when  all  our  wars  are 

done, 
The  brand  Excalibur  will  be  cast  away. 

'  So  to  this  hall  full  quickly  rode  the 

King, 
In  horror  lest  the  work  by  Merlin  wrought, 
Dreamlike,  should  on  the  sudden  vanish, 

wrapt 
In  unremorseful  folds  of  rolling  fire. 
And  in  he  rode,  and  up  I  glanced,  and 

saw 
The  golden  dragon  sparkling  over  all : 
And  many  of  those  who  burnt  the  hold, 

their  arms 
Hack'd,  and  their  foreheads  grimed  with 

smoke,  and  sear'd, 
Follow'd,  and  in  among  bright  faces,  ours, 
Full  of  the  vision,  prest :  and  then  the 

King 
Spake  to  me,  being  nearest,  "  Percivale  " 
(Because  the  hall  was  all  in  tumult  — 

some 
Vowing,  and  some  protesting),  "what  is 

this?" 

'  O  brother,  when  I  told  him  what  had 

chanced, 
My  sister's  vision,  and  the  rest,  his  face 
Darken'd,  as  I  have  seen  it  more  than 

once, 
When  some    brave   deed   seem'd  to  be 

done  in  vain, 
Darken;   and  "  Woe  is  me,  my  knights," 

he  cried, 
"  Had  I  been  here,  ye  had  not  sworn  the 

vow." 


THE  HOLY  GRAIL. 


415 


Bold    was   mine    answer,  "  Had   thyself 

been  here, 
My    King,    thou   wouldst   have   sworn." 

"  Yea,  yea,"  said  he, 
"  Art  thou  so  bold  and  hast  not  seen  the 

Grail?" 

• "  Nay,    lord,    I   heard   the   sound,   I 
saw  the  light, 
But  since  I  did  not  see  the  Holy  Thing, 
I  sware  a  vow  to  follow  it  till  I  saw." 

'Then  when  he  ask'd  us,  knight  by 

knight,  if  any 
Had  seen  it,  all  their  answers  were  as 

one: 
"  Nay,  lord,  and  therefore  have  we  sworn 

our  vows." 

'"Lo   now,"   said   Arthur,  "have   ye 
seen  a  cloud  ? 
What  go  ye  into  the  wilderness  to  see?  " 

'  Then  Galahad  on  the  sudden,  and  in 
a  voice 
Shrilling  along  the  hall  to  Arthur,  call'd, 
"  But  I,  Sir  Arthur,  saw  the  Holy  Grail, 
I  saw  the  Holy  Grail  and  heard  a  cry  — 
1  O  Galahad,  and  O  Galahad,  follow  me.' " 

'"Ah,   Galahad,   Galahad,"   said  the 

King,  "  for  such 
As  thou  art  is  the  vision,  not  for  these. 
Thy  holy  nun  and  thou  have  seen  a  sign  — 
Holier  is  none,  my  Percivale,  than  she  — 
A  sign  to  maim  this  Order  which  I  made. 
But  ye,  that  follow  but  the  leader's  bell " 
(Brother,  the  King  was   hard  upon  his 

knights), 
"Taliessin  is  our  fullest  throat  of  song, 
And  one  hath  sung  and  all  the  dumb  will 

sing. 
Lancelot  is  Lancelot,  and  hath  overborne 
Five  knights  at  once,  and  every  younger 

knight, 
Unproven,  holds  himself  as  Lancelot, 
Till  overborne  by  one,  he  learns  —  and  ye, 
What    are    ye?       Galahads?  —  no,    nor 

Percivales  " 
(For  thus  it  pleased  the  King  to  range 

me  close 
Aftei    Sir    Galahad) ;     "  nay,"    said   he, 

"  but  men 


With    strength    and    will   to   right    the 

wrong'd,  of  power 
To   lay   the    sudden    heads   of  violence 

flat, 
Knights    that    in   twelve    great    battles 

splash'd  and  dyed 
The   strong   White    Horse   in   his   own 

heathen  blood  — 
But  one  hath  seen,  and  all  the  blind  will 

see. 
Go,  since   your  vows   are  sacred,  being 

made : 
Yet — for  ye  know  the    cries  of  all  my 

realm 
Pass  thro'  this  hall  —  how  often,  O  my 

knights, 
Your  places  being  vacant  at  my  side, 
This  chance  of  noble  deeds  will  come 

and  go 
Unchallenged,  while  ye  follow  wandering 

fires 
Lost  in  the  quagmire  !     Many  of  you,  yea 

most, 
Return  no  more:   ye  think  I  show  my- 
self 
Too  dark  a  prophet:  come  now,  let  us 

meet 
The  morrow  morn  once  more  in  one  full 

field 
Of  gracious  pastime,  that  once  more  the 

King, 
Before  ye  leave  him  for  this  Quest,  may 

count 
The    yet-unbroken   strength    of    all    his 

knights, 
Rejoicing  in  that  Order  which  he  made." 

'So  when  the   sun   broke   next   from 
under  ground, 
All  the  great  table  of  our  Arthur  closed 
And  clash'd  in  such  a  tourney  and  so 

full, 
So  many  lances  broken  —  never  yet 
Had  Camelot  seen  the  like,  since  Arthur 

came; 
And  I  myself  and  Galahad,  for  a  strength 
Was  in  us  from  the  vision,  overthrew 
So    many   knights   that   all   the   people 

cried, 
And  almost   burst   the   barriers  in  their 

heat, 
Shouting,  "  Sir  Galahad  and   Sir  Perci- 
vale !  " 


4i6 


THE  HOLY  GRAIL. 


'But   when  the  next   day  brake  from 

under  ground  — 
O  brother,  had  you  known  our  Camelot, 
Built  by  old  kings,  age  after  age,  so  old 
The  King  himself  had  fears  that  it  would 

fall, 
So  strange,  and  rich,  and  dim  ;  for  where 

the  roofs 
Totter'd  toward  each  other  in  the  sky, 
Met   foreheads   all   along  the   street   of 

those 
Who  watch'd  us  pass;    and  lower,  and 

where  the  long 
Rich   galleries,  lady-laden,  weigh'd   the 

necks 
Of  dragons  clinging  to  the  crazy  walls, 
Thicker  than  drops  from  thunder,  showers 

of  flowers 
Fell  as  we  past;  and  men  and  boys  astride 
On  wyvern,  lion,  dragon,  griffin,  swan, 
At   all   the  corners,  named   us   each  by 

name, 
Calling  "  God  speed ! "  but  in  the  ways 

below 
The  knights  and  ladies  wept,  and  rich 

and  poor 
Wept,  and  the  King  himself  could  hardly 

speak  •    • 

For  grief,  and  all  in  middle  street  the 

Queen, 
Who  rode  by  Lancelot,  wail'd  and  shriek'd 

aloud, 
"This  madness  has  come  on  us  for  our 

sins." 
So  to  the  Gate  of  the  three  Queens  we 

came, 
Where  Arthur's  wars  are  render'd  mysti- 
cally, 
And  thence  departed  every  one  his  way. 

'And  I  was    lifted  up  in  heart,  and 

thought 
Of  all   my   late-shown   prowess    in    the 

lists, 
How  my  strong  lance  had  beaten  down 

the  knights, 
So  many  and  famous  names;   and  never 

yet 
Had  heaven  appear'd  so  blue,  nor  earth 

so  green, 
For  all  my  blood  danced  in  me,  and  I 

knew 
That  I  should  light  upon  the  Holy  Grail. 


'  Thereafter,  the  dark  warning  of  o\r 

King, 
That  most  of  us  would  follow  wandering 

fires, 
Came  like    a   driving   gloom   across  my 

mind. 
Then  every  evil  word  I  had  spoken  once, 
And  every  evil  thought  I  had  thought  of 

old, 
And  every  evil  deed  I  ever  did, 
Awoke  and  cried,  "  This  Quest  is  not  for 

thee." 
And  lifting  up  mine  eyes,  I  found  myself 
Alone,  and  in  a  land  of  sand  and  thorns, 
And  I  was  thirsty  even  unto  death; 
And  I,  too,  cried,  "  This  Quest  is  not  for 

thee." 

'  And  on  I  rode,  and  when  I  thought 

my  thirst 
Would  slay  me,  saw  deep  lawns,  and  then 

a  brook, 
With  one  sharp  rapid,  where  the  crisping 

white 
Play'd  ever  back  upon  the  sloping  wave, 
And  took  both  ear  and  eye;   and   o'er 

the  brook 
Were    apple-trees,   and    apples    by   the 

brook 
Fallen,  and  on  the  lawns.     "  I  will  rest 

here," 
I  said,  "  I  am  not  worthy  of  the  Quest;" 
But  even  while  I  drank  the  brook,  and 

ate 
The   goodly  apples,  all   these  things  at 

once 
Fell  into  dust,  and  I  was  left  alone, 
And   thirsting,  in   a   land  of  sand   and 

thorns. 

'  And  then  behold  a  woman  at  a  door 
Spinning;   and  fair  the    house  whereby 

she  sat, 
And  kind  the  woman's  eyes  and  innocent, 
And  all  her  bearing  gracious;    and  she 

rose 
Opening  her  arms  to  meet  me,  as  who 

should  say, 
"  Rest  here;  "  but  when  I  touch'd  her,  lo ! 

she,  too, 
Fell   into   dust    and    nothing,   and   the 

house 
Became  no  better  than  a  broken  shed, 


THE  HOLY   GRAIL. 


417 


And  in  it  a  dead  babe ;   and  also  this 
Fell  into  dust,  and  I  was  left  alone. 

'And  on  I  rode,  and  greater  was  my 

thirst. 
Then  flash'd  a  yellow  gleam  across  the 

world, 
And  where  it  smote  the  plowshare  in  the 

field, 
The  plowman  left  his  plowing,  and  fell 

down 
Before  it;   where  it  glitter'd  on  her  pail, 
The  milkmaid  left  her  milking,  and  fell 

down 
Before   it,   and   I   knew   not   why,    but 

thought 
"The  sun  is  rising,"  tho'  the   sun   had 

risen. 
Then   was  I  ware  of  one   that    on   me 

moved 
In  golden  armour  with  a  crown  of  gold 
About  a  casque  all  jewels;   and  his  horse 
In  golden  armour  jewell'd  everywhere  : 
And  on  the  splendour  came,  flashing  me 

blind; 
And  seem'd  to  me  the   Lord  of  all  the 

world, 
Being  so  huge.     But  when  I  thought  he 

meant 
To  crush  me,  moving  on  me,  lo  !  he,  too, 
Open'd  his  arms  to  embrace  me  as  he 

came, 
And  up  I  went  and  touch'd  him,  and  he, 

too, 
Fell  into  dust,  and  I  was  left  alone 
And   wearying  in  a   land   of  sand   and 

thorns. 

'And  I  rode  on  and  found  a  mighty 

hill, 
And  on  the  top,  a  city  wall'd  :  the  spires 
Prick'd   with   incredible   pinnacles   into 

heaven. 
And   by  the   gateway   stirr'd    a   crowd; 

and  these 
Cried  to  me  climbing,  "  Welcome,  Perci- 

vale ! 
Thou  mightiest  and   thou  purest  among 

men !  " 
And  glad  was  I  and  clomb,  but  found  at 

top 
No  man,  nor  any  voice.     And  thence  I 

past 

2E 


Far  thro'  a  ruinous  city,  and  I'  saw 
That  man    had   once   dwelt   there;    but 

there  I  found 
Only  one  man  of  an  exceeding  age. 
"  Where  is  that  goodly  company,"  said  I, 
"That  so  cried  out  upon  me?  "  and  he 

had 
Scarce   any  voice   to   answer,    and   yet 

gasp'd, 
"  Whence  and  what  art  thou?  "  and  even 

as  he  spoke 
Fell  into  dust,  and  disappear'd,  and  I 
Was  left  alone  once  more,  and  cried  in 

grief, 
"  Lo,  if  I  find  the  Holy  Grail  itself 
And  touch  it,  it  will  crumble  into  dust." 

'  And  thence  I  dropt  into  a  lowly  vale, 
Low  as  the  hill  was  high,  and  where  the 

vale 
Was  lowest,  found  a  chapel,  and  thereby 
A  holy  hermit  in  a  hermitage, 
To  whom  I  told  my  phantoms,  and  he 

said : 

1 "  O  son,  thou  hast  not  true  humility, 
The  highest  virtue,  mother  of  them  all; 
For  when  the  Lord  of  all  things  made 

Himself 
Naked  of  glory  for  His  mortal  change, 
1  Take  thou  my  robe,'  she  said,  '  for  all  is 

thine,' 
And  all  her  form  shone  forth  with  sud- 
den light 
So  that  the  angels  were  amazed,  and  she 
Follow'd  Him  down,  and  like  a  flying  star 
Led  on  the   gray-hair'd  wisdom  of  the 

east; 
But  her  thou  hast  not  known  :  for  what 

is  this 
Thou  thoughtest  of  thy  prowess  and  thy 

sins? 
Thou  hast  not  lost  thyself  to  save  thyself 
As  Galahad."     When  the  hermit  made 

an  end, 
In  silver  armour  suddenly  Galahad  shone 
Before  us,  and  against  the  chapel  door 
Laid  lance,  and  enter' d,  and  we  knelt  in 

prayer. 
And  there  the  hermit  slaked  my  burning 

thirst, 
And  at  the  sacring  of  the  mass  I  saw 
The  holy  elements  alone;   but  he, 


4i8 


THE  HOLY  GRAIL. 


"  Saw  ye  no  more?     I,  Galahad,  saw  the 

Grail, 
The     Holy     Grail,    descend    upon    the 

shrine  : 
I  saw  the  fiery  face  as  of  a  child 
That  smote  itself  into   the   bread,   and 

went; 
And  hither  am  I  come;   and  never  yet 
Hath  what  thy  sister  taught  me  first  to  see, 
This  Holy  Thing,  fail'd  from  my  side,  nor 

come 
Cover'd,  but  moving  with  me  night  and 

day, 
Fainter  by  day,  but  always  in  the  night 
Blood-red,  and  sliding  down  the  blacken'd 

marsh 
Blood-red,  and  on  the  naked  mountain 

top 
Blood-red,   and  in   the    sleeping    mere 

below 
Blood-red.     And  in  the  strength  of  this 

I  rode, 
Shattering  all  evil  customs  everywhere, 
And  past  thro'  Pagan  realms,  and  made 

them  mine, 
And    clash'd   with    Pagan   hordes,    and 

bore  them  down, 
And  broke  thro'  all,  and  in  the  strength 

of  this 
Come  victor.     But   my  time  is  hard  at 

hand, 
And  hence  I  go;   and  one  will  crown  me 

king 
Far  in  the  spiritual  city;  and  come  thou, 

too, 
For  thou  shalt  see  the  vision  when  I  go." 

*  While  thus  he  spake,  his  eye,  dwell- 
ing on  mine, 

Drew  me,  with  power  upon  me,  till  I 
grew 

One  with  him,  to  believe  as  he  believed. 

Then,  when  the  day  began  to  wane,  we 
went. 

1  There  rose  a  hill  that  none  but  man 
could  climb, 

Scarr'd  with  a  hundred  wintry  water- 
courses — 

Storm  at  the  top,  and  when  we  gain'd  it, 
storm 

Round  us  and  death;  for  every  moment 
glanced 


His  silver  arms  and  gloom'd  :  so  quicl 

and  thick 
The  lightnings  here  and  there  to  left  and 

right 
Struck,  till  the  dry  old  trunks  about  us, 

dead, 
Yea,    rotten   with   a   hundred    years    of 

death, 
Sprang   into   fire :    and  at  the  base  we 

found 
On  either  hand,  as  far  as  eye  could  see, 
A  great  black   swamp   and   of  an   evil 

smell, 
Part  black,  part  whiten1  d  with  the  bones 

of  men, 
Not  to  be  crost,  save  that  some  ancient 

king 
Had   built   a   way,   where,   link'd   with 

many  a  bridge, 
A  thousand  piers  ran  into  the  great  Sea. 
And  Galahad  fled  along  them  bridge  by 

bridge, 
And  every  bridge  as  quickly  as  he  crost 
Sprang   into    fire   and   vanish'd,    tho'    I 

yearn'd 
To  follow;   and  thrice  above  him  all  the 

heavens 
Open'd  and  blazed  with  thunder  such  as 

seem'd 
Shoutings  of  all  the  sons  of  God  :  and 

first 
At  once  I  saw  him  far  on  the  great  Sea, 
In  silver-shining  armour  starry-clear; 
And  o'er  his  head  the  Holy  Vessel  hung 
Clothed  in  white  samite  or  a  luminous 

cloud. 
And  with    exceeding  swiftness   ran   the 

boat, 
If  boat  it  were  —  I  saw  not  whence  it 

came. 
And  when  the  heavens  open'd  and  blazed 

again 
Roaring,  I  saw  him  like  a  silver  star  — 
And  had  he  set  the  sail,  or  had  the  boat 
Become    a    living    creature    clad    with 

wings? 
And  o'er  his  head  the  Holy  Vessel  hung 
Redder  than  any  rose,  a  joy  to  me, 
For  now  I  knew  the  veil  had  been  with- 
drawn. 
Then  in   a   moment  when   they  blazed 

again 
Opening,  I  saw  the  least  of  little  stars 


THE  HOLY   GRAIL. 


419 


Down  on  the  waste,  and  straight  beyond 

the  star 
I  saw  the  spiritual  city  and  all  her  spires 
And  gateways  in  a  glory  like  one  pearl  — 
No  larger,  tho'  the  goal  of  all  the  saints  — 
Strike  from  the  sea;   and  from  the  star 

there  shot 
A  rose-red  sparkle  to  the  city,  and  there 
Dwelt,  and  I  knew  it  was  the  Holy  Grail, 
Which  never  eyes  on  earth  again  shall 

see. 
Then  fell  the  floods  of  heaven  drowning 

the  deep. 
And  how  my   feet  recrost  the   deathful 

ridge 
No   memory   in  me   lives;    but   that    I 

touch'd 
The  chapel-doors  at  dawn  I  know;   and 

thence 
Taking    my    war-horse    from    the    holy 

man, 
Glad  that  no   phantom  vext  me  more, 

return'd 
To  whence  I  came,  the  gate  of  Arthur's 

wars.' 

'  O  brother,'  ask'd  Ambrosius,  — '  for 

in  sooth 
These  ancient  books  —  and  they  would 

win  thee  —  teem, 
Only  I  find  not  there  this  Holy  Grail, 
"With  miracles  and  marvels  like  to  these, 
Not  all  unlike;   which  oftentime  I  read, 
Who  read  but  on  my  breviary  with  ease, 
Till  my  head  swims;   and  then  go  forth 

and  pass 
Down  to  the  little  thorpe  that  lies  so 

close, 
And  almost  plaster'd  like  a  martin's  nest 
To   these  old  walls  —  and   mingle  with 

our  folk; 
And  knowing  every  honest  face  of  theirs 
As  well  as  ever  shepherd  knew  his  sheep, 
And  every  homely  secret  in  their  hearts, 
Delight  myself  with  gossip  and  old  wives, 
And  ills  and  aches,  and  teethings,  lyings- 

in, 
And   mirthful   sayings,    children    of  the 

place, 
That   have   no    meaning   half  a   league 

away : 
Oi   lulling  random  squabbles  when  they 

rise, 


Chafferings  and  chatterings  at  the  mar 

ket-cross, 
Rejoice,  small  man,  in  this  small  world 

of  mine, 
Yea,  even   in   their   hens   and   in   their 

eggs  — 

0  brother,  saving  this  Sir  Galahad, 
Came  ye  on  none  but  phantoms  in  your 

quest, 
No  man,  no  woman?1. 

Then  Sir  Percivale  : 
'  All  men,  to  one  so  bound  by  such  a  vow, 
And  women  were  as  phantoms.     O  my 

brother, 
Why  wilt  thou  shame  me  to  confess  to 

thee 
How  far  I  falter'd    from  my  quest  and 

vow? 
For  after  I  had  lain  so  many  nights, 
A  bedmate  of  the  snail  and  eft  and  snake, 
In  grass  and  burdock,  I  was  changed  to 

wan 
And   meagre,    and   the   vision   had    not 

come; 
And  then  I  chanced  upon  a  goodly  town 
With  one  great  dwelling  in  the  middle 

of  it; 
Thither  I  made,  and  there  was  I  disarm'd 
By  maidens  each  as  fair  as  any  flower : 
But  when  they  led  me  into  hall,  behold, 
The  Princess  of  that  castle  was  the  one, 
Brother,  and  that  one  only,  who  had  ever 
Made  my  heart  leap;   for  when  I  moved 

of  old 
A  slender  page  about  her  father's  hall, 
And  she  a  slender  maiden,  all  my  heart 
Went   after   her  with    longing :    yet   we 

twain 
Had  never  kiss'd  a  kiss,  or  vow'd  a  vow. 
And  now  I  came  upon  her  once  again, 
And  one  had  wedded  her,  and  he  was 

dead, 
And  all   his  land  and  wealth  and  state 

were  hers. 
And  while  I  tarried,  every  day  she  set 
A  banquet  richer  than  the  day  before 
By  me;   for  all  her  longing  and  her  will 
Was  toward  me  as  of  old;   till  one  fair 

morn, 

1  walking  to  and  fro  beside  a  stream 
That    flash'd  across  her  orchard   under 

neath 


120 


THE  HOLY  GRAIL. 


Her  castle-walls,  she  stole  upon  my  walk, 
And  calling  me  the  greatest  of  all  knights, 
Embraced  me,  and  so  kiss'd  me  the  first 

time, 
And  gave  herself  and  all  her  wealth  to 

me. 
Then   I    remember'd    Arthur's   warning 

word, 
That  most  of  us  would  follow  wandering 

fires, 
And  the  Quest  faded  *n  my  heart.     Anon, 
The  heads  of  all  her  people  drew  to  me, 
With   supplication   both    of    knees   and 

tongue : 
"  We  have  heard  of  thee :  thou  art  our 

greatest  knight, 
Our  Lady  says  it,  and  we  well  believe : 
Wed  thou  our  Lady,  and  rule  over  us, 
And  thou  shalt  be  as  Arthur  in  our  land." 
O  me,  my  brother !     but  one  night  my 

vow 
Burnt  me  within,  so  that  I  rose  and  fled, 
But  wail'd   and  wept,  and   hated   mine 

own  self, 
And  ev'n  the  Holy  Quest,  and  all   but 

her; 
Then  after  I  was  join'd  with  Galahad 
Cared  not   for   her,  nor  anything  upon 

earth.' 

Then  said  the  monk,  *  Poor  men,  when 

yule  is  cold, 
Must  be  content  to  sit  by  little  fires. 
And  this  am  I,  so  that  ye  care  for  me 
Ever  so  little;   yea,  and  blest  be  Heaven 
That    brought   thee   here   to   this   poor 

house  of  ours 
Where  all  the  brethren  are  so  hard,  to 

warm 
My  cold  heart  with  a  friend :  but  O  the 

pity 
To  find  thine  own  first  love  once  more  — 

to  hold, 
Hold  her  a  wealthy  bride  within  thine 

arms, 
Or   all   but   hold,   and   then  —  cast   her 

aside, 
Foregoing  all  her  sweetness,  like  a  weed. 
For  we  that  want  the  warmth  of  double 

life, 
We   that   are   plagued   with    dreams   of 

something  sweet 
Beyond  all  sweetness  in  a  life  so  rich,  — 


Ah,  blessed  Lord,  I  speak   too  earthly 


wise, 


Seeing  I  never  stray'd  beyond  the  cell, 
But  live  like  an  old  badger  in  his  earth, 
With  earth  about  him  everywhere,  despite 
All  fast  and  penance.     Saw  ye  none  be- 
side, 
None  of  your  knights?' 

'  Yea  so,'  said  Percivale : 
'  One  nighi  my  pathway  swerving  east, 

I  saw 
The  pelican  on  the  casque  of  our  Sir  Bors 
All  in  the  middle  of  the  rising  moon : 
And  toward  him  spurr'd,  and  hail'd  him, 

and  he  me, 
And  each  made  joy  of  either;   then  he 

ask'd, 
"Where  is  he?   hast   thou  seen  him  — 

Lancelot  ?  —  Once," 
Said  good  Sir  Bors,  "  he   dash'd  across 

me  —  mad, 
And  maddening  what  he  rode :  and  when 

I  cried, 
•  Ridest  thou  then  so  hotly  on  a  quest 
So  holy,'  Lancelot  shouted, '  Stay  me  not ! 
I   have  been  the  sluggard,  and   I    ride 

apace, 
For  now  there  is  a  lion  in  the  way.' 
So  vanish'd." 

'Then  Sir  Bors  had  ridden  on 
Softly,  and  sorrowing  for  our  Lancelot, 
Because   his   former  madness,  once  the 

talk 
And  scandal  of  our  table,  had  return'd; 
For  Lancelot's  kith  and  kin  so  worship 

him 
That  ill  to  him  is  ill  to  them;   to  Bors 
Beyond  the  rest :  he  well  had  been  con- 
tent 
Not   to   have  seen,   so   Lancelot  might 

have  seen, 
The  Holy  Cup  of  healing;  and,  indeed, 
Being  30  clouded  with  his  grief  and  love, 
Small  heart  was  his  after  the  Holy  Quest : 
If  God  would  send  the  vision,  well :  if  not, 
The  Quest  and  he  were  in  the  hands  of 
Heaven. 

\  And  then,  with  small  adventure  met, 
Sir  Bors 
Rode  to  the  lonest  tract  of  all  the  realm, 


THE  HOLY  GRAIL. 


42! 


And  found  a  people  there  among  their 

crags, 
Our  race  and  blood,  a  remnant  that  were 

left 
Paynim  amid  their  circles,  and  the  stones 
They  pitch  up  straight  to  heaven:  and 

their  wise  men 
Were   strong   in  that  old  magic  which 

can  trace 
The  wandering  of  the  stars,  and  scoff  d  at 

him 
And  this  high  Quest  as  at  a  simple  thing : 
Told  him  he  follow'd  —  almost  Arthur's 

words  — 
A  mocking  fire :  "  What  other  fire  than 

he, 
Whereby  the  blood  beats,  and  the  blossom 

blows, 
And  the  sea  rolls,  and  all  the  world  is 

warm'd?  " 
And  when  his  answer  chafed  them,  the 

rough  crowd, 
Hearing  he  had  a  difference  with  their 

priests, 
Seized  him,  and  bound  and  plunged  him 

into  a  cell 
Of  great  piled  stones;  and  lying  bounden 

there 
In  darkness  thro'  innumerable,  hours 
He    heard   the    hollow-ringing   heavens 

sweep 
Over  him  till  by  miracle  —  what  else?  — 
Heavy  as  it  was,  a  great  stone  slipt  and 

fell, 
Such  as  no  wind  could  move :  and  thro' 

the  gap 
Glimmer'd   the    streaming    scud:    then 

came  a  night 
Still  as  the  day  was  loud;   and  thro'  the 

gap 
The  seven  clear  stars  of  Arthur's   Table 

Round  — 
For,  brother,  so  one  night,  because  they 

roll 
Thro'  such  a  round  in  heaven,  we  named 

the  stars, 
Rejoicing  in  ourselves  and  in  our  King  — 
And  these,  like  bright  eyes  of  familiar 

friends, 
In  on  him  shone :  "  And  then  to  me,  to 

me," 
Said  good  Sir  Bors,  "  beyond  all  hopes 

of  mine, 


Who  scarce  had  pray'd  or  ask'd  it   for 

myself — 
Across  the  seven  clear  stars  —  O  grace  to 

me  — 
In  colour  like  the  fingers  of  a  hand 
Before  a  burning  taper,  the  sweet  Grail 
Glided  and  past,  and  close  upon  it  peal'd 
A  sharp  quick  thunder."     Afterwards,  a 

maid, 
Who  kept  our  holy  faith  among  her  kin 
In   secret,  entering,  loosed  and  let  him 

go.' 

To  whom  the  monk :  '  And  I  remember 

now 
That  pelican  on  the  casque :  Sir  Bors  it 

was 
Who   spake   so  low   and   sadly    at   our 

board; 
And  mighty  reverent  at  our  grace  was  he : 
A  square-set  man  and  honest;    and  his 

eyes, 
An  out-door  sign  of  all  the  warmth  within, 
Smiled  with  his  lips  —  a  smile  beneath  a 

cloud, 
But  heaven  had  meant  it  for  a  sunny  one  : 
Ay,  ay,  Sir  Bors,  who  else?    But  when 

ye  reach'd 
The  city,  found  ye  all  your  knights  re- 

turn'd, 
Or  was  there  sooth  in  Arthur's  prophecy, 
Tell  me,  and  what  said  each,  and  what 

the  King?' 

Then  answer'd   Percivale :  '  And  that 

can  I, 
Brother,    and    truly;     since    the    living 

words 
Of  so  great   men  as  Lancelot  and  our 

King 
Pass   not    from   door   to   door   and   out 

again, 
But  sit  within  the  house.     O,  when  we 

reach'd 
The  city,  our   horses  stumbling  as  they 

trode 
On  heaps  of  ruin,  hornless  unicorns, 
Crack'd  basilisks,  and   splinter'd   cocka- 
trices, 
And  shatter'd  talbots,  which  had  left  the 

stones 
Raw,  that  they  fell  from,  brought  us  to 

the  hall. 


422 


THE  HOLY   GRAIL. 


'And  there  sat  Arthur  on  the  dais- 
throne, 

And  those  that  had  gone  out  upon  the 
Quest, 

Wasted  and  worn,  and  but  a  tithe  of 
them, 

And  those  that  had  not,  stood  before  the 
King, 

Who,  when  he  saw  me,  rose,  and  bade  me 
hail, 

Saying,  "  A  welfare  in  thine  eye  reproves 

Our  fear  of  some  disastrous  chance  for 
thee 

On  hill,  or  plain,  at  sea,  or  flooding 
ford. 

So  fierce  a  gale  made  havoc  here  of  late 

Among  the  strange  devices  of  our  kings; 

Yea,  shook  this  newer,  stronger  hall  of 
ours, 

And  from  the  statue  Merlin  moulded  for 
us 

Half-wrench'd  a  golden  wing;  but  now  — 
the  Quest, 

This  vision  —  hast  thou  seen  the  Holy 
Cup, 

That  Joseph  brought  of  old  to  Glaston- 
bury?" 

*  So  when  I  told  him  all  thyself  hast 
*         heard, 
Ambrosius,  and  my  fresh  but  fixt  resolve 
To  pass  away  into  the  quiet  life, 
He    answer'd  not,  but,  sharply  turning, 

ask'd 
Of  Gawain,  "  Gawain,  was  this  Quest  for 
thee?" 

'  "  Nay,  lord,"  said   Gawain,  "  not  for 

such  as  I. 
Therefore   I    communed   with   a   saintly 

man, 
Who  made  me  sure  the  Quest  was  not 

for  me; 
For  I  was  much  awearied  of  the  Quest : 
But  found  a  silk  pavilion  in  a  field, 
And  merry  maidens  in  it;   and  then  this 

gale 
Tore  my  pavilion  from  the  tenting-pin, 
And  blew  my  merry  maidens  all  about 
With    all    discomfort;   yea,  and   but  for 

this, 
My  twelvemonth  and  a  day  were  pleasant 

to  me." 


'He    ceased;     and    Arthur    turn'd    to 

whom  at  first 
He  saw  not,  for    Sir   Bors,  on  entering, 

push'd 
Athwart  the  throng  to  Lancelot,  caught 

his  hand, 
Held  it,  and  there,  half-hidden  by  him, 

stood, 
Until  the  King  espied  him,  saying  to  him, 
"  Hail,  Bors  !  if  ever  loyal  man  and  true 
Could  see  it,  thou  hast  seen  the  Grail;" 

and  Bors, 
"  Ask  me  not,  for  I  may  not  speak  of  it : 
I  saw  it;"  and  the  tears  were  in  his  eyes. 

'Then   there   remain'd  but  Lancelot, 

for  the  rest 
Spake  but  of  sundry  perils  in  the  storm ; 
Perhaps,  like  him  of  Cana  in  Holy  Writ, 
Our  Arthur  kept  his  best  until  the  last; 
"Thou,    too,   my   Lancelot,"    ask'd    the 

King,  "  my  friend, 
Our  mightiest,  hath  this  Quest  avail'd  for 

thee?" 

' "  Our  mightiest !  "  answer'd  Lancelot, 

with  a  groan; 
"  O  King !  "  —  and  when  he  paused,  me- 

thought  I  spied 
A  dying  fire  of  madness  in  his  eyes  — 
"  O  King,  my  friend,  if  friend  of  thine  I 

be, 
Happier   are    those  that  welter  in  their 

sin, 
Swine  in  the  mud,  that  cannot  see  for 

slime, 
Slime  of  the  ditch  :  but  in  me  lived  a  sin 
So  strange,  of  such  a  kind,  that  all  of  pure, 
Noble,  and  knightly  in  me  twined  and 

clung 
Round  that  one  sin,  until  the  wholesome 

flower 
And   poisonous  grew  together,  each   as 

each, 
Not  to  be  pluck'd  asunder;  and  when  thy 

knights 
Svvare,  I  sware  with  them  only  in   the 

hope 
That  could  I  touch  or  see  the  Holy  Grail 
They  might  be  pluck'd  asunder.    Then  I 

spake 
To  one  most  holy  saint,  who  wept  and 

said, 


THE   HOLY   GRAIL. 


423 


That  save  they  could  be  pluck'd  asunder, 

all 
My  quest  were  but  in  vain;   to  whom  I 

vow'd 
That  I  would  work  according  as  he  will'd. 
And  forth  I  went,  and  while  I  yearn'd 

and  strove 
To  tear  the  twain  asunder  in  my  heart, 
My  madness  came  upon  me  as  of  old, 
And  whipt  me  into  waste  fields  far  away; 
There  was  I  beaten  down  by  little  men, 
Mean  knights,  to  whom  the  moving  of 

my  sword 
And  shadow  of  my  spear  had  been  enow 
To  scare  them  from  me  once;   and  then 

I  came 
All  in  my  folly  to  the  naked  shore, 
Wide    flats,   where   nothing   but   coarse 

grasses  grew; 
But  such  a  blast,  my  King,  began  to  blow, 
So  loud  a  blast  along  the  shore  and  sea, 
Ye  could  not  hear  the  waters  for  the  blast, 
Tho'  heapt  in  mounds  and  ridges  all  the 

sea 
Drove  like  a  cataract,  and  all  the  sand 
Swept    like    a   river,    and    the    clouded 

heavens 
Were  shaken  with  the  motion  and  the 

sound. 
And  blackening  in  the  sea-foam  sway'd  a 

boat, 
Half-swallow'd   in   it,    anchor 'd   with   a 

chain; 
And  in  my  madness  to  myself  I  said, 
'  I  will  embark  and  I  will  lose  myself, 
And   in    the   great   sea   wash   away  my 

sin.' 
I  burst  the  chain,  I  sprang  into  the  boat. 
Seven  days  I  drove  along  the  dreary  deep, 
And  with  me  drove  the  moon  and  all  the 

stars ; 
And  ':he  wind  fell,  and  on  the  seventh 

night 
I  heard  the  shingle  grinding  in  the  surge, 
And  felt  the  boat  shock  earth,  and  look- 
ing up, 
Behold,  the   enchanted   towers   of  Car- 

bonek, 
A  castle  like  a  rock  upon  a  rock, 
With  chasm-like  portals  open  to  the  sea, 
And  steps  that  met  the  breaker !  there 

was  none 
Stood  near  it  but  a  lion  on  each  side 


That  kept  the  entry,  and  the  moon  was 

full. 
Then  from  the  boat  I  leapt,  and  up  the 

stairs. 
There    drew  my  sword.     With   sudden- 
flaring  manes 
Those  two  great  beasts  rose  upright  like 

a  man, 
Each    gript    a    shoulder,    and    I    stood 

between; 
And,  when  I  would  have  smitten  them, 

heard  a  voice, 
'Doubt  not,  go  forward;   if  thou  doubt, 

the  beasts 
Will   tear   thee  piecemeal.'     Then  with 

violence 
The  sword  was  dash'd  from  but  my  hand, 

and  fell. 
And  up  into  the  sounding  hall  I  past; 
But  nothing  in  the  sounding  hall  I  saw, 
No  bench  nor  table,  painting  on  the  wall 
Or  shield  of  knight;    only  the  rounded 

moon 
Thro'  the  tall  oriel  on  the  rolling  sea. 
But  always  in  the  quiet  house  I  heard, 
Clear  as  a  lark,  high  o'er  me  as  a  lark, 
A   sweet   voice  singing  in   the   topmost 

tower 
To  the  eastward :  up  I  climb'd  a  thousand 

steps 
With  pain :  as  in  a  dream  I  seem'd  to 

climb 
For  ever :  at  the  last  I  reach'd  a  door, 
A  light  was  in  the  crannies,  and  I  heard, 
'  Glory  and  joy  and  honour  to  our  Lord 
And  to  the  Holy  Vessel  of  the  Grail.' 
Then  in  my  madness  I  essay'd  the  door; 
It  gave;   and  thro'  a  stormy  glare,  a  heat 
As  from  a  seventimes-heated  furnace,  I, 
Blasted  and  burnt,  and  blinded  as  I  was, 
With  such  a  fierceness  that   I    swoon'd 

away  — 
O,  yet  methought  I  saw  the  Holy  Grail, 
All  pall'd  in  crimson  samite,  and  around 
Great  angels,  awful   shapes,  and  wings 

and  eyes. 
And  but  for  all  my  madness  and  my  sin, 
And  then  my  swooning,  I  had  sworn  I 

saw 
That  which  I  saw;   but  what  I  saw  was 

veil'd 
And  cover'd ;   and  this  Quest  was  not  for 

me." 


424 


THE  HOLY  GRAIL. 


*  So  speaking,  and  here  ceasing,  Lance- 
lot left 
The  hall  long  silent,  till  Sir  Gawain  —  nay, 
Brother,    I    need   not   tell    thee    foolish 

words,  — 
A  reckless  and  irreverent  knight  was  he, 
Now    bolden'd    by    the    silence    of   his 

King,  — 
Well,  I   will   tell   thee:    "O   King,  my 

liege,"  he  said, 
"  Hath   Gawain   fail'd   in   any  quest   of 

thine? 
When  have  I  stinted  stroke  in  foughten 

field? 
But  as  for  thine,  my  good  friend  Percivale, 
Thy  holy  nun  and  thou  have  driven  men 

mad, 
Yea,  made  our  mightiest   madder   than 

our  least. 
But  by  mine  eyes  and   by  mine  ears  I 

swear, 
I  will  be  deafer  than  the  blue-eyed  cat, 
And  thrice  as  blind  as  any  noonday  owl, 
To  holy  virgins  in  their  ecstasies, 
Henceforward." 

' "  Deafer,"  said  the  blameless  King, 
"  Gawain,  and  blinder  unto  holy  things 
Hope  not  to  make  thyself  by  idle  vows, 
Being  too  blind  to  have  desire  to  see. 
But  if  indeed   there    came  a  sign  from 

heaven, 
Blessed  are  Bors,  Lancelot  and  Percivale, 
For  these  have  seen  according  to  their 

sight. 
For  every  fiery  prophet  in  old  times, 
And  all  the  sacred  madness  of  the  bard, 
When  God  made  music  thro'  them,  could 

but  speak 
His  music  by  the   framework    and   the 

chord ; 
And  as  ye  saw  it  ye  have  spoken  truth. 

* "  Nay  —  but   thou   errest,   Lancelot : 

never  yet 
Could  all  of  true  and  noble  in  knight  and 

man 
Twine  round  one  sin,  whatever  it  might 

be, 
With  such  a  closeness,  but  apart  there 

grew, 
Save  that  he  were  the  swine  thou  spakest 

of, 


Some  root  of  knighthood  and  pure  noble- 
ness; 

Whereto  see  thou,  that  it  may  bear  its 
flower. 

' "  And  spake  I  not   too  truly,  O  my 
knights? 
Was  I  too  dark  a  prophet  when  I  said 
To  those  who  went  upon  the  Holy  Quest, 
That  most  of  them  would  follow  wander- 
ing fires, 
Lost  in  the  quagmire?  —  lost  to  me  and 

gone, 
And  left  me  gazing  at  a  barren  board, 
And  a  lean    Order  —  scarce   return'd   a 

tithe  — 
And  out  of  those  to  whom  the  vision  came 
My  greatest  hardly  will  believe  he  saw; 
Another  hath  beheld  it  afar  off, 
And    leaving    human   wrongs    to    right 

themselves, 
Cares  but  to  pass  into  the  silent  life. 
And  one  hath  had  the  vision  face  to  face, 
And  now  his  chair  desires  him  here  in 

vain, 
However  they  may  crown  him  otherwhere. 

'"And  some  among  you  held,  that  if 

the  King 
Had  seen  the  sight  he  would  have  sworn 

the  vow : 
Not  easily,  seeing  that  the  King  must 

guard 
That  which  he  rules,  and  is  but  as  the  hind 
To  whom  a  space  of  land  is  given  to 

plow. 
Who  may  not  wander  from  the  allotted 

field 
Before  his  work  be  done;  but,  being  done, 
Let  visions  of  the  night  or  of  the  day 
Come,  as  they  will;    and  many  a  time 

they  come, 
Until  this  earth  he  walks  on  seems  not 

earth, 
This  light  that  strikes  his  eyeball  is  not 

light, 
This  air  that  smites  his  forehead  is  not 

air 
But  vision  —  yea,  his  very  hand  and  foot  — 
In  moments   when    he   feels  he  cannot 

die, 
And   knows   himself  no  vision  to  him 

self, 


PELLEAS  AND   ETTARRE. 


425 


Nor  the  high  God  a  vision,  nor  that  One 
Who  rose  again :  ye  have  seen  what  ye 
have  seen." 

'So  spake  the  King:  I  knew  not  all 
he  meant.' 


PELLEAS  AND   ETTARRE. 

King  Arthur  made  new  knights  to  fill 

the  gap 
Left  by  the  Holy  Quest;   and  as  he  sat 
In  hall  at  old  Caerleon,  the  high  doors 
Were  softly  sunder'd,  and  thro'  these  a 

youth, 
Pelleas,  and  the  sweet  smell  of  the  fields 
Past,  and  the  sunshine  came  along  with 

him. 

'  Make  me  thy  knight,  because  I  know, 

Sir  King, 
All  that  belongs  to  knighthood,  and  I  love.' 
Such  was  his  cry :  for  %having  heard  the 

King 
Had  let  proclaim  a  tournament  —  the  prize 
A  golden  circlet  and  a  knightly  sword, 
Full  fain  had  Pelleas  for  his  lady  won 
The  golden  circlet,  for  himself  the  sword  : 
And  there  were  those  who  knew  him  near 

the  King, 
And  promised  for  him  :  and  Arthur  made 

him  knight. 

And  this  new  knight,  Sir  Pelleas  of  the 

isles  — 
But  lately  come  to  hi£  inheritance, 
And  lord  of  many  a  barren  isle  was  he  — 
Riding  at  noon,  a  day  or  twain  before, 
Across  the  forest  call'd  of  Dean,  to  find 
Caerleon  and  the  King,  had  felt  the  sun 
Beat  like  a  strong  knight  on  his  helm, 

and  reel'd 
Almost  to  falling   from   his  horse;    but 

saw 
Near  him  a  mound  of  even-sloping  side, 
Whereon  a  hundred  stately  beeches  grew, 
And  here  and  there  great  hollies  under 

them; 
But  for  a  mile  all  round  was  open  space, 
And  fern  and  heath :  .  and  slowly  Pelleas 

drew 
To  that  dim  day,  then  binding  his  good 

horse 


To  a  tree,  cast  himself  down;   and  as  he 

lay 
At  random  looking  over  the  brown  earth 
Thro'  that  green-glooming  twilight  of  the 

grove, 
It  seem'd  to  Pelleas  that  the  fern  without 
Burnt  as  a  living  fire  of  emeralds, 
So  that  his  eyes  were  dazzled  looking  at  it. 
Then  o'er  it  crost  the  dimness  of  a  cloud 
Floating,  and  once  the  shadow  of  a  bird 
Flying,  and  then  a  fawn;    and  his  eyes 

closed. 
And  since  he  loved  all  maidens,  but  no 

maid 
In    special,    half-awake    he    whisper'd, 

'Where? 
O  where?     I  love  thee,  tho'  I  know  thee 

not. 
For  fair  thou  art  and  pure  as  Guinevere, 
And  I  will  make  thee  with  my  spear  and 

sword 
As  famous  —  O  my  Queen,  my  Guinevere, 
For   I   will   be   thine   Arthur   when  we 

meet.' 

Suddenly  waken'd  with  a  sound  of  talk 
And  laughter  at  the  limit  of  the  wood, 
And  glancing  thro'  the  hoary  boles,  he  saw, 
Strange  as  to  some  old  prophet  might 

have  seem'd 
A  vision  hovering  on  a  sea  of  fire, 
Damsels  in  divers  colours  like  the  cloud 
Of  sunset  and  sunrise,  and  all  of  them 
On  horses,  and  the  horses  richly  trapt 
Breast-high  in  that  bright  line  of  bracken 

stood : 
And  all  the  damsels  talk'd  confusedly, 
And  one  was  pointing  this  way,  and  one 

that, 
Because  the  way  was  lost. 

And  Pelleas  rose, 
And  loosed  his  horse,  and  led  him  to  the 

light. 
There  she  that  seem'd  the  chief  among 

them  said, 
'  In  happy  time  behold  our  pilot-star ! 
Youth,  we  are  damsels-errant,  and  we  ride, 
Arm'd  as  ye  see,  to  tilt  against  the  knights 
There  at  Caerleon,  but  have  lost  our  way: 
To  right?  to  left?  straightforward?  bad" 

again  ? 
Which?  tell  us  quickly.' 


426 


PELLEAS  AND   ETTARRE. 


Pelleas  gazing  thought, 
Is  Guinevere  herself  so  beautiful?' 
For  large  her  violet  eyes  look'd,  and  her 

bloom 
A  rosy  dawn  kindled  in  stainless  heavens, 
And  round  her  limbs,  mature  in  woman- 
hood; 
And  slender  was  her  hand  and  small  her 

shape; 
And  but  for  those  large  eyes,  the  haunts 

of  scorn, 
She  might  have  seem'd  a  toy  to  trifle  with, 
And  pass  and  care  no  more.     But  while 

he  gazed 
The  beauty  of  her  flesh  abash'd  the  boy, 
As  tho'  it  were  the  beauty  of  her  soul : 
For  as  the  base  man,  judging  of  the  good, 
Puts  his  own  baseness  in  him  by  default 
Of  will  and  nature,  so  did  Pelleas  lend 
All  the  young  beauty  of  his  own  soul  to 

hers, 
Believing  her;    and  when  she  spake  to 

him, 
Stammer'd,  and  could  not  make  her  a 

reply. 
For  out  of  the  waste  islands  had  he  come, 
Where   saving   his   own   sisters   he  had 

known 
Scarce  any  but  the  women  of  his  isles, 
Rough  wives,  that  laugh'd  and  scream'd 

against  the  gulls, 
Makers  of  nets,  and  living  from  the  sea. 

Then  with  a  slow  smile  turn'd  the  lady 
round 
And   look'd   upon   her  people,    and  as 

when 
A  stone  is  flung  into  some  sleeping  tarn, 
The  circle  widens  till  it  lip  the  marge, 
Spread  the  slow  smile  thro'  all  her  com- 
pany. 
Three   knights   were    thereamong;    and 

they  too  smiled, 
Scorning  him;   for  the  lady  was  Ettarre, 
And  she  was  a  great  lady  in  her  land. 

Again  she  said,  'O  wild  and  of  the 

woods, 
Knowest   thou  not   the   fashion  of  our 

speech? 
Or  have  the  Heavens  but  given  thee  a  fair 

face, 
Lacking  a  tongue?' 


•  O  damsel,'  answer'd  he, 
'  I  woke  from  dreams;   and  coming  out 

of  gloom 
Was  dazzled  by  the  sudden  light,  and 

crave 
Pardon:  but  will  ye  to  Caerleon?     I 
Go  likewise  :  shall  I  lead  you  to  the  King?' 

'  Lead  then,'  she  said ;   and  thro'  the 

woods  they  went. 
And  while  they  rode,  the  meaning  in  his 

eyes, 
His  tenderness  of  manner,  and  chaste  awe, 
His  broken  utterances  and  bashfulness, 
Were  all  a  burthen  to  her,  and  in  her 

heart 
She  mutter'd,  *  I  have  lighted  on  a  fool, 
Raw,  yet  so  stale ! '     But  since  her  mind 

was  bent 
On  hearing,  after  trumpet  blown,  her  name 
And  title,  '  Queen  of  Beauty,'  in  the  lists 
Cried —  and  beholding  him  so  strong,  she 

thought 
That  peradventure  he  will  fight  for  me, 
And  win  the  circlet :   therefore  flatter'd 

him, 
Being    so    gracious,    that    he   wellnigh 

deem'd 
His  wish  by  hers  was  echo'd;   and  her 

knights 
And  all  her  damsels  too  were  gracious  to 

him, 
For  she  was  a  great  lady. 

And  when  they  reach'd 
Caerleon,  ere  they  past  to  lodging,  she, 
Taking  his  hand,  'O  the  strong  hand,' 

she  said, 
•  See  !  look  at  mine  !  but  wilt  thou  fight 

for  me, 
And  win  me  this  fine  circlet,  Pelleas, 
That  I  may  love  thee? ' 

Then  his  helpless  heart 
Leapt,  and  he  cried,  *  Ay !  wilt  thou  if  I 

win? ' 
'  Ay,  that  will  I,'  she  answer'd,  and  she 

laugh'd, 
And  straitly  nipt  the  hand,  and  flung  it 

from  her; 
Then  glanced  askew  at  those  three  knights 

of  hers, 
Till  all  her  ladies  laugh'd  along  with  her. 


PELLEAS  AND  ETTA R RE. 


427 


1  O  happy  world,'  thought  Pelleas, '  all, 

meseems, 
Are  happy;  I  the  happiest  of  them  all.' 
Nor  slept  that  night  for  pleasure  in  his 

blood, 
And  green  wood-ways,  and  eyes  among 

the  leaves; 
Then   being   on   the   morrow  knighted, 

sware 
To  love  one  only.    And  as  he  came  away, 
The  men  who  met  him  rounded  on  their 

heels 
And  wonder'd  after  him  because  his  face 
Shone  like  the  countenance  of  a  priest  of 

old 
Against  the  flame  about  a  sacrifice 
Kindled   by  fire  from  heaven:    so  glad 

was  he. 

Then  Arthur  made  vast  banquets,  and 

strange  knights 
From  the  four  winds  came  in :  and  each 

one  sat, 
Tho'  served  with  choice  from  air,  land, 

stream,  and  sea, 
Oft  in  mid-banquet  measuring  with  his 

eyes 
His  neighbour's  make  and  might:   and 

Pelleas  look'd 
Noble  among  the  noble,  for  he  dream'd 
His  lady  loved  him,  and  he  knew  himself 
Loved  of  the  King:   and  him  his  new- 
made  knight 
Worshipt,  whose  lightest  whisper  moved 

him  more 
Than  all  the  ranged  reasons  of  the  world. 

Then  blush'd  and  brake  the  morning 

of  the  jousts, 
And  this  was  call'd  •  The  Tournament  of 

Youth : ' 
For   Arthur,   loving   his   young    knight, 

withheld  • 

His  older  and  his  mightier  from  the  lists, 
That  Pelleas  might  obtain  his  lady's  love, 
According  to  her  promise,  and  remain 
Lord  of  the  tourney.     And  Arthur  had 

the  jousts 
Down  in  the  flat  field  by  the  shore  of  Usk 
Holden  :  the  gilded  parapets  were  crown'd 
With  faces,  and  the  great  tower  fill'd  with 

eyes 
Up  to  the  summit,  and  the  trumpets  blew. 


There  all  dav  long  Sir  Pelleas  kept  the 

field 
With  honour :  so  by  that  strong  hand  of 

his 
The    sword    and    golden    circlet    were 

achieved. 

Then  rang  the  shout  his  lady  loved: 

the  heat 
Of  pride  and  glory  fired  her  face;    her 

eye 
Sparkled;  she  caught  the  circlet  from  his 

lance, 
And   there   before   the   people    crown'd 

herself: 
So  for  the  last  time  she  was  gracious  to 

him. 

Then  at  Caerleon  for  a  space  —  her 

look 
Bright   for  all   others,    cloudier   on   her 

knight  — 
Linger'd    Ettarre :    and    seeing    Pelleas 

droop, 
Said   Guinevere,   *  We    marvel    at    thee 

much, 

0  damsel,  wearing  this  unsunny  face 

To  him  who  won  thee  glory ! '  and  she 
said, 

1  Had  ye  not  held  your  Lancelot  in  your 

bower, 
My  Queen,  he  had  not  won.'     Whereat 

the  Queen, 
As  one  whose  foot  is  bitten  by  an  ant, 
Glanced  down  upon  her,  turn'd  and  went 

her  way. 

But  after,  when  her  damsels,  and  her- 
self, 
And   those   three  knights  all   set   their 

faces  home, 
Sir  Pelleas  follovv'd.     She  that  saw  him 

cried, 
'Damsels  —  and  yet  I  should  be  shamed 

to  say  it  — 
I  cannot  bide  Sir  Baby.    Keep  him  back 
Among   yourselves.     Would  rather  that 

we  had 
Some  rough  old  knight  who   knew  the 

worldly  way, 
Albeit  grizzlier  than  a  bear,  to  ride 
And   jest  with  :    take  him  to  you,  keep 

him  off, 


428 


PELLEAS  AND   ETTARRE. 


And    pamper   him  with  papmeat,  if  ye 

witl, 
Old  milky  fables  of  the  wolf  and  sheep, 
Such  as  the  wholesome  mothers  tell  their 

boys. 
Nay,  should   ye  try   him  with  a  merry 

one 
To  find  his  mettle,  good:  and  if  he  fly 

us, 
Small  matter !  let  him.'   This  her  damsels 

heard, 
And  mindful  of  her  small  and  cruel  hand, 
They,  closing  round  him  thro'  the  journey 

home, 
Acted   her   hest,    and  always   from   her 

side 
Restrain'd  him  with  all  manner  of  device, 
So  that  he  could  not   come   to   speech 

with  her. 
And  when  she  gain'd  her  castle,  upsprang 

the  bridge, 
Down  rang  the  grate  of  iron  thro'  the 

groove, 
And  he  was  left  alone  in  open  field. 

'These  be  the  ways  of  ladies,'  Pelleas 

thought, 
'To  those  who  love  them,  trials  of  our 

faith. 
Yea,  let  her  prove  me  to  the  uttermost, 
For  loyal  to  the  uttermost  am  I.' 
So  made  his  moan;  and,  darkness  falling, 

sought 
A  priory  not  far  off,  there   lodged,  but 

rose 
With  morning  every  day,  and,  moist  or 

dry, 
Full-arm'd  upon  his  charger  all  day  long 
Sat  by  the  walls,  and  no  one  open'd  to 

him. 

And  this  persistence  turn'd  her  scorn 

to  wrath. 
Then    calling    her    three    knights,    she 

charged  them,  ■  Out ! 
And  drive  him  from  the  walls.'    And  out 

they  came, 
But    Pelleas    overthrew    them    as    they 

dash'd 
Against   him   one    by   one;     and    these 

return'd, 
But-  still  he  kept  his  watch  beneath  the 

wall. 


Thereon   her  wrath   became  a   hate; 

and  once, 
A  week   beyond,  while  walking  on  the 

walls 
With    her    three    knights,   she   pointed 

downward,  '  Look, 
He    haunts   me  —  I   cannot   breathe  — 

besieges  me; 
Down !    strike   him !    put   my  hate   into 

your  strokes, 
And   drive   him   from   my   walls.'     And 

down  they  went, 
And  Pelleas  overthrew  them  one  by  one; 
And   from   the   tower   above  him  cried 

Ettarre, 
'  Bind  him,  and  bring  him  in.' 

He  heard  her  voice ; 

Then  let  the  strong  hand,  which  had 
overthrown 

Her  minion-knights,  by  those  he  over- 
threw 

Be  bounden  straight,  and  so  they 
brought  him  in. 

Then  when  he  came  before  Ettarre, 

the  sight 
Of  her  rich   beauty  made   him   at   one 

glance 
More  bondsman  in  his  heart  than  in  his 

bonds. 
Yet  with  good  cheer  he  spake,  '  Behold 

me,  Lady, 
A  prisoner,  and  the  vassal  of  thy  will; 
And    if    thou   keep   me   in   the   donjon 

here, 
Content  am  I  so  that  I  see  thy  face 
But  once  a  day :    for  I  have  sworn  my 

vows, 
And  thou  hast  given  thy  promise,  and  I 

know 
That  all  these  pains  are  trials  of  my  faith, 
And  that  thyself,  when  thou  hast  seen 

me  strain'd 
And  sifted  to  the  utmost,  wilt  at  length 
Yield  me  thy  love  and  know  me  for  thy 

knight.' 

Then  she  began  to  rail  so  bitterly, 
With  all  her   damsels,  he  was   stricken 

mute; 
But  when  she  mock'd  his  vows  and  the 

great  King, 


PELLEAS  AND  ETTARRE. 


429 


Lighted    on   words :   '  For  pity  of  thine 

own  self, 
Peace,  Lady,  peace :  is  he  not  thine  and 

mine?  ' 
'  Thou  fool,'  she  said,  ■  I  never  heard  his 

voice 
But  long'd  to  break  away.     Unbind  him 

now, 
And  thrust  him  out  of  doors;  for  save  he 

be 
Fool   to   the    midmost    marrow   of    his 

bones, 
He  will  return   no   more.'     And   those, 

her  three, 
Laugh'd  and  unbound,   and  thrust  him 

from  the  gate. 

And  after  this,  a  week  beyond,  again 
She    call'd    them,    saying,     'There    he 

watches  yet, 
There   like   a   dog   before   his   master's 

door ! 
Kick'd,  he  returns :  do  ye  not  hate  him, 

ye? 
Ye  know  yourselves :    how  can  ye  bide 

at  peace, 
Affronted  with  his  fulsome  innocence? 
Are  ye  but  creatures  of  the  board  and 

bed, 
No  men  to  strike?     Fall  on  him  all  at 

once, 
And  if  ye  slay  him  I  reck  not :  if  ye  fail, 
Give   ye   the   slave    mine    order   to   be 

bound, 
Bind  him  as  heretofore,  and  bring  him  in : 
It  may  be  ye  shall  slay  him  in  his  bonds.' 

She    spake;    and     at    her  will   they 

couch'd  their  spears, 
Three  against  one :  and  Gawain  passing 

by, 
Bound  upon  solitary  adventure,  saw 
Low  down  beneath  the  shadow  of  those 

towers 
A  villainy,  three  to  one :  and  thro'  his 

heart 
The  fire  of  honour  and  all  noble  deeds 
Flash'd,  and  he  call'd,  '  I  strike  upon  thy 

side  — 
The  caitiffs  ! '     •  Nay,'  said  Pelleas,  '  but 

forbear; 
He  needs  no  aid  who    doth    his   lady's 

will.' 


So    Gawain,    looking   at   the    villainy 
done, 
Forbore,  but  in  his  heat  and  eagerness 
Trembled  and  quiver'd,  as  the  dog,  with- 
held 
A  moment  from  the  vermin  that  he  sees 
Before  him,  shivers,  ere  he  springs  and 
kills. 

And  Pelleas    overthrew  them,  one  to 

three; 
And    they    rose    up,    and    bound,    and 

brought  him  in. 
Then    first   her  anger,    leaving    Pelleas, 

burn'd 
Full  on  her  knights  in  many  an  evil  name, 
Of  craven,  weakling,  and  thrice-beaten 

hound : 
'Yet,  take  him,  ye  that  scarce  are  fit  to 

touch, 
Far  less  to  bind,  your  victor,  and  thrust 

him  out, 
And  let  who  will  release  him  from  his 

bonds. 
And   if    he    comes   again '  —  there   she 

brake  short; 
And  Pelleas  answer'd,  '  Lady,  for  indeed 
I  loved  you  and  I  deem'd  you  beautiful, 
I  cannot  brook  to  see  your  beauty  marr'd 
Thro'  evil  spite  :  and  if  ye  love  me  not, 
I  cannot  bear  to  dream  you  so  forsworn : 
I  had  liefer  ye  were  worthy  of  my  love, 
Than  to  be  loved  again  of  you  —  fare- 
well; 
And  tho'  ye  kill  my  hope,  not  yet  my 

love, 
Vex  not  yourself:  ye    will    not  see   me 

more.' 

While  thus  he  spake,  she  gazed  upon 

the  man 
Of  princely  bearing,  tho'  in  bonds,  and 

thought, 
'  Why  have  I  push'd  him  from  me?  this 

man  loves, 
If  love  there  be :  yet  him  I  loved   not. 

Why? 
I  deem'd  him  fool?  yea,  so?   or  that  in 

him 
A  something  —  was  it  nobler  than  my- 
self?— 
Seem'd  my  reproach?     He  is  not  of  my 

kind. 


430 


PELLEAS  AND  ETTARRE. 


He  could  not  love  me,  did  he  know  me 

well. 
Nay,  let  him  go  —  and   quickly.'     And 

her  knights 
Laugh'd  not,  but  thrust  him  bounden  out 

of  door. 

Forth  sprang  Gawain,  and  loosed  him 

from  his  bonds, 
And    flung   them    o'er    the    walls;     and 

afterward, 
Shaking  his  hands,  as  from  a  lazar's  rag, 
'  Faith   of  my  body,'  he  said,  '  and   art 

thou  not  — 
Yea  thou  art  he,  whom  late  our  Arthur 

made 
Knight  of  his  Table;    yea  and  he  that 

won 
The    circlet?    wherefore    hast    thou    so 

defamed 
Thy  brotherhood  in  me  and  all  the  rest, 
As  let  these  caitiffs  on  thee  work  their 

will?' 

And  Pelleas  answer'd,  'O,  their  wills 

are  hers 
For  whom  I  won  the  circlet;   and  mine, 

hers, 
Thus  to  be  bounden,  so  to  see  her  face, 
Marr'd  tho'  it  be  with  spite  and  mockery 

now, 
Other   than  when  I    found    her    in    the 

woods; 
And  tho'  she  hath  me  bounden  but  in 

spite, 
And  all  to  flout  me,  when  they  bring  me  in, 
Let  me  be  bounden,  I  shall  see  her  face; 
Else  must  I  die  thro'  mine  unhappiness.' 

And  Gawain  answer'd  kindly  tho'  in 

scorn, 
'  Why,  let  my  lady  bind  me  if  she  will, 
And  let  my  lady  beat  me  if  she  will: 
But  an  she  send  her  delegate  to  thrall 
These   fighting  hands  of   mine  —  Christ 

kill  me  then 
But   I   will   slice   him   handless   by   the 

wrist, 
And  let  my  lady  sear  the  stump  for  him, 
Howl  as  he  may.     But  hold  me  for  your 

friend  : 
Come,  ye  know  nothing:  here  I  pledge 

my  troth, 


Yea,-  by  the  honour  of  the  Table  Round, 
I  will  be  leal  to  thee  and  work  thy  work, 
And  tame  thy  jailing  princess  to  thine 

hand. 
Lend  me  thine  horse  and  arms,  and  I 

will  say 
That  I  have  slain  thee.     She  will  let  me 

in 
To  hear  the  manner  of  thy  fight  and  fall; 
Then,  when  I  come  within  her  counsels, 

then 
From  prime-  to  vespers  will  I  chant  thy 

praise 
As  prowest  knight  and  truest  lover,  more 
Than  any  have  sung  thee  living,  till  she 

long 
To  have  thee  back  in  lusty  life  again, 
Not  to  be  bound,  save  by  white   bonds 

and  warm, 
Dearer  than  freedom.     Wherefore  now 

thy  horse 
And  armour  :  let  me  go  :  be  comforted  : 
Give  me  three  days  to  melt  her  fancy, 

and  hope 
The  third    night  hence  will  bring  thee 

news  of  gold.' 

Then  Pelleas  lent  his  horse  and  all  his 
arms, 
!  Saving  the  goodly  sword,  his  prize,  and 

took 
Gawain's,  and  said,  '  Betray  me  not,  but 

help  — 
Art  thou  not  he  whom  men  call  light-of- 
love  ? ' 

*  Ay,'  said  Gawain,  '  for  women  be  so 
light.' 
Then  bounded  forward  to  the  castle  walls, 
And  raised  a  bugle  hanging  from  his  neck, 
And  winded  it,  and  that  so  musically 
That  all  the   old  echoes   hidden  in  the 

wall 
Rang  out  like  hollow  woods  at  hunting- 
tide. 

Up  ran  a  score  of  damsels  to  the  tower; 
'  Avaunt,'  they  cried, '  our  lady  loves  thee 

not.' 
But  Gawain  lifting  up  his  vizor  said, 
•  Gawain  am  I,  Gawain  of  Arthur's  court, 
And  I  have  slain  this  Pelleas  whom  ye 
hate : 


PELLEAS  AND  ETTARRE. 


431 


Behold   his   horse    and   armour.      Open 

gates, 
And  I  will  make  you  merry.' 

And  down  they  ran, 
Her  damsels,  crying  to  their  lady,  '  Lo  ! 
Pelleas  is  dead  —  he  told  us  —  he  that  hath 
His  horse  and  armour  :  will  ye  let  him  in? 
He  slew  him !     Gawain,  Gawain  of  the 

court, 
Sir  Gawain  —  there  he  waits  below  the 

wall, 
Blowing  his  bugle  as  who  should  say  him 

nay.' 

And  so,  leave  given,  straight  on  thro' 

open  door 
Rode  Gawain,  whom  she  greeted  courte- 
ously. 
'Dead,  is  it  so?'  she  ask'd.     'Ay,  ay,' 

said  he, 
'  And  oft  in  dying  cried  upon  your  name.' 
'  Pity   on   him,'   she    answer'd,  '  a  good 

knight, 
But  never  let  me  bide  one  hour  at  peace.' 
'  Ay,'  thought  Gawain,  '  and  you  be  fair 

enow: 
But  I  to  your  dead  man  have  given  my 

troth, 
That  whom  ye  loathe,  him  will  I  make 

you  love.' 

So  those  three  days,  aimless  about  the 

land, 
Lost  in  a  doubt,  Pelleas  wandering 
Waited,  until  the  third  night  brought  a 

moon 
With  promise  of  large  light  on  woods  and 

ways. 

Hot  was  the  night  and  silent;  but  a 

sound 
Of  Gawain  ever  coming,  and  this  lay  — 
Which  Pelleas  had  heard  sung  before  the 

Queen, 
And  seen  her  sadden  listening  —  vext  his 

heart, 
And  marr'd  his  rest  — '  A  worm  within 

the  rose.' 

'  A  rose,  but  one,  none  other  rose  had  I, 
A  rose,  one  rose,  and  this  was  wondrous 
fair, 


One  rose  a  rose  that  gladden'd  earth  and 

sky, 
One    rose,  my  rose,  that   sweeten'd   all 

mine  air  — 
I  cared  not  for  the   thorns;  the   thorns 

were  there. 

'  One  rose,  a  rose  to  gather  by  and  by, 
One  rose,  a  rose  to  gather  and  to  wear, 
No  rose  but  one  —  what  other  rose  had  I  ? 
One  rose,  my  rose;   a  rose  that  will  not 

die,  — 
He  dies  who  loves  it,  —  if  the  worm  be 

there.' 

This  tender  rhyme,  and  evermore  the 

doubt, 
'  Why  lingers   Gawain  with   his   golden 

news? ' 
So  shook  him  that  he  could  not  rest,  but 

rode 
Ere  midnight  to  her  walls,  and  bound  his 

horse 
Hard  by  the  gates.    Wide  open  were  the 

gates, 
And  no  watch  kept;   and  in  thro'  these 

he  past, 
And  heard  but  his   own  steps,  and  his 

own  heart 
Beating,  for  nothing  moved  but  his  own 

self, 
And  his  own  shadow.    Then  he  crost  the 

court, 
And  spied  not  any  light  in  hall  or  bower, 
But  saw  the  postern  portal  also  wide 
Yawning;   and  up  a  slope  of  garden,  all 
Of  roses  white  and  red,  and  brambles  mixt 
And   overgrowing   them,  went  on,  and 

found, 
Here  too,  all  hush'd  below  the  mellow 

moon, 
Save  that  one  rivulet  from  a  tiny  cave 
Came  lightening  downward,  and  so  spilt 

itself 
Among  the  roses,  and  was  lost  again. 

Then  was  he  ware  of  three  pavilions 

rear'd 
Above  the  bushes,  gilden-peakt :  in  one, 
Red    after    revel,    droned    her    lurdane 

knights 
Slumbering,  and  their  three  squires  across 

their  feet : 


432 


PELLEAS  AND   ETTARRE. 


In  one,  their  malice  on  the  placid  lip 
Froz'n  by  sweet  sleep,  four  of  her  damsels 

lay: 
And  in  the  third,  the  circlet  of  the  jousts 
Bound  on  her   brow,  were  Gawain  and 

Ettarre. 

Back,  as  a  hand  that  pushes  thro'  the 

leaf 
To   find  a  nest   and   feels  a  snake,  he 

drew: 
Back,  as  a  coward  slinks  from  what  he 

fears 
To  cope  with,  or  a  traitor  proven  or  hound 
Beaten,  did  Pelleas  in  an  utter  shame 
Creep  with  his  shadow  thro'   the    court 

again, 
Fingering  at  his  sword-handle  until  he 

stood 
There  on  the  castle-bridge  once  more,  and 

thought, 
'  I  will  go  back,  and  slay  them  where  they 

lie.' 

And  so  went  back,  and  seeing  them  yet 

in  sleep 
Said,  '  Ye,  that   so    dishallow  the   holy 

sleep, 
Your  sleep  is  death,'  and  drew  the  sword, 

and  thought, 
1  What !  slay  a  sleeping  knight?  the  King 

hath  bound 
And    sworn   me   to   this   brotherhood;  ' 

again, 
'Alas   that  ever  a  knight  should  be  so 

false.' 
Then  turn'd,  and  so  return'd,  and  groan- 
ing laid 
The   naked  sword  athwart  their   naked 

throats 
There  left  it,  and  them  sleeping;  and  she 

lay, 
The   circlet   of  the   tourney   round  her 

brows, 
And  the  sword  of  the  tourney  across  her 

throat. 

And  forth  he  past,  and  mounting  on 

his  horse 
Stared  at  her  towers   that,  larger   than 

themselves 
In  their  own  darkness,  throng'd  into  the 

moon. 


Then  crush'd  the  saddle  with  his  thighs, 

and  clench'd 
His  hands,  and  madden'd  with   himselt 

and  moan'd : 

'Would  they  have  risen  against  me  in 

their  blood 
At  the  last  day?     I  might  have  answer' d 

them 
Even   before   high   God.     O   towers   so 

strong, 
Huge,  solid,  would  that  even  while  I  gaze 
The  crack  of  earthquake  shivering  to  your 

base 
Split  you,  and  Hell  burst  up  your  harlot 

roofs 
Bellowing,  and   charr'd  you   thro'   and 

thro'  within, 
Black  as  the  harlot's  heart  —  hollow  as  a 

skull ! 
Let  the  fierce  east  scream  thro'  your  eye- 
let-holes, 
And  whirl  the  dust  of  harlots  round  and 

round 
In  dung  and  nettles !  hiss,  snake  —  I  saw 

him  there  — 
Let  the  fox  bark,  let  the  wolf  yell.     Who 

yells 
Here  in  the  still  sweet  summer  night,  but 

I  — 
I,  the  poor  Pelleas  whom  she  call'd  her 

fool? 
Fool,  beast  —  he,  she,  or  I?  myself  most 

fool; 
Beast  too,  as  lacking  human  wit  —  dis- 
graced, 
Dishonour'd  all  for  trial  of  true  love  — 
Love?  — we  be  all  alike  :  only  the  King 
Hath  made  us  fools  and  liars.     O  noble 

vows ! 

0  great  and   sane   and   simple   race  of 

brutes 
That  own  no  lust  because  they  have  nc 

law ! 
For  why  should  I  have  loved  her  to  my 

shame? 

1  loathe  her,  as  I  loved  her  to  my  shame. 
I  never  loved  her,  I  but  lusted  for  her  — 
Away  — ' 

He  dash'd  the  rowel  into  his  horse, 
And  bounded    forth  and  vanish'd   thro' 
the  night. 


PELLEAS  AND  ETTARRE. 


433 


Then  she,  that  felt  the  cold  touch  on 

her  throat, 
Awaking   knew  the   sword,  and   turn'd 

herself 
To  Gawain  :  '  Liar,  for  thou  hast  not  slain 
This  Pelleas !  here  he  stood,  and  might 

have  slain 
Me  and  thyself.'     And  he  that  tells  the 

tale 
Says  that  her  ever-veering  fancy  turn'd 
To  Pelleas,  as  the  one  true   knight   on 

earth, 
And  only  lover;   and  thro'  her  love  her 

life 
Wasted  and  pined,  desiring  him  in  vain. 

But  he  by  wild  and  way,  for  half  the 

night, 
And  over  hard  and  soft,  striking  the  sod 
From  out  the  soft,  the  spark  from  off  the 

hard, 
Rode  till  the  star  above  the  wakening  sun, 
Beside  that  tower  where    Percivale  was 

cowl'd, 
Glanced  from  the  rosy  forehead  of  the 

dawn. 
For  so  the  words  were   flash'd  into  his 

heart 
He  knew  not  whence  or  wherefore  :  '  O 

sweet  star, 
Pure  on  the  virgin  forehead  of  the  dawn  ! ' 
And  there  he  would  have  wept,  but  felt 

his  eyes 
Harder  and  drier  than  a  fountain  bed 
In  summer :  thither  came  the  village  girls 
And  linger'd  talking,  and  they  come  no 

more 
Till  the  sweet  heavens  have  fill'd  it  from 

the  heights 
Again  with  living  waters  in  the  change 
Of  seasons  :    hard  his  eyes;    harder  his 

heart 
Seem'd;    but  so  weary  were   his   limbs, 

that  he, 
Gasping, '  Of  Arthur's  hall  am  I,  but  here, 
Here  let  me  rest  and  die,'  cast  himself 

down, 
And  gulfd  his  griefs  in  inmost  sleep;   so 

lay, 
Till  shaken  by  a  dream,  that  Gawain  fired 
The  hall  of  Merlin,  and  the  morning  star 
Reel'd  in  the  smoke,  brake  into  flame, 

and  fell. 


He  woke,  and  being  ware  of  some  one 
nigh, 

Sent  hands  upon  him,  as  to  tear  him, 
crying, 

'  False !  and  I  held  thee  pure  as  Guine- 
vere.' 

But  Percivale  stood  near  him  and 
replied, 

1  Am  I  but  false  as  Guinevere  is  pure  ? 

Or  art  thou  mazed  with  dreams?  or  being 
one 

Of  our  free-spoken  Table  hast  not  hearr' 

That  Lancelot'  —  there  he  check'd  him- 
self and  paused. 

Then  fared  it  with  Sir  Pelleas  as  with 

one 
Who  gets  a  wound  in  battle,  and  the  sword 
That  made  it  plunges   thro'  the  wound 

again, 
And  pricks  it  deeper :  and  he  shrank  and 

wail'd, 
'Is  the  Queen  false?'  and  Percivale  was 

mute. 
1  Have  any  of  our  Round  Table  held  their 

vows? ' 
And  Percivale  made  answer  not  a  word. 
'Is  the  King  true?'     'The  King!'  said 

Percivale. 
'  Why  then  let  men  couple  at  once  with 

wolves. 
What!  art  thou  mad?' 

But  Pelleas,  leaping  up, 
Ran  thro'  the  doors  and  vaulted  on  his 

horse 
And  fled  :  small  pity  upon  his  horse  had 

he, 
Or  on  himself,  or  any,  and  when  he  met 
A  cripple,  one  that  held  a  hand  for  alms  — 
Hunch'd  as  he  was,  and  like  an  old  dwarf- 
elm 
That  turns  its  back  on  the  salt  blast,  the 

boy 
Paused  not,  but  overrode  him,  shouting, 

'  False, 
And  false  with  Gawain  ! '  and  so  left  him 

bruised 
And  batter'd,  and  fled  on,  and  hill  and 

wood 
Went  ever  streaming  by  him  till  the  gloom, 
That  follows  on  the  turning  of  the  world, 


434 


PELLEAS  AND  ETTARRE. 


Darken'd  the  common  path  :  he  twitch'd 

the  reins, 
And  made  his  beast  that  better  knew  it, 

swerve 
Now  off  it  and  now  on;   but  when  he  saw 
High  up  in  heaven  the  hall  that  Merlin 

built, 
Blackening  against  the  dead-green  stripes 

of  even, 
•  Black  nest  of  rats,'  he  groan'd, '  ye  build 

too  high.' 

Not  long  thereafter  from  the  city  gates 
issued  Sir  Lancelot  riding  airily, 
Warm  with  a  gracious  parting  from  the 

Queen, 
Peace  at  his  heart,  and  gazing  at  a  star 
And  marvelling  what  it  was:    on  whom 

the  boy, 
Across  the  silent  seeded  meadow-grass 
Borne,    clash'd :    and    Lancelot,  saying, 

'  What  name  hast  thou 
That  ridest  here  so  blindly  and  so  hard?' 
'No    name,    no    name,'   he    shouted,  'a 

scourge  am  I 
To  lash  the  treasons  of  the  Table  Round.' 
'Yea,  but   thy  name?'     'I    have   many 

names,'  he  cried : 
\  I  am  wrath  and  shame  and  hate  and  evil 

fame, 
And   like   a  poisonous  wind   I    pass  to 

blast 
And  blaze  the  crime  of  Lancelot  and  the 

Queen.' 
'  First   over   me,'   said    Lancelot,    '  shalt 

thou  pass.' 
'  Fight  therefore,'  yell'd  the  youth,  and 

either  knight 
Drew  back  a  space,  and  when  they  closed, 

at  once 
The  weary  steed  of  Pelleas  floundering 

flung 
His  rider,  who  call'd  out  from  the  dark 

field, 
'Thou  art  false  as  Hell :  slay  me :  I  have 

no  sword.' 
Then  Lancelot,  'Yea,  between  thy  lips  — 

and  sharp; 
But  here  will  I  disedge  it  by  thy  death.' 
'Slay  then,'  he  shriek'd, '  my  will  is  to  be 

slain,' 
And    Lancelot,  with  his  heel   upon  the 
,  fall'n, 


Rolling  his  eyes,  a  moment  stood,  then 

spake : 
'  Rise,  weakling;   I  am  Lancelot;  say  thy 

say.' 

And  Lancelot  slowly  rode  his  warhorse 

back 
To   Camelot,   and   Sir    Pelleas  in  brief 

while 
Caught  his  unbroken  limbs  from  the  dark 

field, 
And  follow'd   to  the  city.     It    chanced 

that  both 
Brake  into  hall  together,  worn  and  pale. 
There  with  her  knights  and  dames  was 

Guinevere. 
Full  wonderingly  she  gazed  on  Lancelot 
So  soon  return'd,  and  then  on  Pelleas, 

him 
Who  had  not  greeted  her,  but  cast  him- 
self 
Down  on  a  bench,  hard-breathing.   'Have 

ye  fought?  ' 
She  ask'd  of  Lancelot.     '  Ay,  my  Queen,' 

he  said. 
'  And  hast  thou  overthrown  him  ?  '     '  Ay, 

my  Queen.' 
Then  she,  turning  to  Pelleas,  '  O  young 

knight, 
Hath  the  great  heart  of  knighthood  in 

thee  fail'd 
So  far  thou  canst  not  bide,  unfrowardly, 
A  fall  from  him  ? '   Then,  for  he  answer 'd 

not, 
'Or  hast  thou  other  griefs?     If  I,  the 

Queen, 
May  help  them,  loose  thy  tongue,  and  let 

me  know.' 
But  Pelleas  lifted  up  an  eye  so  fierce 
She  quail'd;   and  he,  hissing,  '  I  have  no 

sword,' 
Sprang   from   the    door   into   the   dark. 

The  Queen 
Look'd  hard  upon  her  lover,  he  on  her; 
And  each  foresaw  the  dolorous  day  to 

be: 
And  all  talk  died,  as  in  a  grove  all  song 
Beneath   the    shadow   of  some   bird   of 

prey; 
Then   a   long   silence    came    upon    the 

hall, 
And  Modred  thought,  'The  time  is  hard 

at  hand.' 


THE  LAST   TOURNAMENT. 


435 


THE   LAST  TOURNAMENT. 

'Take  thou  the  jewels  of  this  dead  inno- 

cence, 

Dagonet,  the  fool,  whom  Gawain  in  his 

And  make  them,  an  thou  wilt,  a  tourney- 

mood 

prize.' 

Had  made  mock-knight  of  Arthur's  Table 

Round, 

To  whom  the  King,  '  Peace  to  thine 

At  Camelot,  high  above   the  yellowing 

eagle-borne 

woods, 

Dead    nestling,   and    this    honour   after 

Danced  like  a  wither'd  leaf  before   the 

death, 

hall. 

Following  thy  will !  but,  0  my  Queen, 

And  toward  him  from  the  hall,  with  harp 

I  muse 

in  hand, 

Why  ye  not  wear  on  arm,  or  neck,  or 

And  from  the  crown  thereof  a  carcanet 

zone 

Of  ruby  swaying  to  and  fro,  the  prize 

Those  diamonds  that  I  rescued  from  the 

Of  Tristram  in  the  jousts  of  yesterday, 

tarn, 

Came  Tristram,  saying,  '  Why  skip  ye  so, 

And  Lancelot  won,  methought,  for  thee 

Sir  Fool?  » 

to  wear.' 

For  Arthur  and  Sir  Lancelot  riding  once 

1  Would  rather  you  had  let  them  fall,' 

Far  down  beneath  a  winding  wall  of  rock 

she  cried, 

Heard   a   child  wail.     A  stump  of  oak 

'Plunge  and   be  lost  —  ill-fated  as  they 

half-dead, 

were, 

From  roots  like  some  black  coil  of  carven 

A  bitterness  to  me  !  —  ye  look  amazed, 

snakes, 

Not  knowing  they  were  lost  as  soon  as 

Clutch'd  at  the  crag,   and  started  thro' 

given  — 

mid  air 

Slid  from  my  hands,  when  I  was  leaning 

Bearing  an  eagle's  nest:  and  thro'  the 

out 

tree 

Above  the  river  —  that  unhappy  child 

Rush'd  ever  a  rainy  wind,  and  thro'  the 

Past  in  her  barge  :  but  rosier  luck  will  go 

wind 

With  these  rich  jewels,  seeing  that  they 

Pierced  ever  a  child's  cry :  and  crag  and 

came 

tree 

Not    from    the    skeleton    of   a    brother- 

Scaling,  Sir  Lancelot  from  the  perilous 

slayer, 

nest, 

But  the  sweet  body  of  a  maiden  babe. 

This   ruby  necklace   thrice   around   her 

Perchance  —  who   knows?  —  the  purest 

neck, 

of  thy  knights 

And  all  unscarr'd   from  beak  or  talon, 

May   win   them   for   the    purest    of   my 

brought 

maids.' 

A  maiden  babe;    which  Arthur   pitying 

took, 

She  ended,  and   the    cry  of  a   great 

Then  gave  it  to  his  Queen  to  rear:  the 

jousts 

Queen 

With    trumpet-blowings   ran    on   all  the 

But  coldly  acquiescing,  in  her  white  arms 

ways 

Received,  and  after  loved  it  tenderly, 

From  Camelot  in  among  the  faded  fields 

And  named  it  Nestling;   so  forgot  herself 

To  furthest  towers;   and  everywhere  the 

A  moment,  and  her  cares;  till  that  young 

knights 

life 

Arm'd  for  a  day  of  glory  before  the  King. 

Being  smitten  in  mid  heaven  with  mortal 

cold 

But  on  the  hither  side  of  that  loud 

Past  from  her;   and  in  time  the  carcanet 

morn 

Vext  her  with  plaintive  memories  of  the 

Into  the  hall  stagger'd,  his  visage  ribb'd 

child  : 

From  ear  to  ear  with  dogwhip-weals,  his 

So  she,  delivering  it  to  Arthur,  said, 

nose 

436 


THE  LAST   TOURNAMENT. 


Bridge-broken,    one    eye   out,    and   one 

hand  off, 
And  one  with  shatter'd  fingers  dangling 

lame, 
A  churl,  to  whom  indignantly  the  King, 

'  My  churl,  for  whom  Christ  died,  what 

evil  beast 
Hath  drawn  his  claws  athwart  thy  face? 

or  fiend? 
Man  was  it  who  marr'd  heaven's  image 

in  thee  thus?  ' 

Then,  sputtering   thro'  the   hedge  of 

splinter'd  teeth, 
Yet   strangers  to  the  tongue,  and  with 

blunt  stump 
Pitch-blacken'd  sawing  the  air,  said  the 

maim'd  churl, 

4  He  took  them  and  he  drave  them  to 

his  tower  — 
Some    hold    he   was   a   table-knight   of 

thine  — 
A  hundred  goodly  ones — the  Red  Knight, 

he  — 
Lord,  I  was  tending  swine,  and  the  Red 

Knight 
Brake  in  upon  me  and  drave  them  to  his 

tower; 
And  when  I  call'd  upon  thy  name  as  one 
That  doest  right  by  gentle  and  by  churl, 
Maim'd  me  and  maul'd,  and  would  out- 
right have  slain, 
Save  that  he  sware   me  to  a  message, 

saying, 
"Tell  thou  the  King  and  all  his  liars, 

that  I 
Have  founded  my  Round  Table  in  the 

North, 
And  whatsoever  his   own  knights  have 

sworn 
My  knights  have  sworn  the  counter  to 

it  —  and  say 
My  tower  is  full  of  harlots,  like  his  court, 
But  mine  are  worthier,  seeing  they  profess 
To  be  none  other  than  themselves  —  and 

say 
My  knights  are  all   adulterers   like   his 

own, 
But  mine  are  truer,  seeing  they  profess 
To  be  none  other;   and  say  his  hour  is 

come, 


The  heathen  are  upon  him,  his  long  lance 
Broken,  and  his  Excalibur  a  straw." ' 

Then  Arthur  tum'd  to  Kay  the  senes- 
chal, 

1  Take  thou  my  churl,  and  tend  him 
curiously 

Like  a  king's  heir,  till  all  his  hurts  be 
whole. 

The  heathen  —  but  that  ever-climbing 
wave, 

Hurl'd  back  again  so  often  in  empty  foam, 

Hath  lain  for  years  at  rest  —  and  rene- 
gades, 

Thieves,  bandits,  leavings  of  confusion, 
whom 

The  wholesome  realm  is  purged  of  other- 
where, 

Friends,  thro'  your  manhood  and  your 
fealty,  —  now 

Make  their  last  head  like  Satan  in  the 
North. 

My  younger  knights,  new-made,  in  whom 
your  flower 

Waits  to  be  solid  fruit  of  golden  deeds, 

Move  with  me  toward  their  quelling, 
which  achieved, 

The  loneliest  ways  are  safe  from  shore  to 
shore. 

But  thou,  §ir  Lancelot,  sitting  in  my  place 

Enchair'd  to-morrow,  arbitrate  the  field; 

For  wherefore  shouldst  thou  care  to 
mingle  with  it, 

Only  to  yield  my  Queen  her  own  again? 

Speak,  Lancelot,  thou  art  silent:  is  it 
well?' 

Thereto  Sir  Lancelot  answer'd,  '  It  is 
well : 
Yet  better  if  the  King  abide,  and  leave 
The  leading  of  his  younger  knights  to  me. 
Else,  for  the  King  has  will'd  it,  it  is  well.' 

Then  Arthur  rose  and  Lancelot  follow'd 

him, 
And  while  they  stood  without  the  doors, 

the  King 
Tum'd  to  him  saying,  •  Is  it  then  so  well? 
Or  mine  the  blame  that  oft  I  seem  as  he 
Of  whom  was  written,  "  A  sound  is  in  his 

ears"? 
The  foot  that  loiters,  bidden  go,  —  the 

glance 


THE  LAST   TOURNAMENT. 


437 


That  only  seems  half-loyal  to  command,  — 
A  manner   somewhat   fall'n  from  rever- 
ence— 
Or  have  I  dream'd  the  bearing  of  our 

knights 
Tells  of  a  manhood  ever  less  and  lower? 
Or  whence  the  fear  lest  this  my  realm, 

uprear'd, 
By  noble  deeds  at  one  with  noble  vows, 
From  fiat  confusion  and  brute  violences, 
Reel   back   into   the   beast,  and   be   no 
more  ? ' 

He  spoke,  and  taking  all  his  younger 

knights, 
Down  the  slope  city  rode,  and  sharply 

turn'd 
North  by  the  gate.     In  her  high  bower 

the  Queen, 
Working  a  tapestry,  lifted  up  her  head, 
Watch'd  her   lord   pass,  and   knew  not 

that  she  sigh'd. 
Then  ran  across  her  memory  the  strange 

rhyme 
Of  bygone    Merlin,  'Where  is  he  who 

knows? 
From  the  great  deep  to  the  great  deep 

he  goes.' 

But  when  the  morning  of  a  tourna- 
ment, 
By  thes*e  in  earnest  those  in  mockery  call'd 
The  Tournament  of  the  Dead  Innocence, 
Brake  with  a  wet  wind  blowing,  Lancelot, 
Round  whose  sick  head  all  night,  like 

birds  of  prey, 
The   words    of  Arthur   flying    shriek'd, 

arose, 
And  down  a  streetway  hung  with  folds  of 

pure 
White  samite,  and  by  fountains  running 

wine, 
Where  children  sat  in  white  with  cups  of 

Moved  to  the  lists,  and  there,  with  slow 

sad  steps 
Ascending,    fill'd     his     double-dragon'd 

chair. 

He  glanced  and  saw  the  stately  gal- 
leries, 
Dame,    damsel,    each   thro'   worship    of 
their  Queen 


White-robed  in  honour  of  the  stainless 

child, 
And  some  with   scatter'd  jewels,  like  a 

bank 
Of  maiden  snow  mingled  with  sparks  of 

fire. 
He  look'd  but  once,  and  vail'd  his  eyes 

again. 

The  sudden  trumpet  sounded  as  in  a 

dream 
To  ears  but  half-awaked,  then  one  low 

roll 
Of    Autumn    thunder,    and    the    jousts 

began : 
And  ever  the  wind  blew,  and  yellowing 

leaf 
And  gloom  and  gleam,  and  shower  and 

shorn  plume 
Went  down  it.     Sighing  weariedly,  as  one 
Who  sits  and  gazes  on  a  faded  fire, 
When  all  the  goodlier  guests   are   past 

away, 
Sat  their  great  umpire,  looking  o'er  the 

lists. 
He  saw  the  laws  that  ruled  the  tourna- 
ment 
Broken,  but  spake  not;   once,  a  knight 

cast  down 
Before  his  throne  of  arbitration  cursed 
The   dead   babe   and  the  follies   of  the 

King; 
And  once  the  laces  of  a  helmet  crack'd, 
And  show'd   him,  like   a  vermin   in  its 

hole, 
Modred,  a  narrow  face  :  anon  he  heard 
The  voice  that  billow'd  round  the  barriers 

roar 
An    ocean-sounding    welcome    to     one 

knight, 
But  newly-enter'd,  taller  than  the  rest, 
And  armour'd  all  in  forest  green,  whereon 
There  tript  a  hundred  tiny  silver  deer, 
And  wearing  but  a  holly-spray  for  crest, 
With  ever-scattering  berries,  and  on  shield 
A  spear,  a  harp,  a  bugle  —  Tristram  —  late 
From  overseas  in  Brittany  return'd, 
And   marriage  with   a   princess  of  that 

realm, 
Isolt   the   White  — Sir  Tristram   of  the 

Woods  — 
Whom  Lancelot  knew,  had  held  some- 
time with  pain 


43» 


THE   LAST   TOURNAMENT. 


His  own  against  him,  and  now  yearn'd 

to  shake 
The  burthen  off  his  heart   in   one  full 

shock 
With  Tristram  ev'n  to  death :  his  strong 

hands  gript 
And  dinted  the  gilt  dragons  right  and  left, 
Until  he  groan'd  for  wrath  —  so  many  of 

those, 
That   ware   their   ladies'  colours  on  the 

casque, 
Drew  from   before   Sir   Tristram  to  the 

bounds, 
And   there    with    gibes    and    flickering 

mockeries 
Stood,  while  he  mutter'd, '  Craven  crests ! 

O  shame ! 
What  faith  have  these  in  whom  they  sware 

to  love? 
The  glory  of  our  Round  Table  is  no  more.' 

So  Tristram  won,  and  Lancelot  gave, 

the  gems, 
Not  speaking  other  word  than  '  Hast  thou 

won? 
Art  thou  the  purest,  brother?     See,  the 

hand 
Wherewith  thou  takest  this,  is  red ! '  to 

whom 
Tristram,    half    plagued    by    Lancelot's 

languorous  mood, 
Made   answer,  'Ay,  but  wherefore   toss 

me  this 
Like  a  dry  bone    cast  to  some  hungry 

hound? 
Let  be  thy  fair  Queen's  fantasy.    Strength 

of  heart 
And  might  of  limb,  but  mainly  use  and 

skill, 
Are  winners  in  this  pastime  of  our  King. 
My  hand  —  belike  the  lance  hath  dript 

upon  it  — 
No  blood  of  mine,  I  trow;   but  O  chief 

knight, 
Right  arm  of  Arthur  in  the  battlefield, 
Great  brother,  thou  nor  I  have  made  the 

world ; 
Be  happy  in  thy  fair  Queen  as  I  in  mine.' 

And  Tristram  round  the  gallery  made 
his  horse 
Caracole ;  then  bow'd  his  homage,  bluntly 
saying, 


'  Fair  damsels,  each  to  him  who  worships 

each 
Sole  Queen  of  Beauty  and  of  love,  behold 
This  day  my  Queen  of  Beauty  is  not  here.' 
And    most   of  these   were   mute,   some 

anger'd,  one 
Murmuring,  '  All  courtesy  is  dead,'  and 

one, 
1  The  glory  of  our  Round  Table  is  no  more.' 

Then  fell  thick  rain,  plume  droopt  and 
mantle  clung, 

And  pettish  cries  awoke,  and  the  wan  day 

Went  glooming  down  in  wet  and  weari- 
ness : 

But  under  her  black  brows  a  swarthy  one 

Laugh'd  shrilly,  crying,  '  Praise  the  pa- 
tient saints, 

Our  one  white  day  of  Innocence  hath 
past, 

Tho'  somewhat  draggled  at  the  skirt.  So 
be  it. 

The  snowdrop  only,  flowering  thro'  the 
year, 

Would  make  the  world  as  blank  as  Win- 
ter-tide. 

Come  —  let  us  gladden  their  sad  eyes, 
our  Queen's 

And  Lancelot's,  at  this  night's  solemnity 

With  all  the  kindlier  colours  of  the  field.' 

So  dame  and  damsel  glitter'd'  at  the 

feast 
Variously  gay :  for  he  that  tells  the  tale 
Liken'd  them,  saying,  as  when  an  hour 

of  cold 
Falls  on   the   mountain   in   midsummer 

snows, 
And  all  the  purple  slopes  of  mountain 

flowers 
Pass  under  white,  till  the  warm  hour  re- 
turns 
With  veer  of  wind,  and  all  are  flowers 

,     again ; 
So  dame  and  damsel  cast  the  simple  white, 
And  glowing  in  all  colours,  the  live  grass, 
Rose-campion,  bluebell,  kingcup,  poppy, 

glanced 
About  the  revels,  and  with  mirth  so  loud 
Beyond    all   use,  that,   half-amazed,  the 

Queen, 
And  wroth  at  Tristram  and  the  lawless 

jousts. 


THE  LAST   TOURNAMENT. 


439 


Brake  up  their  sports,  then  slowly  to  her 

bower 
Parted,  and  in  her  bosom  pain  was  lord. 

And    little    Dagonet    on   the    morrow 

morn, 
High  over  all  the  yellowing  Autumn-tide, 
Danced  like  a  wither'd  leaf   before  the 

hall. 
Then  Tristram  saying,  '  Why  skip  ye  so, 

Sir  Fool?' 
Wheel'd  round  on  either  heel,  Dagonet 

replied, 
'Belike  for  lack  of  wiser  company; 
Or  being  fool,  and  seeing  too  much  wit 
Makes  the  world  rotten,  why  belike  I  skip 
To  know  myself  the  wisest  knight  of  all.' 
*  Ay,  fool,'  said  Tristram,  *  but  'tis  eating 

dry 
To  dance  without  a  catch,  a  roundelay 
To  dance  to.'     Then  he  twangled  on  his 

harp, 
And  while  he   twangled    little   Dagonet 

stood 
Quiet  as  any  water-sodden  log 
Stay'd   in   the    wandering    warble   of    a 

brook ; 
But   when  the   twangling    ended,   skipt 

again ; 
And  being  ask'd,  ■  Why  skipt  ye  not,  Sir 

Fool?' 
Made  answer,  *  I  had  liefer  twenty  years 
Skip  to  the  broken  music  of  my  brains 
Than  any  broken  music  thou  canst  make.' 
Then  Tristram,  waiting  for  the  quip  to 

come, 
'  Good  now,  what  music  have  I  broken, 

fool?' 
And  little  Dagonet,  skipping,  •  Arthur,  the 

King's; 
For   when   thou   playest    that    air   with 

Queen  Isolt, 
Thou  makest  broken  music  with  thy  bride, 
Her  daintier  namesake  down  in  Brit- 
tany— 
And  so  thou  breakest  Arthur's  music  too.' 
'  Save  for  that  broken  music  in  thy  brains, 
Sir  Fool,'  said  Tristram,  •  I  would  break 

thy  head. 
Fool,  I  came  late,  the  heathen  wars  were 

o'er, 
The  life  had  flown,  we  sware  but  by  the 

shell  — 


I  am  but  a  fool  to  reason  with  a  fool  — 
Come,  thou  art  crabb'd  and  sour:  but 

lean  me  down, 
Sir  Dagonet,  one  of  thy  long  ass's  ears, 
And  harken  if  my  music  be  not  true. 

'  "  Free  love  —  free  field  —  we  love  but 

while  we  may : 
The  woods  are  hush'd,  their  music  is  no 

more : 
The  leaf  is  dead,  the  yearning  past  away : 
New  leaf,  new  life  —  the  days  of  frost  are 

o'er: 
New  life,  new  love,  to  suit  the  newer  day : 
New  loves  are  sweet  as  those  that  went 

before : 
Free  love  —  free  field  —  we  love  but  while 

we  may." 

'Ye  might  have  moved  slow-measure 

to  my  tune, 
Not  stood  stockstill.     I  made  it  in  the 

woods, 
And  heard  it  ring  as  true  as  tested  gold.' 

But  Dagonet  with  one  foot  poised  in 
his  hand, 
'  Friend,  did  ye  mark  that  fountain  yester- 
day 
Made  to  run  wine?  —  but  this  had  run 

itself 
All  out  like  a  long  life  to  a  sour  end  — 
And  them  that  round  it  sat  with  golden 

cups 
To  hand  the  wine  to  whomsoever  came  — 
The  twelve  small  damosels  white  as  In- 
nocence, 
In  honour  of  poor  Innocence  the  babe, 
Who  left  the  gems  which  Innocence  the 

Queen 
Lent  to  the  King,  and  Innocence  the  King 
Ga'  e  for  a  prize  —  and  one  of  those  white 

slips 
Handed  her  cup  and  piped,  the  pretty  one, 
"  Drink,  drink,  Sir  Fool,"  and  thereupon 

I  drank, 
Spat  —  pish  —  the    cup   was    gold,   the 
draught  was  mud.' 

And  Tristram,  '  Was  it  muddier  than 
thy  gibes? 
Is   all   the   laughter   gone   dead   out  of 
thee?  — 


440 


THE  LAST   TOURNAMENT. 


Not  marking  how  the  knighthood  mock 

thee,  fool  — 
"  Fear  God  :  honour  the  King  —  his  one 

true  knight  — 
Sole  follower  of  the  vows  "  —  for  here  be 

they 
Who  knew  thee  swine  enow  before  I  came, 
Smuttier  than  blasted  grain :    but  when 

the  King 
Had  made  thee  fool,  thy  vanity  so  shot  up 
It  frighted   all   free   fool   from  out   thy 

heart; 
Which  left  thee  less  than  fool,  and  less 

than  swine, 
A  naked  aught  —  yet  swine  I  hold  thee 

still, 
For  I  have  flung  thee  pearls  and  find  thee 


And  little  Dagonet  mincing  with  his 

feet, 
'  Knight,  an  ye  fling  those  rubies  round 

my  neck 
In  lieu  of  hers,  I'll  hold  thou  hast  some 

touch 
Of  music,  since  I  care  not  for  thy  pearls. 
Swine?     I  have  wallow'd,  I  have  wash'd 

—  the  world 
Is  flesh  and  shadow  —  I  have  had  my  day. 
The  dirty  nurse,  Experience,  in  her  kind 
Hath  foul'd  me  —  an  I  wallow'd  then  I 

wash'd  — 
I  have  had  my  day  and  my  philosophies — 
And  thank  the  Lord  I  am  King  Arthur's 

fool. 
Swine,  say  ye?  swine,  goats,  asses,  rams 

and  geese 
Troop'd  round  a  Paynim   harper  once, 

who  thrumm'd 
On  such  a  wire  as  musically  as  thou 
Some  such  fine  song  —  but  never  a  king's 

fool.' 

And  Tristram,  'Then  were  swine,  goats, 
asses,  geese 
The  wiser  fools,  seeing  thy  Paynim  bard 
Had  such  a  mastery  of  his  mystery 
That  he  could  harp  his  wife  up  out  of  hell.' 

Then  Dagonet,  turning  on  the  ball  of 
his  foot, 
'And  whither  harp'st  thou  thine?  down  ! 
and  thyself 


Down  !  and  two  more :  a  helpful  harpei 

thou, 
That  harpest  downward  !  Dost  thou  know 

the  star 
We  call  the  harp  of  Arthur  up  in  heaven  ? ' 

And  Tristram,  '  Ay,  Sir  Fool,  for  when 

our  King 
Was   victor   wellnigh    day    by   day,   the 

knights, 
Glorying  in  each  new  glory,  set  his  name 
High  on  all  hills,  and   in  the  signs  of 

heaven.' 

And  Dagonet answer'd,  'Ay,  and  when 

the  land 
Was  freed,  and  the  Queen  false,  ye  set 

yourself 
To  babble  about  him,  all  to  show  your 

wit  — 
And  whether  he  were  King  by  courtesy, 
Or  King  by  right  —  and  so  went  harping 

down 
The  black  king's  highway,  got  so  far,  and 

grew 
So  witty   that  ye  play'd  at  ducks   and 

drakes 
With  Arthur's  vows  on  the  great  lake  of 

fire. 
Tuwhoo!    do  ye  see  it?  do  ye  see  the 

star?' 

'Nay,   fool,'   said    Tristram,    'not    in 

open  day.' 
And  Dagonet,  '  Nay,  nor  will :  I  see  it 

and  hear. 
It  makes  a  silent  music  up  in  heaven, 
And  I,  and  Arthur  and  the  angels  hear, 
And  then  we  skip.'     '  Lo,  fool,'  he  said, 

'  ye  talk 
Fool's  treason  :  is  the  King  thy  brother 

fool?' 
Then  little  Dagonet  clapt  his  hands  and 

shrill'd, 
'  Ay,  ay,  my  brother  fool,  the   king  of 

fools ! 
Conceits  himself  as  God  that  he  can  make 
Figs  out  of  thistles,  silk  from  bristles, 

milk 
From  burning  spurge,  honey  from  hornet- 
combs, 
And  men  from   beasts  —  Long  live  the 

king  of  fools  I ' 


THE  LAST    TOURNAMENT. 


441 


And  down  the  city  Dagonet  danced 

away; 
But  thro'  the  slowly-mellowing  avenues 
And  solitary  passes  of  the  wood 
Rode  Tristram  toward  Lyonesse  and  the 

west. 
Before  him  fled  the  face  of  Queen  Isolt 
With  ruby-circled  neck,  but  evermore 
Past,  as  a  rustle  or  twitter  in  the  wood 
Made  dull  his  inner,  keen  his  outer  eye 
For  all  that  walk'd,  or  crept,  or  perch'd, 

or  flew. 
Anon   the   face,  as,  when  a  gust   hath 

blown, 
Unruffling  waters  re-collect  the  shape 
Of  one  that  in  them  sees  himself,  return'd; 
But  at  the  slot  or  fewmets  of  a  deer, 
Or  ev'n  a  fall'n  feather,  vanish'd  again. 

So  on  for  all  that  day  from  lawn  to  lawn 
Thro'  many  a  league-long  bower  he  rode. 

At  length 
A  lodge  of  intertwisted  beecheh-boughs 
Furze-cramm'd,  and   bracken-rooft,   the 

which  himself 
Built  for  a  summer  day  with  Queen  Isolt 
Against  a  shower,  dark   in   the  golden 

grove 
Appearing,  sent  his  fancy  back  to  where 
She  lived  a  moon  in  that  low  lodge  with 

him: 
Till  Mark  her  lord  had  past,  the  Cornish 

King, 
With  six  or  seven,  when   Tristram  was 

away, 
And  snatch'd  her  thence;  yet  dreading 

worse  than  shame 
Her   warrior  Tristram,   spake   not    any 

word, 
But  bode  his  hour,  devising  wretchedness. 

And  now  that  desert  lodge  to  Tristram 

lookt 
So  sweet,  that  halting,  in  he  past,  and 

sank 
Down  on  a  drift  of  foliage  random-blown ; 
But  could  not  rest   for  musing   how  to 

smoothe 
And  sleek  his  marriage  over  to  the  Queen. 
Perchance  in  lone  Tintagil  far  from  all 
The  tonguesters  of  the  court  she  had  not 

heard. 
But  then  what  folly  had  sent  him  overseas 


After  she  left  him  lonely  here?  a  name? 
Was  it  the  name  of  one  in  Brittany, 
Isolt,  the  daughter  of  the  King?     '  Isolt 
Of  the  white  hands '  they  call'd  her :  the 

sweet  name 
Allured  him  first,  and  then  the  maid  her- 
self, 
Who  served  him  well  with  those  white 

hands  of  hers, 
And  loved  him  well,  until  himself  had 

thought 
He  loved  her  also,  wedded  easily, 
But  left  her  all  as  easily,  and  return'd. 
The  black-blue  Irish  hair  and  Irish  eyes 
Had   drawn  him  home  —  what  marvel? 

then  he  laid 
His   brows   upon   the    drifted   leaf  and 
dream'd. 

He  seem'd  to  pace  the  strand  of  Brit- 
tany 
Between  Isolt  of  Britain  and  his  bride, 
And  show'd  them  both  the  ruby-chain, 

and  both 
Began  to  struggle  for  it,  till  his  Queen 
Graspt  it  so  hard,  that  all  her  hand  was 

red. 
Then  cried  the  Breton,  '  Look,  her  hand 

is  red ! 
These  be  no  rubies,  this  is  frozen  blood, 
And  melts  within  her  hand  —  her  hand  is 

hot 
With  ill  desires,  but  this  I  gave  thee,  look, 
Is  all  as  cool  and  white  as  any  flower.' 
Follow'd  a  rush  of  eagle's  wings,  arid  then 
A  whimpering  of  the  spirit  of  the  child, 
Because  the  twain  had  spoil'd  her  car- 
canet. 

He  dream'd;   but  Arthur  with  a  hun- 
dred spears 
Rode  far,  till  o'er  the  illimitable  reed, 
And  many  a  glancing  plash  and  sallowy 

isle, 
The  wide-wing'd  sunset  of  the  misty  marsh 
Glared  on  a  huge  machicolated  tower 
That  stood  with   open   doors,  whereout 

was  roll'd 
A  roar  of  riot,  as  from  men  secure 
Amid  their  marshes,  ruffians  at  their  ease 
Among  their  harlot-brides,  an  evil  song. 
'  Lo  there,'  said  one  of  Arthur's  youth, 
for  there, 


442 


THE  LAST  TOURNAMENT. 


High  on  a  grim  dead   tree  before  the 

Down  from  the  causeway  heavily  to  the 

tower, 

swamp 

A  goodly  brother  of  the  Table  Round 

Fall,  as  the  crest  of  some  slow-arching 

Swung  by  the  neck :  and  on  the  boughs 

wave, 

a  shield 

Heard  in  dead  night  along  that  table- 

Showing  a  shower  of  blood  in  a  field  noir, 

shore, 

And   therebeside   a   horn,  inflamed   the 

Drops  flat,   and  after  the  great  waters 

knights 

break 

At  that  dishonour  done  the  gilded  spur, 

Whitening  for  half  a  league,  and  thin 

Till  each  would  clash  the  shield,  and  blow 

themselves, 

the  horn. 

Far  over  sands  marbled  with  moon  and 

But  Arthur  waved  them  back.    Alone  he 

cloud, 

rode. 

From  less  and  less  to  nothing;   thus  he 

Then  at  the  dry  harsh  roar  of  the  great 

fell 

horn, 

Head-heavy;     then    the    knights,    who 

That  sent  the  face  of  all  the  marsh  aloft 

watch'd  him,  roar'd 

An  ever  upward-rushing  storm  and  cloud 

And  shouted  and  leapt  down  upon  the 

Of  shriek  and  plume,  the  Red  Knight 

fall'n; 

heard,  and  all, 

There  trampled  out  his  face  from  being 

Even  to  tipmost  lance  and  topmost  helm, 

known, 

In  blood-red  armour  sallying,  howl'd  to 

And  sank  his  head  in  mire,  and  slimed 

the  King, 

themselves : 

Nor  heard  the  King  for  their  own  cries, 

'The  teeth  of  Hell  flay  bare  and  gnash 

but  sprang 

thee  flat ! — 

Thro'  open  doors,  and  swording  right  and 

Lo !    art  thou  not   that   eunuch-hearted 

left 

King 

Men,   women,    on    their    sodden   faces, 

Who  fain  had  dipt  free  manhood  from 

hurl'd 

the  world  — 

The  tables  over  and  the  wines,  and  slew 

The    woman-worshipper?      Yea,    God's 

Till  all  the  rafters  rang  with  woman-yells, 

curse,  and  I ! 

And    all   the    pavement    stream'd   with 

Slain  was  the  brother  of  my  paramour 

massacre : 

By  a  knight  of  thine,  and  I  that  heard 

Then,  echoing  yell  with  yell,  they  fired 

her  whine 

the  tower, 

And  snivel,  being  eunuch-hearted  too, 

Which  half  that  Autumn  night,  like  the 

Sware  by  the  scorpion-worm  that  twists 

live  North, 

in  hell, 

Red-pulsing  up  thro'  Alioth  and  Alcor, 

And  stings  itself  to  everlasting  death, 

Made  all  above  it,  and  a  hundred  meres 

To  hang  whatever  knight  of  thine  I  fought 

About  it,  as  the  water  Moab  saw 

And  tumbled.     Art  thou  King?  —  Look 

Come  round  by  the  East,  and  out  beyond 

to  thy  life  ! ' 

them  flush'd 

The  long  low  dune,  and  lazy-plunging 

He  ended:  Arthur  knew  the  voice;  the 
face 
Wellnigh    was    helmet-hidden,   and    the 

sea. 

So  all  the  ways  were  safe  from  shore 

name 

to  shore, 

Went  wandering  somewhere  darkling  in 

But   in   the    heart   of  Arthur  pain  was 

his  mind. 

lord. 

And  Arthur  deign'd  not  use  of  word  or 

sword, 

Then,  out  of  Tristram  waking,  the  red 

But  let  the  drunkard,  as  he  stretch'd  from 

dream 

horse 

Fled  with  a  shout,  and  that  low  lodge 

To  strike  him,  overbalancing  his  bulk, 

return'd, 

THE  LAST    TOURNAMENT. 


443 


Mid-forest,    and    the    wind    among    the 

boughs. 
He  whistled   his  good  warhorse  left   to 

graze 
Among  the  forest  greens,  vaulted  upon 

him, 
And  rode  beneath  an  ever-showering  leaf, 
Till   one    lone   woman,  weeping   near    a 

cross, 
Stay'd  him.     'Why  weep  ye?'     'Lord,' 

she  said,  '  my  man 
Hath  left  me  or  is  dead;  '  whereon  he 

thought  — 
'What,  if  she  hate  me  now?     I  would 

not  this. 
What,  if  she  love  me  still?     I  would  not 

that. 
I  know  not  what  I  would  '  —  but  said  to 

her, 
'  Yet  weep  not  thou,  lest,  if  thy  mate 

return, 
He  find  thy  favour  changed  and  love  thee 

not'  — 
Then   pressing   day  by  day   thro'    Lyo- 

nesse 
Last  in  a  roky  hollow,  belling,  heard 
The  hounds  of  Mark,  and  felt  the  goodly 

hounds 
Yelp  at  his  heart,  but  turning,  past  and 

gain'd 
Tintagil,  half  in  sea,  and  high  on  land, 
A  crown  of  towers. 

Down  in  a  casement  sat, 
A  low  sea-sunset  glorying  round  her  hair 
And    glossy-throated     grace,    Isolt    the 

Queen. 
And  when  she  heard  the  feet  of  Tristram 

grind 
The  spiring  stone  that  scaled  about  her 

tower, 
Flush'd,  started,  met  him  at  the  doors, 

and  there 
Belted  his  body  with  her  white  embrace, 
Crying   aloud,   'Not   Mark  —  not  Mark, 

my  soul ! 
The  footstep  flutter'd  me  at  first :  not  he  : 
Catlike   thro'   his  own    castle  steals  my 

Mark, 
But  warrior-wise  thou  stridest  thro'  his 

halls 
Who  hates  thee,  as  I  him  —  ev'n  to  the 

death. 


My  soul,  I  felt  my  hatred  for  my  Mark 
Quicken  within  me,  and  knew  that  thou 

wert  nigh.' 
To  whom   Sir  Tristram  smiling,  'I  am 

here. 
Let  be  thy  Mark,  seeing  he  is  not  thine.' 

And  drawing  somewhat  backward  she 

replied, 
'  Can  he  be  wrong'd  who  is  not  ev'n  his 

own, 
But  save  for  dread  of  thee  had  beaten 

me, 
Scratch'd,    bitten,    blinded,   marr'd    me 

somehow  —  Mark? 
What  rights  are  his  that  dare  not  strike 

for  them? 
Not  lift  a  hand  —  not,  tho'  he  found  me 

thus! 
But  harken  !  have  ye  met  him?  hence  he 

went 
To-day  for  three  days'  hunting — as  he 

said  — 
And  so  returns  belike  within  an  hour. 
Mark's    way,   my   soul! — but    eat    not 

thou  with  Mark, 
Because  he  hates  thee  even  more  than 

fears; 
Nor  drink :  and  when  thou  passest  any 

wood 
Close  vizor,  lest  an  arrow  from  the  bush 
Should  leave  me  all  alone  with  Mark  and 

hell. 
My  God,  the   measure  of  my  hate  for 

Mark 
Is  as  the  measure  of  my  love  for  thee.' 

So,  pluck'd  one  way  by  hate  and  one 

by  love, 
Drain'd  of  her  force,  again  she  sat,  and 

spake 
To   Tristram,   as    he   knelt    before   her, 

saying, 
'O  hunter,  and  O  blower  of  the  horn, 
Harper,  and  thou  hast  been  a  rover  too, 
For,  ere  I  mated  with  my  shambling  king, 
Ye  twain  had  fallen  out  about  the  bride 
Of  one  —  his  name  is  out  of  me  —  the 

prize, 
If  prize  she  were  —  (what  marvel  —  she 

could  see)  — 
Thine,  friend ;   and  ever  since  my  craven 

seeks 


444 


THE  LAST   TOURNAMENT. 


To  wreck  thee  villainously:   but,  O  Sir 

Knight, 
What  dame  or  damsel  have  ye  kneel'd  to 

last?' 

And    Tristram,   *  Last    to   my   Queen 

Paramount, 
Here  now  to  my  Queen  Paramount  of 

love 
And  loveliness  —  ay,  lovelier  than  when 

first 
Her   light  feet  fell  on  our   rough    Lyo- 

nesse, 
Sailing  from  Ireland.' 

Softly  laugh'd  Isolt; 
'Flatter  me  not,  for  hath  not  our  great 

Queen 
My  dole  of  beauty  trebled? '  and  he  said, 
'  Her   beauty   is  her   beauty,  and   thine 

thine, 
And  thine  is  more  to  me — soft,  gracious, 

kind  — 
Save  when  thy  Mark  is  kindled  on  thy 

lips 
Most  gracious;   but  she,  haughty,  ev'n  to 

him, 
Lancelot;   for  I  have  seen  him  wan  enow 
To  make    one   doubt  if  ever  the   great 

Queen 
Have  yielded  him  her  love.' 

To  whom  Isolt, 
'Ah  then,  false  hunter  and  false  harper, 

thou 
Who  brakest  thro'   the   scruple   of  my 

bond, 
Calling  me  thy  white  hind,  and  saying 

to  me 
That  Guinevere  had  sinn'd  against  the 

highest, 
And  I  —  misyoked  with  such  a  want  of 

man  — 
That  I  could  hardly  sin  against  the  lowest.' 

He   answer'd,  'O   my  soul,  be   com- 
forted ! 
If  this  be  sweet,  to  sin  in  leading-strings, 
If  here  be  comfort,  and  if  ours  be  sin, 
Crown'd  warrant  had  we  for  the  crown- 
ing sin 
That  made  us  happy :  but  how  ye  greet 
me  —  fear 


And  fault  and  doubt  —  no  word  of  that 

•     fond  tale  — 
Thy    deep    heart-yearnings,    thy    sweet 

memories 
Of  Tristram  in  that  year  he  was  away.' 

And,  saddening  on  the  sudden,  spake 

Isolt, 
1 1  had  forgotten  all  in  my  strong  joy 
To  see  thee  —  yearnings?  —  ay  !  for,  hour 

by  hour, 
Here  in  the  never-ended  afternoon, 
O  sweeter  than  all  memories  of  thee, 
Deeper  than  any  yearnings  after  thee 
Seem'd     those      far-rolling,     westward- 
smiling  seas, 
Watch'd  from  this  tower.    Isolt  of  Britain 

dash'd 
Before  Isolt  of  Brittany  on  the  strand, 
Would  that  have  chilFd  her  bride-kiss? 

Wedded  her? 
Fought  in  her  father's  battles?  wounded 

there? 
The  King  was  all  fulfill'd  with  grateful- 
ness, 
And  she,  my  namesake  of  the  hands,  that 

heal'd 
Thy  hurt  and  heart  with  unguent  and 

caress  — 
Well  —  can  I  wish  her  any  huger  wrong 
Than  having  known  thee?  her  too  hast 

thou  left 
To    pine    and    waste    in    those    sweet 

memories. 
O  were  I  not  my  Mark's,  by  whom  all 

men 
Are  noble,  I  should  hate  thee  more  than 

love.' 

And  Tristram,  fondling  her  light  hands, 

replied, 
'  Grace,   Queen,    for    being   loved :    she 

loved  me  well. 
Did  I  love   her?    the  name   at   least  I 

loved. 
Isolt?  —  I  fought  his  battles,  for  Isolt ! 
The  night  was  dark;    the  true  star  set. 

Isolt ! 

The  name  was  ruler  of  the  dark Isolt? 

Care  not  for  her !  patient,  and  prayerful, 

meek, 
Pale-blooded,  she  will   yield  herself  to 

God.' 


THE  LAST   TOURNAMENT. 


445 


And    Isolt  answer'd,  '  Yea,  and  why 

not  I? 
Mine  is  the  larger  need,  who  am  not  meek, 
Pale-blooded,    prayerful.      Let    me   tell 

thee  now. 
Here  one  black,  mute  midsummer  night 

I  sat, 
Lonely,  but  musing  on  thee,  wondering 

where, 
Murmuring  a  light  song  I  had  heard  thee 

sing, 
And  once  or  twice  I  spake  thy  name  aloud. 
Then  flash'd  a  levin-brand;   and  near  me 

stood, 
In   fuming   sulphur   blue    and   green,  a 

fiend  — 
Mark's  way  to  steal  behind  one  in  the 

dark  — 
For  there  was  Mark  :  "  He  has  wedded 

her,"  he  said, 
Not  said,  but  hiss'd  it :  then  this  crown 

of  towers 
So  shook  to  such  a  roar  of  all  the  sky, 
That  here  in  utter  dark  I  swoon'd  away, 
And  woke  again  in  utter  dark,  and  cried, 
"  I  will  flee  hence  and  give   myself  to 

God  "  — 
And  thou  wert  lying  in  thy  new  leman's 

arms.' 

Then  Tristram,  ever  dallying  with  her 

hand, 
*  May  God  be  with  thee,  sweet,  when  old 

and  gray, 
And  past  desire  ! '  a  saying  that  anger'd 

her. 
' "  May  God  be  with  thee,  sweet,  when 

thou  art  old, 
And   sweet  no  more  to  me!"     I  need 

Him  now. 
For  when  had  Lancelot  utter'd  aught  so 

gross 
Ev'n  to  the  swineherd's  malkin  in  the 

mast? 
The  greater  man,  the  greater  courtesy. 
Far   other   was   the    Tristram,   Arthur's 

knight ! 
But  thou,  thro'  ever  harrying  thy  wild 

beasts  — 
Save  that  to  touch  a  harp,  tilt  with  a 

lance 
Becomes  thee  well  —  art  grown  wild  beast 

thyself. 


How  darest  thou,  if  lover,  push  me 
even 

In  fancy  from  thy  side,  and  set  me  far 

In  the  gray  distance,  half  a  life  away, 

Her  to  be  loved  no  more?  Unsay  it, 
unswear ! 

Flatter  me  rather,  seeing  me  so  weak, 

Broken  with  Mark  and  hate  and  solitude, 

Thy  marriage  and  mine  own,  that  I 
should  suck 

Lies  like  sweet  wines :  lie  to  me :  I  be- 
lieve. 

Will  ye  not  lie?  not  swear,  as  there  ye 
kneel, 

And  solemnly  as  when  ye  sware  to  him, 

The  man  of  men,  our  King — My  God, 
the  power 

Was  once  in  vows  when  men  believed  the 
King! 

They  lied  not  then,  who  sware,  and  thro' 
their  vows 

The  King  prevailing  made  his  realm  :  — 
I  say, 

Swear  to  me  thou  wilt  love  me  ev'n  when 
old, 

Gray-hair'd,  and  past  desire,  and  in  de- 
spair.' 

Then  Tristram,  pacing  moodily  up  and 
down, 

1  Vows !  did  you  keep  the  vow  you  made 
to  Mark 

•More  than  I  mine?  Lied,  say  ye?  Nay, 
but  learnt, 

The  vow  that  binds  too  strictly  snaps 
itself — 

My  knighthood  taught  me  this  —  ay,  being 
snapt  — 

We  run  more  counter  to  the  soul  thereof 

Than  had  we  never  sworn.  I  swear  no 
more. 

I  swore  to  the  great  King,  and  am  for- 
sworn. 

For  once  —  ev'n  to  the  height  —  I 
honour'd  him. 

"Man,  is  he  man  at  all?"  methought, 
when  first 

I  rode  from  our  rough  Lyonesse,  and 
beheld 

That  victor  of  the  Pagan  throned  in  hall  — 

His  hair,  a  sun  that  ray'd  from  off  a  brow 

Like  hillsnow  high  in  heaven,  the  steel- 
blue  eyes, 


446 


THE  LAST    TOURNAMENT. 


The  golden  beard  that  clothed  his  lips 

with  light  — 
Moreover,  that  weird  legend  of  his  birth, 
With  Merlin's  mystic  babble  about  his  end 
Amazed  me;   then  his  foot  was  on  a  stool 
Shaped  as  a  dragon;   he  seem'd  to  me  no 

man, 
But  Michael  trampling  Satan ;   so  I  sware, 
Being  amazed:  but  this  went  by  —  The 

vows ! 
O   ay  —  the  wholesome  madness   of  an 

hour  — 
They  served  their   use,  their  time;    for 

every  knight 
Believed  himself  a  greater  than  himself, 
And  every  follower  eyed  him  as  a  God; 
Till  he,  being  lifted  up  beyond  himself, 
Did  mightier  deeds  than  elsewise  he  had 

done, 
And  so  the  realm  was  made ;  but  then 

their  vows  — 
First   mainly  thro'    that  sullying  of  our 

Queen  — 
Began  to   gall   the   knighthood,  asking 

whence 
Had  Arthur  right  to  bind  them  to  himself? 
Dropt   down   from   heaven?   wash'd  up 

from  out  the  deep? 
They  fail'd  to  trace  him  thro'  the  flesh 

and  blood 
Of  our  old  kings  :  whence  then?  a  doubt- 
ful lord 
To  bind  them  by  inviolable  vows, 
Which  flesh  and  blood  perforce  would 

violate : 
For   feel    this   arm   of  mine  —  the   tide 

within 
Red  with  free  chase  and  heather-scented 

air, 
Pulsing  full  man;   can  Arthur  make  me 

pure 
As  any  maiden  child  ?  lock  up  my  tongue 
From  uttering  freely  what  I  freely  hear? 
Bind    me    to    one?      The   wide    world 

laughs  at  it. 
And  worldling  of  the  world  am  I,  and 

know 
The  ptarmigan  that  whitens  ere  his  hour 
Woos  his  own  end;   we  are  not  angels 

here 
Nor  shall  be  :  vows  —  I  am  woodman  of 

the  woods, 
And  hear  the  garnet-headed  yafflngale 


Mock  them:  my  soul,  we  love  but  while 

we  may; 
And  therefore  is  my  love  so  large  for  thee, 
Seeing  it  is  not  bounded  save  by  love.' 

Here  ending,  he  moved  toward  her, 
and  she  said, 
1  Good  :    an  I  turn'd  away  my  love  for 

thee 
To  some  one  thrice  as  courteous  as  thy- 
self— 
For  courtesy  wins  woman  all  as  well 
As  valour  may,  but  he  that  closes  both 
Is  perfect,  he  is  Lancelot  —  taller  indeed, 
Rosier   and  comelier,  thou  —  but  say  I 

loved 
This  knightliest  of  all  knights,  and  cast 

thee  back 
Thine   own   small   saw,  "  We  love  but 

while  we  may," 
Well  then,  what  answer?' 

He  that  while  she  spake, 
Mindful  of  what  he  brought  to  adorn  her 

with, 
The  jewels,   had  let   one   finger   lightly 

touch 
The  warm  white  apple   of  her   throat, 

replied, 
'  Press  this  a  little  closer,  sweet,  until  — 
Come,  I  amhunger'd  and  half-anger'd  — 

meat, 
Wine,  wine  —  and  I  will  love  thee  to  the 

death, 
And  out  beyond  into  the  dream  to  come.' 

So  then,  when  both  were  brought  to 

full  accord, 
She  rose,  and  set  before  him  all  hewill'd; 
And  after  these  had  comforted  the  blood 
With  meats  and  wines,  and  satiated  their 

hearts  — 
Now  talking  of  their  woodland  paradise, 
The  deer,  the  dews,  the  fern,  the  founts, 

the  lawns; 
Now  mocking  at  the  much  ungainliness, 
And  craven  shifts,  and  long  crane  legs  of 

Mark  — 
Then  Tristram  laughing  caught  the  harp, 

and  sang: 

'  Ay,  ay,  O  ay  —  the  winds  that  bend 
the  brier ! 


GUINEVERE. 


447 


A  star  in  heaven,  a  star  within  the  mere  ! 
Ay,  ay,  O  ay  —  a  star  was  my  desire, 
And    one  was  far  apart,    and   one    was 

near: 
Ay,  ay,  O  ay  —  the  winds  that  bow  the 

grass ! 
And  one  was  water  and  one  star  was  fire, 
And   one   will  ever  shine  and  one  will 

pass. 
Ay,  ay,  O  ay  —  the  winds  that  move  the 

mere.' 

Then  in  the  light's  last  glimmer  Tris- 
tram show'd 

And  swung  the  ruby  carcanet.  She 
cried, 

'The  collar  of  some  Order,  which  our 
King 

Hath  newly  founded,  all  for  thee,  my 
soul, 

For  thee,  to  yield  thee  grace  beyond  thy 
peers.' 

1  Not  so,  my  Queen,'  he  said,  '  but  the 
red  fruit 

Grown  on  a  magic  oak-tree  in  mid- 
heaven, 

And  won  by  Tristram  as  a  tourney-prize, 

And  hither  brought  by  Tristram  for  his 
last 

Love- offering  and  peace-offering  unto 
thee.' 

He  spoke,  he   turn'd,   then,   flinging 

round  her  neck, 
Claspt  it,  and  cried  '  Thine  Order,  O  my 

Queen ! ' 
But,  while  he  bow'd  to  kiss  the  jewell'd 

throat, 
Out  of  the    dark,  just  as   the   lips   had 

.     touch'd, 
Behind  him  rose  a  shadow  and  a  shriek — 
*  Mark's  way,'  said  Mark,  and  clove  him 

thro'  the  brain. 

That  night   came    Arthur   home,  and 

while  he  climb'd, 
All   in    a  death-dumb    autumn-dripping 

gloom, 
The  stairway  to  the  hall,  and  look'd  and 

saw 
The  great  Queen's  bower  was   dark,  — 

about  his  feet 


A  voice  clung  sobbing  till  he  question'd  it, 
'What  art  thou?'  and  the  voice  about 

his  feet 
Sent  up  an  answer,  sobbing,  £  I  am  thy 

fool, 
And  I  shall  never  make  thee  smile  again.' 

GUINEVERE. 

Queen  Guinevere  had  fled  the   court, 

and  sat 
There  in  the  holy  house  at  Almesbury 
Weeping,   none   with   her   save   a  little 

maid, 
A  novice  :   one  low  light  betwixt  them 

burn'd 
Blurr'd   by   the    creeping    mist,    for   all 

abroad, 
Beneath  a  moon  unseen  albeit  at  full, 
The  white  mist,  like  a  face-cloth  to  the 

face, 
Clung  to  the  dead  earth,  and  the  land 

was  still. 

For  hither  had  she  fled,  her  cause  of 
flight 

Sir  Modred ;   he  that  like  a  subtle  beast 

Lay  couchant  with  his  eyes  upon  the 
throne, 

Ready  to  spring,  waiting  a  chance  :  for 
this 

He  chill'd  the  popular  praises  of  the 
King 

With  silent  smiles  of  slow  disparage- 
ment; 

And  tamper'd  with  the  Lords  of  the 
White  Horse, 

Heathen,  the  brood  by  Hengistleft;  and 
sought 

To  make  disruption  in  the  Table  Round 

Of  Arthur,  and  to  splinter  it  into  feuds 

Serving  his  traitorous  end;  and  all  his 
aims 

Were  sharpen'd  by  strong  hate  for  Lance- 
lot. 

For  thus  it  chanced  one  morn  when 

all  the  court, 
Green-suited,     but    with     plumes     that 

mock'd  the  may, 
Had    been,    their   wont,    a-maying    and 

return'd, 
That  Modred  still  in  green,  all  ear  and  eye, 


448 


GUINEVERE. 


Climb'd  to  the  high  top  of  the  garden- 
wall 
To  spy  some  secret  scandal  if  he  might, 
And  saw  tke  Queen  who  sat  betwixt  her 

best 
Enid,  and  lissome  Vivien,  of  her  court 
The   wiliest   and  the   worst;   and   more 

than  this 
He  saw  not,  for  Sir  Lancelot  passing  by 
Spied   where    he    couch'd,   and   as   the 

gardener's  hand 
Picks  from  the  colewort  a  green  cater- 
pillar, 
So  from  the  high  wall  and  the  flowering 

grove 
Of  grasses  Lancelot  pluck'd  him  by  the 

heel, 
And  cast  him  as  a  worm  upon  the  way; 
But   when    he    knew    the    Prince   tho' 

marr'd  with  dust, 
He,  reverencing  king's  blood  in  a  bad 

man, 
Made  such  excuses  as  he  might,  and  these 
Full  knightly  without  scorn;  for  in  those 

days 
No  knight  of  Arthur's  noblest  dealt  in 

scorn; 
But,  if  a  man  were  halt   or  hunch'd,  in 

him 
By   those   whom   God   had    made    full- 

limb'd  and  tall, 
Scorn  was  allow' d  as  part  of  his  defect, 
And  he  was  answer'd  softly  by  the  King 
And  all  his  Table.     So  Sir  Lancelot  holp 
To  raise  the  Prince,  who  rising  twice  or 

thrice 
Full  sharply  smote  his  knees,  and  smiled, 

and  went : 
But,  ever  after,  the  small  violence  done 
Rankled  in  him  and  ruffled  all  his  heart, 
As  the   sharp   wind  that  ruffles  all  day 

long 
A  little  bitter  pool  about  a  stone 
On  the  bare  coast. 

But  when  Sir  Lancelot  told 
This  matter  to  the   Queen,  at   first  she 

laugh'd 
Lightly,  to  think  of  Modred's  dusty  fall, 
Then  shudder'd,  as  the  village  wife  who 

cries 
1 1   shudder,   some  one  steps  across  my 

grave;' 


Then  laugh'd  again,  but  faintlier,  for  in- 
deed 
She  half-foresaw  that  he,  the  subtle  beast, 
Would  track  her  guilt  until  he  found,  and 

hers 
Would  be  for  evermore  a  name  of  scorn. 
Henceforward  rarely  could  she  front  in 

hall, 
Or  elsewhere,  Modred's  narrow  foxy  face, 
Heart-hiding  smile,  and  gray  persistent 

eye: 
Henceforward  too,  the  Powers  that  tend 

the  soul, 
To  help  it  from  the  death  that  cannot 

die, 
And  save  it  even  in  extremes,  began 
To  vex  and  plague  her.     Many  a  time  for 

hours, 
Beside  the  placid  breathings  of  the  King, 
In  the  dead  night,  grim  faces  came  and 

went 
Before  her,  or  a  vague  spiritual  fear  — 
Like  to  some  doubtful  noise  of  creaking 

doors, 
Heard  by  the  watcher  in  a  haunted  house, 
That  keeps  the  rust  of  murder  on  the 

walls  — 
Held   her  awake :   or  if  she  slept,  she 

dream'd 
An  awful  dream;   for  then  she  seem'd  to 

stand 
On  some  vast  plain  before  a  setting  sun, 
And  from  the  sun  there  swiftly  made  at  her 
A  ghastly  something,  and  its  shadow  flew 
Before  it,  till  it   touch'd   her,  and   she 

turn'd  — 
When  lo  !  her  own,  that  broadening  from 

her  feet, 
And  blackening,  swallow'd  all  the  land, 

and  in  it 
Far  cities  burnt,  and  with  a  cry  she  w^ke. 
And  all  this  trouble  did  not  pass  but  grew; 
Till  ev'n  the  clear  face  of  the  guileless 

King, 
And  trustful  courtesies  of  household  life, 
Became   her  bane;    and  at  the  last  she 

said, 
'  O  Lancelot,  get  thee  hence  to  thine  own 

land, 
For  if  thou  tarry  we  shall  meet  again, 
And  if  we  meet  again,  some  evil  chance 
Will  make  the  smouldering  scandal  break 

and  blaze 


GUINEVERE. 


449 


Before  the  people,  and  our  lord  the  King.' 
And   Lancelot    ever    promised,   but   re- 

main'd, 
And  still  they  met  and  met.     Again  she 

said, 
'O  Lancelot,  if  thou  love  me  get  thee 

hence.' 
And  then  they  were  agreed  upon  a  night 
(When  the  good   King   should  not  be 

there)  to  meet 
And  part  for  ever.    Vivien,  lurking,  heard. 
She  told  Sir  Modred.     Passion-pale  they 

met  » 

And  greeted.     Hands  in  hands,  and  eye 

to  eye. 
Low  on  the  border  of  her  couch  they  sat 
Stammering   and  staring.     It  was  their 

last  hour, 
A  madness  of  farewells.     And   Modred 

brought 
His  creatures  to  the  basement  of  the  tower 
For  testimony;  and  crying  with  full  voice 
*  Traitor,  come  out,  ye  are  trapt  at  last,' 

aroused 
Lancelot,  who  rushing  outward  lionlike 
Leapt  on  him,  and  hurl'd  him  headlong, 

and  he  fell 
Stunn'd,  and  his  creatures  took  and  bare 

him  off, 
And  all'  was  still :  then  she,  '  The  end  is 

come, 
And  I  am  shamed  for  ever ; '  and  he  said, 
\  Mine  be  the  shame;   mine  was  the  sin : 

but  rise, 
And  fly  to  my  strong  castle  overseas : 
There  will  I  hide  thee,  till  my  life  shall  end, 
There  hold  thee  with  my  life  against  the 

world.' 
She  answer'd,  '  Lancelot,  wilt  thou  hold 

me  so? 
Nay,  friend,  for  we  have  taken  our  fare- 

*  wells. 
Would  God  that  thou  couldst  hide  me 

from  myself! 
Mine  is  the  shame,  for  I  was  wife,  and  thou 
Unwedded :  yet  rise  now,  and  let  us  fly, 
For  I  will  draw  me  into  sanctuary, 
And  bide  my  doom.'     So  Lancelot  got 

her  horse, 
Set  her  thereon,  and  mounted  on  his  own, 
And  then  they  rode  to  the  divided  way, 
There  kiss'd,  and  parted  weeping:   for 

he  past, 

2G 


Love-loyal  to  the  least  wish  of  the  Queen, 
Back  to  his  land ;  but  she  to  Almesbury 
Fled  all  night  long  by  glimmering  waste 

and  weald, 
And  heard  the  Spirits  of  the  waste  and 

weald 
Moan  as  she  fled,  or  thought  she  heard 

them  moan : 
And  in  herself  she  moan'd,  'Too  late,  too 

late ! ' 
Till  in  the  cold  wind  that  foreruns  the 

morn, 
A  blot  in  heaven,  the  Raven,  flying  high, 
Croak'd,  and  she  thought,  '  He  spies  a 

field  of  death ; 
For  now  the  Heathen  of  the  Northern  Sea, 
Lured  by  the  crimes  and  frailties  of  the 

court, 
Begin  to  slay  the  folk,  and  spoil  the  land.' 

And  when  she  came  to  Almesbury  she 

spake 
There    to    the    nuns,   and    said,   J  Mine 

enemies 
Pursue  me,  but,  O  peaceful  Sisterhood, 
Receive,  and  yield  me  sanctuary,  nor  ask 
Her  name  to  whom  ye  yield  it,  till  her 

time 
To  tell  you : '  and  her  beauty,  grace  and 

power, 
Wrought  as  a  charm   upon   them,  and 

they  spared 
To  ask  it. 

So  the  stately  Queen  abode 
For  many  a  week,  unknown,  among  the 

nuns; 
Nor  with  them  mix'd,  nor  told  her  name, 

nor  sought, 
Wrapt   in   her   grief,  for   housel  or   for 

shrift, 
But  communed  only  with  the  little  maid, 
Who  pleased  her  with  a  babbling  heed- 
lessness 
Which  often  lured  her  from  herself;   but 

now, 
This  night,  a  rumour  wildly  blown  about 
Came,  that  Sir  Modred  had  usurp'd  the 

realm,« 
And  leagued  him  with  the  heathen,  while 

the  King 
Was  waging  war  on  Lancelot:  then  she 

thought, 


45o 


GUINEVERE. 


'  With  what  a  hate  the  people  and  the 

King 
Must  hate  me,'  and  bow'd   down  upon 

her  hands 
Silent,  until  the  little  maid,  who  brook'd 
No  silence,  brake  it,  uttering,  '  Late  !  so 

late! 
What  hour,  I  wonder,  now?'  and  when 

she  drew 
No  answer,  by  and  by  began  to  hum 
An  air  the  nuns  had  taught  her,  '  Late, 

so  late ! ' 
Which  when  she  heard,  the  Queen  look'd 

up,  and  said, 
'  O  maiden,  if  indeed  ye  list  to  sing, 
Sing,  and  unbind  my  heart  that  I  may 

weep.' 
Whereat   full   willingly   sang   the   little 

maid. 

*  Late,   late,   so   late !    and    dark    the 

night  and  chill ! 
Late,  late,  so  late  !  but  we  can  enter  still. 
Too  late,  too  late !  ye  cannot  enter  now. 

'  No   light   had  we :    for   that  we   do 

repent; 
And  learning  this,  the  bridegroom  will 

relent. 
Too  late,  too  late  !  ye  cannot  enter  now. 

'  No  light :  so  late  !  and  dark  and  chill 
the  night ! 
O  let  us  in,  that  we  may  find  the  light ! 
Too  late,  too  late  :  ye  cannot  enter  now. 

'  Have  we  not  heard  the  bridegroom  is 
so  sweet? 
O  let  us  in,  tho'  late,  to  kiss  his  feet ! 
No,  no,  too  late !  ye  cannot  enter  now.' 

So  sang  the  novice,  while  full  passion- 
ately, 
Her  head  upon  her  hands,  remembering 
Her  thought  when  first  she  came,  wept 

the  sad  Queen. 
Then  said  the  little  novice  prattling  to 
her, 

i 

•  O  pray  you,   noble   lady,    weep   no 

more; 
But  let  my  words,  the  words  of  one  so 
small, 


Who   knowing   nothing    knows    but   to 

obey, 
And  if  I  do  not  there  is  penance  given  — 
Comfort  your  sorrows;    for  they  do  not 

flow 
From   evil   done;     right   sure   am   I   of 

that, 
Who  see  your  tender  grace  and  stateli- 

ness. 
But  weigh  your  sorrows  with  our  lord  the 

King's, 
And  weighing  find  them  less;  for  gone  is 

he 
To  wage  grim  war  against  Sir  Lancelot 

there, 
Round  that  strong  castle  where  he  holds 

the  Queen; 
And  Modred  whom  he  left  in  charge  of 

all, 
The  traitor  —  Ah  sweet  lady,  the  King's 

grief 
For  his  own  self,  and  his  own  Queen,  and 

realm, 
Must  needs  be  thrice  as  great  as  any  of 

ours. 
For  me,  I  thank  the  saints,  I  am  not 

great. 
For  if  there  ever  come  a  grief  to  me 
I  cry  my  cry  in  silence,  and  have  done. 
None  knows  it,  and  my  tears  have  brought 

me  good : 
But  even  were  the  griefs  of  little  ones 
As  great  as  those  of  great  ones,  yet  this 

grief 
Is  added  to  the  griefs  the  great   must 

bear, 
That  howsoever  much  they  may  desire 
Silence,   they    cannot    weep    behind    a 

cloud : 
As  even  here  they  talk  at  Almesbury 
About  the  good  King  and   his  wicked 

Queen, 
And  were  I  such  a  King  with  such  a 

Queen, 
Well  might  I  wish  to  veil  her  wicked- 
ness, 
But  were  I  such  a  King,  it  could  not  be.' 

Then  to  her  own  sad  heart  mutter'd  the 

Queen, 
'  Will  the  child  kill  me  with  her  innocent 

talk?' 
But  openly  she  answer'd,  \  Must  not  I, 


GUINEVERE. 


45' 


If  this  false  traitor  have  displaced  his 

lord, 
Grieve  with  the  common  grief  of  all  the 

realm?' 

1  Yea,'    said    the    maid,    '  this    is    all 

woman's  grief, 
That  she  is  woman,  whose  disloyal  life 
Hath  wrought   confusion   in   the   Table 

Round 
Which  good  King  Arthur  founded,  years 

ago, 
With  signs  and  miracles  and  wonders, 

there 
At  Camelot,  ere  the  coming  of  the  Queen.' 

Then  thought  the  Queen  within  herself 

again, 
'  Will  the  child  kill  me  with  her  foolish 

prate?' 
But  openly  she  spake  and  said  to  her, 
*  O  little  maid,  shut  in  by  nunnery  walls, 
What  canst   thou   know  of  Kings   and 

Tables  Round, 
Or  what  of  signs  and  wonders,  but  the 

signs 
And  simple  miracles  of  thy  nunnery?  ' 

To  whom  the  little  novice  garrulously, 
'  Yea,  but  I  know :  the  land  was  full  of 

signs 
And   wonders   ere   the   coming    of    the 

Queen. 
So  said  my  father,  and  himself  was  knight 
Of  the  great  Table  —  at  the  founding  of  it; 
And  rode  thereto  from  Lyonesse,  and  he 

said 
That  as  he  rode,  an  hour  or  maybe  twain 
After  the  sunset,  down  the  coast,  he  heard 
Strange  music,  and  he  paused,  and  turn- 
ing—  there, 
All  down  the  lonely  coast  of  Lyonesse, 
Each  with  a  beacon-star  upon  his  head, 
And  with  a  wild  sea-light  about  his  feet, 
He  saw  them  —  headland  after  headland 

flame 
Far  on  into  the  rich  heart  of  the  west : 
And  in  the  light  the  white  mermaiden 

swam, 
And   strong  man-breasted   things  stood 

from  the  sea, 
And  sent  a  deep  sea-voice  thro'  all  the 

land, 


To  which  the  little  elves  of  chasm  and 

cleft 
Made  answer,  sounding   like   a   distant 

horn. 
So  said  my  father  —  yea,  and    further- 
more, 
Next  morning,  while  he  passed  the  dim- 
lit  woods, 
Himself  beheld  three  spirits  mad  with  joy 
Come  dashing   down  on  a  tall  wayside 

flower, 
That  shook  beneath  them,  as  the  thistle 

shakes 
When  three  gray  linnets  wrangle  for  the 

seed: 
And  still  at  evenings  on  before  his  horse 
The  flickering  fairy-circle  wheel'd   and 

broke 
Flying,  and  link'd  again,  and  wheel'd  and 

broke 
Flying,  for  all  the  land  was  full  of  life. 
And  when  at  last  he  came  to  Camelot, 
A  wreath  of  airy  dancers  hand-in-hand 
Swung  round  the  lighted  lantern  of  the 

hall; 
And  in  the  hall  itself  was  such  a  feast 
As  never  man  had  dream'd ;    for  every 

knight 
Had  whatsoever  meat  he  long'd  for  served 
By  hands  unseen;  and  even  as  he  said 
Down  in  the  cellars  merry  bloated  things 
Shoulder'd  the  spigot,  straddling  on  the 

butts 
While  the  wine  ran :  so  glad  were  spirits 

and  men 
Before  the  coming  of  the  sinful  Queen.' 

Then  spake  the  Queen  and  somewhat, 

bitterly, 
'Were  they  so  glad?  ill  prophets  were 

they  all, 
Spirits  and  men :    could  none   of  them 

foresee, 
Not  even  thy  wise  father  with  his  signs 
And  wonders,  what  has  fall'n  upon  the 

realm  ? ' 

To  whom  the  novice  garrulously  again, 
'Yea,  one,  a  bard;   of  whom  my  father 

said, 
Full  many  a  noble  war-song  had  he  sung, 
Ev'n    in    the    presence    of   an    enemy's 

fleet, 


452 


GUINEVERE. 


Between  the  steep  cliff  and  the  coming 

wave; 
And  many  a  mystic  lay  of  life  and  death 
Had   chanted  on  the  smoky  mountain- 
tops, 
When  round  him  bent  the  spirits  of  the 

hills 
With  all  their  dewy  hair  blown  back  like 

flame : 
So  said  my  father  —  and  that  night  the 

bard 
Sang   Arthur's  glorious  wars,  and   sang 

the  King 
As  wellnigh  more  than  man,  and  rail'd 

at  those 
Who  call'd  him  the  false  son  of  Gorlols : 
For  there  was  no  man  knew  from  whence 

he  carae^ 
But  after  tempest,  when  the  long  wave 

broke 
All  down  the  thundering  shores  of  Bude 

and  Bos, 
There  came  a  day  as  still  as  heaven,  and 

then 
They  found  a  naked  child  upon  the  sands 
Of  dark  Tintagil  by  the  Cornish  sea; 
And  that  was  Arthur;   and  they  foster'd 

him 
Till  he  by  miracle  was  approven  King : 
And  that  his  grave  should  be  a  mystery 
From  all  men,  like  his  birth;   and  could 

he  find 
A  woman  in  her  womanhood  as  great 
As   he  was   in   his   manhood,  then,  he 

sang, 
The  twain  together  well  might   change 

the  world. 
But  even  in  the  middle  of  his  song 
He  falter'd,  and  his  hand  fell  from  the 

harp, 
And  pale  he  turn'd,  and  reel'd,  and  would 

have  fall'n, 
But  that  they  stay'd  him  up;  nor  would 

he  tell 
His  vision;  but  what  doubt  that  he  fore- 
saw 
This   evil  work   of    Lancelot    and    the 

Queen?' 

Then  thought  the  Queen,  '  Lo !    they 
have  set  her  on, 
Our    simple-seeming    Abbess    and    her 
nuns, 


To  play  upon  me,'  and  bow'd  her  head 

nor  spake. 
Whereat  the  novice  crying,  with  clasp'd 

hands, 
Shame  on  her  own  garrulity  garrulously, 
Said   the  good    nuns  would   check   her 

gadding  tongue 
Full  often,  '  and,  sweet  lady,  if  I  seem 
To  vex  an  ear  too  sad  to  listen  to  me, 
Unmannerly,  with  prattling  and  the  tales 
Which  my  good  father  told   me,  check 

me  too 
Nor  let  me  shame  my  father's  memory, 

one 
Of  noblest  manners,  tho'  himself  would 

say 
Sir  Lancelot  had  the  noblest;    and  he 

died, 
Kill'd  in  a  tilt,  come  next,  five  summers 

back, 
And  left  me;   but  of  others  who  remain, 
And  of  the  two  first-famed  for  courtesy  — 
And  pray  you  check  me  if  I  ask  amiss  — 
But  pray  you,  which  had  noblest,  while 

you  moved 
Among  them,  Lancelot  or  our  lord  the 

King?' 

Then  the  pale  Queen  look'd  up  and 

answer'd  her, 
'  Sir  Lancelot,  as  became  a  noble  knight, 
Was  gracious  to  all  ladies,  and  the  same 
In  open  battle  or  the  tilting-field 
Forbore  his  own  advantage,  and  the  King 
In  open  battle  or  the  tilting-field 
Forbore  his   own  advantage,  and  these 

two 
Were  the  most  nobly-manner'd  men  of 

all; 
For  manners  are  not  idle,  but  the  fruit 
Of  loyal  nature,  and  of  noble  mind.' 

'  Yea,'  said  the  maid,  •  be  manners  such 
fair  fruit? 
Then  Lancelot's  needs  must  be  a  thou- 
sand-fold 
Less  noble,  being,  as  all  rumour  runs, 
The  most  disloyal  friend  in  all  the  world.' 

To  which  a  mournful  answer  made  the 
Queen : 
\  O  closed  about  by  narrowing  nunnery- 
walls, 


GUINEVERE. 


453 


What  knowest  thou  of  the  world,  and  all 
its  lights 

And  shadows,  all  the  wealth  and  all  the 
woe? 

If  ever  Lancelot,  that  most  noble  knight, 

Were  for  one  hour  less  noble  than  him- 
self, 

Pray  for  him  that  he  scape  the  doom  of 
fire, 

And  weep  for  her  who  drew  him  to  his 
doom.' 

1  Yea,'  said  the  little  novice, '  I  pray  for 

both; 
But  I  should  all  as  soon  believe  that  his, 
Sir   Lancelot's,   were    as    noble   as   the 

King's, 
As    I    could   think,   sweet  .  lady,    yours 

would  be 
Such   as  they  are,  were   you  the   sinful 

Queen.' 

So  she,  like  many  another  babbler,  hurt 
Whom   she   would   soothe,  and   harm'd 

where  she  would  heal; 
For  here  a  sudden  flush  of  wrathful  heat 
Fired  all  the  pale  face  of  the  Queen,  who 

cried,' 
'  Such  as  thou  art  be  never  maiden  more 
For  ever  !  thou  their  tool,  set  on  to  plague 
And  play  upon,  and  harry  me,  petty  spy 
And  traitress.'     When  that  storm  of  anger 

brake 
From  Guinevere,  aghast  the  maiden  rose, 
White  as  her  veil,  and  stood  before  the 

Queen 
As  tremulously  as  foam  upon  the  beach 
Stands  in  a  wind,  ready  to  break  and  fly, 
And  when  the  Queen  had  added  'Get 

thee  hence,' 
Fled  frighted.     Then  that  other  left  alone 
Sigh'd,  and  began  to  gather  heart  again, 
Saying  in  herself,    'The  simple,  fearful 

child 
Meant  nothing,  but  my  own  too-fearful 

guilt, 
Simpler  than  any  child,  betrays  itself. 
But  help  me,  heaven,  for  surely  I  repent. 
For   what    is    true    repentance    but    in 

thought  — 
Not  ev'n  in  inmost  thought  to  think  again 
The  sins  that  made  the  past  so  pleasant 

to  us : 


And  I  have  sworn  never  to  see  him  more, 
To  see  him  more.' 

And  ev'n  in  saying  this, 
Her  memory  from  old  habit  of  the  mind 
Went   slipping    back    upon    the  golden 

days 
In  which  she  saw  him  first,  when  Lance- 
lot came, 
Reputed  the  best   knight   and  goodliest 

man, 
Ambassador*,  to  lead  her  to  his  lord 
Arthur,  and  led  her  forth,  and  far  ahead 
Of  his  and  her  retinue  moving,  they, 
Rapt  in  sweet  talk  or  lively,  all  on  love 
And  sport  and  tilts  and  pleasure,  (for  the 

time 
Was  maytime,  and  as   yet   no   sin  was 

dream'd,) 
Rode  under  groves  that  look'd  a  paradise 
Of  blossom,  over  sheets  of  hyacinth 
That  seem'd  the  heavens  upbreaking  thro' 

the  earth, 
And  on  from  hill  to  hill,  and  every  day 
Beheld  at  noon  in  some  delicious  dale 
The  silk  pavilions  of  King  Arthur  raised 
For  brief  repast  or  afternoon  repose 
By  couriers  gone  before;   and  on  again, 
Till  yet  once  more  ere  set  of  sun  they 

saw  * 

The  Dragon  of  the  great  Pendragonship, 
That   crown'd  the  state  pavilion  of  the 

King, 
Blaze  by  the  rushing  brook  or  silent  well. 

But  when  the  Queen  immersed  in  such 

a  trance, 
And  moving  thro'  the  past  unconsciously, 
Came  to  that  point  where  first  she  saw 

the  King 
Ride  toward  her  from  the  city,  sigh'd  to 

find 
Her  journey  done,  glanced  at  him,  thought 

him  cold, 
High,  self-contain'd,  and  passionless,  not 

like  him, 
'Not    like    my    Lancelot'  —  while    she 

brooded  thus 
And    grew   half-guilty   in   her   thoughts 

again, 
There  rode  an  armed  warrior  to  the  doors. 
A  murmuring  whisper  thro'  the  nunnery 

ran, 


454 


GUINEVERE. 


Then  on  a  sudden  a  cry,  '  The  King.' 

She  sat 
Stiff-stricken,  listening;   but  when  armed 

feet 
Thro'  the   long  gallery  from   the  outer 

doors 
Rang  coming,  prone  from  off  her  seat 

she  fell, 
And  grovell'd  with  her  face  against  the 

floor: 
There   with    her    milkwhite    arms    and 

shadowy  hair 
She  made  her  face  a  darkness  from  the 

King : 
And  in  the  darkness   heard  his   armed 

feet 
Pause  by  her;   then  came  silence,  then  a 

voice, 
Monotonous  and  hollow  like  a  Ghost's 
Denouncing  judgment,  but  tho'  changed, 

the  King's : 

« Liest  thou  here  so  low,  the  child  of 

one 
I    honour'd,    happy,    dead    before    thy 

shame? 
Well  is  it  that  no  child  is  born  of  thee. 
The  children  born  of  thee  are  sword  and 

fire, 
Red  ruin,  and  the  breaking  up  of  laws, 
The  craft   of  kindred   and  the    Godless 

hosts 
Of  heathen  swarming  o'er  the  Northern 

Sea; 
Whom  I,  while  yet  Sir  Lancelot,  my  right 

arm, 
The  mightiest  of  my  knights,  abode  with 

me, 
Have    everywhere  about    this   land    of 

Christ 
In  twelve   great    battles    ruining    over- 
thrown. 
And  knowest  thou  now  from  whence  I 

come  —  from  him, 
From  waging  bitter  war  with  him :  and 

he, 
That  did  not  shun  to  smite  me  in  worse 

way, 
Had  yet  that  grace  of  courtesy  in  him  left, 
He  spared  to  lift  his  hand  against  the  King 
Who   made  him   knight :    but    many   a 

knight  was  slain; 
And  many  more,  and  all  his  kith  and  kin 


Clave  to  him,  and  abode  in  his  own  land 
And   many  more  when    Modred   raised 

revolt, 
Forgetful  of  their  troth  and  fealty,  clave 
To  Modred,  and  a  remnant  stays  with  me. 
And  of  this  remnant  will  I  leave  a  part, 
True  men  who  love  me  still,  for  whom  I 

live, 
To  guard  thee  in  the  wild  hour  coming  on, 
Lest  but  a  hair  of  this  low  head  be  harm'd. 
Fear  not :  thou  shalt  be  guarded  till  my 

death. 
Howbeit  I  know,  if  ancient  prophecies 
Have  err'd  not,  that  I  march  to  meet  my 

doom. 
Thou  hast  not  made  my  life  so  sweet  to 

me, 
That  I  the  King  should  greatly  care  to 

live; 
For  thou  hast  spoilt  the  purpose  of  my  life. 
Bear  with  me  for  the  last  time  while  I 

show, 
Ev'n  for  thy  sake,  the  sin  which  thou  hast 

sinn'd. 
For  when  the  Roman  left  us,  and  their  law 
Relax'd  its  hold  upon  us,  and  the  ways 
Were  fill'd  with  rapine,  here  and  there  a 

deed 
Of   prowess  done    redress'd  a  random 

wrong. 
But  I  was  first  of  all  the  kings  who  drew 
The  Knighthood-errant  of  this  realm  and 

all 
The   realms   together    under  me,   their 

Head, 
In  that  fair  Order  of  my  Table  Round, 
A  glorious  company,  the  flower  of  men, 
To  serve  as  model  for  the  mighty  world, 
And  be  the  fair  beginning  of  a  time. 
I  made  them  lay  their  hands  in  mine  and 

swear 
To  reverence  the  King,  as  if  he  were 
Their  conscience,  and  their  conscience  as 

their  King, 
To  break  the   heathen  and  uphold  the 

Christ, 
To  ride  abroad  redressing  human  wrongs, 
To  speak  no  slander,  no,  nor  listen  to  it, 
To  honour  his  own  word  as  if  his  God's, 
To  lead  sweet  lives  in  purest  chastity, 
To  love  one  maiden  only,  cleave  to  her, 
And  worship  her  by  years  of  noble  deeds, 
Until  they  won  her;   for  indeed  I  knew 


GUINEVERE. 


455 


Of  no  more  subtle  master  under  heaven 
Than  is  the  maiden  passion  for  a  maid, 
Not  only  to  keep  down  the  base  in  man, 
But   teach   high   thought,    and   amiable 

words 
And  courtliness,  and  the  desire  of  fame, 
And  love  of  truth,  and  all  that  makes  a 

man. 
And  all  this  throve  before  I  wedded  thee, 
Believing,  "  lo  mine  helpmate,  one  to  feel 
My  purpose  and  rejoicing  in  my  joy." 
Then  came  thy  shameful  sin  with  Lance- 
lot; 
Then  came  the  sin  of  Tristram  and  Isolt; 
Then  others,  following  these  my  mightiest 

knights, 
And   drawing   foul   ensample   from   fair 

names, 
Sinn'd  also,  till  the  loathsome  opposite 
Of  all  my  heart  had  destined  did  obtain, 
And  all  thro'  thee  !  so  that  this  life  of  mine 
I  guard  as  God's   high  gift  from  scathe 

and  wrong,    ' 
Not  greatly  care  to  lose ;  but  rather  think 
How  sad  it  were  for  Arthur,  should  he  live, 
To  sit  once  more  within  his  lonely  hall, 
And    miss   the   wonted   number   of   my 

knights, 
And  miss  to  hear  high  talk  of  noble  deeds 
As  in  the  golden  days  before  thy  sin. 
For  which  of  us,  who  might  be  left,  could 

speak 
Of  the  pure  heart,  nor  seem  to  glance  at 

thee? 
And  in  thy  bowers  of  Camelot  or  of  Usk 
Thy  shadow  still  would  glide  from  room 

to  room, 
And  I  should  evermore  be  vext  with  thee 
In   hanging   robe   or  vacant   ornament, 
Or  ghostly  footfall  echoing  on  the  stair. 
For  think  not,  tho'  thou  wouldst  not  love 

thy  lord, 
Thy  lord  has  wholly  lost  his  love  for  thee. 
I  am  not  made  of  so  slight  elements. 
Yet   must  I  leave   thee,  woman,  to  thy 

shame. 
I  hold  that  man  the  worst  of  public  foes 
Who  either  for  his  own  or  children's  sake, 
To  save  his  blood  from  scandal,  lets  the 

wife 
Whom  he  knows  false,  abide  and  rule  the 

house  : 
For  being  thro'  his  cowardice  allow'd 


Her  station,  taken  everywhere  for  pure, 
She  like  a  new  disease,  unknown  to  men, 
Creeps,  no  precaution  used,  among  the 

crowd, 
Makes  wicked  lightnings  of  her  eyes,  and 

saps 
The  fealty  of  our  friends,  and  stirs  the 

pulse 
With  devil's  leaps,  and  poisons  half  the 

young. 
Worst  of  the  worst  were  that  man  he  that 

reigns ! 
Better  the  King's  waste  hearth  and  aching 

heart 
Than  thou  reseated  in  thy  place  of  light, 
The   mockery  of  my  people,  and  their 

bane.' 

He  paused,  and  in  the  pause  she  crept 

an  inch 
Nearer,  and  laid  her  hands  about  his  feet. 
Far  off  a  solitary  trumpet  blew. 
Then  waiting  by  the  doors  the  warhorse 

neigh'd 
As  at  a  friend's  voice,  and  he  spake  again : 

1  Yet  think  not  that  I  come  to  urge  thy 

crimes, 
I  did  not  come  to  curse  thee,  Guinevere, 
I,  whose  vast  pity  almost  makes  me  die 
To  see  thee,  laying  there  thy  golden  head, 
My  pride  in  happier  summers,  at  my  feet. 
The  wrath  which  forced  my  thoughts  on 

that  fierce  law, 
The   doom  of  treason  and  the   flaming 

death 
(When  first  I  learnt  thee  hidden  here),  is 

past. 
The  pang  —  which  while  I  weigh'd  thy 

heart  with  one 
Too  wholly  true  to  dream  untruth  in  thee, 
Made  my  tears  burn  —  is  also  past  —  in 

part. 
And  all  is  past,  the  sin  is  sinn'd  and  I, 
Lo !  I  forgive  thee,  as  Eternal  God 
Forgives :  do  thou  for  thine  own  soul  the 

rest. 
But  how  to  take  last  leave  of  all  I  loved? 
O  golden  hair,  with  which  I  used  to  play 
Not  knowing !    O  imperial-moulded  form, 
And  beauty  such  as  never  woman  wore, 
Until  it  came  a  kingdom's   curse   with 

thee  — 


456 


GUINEVERE. 


I  cannot  touch  thy  lips,  they  are  not  mine, 
But  Lancelot's  :  nay,  they  never  were  the 

King's. 
I  cannot  take  thy  hand;  that  too  is  flesh, 
And  in  the  flesh  thou  hast  sinn'd;   and 

mine  own  flesh, 
Here  looking  down  on  thine  polluted,  cries 
"  I  loathe  thee  :  "  yet  not  less,  O  Guinevere, 
For  I  was  ever  virgin  save  for  thee, 
My  love  thro'  flesh  hath  wrought  into  my 

life 
So  far,  that  my  doom  is,  I  love  thee  still. 
Let  no  man  dream  but  that  I  love  thee  still. 
Perchance,  and  so  thou  purify  thy  soul, 
And  so  thou  lean  on  our  fair  father  Christ, 
Hereafter  in  that  world  where  all  are  pure 
We  two  may  meet  before  high  God,  and 

thou 
Wilt  spring  to  me,  and  claim  me  thine, 

and  know 
I  am  thine  husband  —  not  a  smaller  soul, 
Nor  Lancelot,  nor  another.     Leave  me 

that, 
I  charge  thee,  my  last  hope.     Now  must 

I  hence. 
Thro'  the  thick  night  I  hear  the  trumpet 

blow: 
They  summon  me  their  King  to  lead  mine 

hosts 
Far  down  to  that  great  battle  in  the  west, 
Where  I  must  strike  against  the  man  they 

call 
My  sister's  son  —  no  kin  of  mine,  who 

leagues 
With  Lords  of  the  White  Horse,  heathen, 

and  knights, 
Traitors  —  and  strike  him  dead,  and  meet 

myself 
Death,  or  I  know  not  what  mysterious 

doom. 
And  thou  remaining  here  wilt  learn  the 

event; 
But  hither  shall  I  never  come  again, 
Never    lie    by   thy   side;     see   thee   no 

more  — 
Farewell !  * 

And  while  she  grovell'd  at  his  feet, 
She  felt  the  King's  breath  wander  o'er 

her  neck, 
And  in  the  darkness  o'er  her  fallen  head, 
Perceived  the  waving  of  his  hands  that 

blest. 


Then,  listening  till  those  armed  steps 

were  gone, 
Rose  the  pale  Queen,  and  in  her  anguish 

found 
The   casement:    ' peradventure,'  so   she 

thought, 
1  If  I  might  see  his  face,  and  not  be  seen.' 
And  lo,  he  sat  on  horseback  at  the  door  ! 
And  near  him  the  sad  nuns  with  each  a 

light 
Stood,  and  he  gave  them  charge  about 

the  Queen, 
To  guard  and  foster  her  for  evermore. 
And  while  he  spake  to  these  his  helm 

was  lower'd, 
To  which   for  crest  the  golden    dragon 

clung 
Of  Britain;   so  she  did  not  see  the  face, 
Which  then  was  as  an  angel's,  but  she 

saw, 
Wet  with  the  mists  and  smitten  by  the 

lights, 
The  Dragon  of  the  great  Pendragonship 
Blaze,  making  all  the  night  a  steam  of 

fire. 
And  even  then  he  turn'd;   and  more  and 

more 
The  moony  vapour  rolling  round    the 

King, 
Who  seem'd  the  phantom  of  a  Giant  in 

it, 
Enwound   him  fold   by  fold,  and  made 

him  gray 
And  grayer,  till  himself  became  as  mist 
Before  her,  moving  ghostlike  to  his  doom. 

Then  she  stretch'd  out  her  arms  and 
cried  aloud 

1 0  Arthur  ! '  there  her  voice  brake  sud- 
denly, 

Then  —  as  a  stream  that  spouting  from 
a  cliff 

Fails  in  mid-air,  but  gathering  at  the  base 

Re-makes  itself,  and  flashes  down  the 
vale  — 

Went  on  in  passionate  utterance : 

1  Gone  —  my  lord ! 
Gone  thro'  my  sin  to  slay  and  to  be  slain  ! 
And   he   forgave  me,  and   I   could   not 

speak. 
Farewell?     I  should   have  answer'd  his 

farewell. 


GUINEVERE. 


457 


His  mercy  choked  me.     Gone,  my  lord 

the  King, 
My  own  true  lord !  how  dare  I  call  him 

mine  ? 
The  shadow  of  another  cleaves  to  me, 
And  makes  me  one  pollution:    he,  the 

King, 
CalPd  me  polluted :  shall  I  kill  myself? 
What  help  in  that?     I  cannot  kill  my 

sin, 
If  soul  be  soul;   nor  can  I  kill  my  shame; 
No,  nor  by  living  can  I  live  it  down. 
The  days  will  grow  to  weeks,  the  weeks 

to  months, 
The   months   will   add    themselves    and 

make  the  years, 
The  years  will  roll  into  the  centuries, 
And  mine  will  ever  be  a  name  of  scorn. 
I  must  not  dwell  on  that  defeat  of  fame. 
Let  the  world   be;    that  is   but  of  the 

world. 
What  else?  what  hope?     I  think  there 

was  a  hope, 
Except   he  mock'd   me  when  he  spake 

of  hope; 
His   hope   he  call'd    it;     but   he  never 

mocks, 
For  mockery  is  the  fume  of  little  hearts. 
And  blessed  be  the  King,  who  hath  for- 
given 
My  wickedness  to  him,  and  left  me  hope 
That  in  mine  own  heart  1  can  live  down 

sin 
And  be  his  mate  hereafter  in  the  heavens 
Before  high  God.     Ah,  great  and  gentle 

lord, 
Who  wast,  as  is  the  conscience  of  a  saint 
Among     his    warring    senses,     to     thy 

knights  — 
To  whom  my  false  voluptuous  pride,  that 

took 
Full  easily  all  impressions  from  below, 
Would  not  look  up,  or  half-despised  the 

height 
To  which  I  would  not.  or  1  could  not 

climb  — 
I  thought   I  could  not   breathe  in  that 

fine  air 
That  pure  severity  of  perfect  light  — 
I  yearn'd  for  warmth  and  colour  which 

I  found 
In  Lancelot  —  now  I  see  thee  what  thou 

art, 


Thou  art  the  highest  and  most   human 

too, 
Not  Lancelot  nor  another.     Is  there  none 
Will   tell   the  King  I   love  him  tho'  so 

late? 
Now  —  ere  he  goes  to  the  great  Battle? 

none: 
Myself  must  tell  him  in  that  purer  life, 
But  now  it  were  too  daring.    Ah  my  God, 
What  might  I  not  have  made  of  thy  fair 

world, 
Had   I   but   loved   thy  highest  creature 

here? 
It  was  my  duty  to  have  loved  the  highest : 
It  surely  was  my  profit  had  I  known : 
It  would  have  been  my  pleasure  had  I 

seen. 
We  needs  must   love  the  highest  when 

we  see  it, 
Not  Lancelot,  nor  another.' 

Here  her  hand 
Grasp'd,  made   her   vail   her  eyes:    she 

look'd  and  saw 
The  novice,  weeping,  suppliant,  and  said 

to  her, 
'  Yea,  little  maid,  for  am  /  not  forgiven  ? ' 
Then  glancing  up  beheld  the  holy  nuns 
All  round  her,  weeping;   and  her  heart 

was  loosed 
Within  her,  and  she  wept  with  these  and 

said, 

1  Ye  know  me  then,  that  wicked  one, 
who  broke 
The  vast  design  and  purpose  of  the  King. 

0  shut  me  round  with  narrowing  nunnery- 

walls, 
Meek   maidens,  from   the  voices  crying 
"  shame." 

1  must  not  scorn  myself:    he   loves  me 

still. 
Let  no  one  dream  but  that  he  loves  me 

still. 
So  let  me,  if  you  do  not  shudder  at  me, 
Nor  shun  to  call  me  sister,  dwell  with 

you; 
Wear   black    and  white,  and   be  a  nun 

like  you, 
Fast  with  your  fasts,  not   feasting  with 

your  feasts; 
Grieve  with  your  griefs,  not  grieving  at 

your  joys, 


458 


THE  PASSING    OF  ARTHUR. 


But  not  rejoicing;  mingle  with  your  rites; 
Pray  and  be  pray'd  for;   lie  before  your 

shrines; 
Do  each  low  office  of  your  holy  house; 
Walk   your  dim  cloister,  and   distribute 

dole 
To  poor  sick  people,  richer  in  His  eyes 
Who  ransom'd  us,  and  haler  too  than  I; 
And  treat  their  loathsome  hurts  and  heal 

mine  own; 
And   so  wear  out  in  almsdeed   and   in 

prayer 
The    sombre    close    of   that    voluptuous 

day, 
Which  wrought  the  ruin  of  my  lord  the 

King.' 


She  said :  they  took  her  to  themselves; 
and  she 

Still  hoping,  fearing, '  is  it  yet  too  late?' 

Dwelt  with  them,  till  in  time  their  Ab- 
bess died. 

Then  she,  for  her  good  deeds  and  her 
pure  life, 

And  for  the  power  of  ministration  in  her, 

And  likewise  for  the  high  rank  she  had 
borne, 

Was  chosen  Abbess,  there,  an  Abbess, 
lived 

For  three  brief  years,  and  there,  an  Ab- 
bess, past 

To  where  beyond  these  voices  there  is 
peace. 


End  of  'The  Round  Table.' 


THE  PASSING  OF  ARTHUR. 


That  story  which  the  bold  Sir  Bedivere, 
First   made   and   latest   left   of    all   the 

knights, 
Told,  when  the  man  was  no  more  than  a 

voice 
In  the  white  winter  of  his  age,  to  those 
With  whom  he  dwelt,  new  faces,  other 

minds. 

For  on  their  march  to  westward,  Bedi- 
vere, 

Who  slowly  paced  among  the  slumbering 
host, 

Heard  in  his  tent  the  moanings  of  the 
King: 

1 1  found  Him  in   the  shining  of  the 

stars, 
I  mark'd  Him  in  the  flowering  of  His 

fields, 
But  in  His  ways  with  men  I  find  Him  not. 
I  waged  His  wars,  and  now  I  pass  and  die. 
O  me  !  for  why  is  all  around  us  here 
As  if  some  lesser  god  had  made  the  world, 
But  had  not  force  to  shape  it  as  he  would, 
Till  the  High  God  behold  it  from  beyond, 
And  enter  it,  and  make  it  beautiful? 
Or  else  as  if  the  world  were  wholly  fair, 
But  that  these  eyes  of  men  are  dense  and 

dim, 
And  have  not  power  to  see  it  as  it  is : 


Perchance,  because  we   see  not  to  the 

close ;  — 
For  I,  being  simple,  thought  to  work  His 

will, 
And  have  but  stricken  with  the  sword  in 

vain; 
And  all  whereon  I  lean'd  in  wife  and 

friend 
Is  traitor  to  my  peace,  and  all  my  realm 
Reels  back  into  the  beast,  and  is  no  more. 
My  God,  thou  hast  forgotten  me  in  my 

death  : 
Nay — God  my  Christ  —  I  pass  but  shall 

not  die.' 

Then,  ere  that  last  weird  battle  in  the 
west, 
There  came  on  Arthur  sleeping,  Gawain 

kill'd 
In  Lancelot's  war,  the  ghost  of  Gawain 

blown 
Along  a  wandering  wind,  and  past  his  ear 
Went  shrilling,  •  Hollow,  hollow  all  de- 
light ! 
Hail,  King !  to-morrow  thou  shalt  pass 

away. 
Farewell !  there  is  an  isle  of  rest  for  thee. 
And  I  am  blown  along  a  wandering  wind, 
And  hollow,  hollow,  hollow  all  delight.' 
And  fainter  onward,  like  wild  birds  that 
change 


THE  PASSING    OF  ARTHUR. 


459 


Their  season  in  the  night  and  wail  their 

way 
From  cloud  to  cloud,  down  the  long  wind 

the  dream 
ShrilPd;   but  in  going  mingled  with  dim 

cries 
Far  in  the  moonlit  haze  among  the  hills, 
As  of  some  lonely  city  sack'd  by  night, 
When  all  is  lost,  and  wife  and  child  with 

wail 
Pass  to  new  lords;   and  Arthur  woke  and 

call'd, 
'  Who  spake  ?     A  dream.     O  light  upon 

the  wind, 
Thine,  Gawain,  was  the  voice  —  are  these 

dim  cries 
Thine  ?  or  doth  all  that  haunts  the  waste 

and  wild 
Mourn,  knowing  it  will  go  along   with 

me?' 

This  heard  the  bold  Sir  Bedivere  and 

spake : 
*  O  me,  my  King,  let  pass  whatever  will, 
Elves,  and  the  harmless  glamour  of  the 

field; 
But  in  their  stead  thy  name  and  glory 

cling 
To  all  high  places  like  a  golden  cloud 
For  ever :  but  as  yet  thou  shalt  not  pass. 
Light  was  Gawain  in  life,  and  light  in 

death 
Is  Gawain,  for  the  ghost  is  as  the  man; 
And  care  not  thou  for  dreams  from  him, 

but  rise  — 
I  hear  the  steps  of  Modred  in  the  west, 
And  with  him  many  of  thy  people,  and 

knights 
Once  thine,  whom  thou  hast  loved,  but 

grosser  grown 
Than  heathen,  spitting  at  their  vows  and 

thee. 
Right  well  in  heart  they  know  thee  for 

the  King. 
Arise,  go  forth  and  conquer  as  of  old.' 

Then  spake  King  Arthur  to  Sir  Bedi- 
vere: 
'  Far  other  is  this  battle  in  the  west 
Whereto  we  move,  than  when  we  strove 

in  youth, 
And  brake  the  petty  kings,  and  fought 
with  Rome, 


Or  thrust  the  heathen  from  the  Roman 
wall, 

And  shook  him  thro'  the  north.  Ill  doom 
is  mine 

To  war  against  my  people  and  my  knights. 

The  king  who  fights  his  people  fights  him- 
self. 

And  they  my  knights,  who  loved  me  once, 
the  stroke 

That  strikes  them  dead  is  as  my  death  to 
me. 

Yet  let  us  hence,  and  find  or  feel  a  way 

Thro'  this  blind  haze,  which  ever  since  I 
saw 

One  lying  in  the  dust  at  Almesbury, 

Hath  folded  in  the  passes  of  the  world.' 

Then  rose  the  King  and  moved  his 

host  by  night, 
And  ever  push'd  Sir  Modred,  league  by 

league, 
Back  to  the  sunset  bound  of  Lyonesse  — 
A  land  of  old  upheaven  from  the  abyss 
By  fire,  to  sink  into  the  abyss  again ; 
Where   fragments   of  forgotten  peoples 

dwelt, 
And  the  long  mountains  ended  in  a  coast 
Of  ever-shifting  sand,  and  far  away 
The  phantom  circle  of  a  moaning  sea. 
There  the  pursuer  could  pursue  no  more, 
And  he  that  fled  no  further  fly  the  King; 
And  there,  that  day  when  the  great  light 

of  heaven 
Burn'd  at  his  lowest  in  the  rolling  year, 
On  the  waste  sand  by  the  waste  sea  they 

closed. 
Nor  ever  yet  had  Arthur  fought  a  fight 
Like  this  last,  dim,  weird  battle  of  the 

west. 
A  deathwhite  mist  slept  over  sand  and 

sea: 
Whereof  the  chill,  to  him  who  breathed 

it,  drew 
Down  with  his  blood,  till  all  his  heart  was 

cold 
With  formless  fear;   and  ev'n  on  Arthur 

fell 
Confusion,  since  he   saw  not  whom  he 

fought. 
For  friend  and  foe  were  shadows  in  the 

mist, 
And  friend  slew  friend  not  knowing  whom 

he  slew: 


460 


THE  PASSING    OF  ARTHUR. 


And  some  had  visions  out  of  golden  youth, 
And  some  beheld  the  faces  of  old  ghosts 
Look  in  upon  the  battle ;  and  in  the  mist 
Was  many  a  noble  deed,  many  a  base, 
And  chance  and  craft  and   strength  in 

single  fights, 
And  ever  and  anon  with  host  to  host 
Shocks,  and  the   splintering  spear,  the 

hard  mail  hewn, 
Shield-breakings,  and  the  clash  of  brands, 

the  crash 
Of  battleaxes   on  shatter'd   helms,   and 

shrieks 
After   the   Christ,  of  those  who  falling 

down 
Look'd  up  for  heaven,  and  only  saw  the 

mist; 
And  shouts  of  heathen  and  the  traitor 

knights, 
Oaths,  insult,  filth,  and  monstrous  blas- 
phemies, 
Sweat,  writhings,  anguish,  labouring  of 

the  lungs 
In  that  close  mist,  and  cryings  for  the 

light, 
Moans  of  the  dying,  and  voices  of  the 

dead. 

Last,  as  by  some  one  deathbed  after 

wail 
Of  suffering,  silence  follows,  or  thro'  death 
Or  deathlike  swoon,  thus  over  all  that 

shore, 
Save  for  some  whisper  of  the  seething 

seas, 
A  dead  hush  fell;   but  when  the  dolorous 

day 
Grew   drearier   toward    twilight   falling, 

came 
A  bitter  wind,  clear  from  the  North,  and 

blew 
The  mist  aside,  and  with  that  wind  the 

tide 
Rose,  and  the  pale  King  glanced  across 

the  field 
Of  battle  :  but  no  man  was  moving  there; 
Nor  any  cry  of  Christian  heard  thereon, 
Nor  yet  of  heathen;   only  the  wan  wave 
Brake  in  among  dead  faces,  to  and  fro 
Swaying  the  helpless  hands,  and  up  and 

down 
Tumbling    the    hollow   helmets   of    the 

fallen, 


And  shiver'd  brands  that  once  had  fought 

with  Rome, 
And  rolling  far  along  the  gloomy  shores 
The  voice  of  days  of  old  and  days  to  be. 

Then  spake  King  Arthur  to  Sir  Bedi- 

vere, 
And  whiter  than  the  mist  that  all  day 

long 
Had  held  the  field  of  battle  was  the  King : 

'  Hearest    thou   this   great  voice  that 

shakes  the  world, 
And  wastes  the  narrow  realm  whereon 

we  move, 
And  beats  upon  the  faces  of  the  dead, 
My  dead,  as  tho'  they  had  not  died  for 

me?  — 
O  Bedivere,  for  on  my  heart  hath  fall'n 
Confusion,  till  I  know  not  what  I  am, 
Nor  whence    I    am,  nor  whether   I   be 

King, 
Behold,   I    seem   but   King   among   the 

dead.' 

Then  spake   the   bold   Sir   Bedivere: 

'  My  King, 
King  everywhere  !  and  so  the  dead  have 

kings, 
There  also  will  I  worship  thee  as  King. 
Yet  still  thy  life  is  whole,  and  still  I  live 
Who  love  thee;   but  who  hates  thee,  he 

that  brought 
The    heathen   back   among   us,   yonder 

stands, 
Modred  unharm'd,  the  traitor  of  thine 

house.' 

Then  spake  the  King :  '  My  house  hath 

been  my  doom. 
But  call  not  thou  this  traitor  of  my  house 
Who  hath  but  dwelt  beneath  one  roof 

with  me. 
My  house  are  rather  they  who  sware  my 

vows, 
Yea,  even  while  they  brake  them,  own'd 

me  King. 
And  well  for  thee,   saying  in  my  dark 

hour, 
When  all  the  purport  of  my  throne  hath 

fail'd, 
That  quick  or  dead  thou  holdest  me  for 

King. 


THE  PASSING   OF  ARTHUR. 


461 


King  am  I,  whatsoever  be  their  cry; 
And  one  last  act  of  kinghood  shalt  thou 

see 
Yet,  ere  I  pass.'     And  uttering  this  the 

King 
Made  at  the  man:  then  Modred  smote 

his  liege 
Hard  on  that  helm  which  many  a  heathen 

sword 
Had  beaten  thin;   while  Arthur  at  one 

blow, 
Striking  the  last  stroke  with  Excalibur, 
Slew  him,  and  all  but  slain  himself,  he 

fell. 

So  all  day  long   the   noise  of  battle 

roll'd 
Among  the  mountains  by  the  winter  sea; 
Until  King  Arthur's  Table,  man  by  man, 
Had  fall'n  in  Lyonesse  about  their  lord, 
King  Arthur.     Then,  because  his  wound 

was  deep, 
The  bold  Sir  Bedivere  uplifted  him, 
And  bore  him  to  a  chapel  nigh  the  field, 
A  broken  chancel  with  a  broken  cross, 
That   stood  on  a  dark  strait  of  barren 

land  : 
On  one  side  lay  the  Ocean,  and  on  one 
Lay  a  great  water,  and  the  moon  was  full. 

Then  spake  King  Arthur  to  Sir  Bedi- 
vere : 
*  The  sequel  of  to-day  unsolders  all 
The  goodliest  fellowship  of  famous  knights 
Whereof  this  world  holds  record.     Such 

a  sleep 
They  sleep  —  the  men  I  loved.     I  think 

that  we 
Shall  never  more,  at  any  future  time, 
Delight  our  souls  with  talk  of  knightly 

deeds, 
Walking  about  the  gardens  and  the  halls 
Of  Camelot,  as  in  the  days  that  were. 
I  perish  by  this  people  which  I  made,  — 
Tho'  Merlin  sware  that  I  should  come 

again 
To  rule  once  more ;   but,  let  what  will  be, 

be, 
I  am  so  deeply  smitten  thro'  the  helm 
That  without  help  I  cannot  last  till  morn. 
Thou  therefore  take  my  brand  Excalibur, 
Which  was  my  pride :  for  thou  remem- 

berest  how 


In  those  old  days,  one  summer  noon,  an 

arm 
Rose  up  from  out  the  bosom  of  the  lake, 
Clothed  in  white  samite,  mystic,  wonder- 
ful, 
Holding  the  sword  —  and  how  I  row'd 

across 
And  took  it,  and  have  worn  it,  like  a 

king; 
And,  wheresoever  I  am  sung  or  told 
In  aftertime,  this  also  shall  be  known : 
But  now  delay  not :  take  Excalibur, 
And  fling  him  far  into  the  middle  mere  : 
Watch  what  thou  seest,  and  lightly  bring 
me  word.' 

To  him  replied  the  bold  Sir  Bedivere  : 
'  It  is  not  meet,  Sir  King,  to  leave  thee 

thus, 
Aidless,    alone,   and    smitten    thro'   the 

helm  — 
A  little  thing  may  harm  a  wounded  man; 
Yet  I  thy  hest  will  all  perform  at  full, 
Watch  what  I  see,  and  lightly  bring  thee 

word.' 

So  saying,  from  the  ruin'd  shrine  he 

stept, 
And  in  the  moon  athwart  the  place  of 

tombs, 
Where  lay  the  mighty  bones  of  ancient 

men, 
Old  knights,  and  over  them  the  sea-wind 

sang 
Shrill,  chill,  with  flakes  of  foam.     He, 

stepping  down 
By  zigzag  paths,  and  juts  of  pointed  rock, 
Came  on  the  shining  levels  of  the  lake. 

There  drew  he  forth  the  brand  Excali- 
bur, 

And  o'er  him,  drawing  it,  the  winter 
moon, 

Brightening  the  skirts  of  a  long  cloud, 
ran  forth 

And  sparkled  keen  with  frost  against  the 
hilt  : 

For  all  the  haft  twinkled  with  diamond 
sparks, 

Myriads  of  topaz-lights,  and  jacinth -work 

Of  subtlest  jewellery.     He  gazed  so  long 

That  both  his  eyes  were  dazzled  as  he 
stood. 


462 


THE   PASSING    OF  ARTHUR. 


This   way   and   that    dividing   the   swift 

mind, 
In  act  to  throw  :  but  at  the  last  it  seem'd 
Better  to  leave  Excalibur  conceal'd 
There  in  the  many-knotted  waterflags, 
That   whistled   stiff  and   dry  about   the 

marge. 
So  strode  he  back  slow  to  the  wounded 

King. 

Then  spake  King  Arthur  to  Sir  Bedi- 

vere : 
*  Hast  thou  perform'd  my  mission  which 

I  gave? 
What  is  it  thou  hast  seen?  or  what  hast 

heard?' 

And  answer  made  the  bold  Sir  Bedi- 
vere : 
1 1  heard  the  ripple  washing  in  the  reeds, 
And  the  wild  water  lapping  on  the  crag.' 

To  whom  replied  King  Arthur,  faint 

and  pale : 
1  Thou  hast  betray'd  thy  nature  and  thy 

name, 
Not  rendering  true  answer,  as  beseem'd 
Thy  fealty,  nor  like  a  noble  knight : 
For  surer  sign  had  follow'd,  either  hand, 
Or  voice,  or  else  a  motion  of  the  mere. 
This  is  a  shameful  thing  for  men  to  lie. 
Yet  now,  I  charge  thee,  quickly  go  again, 
As  thou  art  lief  and  dear,  and  do  the  thing 
I  bade  thee,  watch,  and  lightly  bring  me 

word.' 

Then  went  Sir   Bedivere   the   second 

time 
Across  the  ridge,  and  paced  beside  the 

mere, 
Counting    the    dewy    pebbles,    fix'd    in 

thought; 
But  when  he  saw  the  wonder  of  the  hilt, 
How  curiously  and  strangely  chased,  he 

smote 
His  palms  together,  and  he  cried  aloud  : 

*  And  if  indeed  I  cast  the  brand  away, 
Surely  a  precious  thing,  one  worthy  note, 
Should  thus  be  lost  for  ever  from  the 

earth, 
Which  might  have  pleased  the  eyes  of 
many  men. 


What   good   should  follow   this,  if  this 

were  done? 
What   harm,    undone?     Deep   harm   to 

disobey, 
Seeing  obedience  is  the  bond  of  rule. 
Were   it    well   to  obey  then,  if  a   king 

demand 
An  act  unprofitable,  against  himself? 
The  King  is  sick,  and  knows  not  what 

he  does. 
What  record,  or  what  relic  of  my  lord 
Should  be  to  aftertime,  but  empty  breath 
And  rumours  of  a  doubt?     But  were  this 

kept, 
Stored  in  some  treasure-house  of  mighty 

kings, 
Some  one  might  show  it  at  a  joust  of 

arms, 
Saying,   "  King  Arthur's  sword,  Excali- 
bur, 
Wrought  by  the  lonely  maiden   of  the 

Lake. 
Nine  years  she  wrought  it,  sitting  in  the 

deeps 
Upon  the  hidden  bases  of  the  hills." 
So  might  some  old  man  speak  in  the 

aftertime 
To  all  the  people,  winning  reverence. 
But  now  much  honour  and  much  fame 

were  lost.' 

So  spake   he,    clouded  with  his  own 

conceit, 
And  hid  Excalibur  the  second  time, 
And  so  strode  back  slow  to  the  wounded 

King. 

Then   spoke  King  Arthur,  breathing 
heavily : 

*  What  is  it  thou  hast  seen?  or  what  hast 

heard?' 

And  answer  made  the  bold  Sir  Bedi- 
vere: 

•  I  heard  the  water  lapping  on  the  crag, 
And  the  long  ripple  washing  in  the  reeds.' 

To  whom  replied  King  Arthur,  much 
in  wrath : 
'  Ah,  miserable  and  unkind,  untrue, 
Unknightly,  traitor-hearted  !    Woe  is  me ! 
Authority  forgets  a  dying  king, 
Laid  widow'd  of  the  power  in  his  eye 


THE  PASSING    OF  ARTHUR. 


463 


That  bow'd  the  will.     I  see  thee  what 

thou  art, 
For  thou,  the  latest-left  of  all  my  knights, 
In  whom  should  meet  the  offices  of  all, 
Thou  wouldst  betray  me  for  the  precious 

hilt; 
Either  from  lust  of  gold,  or  like  a  girl 
Valuing  the  giddy  pleasure  of  the  eyes. 
Yet,  for  a  man  may  fail  in  duty  twice, 
And  the  third  time  may  prosper,  get  thee 

hence : 
But,  if  thou  spare  to  fling  Excalibur, 
I  will  arise  and  slay  thee  with  my  hands.' 

Then  quickly  rose  Sir  Bedivere,  and 

ran, 
And,  leaping  down   the   ridges   lightly, 

plunged 
Among  the  bulrush  beds,  and  clutch'd 

the  sword, 
And  strongly  wheel'd  and  threw  it.     The 

great  brand 
M*de  lightnings  in  the  splendour  of  the 

moon, 
And    flashing    round    and    round,    and 

whirl'd  in  an  arch, 
Shot   like   a   streamer    of  the   northern 

morn, 
Seen  where  the  moving  isles  of  winter 

shock 
By  night,  with  noises   of  the  Northern 

Sea. 
So  flash'd  and  fell  the  brand  Excalibur : 
But  ere  he  dipt  the  surface,  rose  an  arm 
Clothed  in  white   samite,  mystic,  won- 
derful, 
And  caught  him  by  the  hilt,  and  bran- 

dish'd  him 
Three  times,  and  drew  him  under  in  the 

mere. 
And  lightly  went  the  other  to  the  King. 

Then    spoke    King    Arthur,   drawing 

thicker  breath : 
c  Now  see  I  by  thine  eyes  that  this  is 

done. 
Speak  out :  what  is  it  thou  hast  heard,  or 

seen?' 

And  answer  made  the  bold  Sir  Bedi- 
vere : 
'  Sir  King,  I  closed  mine  eyelids,  lest  the 
gems 


Should  blind   my  purpose,  for   I  never 

saw, 
Nor  shall  see,  here  or  elsewhere,  till  I  die, 
Not  tho'  I  live  three  lives  of  mortal  men, 
So  great  a  miracle  as  yonder  hilt. 
Then  with  both  hands  I  flung  him,  wheel- 
ing him; 
But  when  I  look'd  again,  behold  an  arm, 
Clothed   in  white    samite,  mystic,  won- 
derful, 
That    caught    him    by    the    hilt,     and 

brandish'd  him 
Three  times,  and  drew  him  under  in  the 
mere.' 

And  answer  made  King  Arthur,  breath- 
ing hard : 

'My  end  draws  nigh;  'tis  time  that  I 
were  gone. 

Make  broad  thy  shoulders  to  receive  my 
weight, 

And  bear  me  to  the  margin ;  yet  I  fear 

My  wound  hath  taken  cold,  and  I  shall 
die.' 

So  saying,  from  the  pavement  he  half 

rose, 
Slowly,  with  pain,  reclining  on  his  arm, 
And  looking  wistfully  with  wide  blue  eyes 
As  in  a  picture.     Him  Sir  Bedivere 
Remorsefully  regarded  thro'  his  tears, 
And  would  have  spoken,  but  he  found 

not  words; 
Then  took  with  care,  and   kneeling  on 

one  knee, 
O'er  both  his  shoulders  drew  the  languid 

hands, 
And  rising  bore  him  thro'  the  place  of 

tombs. 

But,  as  he  walk'd,  King  Arthur  panted 

hard, 
Like  one  that  feels  a  nightmare  on  his 

bed 
When  all  the  house  is  mute.     So  sigh'd 

the  King, 
Muttering  and   murmuring   at    his   ear, 

'  Quick,  quick  ! 
I  fear  it  is  too  late,  and  I  shall  die.' 
But  the  other  swiftly  strode  from  ridge 

to  ridge, 
Clothed  with  his  breath,  and  looking,  as 

he  walk'd, 


464 


THE  PASSING    OF  ARTHUR. 


Larger  than  human  on  the  frozen  hills. 
He  heard  the  deep  behind  him,  and  a  cry 
Before.     His  own  thought  drove  him  like 

a  goad. 
Dry  clash'd  his  harness  in  the  icy  caves 
And  barren  chasms,  and  all  to  left  and 

right 
The  bare  black  cliff  clang'd  round  him, 

as  he  based 
His  feet  on  juts  of  slippery  crag   that 

rang 
Sharp-smitten  with   the    dint  of  armed 

heels  — 
And  on  a  sudden,  lo  !  the  level  lake, 
And  the  long  glories  of  the  winter  moon. 

Then  saw  they  how  there  hove  a  dusky 

barge, 
Dark  as   a  funeral   scarf  from  stem   to 

stern, 
Beneath  them;  and  descending  they  were 

ware 
That  all  the  decks  were  dense  with  stately 

forms, 
Black-stoled,  black-hooded,  like  a  dream 

—  by  these 
Three  Queens  with  crowns  of  gold :  and 

from  them  rose 
A  cry  that  shiver'd  to  the  tingling  stars, 
And,  as  it  were  one  voice,  an  agony 
Of  lamentation,  like  a  wind  that  shrills 
All  night  in  a  waste  land,  where  no  one 

comes, 
Or  hath  come,  since  the  making  of  the 

world. 

Then  murmur'd  Arthur,  '  Place  me  in 

the  barge.' 
So  to  the  barge  they  came.     There  those 

three  Queens 
Put  forth  their  hands,  and  took  the  King, 

and  wept. 
But  she,  that  rose  the  tallest  of  them  all 
And  fairest,  laid  his  head  upon  her  lap, 
And   loosed   the   shatter'd    casque,  and 

chafed  his  hands, 
And  call'd  him  by  his  name,  complaining 

loud, 
And  dropping  bitter  tears  against  a  brow 
Striped  with  dark  blood :   for  all  his  face 

was  white 
And   colourless,   and   like    the   wither'd 


Smote  by  the  fresh  beam  of  the  spring* 

ing  east; 
And  all  his  greaves  and  cuisses   dash'd 

with  drops 
Of  onset;    and    the   light   and   lustrous 

curls  — 
That  made  his  forehead  like  a  rising  sun 
High  from  the  dais-throne  —  were  parch'd 

with  dust; 
Or  clotted  into  points  and  hanging  loose, 
Mix'd   with    the    knightly   growth    that 

fringed  his  lips. 
So  like  a  shatter'd  column  lay  the  King; 
Not  like  that  Arthur  who,  with  lance  in 

rest, 
From   spur  to  plume  a  star  of  tourna- 
ment, 
Shot    thro'    the    lists   at   Camelot,  and 

charged 
Before  the  eyes  of  ladies  and  of  kings. 

Then  loudly  cried  the  bold  Sir  Bedi- 

vere :  % 

1  Ah !  my  Lord  Arthur,  whither  shall  I 

go? 
Where  shall  I  hide  my  forehead  and  my 

eyes? 
For  now  I  see  the  true   old   times   are 

dead, 
When  every  morning   brought   a  noble 

chance, 
And  every  chance  brought  out  a  noble 

knight. 
Such  times  have  been  not  since  the  light 

that  led 
The  holy  Elders  with  the  gift  of  myrrh. 
But  now  the  whole  Round  Table  is  dis- 
solved 
Which    was   an   image   of    the   mighty 

world, 
And  I,  the  last,  go  forth  companionless, 
And  the  days  darken  round  me,  and  the 

years, 
Among   new   men,   strange  faces,  other' 

minds.' 

And  slowly  answer'd  Arthur  from  the 

barge : 
'  The  old  order  changeth,  yielding  place 

to  new, 
And  God  fulfils  himself  in  many  ways, 
Lest  one   good    custom    should   corrupt 

the  world, 


THE   PASSING    OF  ARTHUR. 


465 


Comfort  thyself:  what  comfort  is  in  me? 
I  have  lived  my  life,  and  that  which  I 

have  done 
May  He  within  himself  make  pure !  but 

thou, 
If  thou  shouldst  never  see  my  face  again, 
Pray    for   my   soul.       More    things   are 

wrought  by  prayer 
Than  this  world  dreams  of.     Wherefore, 

let  thy  voice 
Rise  like  a  fountain  for   me  night   and 

day. 
For  what  are  men  better  than  sheep  or 

goats 
That    nourish    a   blind    life   within   the 

brain, 
If,  knowing  God,  they  lift  not  hands  of 

prayer 
Both  for  themselves  and  those  who  call 

them  friend? 
For  so  the  whole  round  earth  is  every 

way 
Bound  by  gold  chains  about  the  feet  of 

God. 
But  now  farewell.     I  am  going  a  long 

way 
With  these  thou  seest  —  if  indeed  I  go 
(For   all   my   mind   is   clouded   with   a 

doubt)  — 
To  the  island-valley  of  Avilion ; 
Where   falls   not   hail,    or   rain,  or   any 

snow. 
Nor  ever  wind  blows  loudly;   but  it  lies 
Deep-meadow'd,  happy,  fair  with  orchard 

lawns 
And  bowery  hollows  crown'd  with  sum- 
mer sea, 
Where  I  will  heal  me  of  my   grievous 

wound.' 

So  said  he,  and  the  barge  with  oar  and 
sail 

Moved  from  the  brink,  like  some  full- 
breasted  swan 

That,  fluting  a  wild  carol  ere  her  death, 

Ruffles  her  pure  cold  plume,  and  takes 
the  flood 

With  swarthy  webs.  Long  stood  Sir 
Bedivere 

Revolving  many  memories,  till  the  hull 

Look'd  one  black  dot  against  the  verge 
of  dawn, 

And  on  the  mere  the  wailing  died  away. 
2H 


But  when  that  moan  had  past  for  ever- 
more, 

The  stillness  of  the  dead  world's  winter 
dawn 

Amazed  him,  and  he  groan'd,  '  The  King 
is  gone.' 

And  therewithal  came  on  him  the  weird 
rhyme, 

*  From  the  great  deep  to  the  great  deep 
he  goes.' 

Whereat  he  slowly  turn'd  and  slowly 

clomb 
The  last  hard  footstep  of  that  iron  crag; 
Thence  mark'd  the   black    hull   moving 

yet,  and  cried, 
1  He  passes  to  be  King  among  the  dead, 
And  after  healing  of  his  grievous  wound 
He  comes  again;   but  —  if  he  come  no 

more  — 
O  me,  be  yon  dark  Queens  in  yon  black 

boat, 
Who    shriek'd    and    wail'd,    the    three 

whereat  we  gazed 
On  that  high  day,  when,    clothed  with 

living  light, 
They  stood  before  his  throne  in  silence, 

friends 
Of  Arthur,  who  should  help  him  at  his 

need?' 

Then  from  the  dawn  it  seem'd  there 

came,  but  faint 
As  from  beyond  the  limit  of  the  world, 
Like  the  last  echo  born  of  a  great  cry, 
Sounds,  as  if  some    fair   city   were   one 

voice 
Around  a  king  returning  from  his  wars. 

Thereat  once  more  he  moved  about, 

and  clomb 
Ev'n  to  the  highest  he  could  climb,  and 

saw, 
Straining   his   eyes  beneath   an  arch  of 

hand, 
Or  thought  he  saw,  the  speck  that  bare 

the  King, 
Down  that   long  water  opening  on  the 

deep 
Somewhere  far  off,  pass  on  and  on,  and  go 
From  less  to  less  and  vanish  into  light. 
And  the  new  sun  rose  bringing  the  new 

year. 


466 


TO    THE    QUEEN. 


TO  THE  QUEEN. 


O  LOYAL  to  the  royal  in  thyself, 
And  loyal  to  the  land,  as  this  to  thee  — 
Bear  witness,  that  rememberable  day, 
When,  pale  as  yet,  and  fever-worn,  the 

Prince 
Who  scarce  had  pluck'd    his   flickering 

life  again 
From  halfway  down  the  shadow  of  the 

grave, 
Past    with   thee    thro'   thy   people   and 

their  love, 
And  London  roll'd  one  tide  of  joy  thro' 

all 
Her  trebled  millions,  and  loud  leagues  of 

man 
And  welcome !    witness,  too,  the  silent 

cry, 
The  prayer  of  many  a  race  and  creed, 

and  clime  — 
Thunderless     lightnings   striking    under 

sea 
From  sunset  and  sunrise  of  all  thy  realm, 
And  that  true  North,  whereof  we  lately 

heard 
A  strain  to  shame  us  '  keep  you  to  your- 
selves; 
So  loyal  is  too   costly!    friends  —  your 

love 
Is  but  a  burthen :   loose  the  bond,  and 

go.' 
Is  this  the  tone  of  empire?  here  the  faith 
That  made  us  rulers?  this,  indeed,  her 

voice 
And  meaning,  whom  the  roar  of  Hougou- 

mont 
Left    mightiest    of    all    peoples    under 

heaven  ? 
What   shock  has  fool'd  her  since,  that 

she  should  speak 
So  feebly  ?  wealthier  —  wealthier  —  hour 

by  hour ! 
The  voice  of  Britain,  or  a  sinking  land, 
Some  third-rate  isle  half-lost  among  her 

seas? 
There  rang  her  voice,  when  the  full  city 

peal'd 
Thee  and  thy  Prince  !     The  loyal  to  their 

crown 
Are  loyal  to  their  own  far  sons,  who  love 


Our    ocean-empire  with  her  boundless 

homes 
For  ever-broadening   England,  and  her 

throne 
In  our  vast  Orient,  and  one  isle,  one  isle, 
That  knows  not  her  own  greatness:    if 

she  knows 
And  dreads  it  we  are  fall'n.  —  But  thou, 

my  Queen 
Not  for  itself,  but  thro'  thy  living  love 
For  one  to  whom  I  made  it  o'er  his  grave 
Sacred,  accept  this  old  imperfect  tale, 
New-old,  and  shadowing  Sense  at   war 

with  Soul 
Ideal  manhood  closed  in  real  man 
Rather  than  that  gray  king,  whose  name, 

a  ghost, 
Streams  like  a  cloud,  man-shaped,  from 

mountain  peak, 
And  cleaves  to  cairn  and  cromlech  still; 

or  him 
Of  Geoffrey's  book,  or  him  of  Malleor's, 

one 
Touch'd   by  the  adulterous   finger  of  a 

time 
That  hover'd  between  war  and  wanton- 
ness, 
And  crownings  and  dethronements :  take 

withal 
Thy  poet's   blessing,  and  his  trust   that 

Heaven 
Will  blow  the   tempest  in  the  distance 

back 
From  thine  and  ours :  for  some  are  scared, 

who  mark, 
Or  wisely  or  unwisely,  signs  of  storm, 
Waverings    of    every    vane    with    every 

wind, 
And  wordy  trucklings   to   the   transient 

hour, 
And  fierce  or  careless  looseners  of   the 

faith, 
And  Softness  breeding  scorn  of  simple 

life, 
Or  Cowardice,  the  child  of  lust  for  gold, 
Or   Labour,    with   a   groan   and   not    a 

voice, 
Or  Art  with  poisonous  honey  stol'n  from 

France. 


THE  LOVER'S   TALE. 


467 


And  that  which  knows,  but  careful  for 
itself, 

And  that  which  knows  not,  ruling  that 
which  knows 

To  its  own  harm :  the  goal  of  this  great 
world 

Lies  beyond  sight:  yet  —  if  our  slowly- 
grown 

And  crown'd  Republic's  crowning  com- 
mon-sense, 


That  saved  her  many  times,  not  fail  — 

their  fears 
Are  morning   shadows   huger   than   the 

shapes 
That  cast  them,  not  those  gloomier  which 

forego 
The    darkness    of    that    battle    in    the 

West, 
Where  all  of  high  and  holy  dies  away. 


THE   LOVER'S   TALE. 


The  original  Preface  to  '  The  Lover's  Tale '  states  that  it  was  composed  in  my  nineteenth  year.  Two 
only  of  the  three  parts  then  written  were  printed,  when,  feeling  the  imperfection  of  the  poem,  I  with- 
drew it  from  the  press.  One  of  my  friends,  however,  who,  boylike,  admired  the  boy's  work,  distributed 
among  our  common  associates  of  that  hour  some  copies  of  these  two  parts,  without  my  knowledge, 
without  the  omissions  and  amendments  which  I  had  in  contemplation,  and  marred  by  the  many  mis- 
prints of  the  compositor.  Seeing  that  these  two  parts  have  of  late  been  mercilessly  pirated,  and  that 
what  I  had  deemed  scarce  worthy  to  live  is  not  allowed  to  die,  may  I  not  be  pardoned  if  I  suffer  the 
whole  poem  at  last  to  come  into  the  light  —  accompanied  with  a  reprint  of  the  sequel  —  a  work  of  my 
mature  life  — '  The  Golden  Supper '  ? 
May  1879. 

ARGUMENT. 

Julian,  whose  cousin  and  foster-sister,  Camilla,  has  been  wedded  to  his  friend  and  rival,  Lionel,  en- 
deavours to  narrate  the  story  of  his  own  love  for  her,  and  the  strange  sequel.  He  speaks  (in  Parts  II. 
and  III.)  of  having  been  haunted  by  visions  and  the  sound  of  bells,  tolling  for  a  funeral,  and  at  last 
ringing  for  a  marriage ;  but  he  breaks  away,  overcome,  as  he  approaches  the  Event,  and  a  witness  to 
it  completes  the  tale. 


Here  far  away,  seen  from  the  topmost 

cliff, 
Filling  with  purple  gloom  the  vacancies 
Between  the  tufted  hills,  the  sloping  seas 
Hung  in  mid-heaven,  and  half-way  down 

rare  sails, 
White  as  white  clouds,  floated  from  sky 

to  sky. 
Oh  !  pleasant  breast  of  waters,  quiet  bay, 
Like  to  a  quiet  mind  in  the  loud  world, 
Where  the  chafed  breakers  of  the  outer 

sea 
Sank  powerless,  as  anger  falls  aside 
And  withers  on  the  breast  of  peaceful 

love; 
Thou  didst  receive  the  growth  of  pines 

that  fledged 
The   hills   that    watch'd   thee,   as   Love 

watcheth  Love, 


In  thine  own  essence,  and  delight  thyself 
To  make  it  wholly  thine  on  sunny  days. 
Keep  thou  thy  name  of  '  Lover's  Bay.' 

See,  sirs, 
Even  now  the  Goddess  of  the  Past,  that 

takes 
The  heart,  and  sometimes   touches  but 

one  string 
That  quivers,  and  is  silent,  and  sometimes 
Sweeps   suddenly  all   its  half-moulder'd 

chords 
To  some  old  melody,  begins  to  play 
That  air  which  pleased  her  first.     I  feel 

thy  breath; 
I  come,  great  Mistress  of  the  ear  and  eye  : 
Thy  breath  is  of  the  pinewood;   and  tho' 

years 
Have   hollow'd  out  a  deep  and  stormy 

strait 
Betwixt  the  native  land  of  Love  and  me, 
Breathe  but  a  little  on  me,  and  the  sail 


468 


THE  LOVER'S    TALE. 


Will  draw  me  to  the  rising  of  the  sun, 
The  lucid  chambers  of  the  morning  star, 
And  East  of  Life. 

Permit  me,  friend,  I  prythee, 
To  pass  my  hand  across  my  brows,  and 

muse 
On  those  dear  hills,  that  never  more  will 

meet 
The  sight  that  throbs  and  aches  beneath 

my  touch, 
As  tho'  there  beat  a  heart  in  either  eye; 
For  when  the  outer  lights  are  darken'd 

thus, 
The  memory's  vision  hath  a  keener  edge. 
It  grows  upon  me  now — the  semicircle 
Of  dark-blue  waters  and  the  narrow  fringe 
Of  curving  beach  —  its  wreaths  of  drip- 
ping green  — 
Its  pale  pink  shells  —  the  summerhouse 

aloft 
That  open'd  on  the  pines  with  doors  of 

glass, 
A  mountain  nest  —  the  pleasure-boat  that 

rock'd, 
Light-green  with  its  own  shadow,  keel  to 

keel, 
Upon    the    dappled    dimplings    of    the 

wave, 
That  blanch'd  upon  its  side. 

O  Love,  O  Hope  ! 
They  come,  they  crowd  upon  me  all  at 

once  — 
Moved  from   the  cloud  of  unforgotten 

things, 
That  sometimes  on  the  horizon  of  the 

mind 
Lies    folded,   often   sweeps    athwart    in 

storm  — 
Flash  upon  flash  they  lighten  thro'  me  — 

days 
Of  dewy  dawning  and  the  amber  eves 
When  thou  and  I,  Camilla,  thou  and  I 
Were   borne    about    the   bay   or   safely 

moor'd 
Beneath  a  low-brow'd  cavern,  where  the 

tide 
Plash'd,  sapping  its  worn  ribs;    and  all 

without 
The  slowly-ridging  rollers  on  the  cliffs 
Clash'd,  calling  to  each  other,  and  thro' 

the  arch 


Down  those  loud  waters,  like  a  setting 
star, 

Mixt  with  the  gorgeous  west  the  light- 
house shone, 

And  silver-smiling  Venus  ere  she  fell 

Would  often  loiter  in  her  balmy  blue, 

To  crown  it  with  herself. 

Here,  too,  my  love 
Waver' d  at  anchor  with  me,  when  day 

hung 
From   his   mid-dome   in   Heaven's   airy 

halls; 
Gleams  of  the  water-circles  as  they  broke, 
Flicker'd  like  doubtful  smiles  about  her 

lips, 
Quiver'd  a  flying  glory  on  her  hair, 
Leapt  like  a  passing  thought  across  her 

eyes; 
And  mine  with  one  that  will  not  pass, 

till  earth 
And  heaven  pass  too,  dwelt  on  my  heaven, 

a  face 
Most  starry-fair,  but  kindled  from  within 
As  'twere  with   dawn.     She   was  dark- 

hair'd,  dark-eyed : 
Oh,  such  dark  eyes !  a  single  glance  of 

them 
Will  govern  a  whole  life  from  birth  to 

death, 
Careless  of  all  things  else,  led  on  with  light 
In  trances  and  in  visions :  look  at  them, 
You  lose  yourself  in  utter  ignorance; 
You  cannot  find  their  depth;   for  they 

go  back, 
And   farther   back,   and    still   withdraw 

themselves 
Quite  into  the  deep  soul,  that  evermore 
Fresh  springing  from  her  fountains  in  the 

brain, 
Still  pouring  thro',  floods  with  redundant 

life 
Her  narrow  portals. 

Trust  me,  long  ago 
I  should  have  died,  if  it  were  possible 
To  die  in  gazing  on  that  perfectness 
Which  I  do  bear  within  me  :  I  had  died, 
But  from  my  farthest  lapse,  my  latest  ebb, 
Thine  image,  like  a  charm  of  light  and 

strength 
Upon  the  waters,  push'd  me  back  again 
On  these  deserted  sands  of  barren  life. 


THE  LOVER'S   TALE. 


469 


Tho'  from  the  deep  vault  where  the  heart 

of  Hope 
Fell  into  dust,  and  crumbled  in  the  dark  — 
Forgetting  how  to  render  beautiful 
Her  countenance  with  quick  and  health- 
ful blood  — 
Thou  didst  not  sway  me  upward;   could 

I  perish 
While  thou,  a  meteor  of  the  sepulchre, 
Didst  swathe  thyself  all  round  Hope's 

quiet  urn 
For  ever?     He,  that  saith  it,  hath  o'er- 

stept 
The  slippery  footing  of  his  narrow  wit, 
And  fall'n  away  from  judgment.     Thou 

art  light, 
To  which  my  spirit  leaneth  all  her  flowers, 
And  length  of  days,  and  immortality 
Of    thought,   and    freshness    ever    self- 

renew'd. 
For  Time  and  Grief  abode  too  long  with 

Life, 
And,  like  all  other  friends  i'  the  world,  at 

last 
They  grew  aweary  of  her  fellowship : 
So   Time   and   Grief    did   beckon   unto 

Death, 
And  Death  drew  nigh  and  beat  the  doors 

of  Life; 
But  thou  didst  sit  alone  in  the  inner  house, 
A  wakeful  portress,  and  didst  parle  with 

Death,— 
'This  is  a   charmed   dwelling  which    I 

hold;' 
So  Death  gave  back,  and  would  no  fur- 
ther come. 
Yet  is  my  life  nor  in  the  present  time, 
Nor  in  the  present  place.     To  me  alone, 
Push'd  from  his  chair  of  regal  heritage, 
The  Present  is  the  vassal  of  the  Past : 
So  that,  in  that  I  have  lived,  do  I  live, 
And  cannot  die,  and  am,  in  having  been  — 
A  portion  of  the  pleasant  yesterday, 
Thrust   forward   on   to-day   and    out  of 

place ; 
A   body   journeying   onward,  sick   with 

toil, 
The  weight  as  if  of  age  upon  my  limbs, 
The  grasp   of  hopeless  grief  about   my 

heart, 
And  all  the  senses  weaken'd,  save  in  that, 
Which  long  ago  they  had  glean'd  and 

garner'd  up 


Into  the  granaries  of  memory  — 

The  clear  brow,  bulwark  of  the  precious 

brain, 
Chink'd  as  you  see,  and  seam'd  —  and  all 

the  while 
The  light  soul  twines  and  mingles  with 

the  growths 
Of  vigorous  early  days,  attracted,  won, 
Married,  made  one  with,  molten  into  all 
The  beautiful  in  Past  of  act  or  place, 
And  like  the  all-enduring  camel,  driven 
Far  from  the  diamond  fountain  by  the 

palms, 
Who    toils   across    the   middle   moonlit 

nights, 
Or  when  the  white  heats  of  the  blinding 

noons 
Beat  from  the  concave  sand;  yet  in  him 

keeps 
A  draught  of  that  sweet  fountain  that  he 

loves, 
To  stay  his  feet  from  falling,  and  his  spirit 
From  bitterness  of  death. 

Ye  ask  me,  friends, 
When  I  began  to  love.     How  should  I 

tell  you? 
Or  from  the  after-fulness  of  my  heart, 
Flow  back  again  unto  my  slender  spring 
And  first  of  love,  tho'   every  turn   and 

depth 
Between  is  clearer  in  my  life  than  all 
Its  present  flow.     Ye  know  not  what  ye 

ask. 
How  should  the  broad  and  open  flower 

tell 
What  sort  of  bud  it  was,  when,  prest 

together 
In  its  green  sheath,  close-lapt  in  silken 

folds, 
It  seem'd  to  keep  its  sweetness  to  itself, 
Yet  was  not  the  less  sweet  for  that  it 

seem'd? 
For  young  Life  knows  not  when  young 

Life  was  born, 
But  takes  it  all  for  granted :  neither  Love, 
Warm  in  the  heart,  his  cradle,  can  re- 
member 
Love  in  the  womb.,  but  resteth  satisfied, 
Looking  on  her  that  brought  him  to  the 

light: 
Or  as  men  know  not  when  they  fall  asleep 
Into  delicious  dreams,  our  other  life, 


47° 


THE  LOVER'S   TALE. 


So  know  I  not  when  I  began  to  love. 
This  is  my  sum  of  knowledge  —  that  my 

love 
Grew  with  myself — say  rather,  was  my 

growth, 
My  inward  sap,  the  hold  I  have  on  earth, 
My   outward    circling   air   wherewith    I 

breathe, 
Which  yet  upholds  my  life,  and  evermore 
Is  to  me  daily  life  and  daily  death  : 
For  how  should    I  have   lived  and  not 

have  loved? 
Can  ye  take  off  the  sweetness  from  the 

flower, 
The  colour  and  the  sweetness  from  the 

rose, 
And  place  them  by  themselves;    or  set 

apart 
Their  motions  and  their  brightness  from 

the  stars, 
And  then  point  out  the  flower  or  the  star? 
Or  build  a  wall  betwixt  my  life  and  love, 
And  tell  me  where    I    am?     'Tis   even 

thus: 
In  that  I  live  I  love;   because  I  love 
I  live :  whate'er  is  fountain  to  the  one 
Is  fountain  to  the  other ;  and  whene'er 
Our  God  unknits  the  riddle  of  the  one, 
There  is  no  shade  or  fold  of  mystery 
Swathing  the  other. 

Many,  many  years 
(For  they  seem  many  and  my  most  of 

life, 
And  well  I  could  have  linger'd  in  that 

porch, 
So  unproportion'd  to  the  dwelling-place), 
In  the  Maydews  of  childhood,  opposite 
The  flush  and  dawn  of  youth,  we  lived 

together, 
Apart,  alone  together  on  those  hills. 

Before  he  saw  my  day  my  father  died, 
And  he  was  happy  that  he  saw  it  not; 
But  I  and  the  first  daisy  on  his  grave 
From  the  same  clay  came  into  light  at 

once. 
As  Love  and  I  do  number  equal  years, 
So  she,  my  love,  is  of  an  age  with  me. 
How  like  each  other  was  the  birth  of 

each ! 
On  the  same  morning,  almost  the  same 

hour, 


Under  the  selfsame  aspect  of  the  stars, 
(Oh  falsehood  of  all  starcraft!)  we  were 

born. 
How  like  each  other  was  the  birth  of 

each ! 
The  sister  of  my  mother- — she  that  bore 
Camilla  close  beneath  her  beating  heart, 
Which  to  the  imprison'd  spirit  of  the  child, 
With  its  true-touched  pulses  in  the  flow 
And  hourly  visitation  of  the  blood, 
Sent  notes  of  preparation  manifold, 
And  mellow'd  echoes  of  the  outer  world  — 
My  mother's  sister,  mother  of  my  love, 
Who  had  a  twofold  claim  upon  my  heart, 
One  twofold  mightier  than  the  other  was, 
In  giving  so  much  beauty  to  the  world, 
And  so  much  wealth  as  God  had  charged 

her  with  — 
Loathing  to  put  it  from  herself  for  ever, 
Left  her  own  life  with  it;  and  dying  thus, 
Crown'd  with  her  highest  act  the  placid 

face 
And  breathless  body  of  her  good  deeds 

past. 

So  were  we  born,  so  orphan'd.     She 
was  motherless 
And  I  without  a  father.     So  from  each 
Of  those  two  pillars  which  from  earth 

uphold 
Our  childhood,  one  had  fallen  away,  and 

all 
The  careful  burthen  of  our  tender  years 
Trembled  upon  the  other.    He  that  gave 
Her  life,  to  me  delightedly  fulfill'd 
All  lovingkindnesses,  all  offices 
Of  watchful  care  and  trembling  tender- 
ness. 
He  waked  for  both :  he  pray'd  for  both : 

he  slept 
Dreaming  of  both :  nor  was  his  love  the 

less 
Because  it  was  divided,  and  shot  forth 
Boughs  on  each  side,  laden  with  whole- 
some shade, 
Wherein  we  nested  sleeping  or  awake, 
And  sang  aloud  the  matin-song  of  life. 

She  was  my  foster-sister :  on  one  arm 
The  flaxen  ringlets  of  our  infancies 
Wander'd,  the  while  we  rested:   one  soft  ' 

lap 
Pillow'd  us  both :  a  common  light  of  eyes 


THE  LOVER'S    TALE. 


471 


Was  on  us  as  we  lay :  our  baby  lips, 
Kissing  one  bosom,  ever  drew  from  thence 
The  stream  of  life,  one  stream,  one  life, 

one  blood, 
One  sustenance,  which,  still  as  thought 

grew  large, 
Still   larger   moulding   all  the  house  of 

thought, 
Made   all   our  tastes   and   fancies   like, 

perhaps  — 
All  —  all  but  one;    and  strange  to  me, 

and  sweet, 
Sweet  thro'  strange  years  to  know  that 

whatsoe'er 
Our  general  mother  meant  for  me  alone, 
Our  mutual  mother  dealt  to  both  of  us : 
So  what  was  earliest  mine  in  earliest  life, 
I  shared  with  her  in  whom  myself  remains. 
As  was  our  childhood,  so  our  infancy, 
They  tell  me,  was  a  very  miracle 
Of  fellow-feeling  and  communion. 
They   tell   me   that   we   would    not    be 

alone,  — 
We  cried  when  we  were  parted;  when  I 

wept, 
Her  smile  lit  up  the  rainbow  on  my  tears, 
Stay'd  on  the  cloud  of  sorrow;   that  we 

loved 
The  sound  of  one  another's  voices  more 
Than  the  gray  cuckoo  loves  his  name, 

and  learn'd 
To  lisp  in  tune  together;  that  we  slept 
In  the  same  cradle  always,  face  to  face, 
Heart  beating  time  to  heart,  lip  pressing 

lip, 
Folding  each  other,  breathing  on  each 

other, 
Dreaming   together   (dreaming  of  each 

.    other 
They  should  have  added),  till  the  morning 

light 
Sloped  thro'  the  pines,  upon  the  dewy 

pane 
Falling,   unseal'd    our   eyelids,   and    we 

woke 
To   gaze  upon  each  other.     If  this  be 

true, 
At   thought   of   which   my   whole    soul 

languishes 
And  faints,  and  hath  no  pulse,  no  breath 

—  as  tho' 
A  man  in  some  still  garden  should  infuse 
Rich  atar  in  the  bosom  of  the  rose, 


Till,  drunk  with  its  own  wine,  and  over- 
full 
Of  sweetness,  and  in  smelling  of  itself, 
It  fall  on  its  own  thorns — if  this  be  true  — 
And  that  way  my  wish  leads  me  ever- 
more 
Still  to  believe  it  —  'tis  so  sweet  a  thought, 
Why  in  the  utter  stillness  of  the  soul 
Doth    question'd    memory    answer    not, 

nor  tell 
Of  this  our  earliest,  our  closest-drawn, 
Most   loveliest,   earthly-heavenliest   har- 
mony? 
O  blossom'd  portal  of  the  lonely  house, 
Green  prelude,  April  promise,  glad  new- 
year 
Of  Being,  which  with  earliest  violets 
And  lavish  carol  of  clear-throated  larks 
Fill'd  all  the  March  of  life  !  —  I  will  not 

speak  of  thee, 
These  have  not  seen  thee,  these  can  never 

know  thee, 
They  cannot   understand  me.     Pass  we 

then 
A  term  of  eighteen  years.    Ye  would  but 

laugh, 
If  I   should    tell   you   how  I   hoard   in 

thought 
The  faded  rhymes  and  scraps  of  ancient 

crones, 
Gray  relics  of  the  nurseries  of  the  world, 
Which  are  as  gems  set  in  my  memory, 
Because  she  learnt   them  with   me;    or 

what  use 
To  know  her  father  left  us  just  before 
The    daffodil   was   blown?    or    how   we 

found 
The  dead  man  cast  upon  the  shore?    All 

this 
Seems  to  the  quiet  daylight  of  your  minds 
But  cloud  and  smoke,  and  in  the  dark  of 

mine 
Is  traced  with  flame.     Move  with  me  to 
•    the  event. 
There  came  a  glorious  morning,  such  a 
one 
As  dawns  but  once  a  season.     Mercury 
On   such  a  morning  would   have   flung 

himself 
From  cloud  to   cloud,  and   swum   with 

balanced  wings 
To  some  tall  mountain :  when  I  said  to 
her, 


472 


THE  LOVER'S    TALE. 


1 A  day  for  Gods  to  stoop,'  she  answered, 

♦Ay, 
And  men  to  soar : '    for   as   that   other 

gazed, 
Shading  his  eyes  till  all  the  fiery  cloud, 
The  prophet  and    the    chariot   and   the 

steeds, 
Suck'd  into  oneness  like  a  little  star 
Were  drunk   into    the  inmost    blue,  we 

stood, 
When  first  we  came  from  out  the  pines  at 

noon, 
With   hands   for    eaves,  uplooking   and 

almost 
Waiting   to  see  some   blessed  shape  in 

heaven, 
So  bathed  we  were  in  brilliance.     Never 

yet 
Before  or  after  have  I  known  the  spring 
Pour  with  such  sudden  deluges  of  light 
Into  the  middle  summer;   for  that  day 
Love,  rising,  shook  his  wings,  and  charged 

the  winds 
With  spiced  May-sweets  from  bound  to 

bound,  and  blew 
Fresh  fire  into  the  sun,  and  from  within 
Burst  thro'  the  heated  buds,  and  sent  his 

soul 
Into  the  songs  of  birds,  and  touch'd  far- 
off 
His  mountain-altars,  his  high  hills,  with 

flame 
Milder  and  purer. 

Thro'  the  rocks  we  wound : 
The  great  pine  shook  with  lonely  sounds 

of  joy 
That  came  on  the  sea-wind.     As  moun- 
tain streams 
Our  bloods  ran  free :  the  sunshine  seem'd 

to  brood 
More  warmly  on  the  heart  than  on  the 

brow. 
We  often  paused,  and,  looking  back,  we 

saw 
The  clefts  and  openings  in  the  mountains 

fill'd 
With  the  blue  valley  and  the  glistening 

brooks, 
And  all  the  low  dark  groves,  a  land  of 

love! 
A  land  of  promise,  a  land  of  memory, 
A  land  of  promise  flowing  with  the  milk 


And  honey  of  delicious  memories ! 
And  down  to  sea,  and  far  as  eye  could 

ken, 
Each  way  from  verge  to  verge  a  Holy 

Land, 
Still  growing  holier  as  you  near'd  the  bay, 
For  there  the  Temple  stood. 

When  we  had  reach'd 
The    grassy   platform    on    some    hill,   I 

stoop'd, 
I  gather'd  the  wild  herbs,  and   for  her 

brows 
And  mine  made  garlands  of  the  selfsame 

flower, 
Which  she  took  smiling,  and  with  my 

work  thus 
Crown'd   her  clear   forehead.     Once  or 

twice  she  told  me 
(For  I  remember  all  things)  to  let  grow 
The    flowers   that   run    poison    in    their 

veins. 
She  said, '  The  evil  flourish  in  the  world.' 
Then  playfully  she  gave  herself  the  lie  — 
'Nothing  in  nature  is  unbeautiful; 
So,  brother,  pluck  and  spare  not.'     So  I 

wove 
Ev'n  the  dull-blooded  poppy-stem, '  whose 

flower, 
Hued  with  the  scarlet  of  a  fierce  sunrise, 
Like  to  the  wild  youth  of  an  evil  prince, 
Is  without   sweetness,  but  who   crowns 

himself 
Above  the  naked  poisons  of  his  heart 
In  his  old  age.'     A  graceful  thought  of 

hers 
Grav'n  on  my  fancy !     And  oh,  how  like 

a  nymph, 
A  stately  mountain  nymph  she  look'd ! 

how  native 
Unto  the  hills  she   trod   on!     While   I 

gazed 
My  coronal  slowly  disentwined  itself 
And  fell  between  us  both;   tho'  while  I 

gazed 
My  spirit  leap'd  as  with  those  thrills  of 

bliss 
That  strike  across  the  soul  in  prayer,  and 

show  us 
That  we  are  surely  heard.     Methought  a 

light 
Burst  from  the  garland  I  had  wov'n,  and 

stood 


THE  LOVER'S   TALE. 


473 


A  solid  glory  on  her  bright  black  hair; 
A  light  methought  broke  from  her  dark, 

dark  eyes, 
And  shot  itself  into  the  singing  winds; 
A  mystic  light  flash'd  ev'n  from  her  white 

robe 
As  from  a  glass  in  the  sun,  and  fell  about 
My  footsteps  on  the  mountains. 

Last  we  came 
To  what  our  people  call   '  The  Hill  of 

Woe.' 
A  bridge  is  there,  that,  look'd  at  from 

beneath 
Seems  but  a  cobweb  filament  to  link 
The   yawning   of  an   earthquake-cloven 

chasm. 
And  thence  one  night,  when  all  the  winds 

were  loud, 
A  woful  man  (for  so  the  story  went) 
Had  thrust  his  wife  and  child  and  dash'd 

himself 
Into  the  dizzy  depth  below.     Below, 
Fierce  in  the  strength  of  far  descent,  a 

stream 
Flies   with   a   shatter'd  foam  along  .the 

chasm. 
The  path  was  perilous,  loosely  strown 

with  crags  : 
We  mounted  slowly;   yet  to  both  there 

came 
The  joy  of  life  in  steepness  overcome, 
And   victories    of    ascent,    and  looking 

down 
On  all  that  had  look'd  down  on  us;   and 

joy 
In  breathing  nearer  heaven;   and  joy  to 

me, 
High  over  all  the  azure-circled  earth, 
To  breathe  with  her  as  if  in  heaven  itself; 
And  more  than  joy  that  I  to  her  became 
Her  guardian  and  her  angel,  raising  her 
Still  higher,  past  all  peril,  until  she  saw 
Beneath  her  feet  the  region  far  away, 
Beyond    the    nearest   mountain's   bosky 

brows, 
Arise  in  open  prospect  —  heath  and  hill, 
And  hollow  lined  and  wooded  to  the  lips, 
And  steep-down  walls   of  battlemented 

rock 
Gilded   with   broom,   or    shatter'd    into 

spires, 
And  glory  of  broad  waters  interfused, 


Whence  rose  as  it  were  breath  and  steam 
of  gold, 

And  over  all  the  great  wood  rioting 

And  climbing,  streak'd  or  starr'd  at 
intervals 

With  falling  brook  or  blossom'd  bush  — 
and  last, 

Framing  the  mighty  landscape  to  the 
west, 

A  purple  range  of  mountain-cones,  be- 
tween 

Whose  interspaces  gush'd  in  blinding 
bursts 

The  incorporate  blaze  of  sun  and  sea. 

At  length 
Descending  from  the  point  and  standing 

both, 
There  on  the  tremulous  bridge,  that  from 

beneath 
Had  seem'd  a  gossamer  filament  up  in  air, 
We  paused  amid  the  splendour.     All  the 

west 
And    ev'n    unto   the   middle   south  was 

ribb'd 
And  barr'd  with  bloom  on  bloom.     The 

sun  below, 
Held  for  a  space  'twixt  cloud  and  wave, 

shower'd  down 
Rays  of  a  mighty  circle,  weaving  over 
That  various  wilderness  a  tissue  of  light 
Unparallel'd.      On   the   other   side,  the 

moon, 
Half-melted  into  thin  blue  air,  stood  still, 
And  pale  and  fibrous  as  a  wither'd  leaf, 
Nor  yet  endured  in  presence  of  His  eyes 
To  indue  his  lustre;   most  unloverlike, 
Since  in  his  absence  full  of  light  and  joy, 
And    giving   light   to   others.     But   this 

most, 
Next  to  her  presence  whom  I  loved  so 

well, 
Spoke  loudly  even  into  my  inmost  heart 
As   to    my   outward    hearing:   the   loud 

stream, 
Forth  issuing  from  his  portals  in  the  crag 
(A   visible   link    unto   the  home   of  my 

heart), 
Ran  amber  toward  the  west,  and  nigh 

the  sea 
Parting   my   own   loved   mountains  was 

received, 
Shorn  of  its  strength,  into  the  sympathy 


474 


THE  LOVER'S    TALE. 


Of  that  small  bay,  which  out  to  open 

main 
Glow'd  intermingling  close  beneath  the 

sun. 
Spirit  of  Love  !  that  little  hour  was  bound 
Shut    in   from    Time,   and    dedicate    to 

thee : 
Thy  fires  from   heaven  had  touch'd  it, 

and  the  earth 
They  fell  on  became  hallow'd  evermore. 

We  turn'd :  our  eyes  met :  hers  were 

bright,  and  mine 
Were  dim  with  floating  tears,  that  shot 

the  sunset 
In  lightnings  round  me;   and  my  name 

was  borne 
Upon  her  breath.     Henceforth  my  name 

has  been 
A  hallow'd  memory  like  the  names  of 

old, 
A  centr'd,  glory-circled  memory, 
And  a  peculiar  treasure,  brooking  not 
Exchange  or  currency  :  and  in  that  hour 
A  hope  flow'd  round  me,  like  a  golden 

mist 
Charm'd  amid  eddies  of  melodious  airs, 
A  moment,   ere   the   onward  whirlwind 

shatter  it, 
Waver'd   and   floated  —  which  was  less 

than  Hope, 
Because  it  lack'd  the  power  of  perfect 

Hope; 
But  which  was  more  and  higher  than  all 

Hope, 
Because  all  other  Hope  had  lower  aim; 
Even  that  this  name  to  which  her  gracious 

lips 
Did  lend  such  gentle  utterance,  this  one 

name, 
In   some    obscure    hereafter,    might   in- 

wreathe 
(How  lovelier,  nobler  then  !)  her  life,  her 

love, 
With  my  life,  love,  soul,  spirit,  and  heart 

and  strength. 
•  Brother,'  she  said,  '  let  this  be  call'd 

henceforth 
The  Hill  of  Hope;  '  and  I  replied,  <0 

sister, 
My  will  is  one  with  thine;   the  Hill  of 

Hope.' 
Nevertheless,  we  did  not  change  the  name. 


I  did  not  speak  :  I  could  not  speak  my 
love. 
Love  lieth  deep :  Love  dwells  not  in  lip- 
depths. 
Love  wraps  his  wings  on  either  side  the 

heart, 
Constraining  it  with  kisses  close  and  warm, 
Absorbing  all  the  incense  of  sweet  thoughts 
So   that  they  pass  not  to  the  shrine  of 

sound. 
Else  had  the  life  of  that  delighted  hour 
Drunk  in  the  largeness  01  the  utterance 
Of  Love;   but  how  should  Earthly  meas- 
ure mete 
The  Heavenly-unmeasured  or  unlimited 

Love, 
Who  scarce  can  tune  his  high  majestic 

sense 
Unto  the  thundersong  that  wheels  the 

spheres, 
Scarce  living  in  the  ^Eolian  harmony, 
And  flowing  odour  of  the  spacious  air, 
Scarce  housed  within  the  circle  of  this 

Earth, 
Be  cabin'd  up  in  words  and  syllables, 
Which   pass   with   that  which   breathes 

them?     Sooner  Earth 
Might  go  round  Heaven,  and  the  strait 

girth  of  Time 
Inswathe  the  fulness  of  Eternity, 
Than  language  grasp  the  infinite  of  Love. 

O  day  which  did  enwomb  that  happy 

hour, 
Thou  art  blessed  in  the  years,  divinest  day  ! 
O  Genius  of  that  hour  which  dost  uphold 
Thy  coronal  of  glory  like  a  God, 
Amid  thy  melancholy  mates  far-seen, 
Who  walk  before  thee,  ever  turning  round 
To  gaze  upon  thee  till  their  eyes  are  dim 
With  dwelling  on  the  light  and  depth  of 

thine, 
Thy   name    is   ever   worshipp'd   among 

hours ! 
Had  I  died  then,  I  had  not  seem'd  to  die, 
For  bliss  stood  round  me  like  the  light  of 

Heaven,  — 
Had  I  died  then,  I  had  not  known  the 

death ; 
Yea  had   the   Power  from  whose   right 

hand  the  light 
Of  Life  issueth,  and  from  whose  left  hand 

floweth 


THE  LOVER'S   TALE. 


475 


The  Shadow  of  Death,  perennial  efflu- 
ences, 
Whereof  to  all  that  draw  the  wholesome 

air, 
Somewhile   the   one  must   overflow  the 

other; 
Then  had  he  stemm'd  my  day  with  night, 

and  driven 
My  current   to   the  fountain  whence  it 

sprang,  — 
Even  his  own  abiding  excellence  — 
On  me,  methinks,  that  shock  of  gloom 

had  fall'n 
Unfelt,  and  in  this  glory  I  had  merged 
The  other,  like  the  sun  I  gazed  upon, 
Which  seeming  for  the  moment  due  to 

death, 
And  dipping  his  head  low  beneath  the 

verge, 
Yet  bearing  round  about  him  his  own  day, 
In  confidence  of  unabated  strength, 
Steppeth  from  Heaven  to  Heaven,  from 

light  to  light, 
And  holdeth  his  undimmed  forehead  far 
Into  a  clearer  zenith,  pure  of  cloud. 

We  trod  the  shadow  of  the  downward 

hill; 
We  past  from   light  to  dark.     On   the 

other  side 
Is  scoop'd  a  cavern  and  a  mountain  hall, 
Which  none  have  fathom'd.     If  you  go 

far  in 
(The  country  people  rumour)  you  may 

hear 
The  moaning  of  the  woman  and  the  child, 
Shut  in  the  secret  chambers  of  the  rock. 
I  too  have  heard  a  sound  —  perchance  of 

streams 
Running  far  on  within  its  inmost  halls, 
The  home  of  darkness;   but  the  cavern- 
mouth, 
Half  overtrailed  with  a  wanton  weed, 
Gives   birth  to  a  brawling   brook,  that 

passing  lightly 
Adown  a  natural  stair  of  tangled  roots, 
Is  presently  received  in  a  sweet  grave 
Of  eglantines,  a  place  of  burial 
Far  lovelier  than  its  cradle;   for  unseen, 
But  taken  with  the  sweetness  of  the  place, 
It  makes  a  constant  bubbling  melody 
That  drowns  the  nearer  echoes.     Lower 

down 


Spreads  out  a  little  lake,  that,  flooding, 
leaves 

Low  banks  of  yellow  sand;  and  from  the 
woods 

That  belt  it  rise  three  dark,  tall  cy- 
presses, — 

Three  cypresses,  symbols  of  mortal  woe, 

That  men  plant  over  graves. 

Hither  we  came, 
And  sitting  down  upon  the  golden  moss, 
Held  converse  sweet  and  low  —  low  con- 
verse sweet, 
In  which  our  voices  bore  least  part.     The 

wind 
Told  a  lovetale  beside  us,  how  he  woo'd 
The  waters,   and   the  waters   answering 

lisp'd 
To  kisses  of  the   wind,  that,  sick  with 

love, 
Fainted  at  intervals,  and  grew  again 
To    utterance   of   passion.      Ye    cannot 

shape 
Fancy  so  fair  as  is  this  memory. 
Methought  all  excellence  that  ever  was 
Had  drawn  herself  from  many  thousand 

years, 
And  all  the  separate  Edens  of  this  earth, 
To   centre  in  this   place    and   time.      I 

listen'd, 
And  her  words  stole  with  most  prevailing 

sweetness 
Into  my.  heart,  as  thronging  fancies  come 
To  boys  and  girls  when  summer  days  are 

new, 
And  soul  and  heart  and  body  are  all  at 

ease : 
What  marvel  my  Camilla  told  me  all? 
It  was  so  happy  an  hour,  so  sweet  a  place, 
And  I  was  as  the  brother  of  her  blood, 
And  by  that  name  I  moved  upon  her 

breath; 
Dear   name,   which   had   too    much   of 

nearness  in  it 
And  heralded  the  distance  of  this  time  ! 
At  first  her  voice  was  very  sweet  and  low, 
As  if  she  were  afraid  of  utterance; 
But  in  the  onward  current  of  her  speech, 
(As  echoes  of  the  hollow-banked  brooks 
Are  fashion'd  by  the  channel  which  they 

keep), 
Her  words  did  of  their  meaning  borrow 

sound, 


476 


THE  LOVER'S    TALE. 


Her  cheek  did  catch  the  colour  of  her 

words. 
I  heard  and  trembled,  yet  I  could  but 

hear; 
My  heart    paused  —  my   raised    eyelids 

would  not  fall, 
But  still  I  kept  my  eyes  upon  the  sky. 
I  seem'd  the  only  part  of  Time  stood 

still, 
And  saw  the  motion  of  all  other  things; 
While  her  words,  syllable  by  syllable, 
Like  water,  drop  by  drop,  upon  my  ear 
Fell;   and  I  wish'd,  yet  wish'd  her  not  to 

speak; 
But  she  spake  on,  for  I  did  name  no  wish, 
What  marvel  my  Camilla  told  me  all 
Her  maiden  dignities  of  Hope  and  Love — 
'  Perchance,' she  said,  'return'd.'     Even 

then  the  stars 
Did  tremble  in  their  stations  as  I  gazed; 
But   she   spake  on,   for  I  did  name  no 

wish, 
No  wish  —  no    hope.      Hope   was   not 

wholly  dead, 
But  breathing  hard  at  the  approach  of 

Death,  — 
Camilla,  my  Camilla,  who  was  mine 
No  longer  in  the  dearest  sense  of  mine  — 
For  all  the  secret  of  her  inmost  heart, 
And  all  the  maiden  empire  of  her  mind, 
Lay  like  a  map  before  me,  and  I  saw 
There,  where  I  hoped  myself  to  reign  as 

king, 
There,  where  that  day  I  crown'd  myself 

as  king, 
There  in  my  realm  and  even  on  my  throne, 
Another  !  then  it  seem'd  as  tho'  a  link 
Of  some  tight  chain  within  my  inmost 

frame 
Was  riven  in  twain :  that  life  I  heeded 

not 
Flow'd  from  me,  and  the  darkness  of  the 

grave, 
The    darkness   of  the   grave    and   utter 

night, 
Did  swallow  up  my  vision;   at  her  feet, 
Even  the  feet  of  her  I  loved,  I  fell, 
Smit  with  exceeding  sorrow  unto  Death. 

Then  had  the  earth  beneath  me  yawn- 
ing cloven 
With  such  a  sound  as  when  an  iceberg 
splits 


From  cope  to  base — had  Heaven  from 

all  her  doors, 
With  all  her  golden  thresholds  clashing, 

roll'd 
Her  heaviest   thunder — I   had   lain   as 

dead, 
Mute,  blind    and  motionless  as  then  I 

lay; 
Dead,  for  henceforth  there  was  no  life 

for  me ! 
Mute,    for    henceforth    what    use    were 

words  to  me ! 
Blind,  for  the  day  was  as  the  night  to 

me ! 
The  night  to  me  was  kinder  than  the 

day; 
The  night  in  pity  took  away  my  day, 
Because  my  grief  as  yet  was  newly  born 
Of    eyes   too   weak    to   look    upon   the 

light; 
And  thro'  the  hasty  notice  of  the  ear 
Frail  Life  was  startled  from  the  tender 

love 
Of  him  she  brooded  over.     Would  I  had 

lain 
Until  the  plaited  ivy-tress  had  wound 
Round  my  worn  limbs,  and  the  wild  brier 

had  driven 
Its   knotted  thorns   thro'  my  unpaining 

brows, 
Leaning  its  roses  on  my  faded  eyes.- 
The  wind  had  blown  above  me,  and  the 

rain 
Had  fall'n    upon    me,   and   the   gilded 

snake 
Had    nestled   in   this    bosom-throne    of 

Love, 
But  I  had  been  at  rest  for  evermore. 

Long  time  entrancement  held  me.    All 

too  soon 
Life  (like  a  wanton  too-officious  friend, 
Who  will  not  hear  denial,  vain  and  rude 
With  proffer  of  unwish'd-for  services) 
Entering  all  the  avenues  of  sense 
Past  thro'  into  his  citadel,  the  brain, 
With  hated  warmth  of  apprehensiveness. 
And  first  the  chillness  of  the  sprinkled 

brook 
Smote  on  my  brows,  and  then  I  seem'd 

to  hear 
Its   murmur,   as   the   drowning    seaman 

hears, 


THE  LOVER'S    TALE. 


477 


Who  with  his  head   below  the  surface 

dropt 
Listens  the  muffled  booming  indistinct 
Of  the  confused  floods,  and  dimly  knows 
His  head  shall  rise  no  more :  and  then 

came  in 
The   white    light    of    the   weary   moon 

above, 
Diffused  and  molten  into  flaky  cloud. 
Was  my  sight  drunk  that  it  did  shape  to 

me 
Him  who  should  own  that  name?     Were 

it  not  well 
If  so  be  that  the  echo  of  that  name 
Ringing  within  the  fancy  had  updrawn 
A  fashion  and  a  phantasm  of  the  form 
It   should  attach  to  ?     Phantom  !  —  had 

the  ghastliest 
That  ever  lusted  for  a  body,  sucking 
The  foul  steam  of  the  grave  to  thicken 

by  it, 
There    in    the     shuddering     moonlight 

brought  its  face 
And  what   it   has  for   eyes   as    close  to 

mine 
As  he  did — better  that  than  his,  than  he 
The  friend,  the   neighbour,    Lionel,  the 

beloved, 
The  loved,  the  lover,  the  happy  Lionel, 
The  low-voiced,  tender-spirited  Lionel, 
All  joy,  to  whom  my  agony  was  a  joy. 
O  how  her  choice  did  leap  forth  from  his 

eyes! 
O  how  her  love  did  clothe  itself  in  smiles 
About  his  lips!  and  —  not  one  moment's 

grace — 
Then  when  the  effect  weigh'd  seas  upon 

my  head 
To  come  my  way !  to  twit  me  with  the 


Was  not  the  land  as  free  thro'  all  her 

ways 
To  him  as  me?     Was  not  his  wont  to 

walk 
Between  the    going  light   and   growing 

night  ? 
Had   I   not    learnt   my   loss   before   he 

came? 
Could  that  be  more  because  he  came  my 

way? 
Why  should  he  not  come  my  way  if  he 

would? 


And  yet  to-night,  to-night  —  when  all  my 

wealth 
Flash'd  from  me  in  a  moment  and  I  fell 
Beggar'd  for  ever —  why  should  he  come 

my  way 
Robed  in  those  robes  of  light  I  must  not 

wear, 
With  that  great  crown  of  beams  about 

his  brows  — 
Come  like  an  angel  to  a  damned  soul, 
To  tell   him  of  the    bliss  he  had  with 

God  — 
Come  like  a  careless  and  a  greedy  heir 
That  scarce  can  wait  the  reading  of  the 

will 
Before  he  takes  possession?     Was  mine 

a  mood 
To  be  invaded  rudely,  and  not  rather 
A  sacred,  secret,  unapproached  woe, 
Unspeakable  ?     I  was  shut  up  with  Grief; 
She  took  the  body  of  my  past  delight, 
Narded  and  swathed  and  balm'd  it  for 

herself, 
And  laid  it  in  a  sepulchre  of  rock 
Never  to  rise  again.     I  was  led  mute 
Into  her  temple  like  a  sacrifice; 
I   was  the    High    Priest   in   her   holiest 

place, 
Not  to  be  loudly  broken  in  upon. 

Oh  friend,  thoughts  deep  and  heavy  as 

these  wellnigh 
O'erbore  the  limits  of  my  brain  :  but  he 
Bent  o'er  me,  and  my  neck  his  arm  up- 

stay'd. 
I  thought  it  was  an  adder's  fold,  and  once 
I  strove  to  disengage  myself,  but  fail'd, 
Being  so  feeble  :  she  bent  above  me,  too ; 
Wan  was  her  cheek;    for  whatsoe'er  of 

blight 
Lives  in  the  dewy  touch  of  pity  had  made 
The  red  rose  there  a  pale  one  —  and  her 

eyes  — 
I    saw   the    moonlight    glitter   on   their 

tears  — 
And  some  few  drops  of  that  distressful 

rain 
Fell  on  my  face,  and  her  long  ringlets 

moved, 
Drooping  and  beaten  by  the  breeze,  and 

brush'd 
My  fallen  forehead  in  their  to  and  fro, 
For  in  the  sudden  anguish  of  her  heart 


478 


THE  LOVER'S    TALE. 


Loosed  from  their  simple  thrall  they  had 

flow'd  abroad, 
And  floated  on  and   parted  round   her 

neck, 
Mantling  her  form  halfway.     She,  when 

I  woke, 
Something  she  ask'd,  I  know  not  what, 

and  ask'd, 
Unanswer'd,  since  I  spake  not;   for  the 

sound 
Of  that  dear  voice  so  musically  low, 
And  now  first  heard  with  any  sense  of 

pain, 
As  it  had  taken  life  away  before, 
Choked  all  the  syllables,  that  strove  to 

rise 
From  my  full  heart. 

The  blissful  lover,  too, 
From  his  great  hoard  of  happiness  dis- 

till'd 
Some  drops  of  solace;   like  a  vain  rich 

man, 
That,   having   always    prosper'd    in   the 

world, 
Folding    his    hands,    deals   comfortable 

words 
To   hearts   wounded    for   ever;    yet,   in 

truth, 
Fair   speech    was    his   and    delicate   of 

phrase, 
Falling   in  whispers   on   the   sense,  ad- 

dress'd 
More  to  the  inward   than   the  outward 

ear, 
As  rain  of  the  midsummer  midnight  soft, 
Scarce-heard,  recalling  fragrance  and  the 

green 
Of  the  dead  spring :  but  mine  was  wholly 

dead, 
No  bud,  no  leaf,  no  flower,  no  fruit  for 

me. 
Yet  who  had  done,  or  who  had  suffer'd 

wrong? 
And  why  was  I   to   darken  their  pure 

love, 
If,  as  I  found,  they  two  did  love  each 

other, 
Because  my  own  was   darken'd?     Why 

was  I 
To  cross  between  their  happy  star  and 

them? 
To  stand  a  shadow  by  their  shining  doors, 


And  vex  them  with  my  darkness?     Did 

I  love  her? 
Ye  know  that   I    did   love  her;   to  this 

present 
My  full-orb'd  love  has  waned  not.     Did 

I  love  her, 
And  could  I  look  upon  her  tearful  eyes? 
What    had    she    done    to   weep?     Why 

should  she  weep? 

0  innocent  of  spirit  —  let  my  heart 
Break   rather  —  whom   the  gentlest  airs 

of  Heaven 
Should  kiss  with  an  unwonted  gentleness. 
Her  love  did  mUrder  mine  ?    What  then  ? 

She  deem'd 

1  wore  a  brother's  mind :  she  call'd  me 

brother : 
She  told  me  all  her  love :  she  shall  not 
weep. 

The  brightness  of  a  burning  thought, 

awhile 
In  battle  with   the  glooms  of  my  dark 

will, 
Moonlike  emerged,  and  to  itself  lit  up 
There  on  the   depth  of  an  unfathom'd 

woe 
Reflex  of  action.     Starting  up  at  once, 
As   from   a   dismal    dream   of  my   own 

death, 
I,  for  I  loved  her,  lost  my  love  in  Love; 
I,  for  I  loved  her,  graspt  the  hand  she 

lov'd, 
And  laid  it  in  her  own,  and  sent  my  cry 
Thro'  the  blank  night  to  Him  who  loving 

made 
The  happy  and  the  unhappy  love,  that 

He 
Would  hold  the  hand  of  blessing  over 

them, 
Lionel,  the  happy,  and  her,  and  her,  his 

bride ! 
Let  them  so  love  that  men  and  boys  may 

say, 
'  Lo !   how  they  love   each   other ! '   till 

their  love 
Shall  ripen  to  a  proverb,  unto  all 
Known,  when  their  faces  are  forgot  in 

the  land  — 
One  golden  dream  of  love,  from  which 

may  death 
Awake  them  with  heaven's  music  in  a 

life 


THE  LOVER'S   TALE. 


479 


More  living  to  some  happier  happiness, 
Swallowing  its  precedent  in  victory. 
And  as  for  me,  Camilla,  as  for  me,  — 
The  dew  of  tears  is  an  unwholesome  dew, 
They  will  but  sicken  the  sick  plant  the 

more. 
Deem  that  I  love  thee  but  as  brothers  do, 
So  shalt  thou  love  me  still  as  sisters  do; 
Or  if  thou  dream  aught  farther,  dream 

but  how 
I  could  have  loved  thee,  had  there  been 

none  else 
To  love  as  lovers,  loved  again  by  thee. 

Or  this,  or  somewhat   like  to  this,  I 

spake, 
When  I  beheld  her  weep  so  ruefully; 
For  sure  my  love  should  ne'er  indue  the 

front 
And  mask  of  Hate,  who  lives  on  others' 

moans. 
Shall  Love  pledge  Hatred  in  her  bitter 

draughts, 
And  batten  on  her  poisons?     Love  for- 
bid! 
Love  passeth  not  the  threshold  of  cold 

Hate, 
And  Hate  is  strange   beneath   the  roof 

of  Love. 
O  Love,  if  thou  be'st  Love,  dry  up  these 

tears 
Shed  for  the  love  of  Love;   for  tho'  mine 

image, 
The  subject  of  thy  power,  be  cold   in 

her, 
Yet,  like  cold  snow,  it  melteth   in   the 

source 
Of  these  sad  tears,  and  feeds  their  down- 
ward flow. 
So  Love,  arraign'd  to  judgment  and  to 

death, 
Received  unto  himself  a  part  of  blame, 
Being  guiltless,  as  an  innocent  prisoner, 
Who,   when   the   woful    sentence    hath 

been  past, 
And  all  the  clearness  of  his  fame  hath 

gone 
Beneath  the  shadow  of  the  curse  of  man, 
First   falls  asleep    in  swoon,  wherefrom 

awaked, 
And    looking   round    upon    his    tearful 

friends, 
Forthwith  and  in  his  agony  conceives 


A    shameful    sense    as    of    a    cleaving 

crime  — 
For  whence  without   some  guilt  should 

such  grief  be? 

So  died  that  hour,  and  fell  into  the 
abysm 
Of  forms  outworn,  but  not   to  me  out- 
worn, 
Who  never   hail'd   another  —  was  there 

one? 
There  might  be  one  —  one  other,  worth 

the  life 
That  made  it  sensible.     So  that  hour  died 
Like  odour  rapt  into  the  winged  wind 
Borne  into  alien  lands  and  far  away. 

There  be  some  hearts  so  airily  built, 

that  they, 
They  —  when  their  love  is  wreck'd — if 

Love  can  wreck  — 
On  that  sharp  ridge  of  utmost  doom  ride 

highly 
Above  the  perilous  seas  of  Change  and 

Chance; 
Nay,  more,  hold  out  the  lights  of  cheer- 
fulness; 
As  the  tall  ship,  that  many  a  dreary  year 
Knit   to  some  dismal   sandbank   far   at 

sea, 
All    thro'    the    livelong   hours   of  utter 

dark, 
Showers  slanting  light  upon  the  dolorous 

wave. 
For   me  —  what    light,   what   gleam   on 

those  black  ways 
Where  Love  could  walk  with   banish'd 

Hope  no  more? 

It   was   ill-done    to   part  you,    Sisters 

fair; 
Love's  arms  were  wreath'd  about  the  neck 

of  Hope, 
And  Hope  kiss'd  Love,  and  Love  drew  in 

her  breath 
In  that  close  kiss,  and  drank  her  whis- 

per'd  tales. 
They   said   that   Love  would   die  when 

Hope  was  gone, 
And  Love  mourn'd  long,  and  sorrow'd 

after  Hope; 
At  last  she  sought  out  Memory,  and  th^y 

trod 


480 


THE  LOVER'S   TALE. 


The   same   old   paths   where    Love  had 

walk'd  with  Hope, 
And  Memory  fed  the  soul  of  Love  with 

tears. 

II. 

From  that  time  forth  I  would  not  see  her 

more; 
But  many  weary  moons  I  lived  alone  — 
Alone,  and  in   the   heart   of  the   great 

forest. 
Sometimes  upon  the  hills  beside  the  sea 
All  day  I  watch'd  the    floating  isles  of 

shade, 
And  sometimes  on  the  shore,  upon  the 

sands 
Insensibly  I  drew  her  name,  until 
The  meaning  of  the  letters  shot  into 
My  brain ;  anon  the  wanton  billow  wash'd 
Them  over,  till  they  faded  like  my  love. 
The  hollow  caverns  heard  me  —  the  black 

brooks 
Of  the  mid-forest  heard  me  —  the  soft 

winds, 
Laden   with   thistledown   and   seeds    of 

flowers, 
Paused  in  their  course  to  hear  me,  for  my 

voice 
Was  all  of  thee :  the  merry  linnet  knew 

me, 
The  squirrel  knew  me,  and  the  dragonfly 
Shot  by  me  like  a  flash  of  purple  fire. 
The  rough  brier  tore  my  bleeding  palms; 

the  hemlock, 
Brow-high,  did  strike  my  forehead  as  I 

past; 
Yet  trod  I  not  the  wildflower  in  my  path, 
Nor  bruised  the  wildbird's  egg. 

Was  this  the  end? 
Why  grew  we  then  together  in  one  plot? 
Why  fed  we  from  one  fountain?  drew  one 

sun? 
Why  were  our  mothers'  branches  of  one 

stem? 
Why  were  we  one  in  all  things,  save  in 

that 
Where  to  have  been  one  had  been  the 

cope  and  crown 
Of  all  I  hoped  and  fear'd?  —  if  that  same 

nearness 
Were  father  to  this  distance,  and  that  one 
Vauntcourier  to  this  double  ?  if  Affection 


Living  slew  Love,  and  Sympathy  hew'd  out 
The  bosom-sepulchre  of  Sympathy  ? 

Chiefly  I  sought  the  cavern  and  the 
hill 

Where  last  we  roam'd  together,  for  the 
sound 

Of  the  loud  stream  was  pleasant,  and  the 
wind 

Came  wooingly  with  woodbine  smells. 
Sometimes 

All  day  I  sat  within  the  cavern-mouth, 

Fixing  my  eyes  on  those  three  cypress- 
cones 

That  spired  above  the  wood;  and  with 
mad  hand 

Tearing  the  bright  leaves  of* the  ivy- 
screen, 

I  cast  them  in  the  noisy  brook  beneath, 

And  watch'd  them  till  they  vanish'd  from 
my  sight 

Beneath  the  bower  of  wreathed  eglan- 
tines : 

And  all  the  fragments  of  the  living  rock 

(Huge  blocks,  which  some  old  trembling 
of  the  world 

Had  loosen'd  from  the  mountain,  till  they 
fell 

Half-digging  their  own  graves)  these  in 
my  agony 

Did  I  make  bare  of  all  the  golden  moss, 

Wherewith  the  dashing  runnel  in  the 
spring 

Had  liveried  them  all  over.     In  my  brain 

The  spirit  seem'd  to  flag  from  thought  to 
thought, 

As  moonlight  wandering  thro'  a  mist: 
my  blood 

Crept  like  marsh  drains  thro'  all  my  lan- 
guid limbs; 

The  motions  of  my  heart  seem'd  far  within 
me, 

Unfrequent,  low, as  tho'  it  told  its  pulses; 

And  yet  it  shook  me,  that  my  frame  would 
shudder, 

As  if  'twere  drawn  asunder  by  the  rack. 

But  over  the  deep  graves  of  Hope  and 
Fear, 

And  all  the  broken  palaces  of  the  Past, 

Brooded  one  master-passion  evermore, 

Like  to  a  low-hung  and  a  fiery  sky 

Above  some  fair  metropolis,  earth- 
shock'd,  — 


THE  LOVER'S    TALE. 


481 


Hung  round  with  ragged  rims  and  burn- 
ing folds, — 
Embathing  all  with  wild  and  woful  hues, 
Great  hills  of  ruins,  and  collapsed  masses 
Of  thundershaken  columns  indistinct, 
And   fused   together   in .  the    tyrannous 

light  — 
Ruins,  the  ruin  of  all  my  life  and  me ! 

Sometimes  I  thought  Camilla  was  no 

more, 
Some  one  had  told  me  she  was  dead,  and 

ask'd 
If  I  would  see  her  burial :  then  I  seem'd 
To  rise,  and  through  the  forest-shadow 

borne 
With  more  than  mortal  swiftness,  I  ran 

down 
The  steepy  sea-bank,  till  I  came  upon 
The  rear  of  a  procession,  curving  round 
The  silver-sheeted  bay  :  in  front  of  which 
Six  stately  virgins,  all  in  white,  upbare 
A  broad  earth-sweeping  pall  of  whitest 

lawn, 
Wreathed  round  the  bier  with  garlands: 

in  the  distance, 
From  out  the  yellow  woods  upon  the  hill 
Look'd  forth  the  summit  and  the  pinna- 
cles 
Of  a  gray  steeple  —  thence  at  intervals 
A  low  bell  tolling.     All  the  pageantry, 
Save  those  six  virgins  which  upheld  the 

bier, 
Were  stoled  from  head  to  foot  in  flowing 

black ; 
One  walk'd  abreast  with  me,  and  veil'd 

•        his  brow, 
And  he  was  loud  in  weeping  and  in  praise 
Of  her,  we  follow'd  :  a  strong  sympathy 
Shook  all  my  soul :  I  flung  myself  upon 

him 
In  tears  and  cries :  I  told  him  all  my  love, 
How  I   had   loved  her   from   the  first; 

whereat 
He  shrank  and  howl'd,  and  from  his  brow 

drew  back 
His  hand  to  push  me  from  him;   and  the 

face, 
The  very  face  and  form  of  Lionel 
Flash'd  thro'  my  eyes  into  my  innermost 

brain, 
And  at  his  feet  I  seem'd  to  faint  and  fall, 
To  fall  and  die  away.     I  could  not  rise 
21 


Albeit  I  strove  to  follow.     They  past  on, 
The  lordly  Phantasms !  in  their  floating 

folds 
They  past  and  were  no  more :   but  I  had 

fallen 
Prone  by  the  dashing  runnel  on  the  grass. 

Alway  the  inaudible  invisible  thought, 
Artificer  and  subject,  lord  and  slave, 
Shaped  by  the  audible  and  visible, 
Moulded  the  audible  and  visible  ; 
All  crisped  sounds  of  wave  and  leaf  and 

wind, 
Flatter'd  the  fancy  of  my  fading  brain ; 
The  cloud-pavilion'd  element,  the  wood, 
The  mountain,  the  three  cypresses,  the 

cave, 
Storm,  sunset,  glows  and  glories  of  the 

moon 
Below   black    firs,  when   silent-creeping 

winds 
Laid  the  long  night  in  silver  streaks  and 

bars, 
Were    wrought    into   the   tissue    of  my 

dream : 
The   moanings  in   the   forest,   the   loud 

brook, 
Cries  of  the  partridge  like  a  rusty  key 
Turn'd  in  a  lock,  owl-whoop   and    dor- 
hawk-whirr 
Awoke  me  not,  but  were  a  part  of  sleep, 
And  voices  in  the  distance  calling  to  me 
And  in  my  vision  bidding  me  dream  on, 
Like  sounds  without  the   twilight  realm 

of  dreams, 
Which  wander  round   the  bases  of  the 

hills, 
And  murmur  at  the  low-dropt  eaves  of 

sleep, 
Half-entering  the  portals.     Oftentimes 
The  vision  had  fair  prelude,  in  the  end 
Opening  on  darkness,  stately  vestibules 
To  caves  and  shows  of  Death :  whether 

the  mind, 
With  some  revenge,  —  even  to  itself  un- 
known, — 
Made  strange  division  of  its  suffering 
With  her,  whom  to  have  suffering  view'd 

had  been 
Extremest  pain;   or  that  the  clear-eyed 

Spirit, 
Being  blunted  in  the  Present,  grew  at 

length 


482 


THE  LOVER'S    TALE. 


Prophetical  and  prescient  of  whate'er 
The  Future  had  in  store :  or  that  which 

most 
Enchains  belief,  the  sorrow  of  my  spirit 
Was  of  so  wide  a  compass  it  took  in 
All  I  had  loved,  and  my  dull  agony, 
Ideally  to  her  transferr'd,  became 
Anguish  intolerable. 

The  day  waned; 
Alone  I  sat  with  her :  about  my  brow 
Her  warm  breath  floated  in  the  utterance 
Of  silver-chorded  tones:    her   lips  were 

sunder'd 
With  smiles  of  tranquil  bliss,  which  broke 

in  light 
Like  morning  from  her  eyes  —  her  elo- 
quent eyes, 
(As  I  have  seen  them  many  a  hundred 

times) 
FilPd  all  with  pure  clear  fire,  thro'  mine 

down  rain'd 
Their  spirit-searching  splendours.     As  a 

vision 
Unto  a  haggard  prisoner,  iron-stay'd 
In  damp  and   dismal   dungeons   under- 
ground, 
Confined  on  points  of  faith,  when  strength 

is  shock'd 
With  torment,  and  expectancy  of  worse 
Upon  the  morrow,  thro'  the  ragged  walls, 
All  unawares  before  his  half-shut  eyes, 
Comes  in  upon  him  in  the  dead  of  night, 
And  with  the  excess  of  sweetness  and  of 

awe, 
Makes  the  heart  tremble,  and  the  sight 

run  over 
Upon  his  steely  gyves;  so  those  fair  eyes 
Shone  on  my  darkness,  forms  which  ever 

stood 
Within  the  magic  cirque  of  memory, 
Invisible  but  deathless,  waiting  still 
The  edict  of  the  will  to  reassume 
The  semblance  of  those  rare  realities 
Of  which  they  were  the  mirrors.     Now 

the  light 
Which  was  their  life,  burst  through  the 

cloud  of  thought 
Keen,  irrepressible. 

It  was  a  room 
Within   the   summer-house   of  which  I 
spake, 


Hung  round  with  paintings  of  the  sea, 

and  one 
A  vessel  in  mid-ocean,  her  heaved  prow 
Clambering,  the  mast  bent  and  the  ravin 

wind 
In  her  sail  roaring.    From  the  outer  day, 
Betwixt  the  close-set  ivies  came  a  broad 
And  solid  beam  of  isolated  light, 
Crowded  with  driving  atomies,  and  fell 
Slanting  upon  that  picture,  from  prime 

youth 
Well-known   well-loved.      She    drew   it 

long  ago 
Forthgazing  on  the  waste  and  open  sea, 
One  morning  when  the  upblown  billow 

ran 
Shoreward  beneath  red  clouds,  and  I  had 

pour'd 
Into  the  shadowing  pencil's  naked  forms 
Colour  and  life :  it  was  a  bond  and  seal 
Of  friendship,    spoken   of  with    tearful 

smiles ; 
A  monument  of  childhood  and  of  love; 
The  poesy  of  childhood ;   my  lost  love 
Symbol'd   in   storm.      We   gazed   on   it 

together 
In   mute    and   glad   remembrance,   and 

each  heart 
Grew  closer  to  the  other,  and  the  eye 
Was   riveted   and   charm-bound,  gazing 

like 
The   Indian  on  a  still-eyed  snake,  low- 

couch'd  — 
A  beauty  which  is 'death;   when  all  at 

once 
That  painted  vessel,  as  with  inner  life, 
Began  to  heave  upon  that  painted  sea; 
An    earthquake,    my   loud    heart-beats, 

made  the  ground 
Reel  under  us,  and  all  at  once,  soul,  life 
And  breath  and  motion,  past  and  flow'd 

away 
To    those    unreal    billows:    round   and 

round 
A  whirlwind  caught  and  bore  us;  mighty 

gyres 
Rapid  and  vast,  of  hissing  spray  wind- 
driven 
Far  thro'   the    dizzy  dark.     Aloud  she 

shrieked; 
My  heart  was  cloven  with  pain;  I  wound 

my  arms 
About  here  we  whirl'd  giddily;  the  wind 


THE  LOVER'S   TALE. 


483 


Sung;   but  I   clasp'd  her  without  fear: 

her  weight 
Shrank  in  my  grasp,  and  over  my  dim 

eyes, 
And  parted  lips  which  drank  her  breath, 

down-hung 
The  jaws  of  Death  :  I,  groaning,  from 

me  flung 
Her  empty  phantom :  all  the  sway  and 

whirl 
Of  the  storm  dropt  to  windless  calm,  and  I 
Down  welter'd  thro'  the  dark  ever  and 

ever. 

III. 

I   CAME   one    day   and   sat   among   the 

stones 
Strewn  in  the  entry  of  the  moaning  cave; 
A  morning  air,  sweet  after  rain,  ran  over 
The  rippling  levels  of  the  lake,  and  blew 
Coolness  and  moisture  and  all  smells  of 

bud 
And  foliage  from  the  dark  and  dripping 

woods 
Upon  my  fever'd  brows  that  shook  and 

throbb'd 
From   temple   unto    temple.      To   what 

height 
The  day  had  grown  I  know  not.     Then 

came  on  me 
The  hollow  tolling  of  the  bell,  and  all 
The  vision  of  the  bier.     As  heretofore 
I  walk'd  behind  with  one  who  veil'd  his 

brow. 
Methought  by  slow  degrees   the   sullen 

bell 
Toll'd  quicker,  and  the  breakers  on  the 

shore 
Sloped  into  louder  surf:  those  that  went 

with  me, 
And  those  that  held  the  bier  before  my 

face, 
Moved  with  one  spirit  round  about  the 

bay, 
Trod  swifter  steps;   and  while  I  walk'd 

with  these 
In   marvel   at   that    gradual    change,    I 

thought 
Four  bells  instead  of  one  began  to  ring, 
Four  merry  bells,  four  merry  marriage- 
bells, 
In   clanging   cadence  jangling   peal  on 

peal  — 


A   long   loud  clash  of  rapid   marriage- 
bells. 
Then  those  who  led  the  van,  and  those 

in  rear, 
Rush'd  into  dance,  and  like  wild  Bac- 
chanals 
Fled  onward  to  the  steeple  in  the  woods : 
I,  too,  was  borne  along  and  felt  the  blast 
Beat  on  my  heated  eyelids :  all  at  once 
The  front  rank  made  a  sudden  halt;   the 

bells 
Lapsed  into  frightful  stillness;   the  surge 

fell 
From  thunder  into  whispers;    those  six 

maids 
With  shrieks  and  ringing  laughter  on  the 

sand 
Threw  down  the  bier;   the  woods  upon 

the  hill 
Waved  with  a  sudden  gust  that  sweeping 

down 
Took  the  edges  of  the  pall,  and  blew  it  far 
Until  it  hung,  a  little  silver  cloud 
Over  the  sounding  seas:    I  turn'd:    my 

heart 
Shrank  in  me,  like  a  snowflake  in  the 

hand, 
Waiting  to  see  the  settled  countenance 
Of   her    I    loved,   adorn'd   with   fading 

flowers. 
But  she  from  out  her  death-like  chrysalis, 
She  from  her  bier,  as  into  fresher  life, 
My  sister,  and  my  cousin,  and  my  love, 
Leapt  lightly  clad  in  bridal  white  —  her 

hair 
Studded  with  one  rich  Provence  rose  — 

a  light 
Of  smiling  welcome  round  her  lips  —  her 

eyes 
And  cheeks  as  bright  as  when  she  climb'd 

the  hill. 
One  hand  she  reach'd  to  those  that  came 

behind, 
And  while  I  mused  nor  yet  endured  to 

take 
So  rich  a  prize,  the  man  who  stood  with 

me 
Stept  gaily  forward,  throwing  down  his 

robes, 
And  claspt  her  hand  in  his :    again  the 

bells 
Jangled  and  clang'd :   again  the  stormy 

surf 


484 


THE    GOLDEN  SUPPER. 


Crash'd  in  the  shingle :  and  the  whirling 

Surely,  but  for  a  whisper,  '  Go  not  yet,' 

rout 

Some   warning  —  sent    divinely  —  as    it 

Led  by  those  two  rush'd  into  dance,  and 

seem'd 

fled 

By  that  which  follow'd  —  but  of  this  I 

Wind-footed  to  the  steeple  in  the  woods, 

deem 

Till   they  were    swallow'd   in   the   leafy 

As  of  the  visions  that  he  told  —  the  event 

bowers, 

Glanced   back    upon   them   in  his  after 

And  I  stood  sole  beside  the  vacant  bier. 

life, 

And  partly  made  them  —  tho'  he  knew  it 

There,  there,  my  latest  vision  —  then  the 

not. 

event ! 

IV. 

And  thus  he  stay'd  and  would  not  look 

at  her  — 

THE   GOLDEN    SUPPER.1 

No    not    for    months:    but,   when    the 

eleventh  moon 

{Another  speaks?) 

After  their  marriage  lit  the  lover's  Bay, 

Heard  yet  once  more  the  tolling  bell,  and 

He  flies  the  event :  he  leaves  the  event 

said, 

to  me: 

Would  you  could  toll  me  out  of  life,  but 

Poor  Julian  —  how  he  rush'd  away;   the 

found  — 

bells, 

All  softly  as  his  mother  broke  it  to  him  — 

Those  marriage-bells,  echoing  in  ear  and 

A  crueller  reason  than  a  crazy  ear, 

heart  — 

For  that  low  knell  tolling  his  lady  dead  — 

But  cast  a  parting  glance  at  me,  you  saw, 

Dead  —  and  had  lain  three  days  without 

As  who    should  say,  '  Continue.'     Well 

a  pulse : 

he  had 

All  that  look'd  on  her  had  pronounced 

One  golden  hour  —  of  triumph  shall  I 

her  dead. 

say? 

And  so  they  bore  her  (for   in   Julian's 

Solace  at  least  —  before  he  left  his  home. 

land 

They   never   nail   a   dumb   head   up    in 

Would  you  had  seen  him  in  that  hour 

elm), 

of  his ! 

Bore  her  free-faced  to  the  free  airs  of 

He  moved  thro'  all  of  it  majestically  — 

heaven, 

Restrain' d  himself  quite  to  the  close  — 

And  laid   her  in  the  vault  of  her  own 

but  now  — 

kin. 

Whether  they  were  his  lady's  marriage- 

What  did  he  then?  not  die:  he  is  here 

bells, 

and  hale  — 

Or  prophets  of  them  in  his  fantasy, 

Not  plunge  headforemost  from  the  moun- 

I never  ask'd :  but  Lionel  and  the  girl 

tain  there, 

Were  wedded,  and  our  Julian  came  again 

And  leave  the  name  of  Lover's  Leap: 

Back  to  his  mother's  house  among  the 

not  he : 

pines. 

He   knew  the  meaning  of  the  whisper 

But   these,  their   gloom,  the  mountains 

now, 

and  the  Bay, 

Thought    that    he   knew   it.      'This,    I 

The   whole   land  weigh'd  him  down  as 

stay'd  for  this; 

Mx.wz.  does 

O  love,  I  have  not  seen  you  for  so  long. 

The  Giant  of  Mythology :  he  would  go, 

Now,  now,  will  I  go  down  into  the  grave, 

Would  leave  the  land  for  ever,  and  had 

I  will  be  all  alone  with  all  I  love, 

gone 

And  kiss  her  on  the  lips.     She  is  his  no 

1  This  poem  is  founded  upon  a  story  in  Boc- 

more: 
The  dead  returns  to  me,  and  I  go  down 

caccio.    See  Introduction,  p.  467. 

To  kiss  the  dead.' 

THE  LOVER'S    TALE. 


48S 


The  fancy  stirr'd  him  so 
He  rose  and  went,  and  entering  the  dim 

vault, 
And,  making  there  a  sudden  light,  beheld 
All  round  about  him  that  which  all  will 

be. 
The  light  was  but  a  flash,  and  went  again. 
Then  at  the  far  end  of  the  vault  he  saw 
His  lady  with  the  moonlight  on  her  face; 
Her  breast  as  in  a  shadow-prison,  bars 
Of  black  and  bands  of  silver,  which  the 

moon 
Struck  from  an  open  grating  overhead 
High  in  the  wall,  and  all  the  rest  of  her 
Drown'd  in  the  gloom  and  horror  of  the 

vault. 

'  It  was  my  wish,'  he  said,  '  to  pass,  to 

sleep, 
To  rest,  to  be  with  her  —  till  the  great 

day 
Peal'd  on  us  with  that  music  which  rights 

all, 
And   raised    us    hand    in    hand.'     And 

kneeling  there 
Down  in  the  dreadful  dust  that  once  was 

man, 
Dust,  as  he  said,  that  once  was  loving 

hearts, 
Hearts  that  had  beat  with  such  a  love  as 

mine  — 
Not  such  as  mine,  no,  nor  for  such  as 

her  — 
He  softly  put  his  arm  about  her  neck 
And  kiss'd  her  more  than  once,  till  help- 
less death 
And  silence  made  him  bold  —  nay,  but  I 

wrong  him, 
He   reverenced   his   dear   lady  even   in 

death ; 
But,   placing   his   true   hand    upon   her 

heart, 
'O,  you  warm  heart,'  he  moan'd,  'not 

even  death 
Can  chill  you  all  at  once : '  then  starting, 

thought 
His   dreams   had   come   again.     'Do   I 

wake  or  sleep? 
Or  am  I  made  immortal,  or  my  love 
Mortal  once  more  ? '    It  beat  —  the  heart 

—  it  beat : 
Faint  —  but  it  beat :    at  which  his  own 

began 


To  pulse  with  such  a  vehemence  that  it 

drown'd 
The  feebler  motion  underneath  his  hand. 
But  when  at  last  his  doubts  were  satisfied, 
He  raised  her  softly  from  the  sepulchre, 
And,  wrapping  her  all  over  with  the  cloak 
He  came  in,  and  now  striding  fast,  and 

now 
Sitting  awhile  to  rest,  but  evermore 
Holding  his  golden  burthen  in  his  arms, 
So  bore  her  thro'  the  solitary  land 
Back  to  the  mother's   house  where  she 

was  born. 

There  the  good  mother's  kindly  minis- 
tering, 
With  half  a  night's  appliances,  recall'd 
Her  fluttering  life :  she  raised  an  eye  that 

ask'd 
'  Where  ? '  till  the  things  familiar  to  her 

youth 
Had  made  a  silent  answer :  then  she  spoke 
'Here!    and   how  came    I   here?'   and 

learning  it 
(They  told   her   somewhat   rashly  as   I 

think) 
At  once  began  to  wander  and  to  wail, 
'Ay,  but  you  know  that  you  must  give 

me  back : 
Send !  bid  him  come;  '  but  Lionel  was 

away  — 
Stung   by   his   loss   had  vanish'd,  none 

knew  where. 
'  He  casts  me  out,'  she  wept,  '  and  goes ' 

—  a  wail 
That  seeming  something,  yet  was  nothing, 

born 
Not  from  believing  mind,  but  shatter'd 

nerve, 
Yet  haunting  Julian,  as  her  own  reproof 
At  some  precipitance  in  her  burial. 
Then,   when    her   own    true    spirit    had 

return'd, 
'  Oh  yes,  and  you,'  she  said,  '  and  none 

but  you? 
For  you  have   given  me  life   and   love 

again, 
And  none  but  you  yourself  shall  tell  him 

of  it, 
And  you  shall   give  me  back  when   he 

returns.' 
'Stay   then    a    little,'    answer'd    Julian, 

'  here, 


486 


THE   GOLDEN  SUPPER. 


And   keep   yourself,    none   knowing,  to 

yourself; 
And  I  will  do  your  will.     I  may  not  stay, 
No,  not  an  hour;   but  send  me  notice  of 

him 
When  he  returns,  and  then  will  I  return, 
And  I  will  make  a  solemn  offering  of  you 
To   him    you   love.'      And    faintly   she 

replied, 
'  And  I  will  do  your  will,  and  none  shall 

know. ' 

Not  know?  with  such  a  secret  to  be 

known. 
But  all  their   house  was  old  and  loved 

them  both, 
And  all  the  house  had  known  the  loves 

of  both; 
Had  died  almost  to  serve  them  any  way, 
And  all  the  land  was  waste  and  solitary  : 
And  then  he  rode  away;   but  after  this, 
An  hour  or  two,  Camilla's  travail  came 
Upon  her,  and  that  day  a  boy  was  born, 
Heir  of  his  face  and  land,  to  Lionel. 

And  thus  our  lonely  lover  rode  away, 
And  pausing  at  a  hostel  in  a  marsh, 
There  fever  seized  upon  him :  myself  was 

then 
Travelling  that  land,  and  meant  to  rest 

an  hour; 
And  sitting  down  to  such  a  base  repast, 
It  makes  me  angry  yet  to  speak  of  it  — 
I  heard  a  groaning  overhead,  and  climb'd 
The  moulder'd  stairs  (for  everything  was 

vile) 
And  in  a  loft,  with  none  to  wait  on  him, 
Found,  as  it  seem'd,  a  skeleton  alone, 
Raving  of  dead  men's  dust  and  beating 

hearts. 

A  dismal  hostel  in  a  dismal  land, 
A  flat  malarian  world  of  reed  and  rush  ! 
But  there   from  fever  and  my  care  of 

him 
Sprang  up  a  friendship  that  may  help  us 

yet. 
For  while  we  roam'd  along  the  dreary 

coast, 
And  waited  for  her  message,  piece  by 

piece 
I  learnt  the  drearier  story  of  his  life; 
And.  tho'  he  loved  and  honour'd  Lionel, 


Found   that   the   sudden   wail   his   lady 

made 
Dwelt  in  his  fancy :    did  he  know  her 

worth, 
Her    beauty   even?    should   he    not   be 

taught, 
Ev'n  by  the  price  that  others  set  upon  it, 
The  value  of  that  jewel  he  had  to  guard? 

Suddenly  came  her  notice  and  we  past, 
I  with  our  lover  to  his  native  Bay. 

This  love  is  of  the  brain,  the  mind,  the 

soul  : 
That  makes  the  sequel  pure;   tho'  some 

of  us 
Beginning  at  the  sequel  know  no  more. 
Not  such  am  I :  and  yet  I  say  the  bird 
That   will    not    hear    my   call,   however 

sweet, 
But   if    my   neighbour   whistle   answers 

him  — 
What   matter?   there  are  others  in  the 

wood. 
Yet  when  I  saw  her  (and  I  thought  him 

crazed, 
Tho'  not  with  such  a  craziness  as  needs 
A  cell  and  keeper),  those  dark  eyes  of 

hers  — 
Oh !  such  dark  eyes !  and  not  her  eyes 

alone, 
But  all  from  these  to  where  she  touch'd 

on  earth, 
For  such  a  craziness  as  Julian's  look'd 
No  less  than  one  divine  apology. 

So  sweetly  and  so  modestly  she  came 
To  greet  us,  her  young  hero  in  her  arms ! 
•  Kiss  him,'  she  said,     f  You  gave  me  life 

again. 
He,  but  for  you,  had  never  seen  it  once. 
His  other  father  you!     Kiss  him,  and 

then 
Forgive  him,  if  his  name  be  Julian  too.' 

Talk  of  lost  hopes  and  broken  heart ! 

his  own 
Sent  such  a  flame  into  his  face,  I  knew 
Some    sudden  vivid    pleasure    hit    him 

there. 

But  he  was  all  the  more  resolved  to  go, 
And  sent  at  once  to  Lionel,  praying  him 


THE  LOVER'S    TALE. 


487 


By  that  great  love  they  both  had  borne 

the  dead, 
To  come  and  revel  for  one  hour  with  him 
Before  he  left  the  land  for  evermore; 
And    then   to   friends  —  they   were   not 

many  —  who  lived 
Scatteringly  about   that   lonely   land   of 

his, 
And  bade  them  to  a  banquet  of  farewells. 

And   Julian  made  a  solemn   feast :    I 

never 
Sat  at  a  costlier;   for  all  round  his  hall 
From   column   on   to    column,    as   in   a 

wood, 
Not  such  as  here  —  an  equatorial  one, 
Great   garlands   swung   and   blossom'd; 

and  beneath, 
Heirlooms,  and  ancient  miracles  of  Art, 
Chalice  and  salver,  wines  that,  Heaven 

knows  when, 
Had  suck'd  the  fire  of  some   forgotten 

sun, 
And   kept  it  thro'  a   hundred   years   of 

gloom, 
Yet  glowing  in  a  heart  of  ruby  —  cups 
Where  nymph  and  god  ran  ever  round  in 

gold  — 
Others   of  glass  as   costly  —  some  with 

gems 
Movable  and  resettable  at  will, 
And  trebling  all  the  rest  in  value  —  Ah 

heavens ! 
Why  need  I  tell  you  all  ?  —  suffice  to  say 
That  whatsoever  such  a  house  as  his, 
And  his  was  old,  has  in  it  rare  or  fair 
Was  brought  before  the  guest :  and  they, 

the  guests, 
Wonder'd  at  some  strange  light  in  Julian's 

eyes 
(I  told  you  that  he  had  his  golden  hour), 
And  such  a  feast,  ill-suited  as  it  seem'd 
To  such  a  time,  to  Lionel's  loss  and  his 
And  that  resolved  self-exile  from  a  land 
He  never  would  revisit,  such  a  feast 
So   rich,  so  strange,  and   stranger   ev'n 

than  rich, 
But  rich  as  for  the  nuptials  of  a  king. 

And  stranger  yet,  at  one  end  of  the 
hall 
Two    great    funereal    curtains,    looping 
down, 


Parted  a  little  ere  they  met  the  floor, 
About  a  picture  of  his  lady,  taken 
Some  years  before,  and  falling  hid  the 

frame. 
And  just  above  the  parting  was  a  lamp : 
So  the  sweet   figure   folded  round  with 

night 
Seem'd  stepping  out  of  darkness  with  a 

smile. 

Well  then  —  our  solemn  feast  —  we  ate 

and  drank, 
And  might  —  the  wines   being   of  such 

nobleness  — 
Have  jested  also,  but  for  Julian's  eyes, 
And  something  weird  and  wild  about  it 

all: 
What  was  it?  for  our  lover  seldom  spoke, 
Scarce*  touch'd  the  meats;   but  ever  and 

anon 
A  priceless  goblet  with  a  priceless  wine 
Arising,  show'd  he  drank  beyond  his  use; 
And  when  the  feast  was  near  an  end,  he 

said: 

'There   is   a   custom    in    the   Orient, 

friends  — 
I  read  of  it  in  Persia  —  when  a  man 
Will  honour  those  who  feast  with  him, 

he  brings 
And  shows  them  whatsoever  he  accounts 
Of  all  his  treasures  the  most  beautiful, 
Gold,  jewels,  arms,  whatever  it  may  be. 
This  custom ' 

Pausing  here  a  moment,  all 
The   guests   broke    in    upon    him   with 

meeting  hands 
And  cries  about  the  banquet — '  Beautiful ! 
Who  could  desire  more  beauty  at  a  feast? ' 

The  lover  answer'd,  'There   is   more 

than  one 
Here  sitting  who  desires  it.    Laud  me  not 
Before  my  time,  but  hear  me  to  the  close. 
This  custom  steps  yet  further  when  the 

guest 
Is  loved  and  honour'd  to  the  uttermost. 
For  after  he  hath  shown  him  gems  or 

gold, 
He  brings  and  sets  before  him  in  rich 

guise 
That  which  is  thrice  as  beautiful  as  these, 


488 


THE    GOLDEN  SUPPER. 


The  beauty  that  is  dearest  to  his  heart  — 
"  0  my  heart's  lord,  would  I  could  show 

you,"  he  says, 
"Ev'n  my  heart   too."     And  I  propose 

to-night 
To  show  you  what  is  dearest  to  my  heart, 
And  my  heart  too. 

'  But  solve  me  first  a  doubt. 
I  knew  a  man,  nor  many  years  ago; 
He  had  a  faithful  servant,  one  who  loved 
His  master  more  than  all  on  earth  beside. 
He  falling  sick,  and  seeming   close   on 

death, 
His  master  would  not  wait  until  he  died, 
But  bade  his  menials  bear  him  from  the 

door, 
And  leave  him  in  the  public  way  to  die. 
I  knew  another,  not  so  long  ago,  * 
Who  found  the  dying  servant,  took  him 

home, 
And  fed,  and  cherish'd  him,  and  saved 

his  life. 
I  ask  you  now,  should  this  first  master 

claim 
His  service,  whom  does  it  belong  to?  him 
Who  thrust  him  out,  or  him  who  saved 

his  life?' 

This  question,  so  flung   down   before 

the  guests, 
And   balanced   either  way  by  each,   at 

length 
When  some  were  doubtful  how  the  law 

would  hold, 
Was  handed  over  by  consent  of  all 
To  one  who  had  not  spoken,  Lionel. 

Fair  speech  was  his,  and   delicate  of 

phrase. 
And  he  beginning  languidly  —  his  loss 
Weigh'd  on  him  yet  —  but  warming  as  he 

went, 
Glanced  at  the  point  of  law,  to  pass  it  by, 
Affirming  that  as  long  as  either  lived, 
By  all  the  laws  of  love  and  gratefulness, 
The  service  of  the  one  so  saved  was  due 
All  to  the  saver  —  adding,  with  a  smile, 
The  first  for  many  weeks  —  a  semi-smile 
As  at  a  strong  conclusion  —  'body  and 

soul 
And  life  and  limbs,  all  his  to  work  his 

will.' 


Then  Julian  made  a  secret  sign  to  me 
To  bring  Camilla  down  before  them  all. 
And  crossing  her  own  picture  as  she  came, 
And  looking  as  much  lovelier  as  herself 
Is  lovelier  than  all  others  —  on  her  head 
A  diamond  circlet,  and  from  under  this 
A  veil,  that  seemed  no  more  than  gilded 

air, 
Flying  by  each  fine  ear,  an  Eastern  gauze 
With  seeds  of  gold  —  so,  with  that  grace 

of  hers, 
Slow-moving  as  a  wave  against  the  wind, 
That  flings  a  mist  behind  it  in  the  sun  — 
And   bearing   high  in  arms  the  mighty 

babe, 
The   younger  Julian,  who   himself  was 

crown'd 
With  roses,  none  so  rosy  as  himself — 
And  over  all  her  babe  and  her  the  jewels 
Of  many  generations  of  his  house 
Sparkled  and  flash'd,  for  he  had  decked 

them  out 
As  for  a  solemn  sacrifice  of  love  — 
So  she  came  in :  —  I  am  long  in  telling  it, 
I  never  yet  beheld  a  thing  so  strange, 
Sad,  sweet,  and  strange  together —  floated 

in  — 
While  all  the  guests  in  mute  amazement 

rose  — 
And  slowly  pacing  to  the  middle  hall, 
Before  the  board,  there  paused  and  stood, 

her  breast 
Hard-heaving,  and  her  eyes  upon  her  feet, 
Not  daring  yet  to  glance  at  Lionel. 
But  him  she  carried,  him  nor  lights  nor 

feast 
Dazed  or  amazed,  nor  eyes  of  men ;   who 

cared 
Only  to  use  his  own,  and  staring  wide 
And  hungering  for  the  gilt  and  jewell'd 

world 
About  him,  look'd,  as  he  is  like  to  prove, 
When  Julian  goes,  the  lord  of  all  he  saw. 

•  My   guests,'    said    Julian :    «  you    are 

honour'd  now 
Ev'n  to  the  uttermost :  in  her  behold 
Of  all  my  treasures  the  most  beautiful, 
Of  all  things  upon  earth  the  dearest  to 

me.' 
Then  waving  us  a  sign  to  seat  ourselves, 
Led  his  dear  lady  to  a  chair  of  state. 
And  I,  by  Lionel  sitting,  saw  his  face 


THE  LOVER'S   TALE. 


489 


Fire,  and  dead  ashes  and  all  fire  again 
Thrice  in  a  second,  felt  him  tremble  too, 
And  heard  him  muttering,  '  So  like,  so 

like; 
She  never  had  a  sister.     I  knew  none. 
Some  cousin  of  his  and  hers  —  O  God,  so 

like ! ' 
And  then  he  suddenly  ask'd  her  if  she 

were. 
She  shook,  and  cast  her  eyes  down,  and 

was  dumb. 
And  then  some  other  question'd  if  she 

came 
From  foreign  lands,  and  still  she  did  not 

speak. 
Another,  if  the  boy  were  hers :  but  she 
To  all  their  queries  answer'd  not  a  word, 
Which  made  the  amazement   more,  till 

one  of  them 
Said,    shuddering,  ?  Her  spectre  ! '     But 

his  friend 
Replied,  in  half  a  whisper,  '  Not  at  least 
The  spectre  that  will  speak  if  spoken  to. 
Terrible  pity,  if  one  so  beautiful 
Prove,  as  I  almost   dread   to   find   her, 

dumb !  ' 

But  Julian,  sitting  by  her,  answer'd  all : 
1  She  is  but    dumb,  because  in  her  you 

see 
That  faithful   servant  whom  we  spoke 

about, 
Obedient  to  her  second  master  now; 
Which  will  not  last.    I  have  here  to-night 

a  guest 
So  bound  to  me  by  common  leve  and 

loss  — 
What!    shall  I  bind   him  mote?   in  his 

behalf, 
Shall  I  exceed  the  Persian,  giving  him 
That  which  of  all  things  is  the  dearest  to 

me, 
Not  only  showing?  and  he  himself  pro- 
nounced 
That  my  rich  gift  is  wholly  mine  to  give. 

'  Now  all  be  dumb,  and  promise  all  of 

you 
Not  to  break  in  on  what  I  say  by  word 
Or   whisper,  while  I   show  you   all  my 

heart.' 
And  then  began  the  story  of  his  love 
As  here  to-day,  but  not  so  wordily  — 


The  passionate  moment  would  not  suffer 

that  — 
Past  thro'  his  visions  to  the  burial ;   thence 
Down  to  this  last  strange  hour  in  his  own 

hall; 
And  then  rose  up,  and  with  him  all  his 

guests 
Once  more  as  by  enchantment ;  all  but  he, 
Lionel,  who  fain  had  risen,  but  fell  again, 
And  sat  as  if  in  chains  —  to  whom  he  said : 

*Take   my   free   gift,  my   cousin,   for 

your  wife; 
And  were  it  only  for  the  giver's  sake, 
And  tho'  she  seem  so  like  the  one  you  lost, 
Yet  cast  her  not  away  so  suddenly, 
Lest  there  be  none  left  here  to  bring  her 

back: 
I  leave   this  land  for   ever.'     Here   he 

ceased. 

Then   taking   his    dear    lady    by    one 

hand, 
And  bearing  on  one  arm  the  noble  babe, 
He  slowly  brought  them  both  to  Lionel. 
And  there  the  widower  husband  and  dead 

wife 
Rush'd  each  at  each  with  a  cry,  that  rather 

seem'd 
For  some  new  death  than  for  a  life  re- 

new'd; 
Whereat  the  very  babe  began  to  wail; 
At   once   they  turn'd,    and    caught  and 

brought  him  in 
To  their  charm'd  circle,  and,  half  killing 

him 
With  kisses,  round  him  closed  and  claspt 

again. 
But  Lionel,  when  at  last  he  freed  himself 
From  wife  and  child,  and  lifted  up  a  face 
All  over  glowing  with  the  sun  of  life, 
And  love,  and  boundless   thanks  —  the 

sight  of  this 
So  frighted  our  good  friend,  that  turning 

to  me 
And  saying,  '  It  is  over :  let  us  go  '  — 
There   were    our    horses    ready   at   the 

doors  — 
We  bade  them  no  farewell,  but  mounting 

these 
He  past  for  ever  from  his  native  land; 
And   I   with   him,   my   Julian,  back   to 

mine. 


49Q 


THE  FIRST   QUARREL. 


TO  ALFRED  TENNYSON 

MY  GRANDSON. 

Golden-hair'd  Ally  whose  name  is  one  with 

mine, 
Crazy  with  laughter  and  babble  and  earth's  new 

wine, 
Now  that  the  flower  of  a  year  and  a  half  is  thine, 
O  little  blossom,  O  mine,  and  mine  of  mine, 
Glorious  poet  who  never  hast  written  a  line, 
Laugh,  for  the  name  at  the  head  of  my  verse  is 

thine. 
May'st  thou  never  be  wrong'd  by  the  name  that 


THE  FIRST  QUARREL. 
(in  the  isle  of  wight.) 


'  Wait  a  little,'  you  say,  *  you  are  sure 

it'll  all  come  right,' 
But  the  boy  was  born  i'  trouble,  an'  looks 

so  wan  an'  so  white : 
Wait !  an'  once  I  ha'  waited  —  I  hadn't 

to  wait  for  long. 
Now  I  wait,  wait,  wait  for  Harry.  —  No, 

no,  you  are  doing  me  wrong ! 
Harry  and  I  were  married :  the  boy  can 

hold  up  his  head, 
The  boy  was  born  in  wedlock,  but  after 

my  man  was  dead; 
I  ha'  work'd  for  him  fifteen  years,  an'  I 

work  an'  I  wait  to  the  end. 
I  am  all  alone  in  the  world,  an'  you  are 

my  only  friend. 

II. 

Doctor,  if  you  can  wait,  I'll  tell  you  the 

tale  o'  my  life. 
When  Harry  an'  I  were  children,  he  call'd 

me  his  own  little  wife; 
I  was  happy  when  I  was  with  him,  an' 

sorry  when  he  was  away, 
An'  when  we  play'd  together,  I  loved  him 

better  than  play; 
He  workt  me  the  daisy  chain  —  he  made 

me  the  cowslip  ball, 
He  fought  the  boys  that  were  rude,  an'  I 

loved  him  better  than  all. 
Passionate  girl  tho'  I  was,  an'  often  at 

home  in  disgrace, 
I  never  could  quarrel  with  Harry  —  I  had 

but  to  look  in  his  face. 


There  was  a  farmer  in  Dorset  of  Harry's 

kin.  that  had  need 
Of  a  goorl  stout  lad  at  his  farm;   he  sent, 

an'  Ihe  father  agreed; 
So  Harry  was  bound  to  the  Dorsetshire 

tarm  for  years  an'  for  years; 
I  walked  with  him  down  to  the  quay, 

poor  lad,  an'  we  parted  in  tears-. 
The   boat  was  beginning  to   move,  we 

heard  them  a-ringing  the  bell, 
'  I'll  never  love  any  but  you,  God  bless 

you,  my  own  little  Nell.' 


I  was  a  child,  an'  he  was  a  child,  an'  he 

came  to  harm; 
There  was  a  girl,  a  hussy,  that  workt  with 

him  up  at  the  farm, 
One  had  deceived  her  an'  left  her  alone 

with  her  sin  an'  her  shame, 
An'  so  she  was  wicked  with  Harry;  the 

giri  was  the  most  to  blame. 


An'  years  went  over  till  I  that  was  little 

had  grown  so  tall, 
The  men  would  say  of  the  maids,  '  Our 

Nelly's  the  flower  of  'em  all.' 
I  didn't  take  heed  o'  them,  but  I  taught 

myself  all  I  could 
To  make  a  good  wife  for  Harry,  when 

Harry  came  home  for  good. 

VI. 

Often  I  seem'd  unhappy,  and  often  as 
happy  too, 

For  I  heard  it  abroad  in  the  fields  *  I'll 
never  love  any  but  you ; ' 

'  I'll  never  love  any  but  you  '  the  morning 
song  of  the  lark, 

'  I'll  never  love  any  but  you '  the  nightin- 
gale's hymn  in  the  dark. 

VII. 

And  Harry  came  home  at  last,  but  he 

lock'd  at  me  sidelong  and  shy, 
Vext  me  a  bit,  till   he  told  me  that  so 

many  years  had  gone  by, 
I  had  grown  so  handsome  and  tall  —  that 

I  might  ha'  forgot  him  somehow  — 
For  he  thought  —  there  were  other  lads  — 

he  was  fear'd  to  look  at  me  now. 


THE  FIRST   QUARREL. 


491 


VIII. 

Hard  was  the  frost  in  the  field,  we  were 

married  o'  Christmas  day, 
Married  among  the  red  berries,  an'  all  as 

merry  as  May  — 
Those  were  the  pleasant  times,  my  house 

an'  my  man  were  my  pride, 
We  seem'd   like   ships  i'   the   Channel 

a-sailing  with  wind  an'  tide. 

IX. 

But  work  was  scant  in  the  Isle,  tho'  he 

tried  the  villages  round, 
So  Harry  went  over  the  Solent  to  see  if 

work  could  be  found; 
An*   he  wrote  '  I   ha'  six  weeks'  work, 

little  wife,  so  far  as  I  know; 
I'll  come  for  an  hour  to-morrow,  an'  kiss 

you  before  I  go.' 


So  I  set  to  righting  the  house,  for  wasn't 

he  coming  that  day? 
An'  I  hit  on  an  old  deal-box  that  was 

push'd  in  a  corner  away, 
It  was  full  of  old  odds  an'  ends,  an'  a 

letter  along  wi'  the  rest, 
I  had  better  ha'  put  my  naked  hand  in  a 

hornets'  nest. 

XI. 

'  Sweetheart'  —  this  was  the  letter  —  this 

was  the  letter  I  read  — 
'  You  promised  to  find  me  work  near  you, 

an'  I  wish  I  was  dead  — 
Didn't  you   kiss   me   an'    promise?  you 

haven't  done  it,  my  lad, 
An'  I  almost  died  o'  your  going  away, 

an'  I  wish  that  I  had.' 


I  too  wish  that  I  had — in  the  pleasant 

times  that  had  past, 
Before    I    quarrell'd    with    Harry  —  my 

quarrel  —  the  first  an'  the  last. 


For  Harry  came  in,  an'  I  flung  him  the 
letter  that  drove  me  wild, 

An'  he  told  it  me  all  at  once,  as  simple 
as  any  child, 


1  What  can  it  matter,  my  lass,  what  I  did 

wi'  my  single  life? 
I  ha'  been  as  true  to  you  as  ever  a  man 

to  his  wife; 
An'  she  wasn't  one  o'  the  worst.'   '  Then,' 

I  said,  '  I'm  none  o'  the  best.' 
An'  he  smiled  at   me,    '  Ain't   you,    my 

love  ?    Come,  come,  little  wife,  let 

it  rest ! 
The  man  isn't  like  the  woman,  no  need 

to  make  such  a  stir.' 
But  he  anger'd  me  all  the  more,  an'  I  said 

'  You  were  keeping  with  her, 
When  I  was  a-loving  you  all  along  an' 

the  same  as  before.' 
An'  he  didn't  speak  for  a  while,  an'  he 

anger'd  me  more  and  more. 
Then  he  patted  my  hand  in  his  gentle 

way,  '  Let  bygones  be  ! ' 
'Bygones!  you  kept  yours  hush'd,'  I  said, 

'  when  you  married  me  ! 
By-gones  ma'  be  come-agains;  an'  she — 

in  her  shame  an'  her  sin  — 
You'll  have  her  to  nurse  my  child,  if  I 

die  o'  my  lying  in  ! 
You'll  make  her  its  second  mother !     I 

hate  her  —  an'  I  hate  you ! ' 
Ah,  Harry,  my  man,  you  had  better  ha' 

beaten  me  black  an'  blue 
Than   ha'    spoken   as   kind  as  you  did, 

when  I  were  so  crazy  wi'  spite, 
1  Wait  a  little,  my  lass,  I  am  sure  it  'ill 

all  come  right.' 

XIV. 

An'  he  took  three  turns  in  the  rain,  an'  I 

watch'd  him,  an'  when  he  came  in 
I  felt  that  my  heart  was  hard,  he  was  all 

wet  thro'  to  the  skin, 
An'  I  never  said  '  off  wi'  the  wet,'  I  never 

said  '  on  wi'  the  dry,' 
So  I  knew  my  heart  was  hard,  when  he 

came  to  bid  me  goodbye. 
*  You  said  that  you  hated  me,  Ellen,  but 

that  isn't  true,  you  know; 
I  am  going  to  leave  you  a  bit  —  you'll 

kiss  me  before  I  go?' 


1  Going !    you're  going  to  her  —  kiss  her 

—  if  you  will,'  I  said  — 
I  was  near  my  time  wi'  the  boy,  I  must 

ha'  been  light  i'  my  head  — 


492 


RIZPAH. 


*  I  had  sooner  be  cursed  than  kiss'd ! '  — 
I  didn't  know  well  what  I  meant, 

But  I  turn'd  my  face  from  him,  an'  he 
turned  his  face  an'  he  went. 

XVI. 

And  then  he  sent  me  a  letter,  '  I've 
gotten  my  work  to  do; 

You  wouldn't  kiss  me,  my  lass,  an'  I 
never  loved  any  but  you; 

I  am  sorry  for  all  the  quarrel  an'  sorry 
for  what  she  wrote, 

I  ha'  six  weeks'  work  in  Jersey  an'  go  to- 
night by  the  boat.' 

XVII. 

An'  the  wind  began  to  rise,  an'  I  thought 

of  him  out  at  sea, 
An'  I  felt  I  had  been  to  blame;   he  was 

always  kind  to  me. 
'  Wait  a  little,  my  lass,  I  am  sure  it  'ill 

all  come  right '  — 
An'  the  boat  went  down   that  night  — 

the  boat  went  down  that  night. 


RIZPAH. 
17—- 


Wailing,  wailing,  wailing,  the  wind  over 

land  and  sea  — 
And  Willy's  voice  in  the  wind, '  O  mother 

come  out  to  me.' 
Why  should  he  call  me  to-night,  when 

he  knows  that  I  cannot  go? 
For  the  downs  are  as  bright  as  day,  and 

the  full  moon  stares  at  the  snow. 

II. 

We  should  be  seen,  my  dear;  they  would 

spy  us  out  of  the  town. 
The  loud  black  nights  for  us,  and  the 

storm  rushing  over  the  down, 
When   I  cannot  see  my  own  hand,  but 

am  led  by  the  creak  of  the  chain, 
And  grovel  and  grope  for  my  son  till  I 

find    myself   drenched    with    the 

rain. 


in. 


Anything  fallen  again  ?  nay  —  what  was 

there  left  to  fall? 
I  have  taken  them  home,  I  have  num- 

ber'd  the    bones,  I  have   hidden 

them  all. 
What  am  I  saying?  and  what  are  you? 

do  you  come  as  a  spy? 
Falls?  what  falls?  who  knows?     As  the 

tree  falls  so  must  it  lie. 


Who  lee  her  in?  how  long  has  she  been? 

you  —  what  have  you  heard? 
Why  did  you  sit  so  quiet?  you  never  have 

spoken  a  word. 
O  —  to  pray  with  me  —  yes  —  a  lady  — 

none  of  their  spies  — 
But  the  r.ight  has  crept  into  my  heart, 

and  begun  to  darken  my  eyes. 


v. 


Ah  —  you,  that  have  lived  so  soft,  what 

should  you  know  of  the  night, 
The  blast  and  the  burning  shame  and  the 

bitter  frost  and  the  fright? 
I  have  dene  it,  while  you  were  asleep  — 

you  were  only  made  for  the  day. 
I  have  gather'd  my  baby  together  —  and 

now  you  may  go  your  way. 

VI. 

Nay  —  for  it's  kind  of  you,  Madam,  to 
sit  by  an  old  dying  wife. 

But  say  nothing  hard  of  my  boy,  I  have 
only  an  hour  of  life. 

I  kiss'd  my  boy  in  the  prison,  before  he 
went  out  to  die. 

'They  dared  me  to  do  it,'  he  said,  and  he 
never  has  told  me  a  lie. 

I  whipt  him  for  robbing  an  orchard  once 
when  he  was  but  a  child  — 

'  The  farmer  dared  me  to  do  it,'  he  said ; 
he  was  always  so  wild  — 

And  idle — and  couldn't  be  idle  —  my 
Willy  —  he  never  could  rest. 

The  King  should  have  made  him  a  sol- 
dier, he  would  have  been  one  oi 
his  best. 


RIZPAH. 


493 


VII. 

But  he  lived  with  a  lot  of  wild  mates,  and 

they  never  would  let  him  be  good ; 
They  swore  that  he    dare   not   rob   the 

mail,  and  he  swore  that  he  would; 
And  he   took  no  life,  but  he  took  one 

purse,  and  when  all  was  done 
He  flung  it  among  his  fellows  —  I'll  none 

of  it,  said  my  son. 

VIII. 

I  came  into  court  to  the  Judg"  and  the 

lawyers.     I  told  them  my  tale, 
God's  own  truth  —  but  they  kilFd  him, 

they  kilFd   him  for   robbing  the 

mail. 
They  hang'd  him  in  chains  for  a  show  — 

we    had    always    borne    a  good 

name  — 
To  be  hang'd  for  a  thief —  and  then  put 

away  —  isn't  that  enough  shame? 
Dust  to  dust  —  low  down  —  let  us  hide  ! 

but  they  set  him  so  high 
That   all  the   ships  of  the  world   could 

stare  at  him,  passing  by. 
God  'ill  pardon  the  hell-black  raven  and 

horrible  fowls  of  the  air, 
But  not  the  black  heart  of  the  lawyer  who 

kill'd  him  and  hang'd  him  there. 


IX. 


And  the  jailer  forced  me  away.     I  had 

bid  him  my  last  goodbye; 
They  had  fasten'd  the  door  of  his  cell. 

'  O  mother !  '  I  heard  him  cry. 
I  couldn't  get  back  tho'  I  tried,  he  had 

something  further  to  say, . 
And  now  I  never  shall  know  it.     The 

jailer  forced  me  away. 

x." 

Then  since  I  couldn't  but  hear  that  cry 

of  my  boy  that  was  dead, 
They  seized  me  and  shut  me  up :  they 

fasten'd  me  down  on  my  bed. 
1  Mother,  O  mother  ' '  — he  call'd  in  the 

dark  to  me  year  after  year  — 
They  beat  me  for  that,  they  beat  me  — 

you  know  that  I  couldn't  but  hear; 


And  then  at  the  last  they  found  I  had 
grown  so  stupid  and  still 

They  let  me  abroad  again  —  but  the 
creatures  had  worked  their  will. 


Flesh  of  my  flesh  was  gone,  but  bone  of 

my  bone  was  left  — 
I  stole  them  all  from  the  lawyers  —  and 

you,  will  you  call  it  a  theft?  — 
My  baby,  the  bones  that  had  suck'd  me, 

the  bones  that  had  laugh'd  and 

had  cried  — 
Theirs  ?   O  no  !  they  are  mine  —  not  theirs 

—  they  had  moved  in  my  side. 


XII. 


Do  you  think  I  was  scared  by  the  bones? 

I  kiss'd  'em,  I  buried  'em  all  — 
I  can't  dig  deep,  I  am  old  - —  in  the  night 

by  the  churchyard  wall. 
My   Willy  'ill  rise  up  whole  when   the 

trumpet  of  judgment  'ill  sound; 
But  I  charge  you  never  to  say  that  I  laid 

him  in  holy  ground. 

XIII. 

They  would  scratch  him  up —  they  would 

hang  him   again   on  the  cursed 

tree. 
Sin?    O  yes  —  we  are  sinners,  I  know  — 

let  all  that  be, 
And  read  me  a  Bible  verse  of  the  Lord's 

good  will  toward  men  — 
'  P'ull  of  compassion  and  mercy,  the  Lord ' 

—  let  me  hear  it  again; 
'  Full  of  compassion  and  mercy  —  long- 
suffering.'     Yes,  O  yes ! 
For  the  lawyer  is  born  but  to  murder  — 

the  Saviour  lives  but  to  bless. 
Zfe'll  never  put  on  the  black  cap  except 

for  the  worst  of  the  worst, 
And  the  first  may  be  last  —  I  have  heard 

it  in  church  —  and  the  last  may 

be  first. 
Suffering  —  O  long-suffering  —  yes,  as  the 

Lord  must  know, 
Year  after  year  in  the  mist  and  the  wind 

and  the  shower  and  the  snow. 


494 


THE  NORTHERN  COBBLER. 


XIV. 

Heard,  have  you?  what?  they  have  told 

you  he  never  repented  his  sin. 
How   do    they   know   it?    are    they   his 

mother?  2x0.  you  of  his  kin? 
Heard !  have  you  ever  heard,  when  the 

storm  on  the  downs  began, 
The  wind  that  'ill  wail  like  a  child  and 

the  sea  that  'ill  moan  like  a  man? 


xv. 


it's 


Election,  Election  and  Reprobation 

all  very  well. 
But  I  go  to-night  to  my  boy,  and  I  shall 

not  find  him  in  Hell. 
For  I  cared  so  much  for  my  boy  that  the 

Lord  has  look'd  into  my  care, 
And  He  means  me  I'm  sure  to  be  happy 

with  Willy,  I  know  not  where. 

XVI. 

And  if  he  be  lost  —  but  to  save  my  soul, 

that  is  all  your  desire : 
Do  you  think  that  I  care  for  my  soul  if 

my  boy  be  gone  to  the  fire? 
I  have  been  with  God  in  the  dark  —  go, 

go,  you  may  leave  me  alone  — 
You  never  have  borne  a  child  —  you  are 

just  as  hard  as  a  stone. 

XVII. 

Madam,  I  beg  your  pardon !  I  think 
that  you  mean  to  be  kind, 

But  I  cannot  hear  what  you  say  for  my 
Willy's  voice  in  the  wind  — 

The  snow  and  the  sky  so  bright  —  he  used 
but  to  call  in  the  dark, 

And  he  calls  to  me  now  from  the  church 
and  not  from  the  gibbet  —  for 
hark ! 

Nay  —  you  can  hear  it  yourself — it  is 
coming  —  shaking  the  walls  — 

Willy  —  the  moon's  in  a  cloud  —  Good- 
night.    I  am  going.     He  calls. 


THE  NORTHERN  COBBLER. 
1. 

Waait  till  our  Sally  cooms  in,  fur  thou 

mun  a'  sights 1  to  tell. 
Eh,  but  I  be  maain  glad  to  seea  tha  sa 

'arty  an'  well. 


1  Cast  awaay   on   a   disolut   land   wi'   a 

vartical  soon  2  !  ' 
Strange   fur   to   goa  fur  to   think  what 

saailors  a'  seean  an'  a'  doon; 
'  Summat  to  drink  —  sa'  'ot?  '     I  'a  nowt 

but  Adam's  wine: 
What's  the  'eat  o'  this  little  'ill-side  to  the 

'eat  o'  the  line? 


'What's  i'  tha  bottle  a-stanning  theer?' 

I'll  tell  tha.     Gin. 
But  if  thou  wants  thy  grog,  tha  mun  goa 

fur  it  down  to  the  inn. 
Naay  —  fur  I  be  maain-glad,  but  thaw  tha 

was  iver  sa  dry, 
Thou  gits  naw  gin  fro'  the  bottle  theer, 

an'  I'll  tell  tha  why. 


Mea  an'  thy  sister  was  married,  when 

wur  it?  back-end  o'  June, 
Ten  year  sin',  and  wa  'greed  as  well  as  a 

fiddle  i'  tune : 
I  could  fettle  and  clump  owd  booots  and 

shoes  wi'  the  best  on  'em  all, 
As   fer   as   fro'   Thursby   thurn   hup    to 

Harmsby  and  Hutterby  Hall. 
We  was  busy  as  beeas  i'  the  bloom  an'  as 

'appy  as  'art  could  think, 
An'  then  the  babby  wur  burn,  and  then 

I  taakes  to  the  drink. 


An'  I  wcant  gaainsaay  it,  my  lad,  thaw 

I  be  hafe  shaamed  on  it  now, 
We  could  sing  a  good  song  at  the  Plow, 

we  could  sing  a  good  song  at  the 

Plow; 
Thaw  once  of  a  frosty  night  I  slither'd  an' 

hurted  my  huck,8 
An'  I  coom'd  neck-an'-crop  soomtimes 

slaape  down  i'  the  squad  an'  the 

muck : 

1  The  vowels  a'i,  pronounced  separately  though 
in  the  closest  conjunction,  best  render  the  sound 
of  the  long  i  and  y  in  this  dialect.  But  since  such 
words  as  crcuiri,  da'iiri,  wha'i,  a'i  (I),  etc.,  look 
awkward  except  in  a  page  of  express  phonetics, 
I  have  thought  it  better  to  leave  the  simple  i  and 
y,  and  to  trust  that  my  readers  will  give  them  the 
broader  pronunciation. 

8  The  00  short,  as  in  '  wood.'  8  Hip. 


THE  NORTHERN  COBBLER. 


495 


An'  once  I  fowt  wi'  the  Taailor  —  not 

hafe  ov  a  man,  my  lad  — 
Fur  he  scrawm'd  an'  scratted  my  faace 

like  a  cat,  an'  it  maade  'er  sa  mad 
That  Sally  she  turn'd  a  tongue-banger,1 

an'  raated  ma, '  Sottin'  thy  braains 
Guzzlin'   an'   soakiri'    an'   smoakin'    an' 

hawmin' 2  about  i'  the  laanes, 
Soa  sow-droonk  that  tha  doesn  not  touch 

thy  'at  to  the  Squire;  ' 
An'  I  loook'd  cock-eyed  at  my  rioase  an' 

I  seead  'im  a-gittin'  o'  fire; 
But  sin'  I  wur  hallus  i'  liquor  an"  hallus 

as  droonk  as  a  king, 
Foalks'  coostom  flitted  awaay  like  a  kite 

wi'  a  brokken  string. 


An'  Sally  she  wesh'd  foalks'  cloaths  to 

keep  the  wolf  fro'  the  door, 
Eh  but  the  moor  she  riled  me,  she  druv 

me  to  drink  the  moor, 
Fur  I  fun',  when  'er  back  wur  turn'd, 

wheer  Sally's  owd  stockin'  wur  'id, 
An'  I  grabb'd  the  munny  she  maade,  and 

I  wear'd  it  o'  liquor,  I  did. 

VI. 

An'  one  night  I  cooms  'oam  like  a  bull 

gotten  loose  at  a  faair, 
An'  she  wur  a-waaitin'  fo'mma,  an'  cryin' 

and  tearin'  'er  'aair, 
An'   I   tummled  athurt   the  craadle  an' 

swear'd  as  I'd  break  ivry  stick 
O'  furnitur  'ere  i'  the  'ouse,  an'  I  gied 

our  Sally  a  kick, 
An'  I  mash'd  the  taables  an'  chairs,  an' 

she  an'  the  babby  beal'u,3 
Fur  I  knaw'd  naw  moor  what  I  did  nor 

a  mortal  beast  o'  the  feald. 


An'  when  I  waaked  i'  the  murnin'  I  seead 

that  our  Sally  went  laamed 
Cos'  o'  the  kick  as  I  gied  'er,  an'  I  wur 

dreadful  ashaamed; 
An'  Sally  wur  sloomy  4  an'  draggle  taail'd 

in  an  owd  turn  gown, 
An'  the  babby's  faace  wurn't  wesh'd  an' 

the  'ole  'ouse  hupside  down. 

1  Scold.        2  Lounging.       3  Bellowed,  cried  out. 
*  Sluggish,  out  of  spirits 


An'  then  I  minded  our  Sally  sa  pratty 

an'  neat  an'  sweeat, 
Straat  as  a  pole  an'  clean  as  a  flower  fro' 

'ead  to  feeat : 
An'  then  I  minded  the  fust  kiss  I  gied 

'er  by  Thursby  thurn; 
Theer  wur  a  lark  a-singin'  'is  best  of  a 

Sunday  at  mum, 
Couldn't  see  'im,  we  'eard  'im  a-mountin' 

oop  'igher  an'  'igher, 
An'  then  'e   turn'd   to   the  sun,   an'   'e 

shined  like  a  sparkle  o'  fire. 
'  Doesn't  tha  see  'im,'  she  axes,  '  fur  I 

can  see  'im?'  an'  I 
Seead  nobbut   the  smile  o'  the  sun  as 

danced  in  'er  pratty  blue  eye; 
An'  I  says,  'I  mun  gie  tha  a  kiss,'  an' 

Sally  says  '  Noa,  thou  moant,' 
But  I  gied  'er  a  kiss,  an'  then  anoother, 

an'  Sally  says  'doant ! ' 

IX. 

An'  when  we  coom'd  into  Meeatin',  at 

fust  she  wur  all  in  a  tew, 
But,  arter,  we  sing'd  the  'ymn  togither 

like  birds  on  a  beugh; 
An'  Muggins  'e  preach'd  o'  Hell-fire  an' 

the  loov  o'  God  fur  men, 
An'  then  upo'  coomin'  awaay  Sally  gied 

me  a  kiss  ov  'ersen. 


Heer  wur  a  fall  fro'  a  kiss  to  a  kick  like 

Saatan  as  fell 
Down  out  o'  heaven  i'  Hell-fire  —  thaw 

theer's  naw  drinkin'  i'  Hell; 
Mea  fur  to  kick  our  Sally  as  kep  the  wolf 

fro'  the  door, 
All  along  o'  the  drink,  fur  I  loov'd  'er 

as  well  as  afoor. 


Sa  like  a  great  num-cumpus  I  blubber' d 

awaay  o'  the  bed  — 
'Weant    niver   do    it    naw   moor;'    an' 

Sally  loookt  up  an'  she  said, 
'I'll  upowd  it1  tha  weant;   thou'rt  like 

the  rest  o'  the  men, 


1  I'll  uphold  it. 


496 


THE  NORTHERN  COBBLER. 


Thou'll  goa  sniffin'  about  the  tap  till  tha 

does  it  agean. 
Theer's  thy  hennemy,  man,  an'  I  knaws, 

as  knaws  tha  sa  well, 
That,  if  tha  seeas  'im  an'  smells  'im  tha'll 

foller  'im  slick  into  Hell.' 


*  Naay,'  says  I,  '  fur  I  weant  goa  sniffin' 

about  the  tap.' 
'Weant   tha?'   she    says,   an'   mysen   I 

thowt  i'  mysen  '  mayhap.' 
'  Noa : '  an'  I  started  awaay  like  a  shot, 

an'  down  to  the  Hinn, 
An'  I  browt  what  tha  seeas  stannin'  theer, 

yon  big  black  bottle  o'  gin. 

XIII. 

1  That  caps  owt,' 1  says  Sally,  an'  saw  she 

begins  to  cry, 
But  I  puts  it  inter  'er  'ands  an'  I  says  to 

'er,  *  Sally,'  says  I, 
1  Stan'  'im  theer,  i'  the  naame  o'  the  Lord 

an'  the  power  ov  'is  Graace, 
Stan'  'im  theer  fur  I'll  loook  my  hennemy 

strait  i'  the  faace, 
Stan'  'im  theer  i'  the  winder,  an'  let  ma 

loook  at  'im  then, 
'E  seeams  naw  moor  nor  watter,  an'  'e's 

the  Divil's  oan  sen.' 

XIV. 

An'  I  wur  down  i'  tha  mouth,  couldn't  do 

naw  work  an'  all, 
Nasty  an'  snaggy  an'  shaaky,  an'  poonch'd 

my  'and  wi'  the  hawl, 
But   she  wur   a   power  o'   coomfut,  an' 

sattled  'ersen  o'  my  knee, 
An'  coaxd  an'  coodled  me  oop  till  agean 

I  feel'd  mysen  free. 


An'  Sally  she  tell'd  it  about,  an'  foalk 

stood  a-gawmin' 2  in' 
As  thaw  it  wur  summat  bewitch'd  istead 

of  a  quart  o'  gin; 

1  That's  beyond  everything. 
8  Staring  vacantly. 


An'  some  on  'em  said  it  wur  watter  —  an 

I  wur  chousin'  the  wife, 
Fur  I  couldn't  'owd  'ands  off  gin,  wur  it 

nobbut  to  saave  my  life ; 
An'  blacksmith  'e  strips  me  the  thick  ov 

'is  airm,  an'  'e  shaws  it  to  me, 
1  Feeal  thou   this !  thou  can't  graw  this 

upo'  watter ! '  says  he. 
An'  Doctor  'e  calls  o'  Sunday  an'  just  as 

candles  was  lit, 
•  Thou  moant  do  it,'  he  says,  '  tha  mun 

break  'im  off  bit  by  bit.' 
1  Thou;rt  but  a  Methody-man,'  says  Par- 
son, and  laays  down  'is  'at, 
An'  'e  'points  to  the  bottle  o'  gin,  f  but  I 

respecks  tha  fur  that;' 
An'  Squire,  his  oan  very  sen,  walks  down 

fro'  the  'All  to  see, 
An'  'e  spanks  'is  'and  into  mine,  •  fur  I 

respecks  tha,'  says  'e; 
An'  coostom  agean  draw'd  in  like  a  wind 

fro'  far  an'  wide, 
And  browt  me  the  booots  to  be  cobbled 

fro'  hafe  the  coontryside. 

XVI. 

An'  theer  'e  stans  an'  theer  'e  shall  stan 

to  my  dying  daay; 
I  'a  gotten  to  loov  'im  agean  in  anoother 

kind  of  a  waay, 
Proud  on  'im,  like,  my  lad,  an'  I  keeaps 

'im  clean  an'  bright, 
Loovs  'im,  an'  roobs  'im,  an'  doosts  'im, 

an'  puts  'im  back  i'  the  light. 

XVII. 

Wouldn't  a  pint  a'  sarved  as  well  as  a 

quart  ?     Naw  doubt : 
But  I  liked  a  bigger  feller  to  fight  wi'  an' 

fowt  it  out. 
Fine  an'  meller  'e  mun  be  by  this,  if  I 

cared  to  taaste, 
But  I  moant,  my  lad,  and  I  weant,  fur 

I'd  feal  mysen  clean  disgraaced. 

XVIII. 

An'  once  I  said  to  the  Missis,  '  My  lass, 

when  I  cooms  to  die, 
Smash  the  bottle  to  smith ers,  the  Divil's 

in  'im,'  said  I. 


THE  REVENGE. 


497 


But  arter  I    chaanged  my  mind,  an'  if 

Sally  be  left  aloan, 
I'll  hev  'im  a-buried  wi'mma  an'  taake 

'im  afoor  the  Throan. 

XIX. 

Coom   thou  'eer  —  yon   laady  a-steppin 

along  the  streeat, 
Doesn't  tha   knaw  'er  —  sa  pratty,   an' 

feat,  an'  neat,  an'  sweeat? 
Look  at  the  cloaths  on  'er  back,  thebbe 

ammost  spick-span-new, 
An'  Tommy's  faace  be  as  fresh  as  a  codlin 

wesh'd  i'  the  dew. 

xx. 

'Ere  be  our  Sally  an'  Tommy,  an'  we  be 

a-goin'  to  dine, 
Baacon  an'   taates,  an'  a   beslings-pud- 

din' 1  an'  Adam's  wine  ; 
But  if  tha  wants  ony  grog  tha  mun  goa 

fur  it  down  to  the  Hinn, 
Fur  I  weant  shed  a  drop  on  'is  blood, 

noa,  not  fur  Sally's  oan  kin. 

THE  REVENGE. 

A  BALLAD   OF  THE  FLEET. 
I. 

At  Flores  in  the  Azores   Sir  Richard 

Grenville  lay, 
And  a  pinnace,  like  a  flutter'd  bird,  came 

flying  from  far  away : 
'Spanish  ships  of  war  at  sea!  we  have 

sighted  fifty-three ! ' 
Then    sware    Lord    Thomas    Howard : 

"Fore  God  I  am  no  coward; 
But  I  cannot  meet  them  here,  for  my 

ships  are  out  of  gear, 
And  the  half  my  men  are  sick.     I  must 

fly,  but  follow  quick. 
We  are  six  ships  of  the  line;    can  we 

fight  with  fifty-three?' 


Then  spake  Sir  Richard  Grenville  :  « I 
know  you  are  no  coward; 

You  fly  them  for  a  moment  to  fight  with 
them  again. 

1  A  pudding  made  with  the  first  milk  of  the 
cow  after  calving. 
2K 


But  I've  ninety  men  and  more  that  are 
lying  sick  ashore. 

I  should  count  myself  the  coward  if  I 
left  them,  my  Lord  Howard, 

To  these  Inquisition  dogs  and  the  devil- 
doms of  Spain.' 

III. 

So   Lord   Howard   past   away  with  five 

ships  of  war  that  day, 
Till  he  melted  like  a  cloud  in  the  silent 

summer  heaven; 
But  Sir  Richard  bore  in  hand  all  his  sick 

men  from  the  land 
Very  carefully  and  slow, 
Men  of  Bideford  in  Devon, 
And  we  laid  them  on  the  ballast  down 

below ; 
For  we  brought  them  all  aboard, 
And  they  blest  him  in  their  pain,  that 

they  were  not  left  to  Spain, 
To  the  thumbscrew  and  the  stake,  for  the 

glory  of  the  Lord. 


IV. 


He  had  only  a  hundred  seamen  to  work 

the  ship  and  to  fight, 
And  he  sailed  away  from  Flores  till  the 

Spaniard  came  in  sight, 
With  his  huge  sea-castles  heaving  upon 

the  weather  bow. 
1  Shall  we  fight  or  shall  we  fly? 
Good  Sir  Richard,  tell  us  now, 
For  to  fight  is  but  to  die ! 
There'll  be  little  of  us  left  by  the  time 

this  sun  be  set.' 
And  Sir  Richard  said  again  :  '  We  be  all 

good  English  men. 
Let  us  bang  these  dogs  of  Seville,  the 

children  of  the  devil, 
For  I  never  turn'd  my  back  upon  Don  or 

devil  yet.' 


v. 


Sir  Richard  spoke  and  he  laugh'd,  and 
we  roar'd  a  hurrah,  and  so 

The  little  Revenge  ran  on  sheer  into  the 
heart  of  the  foe, 

With  her  hundred  fighters  on  deck,  and 
her  ninety  sick  below; 


498 


THE  REVENGE. 


For  half  of  their  fleet  to  the  right  and 
half  to  the  left  were  seen, 

And  the  little  Revenge  ran  on  thro'  the 
long  sea-lane  between. 

VI. 

Thousands  of  their  soldiers  look'd  down 

from  their  decks  and  laugh'd, 
Thousands  of  their  seamen  made  mock 

at  the  mad  little  craft 
Running  on  and  on,  till  delay'd 
By  their  mountain-like  San  Philip  that, 

of  fifteen  hundred  tons, 
And  up-shadowing  high  above  us  with 

her  yawning  tiers  of  guns, 
Took  the  breath  from  our  sails,  and  we 

stay'd. 

VII. 

And  while  now  the  great  San  Philip 
hung  above  us  like  a  cloud 

Whence  the  thunderbolt  will  fall 

Long  and  loud, 

Four  galleons  drew  away 

From  the  Spanish  fleet  that  day, 

And  two  upon  the  larboard  and  two  upon 
the  starboard  lay, 

And  the  battle-thunder  broke  from  them 
all. 


But  anon  the  great  San  Philip,  she  be- 
thought herself  and  went 

Having  that  within  her  womb  that  had 
left  her  ill  content; 

And  the  rest  they  came  aboard  us,  and 
they  fought  us  hand  to  hand, 

For  a  dozen  times  they  came  with  their 
pikes  and  musqueteers, 

And  a  dozen  times  we  shook  'em  off  as  a 
dog  that  shakes  his  ears 

When  he  leaps  from  the  water  to  the  land. 

IX. 

And  the  sun  went  down,  and  the  stars 

came  out  far  over  the  summer  sea, 
But  never  a  moment  ceased  the  fight  of 

the  one  and  the  fifty-three. 
Ship   after  ship,  the  whole  night  long, 

their  high-built  galleons  came, 
Ship  after   ship,  the  whole  night  long, 

with  her  battle-thunder  and  flame: 


Ship  after  ship,  the  whole   night  long, 

drew  back  with  her  dead  and  her 

shame. 
For   some   were   sunk    and   many   were 

shatter'd,  and  so  could  fight  us  no 

more  — 
God  of  battles,  was  ever  a  battle  like  this 

in  the  world  before? 

X. 

For  he  said  ■  Fight  on  !  fight  on ! ' 
Tho'  his  vessel  was  all  but  a  wreck; 
And  it  chanced  that,  when  half  of  the 

short  summer  night  was  gone, 
With  a  grisly  wound  to  be  drest  ho  had 

left  the  deck, 
But  a  bullet  struck  him  that  was  dressing 

it  suddenly  dead, 
And  himself  he  was  wounded  again  in 

the  side  and  the  head, 
And  he  said  '  Fight  on !  fight  on ! ' 


And  the  night  went  down,  and  the  sun 

smiled  out  far  over  the  summer  sea, 
And  the  Spanish  fleet  with  broken  sides 

lay  round  us  all  in  a  ring; 
But  they  dared  not  touch  us  again,  for 

they   fear'd    that   we   still    could 

sting, 
So  they  watch'd  what  the  end  would  be. 
And  we  had  not  fought  them  in  vain, 
But  in  perilous  plight  were  we, 
Seeing  forty  of  our  poor  hundred  were 

slain, 
And  half  of  the  rest  of  us  maim'd  for  life 
In  the  crash  of  the  cannonades  and  the 

desperate  strife; 
And  the  sick  men  down  in  the  hold  were 

most  of  them  stark  and  cold, 
And  the  pikes  were  all  broken  or  bent, 

and  the  powder  was  all  of  it  spent; 
And   the    masts   and   the    rigging   were 

lying  over  the  side; 
But  Sir  Richard  cried  in  his  English  pride, 
*  We  have  fought  such  a  fight  for  a  day 

and  a  night 
As  may  never  be  fought  again ! 
We  have  won  great  glory,  my  men ! 
And  a  day  less  or  more 
At  sea  or  ashore, 
We  die  —  does  it  matter  when? 


THE   SISTERS. 


499 


Sink  me  the  ship,  Master  Gunner  —  sink 

her,  split  her  in  twain  ! 
Fall  into  the  hands  of  God,  not  into  the 

hands  of  Spain ! ' 


And  the   gunner  said  'Ay,  ay,'  but  the 

seamen  made  reply :  » 

1  We  have  children,  we  have  wives, 
And  the  Lord  hath  spared  our  lives. 
We  will  make  the  Spaniard  promise,  if 

we  yield,  to  let  us  go; 
We  shall  live  to  fight  again  and  to  strike 

another  blow.' 
And  the  lion  there  lay  dying,  and  they 

yielded  to  the  foe. 


And   the   stately  Spanish    men  to  their 

flagship  bore  him  then, 
Where  they  laid  him  by  the  mast,  old 

Sir  Richard  caught  at  last, 
And  they  praised  him  to  his  face  with 

their  courtly  foreign  grace; 
But  he  rose  upon  their  decks,  and  he  cried : 
'  I  have  fought  for  Queen  and  Faith  like 

a  valiant  man  and  true ; 
I  have  only  done  my  duty  as  a  man  is 

bound  to  do : 
With  a  joyful  spirit  I  Sir  Richard  Gren- 

ville  die ! ' 
And  he  fell  upon  their  decks,  and  he  died. 


And  they  stared  at  the  dead  that  had 

been  so  valiant  and  true, 
And  had  holden  the  power  and  glory  of 

Spain  so  cheap 
That  he  dared  her  with  one  little  ship 

and  his  English  few; 
Was  he  devil  or  man?     He  was  devil 

for  aught  they  knew, 
But  they  sank  his  body  with  honour  down 

into  the  deep, 
And  they  mann'd  the  Revenge  with  a 

swarthier  alien  crew, 
And  away  she  sail'd  with  her  loss  and 

long'd  for  her  own; 
When  a  wind  from  the  lands  they  had 

ruin'd  awoke  from  sleep, 
And  the  water  began  to  heave  and  the 

weather  to  moan, 


And  or  ever  that  evening  ended  a  great 

gale  blew, 
And  a  wave  like  the  wave  that  is  raised 

by  an  earthquake  grew, 
Till  it  smote  on  their  hulls  and  their  sails 

and  their  masts  and  their  flags, 
And  the  whole  sea  plunged  and  fell  on 

the  shot-shatter'd  navy  of  Spain, 
And  the  little  Revenge  herself  went  down 

by  the  island  crags 
To  be  lost  evermore  in  the  main. 


THE   SISTERS. 

They  have  left  the  doors  ajar;   and  by 

their  clash, 
And  prelude  on  the  keys,  I  know  the 

song, 
Their  favourite  —  which  I  call '  The  Tables 

Turned.' 
Evelyn  begins  it  '  O  diviner  Air.' 

EVELYN. 

O  diviner  Air, 

Thro'  the  heat,  the  drowth,  the  dust,  the 

glare, 
Far   from   out    the   west    in    shadowing 

showers, 
Over  all  the  meadow  baked  and  bare, 
Making  fresh  and  fair 
All  the  bowers  and  the  flowers, 
Fainting  flowers,  faded  bowers, 
Over  all  this  weary  world  of  ours, 
Breathe,  diviner  Air ! 

A  sweet  voice  that  —  you  scarce  could 

better  that. 
Now  follows  Edith  echoing  Evelyn. 

EDITH. 

O  diviner  light, 

Thro'  the  cloud  that  roofs  our  noon  with 

night, 
Thro'    the   blotting    mist,   the    blinding 

showers, 
Far  from  out  a  sky  for  ever  bright, 
Over  all  the  woodland's  flooded  bowers, 
Over  all  the  meadow's  drowning  flowers, 
Over  all  this  ruin'd  world  of  ours, 
Break,  diviner  light ! 


5oo 


THE  SISTERS. 


Marvellously   like,   their  voices — and 

themselves ! 
Tho'  one  is  somewhat  deeper  than  the 

other, 
As   one   is  somewhat   graver   than   the 

other  — 
Edith  than  Evelyn.     Your  good  Uncle, 

whom 
You  count   the  father  of  your  fortune, 

longs 
For  this  alliance :  let  me  ask  you  then, 
Which  voice  most  takes  you?  for  I  do 

not  doubt 
Being  a  watchful  parent,  you  are  taken 
With   one  or  other:    tho'   sometimes  I 

fear 
You  may  be  flickering,  fluttering  in  a 

doubt 
Between  the  two  —  which  must  not  be  — 

which  might 
Be  death  to  one  :  they  both  are  beautiful : 
Evelyn  is  gayer,  wittier,  prettier,  says 
The  common  voice,  if  one  may  trust  it : 

she? 
No  !  but  the  paler  and  the  graver,  Edith. 
Woo  her  and  gain  her  then :  no  waver- 
ing, boy ! 
The  graver  is  perhaps  the  one  for  you 
Who  jest  and  laugh  so  easily  and  so  well. 
For  love  will  go  by  contrast,  as  by  likes. 

No  sisters  ever  prized  each  other  more. 
Not  so :  their  mother  and  her  sister  loved 
More  passionately  still. 

But  that  my  best 
And  oldest  friend,  your  Uncle,  wishes  it, 
And  that  I  know  you  worthy  everyway 
To  be  my  son,  I  might,  perchance,  be  loath 
To  part  them,  or  part  from  them :  and 

yet  one 
Should  marry,  or  all  the  broad  lands  in 

your  view 
From  this  bay  window  —  which  our  house 

has  held 
Three  hundred  years  —  will  pass  collater- 
ally. 

My  father  with  a  child  on  either  knee, 
A  hand  upon  the  head  of  either  child, 
Smoothing  their  locks,  as  golden  as  his 

own 
Were  silver,  '  get  them  wedded '  would 

he  say. 


And  once  my  prattling  Edith  ask'd  him 

'why?' 
Ay,  why  ?  said  he,  '  for  why  should  I  go 

lame  ? ' 
Then  told  them  of  his  wars,  and  of  his 

wound. 
For   see  —  this   wine  —  the   grape   from 

whence  it  flow'd 
Was  blackening  on  the  slopes  of  Portugal, 
When  that  brave  soldier,  down  the  terrible 

ridge 
Plunged    in    the   last   fierce    charge    at 

Waterloo, 
And  caught  the  laming  bullet.     He  left 

me  this, 
Which  yet  retains  a  memory  of  its  youth, 
As   I   of   mine,    and    my   first    passion. 

Come ! 
Here's  to  your  happy  union  with  my  child ! 

Yet  must  you  change  your  name :  no 
fault  of  mine ! 

You  say  that  you  can  do  it  as  willingly 

As  birds  make  ready  for  their  bridal- 
time 

By  change  of  feather:  for  all  that,  my 
boy, 

Some  birds  are  sick  and  sullen  when  they 
moult. 

An  old  and  worthy,  name  !  but  mine  that 
stirr'd 

Among  our  civil  wars  and  earlier  too 

Among  the  Roses,  the  more  venerable. 

V"  care  not  for  a  name  —  no  fault  of  mine. 

Once  more  —  a  happier  marriage  than  my 


You  see  yon  Lombard  poplar  on  the 

plain. 
The  highway  running  by  it  leaves  a  breadth 
Of  sward  to  left  and  right,  where,  long 

ago, 
One  bright  May  morning  in  a  world  of 

song, 
I  lay  at  leisure,  watching  overhead 
The  aerial  poplar  wave,  an  amber  spire. 

I  dozed;   I  woke.     An  open  landaulet 
Whirl'd  by,  which,  after  it  had  past  me, 

show'd 
Turning  my  way,  the   loveliest  face  on 

earth. 
The  face  of  one  there  sitting  opposite, 


THE   SISTERS. 


501 


On  whom  I  brought  a  strange  unhappi- 

ness, 
That  time  I  did  not  see. 

Love  at  first  sight 
May    seem — with    goodly    rhyme    and 

reason  for  it  — 
Possible  —  at  first  glimpse,  and  for  a  face 
Gone  in  a  moment  —  strange.     Yet  once, 

when  first 
I  came  on  lake  Llanberris  in  the  dark, 
A  moonless  night  with  storm  —  one  light- 
ning-fork 
Flash'd  out  the  lake;   and  tho'  I  loiter'd 

there 
The  full  day  after,  yet  in  retrospect 
That  less  than  momentary  thunder-sketch 
Of  lake  and  mountain  conquers  all  the 
day. 

The  Sun  himself  has  limn'd  the  face 

for  me. 
Not  quite  so  quickly,  no,  nor  half  as  well. 
For  look  you  here  —  the  shadows  are  too 

deep, 
And  like  the  critic's  blurring  comment 

make 
The  veriest  beauties  of  the  work  appear 
The  darkest  faults :  the  sweet  eyes  frown  : 

the  lips 
Seem  but  a  gash.     My  sole  memorial 
Of  Edith  —  no,  the  other,  —  both  indeed. 

So  that  bright  face  was  flash'd  thro' 

sense  and  soul 
And  by  the  poplar  vanish'd  —  to  be  found 
Long  after,   as   it  seem'd,  beneath    the 

tall 
Tree-bowers,   and    those    long-sweeping 

beechen  boughs 
Of  our  New  Forest.     I  was  there  alone  : 
The  phantom  of  the  whirling  landaulet 
For  ever  past  me  by:   when  one  quick 

peal 
Of  laughter  drew  me  thro'  the  glimmer- 
ing glades 
Down  to  the  snowlike  sparkle  of  a  cloth 
On  fern  and  foxglove.  Lo,  the  face  again, 
My  Rosalind  in  this  Arden  —  Edith  —  all 
One    bloom    of    youth,    health,    beauty, 

happiness, 
And  moved  to  merriment  at  a  passing 

jest. 


There  one  of  those  about  her  knowing 

me 
Call'd  me  to  join  them;   so  with  these  I 

spent 
What  seem'd  my  crowning  hour,  my  day 

of  days. 

I  woo'd  her  then,  nor  unsuccessfully, 
The  worse  for  her,  for  me  !  was  I  content? 
Ay  —  no,  not  quite;   for  now  and  then  I 

thought 
Laziness,  vague  love-longings,  the  bright 

May, 
Had  made  a  heated  haze  to  magnify 
The  charm  of  Edith  —  that  a  man's  ideal 
Is   high   in    Heaven,    and    lodged   with 

Plato's  God, 
Not  findable  here  — content,  and  not  con- 
tent, 
In  some  such  fashion  as  a  man  may  be 
That  having  had  the  portrait  of  his  friend 
Drawn  by  an  artist,  looks  at  it,  and  says, 
1  Good  !  very  like  !  not  altogether  he.' 

As  yet  I  had   not  bound   myself  by 

words, 
Only  believing  I  loved  Edith,  made 
Edith   love    vie.      Then   came    the   day 

when  I, 
Flattering  myself  that  all  my  doubts  were 

fools 
Born  of  the  fool  this  Age  that  doubts  of 

all  — 
Not  I  that  day  of  Edith's  love  or  mine  — 
Had  braced  my  purpose  to  declare  my- 
self: 
I  stood  upon  the  stairs  of  Paradise. 
The  golden  gates  would  open  at  a  word. 
I  spoke  it  —  told  her  of  my  passion,  seen 
And  lost  and  found  again,  had  got  so 

far, 
Had  caught  her  hand,  her  eyelids  fell  — 

I  heard 
Wheels,  and  a  noise  of  welcome  at  the 

doors  — 
On  a  sudden  after  two  Italian  years 
Had  set  the  blossom  of  her  health  again, 
The   younger   sister,    Evelyn,   enter'd  — 

there, 
There  was  the  face,  and  altogether  she. 
The   mother   fell   about   the   daughter's 

neck, 
The  sisters  closed  in  one  another's  arms, 


5°2 


THE   SISTERS. 


Their  people  throng'd  about  them  from 

the  hall, 
And  in  the  thick  of  question  and  reply 
I  fled  the  house,  driven  by  one  angel  face 
And  all  the  Furies. 

I  was  bound  to  her; 
I  could  not  free  myself  in  honour  —  bound 
Not  by  the  sounded  letter  of  the  word, 
But  counterpressures  of  the  yielded  hand 
That  timorously  and  faintly  echoed  mine, 
Quick  blushes,  the  sweet  dwelling  of  her 

eyes 
Upon  me  when  she  thought  I   did  not 

see  — 
Were  these  not   bonds?   nay,   nay,   but 

could  I  wed  her 
Loving   the   other?    do   her   that   great 

wrong? 
Had  I  not  dream'd  I  loved  her  yester- 

morn? 
Had  I  not  known  where  Love,  at  first  a 

fear, 
Grew  after  marriage  to  full  height  and 

form? 
Yet    after    marriage,    that    mock-sister 

there  — 
Brother-in-law  —  the  fiery  nearness  of  it  — 
Unlawful  and  disloyal  brotherhood  — 
What  end  but  darkness  could  ensue  from 

this 
For  all  the  three?     So  Love  and  Honour 

jarr'd 
Tho'  Love  and  Honour  join'd  to  raise 

the  full 
High-tide  of  doubt  that  sway'd  me  up 

and  down 
Advancing  nor  retreating. 

Edith  wrote : 
'  My  mother  bids  me  ask '  (I  did  not  tell 

you  — 
A  widow  with  less  guile  than  many  a 

child. 
God  help  the  wrinkled  children  that  are 

Christ's 
As  well  as  the  plump  cheek  —  she  wrought 

us  harm, 
Poor  soul,  not  knowing)  'are  you  ill?' 

(so  ran 
The  letter)  '  you  have  not  been  here  of 

late. 
You  will  not  find  me  here.     At  last  I  go 


On  that  long-promised  visit  to  the  North 
I  told  your  wayside  story  to  my  mother 
And     Evelyn.       She     remembers     you. 

Farewell. 
Pray  come  and  see  my  mother.     Almost 

blind 
With  ever-growing  cataract,  yet  she  thinks 
She  sees   you  when   she  hears.     Again 

farewell.' 

Cold  words  from  one  I  had  hoped  to 

warm  so  far 
That  I  could  stamp  my  image  on   her 

heart ! 
'Pray   come    and   see   my  mother,  and 

farewell.' 
Cold,   but   as  welcome   as   free   airs  of 

heaven 
After   a   dungeon's   closeness.      Selfish, 

strange ! 
What    dwarfs    are    men !    my   strangled 

vanity 
Utter'd  a  stifled  cry  —  to  have  vext  myself 
And  all  in  vain  for  her  —  cold  heart  or 

none  — 
No  bride  for  me.    Yet  so  my  path  was 

clear 
To  win  the  sister. 

Whom  I  woo'd  and  won. 

For  Evelyn  knew  not  of  my  former  suit, 

Because  the  simple  mother  work'd  upon 

By  Edith  pray'd  me  not  to  whisper  of  it. 

And  Edith  would  be  bridesmaid  on  the 

day. 
But  on  that  day,  not  being  all  at  ease, 
I  from  the  altar  glancing  back  upon  her, 
Before  the  first  '  I  will '  was  utter'd,  saw 
The  bridesmaid  pale,  statuelike,  passion- 
less— 
'  No  harm,  no  harm,'  I  turn'd  again,  and 

placed 
My  ring  upon  the  finger  of  my  bride. 

So,  when  we  parted,  Edith  spoke  no 

word, 
She  wept  no  tear,  but  round  my  Evelyn 

clung 
Ln  utter  silence  for  so  long,  I  thought, 
'  What,  will  she  never  set  her  sister  free? ' 

We  left  her,  happy  each  in  each,  and 
then, 
As  tho'  the  happiness  of  each  in  each 


THE   SISTERS. 


5°3 


Were  not  enough,  must  fain  have  torrents, 

lakes, 
Hills,  the  great  things  of  Nature  and  the 

fair, 
To  lift  us  as  it  were  from  commonplace, 
And  help   us  to  our  joy.     Better  have 

sent 
Our  Edith  thro'  the  glories  of  the  earth, 
To  change  with  her  horizon,  if  true  Love 
Were  not  his  own  imperial  all-in-all. 

Far  off  we  went.     My  God,  I  would  not 
live 
Save  that  I  think  this  gross  hard-seem- 
ing world 
Is  our  misshaping  vision  of  the  Powers 
Behind  the  world,  that  make  our  griefs 
our  gains. 

For  on  the  dark  night  of  our  marriage- 
day 
The  great  Tragedian,  that  had  quench'd 

herself 
In  that  assumption  of  the  bridesmaid  — 

she 
That  loved  me  —  our   true   Edith  —  her 

brain  broke 
With  over-acting,  till  she  rose  and  fled 
Beneath  a  pitiless  rush  of  Autumn  rain 
To  the  deaf  church  —  to  be  let  in  —  to 

pray 
Before  that  altar  —  so  I  think;  and  there 
They  found  her  beating  the  hard  Protes- 
tant doors. 
She  died  and  she  was  buried  ere  we  knew. 

I  learnt  it  first.     I  had  to  speak.     At 
once 
The  bright  quick  smile  of  Evelyn,  that 

had  sunn'd 
The  morning  of  our  marriage,  past  away  : 
And  on  our  home-return  the  daily  want 
Of  Edith  in  the  house,  the  garden,  still 
Haunted  us  like  her  ghost;  and  by  and 

by, 
Either  from  that  necessity  for  talk 
Which  lives  with  blindness,  or  plain  in- 
nocence 
Of  nature,  or  desire  that  her  lost  child 
Should   earn   from   both    the   praise    of 

heroism, 
The  mother  broke   her  promise   to  the 
dead, 


And  told  the  living  daughter  with  what 

love 
Edith  had  welcomed  my  brief  wooing  of 

her, 
And    all    her    sweet    self-sacrifice    and 

death. 

Henceforth  that  mystic  bond  betwixt 

the  twins  — 
Did  I  not   tell  you  they  were  twins?  — 

prevail'd 
So  far  that  no  caress  could  win  my  wife 
Back  to  that  passionate  answer  of  full 

heart 
I  had  from  her  at  first.     Not  that  her 

love, 
Tho'  scarce  as  great  as  Edith's  power  of 

love, 
Had  lessen'd,  but  the  mother's  garrulous 

wail 
For  ever  woke  the  unhappy  Past  again, 
Till  that  dead  bridesmaid,  meant  to  be 

my  bride, 
Put  forth  cold  hands  between  us,  and  I 

fear'd 
The  very  fountains  of  her  life  were  chill'd ; 
So  took  her  thence,  and  brought  her  here, 

and  here 
She  bore   a  child,  whom  reverently  we 

call'd 
Edith;   and  in  the  second  year  was  born 
A  second  —  this  I  named  from  her  own 

self, 
Evelyn;    then  two  weeks  —  no  more  — 

she  joined, 
In  and  beyond  the  grave,  that  one  she 

loved. 
Now  in  this  quiet  of  declining  life, 
Thro'  dreams  by  night  and  trances  of  the 

day, 
The  sisters  glide  about  me  hand  in  hand, 
Both  beautiful  alike,  nor  can  I  tell 
One  from  the  other,  no,  nor  care  to  tell 
One    from   the    other,    only   know   they 

come, 
They  smile  upon  me,  till,  remembering 

all 
The  love  they  both  have  born  me,  and 

the  love 
I  bore  them  both  —  divided  as  I  am 
From  either  by  the  stillness  of  the  grave  — 
I  know  not  which  of  these  I  love  the 

best. 


5o4 


THE    VILLAGE    WIFE;    OK,    THE  ENTAIL. 


But  you  love  Edith;  and  her  own  true 

eyes 
Are  traitors  to  her;   our  quick  Evelyn  — 
The  merrier,  prettier,  wittier,  as  they  talk, 
And  not  without  good  reason,  ray  good 

son  — 
Is  yet  untouch'd :  and  I  that  hold  them 

both 
Dearest  of  all  things  —  well,  I  am  not 

sure  — 
But  if  there  lie  a  preference  eitherway, 
And  in  the  rich  vocabulary  of  Love 
'  Most  dearest '  be  a  true  superlative  — 
I  think  /  likewise  love  your  Edith  most. 


THE    VILLAGE  WIFE;    OR,    THE 
ENTAIL.* 


'Ouse-keeper  sent  tha  my  lass,  fur  New 
Squire  coom'd  last  night. 

Butter  an'  heggs  —  yis  —  yis.  I'll  goa  wi' 
tha  back:  all  right; 

Butter  I  warrants  be  prime,  an'  I  war- 
rants the  heggs  be  as  well, 

Hafe  a  pint  o'  milk  runs  out  when  ya 
breaks  the  shell. 


Sit  thysen  down  fur  a  bit :  hev  a  glass  o' 

cowslip  wine ! 
I  liked  the  owd  Squire  an'  'is  gells  as 

thaw  they  was  gells  o'  mine, 
Fur  then  we  was  all  es  one,  the  Squire 

an'  'is  darters  an'  me, 
Hall  but  Miss  Annie,  the  heldest,  I  niver 

not  took  to  she : 
But  Nelly,  the  last  of  the  cletch,2  I  liked 

'er  the  fust  on  'em  all, 
Fur  hoffens  we  talkt  o'  my  darter  es  died 

o'  the  fever  at  fall : 
An'  I  thowt  'twur  the  will  o'  the  Lord,  but 

Miss  Annie  she  said  it  wur  draains, 
P\ir  she  hedn't  naw  coomfut  in  'er,  an' 

arn'd  naw  thanks  fur  'er  paains. 
Eh?  thebbe  all  wi'  the  Lord  my  childer, 

I  han't  gotten  none  ! 
Sa  new  Squire's  coom'd  wi'  'is  taail  in  'is 

'and,  .an'  owd  Squire's  gone. 

1  See  note  to  '  Northern  Cobbler.' 
2  A  brood  of  chickens. 


III. 

Fur  'staate  be  i'  taail,  my  lass :  tha  dosn' 
knaw  what  that  be? 

But  I  knaws  the  law,  I  does,  for  the  law- 
yer ha  towd  it  me. 

1  When  theer's  naw  'ead  to  a  'Ouse  by 
the  fault  o'  that  ere  maale  — 

The  gells  they  counts  fur  nowt,  and  the 
next  un  he  taakes  the  taail.' 


IV. 


What  be  the  next  un  like?  can  tha  tell 

ony  harm  on  'im,  lass?  — 
Naay  sit  down  —  naw  'urry  —  sa  cowd !  — 

hev  another  glass  ! 
Straange  an'  cowd  fur  the  time !  we  may 

happen  a  fall  o'  snaw  — 
Not  es  I  cares  fur  to  hear  ony  harm,  but 

I  likes  to  knaw. 
An'  I  'oaps  es  'e  beant  boooklarn'd :  but 

'e  dosn'  not  coom  fro'  the  shere ; 
We'd  anew  o'  that  wi'  the  Squire,  an'  we 

haates  boooklarnin'  'ere. 


Fur  Squire  wur  a  Varsity  scholard,  an' 

niver  lookt  arter  the  land  — 
Whoats  or  tonups  or  taates  —  'e  'ed  hallus 

a  boook  i'  'is  'and, 
Hallus  aloan  wi'  'is  boooks,  thaw  nigh 

upo'  seventy  year. 
An'  boooks,  what's  boooks?  thou  knaws 

thebbe  naither  'ere  nor  theer. 


An'  the  gells,  they  hedn't  naw  taails,  an' 

the  lawyer  he  towd  it  me 
That  'is   taail  were  soa  tied    up   es  he 

couldn't  cut  down  a  tree  ! 
1  Drat  the   trees,'  says  I,  to  be  sewer  I 

haates  'em,  my  lass, 
Fur  we  puts  the  muck  o'  the  land  an' 

they  sucks  the  muck  fro'  the  grass. 


An'  Squire  wur  hallus  a-smilin',  an'  gied 
to  the  tramps  goin'  by  — 

An'  all  o'  the  wust  i'  the  parish  —  wi' 
hoffens  a  drop  in  'is  eye. 


THE    VILLAGE    WIFE;    OR,    THE  ENTAIL. 


505 


An'  ivry  darter  o'  Squire's  hed  her  awn 

ridin-erse  to  'ersen, 
An'  they  rampaged  about  wi'  their  grooms, 

an'  was  'untin'  arter  the  men, 
An'  hallus  a-dallackt *  an'  dizen'd  out,  an' 

a-buyin'  new  cloathes, 
While  'e  sit  like  a  great  glimmer-gowk  2 

wi'  'is  glasses  athurt  'is  noase, 
An'  'is  noase  sa  grufted  wi'  snuff  es  it 

couldn't  be  scroob'd  awaay, 
Fur  atween  'is  readin'  an'  writin'  'e  snifft 

up  a  box  in  a  daay, 
An'  'e  niver  runn'd   arter   the    fox,  nor 

arter  the  birds  wi'  'is  gun, 
An'  'e  niver  not   shot   one  'are,  but   'e 

leaved  it  to  Charlie  'is  son, 
An'  'e  niver  not  fish'd  'is  awn  ponds,  but 

Charlie  'e  cotch'd  the  pike, 
For  'e  warn't  not  burn  to  the  land,  an'  'e 

didn't  take  kind  to  it  like; 
But  I  'ears  es  'e'd  gie  fur  a  howry  3  owd 

book  thutty  pound  an'  moor, 
An'  'e'd  wrote  an  owd  book,  'is  awn  sen, 

sa  I  knaw'd  es  'e'd  coom  to  be  poor ; 
An'  'e  gied  —  I  be  fear'd  fur  to  tell  tha  'ow 

much  —  fur  an  owd  scratted  stoan, 
An'  'e  digg'd  up  a  loomp  i'  the  land  an' 

'e  got  a  brown  pot  an'  a  boan, 
An'  'e  bowt  owd  money,  es  wouldn't  goa, 

wi'  good  gowd  o'  the  Queen, 
An'  'e  bowt  little  statutes  all-naakt  an' 

which  was  a  shaame  to  be  seen; 
But  'e  niver   loookt  ower  a  bill,  nor  'e 

niver  not  seed  to  owt, 
An'  'e  niver  knawd  nowt  but  boooks,  an' 

boooks,  as  thou  knaws,  beant  nowt. 

VIII. 

But  owd  Squire's  laady  es  long  es  she 

lived  she  kep  'em  all  clear, 
Thaw  es  long  es  she  lived  I  niver  hed 

none  of  'er  darters  'ere; 
But  arter  she  died  we  was  all  es  one,  the 

childer  an'  me, 
An'  sarvints  runn'd  in  an'  out,  an'  offens 

we  hed  'em  to  tea. 
Lawk  !  'ow  I  laugh'd  when  the  lasses  'ud 

talk  o'  their  Missis's  waays, 
An'  the  Missisis  talk'd  o'  the  lasses. — 

I'll  tell  tha  some  o'  these  daays. 


1  Overdrest  in  gay  colours, 
s  Filthy. 


2  Owl. 


Hoanly  Miss  Annie  were  saw  stuck  oop, 

like  'er  mother  afoor  — 
'Er  an'  'er   blessed   darter  —  they  niver 

derken'd  my  door. 


An'   Squire  'e  smiled    an'  'e  smiled   till 

'e'd  gotten  a  fright  at  last, 
An'  'e  calls  fur  'is  son,  fur  the  'turney's 

letters  they  foller'd  sa  fast; 
But  Squire  wur  afear'd  o'  'is  son,  an'  'e 

says  to  'im,  meek  as  a  mouse, 
'  Lad,  thou  mun  cut  off  thy  taail,  or  the 

gells  'ull  goa  to  the  'Ouse, 
Fur  I  finds  es  I  be  that  i'  debt,  es  I  'oaps 

es  thou'll  'elp  me  a  bit, 
An'  if  thou'll  'gree  to  cut  off  thy  taail  I 

may  saave  mysen  yit.' 


But  Charlie  'e  sets  back  'is  ears,  an'  'e 

swears,  an'  'e  says  to  'im  '  Noa. 
I've  gotten  the  'staate  by  the  taail  an' 

be  dang'd  if  I  iver  let  goa ! 
Coom !    coom !    feyther,'    'e   says,   '  why 

shouldn't  thy  boooks  be  sowd? 
I   hears  es  soom  o'   thy  boooks  mebbe 

worth  their  weight  i'  gowd.' 


Heaps  an'  heaps  o'  boooks,  I  ha'  see'd 

'em,  belong'd  to  the  Squire, 
But  the  lasses  'ed  teard  out  leaves  i'  the 

middle  to  kindle  the  fire; 
Sa  moast  on  'is  owd  big  boooks  fetch'd 

nigh  to  nowt  at  the  saale, 
And  Squire  were  at  Charlie  agean  to  git 

'im  to  cut  off  'is  taail. 


XII. 

Ya  wouldn't  find  Charlie's  likes  —  'e  were 
that  outdacious  at  'oam, 

Not  thaw  ya  went  fur  to  raake  out  Hell 
wi'  a  small-tooth  coamb  — 

Droonk  wi'  the  Quoloty's  wine,  an'  droonk 
wi'  the  farmer's  aale, 

Mad  wi'  the  lasses  an'  all  —  an*  'e  would- 
n't cut  off  the  taail. 


5°6 


THE    VILLAGE    WIFE;    OR,  THE  ENTAIL. 


Thou's  coom'd  oop  by  the  beck;   and  a 

thurn  be  a-grawin'  theer, 
I  niver  ha'  see'd  it  sa  white  wi'  the  Maay 

es  I  see'd  it  to-year  — 
Theerabouts  Charlie  joompt  —  and  it  gied 

me  a  scare  tother  night, 
Fur  I  thowt  it  wur  Charlie's  ghoast  i'  the 

derk,  fur  it  loookt  sa  white. 
'Billy,'  says  'e,  '  hev  a  joomp!'  —  thaw 

the  banks  o'  the  beck  be  sa  high, 
Fur  'e  ca'd  'is  'erse  Billy-rough-un,  thaw 

niver  a  hair  wur  awry; 
But   Billy  fell   bakkuds   o'    Charlie,  an' 

Charlie  'e  brok  'is  neck, 
Sa  theer  wur  a  hend  o'  the  taail,  fur  'e 

lost  'is  taail  i'  the  beck. 


Sa  'is  taail  wur  lost  an'  'is  boooks  wur 

gone  an'  'is  boy  wur  dead, 
An'  Squire  'e  smiled,  an  'e  smiled,  but  'e 

niver  not  lift  oop  'is  'ead : 
Hallus  a  soft  un  Squire !  an'  'e  smiled, 

fur  'e  hedn't  naw  friend, 
Sa  feyther  an'  son  was  buried  togither, 

an'  this  wur  the  hend. 

xv. 

An'  Parson  es  hesn't   the  call,  nor  the 

mooney,  but  hes  the  pride, 
'E  reads  of  a  sewer  an'  sartan  'oap   o' 

the  tother  side; 
But  I  beant  that  sewer  es  the  Lord,  how- 

siver  they  praay'd  an'  praay'd, 
Lets   them  inter    'eaven  easy  es   leaves 

their  debts  to  be  paaid. 
Siver  the  mou'ds  rattled  down  upo'  poor 

owd  Squire  i'  the  wood, 
An'  I  cried  alohg  wi'  the  gells,  fur  they 

weant  niver  coom  to  naw  good. 


Fur  Molly  the  long  un  she  walkt  awaay 

wi'  a  hofficer  lad, 
An'  nawbody  'eard  on  'er  sin,  sa  o'  coorse 

she  be  gone  to  the  bad ! 
An'  Lucy  wur  laame  o'  one  leg,  sweet- 

'arts  she  niver  'ed  none  — 
Straange  an'  unheppen 1  Miss  Lucy !  we 

naamed  her  '  Dot  an'  gaw  one  ! ' 

1  Ungainly,  awkward. 


An'  Hetty  wur  weak  i'  the  hattics,  wi'out 

ony  harm  i'  the  legs, 
An'  the  fever  'ed  baaked  Jinny's  'ead  es 

bald  es  one  o'  them  heggs, 
An'  Nelly  wur  up  fro'  the  craadle  es  big 

i'  the  mouth  es  a  cow, 
An'  saw  she  mun  hammergrate,1  lass,  01 

she  weant  git  a  maate  onyhow  ! 
An'  es  for  Miss  Annie  es  call'd  me  afoor 

my  awn  foalks  to  my  faace 
•  A  hignorant  village  wife  as  'ud  hev  to 

be  larn'd  'er  awn  plaace,' 
Hes  fur  Miss  Hannie  the  heldest  hes  now 

be  a-grawin'  sa  howd, 
I  knaws  that  mooch  o'  shea,  es  it  beant 

not  fit  to  be  towd ! 

XVII. 

Sa  I  didn't  not  taake  it  kindly  ov  owd 

Miss  Annie  to  saay 
Es  I  should  be  talkin'  agean  'em,  es  soon 

es  they  went  awaay, 
Fur,  lawks !  'ow  I  cried  when  they  went, 

an'  our  Nelly  she  gied  me  'er  'and, 
Fur  I'd  ha'  done  owt  for  the  Squire  an' 

'is  gells  es  belong'd  to  the  land ; 
Boooks,  es  I  said  afoor,  thebbe  neyther 

'ere  nor  theer ! 
But  I  sarved  'em  wi'  butter  an'  heggs  fur 

huppuds  o'  twenty  year. 

XVIII. 

An'  they  hallus  paaid  what  I  hax'd,  sa  I 

hallus  deal'd  wi'  the  Hall, 
An'  theyknaw'd  what  butter  wur,  an'  they 

knaw'd  what  a  hegg  wur  an'  all; 
Hugger-mugger    they    lived,    but    they 

wasn't  that  easy  to  please, 
Till   I  gied  'em  Hinjian  cum,  an'  they 

laaid  big  heggs  es  tha  seeas; 
An'  I   niver   puts  saame2  i'  my  butter, 

they  does  it  at  Willis's  farm, 
Taaste  another  drop  o'  the  wine  —  tweant 

do  tha  naw  harm. 

XIX. 

Sa  new  Squire's  coom'd  wi'  'is  taail  in  'is 
'and,  an'  owd  Squire's  gone; 

I  heard  'im  a  roomlin'  by,  but  arter  my 
nightcap  wur  on; 
1  Emigrate.  2  Lard. 


IN  THE    CHILDREN'S  HOSPITAL. 


S07 


Sa  I  han't  clapt  eyes  on  'im  yit,  fur  he 
coom'd  last  night  sa  laate  — 

Pluksh  !  !  ! L  the  hens  i'  the  peas !  why 
didn't  tha  hesp  the  gaate? 


IN  THE  CHILDREN'S 
HOSPITAL. 


Our  doctor  had  call'd  in  another,  I  never 

had  seen  him  before, 
But  he  sent  a  chill  to  my  heart  when  I 

saw  him  come  in  at  the  door, 
Fresh  from  the  surgery-schools  of  France 

and  of  other  lands  -4- 
Harsh  red  hair,  big  voice,  big  chest,  big 

merciless  hands ! 
Wonderful  cures  he  had  done,  O  yes,  but 

they  said  too  of  him 
He  was  happier  using  the  knife  than  in 

trying  to  save  the  limb, 
And  that  I  can  well  believe,  for  he  look'd 

so  coarse  and  so  red, 
I  could  think  he  was  one  of  those  who 

would  break  their  jests  on  the  dead, 
And  mangle  the  living  dog  that  had  loved 

him  and  fawn'd  at  his  knee  — 
Drench'd  with  the  hellish  oorali  —  that 

ever  such  things  should  be  ! 

11. 

Here  was  a  boy  —  I  am  sure  that  some  of 

our  children  would  die 
But  for  the  voice  of  Love,  and  the  smile, 

and  the  comforting  eye  — 
Here  was  a  boy  in  the  ward,  every  bone 

seem'd  out  of  its  place  — 
Caught  in  a  mill  and  crush'd  —  it  was  all 

but.a  hopeless  case : 
And  he  handled  him  gently  enough ;  but 

his  voice  and  his  face  were  not  kind, 
And  it  was  but  a  hopeless  case,  he  had 

seen  it  and  made  up  his  mind, 
And  he  said  to  me  roughly  '  The  lad  will 

need  little  more  of  your  care.' 
1  All  the  more  need,'  I  told  him,  '  to. seek 

the  Lord  Jesus  in  prayer; 

1 A  cry  accompanied  by  a  clapping  of  hands 
to  scare  trespassing  fowl. 


They  are  all  his  children  here,  and  I  pray 

for  them  all  as  my  own :  ' 
But  he  turn'd  to  me,  '  Ay,  good  woman, 

can  prayer  set  a  broken  bone? ' 
Then  he  mutter'd  half  to  himself,  but  I 

know  that  I  heard  him  say 
'  All  very  well  —  but  the  good  Lord  Jesus 

has  had  his  day.' 

in. 

Had?  has  it  come?     It  has  only  dawn'd. 

It  will  come  by  and  by. 
O  how  could  I  serve  in  the  wards  if  the 

hope  of  the  world  were  a  lie? 
How  could  I  bear  with  the  sights  and  the 

loathsome  smells  of  disease 
But  that  He  said  *  Ye  do  it  to  me,  when 

ye  do  it  to  these'? 


So  he  went.     And  we  past  to  this  ward 

where  the   younger  children  are 

laid: 
Here  is  the  cot  of  our  orphan,  our  dar- 
ling,, our  meek  little  maid ; 
Empty  you  see  just  now  !     We  have  lost 

her  who  loved  her  so  much  — 
Patient  of  pain  tho'  as  quick  as  a  sensi- 
tive plant  to  the  touch; 
Hers  was  the  prettiest  prattle,  it  often 

moved  me  to  tears, 
Hers  was  the  gratefullest   heart  I  have 

found  in  a  child  of  her  years  — 
Nay,  you  remember  our  Emmie ;  you  used 

to  send  her  the  flowers; 
How  she  would  smile  at  'em,  play  with 

'em,  talk  to  'em  hours  after  hours ! 
They  that  can  wander  at  will  where  the 

works  of  the  Lord  are  reveal'd 
Little  guess  what  joy  can  be  got  from  a 

cowslip  out  of  the  field; 
Flowers  to  these  *  spirits  in  prison '  are  all 

they  can  know  of  the  spring, 
They  freshen  and  sweeten  the  wards  like 

the  waft  of  an  Angel's  wing; 
And  she  lay  with  a  flower  in  one  hand  and 

her  thin  hands  crost  on  her  breast — 
Wan,  but  as  pretty  as  heart  can  desire, 

and  we  thought  her  at  rest, 
Quietly  sleeping  —  so    quiet,  our  doctor 

said  '  Poor  little  dear, 
Nurse,   I   must  do  it  to-morrow;   she'll 

never  live  thro'  it,  I  fear.' 


5o8 


DEDICATORY  POEM   TO    THE  PRINCESS  ALICE. 


I  walk'd  with  our  kindly  old  doctor  as 
far  as  the  head  of  the  stair, 

Then  I  return'd  to  the  ward;  the  child 
didn't  see  I  was  there. 


Never  since  I  was  nurse,  had  I  been  so 

grieved  and  so  vext ! 
Emmie  had  heard  him.     Softly  she  call'd 

from  her  cot  to  the  next, 
'  He  says  I  shall  never  live  thro'  it,  0 

Annie,  what  shall  I  do? ' 
Annie  consider'd.     '  If  I,'  said  the  wise 

little  Annie,  '  was  you, 
I  should  cry  to  the  dear  Lord  Jesus  to 

help  me,  for,  Emmie,  you  see, 
It's   all   in   the    picture    there :    "  Little 

children  should  come  to  me."  ' 
(Meaning  the  print  that  you  gave  us,  I 

find  that  it  always  can  please 
Our  children,  the  dear  Lord  Jesus  with 

children  about  his  knees.) 
'  Yes,  and  I  will,'  said  Emmie,  '  but  then 

if  I  call  to  the  Lord,*  • 
How  should  he  know  that  it's  me?  such 

a  lot  of  beds  in  the  ward  !  ' 
That  was  a  puzzle  for  Annie.    Again  she 

consider'd  and  said : 
1  Emmie,  you  put  out  your  arms,  and  you 

leave  'em  outside  on  the  bed  — 
The  Lord  has  so  much  to  see  to !  but, 

Emmie,  you  tell  it  him  plain, 
It's  the  little  girl  with  her  arms  lying  out 

on  the  counterpane.' 

VII. 

I  had  sat  three  nights  by  the  child  —  I 

could  not  watch  her  for  four  — 
My  brain   had    begun  to  reel  —  I  felt  I 

could  do  it  no  more. 
That  was  my  sleeping-night,  but  I  thought 

that  it  never  would  pass. 
There  was   a   thunderclap   once,  and   a 

clatter  of  hail  on  the  glass, 
And  there  was  a  phantom  cry  that  I  heard 

as  I  tost  about, 
The  motherless  bleat  of  a  lamb  in  the 

storm  and  the  darkness  without; 
My  sleep  was  broken  besides  with  dreams 

of  the  dreadful  knife 
And  fears  for  our  delicate   Emmie  who 

scarce  would  escape  with  her  life; 


Then  in  the  gray  of  the  morning  it  seem'd 
she  stood  by  me  and  smiled, 

And  the  doctor  came  at  his  hour,  and  we 
went  to  see  to  the  child. 


He  had   brought  his  ghastly   tools:  we 

believed  her  asleep  again  — 
Her  dear,  long,  lean,  little  arms  lying  out 

on  the  counterpane; 
Say  that  His  day  is  done  !  Ah  why  should 

we  care  what  they  say? 
The  Lord  of  the  children  had  heard  her, 

and  Emmie  had  past  away. 


DEDICATORY      POEM      TO     THE 
PRINCESS  ALICE. 

Dead   Princess,  living  Power,  if  that, 

which  lived 
True  life,  live  on  —  and  if  the  fatal  kiss, 
Born  of  true  life  and  love,  divorce  thee 

not 
From  earthly  love  and  life  —  if  what  we 

call 
The  spirit  flash  not  all  at  once  from  out 
This  shadow  into  Substance  —  then  per- 
haps 
The  mellow'd   murmur  of  the  people's 

praise 
From    thine    own    State,    and    all    our 

breadth  of  realm, 
Where  Love  and  Longing  dress  thy  deeds 

in  light, 
Ascends  to  thee;   and  this  March  morn 

that  sees 
Thy  Soldier-brother's  bridal  orange-bloom 
Break  thro'  the  yews  and  cypress  of  thy 

grave, 
And  thine  Imperial  mother  smile  again, 
May  send  one  ray  to  thee !  and  who  can 

tell  — 
Thou — England's  England-loving  daugh- 
ter—  thou 
Dying  so  English  thou  wouldst  have  her 

flag 
Borne  on  thy  coffin  —  where  is  he  can 

swear 
But  that  some  broken  gleam  from  our 

poor  earth 
May  touch  thee,  while  remembering  thee, 

Hay 


THE  DEFENCE    OF  LUCK  NOW. 


509 


At  thy  pale  feet  this  ballad  of  the  deeds 
Of    England,    and    her    banner    in    the 
East? 


THE  DEFENCE  OF   LUCKNOW. 


Banner  of  England,  not  for  a  season,  O 

banner  of  Britain,  hast  thou 
Floated  in  conquering  battle  or  flapt  to 

the  battle-cry ! 
Never  with  mightier  glory  than  when  we 

had  rear'd  thee  on  high 
Flying  at  top  of  the  roofs  in  the  ghastly 

siege  of  Lucknow  — 
Shot  thro'  the  staff  or  the  halyard,  but 

ever  we  raised  thee  anew, 
And   ever   upon   the   topmost   roof  our 

banner  of  England  blew. 

II. 

Frail  were  the  works  that  defended  the 

hold  that  we  held  with  our  lives  — 
Women  and  children  among  us,  God  help 

them,  our  children  and  wives ! 
Hold  it  we  might  —  and  for  fifteen  days 

or  for  twenty  at  most. 
'Never    surrender,    I    charge    you,   but 

every  man  die  at  his  post !  * 
Voice  of  the  dead  whom  we  loved,  our 

Lawrence  the  best  of  the  brave : 
Cold   were   his    brows   when   we   kiss'd 

him  —  we  laid  him  that  night  in 

his  grave. 
1  Every  man  die  at  his  post ! '  and  there 

hail'd  on  our  houses  and  halls 
Death  from  their  rifle-bullets,  and  death 

from  their  cannon-balls, 
Death   in   our  innermost   chamber,  and 

death  at  our  slight  barricade, 
Death  while  we  stood  with  the  musket, 

and  death  while  we  stoopt  to  the 

spade, 
Death  to  the  dying,  and  wounds  to  the 

wounded,  for  often  there  fell, 
Striking  the  hospital  wall,  crashing  thro' 

it,  their  shot  and  their  shell, 
Death  —  for  their  spies  were  among  us, 

their  marksmen  were  told  of  our 

best, 
So  that  the  brute  bullet  broke  thro'  the 
\       brain  that  could  think  for  the  rest; 


Bullets  would  sing  by  our  foreheads,  and 

bullets  would  rain  at  our  feet  — 
Fire  from  ten  thousand  at  once  of  the 

rebels  that  girdled  us  round  — 
Death  at  the  glimpse  of  a  finger  from 

over  the  breadth  of  a  street, 
Death  from  the  heights  of  the  mosque 

and  the  palace,  and  death  in  the 

ground ! 
Mine?     yes,    a    mine!       Countermine! 

down,  down !  and  creep  thro'  the 

hole! 
Keep  the  revolver  in  hand  !  you  can  hear 

him  —  the  murderous  mole  ! 
Quiet,  ah  !  quiet  —  wait  till  the  point  of 

the  pickaxe  be  thro' ! 
Click  with  the  pick,  coming  nearer  and 

nearer  again  than  before-  — 
Now  let  it  speak,  and  you  fire,  and  the 

dark  pioneer  is  no  more; 
And   ever   upon   the   topmost   roof  our 

banner  of  England  blew ! 

ill. 

Ay,  but  the  foe  sprung  his  mine  many 

times,  and  it  chanced  on  a  day 
Soon  as  the  blast  of  that  underground 

thunderclap  echo'd  away, 
Dark  thro'  the  smoke  and  the  sulphur 

like    so    many    fiends    in     their 

hell  — 
Cannon-shot,     musket-shot,     volley     on 

volley,  and  yell  upon  yell  — 
Fiercely  on  all  the  defences  our  myriad 

enemy  fell. 
What  have  they  done?  where  is  it?     Out 

yonder.     Guard  the  Redan ! 
Storm  at  the  Water-gate !  storm  at  the 

Bailey-gate  !  storm,  and  it  ran 
Surging   and    swaying   all   round  us,  as 

ocean  on  every  side 
Plunges  and   heaves  at  a  bank  that  is 

daily  devour'd  by  the  tide  — 
So  many  thousands  that  if  they  be  bold 

enough,  who  shall  escape? 
Kill  or  be  kill'd,  live  or  die,  they  shall 

know  we  are  soldiers  and  men ! 
Ready!    take    aim    at    their    leaders  — 

their  masses  are  gapp'd  with  our 

grape  — 
Backward  they  reel  like  the  wave,  like 

the  wave  flinging  forward  again, 


5"> 


THE  DEFENCE    OF  LUCK  NOW. 


Flying  and  foil'd  at  the  last  by  the  hand- 
ful they  could  not  subdue; 

And  ever  upon  the  topmost  roof  our 
banner  of  England  blew. 

IV. 

Handful  of  men  as  we  were,  we  were 

English  in  heart  and  in  limb, 
Strong  with  the  strength  of  the  race  to 

command,  to  obey,  to  endure, 
Each  of  us  fought  as  if  hope  for  the  gar- 
rison hung  but  on  him  ; 
Still  —  could  we  watch  at  all  points?  we 

were  every  day  fewer  and  fewer. 
There  was  a  whisper  among  us,  but  only 

a  whisper  that  past : 
'  Children  and  wives  —  if  the  tigers  leap 

into  the  fold  unawares  — 
Every  man  die  at  his  post  —  and  the  foe 

may  outlive  us  at  last  — 
Better  to  fall  by  the  hands  that  they  love, 

than  to  fall  into  theirs ! ' 
Roar  upon  roar  in  a  moment  two  mines 

by  the  enemy  sprung 
Clove  into  perilous  chasms  our  walls  and 

our  poor  palisades. 
Rifleman,  true  is  your  heart,  but  be  sure 

that  your  hand  be  as  true  ! 
Sharp  is  the  fire  of  assault,  better  aimed 

are  your  flank  fusillades  — 
Twice  do  we  hurl  them  to  earth  from  the 

ladders  to  which  they  had  clung, 
Twice  from  the  ditch  where  they  shelter 

we  drive  them  with  hand-grenades ; 
And   ever   upon   the   topmost   roof  our 

banner  of  England  blew. 


Then  on  another  wild  morning  another 
wild  earthquake  out-tore 

Clean  from  our  lines  of  defence  ten  or 
twelve  good  paces  or  more. 

Rifleman,  high  on  the  roof,  hidden  there 
from  the  light  of  the  sun  — 

One  has  leapt  up  on  the  breach,  crying 
out :  '  Follow  me,  follow  me  ! '  — 

Mark  him  —  he  falls  !  then  another,  and 
him  too,  and  down  goes  he. 

Had  they  been  bold  enough  then,  who 
can  tell  but  the  traitors  had  won? 

Boardings  and  rafters  and  doors  —  an  em- 
brasure !  make  way  for  the  gun  ! 


Now  double-charge  it  with  grape  !     It  is 

charged    and   we   fire,   and   they 

run. 
Praise  to  our  Indian  brothers,  and  let  the 

dark  face  have  his  due ! 
Thanks   to   the   kindly  dark  faces  who 

fought  with  us,  faithful  and  few, 
Fought  with  the  bravest  among  us,  and 

drove  them,  and  smote  them,  and 

slew, 
That   ever  upon   the  topmost   roof  our 

banner  in  India  blew. 


Men  will  forget  what  we  suffer  and  not 

what  we  do.     We  can  fight ! 
But  to  be  soldier  all  day  and  be  sentinel 

all  thro'  the  night  — 
Ever  the   mine   and  assault,  our  sallies, 

their  lying  alarms, 
Bugles  and  drums  in  the  darkness,  and 

shoutings  and  soundings  to  arms, 
Ever  the  labour  of  fifty  that  had  to  be 

done  by  five, 
Ever  the  marvel  among  us  that  one  should 

be  left  alive, 
Ever  the  day  with  its  traitorous  death 

from  the  loopholes  around, 
Ever  the  night  with  its  coffinless  corpse 

to  be  laid  in  the  ground, 
Heat  like  the  mouth  of  a  hell,  or  a  deluge 

of  cataract  skies, 
Stench  of  old  offal  decaying,  and  infinite 

torment  of  flies, 
Thoughts  of  the  breezes  of  May  blowing 

over  an  English  field, 
Cholera,  scurvy,  and   fever,  the  wound 

that  would  not  be  heal'd, 
Lopping  away  of  the  limb  by  the  pitiful- 
pitiless  knife,  — 
Torture  and  trouble  in  vain, — for  it  never 

could  save  us  a  life. 
Valour  of  delicate  women  who  tended  the 

hospital  bed, 
Horror  of  women  in  travail  among  the 

dying  and  dead, 
Grief    for   our   perishing   children,   and 

never  a  moment  for  grief, 
Toil   and    ineffable   weariness,   faltering 

hopes  of  relief, 
Havelock  baffled,  or  beaten,  or  butcher'd 

for  all  that  we  knew  — 


SIR  JOHN  OLDCASTLE,   LORD   COBHAM. 


5" 


Then  day  and  night,  day  and  night,  com- 
ing down  on  the  still-shatter'd 
walls 

Millions  of  musket-bullets,  and  thousands 
of  cannon-balls  — 

But  ever  upon  the  topmost  roof  our 
banner  of  England  blew. 


Hark  cannonade,  fusillade  !  is  it  true  what 

was  told  by  the  scout, 
Outram  and  Havelock  breaking  their  way 

through  the  fell  mutineers? 
Surely  the  pibroch  of  Europe  is  ringing 

again  in  our  ears  ! 
All  on  a  sudden  the  garrison  utter  a  jubi- 
lant shout, 
Havelock's  glorious  Highlanders  answer 

with  conquering  cheers, 
Sick  from  the  hospital  echo  them,  women 

and  children  come  out, 
Blessing   the  wholesome  white   faces  of 

Havelock's  good  fusileers, 
Kissing   the  war-harden'd   hand  of  the 

Highlander  wet  with  their  tears ! 
Dance  to  the  pibroch  !  —  saved  !  we  are 

saved  !  —  is  it  you?  is  it  you? 
Saved  by  the  valour  of  Havelock,  saved 

by  the  blessing  of  Heaven  ! 
'  Hold  it  for  fifteen  days  ! '  we  have  held 

it  for  eighty-seven ! 
And  ever  aloft  on  the  palace  roof  the  old 

banner  of  England  blew. 


SIR  JOHN  OLDCASTLE,   LORD 
COBHAM. 

(in  wales.) 

My  friend   should  meet  me  somewhere 

hereabout 
To  take  me  to  that  hiding  in  the  hills. 

I  have  broke  their  cage,  no  gilded  one, 

I  trow  — 
I  read  no  more  the  prisoner's  mute  wail 
Scribbled   or   carved    upon   the   pitiless 

stone; 
I  find  hard  rocks,  hard  life,  hard  cheer, 

or  none, 
For  I  am  emptier  than  a  friar's  brains; 
But  God  is  with  me  in  this  wilderness, 


These  wet  black  passes  and  foam-churn- 
ing chasms  — 

And  God  s  free  air,  and  hope  of  better 
things. 

I  would  I  knew  their  speech;   not  now 

to  glean, 
Not  now  —  I  hope  to  do  it  —  some  scat- 

ter'd  ears, 
Some  ears  for  Christ  in  this  wild  field  oi 

Wales  — 
But,    bread,    merely    for    bread.      This 

tongue  that  wagg'd 
They  said  with  such  heretical  arrogance 
Against  the  proud  archbishop  Arundel  — 
So  much  God's  cause  was  fluent  in  it  — 

is  here 
But  as  a  Latin  Bible  to  the  crowd; 
'Bara!' —  what   use?      The    Shepherd, 

when  I  speak, 
Veiling  a  sudden  eyelid  with  his  hard 
1  Dim   Saesneg '  passes,  wroth  at  things 

of  old  — 
No  fault  of  mine.     Had  he  God's  word 

in  Welsh 
He  might  be  kindlier :  happily  come  the 

day! 

Not  least  art  thou,  thou  little  Bethle- 
hem 
In  Judah,  for  in  thee  the  Lord  was  born; 
Nor  thou  in  Britain,  little  Lutterworth, 
Least,  for  in  thee   the  word  was   born 
again. 

Heaven-sweet     Evangel,     ever-living 

word, 
Who  whilome   spakest  to  the  South  in 

Greek 
About  the  soft  Mediterranean  shores, 
And  then  in  Latin  to  the  Latin  crowd, 
As  good  need  was  —  thou  hast  come  to 

talk  our  isle. 
Hereafter  thou,  fulfilling  Pentecost, 
Must  learn  to  use  the  tongues  of  all  the 

world. 
Yet  art  thou  thine  own  witness  that  thou 

bringest 
Not  peace,  a  sword,  a  fire. 

What  did  he  say, 
My    frighted    Wiclif-preacher  whom    I 

crost 
In  flying  hither?  that  one  night  a  crowd 


5i2 


S/J?  JOHN   OLD  CASTLE,   LORD    COB  HAM. 


Throng'd  the  waste  field  about  the  city 

gates : 
The  king  was  on  them  suddenly  with  a 

host. 
Why  there?    they    came   to   hear   their 

preacher.     Then 
Some    cried   on  Cobham,  on   the   good 

Lord  Cobham; 
Ay,  for  they  love  me !    but  the  king  — 

nor  voice 
Nor  finger  raised  against  him  —  took  and 

hang'd, 
Took,  hang'd  and  burnt  —  how  many  — 

thirty-nine  — 
Call'd  it  rebellion  —  hang'd,  poor  friends, 

as  rebels 
And  burn'd  alive  as  heretics!    for  your 

Priest 
Labels  —  to   take   the   king   along  with 

him  — 
All   heresy,    treason:    but   to   call   men 

traitors 
May  make  men  traitors. 

Rose  of  Lancaster, 
Red  in  thy  birth,  redder  with  household 

war, 
Now  reddest   with   the    blood    of  holy 

men, 
Redder  to  be,  red  rose  of  Lancaster  — 
If  somewhere  in  the  North,  as  Rumour 

sang 
Fluttering  the  hawks  of  this  crown-lust- 
ing line  — 
By  firth  and  loch  thy  silver  sister  grow,1 
That  were  my  rose,  there  my  allegiance 

due. 
Self-starved,   they  say  —  nay,   murder'd, 

doubtless  dead. 
So  to  this  king  I  cleaved :  my  friend  was 

he, 
Once  my  fast  friend :  I  would  have  given 

my  life 
To  help  his  own  from  scathe,  a  thousand 

lives 
To  save  his  soul.     He  might  have  come 

to  learn 
Our  WicliPs  learning:    but  the  worldly 

Priests 
Who  fear  the  king's  hard  common-sense 

should  find 
What  rotten  piles  uphold   their  mason- 
work, 

i  Richard  II. 


Urge   him    to   foreign  war.     O   had   he 

wilPd 
I  might  have  stricken  a  lusty  stroke  for 

him, 
But   he  would    not;    far   liever   led   my 

friend 
Back  to  the  pure  and  universal  church, 
But  he  would  not :  whether  that  heirless 

flaw 
In  his  throne's   title   make  him  feel  so 

frail, 
He  leans  on  Antichrist;  or  that  his  mind, 
So  quick,  so  capable  in  soldiership, 
In  matters  of  the  faith,  alas  the  while  ! 
More  worth   than  all  the  kingdoms  of 

this  world, 
Runs  in  the  rut,  a  coward  to  the  Priest. 

Burnt  —  good   Sir   Roger  Acton,   my 

dear  friend ! 
Burnt  too,  my  faithful  preacher,  Beverley  ! 
Lord   give  thou  power  to  thy  two  wit- 
nesses ! 
Lest  the   false   faith   make  merry  over 

them ! 
Two  —  nay,  but  thirty-nine  have  risen  and 

stand, 
Dark  with  the  smoke  of  human  sacrifice, 
Before  thy  light,  and  cry  continually  — 
Cry  —  against  whom  ? 

Him,  who  should  bear  the  sword 
Of  Justice  —  what !    the   kingly,   kindly 

boy; 
Who  took  the  world  so  easily  heretofore, 
My  boon  companion,  tavern-fellow — him 
Who  gibed  and  japed  —  in  many  a  merry 

tale 
That    shook   our   sides  —  at   Pardoners, 

Summoners, 
Friars,  absolution-sellers,  monkeries 
And  nunneries,  when  the  wild  hour  and 

the  wine 
Had  set  the  wits  aflame. 

Harry  of  Monmouth, 
Or  Amurath  of  the  East? 

Better  to  sink 
Thy  fleurs-de-lys  in  slime  again,  and  fling 
Thy  royalty  back  into  the  riotous  fits 
Of  wine  and  harlotry  —  thy  shame,  and 

mine, 
Thy   comrade  —  than   to   persecute   the 

Lord, 
And  play  the  Saul  that  never  will  be  Paul. 


SIR  JOHN  OLD  CASTLE,   LORD    COB  HAM. 


513 


Burnt,  burnt !    and  while  this  mitred 

Eh  !  how  I  anger'd  Arundel  asking  me 

Arundel 

To  worship  Holy  Cross !     I  spread  mine 

Dooms  our   unlicensed  preacher  to  the 

arms, 

flame, 

God's  work,  I  said,  a  cross  of  flesh  and 

The   mitre-sanction'd    harlot   draws   his 

blood 

clerks 

And   holier.      That   was   heresy.      (My 

Into  the  suburb  —  their  hard  celibacy, 

good  friend 

Sworn    to    be   veriest    ice    of  pureness, 

By    this    time    should     be    with     me.) 

molten 

'Images?' 

Into  adulterous  living,  or  such  crimes 

•  Bury  them  as  God's  truer  images 

As  holy   Paul  —  a  shame   to   speak   of 

Are  daily  buried.'    '  Heresy.  —  Penance  ? ' 

them  — 

i  Fast, 

Among  the  heathen  — 

Hairshirt  and  scourge  —  nay,  let  a  man 

Sanctuary  granted 

repent, 

To  bandit,  thief,  assassin  —  yea  to  him 

Do  penance  in  his  heart,  God  hears  him.' 

Who  hacks  his  mother's  throat  —  denied 

'  Heresy  — 

to  him, 

Not  shriven,  not  saved?  '     '  What  profits 

Who   finds   the   Saviour   in   his  mother 

an  ill  Priest 

tongue. 

Between  me  and  my  God?     I  would  not 

The  Gospel,  the  Priest's  pearl,  flung  down 

spurn 

to  swine  — 

Good  counsel  of  good  friends,  but  shrive 

The  swine,  lay-men,  lay-women,  who  will 

myself 

come, 

No,  not  to  an  Apostle.'     '  Heresy.' 

God  willing,  to  outlearn  the  filthy  friar. 

(My  friend  is  long   in  coming.)     '  Pil- 

Ah rather,  Lord,  than  that  thy  Gospel, 

grimages?' 

meant 

1  Drink,     bagpipes,     revelling,     devil's- 

To  course  and  range  thro'  all  the  world, 

dances,  vice. 

should  be 

The  poor  man's  money  gone  to  fat  the 

Tether'd   to   these   dead    pillars   of  the 

friar. 

Church  — 

Who  reads  of  begging  saints  in  Script- 

Rather than  so,  if  thou  wilt  have  it  so, 

ure  ?  —  1  Heresy '  — 

Burst  vein,  snap  sinew,  and  crack  heart, 

(Hath  he  been  here  —  not  found  me  — 

and  life 

gone  again? 

Pass  in  the  fire  of  Babylon!     But  how 

Have  I  mislearnt  our  place  of  meeting?) 

long, 

■  Bread  — 

0  Lord,  how  long ! 

Bread  left  after  the  blessing  ? '  how  they 

My  friend  should  meet  me  here. 

stared, 

Here  is  the  copse,  the  fountain  and — a 

That    was    their    main    test-question  — 

Cross ! 

glared  at  me ! 

To  thee,  dead  wood,  I  bow  not  head  nor 

'  He  veil'd  Himself  in  flesh,  and  now  He 

knees, 

veils 

Rather  to  thee,  green  boscage,  work  of 

His    flesh   in    bread,   body    and    bread 

God, 

together.' 

Black  holly,  and  white-flower'd  wayfar- 

Then rose  the  howl  of  all  the  cassock'd 

ing-tree. 

wolves, 

Rather    to    thee,    thou     living    water, 

'  No   bread,   no   bread.      God's   body ! ' 

drawn 

Archbishop,  Bishop, 

By  this  good  Wiclif  mountain  down  from 

Priors,      Canons,      Friars,      bellringers, 

heaven, 

Parish-clerks  — 

A,nd     speaking    clearly    in    thy    native 

'  No  bread,  no  bread  ! '  — '  Authority  of 

tongue  — 

the  Church, 

No  Latin  —  He  that  thirsteth,  come  and 

Power  of  the  keys ! '  — Then  I,  God  help 

drink ! 

me,  I 

2L 


514 


COLUMBUS. 


So  mock'd,  so   spurn'd,  so   baited   two 
whole  days  — 

I  lost  myself  and  fell  from  evenness, 

And  rail'd  at   all   the  Popes,  that  ever 
since 

Sylvester    shed    the    venom    of    world- 
wealth 

Into  the  church,  had  only  prov'n  them- 
selves 

Poisoners,  murderers.     Well  —  God  par- 
don all  — 

Me,  them,  and  all  the  world  —  yea,  that 
proud  Priest, 

That  mock-meek  mouth  of  utter  Anti- 
christ, 

That   traitor  to  King  Richard   and   the 
truth, 

Who  rose  and  doom'd  me  to  the  fire. 

Amen! 

Nay,  I  can  burn,  so  that  the  Lord  of  life 

Be  by  me  in  my  death. 

Those  three  !  the  fourth 

Was  like  the  Son  of  God !     Not  burnt 
were  they. 

On  them  the  smell  of  burning  had  not 
past. 

That  was  a  miracle  to  convert  the  king. 

These  Pharisees,  this  Caiaphas- Arundel 

What    miracle    could    turn?      He   here 
again, 

He  thwarting  their   traditions  of  Him- 
self, 

He  would  be  found  a  heretic  to  Himself, 

And  doom'd  to  burn  alive. 

So,  caught,  I  burn. 

Burn?  heathen  men  have  borne  as  much 
as  this, 

For  freedom,  or  the  sake  of  those  they 
loved, 

Or  some  less  cause,  some  cause  far  less 
than  mine; 

For    every    other    cause    is    less     than 
mine. 

The   moth   will    singe    her  wings,   and 
singed  return, 

Her  love  of  light  quenching  her  fear  of 
pain  — 

How  now,  my  soul,  we  do  not  heed  the 
fire? 

Faint-hearted  ?     tut !  —  faint-stomach'd  ! 
faint  as  I  am, 

God  willing,  I  will  burn  for  Him. 

Who  comes? 


A    thousand   marks   are    set     upon   mj 

head. 
Friend?  —  foe  perhaps  —  a   tussle  for  it 

then! 
Nay,  but  my  friend.     Thou  art  so  well 

disguised, 
I  knew  thee  not.     Hast   thou   brought 

bread  with  thee? 
I  have  not  broken  bread  for  fifty  hours. 
None?     I    am   damn'd    already   by   the 

Priest 
For  holding  there  was  bread  where  bread 

was  none  — 
No  bread.    My  friends  await  me  yonder? 

Yes. 
Lead  on  then.      Up  the  mountain?     Is 

it  far? 
Not  far.     Climb  first  and  reach  me  down 

thy  hand. 
I  am  not  like  to  die  for  lack  of  bread 
For  I  must  live  to  testify  by  fire.1 


COLUMBUS. 

Chains,  my  good  lord:  in  your  raised 

brows  I  read 
Some  wonder  at  our  chamber  ornaments. 
We  brought  this  iron  from  our  isles  of 

gold. 

Does  the  king  know  you  deign  to  visit 

him 
Whom  once  he  rose  from  off  his  throne 

to  greet 
Before  his  people,  like  his  brother  king? 
I  saw  your  face  that  morning  in  the  crowd. 

At  Barcelona  —  tho'  you  were  not  then 
So    bearded.      Yes.     The    city    deck'd 

herself 
To  meet  me,  roar'd  my  name;   the  king, 

the  queen 
Bade  me  be  seated,  speak,  and  tell  them 

all 
The  story  of  my  voyage,  and  while   I 

spoke 
The  crowd's  roar  fell  as  at  the  '  Peace, 

be  still ! ' 
And  when  I  ceased  to  speak,  the  king, 

the  queen, 

1  He  was  burnt  on  Chrittmas  Day,  14x7. 


COLUMBUS. 


5«5 


Sank  from  their  thrones,  and  melted  into 

tears, 
A.nd  knelt,  and  lifted  hand  and  heart  and 

voice 
In  praise  to  God  who  led  me  thro'  the 

waste. 
And  then  the  great  '  Laudamus  '  rose  to 

heaven. 

Chains  for  the  Admiral  of  the  Ocean ! 

chains 
-For  him  who  gave  a  new  heaven,  a  new 

earth, 
As  holy  John  had  prophesied  of  me, 
Gave  glory  and  more  empire  to  the  kings 
Of  Spain  than  all  their  battles!    chains 

for  him 
Who  push'd  his  prows  into  the  setting 

sun, 
And   made   West   East,    and   sail'd   the 

Dragon's  mouth, 
And   came    upon  the  Mountain  of  the 

World, 
And  saw  the  rivers  roll  from  Paradise ! 

Chains !  we  are  Admirals  of  the  Ocean, 

we, 
We  and  our  sons  for  ever.     Ferdinand 
Hath  sign'd  it  and  our  Holy  Catholic 

queen  — 
Of  the  Ocean  —  of  the  Indies  — Admirals 

we  — 
Our  title,  which  we  never  mean  to  yield, 
Our  guerdon  not  alone  for  what  we  did, 
But  our  amends  for  all  we  might  have 

done  — 
The  vast  occasion  of  our  stronger  life  — 
Eighteen  long  years  of  waste,  seven  in 

your  Spain, 
Lost,  showing  courts  and  kings  a  truth 

the  babe 
Will  suck  in  with  his  milk  hereafter  — 

earth 
A  sphere. 

Were  you  at  Salamanca?    No. 
JVe   fronted   there   the   learning   of   all 

Spain, 
All  their  cosmogonies,  their  astronomies : 
Guess-work  they  guess'd  it,  but  the  golden 

guess 
Is  morning-star  to  the  full  round  of  truth. 
No  guess-work !  I  was  certain  of  my  goal; 


Some  thought  it  heresy,  but  that  would 

not  hold. 
King  David  call'd  the  heavens  a  hide,  a 

tent 
Spread  over  earth,  and  so  this  earth  was 

flat: 
Some  cited  old  Lactantius :   could  it  be 
That    trees    grew   downward,   rain    fell 

upward,  men 
Walk'd  like  the  fly  on  ceilings?  and  be- 
sides, 
The   great   Augustine  wrote   that   none 

could  breathe 
Within  the  zone  of  heat;   so  might  there 

be 
Two   Adams,    two   mankinds,  and   that 

was  clean 
Against  God's  word :  thus  was  I  beaten 

back, 
And  chiefly  to  my  sorrow  by  the  Church, 
And  thought  to  turn  my  face  from  Spain, 

appeal 
Once  more  to  France  or  England;   but 

our  Queen 
Recall'd  me,  for  at  last  their  Highnesses 
Were  half-assured  this  earth  might  be  a 

sphere. 

All  glory  to  the  all-blessed  Trinity, 
All  glory  to  the  mother  of  our  Lord, 
And  Holy  Church,  from  whom  I  never 

swerved 
Not  even  by  one  hair's-breadth  of  heresy, 
I  have  accomplish'd  what  I  came  to  do. 

Not  yet  —  not  all  —  last  night  a  dream 

- 1  sail'd 
On  my  first  voyage,  harass'd  by  the  frights 
Of  my  first  crew,  their  curses  and  their 

groans. 
The  great  flame-banner  borne  by  Tene- 

riffe, 
The  compass,  like  an  old  friend  false  at 

last 
In  our  most  need,  appall'd  them,  and  the 

wind 
Still  westward,  and  the  weedy  seas  —  at 

length 
The  landbird,  and  the  branch  with  berries 

on  it, 
The  carven  staff  —  and  last  the  light,  the 

light 
On  Guanahani !  but  I  changed  the  name; 


5i6 


COLUMBUS. 


San  Salvador  I  call'd  it;  and  the  light 
Grew  as  I  gazed,  and  brought  out  a  broad 

sky 
Of  dawning  over  —  not  those  alien  palms, 
The    marvel    of    that    fair    new    nature 

—  not 

That  Indian  isle,  but  our  most  ancient 

East 
Moriah  with  Jerusalem;   and  I  saw 
The  glory  of  the  Lord  flash  up,  and  beat 
Thro'  all  the  homely  town  from  jasper, 

sapphire, 
Chalcedony,  emerald,  sardonyx,  sardius, 
Chrysolite,  beryl,  topaz,  chrysoprase, 
Jacynth,  and  amethyst  —  and  those  twelve 

gates, 
Pearl — and  I  woke,  and  thought — death 

—  I  shall  die  — 

I  am  written  in  the  Lamb's  own  Book  of 

Life 
To  walk  within  the  glory  of  the  Lord 
Sunless  and  moonless,  utter  light — but 

no  ! 
The  Lord  had  sent  this  bright,  strange 

dream  to  me 
To  mind  me  of  the  secret  vow  I  made 
When  Spain  was  waging  war  against  the 

Moor  — 
I  strove   myself  with  Spain  against  the 

Moor. 
There  came  two  voices  from  the  Sepul- 
chre, 
Two  friars  crying  that  if  Spain  should 

oust 
The  Moslem  from  her  limit,  he,  the  fierce 
Soldan  of  Egypt,  would  break  down  and 

raze 
The  blessed  tomb  of  Christ;  whereon  I 

vow'd 
That,   if    our    Princes  harken'd   to   my 

prayer, 
Whatever  wealth  I  brought  from  that  new 

world 
Should,  in  this  old,  be  consecrate  to  lead 
A  new  crusade  against  the  Saracen, 
And  free  the  Holy  Sepulchre  from  thrall. 

Gold?     I  had   brought   your    Princes 

gold  enough 
If  left  alone  !     Being  but  a  Genovese, 
I  am  handled  worse  than  had  I  been  a 

Moor, 
And  breach'd  the  belting  wall  of  Cambalu, 


And  given  the  Great  Khan's  palaces  to 

the  Moor, 
Or  clutch'd  the  sacred  crown  of  Prestet 

John, 
And  cast  it   to    the    Moor:    but  had  I 

brought 
From  Solomon's  now-recover'd  Ophir  all 
The  gold  that  Solomon's  navies  carried 

home, 
Would  that  have  gilded  me?    Blue  blood 

of  Spain, 
Tho'  quartering  your  own  royal  arms  of 

Spain, 
I  have  not:  blue  blood  and  black  blood 

of  Spain, 
The  noble  and  the  convict  of  Castile, 
Howl'd   me   from   Hispaniola;    for  you 

know 
The  flies  at  home,  that  ever  swarm  about 
And  cloud  the  highest  heads,  and  mur- 
mur down 
Truth  in  the  distance  —  these  outbuzz'd 

me  so 
That  even  our  prudent  king,  our  right- 
eous queen  — 
I  pray'd  them  being  so  calumniated 
They  would  commission  one  of  weight 

and  worth 
To  judge  between  my  slander'd  self  and 

me  — 
Fonseca  my  main  enemy  at  their  court, 
They  sent  me  out  his  tool,  Bovadilla,  one 
As  ignorant  and  impolitic  as  a  beast  — 
Blockish  irreverence,  brainless  greed  — 

who  sack'd 
My   dwelling,   seized   upon  my  papers, 

loosed 
My  captives,  fed  the  rebels  of  the  crown, 
Sold  the  crown-farms  for  all  but  nothing, 

gave 
All  but   free  leave  for  all  to  work  the 

mines, 
Drove  me  and  my  good  brothers  home 

in  chains, 
And  gathering  ruthless  gold — a  single 

piece 
Weigh'd  nigh  four  thousand  Castillanos 

—  so 
They  tell  me  —  weigh'd  him  down  into 

the  abysm  — 
The  hurricane  of  the  latitude  on  him  fell, 
The  seas  of  our  discovering  over-roll 
Him  and  his  gold;   the  frailer  caravel, 


COLUMBUS. 


517 


With  what  was  mine,  came  happily  to 

the  shore. 
There  was  a  glimmering  of  God's  hand. 

And  God 

Hath  more  than  glimmer'd  on  me.  O 
my  lord, 

I  swear  to  you  I  heard  his  voice  between 

The  thunders  in  the  black  Veragua  nights, 

'  O  soul  of  little  faith,  slow  to  believe  ! 

Have  I  not  been  about  thee  from  thy 
birth? 

Given  thee  the  keys  of  the  great  Ocean- 
sea? 

Set  thee  in  light  till  time  shall  be  no 
more? 

Is  it  I  who  have  deceived  thee  or  the 
world  ? 

Endure  !  thou  hast  done  so  well  for  men, 
that  men     . 

Cry  out  against  thee :  was  it  otherwise 

With  mine  own  Son?  ' 

And  more  than  once  in  days 
Of  doubt   and   cloud    and  storm,  when 

drowning  hope 
Sank  all  but  out  of  sight,  I  heard  his 

voice, 
'  Be  not  cast  down.     I  lead  thee  by  the 

hand, 
Fear  not.'      And  I  shall  hear  his  voice 

again  — 
I  know  that  he  has  led  me  all  my  life, 
I  am  not  yet  too  old  to  work  his  will  — 
His  voice  again. 

Still  for  all  that,  my  lord, 
I  lying  here  bedridden  and  alone, 
Cast  off,  put   by,  scouted  by  court  and 

king  — 
The  first  discoverer  starves  —  his  follow- 
ers, all 
Flower  into  fortune —  our  world's  way  — 

and  I,  v 
Without  a  roof  that  I  can  call  mine  own, 
With  scarce  a  coin  to  buy  a  meal  withal, 
And  seeing  what  a  door  for  scoundrel  scum 
I  open'd  to  the  West,  thro'  which  the  lust, 
Villany,  violence,  avarice,  of  your  Spain 
Pour'd  in  on  all  those  happy  naked  isles  — 
Their  kindly  native  princes  slain  or  slaved, 
Their  wives  and  children  Spanish  concu- 
bines, 


Their  innocent  hospitalities  quench'd  in 

blood, 
Some  dead  of  hunger,  some  beneath  the 

scourge, 
Some  over-labour'd,  some  by  their  own 

hands,  — 
Yea,  the  dear  mothers,  crazing  Nature, 

kill 
Their  babies  at  the   breast   for  hate  of 

Spain  — 
Ah  God,  the  harmless  people  whom  we 

found 
In  Hispaniola's  island-Paradise ! 
Who   took   us   for   the  very  Gods  from 

Heaven, 
And  we  have  sent  them  very  fiends  from 

Hell; 
And  I  myself,  myself  not  blameless,  I 
Could  sometimes  wish  I  had  never  led 

the  way. 

Only  the  ghost  of  our  great  Catholic 
Queen 

Smiles  on  me,  saying,  f  Be  thou  com- 
forted ! 

This  creedless  people  will  be  brought  to 
Christ 

And  own  the  holy  governance  of  Rome.' 

But  who  could  dream  that  we,  who  bore 

the  Cross 
Thither,  were  excommunicated  there, 
For  curbing  crimes  that  scandalised  the 

Cross, 
By  him,  the  Catalonian  Minorite, 
Rome's  Vicar  in  our  Indies?  who  believe 
These   hard   memorials   of  our  truth  to 

Spain 
Clung  closer  to  us  for  a  longer  term 
Than  any  friend  of  ours  at  Court?  and  yet 
Pardon —  too  harsh,  unjust.    I  am  rack'd 

with  pains. 

You  see  that  I  have  hung  them  by  my 
bed, 
And  I  will  have  them  buried  in  my  grave. 

Sir,  in  that  flight  of  ages  which  are 
God's 

Own  voice  to  justify  the  dead  —  per- 
chance 

Spain  once  the  most  chivalric  race  on 
earth, 


5i8 


THE    VOYAGE    OF  MAELDUNE. 


Spain  then  the  mightiest,  wealthiest  realm 

on  earth, 
So  made  by  me,  may  seek  to  unbury  me, 
To  lay  me  in  some   shrine    of  this   old 

Spain, 
Or  in  that  vaster  Spain  I  leave  to  Spain. 
Then  some  one  standing  by  my  grave  will 

say, 
1  Behold     the     bones     of     Christopher 

Colon '  — 
'  Ay,  but  the  chains,  what  do  they  mean 

—  the  chains  ?  '  — 
I  sorrow  for  that  kindly  child  of  Spain 
Who  then  will  have  to  answer,  'These 

same  chains 
Bound  these  same  bones  back  thro'  the 

Atlantic  sea, 
Which  he  unchain'd  for  all  the  world  to 

come.' 

O  Queen  of  Heaven  who  seest  the  souls 

in  Hell 
And  purgatory,  I  suffer  all  as  much 
As  they  do  —  for  the  moment.    Stay,  my 

son 
Is  here  anon :  my  son  will  speak  for  me 
Ablier  than  I  can  in  these  spasms  that 

grind 
Bone  against  bone.     You  will  not.     One 

last  word. 

You  move  about  the  Court,  I  pray  you 

tell 
King  Ferdinand,  who  plays  with  me,  that 

one 
Whose  life  has  been  no  play  with  him  and 

his 
Hidalgos  —  shipwrecks,  famines,  fevers, 

fights, 
Mutinies,    treacheries — wink'd   at,    and 

condoned  — 
That  I  am  loyal  to  him  till  the  death, 
And    ready  —  tho'    our    Holy    Catholic 

Queen, 
Who  fain  had  pledged  her  jewels  on  my 

first  voyage, 
Whose   hope    was   mine    to   spread  the 

Catholic  faith, 
Who  wept  with  me  when  I  return'd  in 

chains, 
Who  sits  beside  the  blessed  Virgin  now, 
To  whom  I  send  my  prayer  by  night  and 

day  — 


She  is  gone  —  but  you  will  tell  the  King, 

that  I, 
Rack'd  as  I  am  with  gout,  and  wrench'd 

with  pains 
Gain'd  in  the  service  of  His  Highness,  yet 
Am  ready  to  sail  forth  on  one  last  voyage, 
And  readier,  if  the  King  would  hear,  to 

lead 
One  last  crusade  against  the  Saracen, 
And    save    the    Holy    Sepulchre    from 

thrall. 

Going?     I  am  old  and  slighted  :  you 

have  dared 
Somewhat  perhaps  in  coming?  my  poor 

thanks ! 
I  am  but  an  alien  and  a  Genovese. 


THE  VOYAGE  OF  MAELDUNE. 

(FOUNDED   ON   AN    IRISH    LEGEND. 
A.D.    7OO.) 

I. 

I  WAS  the  chief  of  the  race  —  he  had 

stricken  my  father  dead  — 
But    I    gather'd  my  fellows  together,  I 

swore  I  would  strike  off  his  head. 
Each  of  them  look'd  like  a  king,  and  was 

noble  in  birth  as  in  worth, 
And  each  of  them  boasted  he  sprang  from 

the  oldest  race  upon  earth. 
Each  was  as  brave   in  the  fight  as  the 

bravest  hero  of  song, 
And  each  of  them  liefer  had  died  than 

have  done  one  another  a  wrong. 
He  lived  on  an  isle  in  the  ocean  —  we 

sail'd  on  a  Friday  morn  — 
He   that   had   slain    my  father   the  day 

before  I  was  born. 


And  we  came  to  the  isle  in  the  ocean, 
and  there  on  the  shore  was  he. 

But  a  sudden  blast  blew  us  out  and  away 
thro'  a  boundless  sea. 


And  we  came  to  the  Silent  Isle  that  we 
never  had  touch'd  at  before, 

Where  a  silent  ocean  always  broke  on  a 
silent  shore, 


THE    VOYAGE    OF  MAELDUNE. 


5*9 


And  the  brooks  glitter'd  on  in  the  light 

without  sound,  and  the  long  water- 
falls 
Pour'd  in  a  thunderless  plunge  to  the  base 

of  the  mountain  walls, 
And  the  poplar  and  cypress  unshaken  by 

storm  flourish'd  up  beyond  sight, 
And  the  pine  shot  aloft  from  the  crag  to 

an  unbelievable  height, 
And  high  in  the  heaven  above  it   there 

flicker'd  a  songless  lark, 
And  the  cock  couldn't  crow,  and  the  bull 

couldn't  low,  and  the  dog  couldn't 

bark. 
And  round  it  we  went,  and  thro'  it,  but 

never  a  murmur,  a  breath  — 
It  was  all  of  it  fair  as  life,  it  was  all  of  it 

quiet  as  death, 
And   we   hated    the   beautiful   Isle,   for 

whenever  we  strove  to  speak 
Our  voices  were  thinner  and  fainter  than 

any  flittermouse-shriek; 
And  the  men  that  were  mighty  of  tongue 

and  could  raise  such  a  battle-cry 
That  a  hundred  who  heard  it  would  rush 

on  a  thousand  lances  and  die  — 
O  they  to  be  dumb'd  by  the  charm  !  — so 

fluster'd  with  anger  were  they 
They  almost  fell  on  each  other;   but  after 

we  sail'd  away. 


And  we  came  to  the  Isle  of  Shouting,  we 

landed,  a  score  of  wild  birds 
Cried   from    the    topmost    summit   with 

human  voices  and  words; 
Once  in  an  hour  they  cried,  and  whenever 

their  voices  peal'd 
The  steer  fell  down  at  the  plow  and  the 

harvest  died  from  the  field, 
And  the  men  dropt  dead  in  the  valleys 

and  half  of  the  cattle  went  lame, 
And  the  roof  sank  in  on  the  hearth,  and 

the  dwelling  broke  into  flame; 
And  the  shouting  of  these  wild  birds  ran 

into  the  hearts  of  my  crew, 
Till  they  shouted  along  with  the  shouting 

and  seized  one  another  and  slew; 
But  I  drew  them  the  one  from  the  other; 

I  saw  that  we  could  not  stay, 
And  we  left  the  dead  to  the  birds  and  we 

sail'd  with  our  wounded  away. 


And  we  came  to  the   Isle   of  Flowers: 

their  breath  met  us  out  on  the  seas, 
For  the  Spring  and  the  middle  Summer 

sat  each  on  the  lap  of  the  breeze; 
And  the  red  passion-flower  to  the  cliffs, 

and  the  dark-blue  clematis,  clung, 
And  starr'd  with  a  myriad  blossom  the 

long  convolvulus  hung; 
And  the  topmost  spire  of  the  mountain 

was  lilies  in  lieu  of  snow, 
And  the  lilies  like  glaciers  winded  down, 

running  out  below 
Thro'  the  fire  of  the  tulip  and  poppy,  the 

blaze  of  gorse,  and  the  blush 
Of  millions  of  roses  that  sprang  without 

leaf  or  a  thorn  from  the  bush; 
And  the  whole   isle-side  flashing   down 

from  the  peak  without  ever  a  tree 
Swept  like  a  torrent  of  gems  from  the  sky 

to  the  blue  of  the  sea; 
And  we  roll'd  upon  capes  of  crocus  and 

vaunted  our  kith  and  our  kin, 
And  we  wallow'd  in  beds  of  lilies,  and 

chanted  the  triumph  of  Finn, 
Till  each  like  a  golden  image  was  pollen'd 

from  head  to  feet 
And  each  was  as  dry  as  a  cricket,  with 

thirst  in  the  middle-day  heat. 
Blossom  and   blossom,  and   promise    of 

blossom,  but  never  a  fruit ! 
And  we  hated  the  Flowering  Isle,  as  we 

hated  the  isle  that  was  mute, 
And  we  tore  up  the  flowers  by  the  million 

and  flung  them  in  bight  and  bay, 
And  we  left  but  a  naked  rock,  and  in 

anger  we  sail'd  away. 


And  we  came  to  the  Isle  of  Fruits :  all 

round  from  the  cliffs  and  the  capes, 
Purple   or   amber,    dangled    a    hundred 

fathom  of  grapes, 
And  the  warm  melon  lay  like  a  little  sun 

on  the  tawny  sand, 
And  the  fig  ran  up  from  the  beach  and 

rioted  over  the  land, 
And  the  mountain  arose  like  a  jewell'd 

throne  thro'  the  fragrant  air, 
Glowing  with  all-colour'd  plums  and  with 

golden  masses  of  pear, 


520 


THE    VOYAGE    OF  MAELDUNE. 


And  the  crimson  and  scarlet  of  berries 

that  flamed  upon  bine  and  vine, 
But   in   every  berry  and   fruit  was   the 

poisonous  pleasure  of  wine; 
And  the  peak  of  the  mountain  was  apples, 

the  hugest  that  ever  were  seen, 
And  they  prest,  as  they  grew,  on  each 

other,  with  hardly  a  leaflet  between, 
And   all   of    them   redder   than    rosiest 

health  or  than  utterest  shame, 
And  setting,  when  Even  descended,  the 

very  sunset  aflame; 
And  we  stay'd  three  days,  and  we  gorged 

and  we  madden'd,  till  every  one 

drew 
His  sword  on  his  fellow  to  slay  him,  and 

ever  they  struck  and  they  slew; 
And  myself,  I  had  eaten  but  sparely,  and 

fought  till  I  sunder'd  the  fray, 
Then  I  bade  them  remember  my  father's 

death,  and  we  sail'd  away. 

VII. 

And  we  came  to  the  Isle  of  Fire :  we  were 

lured  by  the  light  from  afar, 
For  the  peak  sent  up  one  league  of  fire 

to  the  Northern  Star; 
Lured  by  the  glare  and  the  blare,  but 

scarcely  could  stand  upright, 
For  the  whole  isle  shudder'd  and  shook 

like  a  man  in  a  mortal  affright; 
We  were  giddy  besides  with  the  fruits  we 

had  gorged,  and  so  crazed  that  at 

last 
There  were  some   leap'd  into  the   fire; 

and  away  we  sail'd,  and  we  past 
Over  that  undersea  isle,  where  the  water 

is  clearer  than  air : 
Down  we  look'd :    what  a  garden !     O 

bliss,  what  a  Paradise  there  ! 
Towers  of  a  happier  time,  low  down  in  a 

rainbow  deep 
Silent  palaces,  quiet  fields  of  eternal  sleep  ! 
And  three  of  the  gentlest  and  best  of  my 

people,  whate'er  I  could  say, 
Plunged  head  down  in  the  sea,  and  the 

Paradise  trembled  away. 

VIII. 

And  we  came  to  the  Bounteous  Isle,  where 
the  heavens  lean  low  on  the  land, 

And  ever  at  dawn  from  the  cloud  glitter'd 
o'er  us  a  sunbright  hand, 


Then  it  open'd  and  dropt  at  the  side  oi 

each  man,  as  he  rose  from  his  rest, 
Bread  enough  for  his  need  till  the  labour- 
less  day  dipt  under  the  West; 
And  we  wander'd  about  it  and  thro'  it. 

O  never  was  time  so  good  ! 
And  we  sang  of  the  triumphs  of  Finn, 

and  the  boast  of  our  ancient  blood, 
And  we  gazed  at  the  wandering  wave  as 

we  sat  by  the  gurgle  of  springs, 
And  we  chanted  the  songs  of  the  Bards 

and  the  glories  of  fairy  kings; 
But  at  length  we  began  to  be  weary,  to 

sigh,  and  to  stretch  and  yawn, 
Till  we  hated  the  Bounteous  Isle  and  the 

sunbright  hand  of  the  dawn, 
For  there  was  not  an  enemy  near,  but  the 

whole  green  Isle  was  our  own, 
And  we  took  to  playing  at  ball,  and  we 

took  to  throwing  the  stone, 
And  we  took  to  playing  at   battle,  but 

that  was  a  perilous  play, 
For  the  passion  of  battle  was  in  us,  we 

slew  and  we  sail'd  away. 

IX. 

And  we  past  to  the  Isle  of  Witches  and 

heard  their  musical  cry  — 
1  Come    to   us,  O   come,    come '   in   the 

stormy  red  of  a  sky 
Dashing  the  fires  and   the   shadows   of 

dawn  on  the  beautiful  shapes, 
For  a  wild  witch  naked  as  heaven  stood 

on  each  of  the  loftiest  capes, 
And  a  hundred  ranged  on  the  rock  like 

white  sea-birds  in  a  row, 
And  a  hundred  gamboll'd  and  pranced 

on  the  wrecks  in  the  sand  below, 
And  a  hundred  splash'd  from  the  ledges, 

and  bosom'd  the  burst  of  the  spray, 
But  I  knew  we  should  fall  on  each  other, 

and  hastily  sail'd  away. 


And  we  came  in  an  evil  time  to  the  Isle 

of  the  Double  Towers, 
One  was  of  smooth-cut  stone,  one  carved 

all  over  with  flowers, 
But  an  earthquake  always  moved  in  the 

hollows  under  the  dells, 
And   they  shock'd   on   each    other   and 

butted  each  other  with    clashing 

of  bells, 


DE  PROFUNDIS. 


521 


And  the  daws  flew  out  of  the  Towers  and 

jangled  and  wrangled  in  vain, 
And  the  clash  and  boom  of  the  bells  rang 

into  the  heart  and  the  brain, 
Till  the  pas^ii  of  battle  was  on  us,  and 

all  took  sides  with  the  Towers, 
There  were  some  for  the  clean-cut  stone, 

th^e  v.cie  more   for   the  carven 

flowers, 
And  Ce  wrathful  thunder  of  God  peal'd 

over  us  all  the  day, 
For  the  one  half  slew  the  other,  and  after 

we  sail'd  away. 


And  we  came  to  the  Isle  of  a  Saint  who 

had   sail'd  with    St.    Brendan   of 

yore, 
He  had  lived  ever  since  on  the  Isle  and 

his  winters  were  fifteen  score, 
And   his  voice  was  low  as   from   other 

worlds,  and  his  eyes  were  sweet, 
And  his  white  hair  sank  to  his  heels  and 

his  white  beard  fell  to  his  feet, 
And  he  spake  to  me,  '  O  Maeldune,  let 

be  this  purpose  of  thine ! 
Remember  the  words  of  the  Lord  when 

he  told  us  "  Vengeance  is  mine  !  " 
His  fathers  have  slain  thy  fathers  in  war 

or  in  single  strife, 
Thy  fathers  have  slain  his  fathers,  each 

taken  a  life  for  a  life, 
Thy  father  had  slain  his  father,  how  long 

shall  the  murder  last? 
Go  back  to  the  Isle  of  Finn  and  suffer 

the  Past  to  be  Past.' 
And  we  kiss'd  the  fringe  of  his  beard  and 

we  pray'd  as  we  heard  him  pray, 
And  the  Holy  man  he  assoil'd  us,  and 

sadly  we  sail'd  away. 


Xii. 


And  we  came  to  *he  Isle  we  were  blown 

from,  and  there  on  the  shore  was 

he, 
The  man  that   had  slain  my  father.     I 

saw  him  and  let  him  be. 
O  weary  was  I  of  the  travel,  the  trouble, 

the  strife  and  the  sin, 
When  I  landed  again,  with  a  tithe  of  my 

men,  on  the  Isle  of  Finn. 


DE  PROFUNDIS 


THE  TWO    GREETINGS. 


Out  of  the  deep,  my  child,  out  of  the 

deep, 
Where  all  that  was  *.*  be,  in  all  that  was, 
Whirl'd  for  a  million  aeons  thro'  the  vast 
Waste    dawn    of   multitudinous-eddying 

light  — 
Out  of  the  deep,  my  child,  out  of  the 

deep, 
Thro'  all  this  changing  world  of  change- 
less law, 
And  every  phase  of  ever-heightening  life, 
And  nine  long  months  of  antenatal  gloom, 
With  this  last  moon,  this  crescent — her 

dark  orb 
Touch'd  with  earth's  light  —  thou  comest, 

darling  boy; 
Our  own;   a  babe  in  lineament  and  limb 
Perfect,  and  prophet  of  the  perfect  man; 
Whose  face  and  form  are  hers  and  mine 

in  one, 
Indissolubly  married  like  our  love; 
Live,  and  be  happy  in  thyself,  and  serve 
This  mortal  race  thy  kin  so  well,  that  men 
May  bless  thee  as  we  bless  thee,  O  young 

life 
Breaking  with  laughter  from  the  dark; 

and  may 
The  fated  channel  where  thy  motion  lives 
Be   prosperously  shaped,  and   sway  thy 

course 
Along  the  years  of  haste   and   random 

youth 
Unshatter'd;   then  full-current  thro'  full 

man; 
And  last  in  kindly  curves,  with  gentlest 

fall, 
By  quiet  fields,  a  slowly-dying  power, 
To  that  last  deep  where  we  and  thou  are 

still.     • 

II. 

I. 

Out  of  the-  deep,  my  child,  out  of  the 

deep, 
From  that  great  deep,  before  our  world 

begins, 


522      PREFATORY  SONNET— TO    THE  REV.   W.  H.  BROOKFIELD. 


Whereon  the  Spirit  of  God  moves  as  he 

will  — 
Out  of  the  deep,  my  child,  out  of  the 

deep, 
From  that  true  world  within  the  world 

we  see, 
Whereof  our  world  is  but  the  bounding 

shore  — 
Out    of   the    deep,    Spirit,    out    of   the 

deep, 
With   this  ninth  moon,  that   sends   the 

hidden  sun 
Down  yon  dark  sea,  thou  comest,  darling 

boy. 

II. 

For  in  the  world,  which  is  not  ours,  They 

said 
•  Let   us   make   man '    and    that   which 

should  be  man, 
From  that  one  light  no  man  can   look 

upon, 
Drew  to  this  shore  lit  by  the  suns  and 

moons 
And   all   the   shadows.      O   dear   Spirit 

half-lost 
In  thine   own  shadow  and   this   fleshly 

sign 
That  thou  art  thou  —  who  wailest  being 

born 
And  banish'd  into  mystery,  and  the  pain 
Of  this  divisible-indivisible  world 
Among  the  numerable-innumerable 
Sun,  sun,    and   sun,   thro'   finite-infinite 

space 
In  finite-infinite  Time  —  our  mortal  veil 
And  shatter'd  phantom  of  that  infinite 

One, 
Who  made  thee  unconceivably  Thyself 
Out  of  His  whole  World-self  and  all  in 

all  — 
Live  thou !  and  of  the  grain  and  husk, 

the  grape 
And  ivyberry,  choose;   and  still  depart 
From  death  to  death  thro'  life  and  life, 

and  find 
Nearer     and     ever    nearer    Him,  who 

wrought 
Not  Matter,  nor  the  finite-infinite, 
But    this    main-miracle,    that    thou    art 

thou, 
With  power  on  thine  own  act  and  on  the 

world. 


THE   HUMAN    CRY. 


Hallowed  be  Thy  name — Halleluiah  ! — 

Infinite  Ideality ! 

Immeasurable  Reality ! 

Infinite  Personality ! 
Hallowed  be  Thy  name  —  Halleluiah  ! 


We  feel  we  are  nothing  —  for  all  is  Thou 

and  in  Thee; 
We  feel  we  are  something  —  that  also  has 

come  from  Thee; 
We   know  we  are  nothing  —  but  Thou 

wilt  help  us  to  be. 
Hallowed  be  Thy  name  —  Halleluiah  ! 

PREFATORY  SONNET 

TO  THE  '  NINETEENTH   CENTURY.' 

Those  that  of  late  had  fleeted  far  and 

fast 
To  touch  all  shores,  now  leaving  to  the 

skill 
Of  others  their  old  craft  seaworthy  still, 
Have  charter'd  this;   where,  mindful  of 

the  past, 
Our  true  co-mates   regather   round  the 

mast; 
Of  diverse  tongue,  but  with  a  common  will 
Here,  in  this  roaring  moon  of  daffodil 
And  crocus,  to  put  forth  and  brave  the 

blast; 
For  some,  descending  from  the  sacred 

peak 
Of  hoar  high-templed  Faith,  have  leagued 

again 
Their  lot  with  ours  to  rove  the  world 

about ; 
And  some  are  wilder  comrades,  sworn  to 

seek 
If  any  golden  harbour  be  for  men 
In  seas  of  Death  and  sunless  gulfs  of 

Doubt. 

TO  THE  REV.  W.  H.  BROOKFIELD. 

Brooks,  for  they  call'd  you  so  that  knew 

you  best, 
Old  Brooks,  who  loved  so  well  to  moi'th 

my  rhymes, 


MONTENEGRO  —  BATTLE    OF  BRUNANBURH. 


523 


How  oft  we  two  have  heard  St.  Mary's 

chimes ! 
How  oft  the  Cantab  supper,  host  and 

guest, 
Would  echo  helpless  laughter  to  your  jest ! 
How  oft  with  him  we  paced  that  walk  of 

limes, 
Him,  the  lost  light  of  those  dawn-golden 

times, 
Who  loved  you  well !  Now  both  are  gone 

to  rest. 
You  man  of  humorous-melancholy  mark, 
Dead  of  some  inward  agony —  is  it  so? 
Our  kindlier,  trustier  Jaques,  past  away ! 
I  cannot  laud  this  life,  it  looks  so  dark  : 
S/ctas  6vap —  dream  of  a  shadow,  go  — 
God  bless  you.     I  shall  join  you  in  a  day. 

MONTENEGRO. 

They  rose  to  where  their  sovran  eagle  sails, 
They  kept  their  faith,  their  freedom,  on 

the  height, 
Chaste,  frugal,  savage,  arm'd  by  day  and 

night 
Against  the  Turk;  whose  inroad  nowhere 

scales 
Their  headlong  passes,  but  his  footstep 

fails, 
And  red  with   blood  the  Crescent  reels 

from  fight 
Before  their  dauntless  hundreds,  in  prone 

flight 
By  thousands  down  the  crags  and  thro' 

the  vales. 
O  smallest  among  peoples !  rough  rock- 
throne 


Of  Freedom !  warriors  beating  back  the 
swarm 

Of  Turkish  Islam  for  five  hundred  years, 

Great  Tsernogora !  never  since  thine 
own 

Black  ridges  drew  the  cloud  and  brake 
the  storm 

Has  breathed  a  race  of  mightier  moun- 
taineers. 


TO  VICTOR   HUGO. 

Victor  in  Drama,  Victor  in  Romance, 
Cloud-weaver  of  phantasmal  hopes  and 

fears, 
French  of  the  French,  and  Lord  of  hu- 
man tears; 
Child-lover;   Bard  whose  fame-lit  laurels 

glance 
Darkening  the  wreaths  of  all  that  would 

advance, 
Beyond  our  strait,  their  claim  to  be  thy 

peers; 
Weird  Titan   by   thy  winter   weight  of 

years 
As     yet     unbroken,     Stormy    voice    of 

France ! 
Who   dost   not   love    our   England  —  so 

they  say; 
I  know  not  —  England,  France,  all  man 

to  be 
Will  make  one  people  ere  man's  race  be 

run: 
And  I,  desiring  that  diviner  day, 
Yield     thee     full    thanks    for    thy    full 

courtesy 
To  younger  England  in  the  boy  my  son. 


TRANSLATIONS,   ETC 


BATTLE  OF  BRUNANBURH. 

Constantinus,  King  of  the  Scots,  after  having 
sworn  allegiance  to  Athelstan,  allied  himself  with 
the  Danes  of  Ireland  under  Anlaf,  and  invading 
England,  was  defeated  by  Athelstan  and  his 
brother  Edmund  with  great  slaughter  at  Brunan- 
burh  in  the  year  937. 

I. 

1  Athelstan  King, 
Lord  among  Earls, 


Bracelet-bestower  and 
Baron  of  Barons, 
He  with  his  brother, 
Edmund  Atheling, 
Gaining  a  lifelong 
Glory  in  battle, 
Slew  with  the  sword-edge 
There  by  Brunanburh, 

1  I  have  more  or  less  availed  myself  of  my 
son's  prose  translation  of  this  poem  in  the  Con- 
temporary Review  (November  1876). 


524 


BATTLE   OF  BRUNANBURH. 


Brake  the  shield -wall, 
Hew'd  the  lindenwood,1 
Hack'd  the  battleshield, 
Sons  of  Edward  with  hammer' d  brands. 

II. 

Theirs  was  a  greatness 
Got  from  their  Grandsires  — 
Theirs  that  so  often  in 
Strife  with  their  enemies 
Struck  for  their  hoards  and  their  hearths 
and  their  homes. 


Bow'd  the  spoiler, 
Bent  the  Scotsman, 
Fell  the  shipcrews 
Doom'd  to  the  death. 

All  the  field  with  blood  of  the  fighters 

Flow'd,  from  when  first  the  great 
Sun-star  of  morningtide, 
Lamp  of  the  Lord  God 
Lord  everlasting, 

Glode  over  earth  till  the  glorious  creature 
Sank  to  his  setting. 

IV. 

There  lay  many  a  man 
Marr'd  by  the  javelin, 
Men  of  the  Northland 
Shot  over  shield. 
There  was  the  Scotsman 
Weary  of  war. 


We  the  West-Saxons, 

Long  as  the  daylight 

Lasted,  in  companies 

Troubled  the  track  of  the  host  that  we 

hated, 

Grimly  with  swords  that  were  sharp  from 

the  grindstone, 
Fiercely  we  hack'd  at  the  flyers  before 
us. 

VI. 

Mighty  the  Mercian, 
Hard  was  his  hand-play, 
Sparing  not  any  of 
Those  that  with  Anlaf, 

1  Shields  of  lindenwood. 


Warriors  over  the 
Weltering  waters 
Borne  in  the  bark's-bosom, 
Drew  to  this  island : 
Doom'd  to  the  death. 

VII. 

Five  young  kings  put  asleep  by  the  sword- 
stroke, 
Seven  strong  Earls  of  the  army  of  Anlaf 
Fell  on  the  war-field,  numberless  numbers, 
Shipmen  and  Scotsmen. 


Then  the  Norse  leader, 
Dire  was  his  need  of  it, 
Few  were  his  following, 
Fled  to  his  warship  : 

Fleeted  his  vessel  to  sea  with  the  king 
in  it, 

Saving  his  life  on  the  fallow  flood. 

IX. 

Also  the  crafty  one, 

Constantinus, 

Crept  to  his  North  again, 

Hoar-headed  hero ! 

x. 

Slender  warrant  had 

He  to  be  proud  of 

The  welcome  of  war-knives  — 

He  that  was  reft  of  his 

Folk  and  his  friends  that  had 

Fallen  in  conflict, 

Leaving  his  son  too 

Lost  in  the  carnage, 

Mangled  to  morsels, 

A  youngster  in  war ! 

XI. 

Slender  reason  had 

He  to  be  glad  of 

The  clash  of  the  war-glaive  — 

Traitor  and  trickster 

And  spurner  of  treaties  — 

He  nor  had  Anlaf 

With  armies  so  broken 

A  reason  for  bragging 

That  they  had  the  better 

In  perils  of  battle 


ACHILLES   OVER    THE    TRENCH. 


525 


On  places  of  slaughter  — 
The  struggle  of  standards, 
The  rush  of  the  javelins, 
The  crash  of  the  charges,1 
The  wielding  of  weapons  — 
The  play  that  they  play'd  with 
The  children  of  Edward. 


Then  with  their  nail'd  prows 
Parted  the  Norsemen,  a 
Blood-redden'd  relic  of 
Javelins  over 
•  The  jarring  breaker,  the  deep- 
sea  billow, 
Shaping  their  way  toward  Dy- 

flen2  again. 
Shamed  in  their  souls. 

XIII. 

Also  the  brethren, 
King  and  Atheling, 
Each  in  his  glory, 
Went  to  his  own  in  his  own  West- Saxon- 
land, 

Glad  of  the  war. 


Many  a  carcase  they  left  to  be  carrion, 
Many  a  livid  one,  many  a  sallow-skin  — 
Left  for  the  white-tail'd  eagle  to  tear  it, 

and 
Left  for  the  horny-nibb'd  raven  to  rend 

it,  and 
Gave  to  the  garbaging  war-hawk  to  gorge 

it,  and 
That  gray  beast,  the  wolf  of  the  weald. 


Never  had  huger 
Slaughter  of  heroes 
Slain  by  the  sword-edge  — 
Such  as  old  writers 
Have  writ  of  in  histories  — 
Hapt  in  this  isle,  since 
Up  from  the  East  hither 
Saxon  and  Angle  from 
Over  the  broad  billow 
Broke  into  Britain  with 
Haughty  war-workers  who 

1  Lit.  '  the  gathering  of  men.'        2  Dublin. 


Harried  the  Welshman,  when 
Earls  that  were  lured  by  the 
Hunger  of  glory  gat 
Hold  of  the  land. 


ACHILLES    OVER   THE   TRENCH, 
iliad,  xviii,  202. 

So  saying,  light-foot  Iris  pass'd  away. 
Then  rose   Achilles  dear  to  Zeus;    and 

round 
The  warrior's  puissant  shoulders  Pallas 

flung 
Her  fringed  aegis,  and  around  his  head 
The  glorious  goddess  wreath 'd  a  golden 

cloud, 
And  from  it  lighted  an  all-shining  flame. 
As  when  a  smoke  from  a  city  goes  to 

heaven 
Far  off  from  out  an  island  girt  by  foes, 
All   day  the   men    contend    in   grievous 

war 
From   their  own   city,  but   with    set   of 

sun 
Their  fires  flame  thickly,  and  aloft  the 

glare 
Flies  streaming,  if  perchance  the  neigh- 
bours round 
May  see,  and  sail  to  help  them  in  the 

war; 
So  from  his  head  the  splendour  went  to 

heaven. 
From  wall  to  dyke  he  stept,  he   stood, 

nor  join'd 
The     Achseans  —  honouring     his     wise 

mother's  word  — 
There  standing,  shouted,  and  Pallas  far 

away 
Call'd;   and  a  boundless  panic  shook  the 

foe. 
For  like  the  clear  voice  when  a  trumpet 

shrills, 
Blown  by  the  fierce  beleaguerers  of  a 

town, 
So  rang  the  clear  voice  of  ^EakideV, 
And  when  the  brazen  cry  of  ^FiakidSs 
Was  heard  among  the  Trojans,  all  their 

hearts 
Were  troubled,  and  the  full-maned  horses 

whirl'd 
The  chariots  backward,  knowing  griefs 

at  hand; 


526 


TO  PRINCESS  FREDERICA—TIRESIAS. 


And  sheer-astounded  were  the  chariot- 

SIR JOHN   FRANKLIN. 

eers 
To  see  the  dread,  unweariable  fire 

ON   THE   CENOTAPH   IN   WESTMINSTER 

That   always    o'er    the    great    Peleion's 

ABBEY. 

head 

Not    here !    the    white    North    has    thy 

Burn'd,  for  the  bright-eyed  goddess  made 

bones;   and  thou, 

it  burn. 

Heroic  sailor-soul, 

Thrice  from  the  dyke  he  sent  his  mighty 

Art  passing  on  thine  happier  voyage  now 

shout, 

Toward  no  earthly  pole. 

Thrice  backward  reel'd  the  Trojans  and 

allies; 

TO   DANTE. 

And  there  and  then  twelve  of  their  noblest 

died 

(WRITTEN   AT    REQUEST   OF  THE 

Among  their  spears  and  chariots. 

FLORENTINES.) 

King,  that  hast  reign'd  six  hundred  years, 

and  grown 

TO   PRINCESS   FREDERICA   ON 

In  power,  and  ever  growest,  since  thine 

HER   MARRIAGE. 

own 

Fair  Florence  honouring  thy  nativity, 

0  YOU  that  were  eyes  and  light  to  the 

Thy  Florence  now  the  crown  of  Italy, 

King  till  he  past  away 

Hath  sought  the  tribute  of  a  verse  from 

From  the  darkness  of  life  — 

me, 

He  saw  not  his  daughter  —  he  blest  her : 

I,  wearing  but  the  garland  of  a  day, 

the  blind  King  sees  you  to-day, 

Cast  at  thy  feet  one  flower   that  fades 

He  blesses  the  wife. 

away. 

TIRESIAS 


AND   OTHER   POEMS. 


TO   E.   FITZGERALD. 

Old  Fitz,  who  from  your  suburb  grange, 

Where  once  I  tarried  for  a  while, 
Glance  at  the  wheeling  Orb  of  change, 

And  greet  it  with  a  kindly  smile ; 
Whom  yet  I  see  as  there  you  sit 

Beneath  your  sheltering  garden-tree, 
And  while  your  doves  about  you  flit, 

And  plant  on  shoulder,  hand  and  knee, 
Or  on  your  head  their  rosy  feet, 

As  if  they  knew  your  diet  spares 
Whatever  moved  in  that  full  sheet 

Let  down  to  Peter  at  his  prayers; 
Who  live  on  milk  and  meal  and  grass; 

And  once  for  ten  long  weeks  I  tried 
Your  table  of  Pythagoras, 

And  seem'd  at  first '  a  thing  enskied  ' 
(As  Shakespeare  has  it)  airy-light 

To  float  above  the  ways  of  men, 
Then  fell  from  that  half-spiritual  height 

ChilPd,  till  I  tasted  flesh  again 


One  night  when  earth  was  winter-black, 

And  all  the  heavens  flash'd  in  frost; 
And  on  me,  half-asleep,  came  back 

That  wholesome  heat  the  blood  had  lost, 
And  set  me  climbing  icy  capes 

And  glaciers,  over  which  there  roll'd 
To  meet  me  long-arm'd  vines  with  grapes 

Of  Eshcol  hugeness;   for  the  cold 
Without,  and  warmth  within  me,  wrought 

To  mould  the  dream;  but  none  can  say 
That  Lenten  fare  makes  Lenten  thought, 

Who  reads  your  golden  Eastern  lay, 
Than  which  I  know  no  version  done 

In  English  more  divinely  well; 
A  planet  equal  to  the  sun 

Which  cast  it,  that  large  infidel 
Your  Omar;   and  your  Omar  drew 

Full-handed  plaudits  from  our  best 
In  modern  letters,  and  from  two, 

Old  friends  outvaluing  all  the  rest, 
Two  voices  heard  on  earth  no  more; 

But  we  old  friends  are  still  alive, 


TIRESIAS. 


527 


And  I  am  nearing  seventy-four, 

While   you  have    touch'd  at  seventy- 
five, 
And  so  I  send  a  birthday  line 

Of  greeting;   and  my  son,  who  dipt 
In  some  forgotten  book  of  mine 

With  sallow  scraps  of  manuscript, 
And  dating  many  a  year  ago, 

"Has  hit  on  this,  which  you  will  take 
My  Fitz,  and  welcome,  as  I  know 

Less  for  its  own  than  for  the  sake 
Of  one  recalling  gracious  times, 

When,  in  our  younger  London  days, 
You  found  some  merit  in  my  rhymes, 

And  I  more  pleasure  in  your  praise. 

TIRESIAS. 

I  wish  I  were  as  in  the  years  of  old, 
While  yet  the  blessed  daylight  made  itself 
Ruddy  thro'  both  the  roofs  of  sight,  and 

woke 
These  eyes,  now  dull,  but  then  so  keen 

to  seek 
The  meanings  ambush'd  under  all  they 

saw, 

The  flight  of  birds,  the  flame  of  sacrifice, 

What  omens  may  foreshadow  fate  to  man 

And  woman,  and  the  secret  of  the  Gods. 

My  son,  the  Gods,  despite  of  human 

prayer, 
Are  slower  to  forgive  than  human  kings. 
The  great  God,  Ar8s,  burns  in  anger  still 
Against  the  guiltless  heirs  of  him  from 

Tyre, 
Our   Cadmus,   out   of    whom    thou   art, 

who  found 
Beside  the  springs  of  Dirce",  smote,  and 

still'd 
Thro'    all    its    folds    the    multitudinous 

beast, 
The  dragon,  which  our  trqmbling  fathers 

call'd 
The  God's  own  son. 

A  tale,  that  told  to  me, 
When  but  thine  age,  by  age  as  winter- 
white 
As  mine  is  now,  amazed,  but  made  me 

yearn 
For  larger  glimpses  of  that  more  than 

man 
Which  rolls  the  heavens,  and  lifts,  and 

lays  the  deep, 


Yet  loves  and  hates  with  mortal  hates 

and  loves, 
And  moves  unseen  among  the  ways  of 

men. 
Then,  in  my  wanderings  all  the  lands 

that  lie 
Subjected  to  the  Heliconian  ridge 
Have  heard  this  footstep  fall,  altho'  my 

wont 
Was   more  to  scale  the   highest  of  the 

heights 
With  some  strange  hope  to  see  the  nearer 

God. 
One   naked  peak  —  the  sister  of  the 

sun 
Would   climb   from   out   the   dark,  and 

linger  there 
To  silver  all  the  valleys  with  her  shafts  — 
There  once,  but  long  ago,  five-fold  thy 

term 
Of  years,   I  lay;    the  winds  were  dead 

for  heat; 
The  noonday  crag  made  the  hand  burn; 

and  sick 
For  shadow  —  not  one  bush  was  near  — 

I  rose 
Following  a  torrent  till  its  myriad  falls 
Found    silence    in    the    hollows    under- 
neath. 
There  in  a  secret  olive-glade  I  saw 
Pallas  Athene  climbing  from  the  bath 
In  anger;  yet  one  glittering  foot  disturb'd 
The   lucid   well;    one   snowy  knee  was 

prest 
Against  the  margin  flowers;   a  dreadful 

light 
Came  from  her  golden  hair,  her  golden 

helm 
And  all  her  golden  armour  on  the  grass, 
And  from  her  virgin  breast,  and  virgin 

eyes 
Remaining  fixt  on  mine,  till  mine  grew 

dark 
For  ever,  and  I  heard  a  voice  that  said 
'  Henceforth  be  blind,  for  thou  hast  seen 

too  much, 
And  speak  the  truth  that  no  man  may 

believe.' 
Son,  in  the  hidden  world  of  sight,  that 

lives 
Behind  this  darkness,  I  behold  her  still, 
Beyond  all  work  of  those  who  carve  the 

stone, 


528 


TIRE  SI  AS. 


Beyond   all  dreams  of  Godlike  woman- 
hood, 
Ineffable    beauty,   out    of  whom,   at   a 

glance, 
And  as  it  were,  perforce,  upon  me  flash'd 
The  power  of  prophesying — but  to  me 
No  power  —  so  chain'd  and  coupled  with 

the  curse 
Of   blindness   and    their    unbelief,   who 

heard 
And  heard  not,  when  I  spake  of  famine, 

plague, 
Shrine-shattering  earthquake,  fire,  flood, 

thunderbolt, 
And  angers  of  the  Gods  for  evil  done 
And  expiation  lack'd  —  no  power  on  Fate, 
Theirs,    or    mine    own !    for   when    the 

crowd  would  roar 
For  blood,  for  war,  whose  issue  was  their 

doom, 
To  cast  wise  words  among  the  multitude 
Was  flinging  fruit  to  lions;   nor,  in  hours 
Of  civil  outbreak,  when  I  knew  the  twain 
Would  each  waste   each,  and  bring  on 

both  the  yoke 
Of  stronger  states,  was  mine  the  voice  to 

curb 
The  madness  of  our  cities  and  their  kings. 
Who  ever  turn'd  upon  his  heel  to  hear 
My  warning  that  the  tyranny  of  one 
Was  prelude  to  the  tyranny  of  all? 
My  counsel  that  the  tyranny  of  all 
Led  backward  to  the  tyranny  of  one  ? 
This   power  hath  work'd  no  good  to 

aught  that  lives, 
And  these  blind  hands  were  useless  in 

their  wars. 
O  therefore  that  the  unfulfill'd  desire, 
The  grief  for  ever  born  from  griefs  to  be, 
The  boundless  yearning  of  the  Prophet's 

heart  — 
Could  that  stand  forth,  and,  like  a  statue 

rear'd 
To   some   great   citizen,   win   all   praise 

from  all 
Who  past  it,  saying,  '  That  was  he  ! ' 

In  vain ! 
Virtue  must  shape  itself  in  deed,  and  those 
Whom     weakness    or      necessity     have 

cramp'd 
Within  themselves,  immerging,  each,  his 

urn 
In  his  own  well,  draw  solace  as  he  may. 


Menoeceus,  thou  hast  eyes,  and  I  can 

hear 
Too  plainly  what  full  tides  of  onset  sap 
Our  seven  high  gates,  and  what  a  weight 

of  war 
Rides  on  those  ringing  axles !  jingle  of 

bits, 
Shouts,  arrows,  tramp  of  the  hornfooted 

horse 
That  grind  the  glebe  to  powder !     Stony 

showers 
Of  that  ear-stunning  hail  of  Ares  crash 
Along     the     sounding    walls.       Above, 

below, 
Shock  after  shock,  the  song-built  towers 

and  gates 
Reel,    bruised     and     butted    with     the 

shuddering 
War-thunder  of  iron   rams;     and   from 

within 
The  city  comes  a  murmur  void  of  joy, 
Lest   she   be    taken   captive  —  maidens, 

wives, 
And  mothers  with  their  babblers  of  the 

dawn, 
And  oldest  age  in  shadow  from  the  night, 
Falling  about  their  shrines  before  their 

Gods, 
And  wailing  '  Save  us.' 

And  they  wail  to  thee  ! 
These  eyeless  eyes,  that  cannot  see  thine 

own, 
See  this,  that  only  in  thy  virtue  lies 
The  saving  of  our  Thebes;    for,  yester- 
night, 
To  me,  the  great  God  Ares,  whose  one 

bliss 
is  war,  and  human  sacrifice  —  himself 
Blood-red  from  battle,  spear  and  helmet 

tipt 
With  stormy  light  as  on  a  mast  at  sea, 
Stood    out    before    a    darkness,   crying' 

'Thebes, 
Thy  Thebes  shall  fall  and  perish,  for  I 

loathe 
The  seed  of  Cadmus  —  yet  if  one  of  these 

By  his  own  hand  —  if  one  of  these ' 

My  son, 
No   sound    is    breathed    so    potent    to 

coerce, 
And  to  conciliate,  as  their  names  who  dare 
For  that  sweet  mother  land  which  gave 

them  birth 


TIRE  SI  AS. 


529 


Nobly  to  do,  nobly  to  die.  Their  names, 
Graven  on  memorial  columns,  are  a  song 
Heard  in  the  future;   few,  but  more  than 

wall 
And   rampart,   their   examples    reach    a 

hand 
Far  thro'  all  years,  and  everywhere  they 

meet 
And  kindle  generous  purpose,  and  the 

strength 
To  mould  it  into  action  pure  as  theirs. 
Fairer  thy  fate  than  mine,  if  life's  best 

end 
Be  to  end  well !  and  thou  refusing  this, 
Unvenerable  will  thy  memory  be 
While  men  shall  move  the  lips:  but  if 

thou  dare  — 
Thou,  one  of  these,  the  race  of  Cadmus 

—  then 
No  stone  is  fitted  in  yon  marble  girth 
Whose  echo  shall  not  tongue  thy  glorious 

doom, 
Nor  in  this  pavement  but  shall  ring  thy 

name 
To  every  hoof  that   clangs  it,  and   the 

springs 
Of  Dirce  laving  yonder  battle-plain, 
Heard  from  the  roofs  by  night,  will  mur- 
mur thee 
To  thine  own  Thebes,  while  Thebes  thro' 

thee  shall  stand 
Firm-based  with  all  her  Gods. 

The  Dragon's  cave 
Half-hid,  they  tell  me,  now  in  flowing 

vines  — 
Where  once   he  dwelt  and  whence  he 

roll'd  himself 
At  dead  of  night  —  thou  knowest,  and 

that  smooth  rock 
Before  it,  altar-fashion'd,  where  of  late 
The  woman-breasted  Sphinx,  with  wings 

drawn  back, 
Folded   her    lion   paws,   and   look'd   to 

Thebes. 
There  blanch  the  bones  of  whom   she 

slew,  and  these 
Mixt  with  her  own,  because  the  fierce 

beast  found 
A  wiser  than  herself,  and  dash'd  herself 
Dead  in   her   rage :  but   thou   art  wise 

enough, 
Tho'  young,  to  love  thy  wiser,  blunt  the 

curse 


Of  Pallas,  hear,  and   tho'  I   speak  the 
truth 

Believe  I  speak  it,  let  thine  own  hand 
strike 

Thy  youthful  pulses  into  rest  and  quench 

The   red    God's   anger,   fearing    not   to 
plunge 

Thy  torch  of  life  in  darkness,  rather  — 
thou 

Rejoicing  that  the  sun,  the  moon,  the 
stars 

Send  no  such  light  upon  the  ways  of  men 

As  one  great  deed. 

Thither,  my  son,  and  there 

Thou,  that  hast  never  known  the  embrace 
of  love, 

Offer  thy  maiden  life. 

This  useless  hand ! 

I  felt  one  warm  tear  fall  upon  it.     Gone  ! 

He  will  achieve  his  greatness. 

But  for  me, 

I  would  that  I  were  gather'd  to  my  rest, 

And  mingled  with  the  famous  kings  of 
old, 

On  whom  about  their  ocean-islets  flash 

The  faces  of  the  Gods  —  the  wise  man's 
word, 

Here  trampled  by  the  populace  under- 
foot, 

There  crown'd  with  worship  —  and  these 
eyes  will  find 

The  men  I  knew,  and  watch  the  chariot 
whirl 

About  the  goal  again,  and  hunters  race 

The    shadowy    lion,    and    the    warrior- 
kings, 

In  height  and  prowess  more  than  human, 
strive 

Again  for  glory,  while  the  golden  lyre 

Is  ever  sounding  in  heroic  ears 

Heroic  hymns,  and  every  way  the  vales 

Wind,  clouded  with  the  grateful  incense- 
fume 

Of  those  who  mix  all  odour  to  the  Gods 

On  one  far  height  in  one  far-shining  fire. 


'  One  height  and  one  far-shining  fire,' 
And  while  I  fancied  that  my  friend 

For  this  brief  idyll  would  require 
A  less  diffuse  and  opulent  end, 

And  would  defend  his  judgment  well, 
If  I  should  deem  it  over  nice  — 


53° 


THE    WRECK. 


The  tolling  of  his  funeral  bell 

Broke  on  my  Pagan  Paradise, 
And  mixt  the  dream  of  classic  times 

And  all  the  phantoms  of  the  dream, 
With  present  grief,  and  made  the  rhymes, 

That  miss'd  his  living  welcome,  seem 
Like  would-be  guests  an  hour  too  late, 

Who  down  the  highway  moving  on 
With  easy  laughter  find  the  gate 

Is  bolted,  and  the  master  gone. 
Gone  into  darkness,  that  full  light 

Of  friendship  !  past,  in  sleep,  away 
By  night,  into  the  deeper  night ! 

The  deeper  night?     A  clearer  day 
Than  our  poor  twilight  dawn  on  earth  — 

If  night,  what  barren  toil  to  be  ! 
What  life,  so  maim'd  by  night,  were  worth 

Our  living  out?     Not  mine  to  me 
Remembering  all  the  golden  hours 

Now  silent,  and  so  many  dead, 
And  him  the  last;   and  laying  flowers, 

This  wreath,  above  his  honour'd  head, 
And  praying  that,  when  I  from  hence 

Shall  fade  with  him  into  the  unknown, 
My  close  of  earth's  experience 

May  prove  as  peaceful  as  his  own. 

THE  WRECK. 


Hide  me,  Mother !  my  Fathers  belong'd 

to  the  church  of  old, 
I  am  driven  by  storm  and  sin  and  death 

to  the  ancient  fold, 
I  cling  to  the  Catholic  Cross  once  more, 

to  the  Faith  that  saves, 
My  brain  is  full  of  the  crash  of  wrecks, 

and  the  roar  of  waves, 
My  life  itself  is  a  wreck,  I  have  sullied 

a  noble  name, 
I  am  flung  from  the  rushing  tide  of  the 

world  as  a  waif  of  shame, 
I  am  roused  by  the  wail  of  a  child,  and 

awake  to  a  livid  light, 
And    a    ghastlier    face    than   ever    has 

haunted  a  grave  by  night, 
I  would  hide  from  the  storm  without,  I 

would  flee  from  the  storm  within, 
I  would  make  my  life  one  prayer  for  a 

soul  that  died  in  his  sin, 
I  was  the  tempter,  Mother,  and  mine  was 

the  deeper  fall; 


I  will  sit  at  your  feet,  I  will  hide  my  face, 
I  will  tell  you  all. 


He   that   they  gave   me   to,  Mother,   a 

heedless  and  innocent  bride  — 
I  never  have  wrong'd  his  heart,  I  have 

only  wounded  his  pride  — 
Spain  in  his  blood  and  the  Jew  —  dark- 
visaged,  stately  and  tall  — 
A    princelier-looking   man    never    stept 

thro'  a  Prince's  hall. 
And  who,  when  his  anger  was  kindled, 

would  venture  to  give  him  the  nay  ? 
And  a  man  men  fear  is  a  man  to  be  lovec 

by  the  women  they  say. 
And  I  could  have  loved  him  too,  if  the 

blossom  can  dote  on  the  blight, 
Or  the  young  green  leaf  rejoice  in  the 

frost  that  sears  it  at  night; 
He  would  open  the  books  that  I  prized, 

and  toss  them  away  with  a  yawn, 
Repell'd   by  the  magnet  of  Art   to  the 

which  my  nature  was  drawn, 
The  word  of  the  Poet  by  whom  the  deeps 

of  the  world  are  stirr'd, 
The  music  that  robes  it  in  language  be- 
neath and  beyond  the  word  ! 
My  Shelley  would  fall  from  my  hands  when 

he  cast  a  contemptuous  glance 
From   where    he   was    poring   over    his 

Tables  of  Trade  and  Finance; 
My  hands,  when  I   heard   him  coming, 

would   drop   from   the  chords  or 

the  keys, 
But  ever  I  fail'd  to  please  him,  however 

I  strove  to  please  — 
All  day  long  far-off  in  the  cloud  of  the 

city,  and  there 
Lost,  head  and  heart,  in  the  chances  of 

dividend,  consol,  and  share  — 
And  at  home  if  I  sought  for  a  kindly  ca- 
ress, being  woman  and  weak, 
His  formal   kiss  fell  chill  as  a  flake  of 

snow  on  the  cheek: 
And  so,  when  I  bore  him  a  girl,  when  I 

held  it  aloft  in  my  joy, 
He  look'd  at  it  coldly,  and  said  to  me, 

« Pity  it  isn't  a  boy.' 
The  one  thing  given  me,  to  love  and  to 

live  for,  glanced  at  in  scorn  ! 
The  child  that  I  felt  I  could  die  for  —  as 

if  she  were  basely  born ! 


THE    WRECK. 


53' 


I   had   lived   a  wild-flower   life,   I   was 

planted  now  in  a  tomb; 
The  daisy  will  shut  to  the  shadow,  I  closed 

my  heart  to  the  gloom; 
I  threw  myself  all  abroad  —  I  would  play 

my  part  with  the  young 
By  the  low  foot-lights  of  the  world  —  and 

I  caught  the  wreath  that  was  flung. 

in. 

Mother,    I    have    not  —  however    their 

tongues  may  have  babbled  of  me  — 
Sinn'd   thro'  an  animal  vileness,  for  all 

but  a  dwarf  was  he, 
And  all   but  a  hunchback   too;    and   I 

look'd  at  him,  first,  askance, 
With   pity  —  not   he  the  knight   for  an 

amorous  girl's  romance ! 
Tho'  wealthy  enough  to  have  bask'd  in 

the  light  of  a  dowerless  smile, 
Having  lands  at  home  and  abroad  in  a 

rich  West-Indian  isle; 
But  I  came  on  him  once  at  a  ball,  the 

heart  of  a  listening  crowd  — 
Why,  what  a  brow  was  there !    he  was 

seated  —  speaking  aloud 
To  women,  the  flower  of  the  time,  and 

men  at  the  helm  of  state  — 
Flowing  with  easy  greatness  and  touch- 
ing on  all  things  great, 
Science,   philosophy,    song  —  till    I   felt 

myself  ready  to  weep 
For  I  knew  not  what,  when  I  heard  that 

voice,  —  as  mellow  and  deep 
As   a   psalm   by   a   mighty   master   and 

peal'd  from  an  organ,  —  roll 
Rising  and  falling  —  for,  Mother,  the  voice 

was  the  voice  of  the  soul; 
And  the  sun  of  the  soul  made  day  in  the 

dark  of  his  wonderful  eyes. 
Here  was  the  hand  that  would  help  me, 

would   heal  me  —  the  heart  that 

was  wise ! 
And  he,  poor  man,  when  he  learnt  that 

I  hated  the  ring  I  wore, 
He  helpt  me  with  death,  and  he  heal'd 

me  with  sorrow  for  evermore. 

IV. 

For  I  broke  the  bond.  That  day  my 
nurse  had  brought  me  the  child. 

The  small  sweet  face  was  flush'd,  but  it 
coo'd  to  the  Mother  and  smiled. 


*  Anything  ailing,'  I  ask'd  her,  '  with 
baby?'     She  shook  her  head, 

And  the  Motherless  Mother  kiss'd  it,  and 
turn'd  in  her  haste  and  fled. 

v. 

Low  warm  winds  had  gently  breathed  us 

away  from  the  land  — 
Ten  long  sweet  summer  days  upon  deck, 

sitting  hand  in  hand  — 
When  he  clothed  a  naked  mind  with  the 

wisdom  and  wealth  of  his  own, 
And  I  bow'd  myself  down  as  a  slave  to 

his  intellectual  throne, 
When  he  coin'd  into  English  gold  some 

treasure  of  classical  song, 
When  he  flouted  a  statesman's  error,  or 

flamed  at  a  public  wrong, 
When  he  rose  as  it  were  on  the  wings  of 

an  eagle  beyond  me,  and  past 
Over  the  range  and  the  change  of  the 

world  from  the  first  to  the  last, 
When  he  spoke  of  his  tropical  home  in 

the  canes  by  the  purple  tide, 
And  the  high  star-crowns  of  his  palm? 

on    the    deep-wooded    mountain- 
side, 
And  cliffs  all  robed  in  lianas  that  dropt 

to  the  brink  of  his  bay, 
And  trees  like  the  towers  of  a  minster, 

the  sons  of  a  winterless  day. 
'  Paradise  there  ! '  so  he  said,  but  I  seem'd 

in  Paradise  then 
With  the  first  great  love  I  had  felt  for  the 

first  and  greatest  of  men; 
Ten  long  days  of  summer  and  sin  —  if  it 

must  be  so  — 
But  days  of  a  larger  light  than  I  ever 

again  shall  know  — 
Days  that  will  glimmer,  I  fear,  thro'  life 

to  my  latest  breath; 
'  No  frost  there,'  so  he  said,  '  as  in  truest 

Love  no  Death.' 


Mother,  one  morning  a  bird  with  a  warble 

plaintively  sweet 
Perch'd  on  the  shrouds,  and   then   fell 

fluttering  down  at  my  feet; 
I  took  it,  he  made  it  a  cage,  we  fondled 

it,  Stephen  and  I, 
But  it  died,  and  I  thought  of  the  child 

for  a  moment,  I  scarce  know  why. 


532 


THE   WRECK. 


VII. 
But  if  sin  be  sin,  not  inherited  fate,  as 

many  will  say, 
My  sin  to  my  desolate  little  one  found 

me  at  sea  on  a  day, 
When  her  orphan  wail  came  borne  in  the 

shriek  of  a  growing  wind, 
And  a  voice  rang  out  in  the  thunders  of 

Ocean   and   Heaven  'Thou  hast 

sinn'd.' 
And  down  in  the  cabin  were  we,  for  the 

towering  crest  of  the  tides 
Plunged  on  the  vessel   and    swept  in  a 

cataract  off  from  her  sides, 
And  ever  the  great  storm  grew  with  a 

howl  and  a  hoot  of  the  blast 
In  the  rigging,  voices  of  hell  —  then  came 

the  crash  of  the  mast. 
'The  wages  of  sin  is  death,'  and  there  I 

began  to  weep, 
'I  am  the  Jonah,  the  crew  should  cast 

me  into  the  deep, 
For  ah  God,  what  a  heart  was  mine  to 

forsake  her  even  for  you.' 
'Never  the  heart  among  women,'  he  said, 

'  more  tender  and  true.' 
'The  heart!  not  a  mother's  heart,  when 

I  left  my  darling  alone.' 
♦Comfort  yourself,  for  the  heart  of  the 

father  will  care  for  his  own.' 
'The  heart  of  the  father  will  spurn  her,' 

I  cried-,  '  for  the  sin  of  the  wife, 
The   cloud  of  the  mother's   shame  will 

enfold  her  and  darken  her  life.' 
Then  his  pale  face  twitch'd ;   '  O  Stephen, 

I  love  you,  I  love  you,  and  yet '  — 
As  I  lean'd  away  from  his  arms  — '  would 

God,  we  had  never  met ! ' 
And  he  spoke  not  —  only  the  storm;   till 

after  a  little,  I  yearn'd 
For  his  voice  again,  and  he  call'd  to  me 

'  Kiss    me  ! '     and    there  —  as    I 

turn'd  — 
*  The  heart,  the  heart ! '    I  kiss'd  him,  I 

clung  to  the  sinking  form, 
And  the  storm  went   roaring   above  us, 

and  he  —  was  out  of  the  storm. 


And  then,  then,  Mother,  the  ship  stag- 
ger'd  under  a  thunderous  shock, 

That  shook  us  asunder,  as  if  she  had 
struck  and  crash'd  on  a  rock; 


For  a  huge  sea  smote  every  soul  from  the 

decks  of  The  Falcon  but  one; 
All  of  them,  all  but  the  man  that  was 

lash'd  to  the  helm  had  gone; 
And  I  fell  —  and  the  storm  and  the  days 

went  by,  but  I  knew  no  more  — 
Lost  myself — lay  like  the  dead  by  the 

dead  on  the  cabin  floor, 
Dead  to  the  death  beside  me,  and  lost  to 

the  loss  that  was  mine, 
With  a  dim  dream,  now  and  then,  of  a 

hand  giving  bread  and  wine, 
Till  I  woke  from  the  trance,  and  the  ship 

stood  still,  and  the  skies  were  blue, 
But  the  face  I  had  known,  O  Mother, 

was  not  the  face  that  I  knew. 


The  strange  misfeaturing  mask  that  I  saw 

so  amazed  me,  that  I 
Stumbled  on  deck,  half  mad.     I  would 

fling  myself  over  and  die  ! 
But  one  —  he  was  waving  a  flag  —  the  one 

man  left  on  the  wreck  — 
1  Woman  '  —  he  graspt  at  my  arm  —  'stay 

there'  —  I  crouch'd  upon  deck  — 
'  We  are  sinking,  and  yet  there's  hope : 

look  yonder,'  he  cried,  '  a  sail,' 
In  a  tone  so  rough    that   I    broke   into 

passionate  tears,  and  the  wail 
Of  a  beaten  babe,  till  I  saw  that  a  boat 

was  nearing  us  —  then 
All  on  a  sudden  I  thought,  I  shall  look 

on  the  child  again. 


They  lower'd   me   down   the   side,  and 

there  in  the  boat  I  lay 
With  sad  eyes  fixt  on  the  lost  sea-home, 

as  we  glided  away, 
And  I  sigh'd,  as  the  low  dark  hull  dipt 

under  the  smiling  main, 
'Had  I  stay'd  with  him,  I  had  now  — 

with  ^*>/z  — been  out  of  my  pain.' 


They  took  us  aboard :  the  crew  were 
gentle,  the  captain  kind; 

But  /  was  the  lonely  slave  of  an  often- 
wandering  mind; 

For  whenever  a  rougher  gust  might 
tumble  a  stormier  wave, 


DESPAIR. 


533 


'O  Stephen,'  I  moan'd,  'I  am  coming  to 
thee  in  thine  Ocean-grave.' 

And  again,  when  a  balmier  breeze  curl'd 
over  a  peacefuller  sea, 

I  found  myself  moaning  again  '  O  child, 
I  am  coming  to  thee.' 

XII. 

The  broad  white  brow  of  the  Isle  —  that 

bay  with  the  colour'd  sand  — 
Rich  was  the  rose  of  sunset  there,  as  we 

drew  to  the  land; 
All   so    quiet   the   ripple   would    hardly 

blanch  into  spray 
At  the  feet  of  the  cliff;   and  I  pray'd  — 

1  my   child  '  —  for    I    still    could 

pray  — 
'  May  her   life  be  as  blissfully  calm,  be 

never  gloom'd  by  the  curse 
Of  a  sin,  not  hers  ! ' 

Was  it  well  with  the  child? 

I  wrote  to  the  nurse 

Who  had  borne  my  flower  on  her  hireling 

heart;   and  an  answer  came 
Not  from  the  nurse  —  nor  yet  to  the  wife 

—  to  her  maiden  name  ! 
I  shook  as  I  opened  the  letter  —  I  knew 

that  hand  too  well  — 
And   from  it  a  scrap,  dipt   out  of  the 

'  deaths '  in  a  paper,  fell. 
'Ten  long  sweet  summer  days'  of  fever, 

and  want  of  care  ! 
And  gone  —  that  day  of  the  storm  —  O 

Mother,  she  came  to  me  there. 


DESPAIR. 

A  man  and  his  wife  having  lost  faith  in  a  God, 
ind  hope  of  a  life  to  come,  and  being  utterly 
miserable  in  this,  resolve  to  end  themselves  by 
drowning.  The  woman  is  drowned,  but  the  man 
rescued  by  a  minister  of  the  sect  he  had  aban- 
doned. 

I. 

Is  it  you,  that  preach'd  in  the  chapel 
there  looking  over  the  sand? 

Follow'd  us  too  that  night,  and  dogg'd 
us,  andjirew  me  to  land? 


What  did  I  feel   that   night?     You  are 
curious.     How  should  I  tell? 


Does   it  matter   so   much   what  I    felt? 

You   rescued   me  —  yet  —  was   it 

well 
That  you   came   unwish'd  for,  uncall'd, 

between  me  and  the  deep  and  my 

doom, 
Three  days  since,  three  more  dark  days 

of  the  Godless  gloom 
Of  a  life  without  sun,  without  health,  with- 
out hope,  without  any  delight 
In    anything  here    upon    earth?  but   ah 

God,  that  night,  that  night 
When  the  rolling  eyes  of  the  lighthouse 

there  on  the  fatal  neck 
Of  land  running  out  into  rock  —  they  had 

savedmanyhundreds  fromwreck — 
Glared  on  our  way  toward  death,  I  re-. 

member  I  thought,  as  we  past, 
Does  it  matter   how  many  they  saved? 

we  are  all  of  us  wreck'd  at  last  — 
'Do  you  fear?  '  and  there  came  thro'  the 

roar  of  the  breaker  a  whisper,  a 

breath, 
'Fear?    am    I    not   with    you?      I    am 

frighted  at  life  not  death.' 


And  the  suns  of  the  limitless  Universe 
sparkled  and  shone  in  the  sky, 

Flashing  with  fires  as  of  God,  but  we 
knew  that  their  light  was  a  lie  — 

Bright  as  with  deathless  hope  —  but, 
however  they  sparkled  and  shone, 

The  dark  little  worlds  running  round 
them  were  worlds  of  woe  like  our 
own  — 

No  soul  in  the  heaven  above,  no  soul  on 
the  earth  below, 

A  fiery  scroll  written  over  with  lamenta- 
tion and  woe. 

IV. 

See,  we  were  nursed  in  the  drear  night- 
fold  of  your  fatalist  creed, 

And  we  turn'd  to  the  growing  dawn,  we 
had  hoped  for  a  dawn  indeed, 

When  the  light  of  a  Sun  that  was  coming 
would  scatter  the  ghosts  of  the 
Past, 

And  the  cramping  creeds  that  had 
madden'd  the  peoples  would 
vanish  at  last, 


534 


DESPAIR. 


And  we  broke  away  from  the  Christ,  our 
human  brother  and  friend, 

For  He  spoke,  or  it  seem'd  that  He 
spoke,  of  a  Hell  without  help, 
without  end. 

v. 

Hoped  for  a  dawn  and  it  came,  but  the 

promise  had  faded  away; 
We  had  past  from  a  cheerless  night  to 

the  glare  of  a  drearier  day ; 
He  is  only  a  cloud  and  a  smoke  who  was 

once  a  pillar  of  fire, 
The  guess  of  a  worm  in  the  dust  and  the 

shadow  of  its  desire  — 
Of  a  worm  as  it  writhes  in  a  world  of  the 

weak  trodden  down  by  the  strong, 
Of  a  dying  worm  in  a  world,  all  massacre, 

murder,  and  wrong. 

VI. 

O  we  poor  orphans  of  nothing  —  alone 

on  that  lonely  shore  — 
Born  of  the  brainless  Nature  who  knew 

not  that  which  she  bore  ! 
Trusting   no   longer   that  earthly  flower 

would  be  heavenly  fruit  — 
Come  from  the  brute,  poor  souls —  no  souls 

—  and  to  die  with  the  brute 

VII. 

Nay,  but  I  am  not  claiming  your  pity :  I 

know  you  of  old  — 
Small  pity  for  those  that  have  ranged  from 

the  narrow  warmth  of  your  fold, 
Where  you  bawl'd  the  dark  side  of  your 

faith  and  a  God  of  eternal  rage, 
Till  you  flung  us  back  on  ourselves,  and 

the  human  heart,  and  the  Age. 


But  pity  —  the  Pagan  held  it  a  vice  —  was 

in  her  and  in  me, 
Helpless,  taking  the  place  of  the  pitying 

God  that  should  be  ! 
Pity  for  all  that  aches  in  the  grasp  of  an 

idiot  power, 
And  pity  for  our  own  selves  on  an  earth 

that  bore  not  a  flower; 
Pity  for  all  that  suffers  on  land  or  in  air 

or  the  deep, 
And  pity  for  our  own  selves  till  we  long'd 

for  eternal  sleep. 


IX. 

•  Lightly  step  over  the  sands  !  the  waters 

—  you  hear  them  call ! 
Life  with  its  anguish,  and  horrors,  and 

errors  —  away  with  it  all ! ' 
And  she  laid  her  hand  in  my  own  —  she 

was  always  loyal  and  sweet  — 
Till  the  points  of  the  foam  in  the  dusk 

came  playing  about  our  feet. 
There   was   a   strong  sea-current  would 

sweep  us  out  to  the  main. 
'  Ah  God '  tho'  I  felt  as  I  spoke  I  was 

taking  the  name  in  vain  — 
'  Ah  God '  and  we  turn'd  to  each  other, 

we  kiss'd,  we  embraced,  she  and  I, 
Knowing  the  Love  we  were  used  to  be- 
lieve everlasting  would  die : 
We  had  read  their  know-nothing  books 

and  we  lean'd  to  the  darker  side  — 
Ah  God,  should  we  find  Him,  perhaps, 

perhaps,  if  we  died,  if  we  died ; 
We  never  had  found  Him  on  earth,  this 

earth  is  a  fatherless  Hell  — 
'  Dear  Love,  for  ever  and  ever,  for  ever 

and  ever  farewell,' 
Never  a  cry  so  desolate  not   since   the 

world  began, 
Never  a  kiss  so  sad,  no,  not  since   the 

coming  of  man ! 


But  the  blind  wave  cast  me  ashore,  and 

you  saved  me,  a  valueless  life. 
Not   a  grain   of  gratitude   mine !     You 

have  parted  the  man  from  the  wife. 
I  am  left  alone  on  the  land,  she  is  all 

alone  in  the  sea; 
If  a  curse  meant  aught,  I  would  curse 

you  for  not  having  let  me  be. 

XI. 

Visions  of  youth  —  for  my  brain  was  drunk 

with  the  water,  it  seems; 
I  had  past  into  perfect  quiet  at  length 

out  of  pleasant  dreams, 
And  the  transient  trouble  of  drowning  — 

what  was  it  when   match'd  with 
.    the  pains 
Of  the  hellish  heat  of   a   wretched  life 

rushing  back  thro'  the  veins? 


DESPAIR. 


535 


XII. 

Why  should  I  live?  one  son  had  forged 

on  his  father  and  fled, 
And  if  I  believed  in  a  God,   I  would 

thank  him,  the  other  is  dead, 
And   there   was   a   baby-girl,    that    had 

never  look'd  on  the  light : 
Happiest  she  of  us  all,  for  she  past  from 

the  night  to  the  night. 


But  the  crime,  if  a  crime,  of  her  eldest- 
born,  her  glory,  her  boast, 

Struck  hard  at  the  tender  heart  of  the 
mother,  and  broke  it  almost; 

Tho',  glory  and  shame  dying  out  for  ever 
in  endless  time, 

Does  it  matter  so  much  whether  crown'd 
for  a  virtue,  or  hang'd  for  a  crime  ? 


And  ruin'd  by  him,  by  him,  I  stood 
there,  naked,  amazed 

In  a  world  of  arrogant  opulence,  fear'd 
myself  turning  crazed, 

And  I  would  not  be  mock'd  in  a  mad- 
house !  and  she,  the  delicate  wife, 

With  a  grief  that  could  only  be  cured,  if 
cured,  by  the  surgeon's  knife,  — 

XV. 

Why  should  we  bear  with    an   hour   of 

torture,  a  moment  of  pain, 
If  every  man  die  for  ever,  if  all  his  griefs 

are  in  vain, 
And  the  homeless  planet  at  length  will 

be  wheel'd   thro'    the  silence   of 

space, 
Motherless  evermore  of  an  ever- vanishing 

race, 
When  the  worm  shall  have  writhed  its 

last,    and    its    last    brother-worm 

will  have  fled 
From  the  dead  fossil  skull  that  is  left  in 

the  rocks  of  an  earth  that  is  dead? 

XVI. 

Have  I  crazed  myself  over  their  horrible 
infidel  writings?     O  yes, 

For  these  are  the  new  dark  ages,  you  see, 
of  the  popular  press, 


When  the  bat  comes  out  of  his  cave,  and 

the  owls  are  whooping  at  noon, 
And  Doubt  is  the  lord  of  this  dunghill 

and    crows   to    the   sun   and    the 

moon, 
Till  the  Sun  and  the  Moon  of  our  science 

are  both  of  them  turn'd  into  blood, 
And  Hope  will  have  broken  her  heart, 

running  after  a  shadow  of  good; 
For    their    knowing    and   know-nothing 

books  are  scatter'd  from  hand  to 

hand  — 
We  have  knelt  in  your  know-all  chapel 

too  looking  over  the  sand. 

XVII. 

What !  I  should  call  on  that  Infinite  Love 
that  has  served  us  so  well? 

Infinite  cruelty  rather  that  made  everlast- 
ing Hell, 

Made  us,  foreknew  us,  foredoom'd  us,  and 
does  what  he  will  with  his  own; 

Better  our  dead  brute  mother  who  never 
has  heard  us  groan  ! 


Hell?  if  the  souls  of  men  were  immortal, 

as  men  have  been  told, 
The  lecher  would  cleave  to  his  lusts,  and 

the  miser  would  yearn  for  his  gold, 
And  so  there  were   Hell  for  ever !   but 

were  there  a  God  as  you  say, 
His  Love  would  have  power  over  Hell 

till  it  utterly  vanish'd  away. 

XIX. 

Ah  yet  —  I  have  had  some  glimmer,  at 

times,  in  my  gloomiest  woe, 
Of  a  God  behind  all  —  after  all  —  the  great 

God  for  aught  that  I  know; 
But  the  God  of  love  and  of  Hell  together 

—  they  cannot  be  thought, 
If  there  be  such  a  God  may  the  Great 

God  curse  him  and  bring  him  to 

naught ! 

xx. 

Blasphemy!  whose  is  the  fault?  is  it 
mine?  for  why  would  you  save 

A  madman  to  vex  you  with  wretched 
words,  who  is  best  in  his  grave? 

Blasphemy !  ay,  why  not,  being  damn'd 
beyond  hope  of  grace? 


536 


THE  ANCIENT  SAGE. 


O  would  I  were  yonder  with    her,  and 

away  from   your  faith   and   your 

face ! 
Blasphemy !    true !    I   have   scared    you 

pale  with  my  scandalous  talk, 
But  the  blasphemy  to  my  mind  lies  all  in 

the  way  that  you  walk. 


Hence  I  she  is  gone!  can  I  stay?  can  I 

breathe  divorced  from  the  Past? 
You  needs  must  have  good  lynx-eyes  if  I 

do  not  escape  you  at  last. 
Our  orthodox  coroner  doubtless  will  find 

it  a  felo-de-se, 
And  the  stake  and  the  cross-road,  fool, 

if  you  will,  does  it  matter  to  me? 

THE  ANCIENT  SAGE. 

A  thousand  summers  ere  the  time  of 

Christ 
From  out  his  ancient  city  came  a  Seer 
Whom  one  that  loved,  and  honour'd  him, 

and  yet 
Was  no  disciple,  richly  garb'd,  but  worn 
From  wasteful   living,  follow'd  —  in   his 

hand 
A  scroll  of  verse  —  till  that  old  man  before 
A   cavern   whence   an   affluent  fountain 

pour'd 
From  darkness  into  daylight,  turn'd  and 

spoke. 

This  wealth  of  waters  might  but  seem  to 

draw 
From  yon  dark  cave,  but,  son,  the  source 

is  higher, 
Yon   summit  half-a-league  in  air  —  and 

higher, 
The  cloud  that  hides  it  —  higher  still,  the 

heavens 
Whereby  the   cloud  was   moulded,  and 

whereout 
The  cloud  descended.     Force  is  from  the 

heights. 
I  am  wearied  of  our  city,  son,  and  go 
To  spend  my  one  last  year  among  the 

hills. 
What  hast  thou  there?    Some  deathsong 

for  the  Ghouls 
To  make  their  banquet  relish?   let  me 

read. 


"  How  far  thro'  all  the  bloom  and  brake 

That  nightingale  is  heard  ! 
What  power  but  the  bird's  could  make 

This  music  in  the  bird? 
How  summer-bright  are  yonder  skies, 

And  earth  as  fair  in  hue ! 
And  yet  what  sign  of  aught  that  lies 

Behind  the  green  and  blue? 
But  man  to-Hay  is  fancy's  fool 

As  man  nath  ever  been. 
The  r^neless  Power,  or  Powers,  that  rule 

Were  never  heard  or  seen." 

If  thou  would'st  hear  the  Nameless,  and 

wilt  dive 
Into  the  Temple-cave  of  thine  own  self, 
There,  brooding  by  the  central  altar,  thou 
May'st  haply  learn  the  Nameless  hath  a 

voice, 
By  which  thou  wilt  abide,  if  thou  be 

wise, 
As  if  thou  knewest,  tho'  thou  canst  not 

know; 
For  Knowledge  is  the  swallow  on   the 

lake 
That  sees  and  stirs  the  surface-shadow 

there 
But  never  yet  hath  dipt  into  the  abysm, 
The    Abysm   of    all    Abysms,    beneath, 

within 
The  blue  of  sky  and  sea,  the  green  of 

earth, 
And  in  the  million-millionth  of  a  grain 
Which  cleft  and  cleft  again  for  evermore, 
And  ever  vanishing,  never  vanishes, 
To  me,  my  son,  more  mystic  than  myself, 
Or  even  than  the  Nameless  is  to  me. 
And  when  thou  sendest  thy  free  soul 

thro'  heaven, 
Nor  understandest  bound  nor  boundless- 
ness, 
Thou  seest  the  Nameless  of  the  hundred 

names. 
And  if  the  Nameless  should  withdraw 

from  all 
Thy  frailty  counts  most  real,  all  thy  world 
Might  vanish  like  thy  shadow  in  the  dark. 

"  And  since  —  from  when   this   earth 
began  — 

The  Nameless  never  came 
Among  us,  never  spake  with  man, 

And  never  named  the  Name  "  — 


THE  ANCIENT  SAGE. 


537 


Thou  canst  not  prove  the  Nameless,  O 

my  son, 
Nor  canst   thou   prove   the  world   thou 

movest  in, 
Thou  canst  not  prove  that  thou  art  body 

alone, 
Nor  canst  thou  prove  that  thou  art  spirit 

alone, 
Nor  canst  thou  prove  that  thou  art  both 

in  one  : 
Thou  canst  not  prove  thou  art  immor- 
tal, no 
Nor  yet  that  thou  art  mortal  —  nay,  my 

son, 
Thou  canst  not  prove  that  I,  who  speak 

with  thee, 
Am  not  thyself  in  converse  with  thyself, 
For    nothing    worthy    proving    can    be 

proven, 
Nor  yet  disproven :    wherefore  thou  be 

wise, 
Cleave  ever  to  the  sunnier  side  of  doubt, 
And  cling  to  Faith  beyond  the  forms  of 

Faith ! 
She   reels  not  in  the   storm  of  warring 

words, 
She  brightens  at  the  clash  of  '  Yes  '  and 

'No,' 
She  sees  the  Best  that  glimmers  thro'  the 

Worst, 
She  feels  the  Sun  is  hid  but  for  a  night, 
She  spies  the  summer  thro'  the  winter 

bud, 
She  tastes  the  fruit  before  the  blossom 

falls, 
She  hears  the  lark  within   the  songless 

egg, 
She  finds  the  fountain  where  they  wail'd 
■  Mirage ' ! 

"  What  Power?  aught  akin  to  Mind, 

The  mind  in  me  and  you? 
Or  power  as  of  the  Gods  gone  blind 

Who  see  not  what  they  do?  " 

But  some  in  yonder  city  hold,  my  son, 
That   none   but   Gods  could   build  this 

house  of  ours, 
So  beautiful,  vast,  various,  so  beyond 
All  work   of  man,  yet,  like  all  work  of 

man, 
A  beauty  with  defect till  That  which 

knows, 


And  is  not  known,  but  felt  thro'  what  we 

feel 
Within  ourselves  is  highest,  shall  descend 
On  this  half-deed,  and  shape  it  at  the 

last 
According  to  the  Highest  in  the  Highest. 

"  What  Power  but  the  Years  that  make 

And  break  the  vase  of  clay, 
And  stir  the  sleeping  earth,  and  wake 

The  bloom  that  fades  away? 
What  rulers  but  the  Days  and  Hours 

That  cancel  weal  with  woe, 
And  wind  the  front  of  youth  with  flowers, 

And  cap  our  age  with  snow?  " 

The  days  and  hours  are  ever  glancing 

by, 

And  seem  to  flicker  past  thro'   sun  and 

shade, 
Or  short,  or  long,  as  Pleasure  leads,  or 

Pain; 
But  with  the  Nameless  is  nor  Day  nor 

Hour; 
Tho'  we,  thin    minds,   who    creep   from 

thought  to  thought, 
Break    into  '  Thens  '  and  '  Whens '  the 

Eternal  Now : 
This     double     seeming    of    the     single 

world  !  — 
My  words   are   like  the  babblings  in  a 

dream 
Of  nightmare,  when  the  babblings  break 

the  dream. 
But  thou  be  wise  in  this  dream-world  of 

ours, 
Nor  take  thy  dial  for  thy  deity, 
But  make  the  passing  shadow  serve  thy 

will. 

"  The  years  that  made  the  stripling  wise 

Undo  their  work  again, 
And  leave  him,  blind  of  heart  and  eyes, 

The  last  and  least  of  men; 
Who  clings  to  earth,  and  once  would  dare 

Hell-heat  or  Arctic  cold, 
And  now  one  breath  of  cooler  air 

Would  loose  him  from  his  hold; 
His  winter  chills  him  to  the  root, 

He' withers  marrow  and  mind; 
The  kernel  of  the  shrivell'd  fruit 

Is  jutting  thro'  the  rind; 
The  tiger  spasms  tear  his  chest, 


538 


THE  ANCIENT  SAGE. 


The  palsy  wags  his  head; 

0  slender  lily  waving  there, 

The  wife,  the  sons,  who  love  him  best 

And  laughing  back  the  light, 

Would  fain  that  he  were  dead; 

In  vain  you  tell  me  *  Earth  is  fair  ' 

The     griefs    by    which    he     once    was 

When  all  is  dark  as  night." 

wrung 

Were  never  worth  the  while  "  — 

My  son,  the  world  is  dark  with  griefs  and 

graves, 

Who  knows?  or  whether  this  earth-narrow 

So  dark  that   men  cry  out   against  the 

life 

Heavens. 

Be  yet  but  yolk,  and  forming  in  the  shell? 

Who  knows  but  that  the  darkness  is  in 

"  The  shaft  of  scorn  that  once  had  stung 

man  ? 
The  doors  of  Night  may  be  the  gates  of 

But  wakes  a  dotard  smile." 

Light; 

For  wert  thou  born  or  blind  or  deaf,  and 

The  placid  gleam  of  sunset  after  storm  ! 

then 

Suddenly  heal'd,  how  would'st  thou  glory 

"The  statesman's  brain  that  sway'd  the 

in  all 

past 

The    splendours   and   the  voices  of  the 

Is  feebler  than  his  knees; 

world ! 

The  passive  sailor  wrecks  at  last 

And  we,  the  poor  earth's  dying  race,  and 

In  ever-silent  seas; 

yet 

The  warrior  hath  forgot  his  arms, 

No  phantoms,  watching  from  a  phantom 

The  Learned  all  his  lore; 

shore 

The  changing  market  frets  or  charms 

Await  the  last  and  largest  sense  to  make 

The  merchant's  hope  no  more; 

The  phantom  walls  of  this  illusion  fade, 

The  prophet's  beacon  burn'd  in  vain, 

And  show  us  that  the  world  is  wholly  fair. 

And  now  is  lost  in  cloud ; 

The  plowman  passes,  bent  with  pain, 

"  But  vain  the  tears  for  darken'd  years 

To  mix  with  what  he  plow'd; 

As  laughter  over  wine, 

The  poet  whom  his  Age  would  quote 

And  vain  the  laughter  as  the  tears, 

As  heir  of  endless  fame  — 

0  brother,  mine  or  thine, 

He  knows  not  ev'n  the  book  he  wrote, 

Not  even  his  own  name. 

"  For  all  that  laugh,  and  all  that  weep, 

For  man  has  overlived  his  day, 

And  all  that  breathe  are  one 

And,  darkening  in  the  light, 

Slight  ripple  on  the  boundless  deep 

Scarce  feels  the  senses  break  away 

That  moves,  and  all  is  gone." 

To  mix  with  ancient  Night." 

But  that  one  ripple  on  the  boundless  deep 

The  shell  must  break  before  the  bird  can 

Feels   that  the   deep  is  boundless,  and 

fly. 

itself 

For  ever  changing  form,  but  evermore 

"The  years  that  when  my  Youth  began 

One  with  the  boundless  motion   of  the 

Had  set  the  lily  and  rose 

deep. 

By  all  my  ways  where'er  they  ran, 

Have  ended  mortal  foes; 

"  Yet  wine  and  laughter  friends !  and  set 

My  rose  of  love  for  ever  gone, 

The  lamps  alight,  and  call 

My  lily  of  truth  and  trust  — 

For  golden  music,  and  forget 

They  made  her  lily  and  rose  in  one, 

The  darkness  of  the  pall." 

And  changed  her  into  dust. 

0  rosetree  planted  in  my  grief, 

If  utter  darkness  closed  the  day,  my 

And  growing,  on  her  tomb, 

son 

Her  dust  is  greening  in  your  leaf, 

But  earth's  dark  forehead  flings  athwart 

Her  blood  is  in  your  bloom. 

the  heavens 

THE  ANCIENT  SAGE. 


539 


Her   shadow  crown'd   with  stars  —  and 

yonder  —  out 
To  northward  —  some  that  never  set,  but 

pass 
From  sight  and  night  to  lose  themselves 

in  day. 
I  hate  the  black  negation  of  the  bier, 
And  wish  the  dead,  as  happier  than  our- 
selves 
And    higher,    having  climb'd   one    step 

beyond. 
Our  village  miseries,  might  be  borne  in 

white 
To   burial  or  to  burning,  hymn'd   from 

hence 
With    songs   in   praise    of    death,   and 

crown'd  with  flowers ! 

"  O  worms  and  maggots  of  to-day 
Without  their  hope  of  wings !  " 

But   louder   than   thy  rhyme   the  silent 

Word 
Of  that  world-prophet  in  the  heart  of  man. 

"  Tho'  some  have  gleams  or  so  they  say 
Of  more  than  mortal  things." 

To-day?  but  what  of  yesterday?  for  oft 
On  me,  when  boy,  there  came  what  then 

I  call'd, 
Who  knew  no  books  and  no  philosophies, 
In   my  boy-phrase  '  The  Passion  of  the 

Past.' 
The  first  gray  streak  of  earliest  summer- 
dawn, 
The  last  long  stripe  of  waning  crimson 

gloom, 
As  if  the  late  and  early  were  but  one  — 
A  height,  a  broken  grange,  a  grove,  a 

flower 
Had  murmurs  '  Lost  and  gone  and  lost 

and  gone ! ' 
A  breath,  a  whisper  —  some  divine  fare- 
well— 
Desolate  sweetness — far  and  far  away  — 
What   had  he  loved,  what  had  he  lost, 

the  boy? 
I  know  not  and  I  speak  of  what  has  been. 
And  more,   my   son !   for   more   than 
once  when  I 
Sat  all  alone,  revolving  in  myself 
The  word  that  is  the  symbol  of  myself, 


The  mortal  limit  of  the  Self  was  loosed, 
And  past  into  the  Nameless,  as  a  cloud 
Melts  into  Heaven.     I  touch'd  my  limbs, 

the  limbs 
Were   strange   not   mine  —  and   yet    no 

shade  of  doubt, 
But  utter  clearness,  and  thro'  loss  of  Self 
The  gain  of  such  large  life  as  match'd 

with  ours 
Were  Sun  to  spark  —  unshadowable  in 

words, 
Themselves  but  shadows  of  a  shadow- 
world. 

"  And  idle  gleams  will  come  and  go, 
But  still  the  clouds  remain;  " 

The  clouds  themselves  are  children  of  the 
Sun. 

"  And  Night  and  Shadow  rule  below 
When  only  Day  should  reign." 

And  Day  and  Night  are  children  of  the 

Sun, 
And  idle  gleams  to  thee  are  light  to  me. 
Some  say,  the  Light  was  father  of  the 

Night, 
And  some,  the  Night  was  father  of  the 

Light, 
No  night  no  day !  —  I  touch  thy  world 

again  — 
No  ill  no  good !  such  counter-terms,  my 

son, 
Are  border-races,  holding,  each  its  own 
By  endless  war :  but  night  enough  is  there 
In  yon  dark  city :  get   thee  back :  and 

since  • 

The  key  to  that  weird  casket,  which  for 

thee 
But   holds  a  skull,  is  neither  thine  nor 

mine, 
But  in  the  hand  of  what  is  more  than 

man, 
Or  in  man's  hand  when  man  is  more  than 

man, 
Let  be  thy  wail  and  help  thy  fellow  men, 
And  make  thy  gold  thy  vassal  not  thy 

king, 
And  fling  free  alms   into   the    beggar's 

bowl, 
And   send   the   day   into    the   darken'd 

heart; 


540 


THE  FLIGHT. 


Nor  list  for  guerdon  in  the  voice  of  men, 

A  dying  echo  from  a  falling  wall; 

Nor   care  —  for    Hunger    hath  the  Evil 
eye  — 

To  vex  the  noon  with  fiery  gems,  or  fold 

Thy  presence  in  the  silk  of  sumptuous 
looms; 

Nor  roll  thy  viands  on  a  luscious  tongue, 

Nor  drown  thyself  with  flies  in  honied 
wine; 

Nor  thou  be  rageful,  like  a  handled  bee, 

And  lose  thy  life  by  usage  of  thy  sting; 

Nor  harm  an  adder  thro'  the  lust   for 
harm, 

Nor  make  a  snail's  horn  shrink  for  wan- 
tonness; 

And   more  —  think   well !    Do-well  will 
follow  thought, 

And  in  the  fatal  sequence  of  this  world 

An  evil  thought  may  soil  thy  children's 
blood; 

But  curb  the  beast  would  cast  thee  in  the 
mire, 

And  leave  the  hot  swamp  of  voluptuous- 
ness 

A  cloud  between  the  Nameless  and  thy- 
self, 

And   lay   thine   uphill   shoulder   to   the 
wheel, 

And  climb  the  Mount  of  Blessing,  whence, 
if  thou 

Look  higher,    then — perchance  —  thou 
mayest  —  beyond 

A  hundred  ever-rising  mountain  lines, 

And  past  the  range  of  Night  and  Shadow 
—  see 

The   high-heaven   dawn   of  more    than 
mortal  day 

Strike  on  the  Mount  of  Vision ! 

So,  farewell. 

THE  FLIGHT. 


Are  you  sleeping?    have  you  forgotten? 

do  not  sleep,  my  sister  dear  ! 
How  can  you  sleep?  the  morning  brings 

the  day  I  hate  and  fear; 
The  cock  has  crow'd   already  once,  he 

crows  before  his  time; 
Awake !  the  creeping  glimmer  steals,  the 

hills  are  white  with  rime. 


Ah,  clasp  me  in    your  arms,  sister,  ah, 

fold  me  to  your  breast ! 
Ah,  let  me  weep  my  fill  once  more,  and 

cry  myself  to  rest ! 
To  rest?  to  rest  and  wake  no  more  were 

better  rest  for  me, 
Than  to  waken  every   morning  to  that 

face  I  loathe  to  see : 


I  envied  your  sweet  slumber,  all  night  so 

calm  you  lay, 
The  night  was  calm,  the  morn  is  calm, 

and  like  another  day; 
But  I  could  wish  yon  moaning  sea  would 

rise  and  burst  the  shore, 
And  such  a  whirlwind  blow  these  woods, 

as  never  blew  before. 

IV. 

For,  one    by  one,  the  stars  went  down 

across  the  gleaming  pane, 
And  project  after  project  rose,  and  all  of 

them  were  vain; 
The  blackthorn-blossom  fades  and  falls 

and  leaves  the  bitter  sloe, 
The  hope  I  catch  at  vanishes  and  youth 

is  turn'd  to  woe. 


Come,  speak  a  little  comfort !  all  night 

I  pray'd  with  tears, 
And  yet  no  comfort  came   to  me,  and 

now  the  morn  appears, 
When  he  will  tear  me  from  your  side, 

who  bought  me  for  his  slave : 
This  father  pays  his  debt  with  me,  and 

weds  me  to  my  grave. 

VI. 

What  father,  this  or  mine,  was  he,  who, 

on  that  summer  day 
When  I  had  fall'n  from  off  the  crag  we 

clamber' d  up  in  play, 
Found,  fear'd  me  dead,  and  groan'd,  and 

took  and  kiss'd  me,  and  again 
He  kiss'd  me;   and  I   loved  him  then; 

he  was  my  father  ihen. 


THE  FLIGHT. 


541 


VII. 

No  father   now,   the  tyrant  vassal  of  a 

tyrant  vice ! 
The  Godless  Jephtha  vows  his  child  .  .  . 

to  one  cast  of  the  dice. 
These  ancient  woods,  this  Hall  at  last 

will  go  —  perhaps  have  gone, 
Except  his  own  meek  daughter  yield  her 

life,  heart,  soul  to  one  — 


VIII. 


O  the 


To  one  who  knows  I  scorn  him. 

formal  mocking  bow, 
The  cruel  smile,  the  courtly  phrase  that 

masks  his  malice  now  — 
But  often  in  the  sidelong  eyes  a  gleam  of 

all  things  ill  — 
It   is   not   Love  but    Hate  that  weds  a 

bride  against  her  will; 

IX. 

Hate,  that  would   pluck   from  this  true 

breast  the  locket  that  I  wear, 
The  precious  crystal  into  which  I  braided 

Edwin's  hair ! 
The  love  that  keeps  this  heart  alive  beats 

on  it  night  and  day  — 
One  golden  curl,  his  golden  gift,  before 

he  past  away. 

/ 
x. 

He  left  us  weeping  in  the  woods;    his 

boat  was  on  the  sand; 
How   slowly  down   the   rocks  he  went, 

how  loth  to  quit  the  land ! 
And  all  my  life  was  darken'd,  as  I  saw 

the  white  sail  run, 
And  darken,  up  that  lane  of  light  into 

the  setting  sun. 

XI. 

How  often  have  we  watch'd  the  sun  fade 

from  us  thro'  the  West, 
And  follow  Edwin  to  those  isles,  those 

islands  of  the  Blest ! 
Is  he  not  there?  would  I  were  there,  the 

friend,  the  bride,  the  wife, 
With    him,  where   summer   never   dies, 

with  Love,  the  Sun  of  life  ! 


O  would  I  were  in  Edwin's  arms — once 

more  —  to  feel  his  breath 
Upon  my  cheek  —  on  Edwin's  ship,  with 

Edwin,  ev'n  in  death, 
Tho'  all  about  the  shuddering  wreck  the 

death-white  sea  should  rave, 
Or  if  lip  were  laid  to  lip  on  the  pillows 

of  the  wave. 

XIII. 

Shall  I  take  him  ?  I  kneel  with  him  ?  1 

swear  and  swear  forsworn 
To  love  him  most,  whom  most  I  loathe, 

to  honour  whom  I  scorn? 
The  Fiend  would  yell,  the  grave  would 

yawn,  my  mother's   ghost  would 

rise  — 
To  lie,  to  lie  —  in  God's  own  house  —  the 

blackest  of  all  lies ! 

XIV. 

Why  —  rather  than  that  hand  in  mine, 

tho'  every  pulse  would  freeze, 
I'd   sooner   fold  an  icy  corpse    dead   of 

some  foul  disease : 
Wed  him?     I  will  not  wed  him,  let  them 

spurn  me  from  the  doors, 
And  I  will  wander  till  I  die  about  the 

barren  moors. 


The  dear,  mad  bride  who    stabb'd  her 

bridegroom  on  her  bridal  night  — 
If  mad,  then  I  am  mad,  but  sane,  if  she 

were  in  the  right. 
My  father's  madness  makes  me  mad  — 

but  words  are  only  words ! 
I  am  not  mad,  not  yet,  not  quite  —  There  ! 

listen  how  the  birds 

XVI. 

Begin  to  warble  yonder  in  the  budding 

orchard  trees ! 
The  lark  has  past  from  earth  to  Heaven 

upon  the  morning  breeze  ! 
How  gladly,  were  I  one  of  those,  how 

early  would  I  wake  ! 
And  yet  the  sorrow  that  I  bear  is  sorrow 

for  his  sake. 


542 


THE  FLIGHT. 


They   love   their   mates,  to  whom   they 

sing;  or  else  their  songs,  that  meet 
The   morning   with   such   music,   would 

never  be  so  sweet ! 
And  tho'  these  fathers  will  not  hear,  the 

blessed  Heavens  are  just, 
And   Love   is   fire,  and   burns   the   feet 

would  trample  it  to  dust. 

XVIII. 

A  door  was  open'd  in  the  house — who? 

who  ?  my  father  sleeps ! 
A  stealthy  foot  upon  the  stair !  he  —  some 

one  —  this  way  creeps ! 
If  he?  yes,  he  .  .  .  lurks,  listens,  fears 

his  victim  may  have  fled  — 
He  !  where  is  some  sharp-pointed  thing? 

he  comes,  and  finds  me  dead. 

XIX. 

Not  he,  not  yet !  and  time  to  act  —  but 

how  my  temples  burn  ! 
And  idle  fancies  flutter  me,  I  know  not 

where  to  turn; 
Speak  to  me,  sister;    counsel   me;    this 

marriage  must  not  be. 
You  only  know  the  love  that  makes  the 

world  a  world  to  me  ! 

xx. 

Our  gentle  mother,  had  she  lived  —  but 

we  were  left  alone : 
That  other  left  us  to  ourselves;   he  cared 

not  for  his  own; 
So  all  the  summer  long  we  roam'd  in 

these  wild  woods  of  ours, 
My  Edwin  loved   to    call  us  then  I  His 

two  wild  woodland  flowers.' 

XXI. 

Wild  flowers  blowing  side  by  side  in 

God's  free  light  and  air, 
Wild  flowers  of  the  secret  woods,  when 

Edwin  found  us  there, 
Wild  woods  in  which  we  roved  with  him, 

and  heard  his  passionate  vow, 
Wild  woods  in  which  we  rove  no  more, 

if  we  be  parted  now  1 


XXII. 

You  will  not  leave  me  thus  in  grief  to 

wander  forth  forlorn; 
We   never   changed   a   bitter  word,  not 

once  since  we  were  born; 
Our  dying  mother  join'd  our  hands;   she 

knew  this  father  well ; 
She  bade  us  love,  like  souls  in  Heaven, 

and  now  I  fly  from  Hell, 


And   you  with  me;    and  we  shall  light 

upon  some  lonely  shore, 
Some  lodge  within  the  waste  sea-dunes, 

and  hear  the  waters  roar, 
And  see  the  ships  from  out  the  West  go 

dipping  thro'  the  foam, 
And  sunshine  on  that  sail  at  last  which 

brings  our  Edwin  home. 

XXIV. 

But  look,  the  morning  grows  apace,  and 

lights  the  old  church-tower, 
And  lights  the  clock  !    the  hand  points 

five  —  Ome — it  strikes  the  hour — 
I  bide  no  more,  I  meet  my  fate,  whatever 

ills  betide ! 
Arise,  my  own  true  sister,  come  forth ! 

the  world  is  wide. 


And  yet  my  heart  is  ill  at  ease,  my  eyes 

are  dim  with  dew, 
I  seem  to  see  a  new-dug  grave  up  yonder 

by  the  yew ! 
If  we   should    never   more   return,   but 

wander  hand  in  hand 
With  breaking  hearts,  without  a  friend, 

and  in  a  distant  land ! 

XXVI. 

O  sweet,  they  tell  me  that  the  world  is 

hard,  and  harsh  of  mind, 
But  can  it  be  so  hard,  so  harsh,  as  those 

that  should  be  kind? 
That  matters  not:    let  come  what  will; 

at  last  the  end  is  sure, 
And  every  heart  that  loves  with  truth  is 

equal  to  endure. 


TOMORROW. 


543 


TOMORROW. 


Her,  that  yer  Honour  was  spakin'  to? 

.   Whin,  yer  Honour?  last  year  — 
Standin'  here  by  the  bridge,  when  last 

yer  Honour  was  here? 
An'  yer  Honour  ye  gev  her  the  top  of  the 

mornin',  'Tomorra,'  says  she. 
What   did   they  call   her,  yer  Honour? 

They  call'd  her  Molly  Magee. 
An'  yer  Honour's  the  thrue  ould  blood 

that  always  manes  to  be  kind, 
But    there's    rason    in    all    things,    yer 

Honour,   for    Molly  was    out    of 

her  mind. 


Shure,  an'  meself  remimbers  wan  night 

comin'  down  be  the  sthrame, 
An'  it  seems  to  me  now  like   a  bit   of 

yisther-day  in  a  dhrame  — 
Here  where  yer  Honour  seen  her  —  there 

was  but  a  slip  of  a  moon, 
But  I  hard  thim  —  Molly  Magee  wid  her 

bachelor,  Danny  O'Roon  — 
'You've    been    takin'  a    dhrop    o'    the 

crathur,'  an'  Danny  says,  '  Troth, 

an'  I  been 
Dhrinkin'  yer,  health  wid  Shamus  O'Shea 

at  Katty's  shebeen;  * 
But  I  must  be  lavin'  ye  soon.'     '  Ochone 

are  ye  goin'  away?' 
'  Goin'  to  cut  the  Sassenach  whate,'  he 

says,  '  over  the  say  '  — 
'An'  whin  will  ye  meet  me  agin?'  an'  I 

hard  him,  '  Molly  asthore, 
I'll  meet  you  agin  tomorra,'  says  he,  *  be 

the  chapel-door.' 
'An'  whin  are   ye   goin'   to   lave    me?' 

'  O'  Monday  mornin','  says  he; 
'An'  shure  thin  ye'll  meet  me  tomorra?  ' 

'  Tomorra,  tomorra,  Machree ! ' 
Thin  Molly's  ould  mother,  yer  Honour, 

that  had  no  likin'  for  Dan, 
Call'd  from  her  cabin  an'  tould   her  to 

come  away  from  the  man, 
An'  Molly  Magee  kem  flyin'  acrass  me, 

as  light  as  a  lark, 
An'  Dan   stood  there  for  a  minute,  an* 

thin  wint  into  the  dark. 

1  Grog-shop. 


But  wirrah  !  the  storm  that  night  —  the 
tundher,  an'  rain  that  fell, 

An'  the  sthrames  runnin'  down  at  the 
back  o'  the  glin  'ud  'a  dhrownded 
Hell. 

in. 

But  airth  was  at  pace  nixt  mornin',  an' 

Hiven  in  its  glory  smiled, 
As  the  Holy  Mother  o'  Glory  that  smiles 

at  her  sleepin'  child  — 
Ethen  —  she  stept  an  the  chapel-green, 

an'  she  turn'd  herself  roun' 
Wid  a  diamond  dhrop   in   her   eye,  for 

Danny  was  not  to  be  foun', 
An'  many's  the  time  that  I  watch'd  her 

at  mass  lettin'  down  the  tear, 
For  the  Divil   a   Danny  was   there,  yer 

Honour,  for  forty  year. 

IV. 

Och,  Molly  Magee,  wid  the  red  o'  the 

rose  an'  the  white  o'  the  May, 
An'  yer  hair  as  black  as  the  night,  an' 

yer  eyes  as  bright  as  the  day ! 
Achora,   yer   laste    little    whishper   was 

sweet  as  the  lilt  of  a  bird ! 
Acushla,  ye  set  me  heart  batin'  to  music 

wid  ivery  word  ! 
An'  sorra  the  Queen  wid  her  sceptre  in 

sich  an  illigant  han', 
An'  the  fall  of  yer  foot  in  the  dance  was 

as  light  as  snow  an  the  Ian', 
An'  the  sun  kem  out  of  a  cloud  whiniver 

,  ye  walkt  in  the  shtreet, 
An'  Shamus  O'Shea  was  yer  shadda,  an' 

laid  himself  undher  yer  feet, 
An'  I  loved  ye  meself  wid  a  heart  and  a 

half,  me  darlin',  and  he 
'Ud  'a  shot  his  own  sowl  dead  for  a  kiss 

of  ye,  Molly  Magee. 


But  shure  we  wor  betther  frinds  whin  I 

crack'd  his  skull  for  her  sake, 
An'  he  ped  me  back  wid  the  best  he 

could    give    at    ould    Donovan's 

wake  — 
For  the  boys  wor  about  her  agin  whin 

Dan  didn't  come  to  the  fore, 
An'  Shamus  along  wid  the  rest,  but  she 

put  thim  all  to  the  door. 


544 


TOMORROW. 


An',  afther,  I  thried  her  meself  av  the 
bird  'ud  come  to  me  call, 

But  Molly,  begorrah,  'ud  listhen  to  naither 
at  all,  at  all. 


An'  her  nabours  an'  frinds  'ud  consowl 

an'  condowl  wid   her,   airly   and 

late, 
'  Your   Danny,'   they  says,  '  niver  crasst 

over  say  to  the  Sassenach  whate; 
He's  gone  to  the  States,  aroon,  an'  he's 

married  another  wife, 
An'  ye'U  niver  set  eyes  an  the  face  of  the 

thraithur  agin  in  life  ! 
An'  to  dhrame  of  a  married  man,  death 

alive,  is  a  mortial  sin.' 
But  Molly  says, '  I'd  his  hand-promise,  an' 

shure  he'll  meet  me  agin.' 

VII. 

An'  afther  her  paarints  had  inter'd  glory, 

an'  both  in  wan  day, 
She  began  to  spake  to  herself,  the  crathur, 

an'  whishper,  an'  say, 
'  Tomorra,  Tomorra  ! '   an'    Father   Mo- 

lowny  he  tuk  her  in  han', 
'  Molly,   you're    manin','    he    says,   '  me 

dear,  av  I  undherstan', 
That  ye'll  meet  your  paarints   agin  an' 

yer  Danny  O'Roon  afore  God 
Wid  his  blessed  Marthyrs  an'   Saints;  ' 

an'  she  gev  him  a  friendly  nod, 
*  Tomorra,  Tomorra,'  she  says,  an'    she 

didn't  intind  to  desave, 
But  her  wits  wor  dead,  an'  her  hair  was 

as  white  as  the  snow  an  a  grave. 

VIII. 

Arrah  now,  here  last  month  they  wor 
diggin'  the  bog,  an'  they  foun' 

Dhrownded  in  black  bog-wather  a  corp 
lyin'  undher  groun'. 

IX. 

Yer  Honour's  own  agint,  he  says  to  me 

wanst,  at  Katty's  shebeen, 
'The    Divil    take    all    the    black    Ian', 

for  a  blessin'   'ud  come  wid    the 

green ! ' 
An'  where  'ud  the  poor  man,  thin,  cut 

his  bit  o'  turf  for  the  fire? 


But  och!  bad  scran  to  the  bogs  whin 
they  swallies  the  man  intire ! 

An'  sorra  the  bog  that's  in  Hiven  wid  all 
the  light  an'  the  glow, 

An'  there's  hate  enough,  shure,  widout* 
thim  in  the  Divil's  kitchen  below. 


x. 


Thim  ould  blind  nagers  in  Agypt,  I  hard 

his  Riverence  say, 
Could   keep  their  haithen  kings  in  the 

flesh  for  the  Jidgemint  day, 
An',  faix,  be  the  piper  o'  Moses,  they  kep' 

the  cat  an'  the  dog, 
But  it  'ud  'a  been  aisier  work  av  they 

lived  be  an  Irish  bog. 

XI. 

How-an-iver  they  laid   this  body  they 

foun'  an  the  grass 
Be  the  chapel-door,  an'  the  people  'ud 

see  it  that  wint  in  to  mass  — 
But  a  frish  gineration  had  riz,  an'  most 

of  the  ould  was  few, 
An'  I  didn't  know  him  meself,  an'  none 

of  the  parish  knew. 


But  Molly  kem  limpin'  up  wid  her  stick, 

she  was  lamed  av  a  knee, 
Thin  a  slip  of  a  gossoon  call'd,  '  Div  ye 

know  him,  Molly  Magee?' 
An'  she  stood  up  straight  as  the  Queen  of 

the  world  —  she  lifted  her  head  — 
1  He  said  he  would  meet  me  tomorra ! ' 

an'  dhropt  down  dead  an  the  dead. 


Och,   Molly,  we   thought,   machree,   ye 

would  start  back  agin  into  life, 
Whin  we  laid  yez,  aich  be  aich,  at  yer 

wake  like  husban'  an'  wife. 
Sorra  the  dhry  eye  thin  but  was  wet  for 

the  frinds  that  was  gone ! 
Sorra   the   silent  throat  but  we  hard  it 

cryin'  '  Ochone  !  ' 
An'  Shamus  O'Shea   that   has  now  ten 

childer,  hansome  an'  tall, 
Him  an'  his  childer  wor  keenin'  as  if  he 

had  lost  thim  all. 


THE   SPINSTER'S  SWEET-ARTS. 


545 


XIV. 

Thin  his  Riverence  buried  thim  both  in 
wan  grave  be  the  dead  boor-tree,1 

The  young  man  Danny  O'Roon  wid  his 
ould  woman,  Molly  Magee. 


May  all  the  flowers  o'  Jeroosilim  blossom 

an'  spring  from  the  grass, 
Imbrashin'    an'   kissin'    aich    other  —  as 

ye  did  —  over  yer  Crass ! 
An'  the  lark  fly  out  o'  the  flowers  wid 

his  song  to  the  Sun  an'  the  Moon, 
An'   tell    thim    in    Hiven   about    Molly 

Magee  an'  her  Danny  O'Roon, 
Till  Holy  St.  Pether  gets  up  wid  his  kays 

an'  opens  the  gate  ! 
An'  shure,   be  the  Crass,  that's  betther 

nor  cuttin'  the  Sassenach  whate 
To  be  there  wid  the  Blessed  Mother,  an' 

Saints  an'  Marthyrs  galore, 
An'  singin'  yer  '  Aves '  an'  *  Pathers '  for 

iver  an'  ivermore. 

XVI. 

An'  now  that  I  tould  yer  Honour  what- 

iver  I  hard  an'  seen, 
Yer  Honour'ill  give  me  a  thrifle  to  dhrink 

yer  health  in  potheen. 


THE  SPINSTER'S   SWEET-ARTS. 


Milk  for  my  sweet-arts,  Bess !  fur  it  mun 

be  the  time  about  now 
When   Molly  cooms  in  fro'  the  far-end 

close  wi'  her  paails  fro'  the  cow. 
Eh !  tha  be  new  to  the  plaace  —  thou'rt 

gaapin' —  doesn't  tha  see 
I  calls  'em  arter  the  fellers  es  once  was 

sweet  upo'  me? 

II. 

Naay  to  be  sewer  it  be  past  'er  time. 

What  maakes  'er  sa  laate? 
Goa  to  the  laane  at  the  back,  an'  looSk 

thruf  Maddison's  gaate ! 


1  Elder  tree. 


Sweet-arts !  Molly  belike  may  'a  lighted 

to-night  upo'  one. 
Sweet-arts !    thanks  to  the  Lord  that  I 

niver  not  listen'd  to  noan  ! 
So  I  sits  i'  my  oan  armchair  wi'  my  oan 

kettle  theere  o'  the  hob, 
An'  Tommy   the    fust,    an'  Tommy   the 

second,  an'  Steevie  an'  Rob. 

IV. 

Rob,  coom  oop  'ere  o'  my  knee.     Thou 

sees  that  i'  spite  o'  the  men 
I  'a  kep'  thruf   thick  an'  thin  my  two 

'oonderd  a-year  to  mysen; 
Yis !  thaw  tha  call'd  me  es  pretty  es>  ony 

lass  i'  the  Shere; 
An'  thou  be  es  pretty  a  Tabby,  but  Robby 

I  seed  thruf  ya  theere. 


Feyther  'ud  saay  I  wur  ugly  es  sin,  an'  I 

beant  not  vaain, 
But  I  niver  wur  downright  hugly,  thaw 

soom  'ud  'a  thowt  ma  plaain, 
An'  I  wasn't  sa  plaain  i'  pink  ribbons,  ye— • 

said  I  wur  pretty  i'  pinks, 
An'  I  liked  to  'ear  it  I  did,  but  I  beant 

sich  a  fool  as  ye  thinks; 
Ye  was  stroakin  ma  down  wi'  the  'air, 

as  I  be  a-stroakin  o'  you, 
Butwhiniver  I  loooked  i'  the  glass  I  wur 

sewer  that  it  couldn't  be  true; 
Niver  wur  pretty,  not  I,  but  ye  knaw'd  it 

wur  pleasant  to  'ear, 
Thaw  it  warn't  not  me  es  wur  pretty,  but 

my  two  'oonderd  a-year. 


D'ya  mind  the   murnin'    when   we   was 

a-walkin'  togither,  an'  stood 
By  the  claay'd-oop  pond,  that  the  foalk 

be  sa  scared  at,  i'  Gigglesby  wood, 
Wheer  the  poor  wench  drowndid  hersen, 

black  Sal,es  'ed  been  disgraaced? 
An'  I    feel'd    thy   arm    es   I   stood   wur 

a-creeapin  about  my  waaist; 
An'  me  es  wur  alius  afear'd  of  a  man's 

gittin'  ower  fond, 
I  sidled  awaay  an'  awaay  till  I  plumpt  foot 

fust  i'  the  pond; 


2N 


546 


THE   SPINSTER'S  SWEET-ARTS. 


And,  Robby,  I  niver  'a  liked  tha  sa  well, 

as  I  did  that  daay, 
Fur  tha  joompt  in  thysen,  an'  tha  hoickt 

my  feet  wi'  a  flop  fro'  the  claay. 
Ay,  stick  oop  thy  back,  an'  set  oop  thy 

taail,  tha  may  gie  ma  a  kiss, 
Fur  I  walk'd  wi'  tha  all  the  way  hoam 

an'  wur  niver  sa  nigh  saayin'  Yis. 
But  wa  boath  was  i'  sich  a  clat  we  was 

shaamed  to  cross  GigglesbyGreean, 
Fur  a  cat  may  loook  at  a  king  thou  knaws 

but  the  cat  mun  be  clean. 
Sa  we  boath  on  us  kep  out  o'  sight  o'  the 

winders  o'  Gigglesby  Hinn  — 
Naay,  but  the  claws  o'  tha  !  quiet !  they 

pricks  clean  thruf  to  the  skin  — 
An'  wa  boath  slinkt  'oam  by  the  brokken 

shed  i'  the  laane  at  the  back, 
Wheer  the  poodle  runn'd  at  tha  once,  an' 

thou  runn'd  oop  o'  the  thack; 
An'  tha  squeedg'd  my  'and  i'  the  shed, 

fur  theere  we  was  forced  to  'ide, 
Fur  I  seed  that  Steevie  wur  coomin',  and 

one  o'  the  Tommies  beside. 

VII. 

Theere  now,  what  art  'a  mewin  at,  Steevie  ? 

for  owt  I  can  tell  — 
Robby  wur  fust  to  be  sewer,  or  I  movvt 

'a  liked  tha  as  well. 


But,  Robby,  I  thowt  o'  tha  all  the  while 

I  wur  chaangin'  my  gown, 
An'  I  thowt  shall  I  chaange  my  staate? 

but,  O  Lord,  upo'  coomin' down  — 
My  bran-new  carpet  es  fresh  es  a  midder 

o'  flowers  i'  Maay  — 
Why  'edn't  tha  wiped  thy  shoes?  it  wur 

clatted  all  ower  wi'  claay. 
An'  I  could  'a  cried  ammost,  fur  I  seed 

that  it  couldn't  be, 
An'  Robby  I  gied  tha  a  raatin  that  sattled 

thy  coortin  o'  me. 
An'  Molly  an'  me  was  agreed,  as  we  was 

a-cleanin'  the  floor, 
That  a  man  be  a  durty  thing  an'  a  trouble 

an'  plague  wi'  indoor. 
But  I  rued  it  arter  a  bit,  fur  I  stuck  to 

tha  moor  na  the  rest, 
But  I  couldn't  'a  lived  wi'  a  man  an'  I 

knaws  it  be  all  fur  the  best. 


IX. 

Naay  —  let  ma  stroak   tha  down   till  \ 

maakes  tha  es  smooth  es  silk, 
But  if  I  'ed  married  tha,  Robby,  thou'd 

not  'a  been  worth  thy  milk, 
Thou'd  niver  'a  cotch'd  ony  mice  but  'a 

left  me  the  work  to  do, 
And  'a  taaen  to  the  bottle  beside,  so  es 

all  that  I  'ears  be  true; 
But  I  loovs  tha  to  maake  thysen  'appy, 

an'  soa  purr  awaay,  my  dear, 
Thou  'ed  wellnigh  purr'd  ma  awaay  fro' 

my  oan  two  'oonderd  a-year. 


Swearin  agean,  you  Toms,  as  ye  used  to 

do  twelve  year  sin' ! 
Ye  niver  'eard  Steevie  swear  'cep'  it  wur 

at  a  dog  coomin'  in, 
An'  boath  o'  ye  mun  be  fools  to  be  hallus 

a-shawin'  your  claws, 
Fur  I  niver  cared  nothink  for  neither  — 

an'  one  o'  ye  dead  ye  knaws ! 
Coom  give  hoaver  then,   weant  ye?     I 

warrant  ye  soom  fine  daay  — 
Theere,  lig  down  —  I  shall  hev  to  gie 

one  or  tother  awaay. 
Can't  ye  taake  pattern  by  Steevie?  ye 

sha'n't  hev  a  drop  fro'  the  paail. 
Steevie  be  right  good  manners  bang  thruf 

to  the  tip  o'  the  taail. 

XI. 

Robby,  git  down  wi'tha,  wilt   tha?   let 

Steevie  coom  oop  o'  my  knee. 
Steevie,  my  lad,  thou  'ed  very  nigh  been 

the  Steevie  fur  me  ! 
Robby  wur  fust  to  be  sewer,  'e  wur  burn 

an'  bred  i'  the  'ouse, 
But  thou  be  es  'ansom  a  tabby  es  iver 

patted  a  mouse. 

XII. 

An'  I  beant  not  vaain,  but  I  knaws  I  'ed 

led  tha  a  quieter  life 
Nor  her  wi'  the  hepitaph  yonder !      *  A 

faaithful  an'  loovin'  wife  ! ' 
An'  'cos  o'  thy  farm  by  the  beck,  an'  thy 

windmill  oop  o'  the  croft, 
Tha  thowt  tha  would  marry  ma,  did  tha? 

but  that  wur  a  bit  ower  soft, 


THE   SPINSTER'S  SWEET-ARTS. 


547 


Thaw  thou  was  es  soaber  es  daay,  wi'  a 
niced  red  faace,  an'  es  clean 

Es  a  shillin'  fresh  fro'  the  mint  wi'  a  bran- 
new  *ead  o'  the  Queean, 

An'  thy  farmin'  es  clean  es  thysen',  fur, 
Steevie,  tha  kep'  it  sa  neat 

That  I  niver  not  spied  sa  much  es  a 
poppy  along  wi'  the  wheat, 

An'  the  wool  of  a  thistle  a-flyin'  an' 
seeadin'  tha  haated  to  see; 

Twur  es  bad  es  a  battle-twig1  'ere  i'  my 
oan  blue  ch'aumber  to  me. 

Ay,  roob  thy  whiskers  agean  ma,  fur  I 
could  'a  taaen  to  tha  welh, 

But  fur  thy  bairns,  poor  Steevie,  a 
bouncin'  boy  an'  a  gell. 

XIII. 

An'  thou  was  es  fond  o'  thy  bairns  es  I 

be  mysen  o'  my  cats, 
But  I   niver   not   wish'd   fur   childer,  I 

hevn't  naw  likin'  fur  brats; 
Pretty  anew  when  ya  dresses  'em  oop, 

an'  they  goas  fur  a  walk, 
Or  sits  wi'   their   'ands   afoor   'em,  an' 

doesn't  not  'inder  the  talk  ! 
But  their  bottles  o'  pap,  an'  their  mucky 

bibs,  an'  the  clats  an'  the  clouts, 
An'  their  mashin'  their  toys  to  pieaces  an' 

maakin'  ma  deaf  wi'  their  shouts, 
An'  hallus  a-joompin'  about  ma  as  if  they 

was  set  upo'  springs, 
An'  a-haxin'  ma  hawkard  questions,  an' 

saayin'  ondecent  things, 
An'  a-callin'  ma  '  hugly '  mayhap  to  my 

faace,  or  a-tearin'  my  gown  — 
Dear !   dear !   dear !     I  mun  part  them 

Tommies  —  Steevie  git  down. 


Ye  be  wuss  nor  the  men-tommies,  you. 

I  tell'd  ya,  na  moor  o'  that ! 
Tom,  lig  theere  o'  the  cushion,  an'  tother 

Tom  'ere  o'  the  mat. 


Theere!  I  ha'  master'd  them!    Hed  I 
married  the  Tommies  —  O  Lord, 

To   loove   an'   obaay  the   Tommies !     I 
couldn't  'a  stuck  by  my  word. 

To  be  horder'd  about,  an'  waaked,  when 

Molly  'd  put  out  the  light, 

1  Earwig. 


By  a  man  coomin'  in  wi'  a  hiccup  at  ony 

hour  o'  the  night ! 
An'  the  taable  staain'd  wi'  'is  aale,  an'  the 

mud  o'  'is  boots  o'  the  stairs, 
An'    the   stink  o'   'is  pipe  i'  the   'ouse, 

an'   the   mark  o'  'is  'ead  o'  the 

chairs ! 
An'  noan  o'  my  four  sweet-arts  'ud  'a  let 

me  'a  hed  my  oan  waay, 
Sa  I  likes  'em  best  wi'  taails  when  they 

'evn't  a  word  to  saay. 


An'  I  sits  i'  my  oan  little  parlour,  an' 

sarved  by  my  oan  little  lass, 
Wi'  my  oan  little  garden  outside,  an'  my 

oan  bed  o'  sparrow-grass, 
An'  my  oan  door-poorch  wi'  the  woodbine 

an'  jessmine  a-dressin'  it  greean, 
An'  my  oan  fine  Jackman  i'  purple  a- 

roabin'  the  'ouse  like  a  Queean. 

XVII. 

An'  the  little  gells  bobs  to  ma  hoffens  es 

I  be  abroad  i'  the  laanes, 
When  I  goas  fur  to  coomfut  the  poor  es 

be   down  wi'   their   haaches  an* 

their  paains : 
An'  a  haaf-pot  o'  jam,  or  a  mossel  o'  meat 

when  it  beant  too  dear, 
They  maakes  ma  a  graater  Laady  nor  'er 

i'  the  mansion  theer, 
Hes  'es  hallus  to  hax  of  a  man  how  much 

to  spare  or  to  spend; 
An'  a  spinster  I  be  an'  I  will  be,  if  soa 

please  God,  to  the  hend. 


Mew !  mew !  —  Bess  wi'  the  milk !  what 

ha  maade  our  Molly  sa  laate? 
It  should  'a  been  'ere  by  seven,  an'  theere 

—  it  be  strikin'  height  — 

'  Cushie  wur  craazed  fur  'er  cauf,'  well  —  I 

'eard  'er  a-maakin'  'er  moan, 
An'  I  thowt  to  mysen  '  thank  God  that  I 

hevn't  naw  cauf  o'  my  oan.' 
Theere ! 

Set  it  down ! 

Now  Robby ! 
You  Tommies  shall  waait  to-night 
Till  Robby  an'  Steevie  'es  'ed  their  lap 

—  an'  it  sarves  ye  right, 


548  LOCKSLEY  HALL 


LOCKSLEY  HALL 

SIXTY   YEARS   AFTER. 

Late,  my  grandson  !  half  the  morning  have  I  paced  these  sandy  tracts, 
Watch'd  again  the  hollow  ridges  roaring  into  cataracts, 

Wander' d  back  to  living  boyhood  while  I  heard  the  curlews  call, 
I  myself  so  close  on  death,  and  death  itself  in  Locksley  Hall. 

So  —  your  happy  suit  was  blasted  —  she  the  faultless,  the  divine; 
And  you  liken  —  boyish  babble  —  this  boy-love  of  yours  with  mine. 

I  myself  have  often  babbled  doubtless  of  a  foolish  past; 

Babble,  babble;   our  old  England  may  go  down  in  babble  at  last. 

*  Curse  him! '  curse  your  fellow-victim?  call  him  dotard  in  your  rage? 
Eyes  that  lured  a  doting  boyhood  well  might  fool  a  dotard's  age. 

Jilted  for  a  wealthier !  wealthier?  yet  perhaps  she  was  not  wise; 
I  remember  how  you  kiss'd  the  miniature  with  those  sweet  eyes. 

In  the  hall  there  hangs  a  painting  —  Amy's  arms  about  my  neck  — 
Happy  children  in  a  sunbeam  sitting  on  the  ribs  of  wreck. 

In  my  life  there  was  a  picture,  she  that  clasp'd  my  neck  had  flown; 
I  was  left  within  the  shadow  sitting  on  the  wreck  alone. 

Yours  has  been  a  slighter  ailment,  will  you  sicken  for  her  sake? 
You,  not  you !  your  modern  amourist  is  of  easier,  earthlier  make. 

Amy  loved  me,  Amy  fail'd  me,  Amy  was  a  timid  child; 

But  your  Judith  —  but  your  worldling  —  she  had  never  driven  me  wild. 

She  that  holds  the  diamond  necklace  dearer  than  the  golden  ring, 
She  that  finds  a  winter  sunset  fairer  than  a  morn  of  Spring. 

She  that  in  her  heart  is  brooding  on  his  briefer  lease  of  life, 

While  she  vows  '  till  death  shall  part  us,'  she  the  would-be-widow  wife. 

She  the  worldling  born  of  worldlings — father,  mother  —  be  content, 
Ev'n  the  homely  farm  can  teach  us  there  is  something  in  descent. 

Yonder  in  that  chapel,  slowly  sinking  now  into  the  ground, 
Lies  the  warrior,  my  forefather,  with  his  feet  upon  the  hound. 

Cross'd !  for  once  he  sail'd  the  sea  to  crush  the  Moslem  in  his  pride; 
Dead  the  warrior,,  dead  his  glory,  dead  the  cause  in  which  he  died. 

Yet  how  often  I  and  Amy  in  the  mouldering  aisle  have  stood, 
Gazing  for  one  pensive  moment  on  that  founder  of  our  blood. 


SIXTY    YEARS  AFTER.  549 

There  again  I  stood  to-day,  and  where  of  old  we  knelt  in  prayer, 

Close  beneath  the  casement  crimson  with  the  shield  of  Locksley  —  there, 

All  in  white  Italian  marble,  looking  still  as  if  she  smiled, 

Lies  my  Amy  dead  in  child-birth,  dead  the  mother,  dead  the  child. 

Dead  —  and  sixty  years  ago,  and  dead  her  aged  husband  now  — 
I  this  old  white-headed  dreamer  stoopt  and  kiss'd  her  marble  brow. 

Gone  the  fires  of  youth,  the  follies,  furies,  curses,  passionate  tears, 

Gone  like  fires  and  floods  and  earthquakes  of  the  planet's  dawning  years. 

Fires  that  shook  me  once,  but  now  to  silent  ashes  fall'n  away. 
Cold  upon  the  dead  volcano  sleeps  the  gleam  of  dying  day. 

Gone  the  tyrant  of  my  youth,  and  mute  below  the  chancel  stones, 
All  his  virtues  —  I  forgive  them  —  black  in  white  above  his  bones. 

Gone  the  comrades  of  my  bivouac,  some  in  fight  against  the  foe, 
Some  thro'  age  and  slow  diseases,  gone  as  all  on  earth  will  go. 

Gone  with  whom  for  forty  years  my  life  in  golden  sequence  ran, 
She  with  all  the  charm  of  woman,  she  with  all  the  breadth  of  man, 

Strong  in  will  and  rich  in  wisdom,  Edith,  yet  so  lowly-sweet, 
Woman  to  her  inmost  heart,  and  woman  to  her  tender  feet, 

Very  woman  of  very  woman,  nurse  of  ailing  body  and  mind, 

She  that  link'd  again  the  broken  chain  that  bound  me  to  my  kind. 

Here  to-day  was  Amy  with  me,  while  I  wander'd  down  the  coast, 
Near  us  Edith's  holy  shadow,  smiling  at  the  slighter  ghost. 

Gone  our  sailor  son  thy  father,  Leonard  early  lost  at  sea; 
Thou  alone,  my  boy,  of  Amy's  kin  and  mine  art  left  to  me. 

Gone  thy  tender-natured  mother,  wearying  to  be  left  alone, 
Pining  for  the  stronger  heart  that  once  had  beat  beside  her  own. 

Truth,  for  Truth  is  Truth,  he  worshipt,  being  true  as  he  was  brave; 
Good,  for  Good  is  Good,  he  follow'd,  yet  he  look'd  beyond  the  grave, 

Wiser  there  than  you,  that  crowning  barren  Death  as  lord  of  all, 
Deem  this  over-tragic  drama's  closing  curtain  is  the  pall ! 

Beautiful  was  death  in  him,  who  saw  the  death,  but  kept  the  deck, 
Saving  women  and  their  babes,  and  sinking  with  the  sinking  wreck, 

Gone  for  ever  !     Ever?  no  —  for  since  our  dying  race  began, 
Ever,  ever,  and  for  ever  was  the  leading  light  of  man. 

Those  that  in  barbarian  burials  kill'd  the  slave  and  slew  the  wife 
Felt  within  themselves,  the  sacred  passion  of  the  second  life. 


<;50  LOCKSLEY  HALL 


Indian  warriors  dream  of  ampler  hunting  grounds  beyond  the  night; 
Ev'n  the  black  Australian  dying  hopes  he  shall  return,  a  white. 

Truth  for  truth,  and  good  for  good  !     The  Good,  the  True,  the  Pure,  the  Just  — 
Take  the  charm  f  For  ever '  from  them,  and  they  crumble  into  dust. 

Gone  the  cry  of  '  Forward,  Forward,'  lost  within  a  growing  gloom; 
Lost,  or  only  heard  in  silence  from  the  silence  of  a  tomb. 

Half  the  marvels  of  my  morning,  triumphs  over  time  and  space, 
Staled  by  frequence,  shrunk  by  usage,  into  commonest  commonplace  ! 

*  Forward'  rang  the  voices  then,  and  of  the  many  mine  was  one. 
Let  us  hush  this  cry  of '  Forward '  till  ten  thousand  years  have  gone. 

Far  among  the  vanish'd  races,  old  Assyrian  kings  would  flay 
Captives  whom  they  caught  in  battle  —  iron-hearted  victors  they. 

Ages  after,  while  in  Asia,  he  that  led  the  wild  Moguls, 

Timur  built  his  ghastly  tower  of  eighty  thousand  human  skulls, 

Then,  and  here  in  Edward's  time,  an  age  of  noblest  English  names, 
Christian  conquerors  took  and  flung  the  conquer'd  Christian  into  flames. 

Love  your  enemy,  bless  your  haters,  said  the  Greatest  of  the  great; 
Christian  love  among  the  Churches  look'd  the  twin  of  heathen  hate. 

From  the  golden  alms  of  Blessing  man  had  coin'd  himself  a  curse : 
Rome  of  Caesar,  Rome  of  Peter,  which  was  crueller?  which  was  worse? 

France  had  shown  a  light  to  all  men,  preach'd  a  Gospel,  all  men's  good; 
Celtic  Demos  rose  a  Demon,  shriek'd  and  slaked  the  light  with  blood. 

Hope  was  ever  on  her  mountain,  watching  till  the  day  begun  — 
Crown' d  with  sunlight  —  over  darkness  —  from  the  still  unrisen  sun. 

Have  we  grown  at  last  beyond  the  passions  of  the  primal  clan? 

•  Kill  your  enemy,  for  you  hate  him,'  still,  '  your  enemy '  was  a  man. 

Have  we  sunk  below  them?  peasants  maim  the  helpless  horse,  and  drive 
Innocent  cattle  under  thatch,  and  burn  the  kindlier  brutes  alive. 

Brutes,  the  brutes  are  not  your  wrongers  —  burnt  at  midnight,  found  at  morn, 
Twisted  hard  in  mortal  agony  with  their  offspring,  born- unborn, 

Clinging  to  the  silent  mother!     Are  we  devils?  are  we  men? 
Sweet  St.  Francis  of  Assisi,  would  that  he  were  here  again, 

He  that  in  his  Catholic  wholeness  used  to  call  the  very  flowers 

Sisters,  brothers  —  and  the  beasts  —  whose  pains  are  hardly  less  than  ours ! 

Chaos,  Cosmos !  Cosmos,  Chaos  !  who  can  tell  how  all  will  end? 

Read  the  wide  world's  annals,  you,  and  take  their  wisdom  for  your  friend. 


SIXTY   YEARS  AFTER.  551 

Hope  the  best,  but  hold  the  Present  fatal  daughter  of  the  Past, 

Shape  your  heart  to  front  the  hour,  but  dream  not  that  the  hour  will  last. 

Ay,  if  dynamite  and  revolver  leave  your  courage  to  be  wise : 

When  was  age  so  cramm'd  with  menace?  madness?  written,  spoken  lies? 

Envy  wears  the  mask  of  Love,  and,  laughing  sober  fact  to  scorn, 
Cries  to  Weakest  as  to  Strongest, '  Ye  are  equals,  equal-born.' 

Equal-born?     O  yes,  if  yonder  hill  be  level  with  the  flat. 
Charm  us,  Orator,  till  the  Lion  look  no  larger  than  the  Cat, 

Till  the  Cat  thro'  that  mirage  of  overheated  language  loom 
Larger  than  the  Lion,  —  Demos  end  in  working  its  own  doom. 

Russia  bursts  our  Indian  barrier,  shall  we  fight  her?  shall  we  yield? 
Pause !  before  you  sound  the  trumpet,  hear  the  voices  from  the  field. 

Those  three  hundred  millions  under  one  Imperial  sceptre  now, 

Shall  we  hold  them?  shall  we  loose  them?  take  the  suffrage  of  the  plow. 

Nay,  but  these  would  feel  and  follow  Truth  if  only  you  and  you, 
Rivals  of  realm-ruining  party,  when  you  speak  were  wholly  true. 

Plowmen,  Shepherds,  have  I  found,  and  more  than  once,  and  still  could  find, 
Sons  of  God,  and  kings  of  men  in  utter  nobleness  of  mind, 

Truthful,  trustful,  looking  upward  to  the  practised  hustings-liar; 
So  the  Higher  wields  the  Lower,  while  the  Lower  is  the  Higher. 

Here  and  there  a  cotter's  babe  is  royal-born  by  right  divine; 
Here  and  there  my  lord  is  lower  than  his  oxen  or  his  swine. 

Chaos,  Cosmos  !  Cosmos,  Chaos !  once  again  the  sickening  game; 
Freedom,  free  to  slay  herself,  and  dying  while  they  shout  her  name. 

Step  by  step  we  gain'd  a  freedom  known  to  Europe,  known  to  all; 
Step  by  step  we  rose  to  greatness,  —  thro'  the  tonguesters  we  may  fall. 

You  that  woo  the  Voices  —  tell  them  '  old  experience  is  a  fool,' 
Teach  your  flatter'd  kings  that  only  those  who  cannot  read  can  rule. 

Pluck  the  mighty  from  their  seat,  but  set  no  meek  ones  in  their  place; 
Pillory  Wisdom  in  your  markets,  pelt  your  offal  at  her  face. 

Tumble  Nature  heel  o'er  head,  and,  yelling  with  the  yelling  street, 
Set  the  feet  above  the  brain  and  swear  the  brain  is  in  the  feet. 

Bring  the  old  dark  ages  back  without  the  faith,  without  the  hope, 

Break  the  State,  the  Church,  the  Throne,  and  roll  their  ruins  down  the  slope. 

Authors  —  essayist,  atheist,  novelist,  realist,  rhymester,  play  your  part, 
Paint  the  mortal  shame  of  nature  with  the  living  hues  of  Art. 


552  LOCKSLEY  HALL 


Rip  your  brothers'  vices  open,  strip  your  own  foul  passions  bare; 

Down  with  Reticence,  down  with  Reverence — forward — naked — let  them  stare. 

Feed  the  budding  rose  of  boyhood  with  the  drainage  of  your  sewer; 
Send  the  drain  into  the  fountain,  lest  the  stream  should  issue  pure. 

Set  the  maiden  fancies  wallowing  in  the  troughs  of  Zolaism,  — 
Forward,  forward,  ay  and  backward,  downward  too  into  the  abysm. 

Do  your  best  to  charm  the  worst,  to  lower  the  rising  race  of  men; 
Have  we  risen  from  out  the  beast,  then  back  into  the  beast  again? 

Only  'dust  to  dust'  for  me  that  sicken  at  your  lawless  din, 
Dust  in  wholesome  old-world  dust  before  the  newer  world  begin. 

Heated  am  I?  you  —  you  wonder  —  well,  it  scarce  becomes  mine  age  — 
Patience !  let  the  dying  actor  mouth  his  last  upon  the  stage. 

Cries  of  unprogressive  dotage  ere  the  dotard  fall  asleep? 
Noises  of  a  current  narrowing,  not  the  music  of  a  deep? 

Ay,  for  doubtless  I  am  old,  and  think  gray  thoughts,  for  I  am  gray : 
After  all  the  stormy  changes  shall  we  find  a  changeless  May? 

After  madness,  after  massacre,  Jacobinism  and  Jacquerie, 
Some  diviner  force  to  guide  us  thro'  the  days  I  shall  not  see? 

When  the  schemes  and  all  the  systems,  Kingdoms  and  Republics  fall, 
Something  kindlier,  higher,  holier — all  for  each  and  each  for  all? 

All  the  full-brain,  half-brain  races,  led  by  Justice,  Love,  and  Truth; 
All  the  millions  one  at  length  with  all  the  visions  of  my  youth? 

All  diseases  quench'd  by  Science,  no  man  halt  or  deaf  or  blind; 
Stronger  ever  born  of  weaker,  lustier  body,  larger  mind? 

Earth  at  last  a  warless  world,  a  single  race,  a  single  tongue  — 
I  have  seen  her  far  away  —  for  is  not  Earth  as  yet  so  young?  — 

Every  tiger  madness  muzzled,  every  serpent  passion  kilFd, 
Every  grim  ravine  a  garden,  every  blazing  desert  tilPd, 

Robed  in  universal  harvest  up  to  either  pole  she  smiles, 
Universal  ocean  softly  washing  all  her  warless  Isles. 

Warless?  when  her  tens  are  thousands,  and  her  thousands  millions,  then  — 
All  her  harvest  all  too  narrow  —  who  can  fancy  warless  men? 

Warless?  war  will  die  out  late  then.     Will  it  ever?  late  or  soon? 
Can  it,  till  this  outworn  earth  be  dead  as  yon  dead  world  the  moon? 

Dead  the  new  astronomy  calls  her.  .  .  .     On  this  day  and  at  this  hour, 
In  this  gap  between  the  sandhills,  whence  you  see  the  Locksley  tower, 


SIXTY   YEARS  AFTER.  553 


Here  we  met,  our  latest  meeting — Amy  —  sixty  years  ago  — 
She  and  I  —  the  moon  was  falling  greenish  thro'  a  rosy  glow, 

Just  above  the  gateway  tower,  and  even  where  you  see  her  now  — 

Here  we  stood  and  claspt  each  other,  swore  the  seeming-deathless  vow.  .  .  . 

Dead,  but  how  her  living  glory  lights  the  hall,  the  dune,  the  grass ! 
Yet  the  moonlight  is  the  sunlight,  and  the  Sun  himself  will  pass. 

Venus  near  her !  smiling  downward  at  this  earthlier  earth  of  ours, 
Closer  on  the  Sun,  perhaps  a  world  of  never  fading  flowers. 

Hesper,  whom  the  poet  call'd  the  Bringer  home  of  all  good  things. 
All  good  things  may  move  in  Hesper,  perfect  peoples,  perfect  kings. 

Hesper  —  Venus — were  we  native  to  that  splendour  or  in  Mars, 
We  should  see  the  Globe  we  groan  in,  fairest  of  their  evening  stars. 

Could  we  dream  of  wars  and  carnage,  craft  and  madness,  lust  and  spite, 
Roaring  London,  raving  Paris,  in  that  point  of  peaceful  light? 

Might  we  not  in  glancing  heavenward  on  a  star  so  silver-fair, 

Yearn,  and  clasp  the  hands  and  murmur,  '  Would  to  God  that  we  were  there'? 

Forward,  backward,  backward,  forward,  in  the  immeasurable  sea, 
Sway'd  by  vaster  ebbs  and  flows  than  can  be  known  to  you  or  me. 

All  the  suns  —  are  these  but  symbols  of  innumerable  man, 
Man  or  Mind  that  sees  a  shadow  of  the  planner  or  the  plan? 

Is  there  evil  but  on  earth?  or  pain  in  every  peopled  sphere? 
Well  be  grateful  for  the  sounding  watchword  '  Evolution '  here, 

Evolution  ever  climbing  after  some  ideal  good, 
And  Reversion  ever  dragging  Evolution  in  the  mud. 

What  are  men  that  He  should  heed  us?  cried  the  king  of  sacred  song; 
Insects  of  an  hour,  that  hourly  work  their  brother  insect  wrong, 

While  the  silent  Heavens  roll,  and  Suns  along  their  fiery  way, 
All  their  planets  whirling  round  them,  flash  a  million  miles  a  day. 

Many  an  iEon  moulded  earth  before  her  highest,  man,  was  born, 
Many  an  JEon  too  may  pass  when  earth  is  manless  and  forlorn, 

Earth  so  huge,  and  yet  so  bounded  —  pools  of  salt,  and  plots  of  land  — 
Shallow  skin  of  green  and  azure  —  chains  of  mountain,  grains  of  sand ! 

Qnly  That  which  made  us,  meant  us  to  be  mightier  by  and  by, 
Set  the  sphere  of  all  the  boundless  Heavens  within  the  human  eye, 

Sent  the  shadow  of  Himself,  the  boundless,  thro'  the  human  soul; 
Boundless  inward,  in  the  atom,  boundless  outward,  in  the  Whole. 


554  LOCKSLEY  HALL 


Here  is  Locksley  Hall,  my  grandson,  here  the  lion-guarded  gate. 
Not  to-night  in  Locksley  Hall  —  to-morrow  —  you,  you  come  so  late. 

Wreck'd —  your  train  —  or  all  but  wreck'd?  ashatter'd  wheel?  a  vicious  boy! 
Good,  this  forward,  you  that  preach  it,  is  it  well  to  wish  you  joy? 

Is  it  well  that  while  we  range  with  Science,  glorying  in  the  Time, 
City  children  soak  and  blacken  soul  and  sense  in  city  slime? 

There  among  *.he  glooming  alleys  Progress  halts  on  palsied  feet, 
Crime  and  hunger  cast  our  maidens  by  the  thousand  on  the  street. 

There  the  Master  scrimps  his  haggard  sempstress  of  her  daily  bread, 
There  a  single  sordid  attic  holds  the  living  and  the  dead. 

There  the  smouldering  fire  of  fever  creeps  across  the  rotted  floor, 
And  the  crowded  couch  of  incest  in  the  warrens  of  the  poor. 

Nay,  your  pardon,  cry  your  '  forward,'  yours  are  hope  and  youth,  but  I  — 
Eighty  winters  leave  the  dog  too  lame  to  follow  with  the  cry, 

Lame  and  old,  and  past  his  time,  and  passing  now  into  the  night; 
Yet  I  would  the  rising  race  were  half  as  eager  for  the  light. 

Light  the  fading  gleam  of  Even?  light  the  glimmer  of  the  dawn? 
Aged  eyes  may  take  the  growing  glimmer  for  the  gleam  withdrawn. 

Far  away  beyond  her  myriad  coming  changes  earth  will  be 
Something  other  than  the  wildest  modern  guess  of  you  and  me. 

Earth  may  reach  her  earthly-worst,  or  if  she  gain  her  earthly-best, 
Would  she  find  her  human  offspring  this  ideal  man  at  rest  ? 

Forward  then,  but  still  remember  how  the  course  of  Time  will  swerve, 
Crook  and  turn  upon  itself  in  many  a  backward  streaming  curve. 

Not  the  Hall  to-night,  my  grandson !     Death  and  Silence  hold  their  own. 
Leave  the  Master  in  the  first  dark  hour  of  his  last  sleep  alone. 

Worthier  soul  was  he  than  I  am,  sound  and  honest,  rustic  Squire, 
Kindly  landlord,  boon  companion  —  youthful  jealousy  is  a  liar. 

Cast  the  poison  from  your  bosom,  oust  the  madness  from  your  brain. 
Let  the  trampled  serpent  show  you  that  you  have  not  lived  in  vain. 

Youthful !  youth  and  age  are  scholars  yet  but  in  the  lower  school, 
Nor  is  he  the  wisest  man  who  never  proved  himself  a  fool. 

Yonder  lies  our  young  sea-village  —  Art  and  Grace  are  less  and  less : 
Science  grows  and  Beauty  dwindles  —  roofs  of  slated  hideousness ! 

There  is  one  old  Hostel  left  us  where  they  swing  the  Locksley  shield, 
Till  the  peasant  cow  shall  butt  the  *  Lion  passant '  from  his  field. 


SIXTY   YEARS  AFTER.  555 


Poor  old  Heraldry,  poor  old  History,  poor  old  Poetry,  passing  hence, 
In  the  common  deluge  drowning  old  political  common-sense ! 

Poor  old  voice  of  eighty  crying  after  voices  that  have  fled ! 
All  I  loved  are  vanish'd  voices,  all  my  steps  are  on  the  dead. 

All  the  world  is  ghost  to  me,  and  as  the  phantom  disappears, 
Forward  far  and  far  from  here  is  all  the  hope  of  eighty  years. 


In  this  Hostel  —  I  remember  —  I  repent  it  o'er  his  grave — 

Like  a  clown  —  by  chance  he  met  me  —  I  refused  the  hand  he  gave. 

From  that  casement  where  the  trailer  mantles  all  the  mouldering  bricks  — 
I  was  then  in  early  boyhood,  Edith  but  a  child  of  six  — 

While  I  shelter'd  in  this  archway  from  a  day  of  driving  showers  — 
Peept  the  winsome  face  or  Edith  like  a  flower  among  the  flowers. 

Here  to-night !  the  Hall  to-morrow,  when  they  toll  the  Chapel  bell ! 
Shall  I  hear  in  one  dark  room  a  wailing,  '  I  have  loved  thee  well.' 

Then  a  peal  that  shakes  the  portal  —  one  has  come  to  claim  his  bride, 

Her  that  shrank,  and  put  me  from  her,  shriek'd,  and  started  from  my  side  — 

Silent  echoes !     You,  my  Leonard,  use  and  not  abuse  your  day, 
Move  among  your  people,  know  them,  follow  him  who  led  the  way, 

Strove  for  sixty  widow'd  years  to  help  his  homelier  brother  men, 

Served  the  poor,  and  built  the  cottage,  raised  the  school,  and  drain'd  the  fen 

Hears  he  now  the  Voice  that  wrong'd  him?  who  shall  swear  it  cannot  be? 
Earth  would  never  touch  her  worst,  were  one  in  fifty  such  as  he. 

Ere  she  gain  her  Heavenly-best,  a  God  must  mingle  with  the  game : 
Nay,  there  may  be  those  about  us  whom  we  neither  see  nor  name, 

Felt  within  us  as  ourselves,  the  Powers  of  Good,  the  Powers  of  111, 
Strowing  balm,  or  shedding  poison  in  the  fountains  of  the  Will. 

Follow  you  the  Star  that  lights  a  desert  pathway,  yours  or  mine. 
Forward,  till  you  see  the  highest  Human  Nature  is  divine. 

Follow  Light,  and  do  the  Right  —  for  man  can  half-control  his  doom  — 
Till  you  find  the  deathless  Angel  seated  in  the  vacant  tomb. 

Forward,  let  the  stormy  moment  fly  and  mingle  with  the  Past. 

I  that  loathed,  have  come  to  love  him.     Love  will  conquer  at  the  last. 

Gone  at  eighty,  mine  own  age,  and  I  and  you  will  bear  the  pall ; 
Then  I  leave  thee  Lord  and  Master,  latest  Lord  of  Locksley  Hall. 


556    PROLOGUE— THE   CHARGE    OF  THE  HEAVY  BRIGADE. 


PROLOGUE 
TO  GENERAL  HAMLEY. 

Our  birches  yellowing  and  from  each 

The  light  leaf  falling  fast, 
While  squirrels  from  our  fiery  beech 

Were  bearing  off  the  mast, 
You  came,  and  look'd  and  loved  the  view 

Long-known  and  loved  by  me, 
Green  Sussex  fading  into  blue 

With  one  gray  glimpse  of  sea; 
And,  gazing  from  this  height  alone, 

We  spoke  of  what  had  been 
Most  marvellous  in  the  wars  your  own 

Crimean  eyes  had  seen ; 
And  now  —  like  old-world  inns  that  take 

Some  warrior  for  a  sign 
That  therewithin  a  guest  may  make 

True  cheer  with  honest  wine  — 
Because  you  heard  the  lines  I  read 

Nor  utter'd  word  of  blame, 
I  dare  without  your  leave  to  head 

These  rhymings  with  your  name, 
Who  know  you  but  as  one  of  those 

I  fain  would  meet  again, 
Yet  know  you,  as  your  England  knows 

That  you  and  all  your  men 
Were  soldiers  to  her  heart's  desire, 

When,  in  the  vanish'd  year, 
You  saw  the  league-long  rampart-fire 

Flare  from  Tel-el-Kebir 
Thro'  darkness,  and  the  foe  was  driven, 

And  Wolseley  overthrew 
Arabi,  and  the  stars  in  heaven 

Paled,  and  the  glory  grew. 

THE    CHARGE    OF    THE    HEAVY 
BRIGADE  AT  BALACLAVA. 

October  25,  1854. 


The  charge  of  the  gallant  three  hundred, 

the  Heavy  Brigade ! 
Down  the  hill,  down  the  hill,  thousands 

of  Russians, 
Thousands  of  horsemen,   drew  to    the 

valley  —  and  stay'd; 
For  Scarlett  and  Scarlett's  three  hundred 

were  riding  by 
When  the  points  of  the  Russian  lances 

arose  in  the  sky; 


And   he  call'd  '  Left  wheel  into  line ! ' 

and  they  wheel'd  and  obey'd. 
Then  he  look'd  at  the   host   that  had 

halted  he  knew  not  why, 
And  he  turn'd  half  round,  and  he  bade 

his  trumpeter  sound 
To  the  charge,  and  he  rode  on  ahead,  as 

he  waved  his  blade 
To  the  gallant  three  hundred  whose  glory 

will  never  die  — 
1  Follow,'  and  up  the  hill,  up  the  hill,  up 

the  hill, 
Follow' d  the  Heavy  Brigade. 


11. 


The   trumpet,   the   gallop,   the    charge, 

and  the  might  of  the  fight ! 
Thousands   of    horsemen   had    gather'd 

there  on  the  height, 
With  a  wing  push'd  out  to  the  left  and 

a  wing  to  the  right, 
And  who  shall  escape  if  they  close?  but 

he  dash'd  up  alone 
Thro'  the  great  gray  slope  of  men, 
Sway'd  his  sabre,  and  held  his  own 
Like  an  Englishman  there  and  then; 
All  in  a  moment  follow'd  with  force 
Three    that    were    next    in    their   fiery 

course, 
Wedged   themselves  in  between    horse 

and  horse, 
Fought  for  their  lives  in  the  narrow  gap 

they  had  made  — 
Four  amid  thousands!    and  up  the  hill, 

up  the  hill, 
Gallopt   the  gallant  three  hundred,  the 

Heavy  Brigade. 


Fell  like  a  cannonshot, 
Burst  like  a  thunderbolt, 
Crash'd  like  a  hurricane, 
Broke  thro'  the  mass  from  below, 
Drove  thro'  the  midst  of  the  foe, 
Plunged  up  and  down,  to  and  fro, 
Rode  flashing  blow  upon  blow, 
Brave  Inniskillens  and  Greys 
Whirling  their  sabres  in  circles  of  light ! 
And  some  of  us,  all  in  amaze, 
Who  were   held  for  a  while  from  the 
fight, 


THE   CHARGE    OF   THE  HEAVY  BRIGADE  — EPILOGUE. 


557 


And  were  only  standing  at  gaze, 
When  the  dark-muffled  Russian  crowd 
Folded  its  wings  from  the  left  and  the 

right, 
And  roll'd  them  around  like  a  cloud,  — 

0  mad  for   the    charge  and  the  battle 

were  we, 
When  our  own  good  redcoats  sank  from 

sight, 
Like  drops  of  blood  in  a  dark -gray  sea, 
And  we  turn'd  to  each  other,  whispering, 

all  dismay'd, 

1  Lost  are  the  gallant  three  hundred  of 

Scarlett's  Brigade ! ' 

IV. 

*  Lost  one  and  all '  were  the  words 
Mutter'd  in  our  dismay; 
But  they  rode  like  Victors  and  Lords 
Thro'  the  forest  of  lances  and  swords 
In  the  heart  of  the  Russian  hordes, 
They  rode,  or  they  stood  at  bay  — 
Struck  with  the  sword-hand  and  slew, 
Down  with  the  bridle-hand  drew 
The  foe  from  the  saddle  and  threw 
Underfoot  there  in  the  fray  — 
Ranged  like  a  storm  or  stood  like  a  rock 
In  the  wave  of  a  stormy  day; 
Till  suddenly  shock  upon  shock 
Stagger'd  the  mass  from  without, 
Drove  it  in  wild  disarray, 
For  our  men  gallopt  up  with  a  cheer  and 

a  shout, 
And   the   foeman   surged,  and  waver'd, 

and  reel'd 
Up  the  hill,  up  the  hill,  up  the  hill,  out 

of  the  field, 
And  over  the  brow  and  away. 


Glory  to  each  and  to  all,  and  the  charge 

that  they  made  ! 
Glory  to  all  the  three  hundred,  and  all 

the  Brigade ! 

Note.  —  The  f  three  hundred'  of  the  'Heavy 
Brigade'  who  made  this  famous  charge  were  the 
Scots  Greys  and  the  2nd  squadron  of  Inniskil- 
lings,  the  remainder  of  the  '  Heavy  Brigade ' 
subsequently  dashing  up  to  their  support. 

The  '  three '  were  Scarlett's  aide-de-camp, 
Elliot,  and  the  trumpeter  and  Shegog  the  orderly, 
who  had  been  close  behind  him. 


EPILOGUE. 

Irene. 

Not  this  way  will  you  set  your  name 
A  star  among  the  stars. 

Poet. 
What  way? 

Irene. 

You  praise  when  you  should  blame 
The  barbarism  of  wars. 
A  juster  epoch  has  begun. 

Poet. 

Yet  tho'  this  cheek  be  gray, 
And  that  bright  hair  the  modern  sun, 

Those  eyes  the  blue  to-day, 
You  wrong  me,  passionate  little  friend. 

I  would  that  wars  should  cease, 
I  would  the  globe  from  end  to  end 

Might  sow  and  reap  in  peace, 
And  some  new  Spirit  o'erbear  the  old, 

Or  Trade  refrain  the  Powers 
From  war  with  kindly  links  of  gold, 

Or  Love  with  wreaths  of  flowers. 
Slav,  Teuton,  Kelt,  I  count  them  all 

My  friends  and  brother  souls, 
With  all  the  peoples,  great  and  small, 

That  wheel  between  the  poles. 
But  since,  our  mortal  shadow,  111 

To  waste  this  earth  began  — 
Perchance  from  some  abuse  of  Will 

In  worlds  before  the  man 
Involving  ours  —  he  needs  must  fight 

To  make  true  peace  his  own, 
He  needs  must  combat  might  with  might, 

Or  Might  would  rule  alone; 
And  who  loves  War  for  War's  own  sake 

Is  fool,  or  crazed,  or  worse; 
But  let  the  patriot-soldier  take 

His  meed  of  fame  in  verse; 
Nay  —  tho'  that  realm  were  in  the  wrong 

For  which  her  warriors  bleed, 
It  still  were  right  to  crown  with  song 

The  warrior's  noble  deed  — 
A  crown  the  Singer  hopes  may  last, 

For  so  the  deed  endures; 
But  Song  will  vanish  in  the  Vast; 

And  that  large  phrase  of  yours 
'  A  Star  among  the  stars,'  my  dear, 

Is  girlish  talk  at  best; 
For  dare  we  dally  with  the  sphere 

As  he  did  half  in  jest, 


558 


TO  VIRGIL. 


Old  Horace?    '  I  will  strike,'  said  he, 

*  The  stars  with  head  sublime,' 
But  scarce  could  see,  as  now  we  see, 

The  man  in  Space  and  Time, 
So  drew  perchance  a  happier  lot 

Than  ours,  who  rhyme  to-day. 
The  fires  that  arch  this  dusky  dot  — 

Yon  myriad- worlded  way  — 
The  vast  sun-clusters'  gather'd  blaze, 

World-isles  in  lonely  skies, 
Whole  heavens  within  themselves,  amaze 

Our  brief  humanities; 
And  so  does  Earth;  for  Homer's  fame, 

Tho'  carved  in  harder  stone  — 
The  falling  drop  will  make  his  name 

As  mortal  as  my  own. 


No! 


Irene. 
Poet. 


Let  it  live  then  —  ay,  till  when? 

Earth  passes,  all  is  lost 
In  what  they  prophesy,  our  wise  men, 

Sun-flame  or  sunless  frost, 
And  deed  and  song  alike  are  swept 

Away,  and  all  in  vain 
As  far  as  man  can  see,  except 

The  man  himself  remain; 
And  tho',  in  this  lean  age  forlorn, 

Too  many  a  voice  may  cry 
That  man  can  have  no  after-morn, 

Not  yet  of  these  am  I. 
The  man  remains,  and  whatsoe'er 

He  wrought  of  good  or  brave 
Will  mould  him  thro'  the  cycle-year 

That  dawns  behind  the  grave. 


And  here  the  Singer  for  his  Art 

Not  all  in  vain  may  plead 
•  The  song  that  nerves  a  nation's  heart, 

Is  in  itself  a  deed.' 

TO  VIRGIL. 

written  at  the  request  of  the 
mantuans  for  the  nineteenth 
centenary  of  virgil's  death. 

i. 

Roman  Virgil,  thou  that  singest 

Ilion's  lofty  temples  robed  in  fire, 


Ilion  falling,  Rome  arising, 

wars,  and  filial  faith,  and  Dido's 
pyre; 

II. 

Landscape-lover,  lord  of  language 

more  than  he  that  sang  the  Works 
and  Days, 
All  the  chosen  coin  of  fancy 

flashing  out  from  many  a  golden 
phrase; 

in. 

Thou  that  singest  wheat  and  woodland, 
tilth  and  vineyard,  hive  and  horse 

and  herd; 
All  the  charm  of  all  the  Muses 

often  flowering  in  a  lonely  word; 

IV. 

Poet  of  the  happy  Tityrus 

piping    underneath    his   beechen 
bowers; 
Poet  of  the  poet-satyr 

whom     the     laughing    shepherd 
bound  with  flowers; 


Chanter  of  the  Pollio,  glorying 

in  the  blissful  years  again  to  be, 

Summers  of  the  snakeless  meadow, 

unlaborious  earth  and  oarless  sea; 

VI. 

Thou  that  seest  Universal 

Nature      moved      by     Universal 
Mind; 
Thou  majestic  in  thy  sadness 

at  the  doubtful  doom  of  human 
kind: 


Light  among  the  vanish'd  ages; 

star  that  gildest  yet  this  phantom 
shore; 
Golden  branch  amid  the  shadows, 

kings  and  realms  that  pass  to  rise 
no  more; 

VIII. 

Now  thy  Forum  roars  no  longer, 

fallen      every      purple      Caesar's 
dome  — 


THE  DEAD  PR0PHE1 . 


559 


Tho'  thine  ocean-roll  of  rhythm 

sound     for     ever     of     Imperial 
Rome  — 

IX. 

Now  the  Rome  of  slaves  hath  perish'd, 
and  the  Rome  of  freemen  holds 
her  place, 
I,  from  out  the  Northern  Island 

sunder'd  once  from  all  the  human 
race, 


I  salute  thee,  Mantovano, 

I  that  loved  thee  sinpe  my  day 
began, 
Wielder  of  the  stateliest  measure 

ever  moulded  by  the  lips  of  man. 

THE  DEAD   PROPHET. 

1 82-. 

1. 
Dead! 

And  the  Muses  cried  with  a  stormy  cry 
*  Send  them  no  more,  for  evermore. 

Let  the  people  die.' 

II. 
Dead! 

*  Is  it  he  then  brought  so  low? ' 
And  a  careless  people  flock'd  from  the 
fields 
With  a  purse  to  pay  for  the  show. 

in. 

Dead,  who  had  served  his  time, 
Was  one  of  the  people's  kings, 

Had  labour'd  in  lifting  them  out  of  slime, 
And  showing  them  souls  have  wings  ! 

IV. 

Dumb  on  the  winter  heath  he  lay. 

His  friends  had  stript  him  bare, 
And  roll'd  his  nakedness  everyway 

That  all  the  crowd  might  stare. 


A  storm-worn  signpost  not  to  be  read, 
And  a  tree  with  a  moulder'd  nest 

On  its  barkless  bones,  stood  stark  by  the 
dead; 
And  behind  him,  low  in  the  West, 


With  shifting  ladders  of  shadow  and  light, 
And  blurr'd  in  colour  and  form, 

The  sun  hung  over  the  gates  of  Night, 
And  glared  at  a  coming  storm. 


Then  glided  a  vulturous  Beldam  forth, 

That  on  dumb  death  had  thriven; 
They  call'd  her  '  Reverence '  here  upon 

earth, 
And   'The   Curse   of    the    Prophet'   in 

Heaven. 


She  knelt  — '  We  worship  him '  —  all  but 
wept  — 

1  So  great,  so  noble  was  he  ! ' 
She  clear'd  her  sight,  she  arose,  she  swept 

The  dust  of  earth  from  her  knee. 


IX. 


•  Great !  for   he   spoke    and   the   people 
heard, 
And  his  eloquence  caught  like  a  flame 
From  zone  to  zone  of  the  world,  till  his 
Word 
Had  won  him  a  noble  name. 


Noble  !  he  sung,  and  the  sweet  sound  ran 
Thro'  palace  and  cottage  door, 

For  he  touch'd  on  the  whole  sad  planet 
of  man, 
The  kings  and  the  rich  and  the  poor; 


XI. 


And  he  sung  not  alone  of  an  old  sun  set, 
But  a  sun  coming  up  in  his  youth ! 

Great  and  noble  —  O  yes  —  but  yet  — 
For  man  is  a  lover  of  Truth, 


And  bound  to  follow,  wherever  she  go 
Stark-naked,  and  up  or  down, 

Thro'   her   high   hill-passes   of  stainless 
snow, 
Or  the  foulest  sewer  of  the  town  — 


560 


EARLY  SPRING. 


XIII. 

Noble  and  great  —  O  ay  —  but  then, 
Tho'  a  prophet  should  have  his  due, 

Was  henoblier-fashion'd  than  other  men? 
Shall  we  see  to  it,  I  and  you? 


For  since  he  would  sit  on  a  Prophet's 
seat, 
As  a  lord  of  the  Human  soul, 
We  needs  must  scan  him  from  head  to 
feet 
Were  it  but  for  a  wart  or  a  mole  ? ' 

xv. 

His  wife  and  his  child  stood  by  him  in 
tears, 
But  she  —  she  push'd  them  aside. 
'  Tho'  a  name  may  last  for  a  thousand 
years, 
Yet  a  truth  is  a  truth,'  she  cried. 


And  she  that  had  haunted  his  pathway 
still, 
Had  often  truckled  and  cower'd 
When   he  rose  in   his  wrath,  and   had 
yielded  her  will 
To  the  master,  as  overpower'd, 

XVII. 

She  tumbled  his  helpless  corpse  about. 

'  Small  blemish  upon  the  skin  ! 
But  I  think  we  know  what  is  fair  without 

Is  often  as  foul  within.' 

XVIII. 

She  crouch'd,   she  tore  him  part  from 
part, 
And  out  of  his  body  she  drew 
The   red    '  Blood-eagle ' 1   of   liver   and 
heart; 
She  held  them  up  to  the  view; 

XIX. 

She  gabbled,  as  she  groped  in  the  dead, 
And  all  the  people  were  pleased; 

1  Old  Viking  term  for  lungs,  liver,  etc.,  when 
torn  by  the  conqueror  out  of  the  body  of  the 
conquered, 


'  See,  what  a  little  heart,'  she  said, 
1  And  the  liver  is  half-diseased  ! ' 

xx. 

She  tore  the  Prophet  after  death, 
And  the  people  paid  her  well. 

Lightnings  flicker'd  along  the  heath: 
One  shriek'd  '  The  fires  of  Hell ! ' 


EARLY   SPRING. 


Once  more  the  Heavenly  Power 

Makes  all  things  new, 
And  domes  the  red-plow'd  hills 

With  loving  blue; 
The  blackbirds  have  their  wills, 

The  throstles  too. 


Opens  a  door  in  Heaven; 

From  skies  of  glass 
A  Jacob's  ladder  falls 

On  greening  grass, 
And  o'er  the  mountain-walls 

Young  angels  pass. 

III. 

Before  them  fleets  the  shower, 

And  burst  the  buds, 
And  shine  the  level  lands, 

And  flash  the  floods; 
The  stars  are  from  their  hands 

Flung  thro'  the  woods, 

IV. 

The  woods  with  living  airs 

How  softly  fann'd, 
Light  airs  from  where  the  deep, 

All  down  the  sand, 
Is  breathing  in  his  sleep, 

Heard  by  the  land. 

v. 

O  follow,  leaping  blood, 

The  season's  lure ! 
O  heart,  look  down  and  up 

Serene,  secure, 
Warm  as  the  crocus  cup, 

Like  snowdrops,  pure ! 


PREFATORY  POEM— HELEN'S    TOWER. 


561 


Past,  Future  glimpse  and  fade 
Thro'  some  slight  spell, 

A  gleam  from  yonder  vale, 
Some  far  blue  fell, 

And  sympathies,  how  frail, 
In  sound  and  smell ! 


Till  at  thy  chuckled  note, 
Thou  twinkling  bird, 

The  fairy  fancies  range, 
And,  lightly  stirr'd, 

Ring  little  bells  of  change 
From  word  to  word. 


For  now  the  Heavenly  Power 
Makes  all  things  new, 

And  thaws  the  cold,  and  fills 
The  flower  with  dew; 

The  blackbirds  have  their  wills, 
The  poets  too. 


PREFATORY  POEM   TO   MY 
BROTHER'S   SONNETS. 

Midnight,  June  30,  1879. 


Midnight  —  in  no  midsummer  tune 
The  breakers  lash  the  shores : 
The  cuckoo  of  a  joyless  June 
Is  calling  out  of  doors : 

And  thou  hast  vanish'd  from  thine  own 
To  that  which  looks  like  rest, 
True  brother,  only  to  be  known 
By  those  who  love  thee  best. 

11. 

Midnight  —  and  joyless  June  gone  by, 
And  from  the  deluged  park 
The  cuckoo  of  a  worse  July 
Is  calling  thro'  the  dark : 

But  thou  art  silent  underground, 
And  o'er  thee  streams  the  rain, 
True  poet,  surely  to  be  found 
When  Truth  is  found  again. 


And,  now  to  these  unsummer'd  skies 
The  summer  bird  is  still, 
Far  off  a  phantom  cuckoo  cries 
From  out  a  phantom  hill; 

And  thro'  this  midnight  breaks  the  sun 
Of  sixty  years  away, 
The  light  of  days  when  life  begun, 
The  days  that  seem  to-day, 

When  all  my  griefs  were  shared  with  thee, 
As  all  my  hopes  were  thine  — 
As  all  thou  wert  was  one  with  me, 
May  all  thou  art  be  mine ! 


'FRATER  AVE  ATQUE  VALE.' 

Row  us  out  from   Desenzano,  to  your 

Sirmione  row ! 
So  they  row'd,  and  there  we  landed  — 

'  O  venusta  Sirmio  ! ' 
There  to  me  thro'  all  the  groves  of  olive 

in  the  summer  glow, 
There   beneath   the  Roman  ruin  where 

the  purple  flowers  grow, 
Came  that  '  Ave  atque  Vale  '  of  the  Poet's 

hopeless  woe, 
Tenderest    of    Roman    poets    nineteen 

hundred  years  ago, 
•  Frater  Ave  atque  Vale,'  —  as  we  wan- 

der'd  to  and  fro, 
Gazing  at   the  Lydian   laughter  of  the 

Garda  Lake  below, 
Sweet    Catullus's    all-but-island,     olive- 
silvery  Sirmio ! 


HELEN'S  TOWER.i 

Helen's  Tower,  here  I  stand, 
Dominant  over  sea  and  land. 
Son's  love  built  me,  and  I  hold 
Mother's  love  in  letter'd  gold. 
Love  is  in  and  out  of  time, 
I  am  mortal  stone  and  lime. 
Would  my  granite  girth  were  strong 
As  either  love,  to  last  as  long ! 

1  Written  at   the  request  of  my  friend,  Lord 
Dufferin. 


562 


EPITAPHS— HANDS  ALL  ROUND. 


I  should  wear  my  crown  entire 
To  and  thro'  the  Doomsday  fire, 
And  be  found  of  angel  eyes 
In  earth's  recurring  Paradise. 


EPITAPH   ON   LORD    STRATFORD 
DE   REDCLIFFE. 

IN   WESTMINSTER   ABBEY. 

Thou  third  great  Canning,  stand  among 
our  best 
And  noblest,  now  thy  long  day's  work 
hath  ceased, 
Here  silent  in  our  Minster  of  the  West 
Who  wert  the  voice  of  England  in  the 
East. 

EPITAPH 
ON  GENERAL  GORDON. 

IN   THE   GORDON   BOYS'    NATIONAL 
MEMORIAL   HOME   NEAR   WOKING. 

Warrior    of    God,   man's    friend,   and 
tyrant's  foe, 
Now  somewhere  dead  far  in  the  waste 
Soudan, 
Thou   livest   in  all   hearts,    for  all   men 
know 
This  earth  has  never  borne  a  nobler 
man. 


EPITAPH   ON   CAXTON. 

IN    ST.   MARGARET'S,  WESTMINSTER. 

FIAT  LUX  (his  motto). 

Thy  prayer  was  '  Light  —  more  Light  — 

while  Time  shall  last ! ' 
Thou  sawest  a  glory  growing  on  the  night, 
But  not  the    shadows  which   that   light 

would  cast, 
Till  shadows  vanish  in  the  Light  of  Light. 

TO  THE  DUKE  OF  ARGYLL. 

O  Patriot  Statesman,  be  thou  wise  to 

know 
The  limits  of  resistance,  and  the  bounds 
Determining  concession;   still  be  bold 
Not  only  to  slight  praise  but  suffer  scorn; 


And  be  thy  heart  a  fortress  to  maintain 
The   day  against  the  moment,  and   the 

year 
Against    the    day;     thy   voice,   a   music 

heard 
Thro'  all  the  yells   and  counter-yells  of 

feud 
And   faction,  and   thy  will,  a   power  to 

make 
This  ever-changing  world  of  circumstance, 
In  changing,  chime  with  never-changing 

Law. 


HANDS  ALL  ROUND. 

First   pledge    our    Queen    this  solemn 
night, 
Then  drink  to  England,  every  guest; 
That  man's  the  best  Cosmopolite 

Who  loves  his  native  country  best. 
May  freedom's  oak  for  ever  live 

With  stronger  life  from  day  to  day; 
That  man's  the  true  Conservative 

Who  lops  the  moulder'd  branch  away. 

Hands  all  round ! 
God  the  traitor's  hope  confound ! 
To  this  great  cause  of  Freedom  drink, 
my  friends, 
And  the  great  name  of  England,  round 
and  round. 

To  all  the  loyal  hearts  who  long 

To  keep  our  English  Empire  whole ! 
To  all  our  noble  sons,  the  strong 

New  England  of  the  Southern  Pole ! 
To  England  under  Indian  skies, 

To  those  dark  millions  of  her  realm ! 
To  Canada  whom  we  love  and  prize, 
Whatever  statesman  hold  the  helm. 

Hands  all  round ! 
God  the  traitor's  hope  confound  ! 
To   this   great   name  of  England  drink, 
my  friends, 
And  all  her  glorious  empire,  round  and 
round. 

To  all  our  statesmen  so  they  be 
True  leaders  of  the  land's  desire ! 

To  both  our  Houses,  may  they  see 
Beyond  the  borough  and  the  shire  ! 

We  sail'd  wherever  ship  could  sail, 
We  founded  many  a  mighty  state; 


FREEDOM— TO  H.R.H.   PRINCESS  BEATRICE. 


563 


Pray  God  our  greatness  may  not  fail 
Thro'  craven  fears  of  being  great. 

Hands  all  round ! 
God  the  traitor's  hope  confound  ! 
To  this  great  cause  of  Freedom  drink, 
my  friends, 
And  the  great  name  of  England,  round 
and  round. 


FREEDOM. 


O  thou  so  fair  in  summers  gone, 
While  yet  thy  fresh  and  virgin  soul 

Inform'd  the  pillar'd  Parthenon, 
The  glittering  Capitol; 

11. 

So  fair  in  southern  sunshine  bathed, 
But  scarce  of  such  majestic  mien 

As  here  with  forehead  vapour-swathed 
In  meadows  ever  green; 


For    thou  —  when   Athens  reign'd    and 
Rome, 
Thy  glorious  eyes  were   dimm'd  with 
pain 
To  mark  in  many  a  freeman's  home 
The  slave,  the  scourge,  the  chain; 

IV. 

O  follower  of  the  Vision,  still 
In  motion  to  the  distant  gleam, 

Howe'er  blind  force  and  brainless  will 
May  jar  thy  golden  dream 

V. 

Of  Knowledge  fusing  class  with  class, 
Of  civic  Hate  no  more  to  be, 

Of  Love  to  leaven  all  the  mass, 
Till  every  Soul  be  free; 


Who  yet,  like  Nature,  wouldst  not  mar 
By  changes  all  too  fierce  and  fast 

This  order  of  Her  Human  Star, 
This  heritage  of  the  past; 


O  scorner  of  the  party  cry 

That  wanders  from  the  public  good, 
Thou  —  when  the  nations  rear  on  high 

Their  idol  smear'd  with  blood, 


And  when  they  roll  their  idol  down  — 
Of  saner  worship  sanely  proud; 

Thou  loather  of  the  lawless  crown 
As  of  the  lawless  crowd; 

IX. 

How  long  thine  ever-growing  mind 
Hath  still'd  the  blast  and  strown  the 
wave, 

Tho'  some  of  late  would  raise  a  wind 
To  sing  thee  to  thy  grave, 


Men  loud  against  all  forms  of  power  — 
Unfurnish'd    brows,    tempestuous 
tongues  — 

Expecting  all  things  in  an  hour  — 
Brass  mouths  and  iron  lungs ! 


TO  H.R.H.   PRINCESS 
BEATRICE. 

Two  Suns  of  Love  make  day  of  human 

life, 
Which  else  with  all  its  pains,  and  griefs, 

and  deaths, 
Were  utter  darkness  —  one,  the  Sun  of 

dawn 
That  brightens  thro'  the  Mother's  tender 

eyes, 
And  warms  the  child's  awakening  world 

—  and  one 
The  later-rising  Sun  of  spousal  Love, 
Which  from  her  household  orbit  draws 

the  child 
To  move  in  other  spheres.     The  Mother 

weeps 
At  that  white  funeral  of  the  single  life, 
Her  maiden   daughter's   marriage;    and 

her  tears 
Are  half  of  pleasure,  half  of  pain  —  the 

child 
Is  happy  —  ev'n  in  leaving  her  !  but  Thou, 


5^4 


THE  FLEET. 


True  daughter,  whose  all- faithful,  filial  eyes 
Have    seen    the    loneliness    of    earthly 

thrones, 
Wilt  neither   quit  the  widow'd   Crown, 

nor  let 
This  later  light  of  Love  have  risen  in  vain, 
But  moving  thro'    the    Mother's   home, 

between 
The  two  that  love  thee,  lead  a  summer  life, 
Sway'd   by  each    Love,  and  swaying  to 

each  Love, 
Like   some    conjectured   planet   in   mid 

heaven 
Between  two  Suns,  and   drawing   down 

from  both 
The  light  and  genial  warmth  of  double  day. 

THE  FLEET.1 


You,  you,  if  you  shall  fail  to  understand 
What  England  is,  and  what  her  all-in-all, 

On  you  will  come  the  curse  of  all  the  land, 
Should  this  old  England  fall 
Which  Nelson  left  so  great. 

II. 

His  isle,  the  mightiest  Ocean-power  on 
earth, 
Our  own  fair   isle,  the  lord  of  every 
sea  — 

irThe  speaker  said  that  'he  should  like  to 
be  assured  that  other  outlying  portions  of  the 
Empire,  the  Crown  colonies,  and  important  coal- 
ing stations  were  being  as  promptly  and  as 
thoroughly  fortified  as  the  various  capitals  of  the 
self-governing  colonies.  He  was  credibly  in- 
formed this  was  not  so.  It  was  impossible,  also, 
not  to  feel  some  degree  of  anxiety  about  the 
efficacy  of  present  provision  to  defend  and  pro- 
tect, by  means  of  swift  well-armed  cruisers,  the 
immense  mercantile  fleet  of  the  Empire.  A  third 
source  of  anxiety,  so  far  as  the  colonies  were 
concerned,  was  the  apparently  insufficient  provi- 
sion for  the  rapid  manufacture  of  armaments  and 
their  prompt  despatch  when  ordered  to  their 
colonial  destination.  Hence  the  necessity  for 
manufacturing  appliances  equal  to  the  require- 
mentsf  not  of  Great  Britain  alone,  but  of  the 
whole  Empire.  But  the  keystone  of  the  whole 
was  the  necessity  for  an  overwhelmingly  powerful 
fleet  and  efficient  defence  for  all  necessary  coaling 
stations.  This  was  as  essential  for  the  colonies 
as  for  Great  Britain.     It  was  the  one  condition 


Her  fuller  franchise  —  what  would  that 
be  worth  — 
Her  ancient  fame  of  Free  — 

Were  she  ...  a  fallen  state  ? 

in. 

Her    dauntless   army   scatter'd,   and   so 
small, 
Her    island-myriads    fed    from    alien 
lands  — 
The  fleet  of  England  is  her  all-in-all; 
Her  fleet  is  in  your  hands, 

And  in  her  fleet  her  Fate. 

IV. 

You,  you,  that  have  the  ordering  of  her 
fleet, 
If  "you  should  only  compass  her  disgrace, 
When   all   men   starve,  the  wild   mob's 
million  feet 
Will  kick  you  from  your  place, 

But  then  too  late,  too  late. 


OPENING  OF  THE  INDIAN  AND 
COLONIAL  EXHIBITION  BY  THE 
QUEEN. 

Written  at  the  Request  of  the  Prince 
of  Wales. 


Welcome,  welcome  with  one  voice ! 
In  your  welfare  we  rejoice, 

for  the  continuance  of  the  Empire.  All  that 
Continental  Powers  did  with  respect  to  armies 
England  should  effect  with  her  navy.  It  was 
essentially  a  defensive  force,  and  could  be  moved 
rapidly  from  point  to  point,  but  it  should  be  equal 
to  all  that  was  expected  from  it.  It  was  to 
strengthen  the  fleet  that  colonists  would  first 
readily  tax  themselves,  because  they  realised  how 
essential  a  powerful  fleet  was  to  the  safety,  not 
only  of  that  extensive  commerce  sailing  in  every 
sea,  but  ultimately  to  the  security  of  the  distant 
portions  of  the  Empire.  Who  could  estimate  the 
loss  involved  in  even  a  brief  period  of  disaster  to 
the  Imperial  Navy?  Any  amount  of  money 
timely  expended  in  preparation  would  be  quite 
insignificant  when  compared  with  the  possible 
calamity  he  had  referred  to.'  —  Extract  from. 
Sir  Graham  Berry's  Speech  at  the  Colonial 
Institute,  gth  November  1886. 


TO   W.    C.   M ACRE  AD  Y. 


565 


Sons  and  brothers  that  have  sent, 
From  isle  and  cape  and  continent, 
Produce  of  your  field  and  flood, 
Mount  and  mine,  and  primal  wood; 
Works  of  subtle  brain  and  hand, 
And  splendours  of  the  morning  land 
Gifts  from  every  British  zone; 
Britons,  hold  your  own ! 


May  we  find,  as  ages  run, 
The  mother  featured  in  the  son; 
And  may  yours  for  ever  be 
That  old  strength  and  constancy 
Which  has  made  your  fathers  great 
In  our  ancient  island  State, 
And  wherever  her  flag  fly, 
Glorying  between  sea  and  sky, 
Makes  the  might  of  Britain  known; 
Britons,  hold  your  own ! 


Britain  fought  her  sons  of  yore  — 
Britain  fail'd;   and  never  more, 
Careless  of  our  growing  kin, 
Shall  we  sin  our  fathers'  sin, 
Men  that  in  a  narrower  day  — 
Unprophetic  rulers  they  — 
Drove  from  out  the  mother's  nest 
That  young  eagle  of  the  West 
To  forage  for  herself  alone ; 
Britons,  hold  your  own ! 

IV. 

Sharers  of  our  glorious  past, 
Brothers,  must  we  part  at  last? 
Shall  we  not  thro'  good  and  ill 
Cleave  to  one  another  still? 
Britain's  myriad  voices  call, 
'  Sons,  be  welded  each  and  all, 
Into  one  imperial  whole, 
One  with  Britain,  heart  and  soul ! 
One  life,  one  flag,  one  fleet,  one  Throne ! 
Britons,  hold  your  own ! 


POETS   AND    THEIR   BIBLIOGRA- 
PHIES. 

Old  poets  foster'd  under  friendlier  skies, 
Old  Virgil  who  would  write  ten  lines, 
they  say, 


At  dawn,  and  lavish  all  the  golden  day 
To  make  them  wealthier  in  his  readers' 

eyes; 
And  you,  old  popular  Horace,  you  the 
wise 
Adviser  of  the  nine-years-ponder'd  lay 
And  you,  that  wear  a  wreath  of  sweeter 
bay, 
Catullus    whose    dead    songster    never 

dies; 
If,   glancing   downward   on   the    kindly 
sphere 
That   once  had  roll'd  you  round  and 

round  the  Sun, 
You    see    your   Art    still    shrined   in 
human  shelves, 
You  should  be  jubilant  that  you  flourish'd 
here 
Before  the  Love  of  Letters,  overdone, 
Had  swampt  the  sacred  poets  with  them- 
selves. 


TO  W.  C.   MACREADY. 
1851. 

Farewell,  Macready,  since  to-night  we 

part; 
Full-handed   thunders   often   have   con- 
fess'd 
Thy  power,  well-used  to  move  the 
public  breast. 
We  thank  thee  with  our  voice,  and  from 

the  heart. 
Farewell,  Macready,  since  this .  night  we 
part, 
Go,  take  thine  honours  home;   rank 

with  the  best, 
Garrick  and   statelier  Kemble,  and 
the  rest 
Who  made  a  nation  purer  through  their 

art. 
Thine  is  it  that  our  drama  did  not  die, 
Nor  flicker  down  to  brainless  panto- 
mime, 
And  those  gilt  gauds  men-children 
swarm  to  see. 
Farewell,  Macready;   moral,  grave,  sub- 
lime; 
Our  Shakespeare's  bland  and  universal 
eye 
Dwells    pleased,    through    twice   a 
hundred  years,  on  thee. 


QUEEN    MARY: 

A  DRAMA. 

DRAMATIS  PERSONS. 
Queen  Mary. 

Philip,  King  of  Naples  and  Sicily,  afterwards  King  of  Spain. 
The  Princess  Elizabeth. 
Reginald  Pole,  Cardinal  and  Papal  Legate. 
Simon  Renard,  Spanish  Ambassador. 
Le  Sieur  de  Noailles,  French  Ambassador. 
Thomas  Cranmer,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury. 

Sir  Nicholas  Heath,  Archbishop  of  York ;  Lord  Chancellor  after  Gardiner. 
Edward  Courtenay,  Earl  of  Devon. 

Lord  William  Howard,  afterwards  Lord  Howard,  and  Lord  High  Admiral. 
Lord  Williams  of  Thame.  Lord  Paget.  Lord  Petrb. 

Stephen  Gardiner,  Bishop  of  Winchester  and  Lord  Chancellor. 
Edmund  Bonner.  Bishop  of  London.  Thomas  Thirlby,  Bishop  of  Ely. 

Sir  Thomas  Wyatt      I    Insurrectionary  Leaders. 
Sir  Thomas  Stafford  ) 

Sir  Ralph  Bagenhall.  Sir  Robert  Southwell. 

Sir  Henry  Bedingfield.  Sir  William  Cecil. 

Sir  Thomas  White,  Lord  Mayor  of  London. 
The  Duke  of  Alva  j  attendi  n  Phmp% 
The  Count  de  Feria  j 

Peter  Martyr.  Father  Cole.  Father  Bourne. 

Villa  Garcia.  Soto. 

Captain  Brett        I    Adherents  of  Wyatu 
Anthony  Knyvett  I 
Peters,  Gentleman  of  Lord  Howard. 

Roger,  Servant  to  Noailles.  William,  Servant  to  Wyatt. 

Steward  of  Household  to  the  Princess  Elizabeth. 
Old  Nokes  and  Nokes. 

Marchioness  of  Exeter,  Mother  of  Courtenay. 
Lady  Clarence  \ 

Lady  Magdalen  Dacres  >-  Ladies  in  Waiting  to  the  Queen. 
Alice  ' 

Maid  of  Honour  to  the  Princess  Elizabeth. 
Joan 
Tib 


two  Country  Wives. 


Lords  and  other  Attendants,  Members  of  the  Privy  Council,  Members  of  Parliament,  Two  Gentle- 
men, Aldermen,  Citizens,  Peasants,  Ushers,  Messengers,  Guards,  Pages,  Gospellers,  Marshal- 
men,  etc. 

ACT  I. 

SCENE  I.  —  Aldgate  richly 

decorated. 

Crowd.    Marshalmen. 

Marshalman.  Stand  back,  keep  a 
clear  lane !  When  will  her  Majesty 
pass,  sayst  thou?  why  now,  even  now; 
wherefore   draw   back   your   heads   and 


your  horns  before  I  break  them,  and 
make  what  noise  you  will  with  your 
tongues,  so  it  be  not  treason.  Long  live 
Queen  Mary,  the  lawful  and  legitimate 
daughter  of  Harry  the  Eighth !  Shout, 
knaves ! 

Citizens.     Long  live  Queen  Mary ! 

First  Citizen.  That's  a*  hard  word, 
legitimate;   what  does  it  mean? 

Second  Citizen.     It  means  a  bastard. 


ACT 


QUEEN  MARY. 


567 


Third  Citizen.  Nay,  it  means  true- 
born. 

First  Citizen.  Why,  didn't  the  Par- 
liament make  her  a  bastard? 

Second  Citizen.  No;  it  was  the  Lady 
Elizabeth. 

Third  Citizen.  That  was  after,  man; 
that  was  after. 

First  Citizen.  Then  which  is  the 
bastard? 

Second  Citizen.  Troth,  they  be  both 
bastards  by  Act  of  Parliament  and 
Council. 

Third  Citizen.  Ay,  the  Parliament 
can  make  every  true-born  man  of  us  a 
bastard.  Old  Nokes,  can't  it  make  thee 
a  bastard?  thou  shouldst  know,  for  thou 
art  as  white  as  three  Christmasses. 

Old  Nokes  {dreamily).  Who's  a-pass- 
ing?     King  Edward  or  King  Richard? 

Third  Citizen.     No,  old  Nokes. 

Old  Nokes.     It's  Harry ! 

Third  Citizen.     It's  Queen  Mary. 

Old  Nokes.  The  blessed  Mary's  a- 
passing !  [Falls  on  his  knees. 

Nokes.  Let  father  alone,  my  masters ! 
he's  past  your  questioning. 

Third  Citizen.  Answer  thou  for  him, 
then !  thou'rt  no  such  cockerel  thyself, 
for  thou  wast  born  i'  the  tail  end  of  old 
Harry  the  Seventh. 

Nokes.  Eh !  that  was  afore  bastard- 
making  began.  I  was  born  true  man  at 
rive  in  the  forenoon  i'  the  tail  of  old 
Harry,  and  so  they  can't  make  me  a 
bastard. 

Third  Citizen.  But  if  Parliament  can 
make  the  Queen  a  bastard,  why,  it  follows 
all  the  more  that  they  can  make  thee  one, 
who  art  fray'd  i'  the  knees,  and  out  at 
elbow,  and  bald  o'  the  back,  and  bursten 
at  the  toes,  and  down  at  heels. 

Nokes.  I  was  born  of  a  true  man  and 
a  ring'd  wife,  and  I  can't  argue  upon  it; 
but  I  and  my  old  woman  'ud  burn  upon 
it,  that  would  we. 

Marshalman.  What  are  you  cackling 
of  bastardy  under  the  Queen's  own  nose? 
I'll  have  you  flogg'd  and  burnt  too,  by 
the  Rood  I  will. 

First  Citizen.  He  swears  by  the 
Rood.     Whew! 

Second  Citizen.     Hark !  the  trumpets. 


[  The   Procession  passes,  Mary  and 

Elizabeth  riding  side  by  side,  and 

disappears  under  the  gate. 

Citizens.      Long    live    Queen    Mary ! 

down  with  all  traitors !     God   save   her 

Grace;  and  death  to  Northumberland! 

[Exeunt. 

Manent  Two  Gentlemen. 

First  Gentleman.  By  God's  light  a 
noble  creature,  right  royal ! 

Second  Gentleman.  She  looks  comelier 
than  ordinary  to-day;  but  to  my  mind 
the  Lady  Elizabeth  is  the  more  noble  and 
royal. 

First  Gentleman.  I  mean  the  Lady 
Elizabeth.  Did  you  hear  (I  have  a 
daughter  in  her  service  who  reported  it) 
that  she  met  the  Queen  at  Wanstead  with 
five  hundred  horse,  and  the  Queen  (tho' 
some  say  they  be  much  divided)  took  her 
hand,  call'd  her  sweet  sister,  and  kiss'd 
not  her  alone,  but  all  the  ladies  of  her 
following. 

Second  Gentleman.  Ay,  that  was  in 
her  hour  of  joy ;  there  will  be  plenty  to 
sunder  and  unsister  them  again :  this 
Gardiner  for  one,  who  is  to  be  made 
Lord  Chancellor,  and  will  pounce  like  a 
wild  beast  out  of  his  cage  to  worry 
Cranmer. 

First  Gentleman.  And  furthermore, 
my  daughter  said  that  when  there  rose  a 
talk  of  the  late  rebellion,  she  spoke  even 
of  Northumberland  pitifully,  and  of  the 
good  Lady  Jane  as  a  poor  innocent  child 
who  had  but  obeyed  her  father;  and 
furthermore,  she  said  that  no  one  in  her 
time  should  be  burnt  for  heresy. 

Second  Gentleman.  Well,  sir,  I  look 
for  happy  times. 

First  Gentleman.  -  There  is  but  one 
thing  against  them.  I  know  not  if  you 
know. 

Second  Gentleman.  I  suppose  you 
touch  upon  the  rumour  that  Charles,  the 
master  of  the  world,  has  offer1  d  her  his 
son  Philip,  the  Pope  and  the  Devil.  I 
trust  it  is  but  a  rumour. 

First  Gentleman.  She  is  going  now 
to  the  Tower  to  loose  the  prisoners  there, 
and  among  them  Courtenay,  to  be  made 
Earl  of  Devon,  of  royal  blood,  of  splendid 


568 


QUEEN  MARY. 


ACT  I. 


feature,  whom  the  council  and  all  her 
people  wish  her  to  marry.  May  it  be 
so,  for  we  are  many  of  us  Catholics,  but 
few  Papists,  and  the  Hot  Gospellers  will 
go  mad  upon  it. 

Second  Gentleman.  Was  she  not 
betroth'd  in  her  babyhood  to  the  Great 
Emperor  himself? 

First  Gentleman.     Ay,  but  he's  too  old. 

Second  Gentleman.  And  again  to  her 
cousin  Reginald  Pole,  now  Cardinal; 
but  I  hear  that  he  too  is  full  of  aches  and 
broken  before  his  day. 

First  Gentleman.  O,  the  Pope  could 
dispense  with  his  Cardinalate,  and  his 
achage,  and  his  breakage,  if  that  were  all  : 
will  you  not  follow  the  procession? 

Second  Gentleman.  No;  I  have  seen 
enough  for  this  day. 

First  Gentleman.  Well,  I  shall  follow; 
if  I  can  get  near  enough  I  shall  judge 
with  my  own  eyes  whether  her  Grace  in- 
cline to  this  splendid  scion  of  Plantagenet. 
[Exeunt. 

SCENE   II. 
A  Room  in  Lambeth  Palace. 

Cranmer.      To    Strasburg,    Antwerp, 

Frankfort,  Zurich,  Worms, 
Geneva,  Basle  —  our  Bishops  from  their 

'  sees 
Or    fled,   they  say,   or    flying  —  Poinet, 

Barlow, 
Bale,    Scory,    Coverdale;     besides    the 

Deans 
Of  Christchurch,  Durham,   Exeter,  and 

Wells  — 
Ailmer  and    Bullingham,  and   hundreds 

more; 
So  they  report :  I  shall  be  left  alone. 
No :  Hooper,  Ridley,  Latimer  will  not  fly. 

Enter  Peter  Martyr. 

Peter  Martyr.     Fly,  Cranmer !    were 
there  nothing  else,  your  name 
Stands   first   of    those   who    sign'd    the 

Letters  Patent 
That  gave  her  royal  crown  to  Lady  Jane. 
Cranmer.     Stand   first  it  may,  but  it 
was  written  last : 
Those  that  are  now  her  Privy  Council, 
sign'd 


Before  me :    nay,  the  Judges   had   pro- 
nounced 
That  our  young  Edward  might  bequeath 

the  crown 
Of  England,  putting  by  his  father's  will. 
Yet  I  stood  out,  till  Edward  sent  for  me. 
The  wan  boy-king,  with  his  fast-fading 

eyes 
Fixt  hard  on  mine,  his  frail  transparent 

hand, 
Damp    with    the    sweat    of   death,   and 

griping  mine, 
Whisper'd  me,  if  I  loved  him,  not  to  yield 
His  Church  of  England  to  the  Papal  wolf 
And   Mary;    then  I  could  no  more  —  I 

sign'd. 
Nay,  for  bare  shame  of  inconsistency, 
She  cannot  pass  her  traitor  council  by, 
To  make  me  headless. 

Peter  Martyr.   That  might  be  forgiven. 
I  tell  you,  fly,  my  Lord.    You  do  not  own 
The  bodily  presence  in  the  Eucharist, 
Their  wafer  and  perpetual  sacrifice : 
Your  creed  will  be  your  death. 

Cranmer.  Step  after  step, 

Thro'  many  voices  crying  right  and  left, 
Have  I  climb'd   back    into   the   primal 

church, 
And  stand  within  the  porch,  and  Christ 

with  me : 
My  flight  were  such  a  scandal  to  the  faith, 
The  downfall  of  so  many  simple  souls, 
I  dare  not  leave  my  post. 

Peter  Martyr.  But  you  divorced 

Queen  Catharine  and  her  father;   hence, 

her  hate 
Will  burn  till  you  are  burn'd. 

Cranmer.  I  cannot  help  it. 

The  Canonists  and  Schoolmen  were  with 

me. 
1  Thou  shalt  not  wed  thy  brother's  wife.' 

—  'Tis  written, 
'They  shall   be  childless.'    True,  Mary 

was  born, 
But  France  would  not  accept  her  for  a 

bride 
As  being   born   from   incest;    and  this 

wrought 
Upon  the  king;   and  child  by  child,  you 

know, 
Were  momentary  sparkles  out  as  quick 
Almost  as  kindled;  and  he  brought  his 

doubts 


SCENE   III. 


QUEEN  MARY. 


569 


And  fears  to  me.     Peter,  I'll  swear  for 

him 
He  did  believe  the  bond  incestuous. 
But  wherefore  am   I    trenching   on   the 

time 
That  should  already  have  seen  your  steps 

a  mile 
From  me  and  Lambeth?    God   be  with 
you !     Go. 
Peter  Martyr.     Ah,  but  how  fierce  a 
letter  you  wrote  against 
Their   superstition  when   they  slander'd 

you 
For  setting  up  a  mass  at  Canterbury 
To  please  the  Queen. 

Cranmer.     It  was  a  wheedling  monk 
Set  up  the  mass. 

Peter  Martyr.     I   know  it,  my  good 
Lord. 
But  you  so  bubbled  over  with  hot  terms 
Of  Satan,  liars,  blasphemy,  Antichrist, 
She    never   will    forgive   you.     Fly,   my 
Lord,  fly! 
Cranmer.     I  wrote  it,  and  God  grant 

me  power  to  burn ! 
Peter  Martyr.     They  have  given  me  a 
safe  conduct :  for  all  that 
I  dare  not  stay.     I  fear,  I   fear,  I   see 

you, 
Dear  friend,  for  the  last  time;   farewell, 
and  fly. 
Cranmer.     Fly  and  farewell,  and  let 
me  die  the  death. 

[Exit  Peter  Martyr. 

Enter  Old  Servant. 

0  kind  and  gentle  master,  the  Queen's 

Officers 
Are  here  in  force  to  take  you  to  the  Tower. 
Cranmer.      Ay,  gentle   friend,  admit 
them.     I  will  go. 

1  thank  my  God  it  is  too  late  to  fly. 

[Exeunt. 

SCENE  III.  — St.  Paul's  Cross. 

Father  Bourne  in  the  pulpit.  A  crowd. 
Marchioness  of  Exeter,  Courte- 
nay.  The  Sieur  de  Noailles  and 
his  man  Roger  in  front  of  the  stage. 
Hubbub. 

Noailles.      Hast   thou   let   fall    those 
papers  in  the  palace? 


Roger.     Ay,  sir. 

Noailles.  '  There  will  be  no  peace  for 
Mary  till  Elizabeth  lose  her  head.' 

Roger.     Ay,  sir. 

Noailles.  And  the  other,  '  Long  live 
Elizabeth  the  Queen  ! ' 

Roger.    Ay,  sir;   she  needs  must  tread 
upon  them. 

Noailles.  Well. 

These  beastly  swine  make  such  a  grunting 

here, 
I  cannot  catch  what    Father  Bourne  is 
saying. 

Roger.  Quiet  a  moment,  my  masters; 
hear  what  the  shaveling  has  to  say  for 
himself. 

Crowd.     H  ush  —  h  ear ! 

Bourne.  —  and  so  this  unhappy  land, 
long  divided  in  itself,  and  sever'd  from 
the  faith,  will  return  into  the  one  true 
fold,  seeing  that  our  gracious  Virgin 
Queen  hath 

Crowd.     No  pope  !  no  pope  ! 

Roger  {to  those  about  him,  mimicking 
Bourne).  —  hath  sent  for  the  holy  legate 
of  the  holy  father  the  Pope,  Cardinal 
Pole,  to  give  us  all  that  holy  absolution 
which 

First    Citizen.     Old    Bourne    to    the 
life! 

Second  Citizen.    Holy  absolution !  holy 
Inquisition ! 

Third  Citizen.   Down  with  the  Papist ! 
[Hubbub. 

Bourne.  — and  now  that  your  good 
bishop,  Bonner,  who  hath  lain  so  long 
under  bonds  for  the  faith [Hubbub. 

Noailles.     Friend  Roger,  steal  thou  in 
among  the  crowd, 
And  get  the  swine  to  shout  Elizabeth. 
Yon  gray  old  Gospeller,  sour  as  midwinter, 
Begin  with  him. 

Roger  (goes).  By  the  mass,  old  friend," 
we'll  have  no  pope  here  while  the  Lady 
Elizabeth  lives. 

Gospeller.  Art  thou  of  the  true  faith, 
fellow,  that  swearest  by  the  mass? 

Roger.  Ay,  that  am  I,  new  converted, 
but  the  old  leaven  sticks  to  my  tongue 
yet. 

First  Citizen.  He  says  right;  by  the 
mass  we'll  have  no  mass  here. 

Voices  of  the  croxvd.    Peace  !  hear  him; 


57° 


QUEEN  MARY. 


ACT   I. 


let  his  own  words  damn  the  Papist.  From 
thine  own  mouth  I  judge  thee  —  tear  him 
down ! 

Bourne.  — and  since  our  Gracious 
Queen,  let  me  call  her  our  second  Virgin 
Mary,  hath   begun  to  re-edify  the   true 

temple 

First  Citizen.  Virgin  Mary !  we'll  have 
no  virgins  here  —  we'll  have  the  Lady 
Elizabeth ! 

\_Szvords  are  drawn,  a  knife  is  hurled 

and  sticks  in  the p ulp it.      The  m ob 

throng  to  the  pulpit  stairs. 

Marchioness  of  Exeter.  Son  Courtenay, 

wilt  thou  see  the  holy  father 

Murdered  before  thy  face?  up,  son,  and 

save  him ! 
They  love  thee,  and  thou  canst  not  come 
to  harm. 
Courtenay  (in  the  pulpit).      Shame, 
shame,  my  masters !  are  you  Eng- 
lish-born, 
And  set  yourselves  by  hundreds  against 
one? 
Crowd.     A  Courtenay !  a  Courtenay  ! 
[A  train  of  Spanish  servants  crosses 
at  the  back  of  the  stage. 
Noailles.    These  birds  of  passage  come 
before  their  time : 
Stave  off  the  crowd  upon  the  Spaniard 
there. 
Roger.      My  masters,   yonder's  fatter 
game  for  you 
Than  this  old  gaping  gurgoyle :  look  you 

there  — 
The  Prince  of  Spain  coming  to  wed  our 

Queen ! 
After  him,  boys !  and  pelt  him  from  the 
city. 
[  They  seize  stones  and  folloiv  the 
Spaniards.     Exeunt  on  the  other 
side  Marchioness  of  Exeter  and 
Attendants. 
Noailles  (Jo  Roger).     Stand  from  me. 
If  Elizabeth  lose  her  head  — 
That  makes  for  France. 
And  if  her  people,  anger'd  thereupon, 
Arise    against    her    and    dethrone    the 

Queen  — 
That  makes  for  France. 
And  if  I  breed  confusion  anyway  — 
That  makes  for  France. 

,  Good-day,  my  Lord  of  Devon; 


A  bold  heart  yours  to  beard  that  raging 
mob ! 
Courtenay.     My  mother  said,  Go  up; 
and  up  I  went. 
I  knew  they  would  not  do  me  any  wrong, 
For   I    am   mighty   popular  with    them, 
Noailles. 
Noailles.     You  look'd  a  king. 
Courtenay.  Why  not?     I  am 

king's  blood. 
Noailles.     And  in  the  whirl  of  change 

may  come  to  be  one. 
Courtenay.     Ah ! 
Noailles.       But    does    your    gracious 

Queen  entreat  you  kinglike? 
Courtenay.     'Fore   God,  I  think   she 

entreats  me  like  a  child. 
Noailles.     You've  but  a  dull  life  in  this 
maiden  court, 
I  fear,  my  Lord? 

Courtenay.     A  life  of  nods  and  yawns. 
Noailles.     So   you  would   honour   my 
poor  house  to-night, 
We  might   enliven  you.     Divers  honest 

fellows, 
The  Duke  of  Suffolk   lately  freed  from 

prison, 
Sir  Peter  Carew  and  Sir  Thomas  Wyatt, 
Sir  Thomas  Stafford,  and  some  more  — 
we  play. 
Courtenay.     At  what? 
Noailles.     The  Game  of  Chess. 
Courtenay.  The  Game  of  Chess ! 

I  can  play  well,  and  I  shall   beat   you 
there. 
Noailles.    Ay,  but  we  play  with  Henry, 
King  of  France, 
And  certain  of  his  court. 
His  Highness  makes  his  moves  across  the 

Channel, 
We  answer  him  with  ours,  and  there  are 

messengers 
That  go  between  us. 

Courtenay.     Why,  such   a   game,  sir, 

were  whole  years  a  playing. 
Noailles.     Nay;    not  so  long  I  trust. 
That  all  depends 
Upon    the    skill    and    swiftness    of   the 
players. 
Courtenay.     The  King  is  skilful  at  it  ? 
Noailles.  Very,  my  Lord. 

Courtenay.     And  the  stakes  high  ? 
Noailles.     But  not  beyond  your  means. 


SCENE   IV. 


QUEEN  MARY. 


57' 


Courtenay.      Well,   I'm    the    first    of 

players.     I  shall  win. 
Noailles.     With  our  advice  and  in  our 
company, 
And  so  you  well  attend  to  the  king's  moves, 
I  think  you  may. 

Courtenay.         When  do  you  meet? 
Noailles.  To-night. 

Courtenay  {aside).     I  will  be  there; 
the  fellow's  at  his  tricks  — 
Deep  —  I  shall    fathom  him.     {Aloud.") 
Good  morning,  Noailles. 

[Exit  Courtenay. 
Noailles.    Good-day,  my  Lord.  Strange 
game  of  chess  !  a  King 
That  with  her  own  pawns  plays  against  a 

Queen, 
Whose  play  is  all  to  find  herself  a  King. 
Ay;  but  this  fine  blue-blooded  Courtenay 

seems 
Too  princely  for  a  pawn.     Call  him  a 

Knight, 
That,  with  an  ass's,  not  a  horse's  head, 
Skips  every  way,  from  levity  or  from  fear. 
Well,  we  shall  use  him  somehow,  so  that 

Gardiner 
And  Simon  Renard  spy  not  out  our  game 
Too   early.     Roger,  thinkest   thou   that 

anyone 
Suspected  thee  to  be  my  man? 

Roger.  Not  one,  sir. 

Noailles.  No  !  the  disguise  was  perfect. 

Let's  away.  [Exeunt. 

SCENE  IV. 

London.    A  Room  in  the  Palace. 

Elizabeth.    Enter  Courtenay. 

Courtenay.     So  yet  am  I, 
Unless  my  friends  and  mirrors  lie  to  me, 
A  goodlier-looking  fellow  than  this  Philip. 
Pah! 
The  Queen  is  ill  advised :    shall  I  turn 

traitor? 
They've  almost  talked  me  into  it :  yet  the 

word 
Affrights  me  somewhat :  to  be  such  a  one 
As  Harry  Bolingbroke  hath  a  lure  in  it. 
Good  now,  my  Lady  Queen,  tho'  by  your 

age, 
And  by  your  looks  you  are  not  worth  the 

having, 


Yet  by  your  crown  you  are. 

[Seeing  Elizabeth. 
The  Princess  there? 
If  I  tried  her  and  la  —  she's  amorous. 
Have  we  not  heard  of  her  in  Edward's 

time, 
Her  freaks  and  frolics  with  the  late  Lord 

Admiral? 
I  do  believe   she'd   yield.     I  should  be 

still 
A   party  in   the   state;    and   then,  who 
knows  — 
Elizabeth.     What  are  you  musing  on, 

my  Lord  of  Devon  ? 
Courtenay.     Has  not  the  Queen  — 
Elizabeth.  Done  what,  Sir? 

Courtenay.  —  made  you  follow 

The  Lady  Suffolk  and  the  Lady  Lennox  ? — 
You, 
The  heir  presumptive. 

Elizabeth.      Why   do   you    ask?    you 

know  it. 
Courtenay.     You  needs  must  bear  it 

hardly. 
Elizabeth.  No,  indeed ! 

I  am  utterly  submissive  to  the  Queen. 
Courtenay.     Well,  I  was  musing  upon 
that;   the  Queen 
Is  both  my  foe  and  yours :  we  should  be 
friends. 
Elizabeth.     My   Lord,   the   hatred   of 
another  to  us 
Is  no  true  bond  of  friendship. 

Courtenay.  Might  it  not 

Be  the  rough  preface  of  some  closer  bond  ? 

Elizabeth.     My   Lord,   you   late  were 

loosed  from  out  the  Tower, 

Where,  like  a  butterfly  in  a  chrysalis, 

You  spent  your  life;    that   broken,  out 

you  flutter 
Thro'   the   new   world,  go   zigzag,  now 

would  settle 
Upon  this  flower,  now  that;  but  all  things 

here 
At  court  are  known;   you  have  solicited 
The  Queen,  and  been  rejected. 

Courtenay.  Flower,  she ! 

Half  faded !  but  you,  cousin,  are  fresh  and 

sweet 
As  the  first  flower  no  bee  has  ever  tried. 
Elizabeth.     Are  you  the  bee  to  try  me  ? 
why,  but  now 
I  called  you  butterfly. 


572 


QUEEN  MARY. 


ACT  L 


Courtenay.  You  did  me  wrong, 

I  love  not  to  be  called  a  butterfly : 
Why  do  you  call  me  butterfly? 

Elizabeth.     Why    do   you   go   so   gay 

then? 
Courtenay.     Velvet  and  gold. 
This  dress  was  made  me  as  the  Earl  of 

Devon 
To  take  my  seat  in;   looks  it  not  right 
royal  ? 
Elizabeth.     So  royal  that  the   Queen 

forbade  you  wearing  it. 
Courtenay.     I  wear   it   then  to  spite 

her. 
Elizabeth.     My  Lord,  my  Lord ; 
I   see   you   in   the   Tower  again.      Her 

Majesty 
Hears  you  affect  the   Prince  —  prelates 
kneel  to  you.  — 
Courtenay.     I  am  the  noblest  blood 
in  Europe,  Madam, 
A  Courtenay  of  Devon,  and  her  cousin. 
Elizabeth.     She  hears  you  make  your 
boast  that  after  all 
She  means  to  wed  you.     Folly,  my  good 
Lord. 
Courtenay.     How  folly?  a  great  party 
in  the  state 
Wills  me  to  wed  her. 

Elizabeth.  Failing  her,  my  Lord, 

Doth  not  as  great  a  party  in  the  state 
Will  you  to  wed  me  ? 

Courtenay.  Even  so,  fair  lady. 

Elizabeth.     You  know  to  flatter  ladies. 
Courtenay.  Nay,  I  meant 

True  matters  of  the  heart. 

Elizabeth.  My  heart,  my  Lord, 

Is  no  great  party  in  the  state  as  yet. 
Courtenay.     Great,  said  you?  nay,  you 
shall  be  great.     I  love  you, 
Lay  my  life  in  your  hands.     Can  you  be 
close? 
Elizabeth.     Can  you,  my  Lord? 
Courtenay.     Close  as  a  miser's  casket. 
Listen : 

The  King  of  France,  Noailles  the  Am- 
bassador, 
The  Duke  of  Suffolk  and  Sir  Peter  Carew, 
Sir  Thomas  Wyatt,  I  myself,  some  others, 
Have  sworn  this  Spanish  marriage  shall 

not  be. 
If  Mary  will  not  hear  us  —  well  —  con- 
jecture — 


Were  I  in  Devon  with  my  wedded  bride, 
The  people  there  so  worship  me  —  Your 

ear; 
You  shall  be  Queen. 

Elizabeth.  You  speak  too  low, 

my  Lord; 
I  cannot  hear  you. 

Courtenay.  I'll  repeat  it. 

Elizabeth.  No ! 

Stand  further  off,  or  you  may  lose  your 
head. 
Courtenay.     I  have  a  head  to  lose  for 

your  sweet  sake. 
Elizabeth.     Have  you,  my  Lord?   Best 
keep  it  for  your  own. 
Nay,  pout  not,  cousin. 
Not  many  friends  are  mine,  except  indeed 
Among  the  many.     I  believe  you  mine; 
And  so  you  may  continue  mine,  farewell, 
And  that  at  once. 

Enter  Mary,  behind. 

Mary.    Whispering — leagued  together 
To  bar  me  from  my  Philip. 

Courtenay.  Pray  —  consider  — 

Elizabeth  {seeing  the  Queen).     Well, 

that's  a  noble  horse  of  yours,  my 

Lord. 

I  trust  that  he  will  carry  you  well  to-day, 

And  heal  your  headache. 

Courtenay.     You  are  wild ;  what  head- 
ache? 
Heartache,  perchance;   not  headache. 
Elizabeth  {aside  to  Courtenay).     Are 
you  blind? 
[Courtenay  sees  the  Queen  and  exit. 
Exit  Mary. 

Enter* Lord  William  Howard. 

Howard.  Was  that  my  Lord  of  Devon  ? 

do  not  you 
Be   seen   in   corners   with   my  Lord   of 

Devon. 
He  hath  fallen  out  of  favour  with  the 

Queen. 
She  fears  the  Lords  may  side  with  you 

and  him 
Against   her   marriage;   therefore   is  he 

dangerous. 
And  if  this  Prince  of  fluff  and  feather 

come 
To  woo  you,  niece,  he  is  dangerous  every 

way. 


SCENE  IV. 


QUEEN  MARY. 


573 


Elizabeth.    Not  very   dangerous   that 

way,  my  good  uncle. 
Howard.     But  your  own  state  is  full 

of  danger  here. 
The  disaffected,  heretics,  reformers, 
Look  to  you  as  the  one  to  crown  their 

ends. 
Mix  not  yourself  with  any  plot  I  pray 

you; 
Nay,  if  by  chance  you  hear  of  any  such, 
Speak  not  thereof — no,  not  to  your  best 

friend, 
Lest  you  should  be  confounded  with  it. 

Still  — 
Perinde  ac  cadaver  —  as  the  priest  says, 
You  know  your  Latin  —  quiet  as  a  dead 

body. 
What   was   my  Lord   of  Devon   telling 

you? 
Elizabeth.     Whether  he  told  me  any- 
thing or  not, 
I   follow    your   good    counsel,   gracious 

uncle. 
Quiet  as  a  dead  body. 

Howard.  You  do  right  well. 

I  do  not  care  to  know;   but  this  I  charge 

you, 
Tell     Courtenay    nothing.      The     Lord 

Chancellor 
(I  count  it  as  a  kind  of  virtue  in  him, 
He  hath  not  many),  as  a  mastiff  dog 
May  love  a  puppy  cur  for  no  more  reason 
Than  that  the  twain  have  been  tied  up 

together, 
Thus  Gardiner  —  for  the  two  were  fellow- 
prisoners 
So  many  years  in  yon  accursed  Tower  — 
Hath  taken  to  this  Courtenay.      Look  to 

it,  niece, 
He  hath  no  fence  when  Gardiner  ques- 
tions him; 
All   oozes  out;   yet  him  —  because  they 

know  him 
The  last  White  Rose,  the  last  Plantagenet 
(Nay,  there  is  Cardinal  Pole,  too),  the 

people 
Claim  as  their  natural  leader  —  ay,  some 

say, 
That  you  shall  marry  him,  make  him  King 

belike. 
Elizabeth.     Do    they     say     so,    good 

uncle  ? 
Howard.     .   Ay,  good  niece  ! 


You  should  be  plain  and  open  with  me, 

niece. 
You  should  not  play  upon  me. 

Elizabeth.  No,  good  uncle. 

Enter  Gardiner. 

Gardiner.     The  Queen  would  see  your 

Grace  upon  the  moment. 
Elizabeth.     Why,  my  lord  Bishop? 
Gardiner.     I  think  she  means  to  coun- 
sel your  withdrawing 
To    Ashridge,    or    some    other    country 
house. 
Elizabeth.     Why,  my  lord  Bishop? 
Gardiner.    I  do  but  bring  the  message, 
know  no  more. 
Your  Grace  will  hear  her  reasons  from 
herself. 
Elizabeth.     'Tis  mine  own  wish  fulfill'd 
before  the  word 
Was  spoken,  for  in  truth  I  had  meant  to 

crave 
Permission  of  her  Highness  to  retire 
To   Ashridge,    and   pursue    my    studies 
there. 
Gardiner.     Madam,  to  have  the  wish 
before  the  word 
Is  man's  good  Fairy  —  and  the  Queen  is 

yours. 
I  left  her  with  rich  jewels  in  her  hand, 
Whereof  'tis  like  enough  she  means  to 

make 
A  farewell  present  to  your  Grace. 

.  Elizabeth.  My  Lord, 

I  have  the  jewel  of  a  loyal  heart. 

Gardiner.     I   doubt    it  not,   Madam, 
most  loyal.       [Bo7us  low  and  exit. 
Howard.  See, 

This  comes  of  parleying  with  my  Lord  of 

Devon. 
Well,  well,  you  must  obey;   and  I  myself 
Believe  it  will  be  better  for  your  welfare. 
Your  time  will  come. 

Elizabeth.     I  think  my  time  will  come. 
Uncle, 

I  am  of  sovereign  nature,  that  I  know, 
Not  to  be  quelPd ;   and  I  have  felt  within 

me 
Stirrings  of  some  great  doom  when  God's 

just  hour 
Peals  —  but   this  fierce  old  Gardiner  — 

his  big  baldness, 
That  irritable  forelock  which  he  rubs, 


574 


QUEEN  MARY. 


ACT   I. 


His  buzzard  beak   and   deep-incavern'd 

eyes 
Half  fright  me. 

Howard.     You've  a  bold  heart;   keep 

it  so. 
He  cannot  touch  you  save  that  you  turn 

traitor; 
And  so  take  heed  I  pray  you  —  you  are 

one 
Who  love  that  men  should  smile  upon 

you,  niece. 
They'd  smile  you  into  treason  —  some  of 

them. 
Elizabeth.     I  spy  the  rock  beneath  the 

smiling  sea. 
But  if  this   Philip,   the  proud   Catholic 

prince, 
And  this  bald  priest,  and  she  that  hates 

me,  seek 
In  that  lone  house,   to  practise  on  my 

life, 
By  poison,  fire,  shot,  stab  — 

Howard.  They  will  not,  niece. 

Mine  is  the   fleet  and  all  the  power  at 

sea  — 
Or  will  be  in  a  moment.      If  they  dared 
To  harm  you,  I  would  blow  this  Philip 

and  all 
Your    trouble   to   the    dogstar  and  the 

devil. 
Elizabeth.       To    the    Pleiads,    uncle; 

they  have  lost  a  sister. 
Howard.     But   why  say  that?    what 

have  you  done  to  lose  her? 
Come,  come,  I  will  go  with  you  to  the 

Queen.  [Exeunt. 

SCENE   V. 

A  Room  in  the  Palace. 

Mary  with  Philip's  miniature.    Alice. 

Mary  {kissing  the  miniature).     Most 
goodly,  Kinglike  and  an  Emperor's 
son,  — 
A  king  to  be,  —  is  he  not  noble,  girl? 
Alice.      Goodly  enough,  your  Grace, 
and  yet,  methinks, 
I  have  seen  goodlier. 

Mary.  Ay;  some  waxen  doll 

Thy  baby  eyes  have  rested  on,  belike; 
All  red  and  white,  the  fashion  of  our 
land. 


But  my  good  mother  came  (God  rest  her 

soul) 
Of  Spain,  and  I  am  Spanish  in  myself, 
And  in  my  likings. 

Alice.  By  your  Grace's  leave 

Your  royal   mother  came  of  Spain,  but 

took 
To   the    English  red   and  white.     Your 

royal  father 
(For  so  they  say)  was  all  pure  lily  and 

rose 
In  his  youth,  and  like  a  lady. 

Mary.  O  just  God ! 

Sweet  mother,  you  had  time  and  cause 

enough 
To  sicken  of  his  lilies  and  his  roses. 
Cast    off,   betray'd,   defamed,    divorced, 

forlorn ! 
And  then  the  King  —  that   traitor  past 

forgiveness, 
The  false   archbishop  fawning  on  him, 

married 
The  mother  of  Elizabeth  —  a  heretic 
Ev'n  as  she  is;  but  God  hath  sent  me 

here 
To  take  such  order  with  all  heretics 
That  it  shall  be,  before  I  die,  as  tho' 
My  father  and  my  brother  had  not  lived. 
What  wast  thou  saying  of  this    Lady 

Jane, 
Now  in  the  Tower? 

Alice.      Why,  Madam,  she  was  passing 
Some  chapel  down  in  Essex,  and   with 

her 
Lady  Anne  Wharton,  and  the  Lady  Anne 
Bow'd  to  the  Pyx;  but  Lady  Jane  stood 

up 
Stiff  as  the  very  backbone  of  heresy. 
And  wherefore   bow  ye  not,  says  Lady 

Anne, 
To  him  within  there  who  made  Heaven 

and  Earth? 
I  cannot  and  I  dare  not  tell  your  Grace 
What  Lady  Jane  replied. 

Mary.  But  I  will  have  it. 

Alice.      She  said  —  pray  pardon  me, 

and  pity  her  — 
She   hath  harken'd   evil  counsel  —  ah ! 

she  said, 
The  baker  made  him. 

Mary.  Monstrous !  blasphemous ! 

She  ought  to  burn.    Hence,  thou.    {Exit 

Alice.)     No  —  being  traitor 


SCENE  V. 


QUEEN  MARY. 


575 


Her  head  will  fall :  shall  it  ?  she  is  but 

a  child. 
We  do  not  kill  the  child  for  doing  that 
His  father  whipt  him  into  doing  —  a  head 
So  full  of  grace  and  beauty !  would  that 

mine 
Were  half  as  gracious !     O  my  lord  to  be, 
My  love,  for  thy  sake  only. 
I  am  eleven  years  older  than  he  is. 
But  will  he  care  for  that? 
No,  by  the  holy  Virgin,  being  noble, 
But    love   me    only :    then   the   bastard 

sprout, 
My  sister,  is  far  fairer  than  myself. 
Will  he  be  drawn  to  her? 
No,  being  of  the  true  faith  with  myself. 
Paget  is  for  him  —  for  to  wed  with  Spain 
Would   treble     England  —  Gardiner     is 

against  him; 
The  Council,  people,  Parliament  against 

him; 
But  I  will  have  him !     My  hard  father 

hated  me; 
My  brother  rather  hated  me  than  loved; 
My  sister   cowers  and  hates  me.     Holy 

Virgin, 
Plead  with  thy  blessed  Son;  grant  me 

my  prayer  : 
Give  me  my  Philip;    and   we  two  will 

lead 
The  living  waters  of  the  Faith  again 
Back  thro'  their  widow'd  channel  here, 

and  watch 
The  parch'd  banks  rolling  incense,  as  of 

old, 
To  heaven,  and  kindled  with  the  palms 

of  Christ ! 

Enter  Usher. 

Who  waits,  sir? 

Usher.    Madam,  the  Lord  Chancellor. 

Mary.     Bid   him   come   in.      {Enter 

Gardiner.)     Good  morning,  my 

good  Lord.  [Exit  Usher. 

Gardiner.  That  every  morning  of  your 

Majesty 

May  be  most  good,  is  every  morning's 

prayer 
Of  your    most    loyal    subject,   Stephen 
Gardiner. 
Mary.    Come  you  to  tell  me  this,  my 

Lord? 
Gardiner.    And  more. 


Your   people  have  begun  to  learn  your 

worth. 
Your  pious  wish  to  pay  King  Edward's 

debts, 
Your  lavish  household  curb'd,  and  the 

remission 
Of  half  that  subsidy  levied  on  the  people, 
Make  all  tongues  praise  and  all  hearts 

beat  for  you. 
I'd  have  you  yet  more  loved :  the  realm 

is  poor, 
The  exchequer  at  neap-tide :   we  might 

withdraw 
Part  of  our  garrison  at  Calais. 

Mary.  Calais ! 

Our  one  point  on  the  main,  the  gate  of 

France ! 
I  am  Queen  of  England  ;  take  mine  eyes, 

mine  heart, 
But  do  not  lose  me  Calais. 

Gardiner.  Do  not  fear  it. 

Of  that  hereafter.     I  say  your  Grace  is 

loved. 
That  I  may  keep  you  thus,  who  am  your 

friend 
And    ever   faithful   counsellor,   might   I 

speak  ? 
Mary.   I  can  forespeak  your  speaking. 

Would  I  marry 
Prince  Philip,  if  all  England  hate  him? 

That  is 
Your  question,  and  I  front  it  with  another : 
Is  it  England,  or  a  party?     Now,  your 

answer. 
Gardiner.     My  answer  is,  I  wear  be- 
neath my  dress 
A  shirt  of  mail:    my  house   hath  been 

assaulted, 
And  when  I  walk  abroad,  the  populace, 
With  fingers  pointed  like  so  many  daggers, 
Stab    me   in   fancy,   hissing   Spain   and 

Philip; 
And  when  I  sleep,  a  hundred  men-at- 
arms 
Guard    my   poor    dreams   for   England. 

Men  would  murder  me, 
Because  they  think  me  favourer  of  this 

marriage. 
Mary.    And  that  were  hard  upon  you, 

my  Lord  Chancellor. 
Gardiner.    But   our   young    Earl    of 

Devon  — 
Mary.  Earl  of  Devon? 


576 


QUEEN  MARY. 


ACT  i, 


I  freed  him  from  the  Tower,  placed  him 

at  Court; 
I  made  him  Earl  of  Devon,  and  —  the 

fool  — 
He  wrecks   his  health  and  wealth   on 

courtesans, 
And  rolls  himself  in  carrion  like  a  dog. 
Gardiner.    More  like  a  schoolboy  that 
hath  broken  bounds, 
Sickening  himself  with  sweets. 

Mary.  I  will  not  hear  of  him. 

Good,  then,  they  will  revolt :  but  I  am 

Tudor, 
And  shall  control  them. 

Gardiner.        I  will  help  you,  Madam, 
Even  to  the  utmost.     All  the  church  is 

grateful. 
You   have   ousted  the  mock  priest,  re- 

pulpited 
The   shepherd   of  St.  Peter,  raised   the 

rood  again, 
And  brought  us  back  the  mass.    I  am  all 

thanks 
To  God  and  to  your  Grace :  yet  I  know 

well, 
Your  people,  and  I  go  with  them  so  far, 
Will  brook  nor  Pope  nor  Spaniard  here 

to  play 
The    tyrant,    or    in    commonwealth    or 
church. 
Mary  {showing  the  picture).  Is  this  the 
face  of  one  who  plays  the  tyrant? 
Peruse  it;  is  it  not  goodly,  ay,  and  gentle?. 
Gardiner.     Madam,  methinks  a  cold 
face  and  a  haughty. 
And  when  your  Highness  talks  of  Cour- 

tenay  — 
Ay,  true  —  a  goodly  one.      I  would  his 
life 
Were  half  as  goodly  {aside). 
Mary.  What  is  that  you  mutter? 

Gardiner.  O  Madam,  take  it  bluntly; 
marry  Philip, 
And  be  stepmother  of  a  score  of  sons  ! 
The  prince  is  known  in  Spain,  in  Flanders, 

ha! 
For  Philip  — 

Mary.  You  offend  us;  you  may  leave  us. 
You  see  thro'  warping  glasses. 

Gardiner.  If  your  Majesty  — 

Mary.    I  have  sworn  upon  the  body 
and  blood  of  Christ 
I'll  none  but  Philip. 


Gardiner.  Hath  your  Grace  so  sworn? 
Mary.     Ay,  Simon  Renard  knows  it. 
Gardiner.  News  to  me ! 

It  then  remains  for  your  poor  Gardiner, 
So  you  still  care  to  trust  him  somewhat 

less 
Than   Simon   Renard,  to   compose   the 

event 
In  some  such  form  as  least   may  harm 
your  Grace. 
Mary.     I'll  have  the  scandal  sounded 
to  the  mud. 
I  know  it  a  scandal. 

Gardiner.  All  my  hope  is  now 

It  may  be  found  a  scandal. 

Mary.  You  offend  us. 

Gardiner  {aside).     These  princes  are 
like  children,  must  be  physick'd, 
The  bitter  in  the  sweet.       I  have  lost 

mine  office, 
It  may  be,  thro'  mine  honesty,  like  a  fool. 

[Exit. 

Enter  Usher. 

Mary.     Who  waits? 

Usher.    The  Ambassador  from  France, 

your  Grace. 
Mary  {sits  down).     Bid  him  come  in. 
•Good  morning,  Sir  de  Noailles. 

[Exit  Usher. 
Noailles  {entering) .    A  happy  morning 

to  your  Majesty. 
Mary.     And  I  should  sometime  have 
a  happy  morning; 
I  have  had  none   yet.     What  says  the 
King  your  master? 
Noailles.      Madam,  my  master  hears 
with  much  alarm, 
That  you  may  marry  Philip,  Prince  of 

Spain  — 
Foreseeing,  with  whate'er  unwillingness, 
That  if  this  Philip  be  the  titular  king 
Of  England,  and  at  war  with  him,  your 

Grace 
And  kingdom  will  be  suck'd  into  the  war, 
Ay,  tho'  you  long  for  peace;  wherefore, 

my  master, 
If  but  to  prove  your  Majesty's  good  will, 
Would  fain  have  some  fresh  treaty  drawn 
between  you. 
Mary.    Why  some  fresh  treaty?  where- 
fore should  I  do  it? 
Sir,  if  we  marry,  we  shall  still  maintain 


SCENE   V. 


QUEEN  MARY. 


577 


All  former  treaties  with  his  Majesty. 
Our  royal  word  for  that !  and  your  good 

master, 
Pray  God  he  do  not  be  the  first  to  break 

them, 
Must  be  content  with  that;   and  so,  fare- 
well. 
Noailles  {going,  returns) .  I  would  your 

answer  had  been  other,  Madam, 
For  I  foresee  dark  days. 

Mary.  And  so  do  I,  sir; 

Your  master  works  against  me  in  the  dark. 
I  do  believe  he  holp  Northumberland 
Against  me. 

Noailles.      Nay,  pure    phantasy,  your 

Grace. 
Why  should  he  move  against  you? 

Mary.  Will  you  hear  why? 

Mary  of  Scotland,  —  for  I  have  not  own'd 
My  sister,  and  I  will  not,  —  after  me 
Is  heir  of  England;   and  my  royal  father, 
To  make  the  crown  of  Scotland  one  with 

ours, 
Had  mark'd  her  for  my  brother  Edward's 

bride ; 
Ay,  but  your  king  stole  her  a  babe  from 

Scotland 
In  order  to  betroth  her  to  your  Dauphin. 
See  then : 
Mary    of    Scotland,    married    to    your 

Dauphin, 
Would  make  our  England,  France; 
Mary   of  England,  joining   hands   with 

Spain, 
Would  be  too  strong  for  France. 
Yea,  were  there  issue  born  to  her,  Spain 

and  we, 
One  crown,  might  rule  the  world.    There 

lies  your  fear. 
That  is  your  drift.     You  play  at  hide  and 

seek. 
Show  me  your  faces  ! 

Noailles.  Madam,  I  am  amazed : 

French,    I   must    needs   wish    all    good 

things  for  France. 
That  must  be  pardon'd  me;   but  I  protest 
Your  Grace's  policy  hath  a  farther  flight 
Than  mine  into  the  future.     We  but  seek 
Some  settled  ground  for  p  :ace  to  stand 

upon. 
Mary.     Well,  we  will  leave  all   this, 

sir,  to  our  council. 
Have  you  seen  Philip  ever? 
31 


Noailles.  Only  once. 

Mary.     Is  this  like  Philip? 
Noailles.  Ay,  but  nobler-looking. 

Mary.     Hath  he  the  large  ability  of 

the  Emperor? 
Noailles.     No,  surely. 
Mary.     I  can  make  allowance  for  thee, 
Thou  speakest  of  the  enemy  of  thy  king. 
AToailles.     Make  no  allowance  for  the 
naked  truth. 
He  is  everyway  a  lesser  man  than  Charles; 
Stone-hard,  ice-cold  —  no  dash  of  daring 
in  him. 
Mary.     If  cold,  his  life  is  pure. 
Noailles.     Why  (smiling),  no,  indeed. 
Mary.     Sayst  thou? 
Noailles.     A  very  wanton  life  indeed 

(smiling). 
Mary.     Your   audience  is  concluded, 
sir.  [Exit  Noailles. 

You  cannot 
Learn  a  man's  nature  from  his  natural  foe. 

Enter  Usher. 

Who  waits? 

Usher.    The    Ambassador   of    Spain, 
your  Grace.  [Exit. 

Enter  Simon  Renard. 

Mary    (rising  to   meet  him).     Thou 

art  ever  welcome,  Simon  Renard. 

Hast  thou 
Brought    me    the    letter    which    thine 

Emperor  promised 
Long  since,  a  formal  offer  of  the  hand 
Of  Philip? 

Renard.     Nay,  your  Grace,  it  hath  not 

reach'd  me. 
I  know  not  wherefore  —  some  mischance 

of  flood, 
And  broken  bridge,  or  spavin'd  horse,  or 

wave 
And  wind  at  their  old  battle:   he  must 

have  written. 
Mary.     But   Philip   never   writes  me 

one  poor  word, 
Which  in  his  absence  had  been  all  my 

wealth. 
Strange  in  a  wooer ! 

Renard.  Yet  I  know  the  Prince,, 

So  your   king-parliament   suffer   him  to 

land, 
Yearns  to  set  foot  upon  your  island  shore... 


578 


QUEEN  MARY. 


ACT   1 


Mary.     God  change  the  pebble  which 

his  kingly  foot 
First  presses  into  some  more  costly  stone 
Than   ever   blinded  eye.     I'll  have  one 

mark  it 
And  bring  it  me.     I'll  have  it  burnish' d 

firelike; 
I'll  set  it  round  with  gold,  with  pearl, 

with  diamond. 
Let  the  great  angel  of  the  church  come 

with  him; 
Stand  on  the  deck  and  spread  his  wings 

for  sail ! 
God  lay  the  waves  and  strow  the  storms 

at  sea, 
And  here  at  land  among  the  people  !     O 

Renard, 
I  am  much  beset,  I  am  almost  in  despair. 
Paget   is   ours.     Gardiner   perchance   is 

ours; 
But  for  our  heretic  Parliament  — 

Renard.  O  Madam, 

You  fly  your   thoughts  like   kites.     My 

master,  Charles, 
Bade  you  go  softly  with  your  heretics  here, 
Until  your  throne  had  ceased  to  tremble. 

Then 
Spit  them   like   larks  for  aught  I  care. 

Besides, 
When  Henry  broke  the  carcase  of  your 

church 
To  pieces,  there  were  many  wolves  among 

you 
Who  dragg'd  the  scatter'd  limbs  into  their 

den. 
The  Pope  would   have  you  make  them 

render  these; 
So  would  your  cousin,  Cardinal  Pole;   ill 

counsel ! 
These  let  them  keep  at  present;   stir  not 

yet 
This  matter  of  the   Church   lands.     At 

his  coming 
Your  star  will  rise. 

Mary.  My  star  !  a  baleful  one. 

I  see  but  the  black  night,  and  hear  the 

wolf. 
What  star? 

Renard.      Your    star    will    be    your 

princely  son, 
Heir  of  this  England  and  the  Netherlands ! 
And  if  your  wolf  the  while  should  howl 

for  more, 


We'll  dust  him  from  a  bag  of  Spanish  gold. 
I  do  believe,  I  have  dusted  some  already, 
That,  soon  or  late,  your  Parliament  is  ours. 
Mary.  Why  do  they  talk  so  foully  of 
your  Prince, 
Renard? 

Renard.    The  lot  of  Princes.     To  sit 
high 
Is  to  be  lied  about. 

Mary.  They  call  him  cold, 

Haughty,  ay,  worse. 

Renard.    Why,  doubtless,  Philip  shows 
Some  of  the  bearing  of  your  blue  blood  — 

still 
All  within  measure  —  nay,  it  well  becomes 
him. 
Mary.     Hath  he  the  large  ability  of 

his  father? 
Renard.     Nay,  some  believe   that  he 

will  go  beyond  him. 
Mary.     Is  this  like  him? 
Renard.      Ay,   somewhat;     but   your 
Philip 
Is  the  most  princelike  Prince  beneath  the 

sun. 
This  is  a  daub  to  Philip. 

Mary.  Of  a  pure  life  ? 

Renard.     As  an  angel  among  angels. 
Yea,  by  Heaven, 
The    text  —  Your    Highness    knows    it, 

•  Whosoever 
Looketh  after  a  woman,'  would  not  graze 
The  Prince  of  Spain.     You  are  happy  in 

him  there, 
Chaste  as  your  Grace  ! 

Mary.  I  am  happy  in  him  there. 

Renard.      And    would    be   altogether 
happy,  Madam, 
So  that  your   sister  were   but  look'd  to 

closer. 
You  have  sent  her  from  the  court,  but 

then  she  goes, 
I  warrant,  not  to  hear  the  nightingales, 
But  hatch  you  some  new  treason  in  the 
woods. 
Mary.     We  have  our  spies  abroad  to 
catch  her  tripping, 
And  then  if  caught,  to  the  Tower. 

Renard.  The  Tower!  the  block  ! 

The  word  has  turn'd  your  Highness  pale; 

the  thing 
Was  no  such  scarecrow  in  your  father's 
time. 


QUEEN  MARY. 


579 


I  have  heard,  the   tongue  yet    quiver'd 

with  the  jest 
When  the  head  leapt  —  so  common!     I 

do  think 
To  save  your  crown  that  it  must  come  to 

this. 
Mary.     No,  Renard;    it   must    never 

come  to  this. 
Renard.  Not  yet;  but  your  old  Traitors 

of  the  Tower  — 
Why,  when  you  put  Northumberland  to 

death, 
The   sentence   having   past   upon   them 

all, 
Spared  you  the  Duke  of  Suffolk,  Guildford 

Dudley, 
Ev'n  that  young  girl  who  dared  to  wear 

your  crown? 
Mary.     Dared?  nay, not  so;  the  child 

obey'd  her  father. 
Spite  of  her  tears  her  father  forced  it  on 

her. 
Renard.      Good    Madam,   when    the 

Roman  wish'd  to  reign, 
He  slew  not  him   alone  who  wore   the 

purple, 
But  his  assessor  in  the  throne,  perchance 
A  child  more  innocent  than  Lady  Jane. 
Mary.      I    am    English    Queen,    not 

Roman  Emperor. 
Renard.     Yet   too   much   mercy  is   a 

want  of  mercy, 
And  wastes  more  life.     Stamp    out  the 

fire,  or  this 
Will  smoulder  and  re-flame,  and  burn  the 

throne 
Where   you  should  sit  with   Philip:    he 

will  not  come 
Till  she  be  gone. 

Alary.       Indeed,  if  that  were  true  — 
For   Philip   comes,  one,  hand   in   mine, 

and  one 
Steadying  the   tremulous   pillars  of  the 

Church  — 
But  no,  no,  no.     Farewell.     I  am  some- 
what faint 
With  our  long  talk.     Tho'  Queen,  I  am 

not  Queen 
Of  mine  own   heart,  which   every  now 

and  then 
Beats  me  half  dead :  yet  stay,  this  golden 

chain  — 
My  father  on  a  birthday  gave  it  me, 


And  I  have  broken  with  my  father  —  take 
And  wear  it  as  memorial  of  a  morning 
Which  found  me  full  of  foolish  doubts, 

and  leaves  me 
As  hopeful. 

Renard  {aside) .     Whew — the  folly  of 

all  follies 
Is  to  be  love-sick  for  a  shadow.    {Aloud.) 

Madam, 
This  chains  me  to  your  service,  not  with 

gold, 
But  dearest  links  of  love.     Farewell,  and 

trust  me, 
Philip  is  yours.  [Exit. 

Mary.     Mine  —  but  not  yet  all  mine 

Enter  Usher. 

Usher.     Your   Council   is  in    Session, 

please  your  Majesty. 
Mary.     Sir,  let  them  sit.     I  must  have 

time  to  breathe. 
No,  say  I  come.     {Exit  Usher.)     I  won 

by  boldness  once. 
The    Emperor   counsell'd   me   to   fly  to 

Flanders. 
I  would  not;   but  a  hundred  miles  I  rode, 
Sent   out   my  letters,    call'd   my  friends 

together, 
Struck  home  and  won. 
And  when  the  Council  would  not  crown 

me  —  thought 
To  bind  me  first   by  oaths  I  could  not 

keep, 
And  keep  with  Christ  and  conscience  — 

was  it  boldness 
Or  weakness  that  won  there?  when   I, 

their  Queen, 
Cast  myself  down  upon  my  knees  before 

them, 
And  those  hard  men  brake  into  woman- 
tears, 
Ev'n  Gardiner,  all  amazed,  and  in  that 

passion 
Gave  me  my  Crown. 

Enter  Alice. 

Girl;   hast  thou  ever  heard 
Slanders   against   Prince    Philip    in   our 
Court? 
Alice.    What  slanders?    I,  your  Grace; 

no,  never. 
Mary.     Nothing? 
Alice.     Never,  your  Grace. 


QUEEN  MARY. 


Mary.     See    that    you   neither    hear 

them  nor  repeat! 
Alice    (aside) .      Good    Lord !     but   I 
have  heard  a  thousand  such. 
Ay,  and  repeated  them  as  often — mum! 
Why  comes  that  old   fox-Fleming  back 
again  ? 

Enter  Renard. 

Renard.     Madam,  I    scarce    had   left 
your  Grace's  presence 
Before  I  chanced  upon  the  messenger 
Who  brings  that  letter  which  we  waited 

for  — 
The  formal  offer  of  Prince  Philip's  hand. 
It  craves  an  instant  answer,  Ay  or  No. 
Mary.     An   instant    Ay  or   No !    the 
Council  sits. 
Give  it  me  quick. 

Alice    (stepping    before    her).      Your 

Highness  is  all  trembling. 
Mary.     Make  way. 

[Exit  into  the  Council  Chamber. 
Alice.      O    Master     Renard,     Master 
Renard, 
If  you   have    falsely   painted   your   fine 

Prince ; 
Praised,  where  you  should  have  blamed 

him,  I  pray  God 
No  woman  ever  love  you,  Master  Renard. 
It  breaks  my  heart  to  hear  her  moan  at 

night 
As  tho'  the  nightmare  never  left  her  bed. 
Renard.     My  pretty  maiden,  tell  me, 
did  you  ever 
Sigh  for  a  beard  ? 

Alice.        That's  not  a  pretty  question. 
Renard.     Not  prettily  put?     I  mean, 
my  pretty  maiden, 
A  pretty  man  for  such  a  pretty  maiden. 
Alice.     My  Lord  of  Devon  is  a  pretty 
man. 
I  hate  him.     Well,  but  if  I  have,  what 
then? 
Renard.     Then,   pretty   maiden,   you 
should  know  that  whether 
A  wind  be  warm  or  cold,  it  serves  to  fan 
A  kindled  fire. 

Alice.     According  to  the  song. 

His  friends  would  praise  him,  I  believed  'em, 
His  foes  would  blame  him,  and  I  scorn'd  'em, 

His  friends  —  as  Angels  I  received  'em, 
His  foes  —  the  Devil  had  subom'd  'em. 


Renard.     Peace,  pretty  maiden. 
I    hear    them   stirring    in    the    Council 

Chamber. 
Lord   Paget's  '  Ay  '  is  sure  —  who  else  ? 

and  yet, 
They  are  all  too  much  at  odds  to  close 

at  once 
In  one  full-throated  No  !     Her  Highness 

comes. 

Enter  Mary. 

Alice.  How  deathly  pale  !  —  a  chair, 
your  Highness. 

[Bringing  one  to  the  Queen. 
Renard.     Madam, 
The  Council? 

Mary.       Ay !    My  Philip  is  all  mine. 
[Sinks  into  chair,  half  fainting. 

ACT  II. 

SCENE  I.  — Alington  Castle. 

Sir  Thomas  Wyatt.  I  do  not  hear 
from  Carew  or  the  Duke 

Of  Suffolk,  and  till  then  I  should  not 
move. 

The  Duke  hath  gone  to  Leicester;  Ca- 
rew stirs 

In  Devon :  that  fine  porcelain  Courtenay, 

Save  that  he  fears  he  might  be  crack'd 
in  using 

(I  have  known  a  semi-madman  in  my 
time 

So  fancy-ridd'n) ,  should  be  in  Devon  too. 

Enter  William. 

News  abroad,  William? 

William.  None  so  new,  Sir  Thomas, 
and  none  so  old,  Sir  Thomas.  No  new 
news  that  Philip  comes  to  wed  Mary,  no 
old  news  that  all  men  hate  it.  Old  Sir 
Thomas  would  have  hated  it.  The  bells 
are  ringing  at  Maidstone.  Doesn't  your 
worship  hear? 

Wyatt.     Ay,  for  the  Saints  are  come 
to  reign  again. 
Most  like  it  is  a  Saint's-day.     There's  no 

call 
As  yet  for  me;   so  in  this  pause,  before 
The  mine  be  fired,  it  were  a  pious  work 
To  string  my  father's  sonnets,  left  about 
Like  loosely-scatter'd  jewels,  in  fair  order, 


QUEEN  MARY. 


581 


And  head  them  with  a  lamer  rhyme  of 

mine, 
To  grace  his  memory. 

William.  Ay,  why  not,  Sir  Thomas? 
He  was  a  fine  courtier,  he;  Queen  Anne 
loved  him.  All  the  women  loved  him. 
I  loved  him,  I  was  in  Spain  with  him. 
I  couldn't  eat  in  Spain,  I  couldn't  sleep 
in  Spain.  I  hate  Spain,  Sir  Thomas. 
Wyatt.     But   thou   could'st   drink    in 

Spain  if  I  remember. 
William.     Sir  Thomas,  we  may  grant 
the    wine.      Old     Sir    Thomas     always 
granted  the  wine. 

Wyatt.  Hand  me  the  casket  with  my 
father's  sonnets. 

William.  Ay — sonnets  —  a  fine  court- 
ier of  the  old  Court,  old  Sir  Thomas. 

[Exit. 
Wyatt.     Courtier  of  many  courts,  he 
loved  the  more 
His   own    gray   towers,   plain    life    and 

letter'd  peace, 
To  read  and  rhyme  in  solitary  fields, 
The  lark  above,  the  nightingale  below, 
And    answer   them   in   song.     The   sire 

begets 
Not  half  his  likeness  in  the  son.     I  fail 
Where  he  was  fullest :  yet  —  to  write  it 
down.  \_He  writes. 

Re-enter  William. 

William.  There  is  news,  there  is  news, 
and  no  call  for  sonnet-sorting  now,  nor 
for  sonnet-making  either,  but  ten  thou- 
sand men  on  Penenden  Heath  all  calling 
after  your  worship,  and  your  worship's 
name  heard  into  Maidstone  market,  and 
your  worship  the  first  man  in  Kent  and 
Christendom,  for  the  Queen's  down, 
and  the  world's  up,  and  your  worship 
a-top  of  it. 

Wyatt.      Inverted    y£sop  —  mountain 

out  of  mouse. 
Say  for  ten  thousand  ten  —  and  pothouse 

knaves, 
Brain-dizzied  with  a  draught  of  morning 

ale. 

Enter  Anthony  Knyvett. 

William.     Here's  Anthony  Knyvett. 
Knyvett.      Look  you,   Master  Wyatt, 
Tear  up  that  woman's  work  there. 


Wyatt.  No;   not  these, 

Dumb   children  of  my  father,   that  will 

speak 
When  I  and  thou  and  all  rebellions  lie 
Dead  bodies  without  voice.     Song  flies 

you  know 
For  ages. 

Knyvett.     Tut,  your  sonnet's  a  flying 

ant, 
Wing'd  for  a  moment. 

Wyatt.  Well,  for  mine  own  work, 

[  Tearing  the  paper. 
It  lies  there  in  six  pieces  at  your  feet; 
For  all  that  I  can  carry  it  in  my  head. 
Knyvett.     If  you  can  carry  your  head 

upon  your  shoulders. 
Wyatt.     I  fear  you  come  to  carry  it  off 

my  shoulders, 
And  sonnet-making's  safer. 

Knyvett.  Why,  good  Lord, 

Write  you  as  many  sonnets  as  you  will. 
Ay,  but  not  now;   what,  have  you  eyes, 

ears,  brains? 
This  Philip  and  the  black-faced  swarms 

of  Spain, 
The  hardest,  cruellest  people  in  the  world, 
Come  locusting  upon  us,  eat  us  up, 
Confiscate  lands,  goods,  money  —  Wyatt, 

Wyatt, 
Wake,  or  the  stout  old  island  will  become 
A  rotten  limb  of  Spain.     They  roar  for 

you 
On  Penenden  Heath,  a  thousand  of  them 

—  more  — 
All  arm'd,  waiting  a  leader;    there's  no 

glory 
Like  his  who  saves  his  country :  and  you 

sit 
Sing-songing  here;   but  if  I'm  any  juoge, 
By  God,  you  are  as  poor  a  poet,  Wyatt, 
As  a  good  soldier. 

Wyatt.  You  as  poor  a  critic 

As  an  honest  friend :  you  stroke  me  on 

one  cheek, 
Buffet   the   other.      Come,  you   bluster, 

Anthony ! 
You  know  I  know  all  this.     I  must  not 

move 
Until  I  hear  from  Carew  and  the  Duke. 
I  fear  the  mine  is  fired  before  the  time. 
Knyvett  (shoxving  a  paper) .  But  here's 

some  Hebrew.     Faith,  I  half  for° 

got  it. 


582 


QUEEN  MARY. 


ACT  II. 


Look;    can  you   make   it   English?    A 

strange  youth 
Suddenly    thrust    it    on    me,   whisper'd, 

'  Wyatt,' 
And  whisking  round  a  corner,  show'd  his 

back 
Before  I  read  his  face. 

Wyatt.  Ha !  Courtenay's  cipher. 

\_Reads. 
*  Sir  Peter  Carew  fled  to  France :  it  is 
thought  the  Duke  will  be  taken.  I  am 
with  you  still;  but,  for  appearance'  sake, 
stay  with  the  Queen.  Gardiner  knows, 
but  the  Council  are  all  at  odds,  and  the 
Queen  hath  no  force  for  resistance. 
Move,  if  you  move,  at  once.' 

Is  Peter  Carew  fled?    Is  the  Duke  taken? 
Down  scabbard,  and  out  sword  !  and  let 

Rebellion 
Roar  till  throne  rock,   and   crown  fall. 

No;   not  that; 
But  we  will  teach  Queen  Mary  how  to 

reign. 
Who  are  those  that  shout  below  there? 

Knyvett.  Why,  some  fifty 

That  follow'd  me  from  Penenden  Heath 

in  hope 
To  hear  you  speak. 

Wyatt.  Open  the  window,  Knyvett; 
The  mine  is  fired,  and  I  will  speak  to 

them. 

Men  of  Kent;  England  of  England; 
you  that  have  kept  your  old  customs 
upright,  while  all  the  rest  of  England 
bow'd  theirs  to  the  Norman,  the  cause 
that  hath  brought  us  together  is  not  the 
cause  of  a  county  or  a  shire,  but  of  this 
England,  in  whose  crown  our  Kent  is  the 
fairest  jewel.  Philip  shall  not  wed  Mary; 
and  ye  have  called  me  to  be  your  leader. 
I  know  Spain.  I  have  been  there  with 
my  father;  I  have  seen  them  in  their  own 
land;  have  marked  the  haughtiness  of 
their  nobles;  the  cruelty  of  their  priests. 
If  this  man  marry  our  Queen,  however 
the  Council  and  the  Commons  may  fence 
round  his  power  with  restriction,  he  will 
be  King,  King  of  England,  my  masters; 
and  the  Queen,  and  the  laws,  and  the 
people,  his  slaves.  What?  shall  we  have 
Spain  on  the  throne  and  in  the  parlia- 


ment; Spain  in  the  pulpit  and  on  the 
law-bench ;  Spain  in  all  the  great  offices 
of  state ;  Spain  in  our  ships,  in  our  forts, 
in  our  houses,  in  our  beds? 

Crowd.     No  !  no  !  no  Spain  ! 

William.  No  Spain  in  our  beds  — 
that  were  worse  than  all.  I  have  been 
there  with  old  Sir  Thomas,  and  the  beds 
I  know.     I  hate  Spain. 

A  Peasant.  But,  Sir  Thomas,  must  we 
levy  war  against  the  Queen's  Grace? 

Wyatt.  No,  my  friend;  war  for  the 
Queen's  Grace — to  save  her  from  herself 
and  Philip  —  war  against  Spain.  And 
think  not  we  shall  be  alone  —  thousands 
will  flock  to  us.  The  Council,  the  Court 
itself,  is  on  our  side.  The  Lord  Chancel- 
lor himself  is  on  our  side.  The  King  of 
France  is  with  us;  the  King  of  Denmark 
is  with  us;  the  world  is  with  us  —  war 
against  Spain !  And  if  we  move  not  now, 
yet  it  will  be  known  that  we  have  moved; 
and  if  Philip  come  to  be  King,  O  my 
God !  the  rope,  the  rack,  the  thumbscrew, 
the  stake,  the  fire.  If  we  move  not  now, 
Spain  moves,  bribes  our  nobles  with  her 
gold,  and  creeps,  creeps  snake-like  about 
our  legs  till  we  cannot  move  at  all;  and 
ye  know,  my  masters,  that  wherever 
Spain  hath  ruled  she  hath  wither'd  all 
beneath  her.  Look  at  the  New  World  — 
a  paradise  made  hell;  the  red  man,  that 
good  helpless  creature,  starved,  maim'd, 
flogg'd,  flay'djburn'd,  boil'd,  buried  alive, 
worried  by  dogs;  and  here,  nearer  home, 
the  Netherlands,  Sicily,  Naples,  Lom- 
bardy.  I  say  no  more  —  only  this,  their 
lot  is  yours.  Forward  to  London  with 
me !  forward  to  London !  If  ye  love 
your  liberties  or  your  skins,  forward  to 
London ! 

Crowd.      Forward    to    London !      A 
Wyatt!  a  Wyatt! 

Wyatt.     But  first  to  Rochester,  to  take 
the  guns 
From  out  the  vessels  lying  in  the  river. 
Then  on. 

A  Peasant.     Ay,  but  I  fear  we  be  too 
few,  Sir  Thomas. 

Wyatt.     Not  many  yet.     The  world  as 
yet,  my  friend, 
Is  not  half-waked ;   but  every  parish  tower 
Shall  clang  and  clash  alarum  as  we  pass, 


QUEEN  MARY. 


583 


And  pour  along  the  land,  and  swoll'n  and 

fed 
With  indraughts  and  side-currents,  in  full 

force 
Roll  upon  London. 

Crowd.     A  Wyatt!    a   Wyatt !     For- 
ward ! 
Knyvett.     Wyatt,   shall  we   proclaim 

Elizabeth  ? 
Wyatt.     I'll  think  upon  it,  Knyvett. 
Knyvett.  Or  Lady  Jane? 

Wyatt.     No,  poor  soul;   no. 
Ah,  gray  old  castle  of  Alington,  green  field 
Beside   the   brimming   Medway,  it  may 

chance 
That  I  shall  never  look  upon  you  more. 
Knyvett.     Come,  now,  you're  sonnet- 
ting  again. 
Wyatt.  Not  I. 

I'll  have  my  head  set  higher  in  the  state; 
Or  —  if  the  Lord  God  will  it  —  on  the 
stake.  [Exeunt. 

SCENE  II.  —  Guildhall. 

Sir  Thomas  White  (the  Lord  Mayor), 
Lord  William  Howard,  Sir  Ralph 
Bagenhall,  Aldermen  and  Citizens. 

White.     I  trust  the  Queen  comes  hither 

with  her  guards. 
Howard.     Ay,  all  in  arms. 

[Several  of  the  citizens  move  hastily 
out  of  the  hall. 

Why  do  they  hurry  out  there? 
White.     My  Lord,  cut  out  the  rotten 
from  your  apple, 
Your  apple  eats  the  better.     Let  them 

go. 
They  go  like  those  old  Pharisees  in  John 
Convicted    by   their    conscience,   arrant 

cowards, 
Or   tamperers  with   that   treason  out  of 

Kent. 
When  will  her  Grace  be  here? 

Hozvard.  In  some  few  minutes. 

She  will  address  your   guilds  and  com- 
panies. 
I  have  striven  in  vain  to  raise  a  man  for 

her. 
But  help  her  in  this  exigency,  make 
Your  city  loyal,  and  be  the  mightiest  man 
This  day  in  England. 


White.  I  am  Thomas  White. 

Few  things  have  fail'd  to  which  I  set  my 

will. 
I  do  my  most  and  best. 

Howard.  You  know  that  after 

The  Captain  Brett,  who  went  with  your 

train  bands 
To  fight  with  Wyatt,  had  gone  over  to  him 
With   all   his   men,  the  Queen   in   that 

distress 
Sent   Cornwallis    and    Hastings   to   the 

traitor, 
Feigning   to   treat  with   him  about  her 

marriage  — 
Know  too  what  Wyatt  said. 

White.  He'd  sooner  be, 

While  this  same  marriage  question  was 

being  argued, 
Trusted  than  trust  —  the  scoundrel  —  and 

demanded 
Possession  of  her  person  and  the  Tower. 
Howard.     And  four  of  her  poor  Coun- 
cil too,  my  Lord, 
As  hostages. 

White.     I  know  it.     What  do  and  say 
Your  Council  at  this  hour? 

Howard.  I  will  trust  you. 

We  fling   ourselves   on   you,  my   Lord. 

The  Council, 
The    Parliament   as   well,   are   troubled 

waters; 
And  yet  like  waters  of  the  fen  they  know 

not 
Which  way  to  flow.     All  hangs  on  her 

address, 
And  upon  you,  Lord  Mayor. 

White.  How  look'd  the  city 

When  now  you  past  it?     Quiet? 

Howard.  Like  our  Council, 

Your  city  is  divided.     As  we  past, 
Some  hail'd,  some  hiss'd  us.     There  were 

citizens 
Stood  each  before  his  shut-up  booth,  and 

look'd 
As  grim  and  grave  as  from  a  funeral. 
And  here  a  knot  of  ruffians  all  in  rags, 
With  execrating  execrable  eyes, 
Glared  at  the  citizen.     Here  was  a  young 

mother, 
Her  face  on  flame,  her  red  hair  all  blown 

back, 
She  shrilling  *  Wyatt,'  while  the  boy  she 

held 


5«4 


QUEEN  MARY. 


ACT  IL 


Mimick'd  and  piped  her  '  Wyatt,'  as  red 

as  she 
In  hair  and  cheek;   and  almost  elbowing 

her, 
So   close   they  stood,  another,   mute  as 

death, 
A.nd  white  as  her  own  milk ;  her  babe  in 

arms 
Had   felt   the  faltering  of  his  mother's 

heart, 
And  look'd  as  bloodless.     Here  a  pious 

Catholic, 
Mumbling  and  mixing  up  in  his  scared 

prayers 
Heaven   and    earth's   Maries;    over   his 

bow'd  shoulder 
Scowl'd    that    world-hated    and   world- 
hating  beast, 
A    haggard     Anabaptist.       Many    such 

groups. 
The  names  of  Wyatt,   Elizabeth,  Cour- 

tenay, 
Nay,  the  Queen's  right  to  reign — 'fore 

God,  the  rogues  — 
Were  freely  buzz'd  among  them.     So  I 

say 
Your  city  is  divided,  and  I  fear 
One  scruple,  this  or  that  way,  of  success 
Would  turn  it  thither.     Wherefore  now 

the  Queen 
In  this  low  pulse  and  palsy  of  the  state, 
Bade  me  to  tell  you  that  she  counts  on 

you 
And  on  myself  as  her  two  hands;  on  you, 
In  your  own  city,  as  her  right,  my  Lord, 
For  you  are  loyal. 

White.  Am  I  Thomas  White? 

One  word  before  she  comes.   Elizabeth  — 
Her  name  is  much  abused  among  these 

traitors. 
Where  is  she  ?     She  is  loved  by  all  of  us. 
I   scarce    have   heart  to  mingle  in  this 

matter, 
If  she  should  be  mishandled. 

Howard.  No;   she  shall  not. 

The    Queen   had   written   her   word   to 

come  to  court : 
Methought   I   smelt  out  Renard  in  the 

letter, 
And  fearing  for  her,  sent  a  secret  missive, 
Which  told  her  to  be  sick.     Happily  or 

not, 
It  found  her  sick  indeed. 


White.  God  send  her  well; 

Here  comes  her  Royal  Grace. 

Enter  Guards,  Mary,  and  Gardiner. 
Sir  Thomas  White  leads  her  to  a 
raised  seat  on  the  dais. 

White.     I,  the  Lord  Mayor,  and  these 

our  companies 
And  guilds  of  London,  gathered   here, 

beseech 
Your   Highness   to   accept  our  lowliest 

thanks 
For  your  most  princely  presence ;  and  we 

pray 
That  we,  your  true  and  loyal  citizens, 
From  your  own  royal  lips,  at  once  may 

know 
The  wherefore  of  this   coming,  and  so 

learn 
Your  royal   will,  and   do  it.  —  I,   Lord 

Mayor 
Of  London,  and   our   guilds  and  com- 
panies. 
Mary.     In  mine   own   person   am   I 

come  to  you, 
To  tell  you  what  indeed  ye  see  and  know, 
How  traitorously  these  rebels  out  of  Kent 
Have  made  strong  head  against  ourselves 

and  you. 
They  would  not  have  me  wed  the  Prince 

of  Spain; 
That  was  their  pretext — so  they  spake 

at  first  — 
But  we  sent  divers  of  our  Council  to  them, 
And   by  their   answers  to   the  question 

ask'd, 
It  doth  appear  this  marriage  is  the  least 
Of  all  their  quarrel. 
They  have  betray'd  the  treason  of  their 

hearts : 
Seek   to   possess   our  person,   hold  our 

Tower, 
Place  and  displace  our  councillors,  and 

use 
Both  us  and  them  according  as  they  will. 
Now  what  I  am  ye  know  right  well  — 

your  Queen; 
To  whom>  when  I  was  wedded  to  the 

realm 
And  the  realm's  laws  (the  spousal  ring 

whereof, 
Not  ever  to  be  laid  aside,  I  wear 
Upon  this  finger),  ye  did  promise  full 


SCENE  II. 


QUEEN  MARY. 


585 


Allegiance  and  obedience  to  the  death. 
Ye  know  my  father  was  the  rightful  heir 
Of  England,  and  his  right  came  down  to 

me, 
Corroborate  by  your  acts  of  Parliament : 
And  as  ye  were  most  loving  unto  him, 
So  doubtless  will  ye  show  yourselves  to 

me. 
Wherefore,  ye  will  not  brook  that  any- 
one 
Should    seize    our    person,   occupy  our 

state, 
More  specially  a  traitor  so  presumptuous 
As  this  same  Wyatt,  who  hath  tamper'd 

with 
A  public  ignorance,  and,  under  colour 
Of  such  a  cause  as  hath  no  colour,  seeks 
To  bend  the  laws  to  his  own  will,  and 

yield 
Full  scope  to  persons  rascal  and  forlorn, 
To  make  free  spoil  and  havock  of  your 

goods. 
Now  as  your  Prince,  I  say, 
I,  that  was  never  mother,  cannot  tell 
How  mothers  love  their   children;    yet, 

methinks, 
A  prince  as  naturally  may  love  his  people 
As  these  their  children;  and  be  sure  your 

Queen 
So  loves  you,  and  so  loving,  needs  must 

deem 
This  love  by  you  return'd  as  heartily; 
And  thro'  this  common  knot  and  bond  of 

love, 
Doubt   not  they  will  be  speedily  over- 
thrown. 
As  to  this  marriage,  ye  shall  understand 
We  made  thereto  no  treaty  of  ourselves, 
And  set  no  foot  theretoward  unadvised 
Of  all  our  Privy  Council;   furthermore, 
This  marriage  had  the  assent  of  those  to 

whom 
The  king,  my  father,  did  commit  his  trust; 
Who  not  alone  esteem'd  it  honourable, 
But  for  the  wealth  and  glory  of  our  realm, 
And  all   our   loving   subjects,  most   ex- 
pedient. 
As  to  myself, 

I  am  not  so  set  on  wedlock  as  to  choose 
But  where  I  list,  nor  yet  so  amorous 
That  I  must  needs  be  husbanded;  I  thank 

God, 
I  have  lived  a  virgin,  and  I  noway  doubt 


But  that  with  God's  grace  I  can  live  so 

still. 
Yet  if  it  might  please  God  that  I  should 

leave 
Some  fruit  of  mine  own  body  after  me, 
To  be  your  king,  ye  would  rejoice  thereat, 
And  it  would  be  your  comfort,  as  I  trust; 
And  truly,  if  I  either  thought  or  knew 
This  marriage  should  bring  loss  or  danger 

to  you, 
My  subjects,  or  impair  in  any  way 
This  royal  state  of  England,  I  would  never 
Consent  thereto,  nor  marry  while  I  live; 
Moreover,   if  this   marriage  should   not 

seem, 
Before  our  own  High  Court  of  Parliament, 
To  be  of  rich  advantage  to  our  realm, 
We  will  refrain,  and  not  alone  from  this, 
Likewise  from  any  other,  out  of  which 
Looms  the  least  chance  of  peril  to  our 

realm. 
Wherefore  be  bold,  and  with  your  lawful 

Prince 
Stand  fast  against  our  enemies  and  yours, 
And  fear  them  not.     I  fear  them  not. 

My  Lord, 
I  leave  Lord  William  Howard  in  your 

city, 
To  guard  and  keep  you  whole  and  safe 

from  all 
The  spoil  and  sackage  aim'd  at  by  these 

rebels, 
Who  mouth  and  foam  against  the  Prince 

of  Spain. 
Voices.     Long  live  Queen  Mary ! 

Down  with  Wyatt ! 

The  Queen ! 
White.    Three  voices  from  our  guilds 

and  companies ! 
You  are  shy  and  proud  like  Englishmen, 

my  masters, 
And  will  not  trust  your  voices.     Under- 
stand : 
Your  lawful  Prince  hath  come  to  cast 

herself 
On  loyal  hearts  and  bosoms,  hoped  to  fall 
Into  the  widespread  arms  of  fealty, 
And  finds  you  statues.    Speak  at  once  — 

and  all ! 
For  whom? 

Our  sovereign  Lady  by  King  Harry's  will; 
The  Queen  of  England  —  or  the  Kentish 

Squire  ? 


586 


QUEEN  MARY. 


act  n. 


I  know  you  loyal.     Speak  !  in  the  name 

of  God ! 
The  Queen  of  England  or  the  rabble  of 

Kent? 
The  reeking  dungfork  master  of  the  mace  ! 
Your  havings  wasted  by  the  scythe  and 

spade  — 
Your  rights  and  charters  hobnail'd  into 

slush  — 
Your  houses  fired  —  your  gutters  bubbling 
blood  — 
Acclamation.     No !    No  !  The  Queen  ! 

the  Queen ! 
White.  Your  Highness  hears 

This  burst  and  bass  of  loyal  harmony, 
And  how  we  each  and  all  of  us  abhor 
The  venomous,  bestial,  devilish  revolt 
Of  Thomas  Wyatt.     Hear  us  now  make 

oath 
To  raise  your  Highness  thirty  thousand 

men, 
And  arm  and  strike  as  with  one  hand, 

and  brush 
This  Wyatt  from  our  shoulders,  like  a  flea 
That  might  have  leapt  upon  us  unawares. 
Swear  with  me,  noble  fellow-citizens,  all, 
With   all   your  trades,  and  guilds,   and 
companies. 
Citizens.     We  swear ! 
Mary.     We  thank  your  Lordship  and 
your  loyal  city. 

[Exit  Mary  attended. 
White.     I  trust  this  day,  thro'  God,  I 

have  saved  the  crown. 
First  Alderman.     Ay,  so  my  Lord  of 
Pembroke  in  command 
Of  all  her  force  be  safe;   but  there  are 
doubts. 
Second  Alderman.     I  hear  that  Gar- 
diner, coming  with  the  Queen, 
And   meeting    Pembroke,   bent    to    his 

saddle-bow, 
As  if  to  win  the  man  by  flattering  him. 
Is  he  so  safe  to  fight  upon  her  side? 
First  Alderman.     If  not,  there's   no 

man  safe. 
White.  Yes,  Thomas  White. 

I  am  safe  enough ;  no  man  need  flatter  me. 
Second  Alderman.   Nay,  no  man  need; 
but  did  you  mark  our  Queen? 
The  colour  freely  play'd  into  her  face, 
And  the  half  sight  which  makes  her  look 
so  stern, 


Seem'd  thro'  that  dim  dilated  world  of 

hers, 
To  read  our  faces;   I  have  never  seen  her 
So  queenly  or  so  goodly. 

White.  Courage,  sir, 

That  makes  or  man  or  woman  look  their 

goodliest. 
Die  like  the  torn  fox  dumb,  but  never 

whine 
Like  that  poor  heart,  Northumberland, 

at  the  block. 
Bagenhall.      The   man   had  children, 

and  he  whined  for  those. 
Methinks  most  men  are  but  poor-hearted, 

else 
Should  we  so  dote  on  courage,  were  it 

commoner? 
The  Queen  stands  up,  and  speaks  for  her 

own  self; 
And  all  men  cry,  She  is  queenly,  she  is 

goodly. 
Yet   she's  no   goodlier;    tho'   my   Lord 

Mayor  here, 
By  his  own  rule,  he  hath  been  so  bold 

to-day, 
Should  look  more  goodly  than  the  rest  of 

us. 
White.     Goodly?     I  feel  most  goodly 

heart  and  hand, 
And  strong  to  throw  ten  Wyatts  and  all 

Kent. 
Ha!  ha!  sir;   but  you  jest;   I  love  it:  a 

jest 
In  time  of  danger  shows  the  pulses  even. 
Be  merry !  yet,  Sir  Ralph,  you  look  but 

sad. 
I  dare  avouch  you'd  stand  up  for  your- 
self, 
Tho'  all  the  world  should  bay  like  winter 

wolves. 
Bagenhall.     Who  knows?  the  man  is 

proven  by  the  hour. 
White.     The   man  should   make   the 

hour,  not  this  the  man; 
And    Thomas    White    will    prove    this 

Thomas  Wyatt, 
And  he  will  prove  an  Iden  to  this  Cade, 
And  he  will  play  the  Walworth  to  this 

Wat; 
Come,  sirs,  we  prate;  hence  all  —  gather 

your  men  — 
Myself   must   bustle.     Wyatt   comes  to 

South  wark; 


SCENE   III. 


QUEEN  MARY. 


587 


I'll  have  the  drawbridge  hewn  into  the 

Thames, 
And  see  the  citizens  arm'd.     Good-day; 
good-day.  [Exit  White. 

Bagenhall.      One    of    much    outdoor 

bluster. 
Hozvard.  For  all  that, 

Most  honest,  brave,  and  skilful;   and  his 

.  wealth 
A  fountain  of  perennial  alms  —  his  fault 
So  thoroughly  to  believe  in  his  own  self. 
Bagenhall.     Yet  thoroughly  to  believe 
in  one's  own  self, 
So  one's  own  self  be  thorough,  were  to  do 
Great  things,  my  Lord. 

Howard.  It  may  be. 

Bagenhall.  I  have  heard 

One  of  your  Council  fleer  and  jeer  at  him. 

Howard.     The  nursery-cocker'd  child 

will  jeer  at  aught 

That  may  seem  strange  beyond  his  nursery. 

The  statesman  that  shall  jeer  and  fleer  at 

men, 
Makes  enemies  for  himself  and  for  his 

king; 
And  if  he  jeer  not  seeing  the  true  man 
Behind  his  folly,  he  is  thrice  the  fool; 
And  if  he  see  the  man  and  still  will  jeer, 
He  is  child  and  fool,  and  traitor  to  the 

State. 
Who  is  he?  let  me  shun  him. 

Bagenhall.  Nay,  my  Lord, 

He  is  damn'd  enough  already. 

Howard.  I  must  set 

The  guard  at  Ludgate.     Fare  you  well, 

Sir  Ralph. 

Bagenhall.     '  Who  knows? '     I  am  for 

England.     But  who  knows, 

That  knows  the  Queen,  the  Spaniard,  and 

the  Pope, 
Whether  I  be  for  Wyatt,  or  the  Queen? 
\_Exeunt. 

SCENE  III.  — London  Bridge. 
Enter  Sir  Thomas  Wyatt  and  Brett. 

Wyatt.  Brett,  when  the  Duke  of 
Norfolk  moved  against  us 

Thou  cried'st  '  A  Wyatt ! '  and  flying  to 
our  side 

Left  his  all  bare,  for  which  I  love  thee, 
Brett. 


Have  for  thine  asking  aught  that  I  can 

give, 
For   thro'    thine   help  we  are  come   to 

London  Bridge; 
But  how  to  cross  it  balks  me.     I  fear  we 

cannot. 
Brett.     Nay,    hardly,    save    by    boat, 

swimming,  or  wings. 
Wyatt.     Last  night  I  climb'd  into  the 

gate-house,  Brett, 
And  scared  the  gray  old  porter  and  his  wife. 
And  then  I  crept  along  the  gloom  and  saw 
They  had  hewn  the  drawbridge  down  into 

the  river. 
It  roll'd  as  black  as  death;  and  that  same 

tide 
Which,  coming  with  our  coming,  seem'd 

to  smile 
And   sparkle   like    our   fortune  as  thou 

saidest, 
Ran  sunless  down,  and  moan'd  against 

the  piers. 
But  o'er  the  chasm  I  saw  Lord  William 

Howard 
By  torchlight,  and  his  guard;   four  guns 

gaped  at  me, 
Black,  silent  mouths :  had  Howard  spied 

me  there 
And  made  them  speak,  as  well  he  might 

have  done, 
Their  voice  had  left  me  none  to  tell  you 

this. 
What  shall  we  do? 

Brett.         On  somehow.     To  go  back 
Were  to  lose  all. 

Wyatt.  On  over  London  Bridge 

We  cannot;    stay  we  cannot;    there  is 

ordnance 
On  the  White  Tower  and  on  the  Devil's 

Tower, 
And  pointed  full  at  Southwark;  we  must 

round 
By  Kingston  Bridge. 

Brett.  Ten  miles  about. 

Wyatt.  Ev'n  so. 

But  I  have  notice  from  our  partisans 
Within  the  city  that  they  will  stand  by  us 
If  Ludgate  can  be  reach'd  by  dawn  to- 
morrow. 

Enter  one  of  Wyatt's  men. 

Man.     Sir    Thomas,    I've   found   this 
paper;    pray   your   worship    read   it;    I 


588 


QUEEN  MARY. 


ACT   II. 


know  not   my  letters;    the   old   priests 
taught  me  nothing. 

IVyait  {reads).     '  Whosoever  will  ap- 
prehend the  traitor  Thomas  Wyatt  shall 
have  a  hundred  pounds  for  reward.' 
Man.     Is  that  it?    That's  a  big  lot  of 

money. 
Wyatt.,    Ay,  ay,  my  friend;  not  read 
it?  'tis  not  written 
Half  plain  enough.     Give  me  a  piece  of 
paper ! 

[  Writes  *  Thomas  Wyatt  '  large. 
There,  any  man  can  read  that. 

[Sticks  it  in  his  cap. 
Brett.  But  that's  foolhardy. 

Wyatt.     No !     boldness,    which    will 
give  my  followers  boldness. 

Enter  Man  with  a  prisoner. 

Man.  We  found  him,  your  worship,  a- 
plundering  o'  Bishop  Winchester's  house; 
he  says  he's  a  poor  gentleman. 

Wyatt.      Gentleman!    a    thief!      Go 
hang  him.     Shall  we  make 
Those  that  we  come  to  serve  our  sharpest 
foes? 
Brett.     Sir  Thomas  — 
Wyatt.     Hang  him,  I  say. 
Brett.     Wyatt,  but  now  you  promised 

me  a  boon. 
Wyatt.     Ay,  and  I  warrant  this  fine 

fellow's  life. 
Brett.     Ev'n  so;  he  was  my  neighbour 
once  in  Kent. 
He's  poor  enough,  has  drunk  and  gambled 

out 
All  that  he  had,  and  gentleman  he  was. 
We  have  been  glad  together;    let  him 
live. 
Wyatt.     He  has  gambled  for  his  life, 
and  lost,  he  hangs. 
No,  no,  my  word's  my  word.     Take  thy 

poor  gentleman ! 
Gamble  thyself  at  once  out  of  my  sight, 
Or  I  will  dig  thee  with  my  dagger.   Away ! 
Women  and  children ! 

Enter  a  Crowd  of  Women  and  Children. 

First  Woman.  O  Sir  Thomas,  Sir 
Thomas,  pray  you  go  away,  S*ir  Thomas, 
or  you'll  make  the  White  Tower  a  black 
'un  for  us  this  blessed  day.  He'll  be  the 
death  on  us;    and  you'll  set  the  Divil's 


Tower  a-spitting,  and  he'll  smash  all  our 
bits  o'  things  worse  than  Philip  o'  Spain. 

Second  Woman.  Don't  ye  now  go  to 
think  that  we  be  for  Philip  o'  Spain. 

Third  Woman.  No,  we  know  that  ye 
be  come  to  kill  the  Queen,  and  we'll 
pray  for  you  all  on  our  bended  knees. 
But  o'  God's  mercy  don't  ye  kill  the 
Queen  here,  Sir  Thomas;  look  ye,  here's 
little  Dickon,  and  little  Robin,  and  little 
Jenny  —  though  she's  but  a  side-cousin  — 
and  all  on  our  knees,  we  pray  you  to  kill 
the  Queen  further  off,  Sir  Thomas. 

Wyatt.     My  friends,  I  have  not  come 
to  kill  the  Queen 
Or  here  or  there  :  1  come  to  save  you  all, 
And  I'll  go  further  off. 

Crozvd.  Thanks,  Sir  Thomas,  we  be 
beholden  to  you,  and  we'll  pray  for  you 
on  our  bended  knees  till  our  lives'  end. 

Wyatt.     Be  happy,  I  am  your  friend. 
To  Kingston,  forward!   [Exeunt. 


SCENE    IV.  — Room    in    the    Gate- 
house of  Westminster  Palace. 

Mary,  Alice,  Gardiner,  Renard, 
Ladies. 

Gardiner.     Their  cry  is,  Philip  never 

shall  be  king. 
Mary.     Lord  Pembroke  in  command 
of  all  our  force 
Will  front  their  cry  and  shatter  them  into 
dust. 
Alice.     Was  not  Lord  Pembroke  with 
Northumberland  ? 
O  Madam,  if  this  Pembroke  should  be 
false? 
Mary.     No,  girl ;  most  brave  and  loyal, 
brave  and  loyal. 
His  breaking  with  Northumberland  broke 

Northumberland. 
At  the    park    gate   he  hovers  with    our 

guards. 
These  Kentish  ploughmen  cannot  break 
the  guards. 

Enter  Messenger. 

Messenger.     Wyatt,  your  Grace,  hath 
broken  thro'  the  guards 
And  gone  to  Ludgate. 

Gardiner.  Madam,  I  much  fear 


SCENE   IV. 


QUEEN  MARY. 


589 


That  all  is  lost;   but  we  can  save  your 

Grace. 
The   river   still   is   free.     I   do   beseech 

you, 
There  yet  is  time,  take  boat  and  pass  to 
Windsor. 
Mary.     I  pass  to  Windsor  and  I  lose 

my  crown. 
Gardiner.     Pass,   then,    I   pray  your 

Highness,  to  the  Tower. 
Mary.     I  shall  but  be  their  prisoner 

in  the  Tower. 
Cries  without.     The  traitor  !  treason  ! 

Pembroke ! 
Ladies.  Treason !  treason ! 

Mary.     Peace. 
False  to  Northumberland,  is  he  false  to 

me? 
Bear  witness,   Renard,  that   I   live  and 

die 
The  true  and  faithful  bride  of  Philip  —  A 

sound 
Of  feet  and  voices  thickening  hither  — 

blows  — 
Hark,    there    is    battle    at    the    palace 

gates, 
And  I  will  out  upon  the  gallery. 

Ladies.     No,  no,  your  Grace ;  see  there 

the  arrows  flying. 
Mary.     I  am  Harry's  daughter,  Tudor, 
and  not  Fear. 

[  Goes  out  on  the  gallery. 
The  guards  are  all  driven  in,  skulk  into 

corners 
Like  rabbits  to  their  holes.     A  gracious 

guard 
Truly;  shame  on  them!   they  have  shut 
the  gates ! 

Enter  Sir  Robert  Southwell. 

Southwell.     The    porter,   please    your 
Grace,  hath  shut  the  gates 
On  friend  and  foe.     Your  gentlemen-at- 
arms, 
If  this  be  not  your  Grace's  order,  cry 
To  have  the  gates  set  wide  again,  and 

they 
With  their  good  battleaxes  will  do  you 

right 
Against  all  traitors. 

Mary.     They  are  the  flower  of  Eng- 
land;  set  the  gates  wide. 

[Exit  Southwell. 


Enter  Courtenay. 

Courtenay.     All     lost,     all    lost,     all 
yielded !     A  barge,  a  barge  ! 
The  Queen  must  to  the  Tower. 

Mary.  Whence  come  you,  sir? 

Courtenay.     From  Charing  Cross ;   the 
rebels  broke  us  there, 
And  I  sped  hither  with  what   haste    I 

might 
To  save  my  royal  cousin. 

Mary.     Where  is  Pembroke? 
Courtenay.     I  left  him  somewhere  in 

the  thick  of  it. 
Mary.     Left  him  and  fled;   and  thou 
that  would'st  be  King, 
And  hast  nor  heart  nor  honour.     I  myself 
Will  down  into  the  battle  and  there  bide 
The  upshot  of  my  quarrel,  or  die  with  those 
That  are  no  cowards  and  no  Courtenays. 
Courtenay.     I  do  not  love  your  Grace 
should  call  me  coward. 

Enter  another  Messenger. 

Messenger.     Over,     your     Grace,     all 

crush 'd;   the  brave  Lord  William 

Thrust  him  from  Ludgate,  and  the  traitor 

flying 
To  Temple   Bar,  there  by  Sir  Maurice 

Berkeley 
Was  taken  prisoner. 

Mary.  To  the  Tower  with  him  ! 

Messenger.     'Tis     said     he     told    Sii 
Maurice  there  was  one 
Cognisant  of  this,  and  party  thereunto, 
My  Lord  of  Devon. 

Mary.  To  the  Tower  with  him  ! 

Courtenay.     O    la,    the    Tower,    the 
Tower,  always  the  Tower, 
I  shall  grow  into  it  —  I  shall  be  the  Tower. 
Mary.     Your  Lordship  may  not  have 
so  long  to  wait. 
Remove  him ! 

Courtenay.     La,  to  whistle  out  my  life, 
And  carve  my  coat  upon  the  walls  again  ! 
[Exit  Courtenay  guarded. 
Messenger.     Also  this  Wyatt  did  con- 
fess the  Princess 
Cognisant  thereof,  and  party  thereunto. 
Mary.     What  ?  whom  —  whom  did  you 

say? 
Messenger.     Elizabeth, 
Your  Royal  sister. 


59Q 


QUEEN  MARY. 


act  in. 


Mary.  To  the  Tower  with  her  ! 

My  foes  are  at  my  feet  and  I  am  Queen. 
[Gardiner  and  her  Ladies  kneel  to  her. 
Gardiner  (rising) .    There  let  them  lie, 
your  footstool !     (Aside.)     Can  I 
strike 
Elizabeth?  —  not  now  and  save  the  life 
Of  Devon  :  if  I  save  him,  he  and  his 
Are  bound  to  me  —  may  strike  hereafter. 

(Aloud.)     Madam, 
What  Wyatt  said,  or  what  they  said  he 

said, 
Cries  of  the  moment  and  the  street  — 
Mary.  He  said  it. 

Gardiner.     Your  courts  of  justice  will 

determine  that. 
Renard  {advancing) .     I  trust  by  this 
your  Highness  will  allow 
Some  spice  of  wisdom  in  my  telling  you, 
When  last  we  talk'd,  that  Philip  would 

not  come 
Till  Guildford  Dudley  and  the  Duke  of 

Suffolk, 
And  Lady  Jane  had  left  us. 

Mary.  They  shall  die. 

Renard.     And  your  so  loving  sister? 
Mary.  She  shall  die. 

My  foes  are  at  my  feet,  and  Philip  King. 

\_Exeunt. 

ACT  III. 

SCENE  I.  — The  Conduit  in  Grace- 
church, 

Painted  %uith  the  Nine  Worthies,  among 
them  King  Henry  VIII.  holding  a  book, 
on  it  inscribed i  Verbum  Dei.' 

Enter  Sir  Ralph  Bagenhall  and  Sir 
Thomas  Stafford. 

Bagenhall.  A  hundred  here  and  hun- 
dreds hang'd  in  Kent. 

The  tigress  had  unsheathed  her  nails  at 
last, 

And  Renard  and  the  Chancellor  sharpen'd 
them. 

In  every  London  street  a  gibbet  stood. 

They  are  down  to-day.  Here  by  this 
house  was  one; 

The  traitor  husband  dangled  at  the  door, 

And  when  the  traitor  wife  came  out  for 
bread 


To  still  the  petty  treason  therewithin, 
Her  cap  would  brush  his  heels. 

Stafford.  It  is  Sir  Ralph, 

And  muttering  to  himself  as  heretofore. 
Sir,  see  you  aught  up  yonder? 

Bagenhall.  I  miss  something. 

The  tree  that  only  bears  dead  fruit   is 
gone. 
Stafford.     What  tree,  sir? 
Bagenhall.  Well,  the 

tree  in  Virgil,  sir, 
That  bears  not  its  own  apples. 

Stafford.  What!  the  gallows? 

Bagenhall.       Sir,  this  dead  fruit  was 
ripening  overmuch, 
And  had  to  be  removed  lest  living  Spain, 
Should  sicken  at  dead  England. 

Stafford.  Not  so  dead, 

But  that  a  shock  may  rouse  her. 

Bagenhall.  I  believe 

Sir  Thomas  Stafford? 

Stafford.  I  am  ill  disguised. 

Bagenhall.     Well,  are  you  not  in  peril 

here? 
Stafford.       I  think  so. 
I  came  to  feel   the   pulse   of  England, 

whether 
It  beats  hard  at  this  marriage.     Did  you 
see  it? 
Bagenhall.     Stafford,  I  am  a  sad  man 
and  a  serious. 
Far  liefer  had  I  in  my  country  hall 
Been  reading  some  old  book,  with  mine 

old  hound 
Couch'd  at  my  hearth,  and  mine  old  flask 

of  wine 

Beside  me,  than  have  seen  it :  yet  I  saw  it. 

Stafford.     Good,  was  it  splendid  ? 

Bagenhall.       Ay,  if  Dukes,  and  Earls, 

And  Counts,  and  sixty  Spanish  cavaliers, 

Some  six  or  seven   Bishops,   diamonds, 

pearls, 
That  royal  commonplace   too,  cloth   of 

gold, 
Could  make  it  so. 

Stafford.    And  what  was  Mary's  dress? 
Bagenhall.     Good  faith,  I  was  too  sorry 
for  the  woman 
To  mark  the  dress.     She  wore  red  shoes ! 
Stafford.  Red  shoes ! 

Bagenhall.     Scarlet,  as  if  her  feet  were 
wash'd  in  blood, 
As  if  she  had  waded  in  it. 


QUEEN  MARY. 


59» 


Stafford.  Were  your  eyes 

So  bashful  that  youlook'd  no  higher? 

Bagenhall.  A  diamond, 

And  Philip's  gift,  as  proof  of  Philip's  love, 
Who  hath  not  any  for  any,  —  tho'  a  true 

one, 
Blazed  false  upon  her  heart. 

Stafford.  But  this  proud  Prince  — 

Bagenhall.      Nay,   he    is    King,   you 

know,  the  King  of  Naples. 
The  father  ceded  Naples,  that  the  son 
Being  a  King,  might  wed  a  Queen  —  O  he 
Flamed    in    brocade  —  white    satin    his 

trunk-hose, 
Inwrought  with  silver,  —  on  his  neck  a 

collar, 
Gold,   thick    with    diamonds;     hanging 

down  from  this 
The  Golden  Fleece  —  and  round  his  knee, 

misplaced, 
Our  English  Garter,  studded  with»  great 

emeralds, 
Rubies,  I  know  not  what.     Have  you  had 

enough 
Of  all  this  gear? 

Stafford.  Ay,  since  you  hate  the 

telling  it. 
How  look'd  the  Queen? 

Bagenhall.       No  fairer  for  her  jewels. 
And  I  could  see  that  as  the  new-made 

couple 
Came  from  the  Minster,  moving  side  by 

side 
Beneath  one  canopy,  ever  and  anon 
She  cast  on  him  a  vassal  smile  of  love, 
Which  Philip  with  a  glance  of  some  dis- 
taste, 
Or  so  methought,  return'd.      I  may  be 

wrong,  sir. 
This  marriage  will  not  hold. 

Stafford.  I  think  with  you. 

The  King  of  France  will  help  to  break  it. 

Bagenhall.  France ! 

We  once  had  half  of  France,  and  hurl'd 

our  battles 
Into  the  heart  of  Spain;    but  England 

now 
Is   but   a   ball  chuck'd  between  France 

and  Spain, 
His  in  whose  hand  she  drops;   Harry  of 

Bolingbroke 
Had  holpen  Richard's  tottering  throne  to 

stand. 


Could  Harry  have  foreseen  that  all  our 
nobles 

Would  perish  on  the  civil  slaughter-field, 

And  leave  the  people  naked  to  the  crown, 

And  the  crown  naked  to  the  people;  the 
crown 

Female,  too  !     Sir,  no  woman's  regimen 

Can  save  us.     We  are  fallen,  and  as  I 
think, 

Never  to  rise  again. 

Stafford.      You  are  too  black -blooded. 

I'd  make  a  move  myself  to  hinder  that : 

I    know    some    lusty   fellows    there    in 
France. 
Bagenhall.     You  would  but  make  us 
weaker,  Thomas  Stafford. 

Wyatt  was  a  good  soldier,  yet  he  fail'd, 

And  strengthen'd  Philip. 

Stafford.  Did  not  his  last  breath 

Clear  Courtenay  and  the  Princess  from 
the  charge 

Of  being  his  co-rebels? 

Bagenhall.        .  Ay,  but  then 

What    such    a    one   as   Wyatt    says    is 
nothing : 

We  have  no  men  among  us.     The  new 
Lords 

Are  quieted  with  their  sop  of  Abbeylands, 

And  ev'n  before  the  Queen's  face  Gardi- 
ner buys  them 

With  Philip's  gold.     All  greed,  no  faith, 
no  courage ! 

Why,  ev'n  the  haughty  prince,  Northum- 
berland, 

The  leader  of  our  Reformation,  knelt 

And   blubber'd  like  a  lad,  and  on  the 
scaffold 

Recanted,  and  resold  himself  to  Rome. 
Stafford.    I  swear  you  do  your  country 
wrong,  Sir  Ralph. 

I  know  a  set  of  exiles  over  there, 

Dare-devils,  that  would  eat  fire  and  spit 
it  out 

At   Philip's  beard :    they  pillage   Spain 
already. 

The  French  King  winks  at  it.     An  hour 
will  come 

When  they  will  sweep  her  from  the  seas. 
No  men? 

Did  not  Lord  Suffolk  die  like  a  true  man? 

Is  not  Lord  William  Howard  a  true  man  ? 

Yea,  you  yourself,  altho'  you  are  black- 
blooded  : 


592 


QUEEN  MARY. 


ACT  III 


And  I,  by  God,  believe  myself  a  man. 

Ay,  even  in  the  church  there  is  a  man  — 

Cranmer. 

Fly  would  he  not,  when  all  men  bade  him 

fly. 
And  what  a  letter  he  wrote  against  the 

Pope! 
There^s  a  brave  man,  if  any. 

Bagenhall.  Ay;  if  it  hold. 

Crowd  (coming'  on).     God  save  their 

Graces ! 
Stafford.  Bagenhall,  I  see 

The  Tudor  green  and  white.  (  Trumpets?) 

They  are  coming  now. 
And  here's  a  crowd  as  thick  as  herring- 
shoals. 
Bagenhall.     Be  limpets  to  this  pillar, 
or  we  are  torn 
Down  the  strong  wave  of  brawlers. 
Crowd.  God  save  their  Graces ! 

{Procession  of  Trumpeters,  Javelin- 
men,    etc. ;     then     Spanish    and 
Flemish  Nobles  intermingled. 
Stafford.      Worth   seeing,    Bagenhall ! 
These  black  dog-Dons 
Garb   themselves    bravely.      Who's   the 

long-face  there, 
Looks  very  Spain  of  very  Spain? 

Bagenhall.  The  Duke 

Of  Alva,  an  iron  soldier. 

Stafford.  And  the  Dutchman, 

Now  laughing  at  some  jest? 

Bagenhall.  William  of  Orange, 

William  the  Silent. 

Stafford.        Why  do  they  call  him  so? 
Bagenhall.     He  keeps,  they  say,  some 
secret  that  may  cost 
Philip  his  life. 

Stafford.     But  then  he  looks  so  merry. 
Bagenhall.     I  cannot  tell  you  why  they 
call  him  so. 
r  The  King  and  Queen  pass,  attended 
by  Peers  of  the  Realm,  Officers  of 
State,  etc.     Cannon  shot  off. 
Cf-owd.     Philip  and  Mary,  Philip  and 
Mary! 
Long  live  the  King  and  Queen,  Philip 
and  Mary ! 
Stafford.     They  smile  as  if  content  with 

one  another. 
Bagenhall.     A  smile  abroad  is  oft   a 

scowl  at  home. 
[King  and  Queen  pass  on.    Procession. 


First  Citizen.  I  thought  this  Philip 
had  been  one  of  those  black  devils  ot 
Spain,  but  he  hath  a  yellow  beard. 

Second  Citizen.  Not  red  like  Iscariot's. 

First  Citizen.  Like  a  carrot's,  as  thou 
say'st,  and  English  carrot's  better  than 
Spanish  licorice;  but  I  thought  he  was  a 
beast. 

Third  Citizen.  Certain  I  had  heard 
that  every  Spaniard  carries  a  tail  like  a 
devil  under  his  trunk-hose. 

Tailor.  Ay,  but  see  what  trunk-hoses ! 
Lord!  they  be  fine;  I  never  stitch'd 
none  such.  They  make  amends  for  the 
tails. 

Fourth  Citizen.  Tut !  every  Spanish 
priest  will  tell  you  that  all  English  heretics 
have  tails. 

Fifth  Citizen.  Death  and  the  Devil  — 
if  he  find  I  have  one  — 

Fourth  Citizen.  Lo  !  thou  hast  call'd 
them  up  !  here  they  come  —  a  pale  horse 
for  Death  and  Gardiner  for  the  Devil. 

Enter  Gardiner  (turning  back  from  the 
procession). 
Gardiner.     Knave,  wilt  thou  wear  thy 

cap  before  the  Queen? 
Man.     My  Lord,  I  stand  so  squeezed 
among  the  crowd 
I  cannot  lift  my  hands  unto  my  head. 
Gardiner.     Knock  off  his  cap  there, 
some  of  you  about  him ! 
See  there  be  others  that  can  use  their 

hands. 
Thou  art  one  of  Wyatt's  men? 

Man.  No,  my  Lord,  no. 

Gardiner.     Thy  name,  thou  knave? 
Man.  I  am  nobody,  my  Lord. 

Gardiner  (shouting).     God's  passion ! 

knave,  thy  name? 
Man.  I  have  ears  to  hear. 

Gardiner.     Ay,  rascal,  if  I  leave  thee 
ears  to  hear. 
Find  out  his  name  and  bring  it  me  (to 
Attendant). 
Attendant.  Ay,  my  Lord. 

Gardiner.      Knave,  thou    shalt    lose 
thine  ears  and  find  thy  tongue, 
And  shalt  be  thankful  if  I  leave  thee  that. 
[Coming before  tke  Conduit. 
The  conduit  painted  —  the  nine  worthies 
—  ay  1 


SCENE  I. 


QUEEN  MARY. 


593 


But  then  what's  here?    King  Harry  with 

a  scroll. 
Ha  —  Verbum  Dei  —  verbum  —  word  of 

God! 
God's  passion !  do  you  know  the  knave 
that  painted  it? 
Attendant.     I  do,  my  Lord. 
Gardiner.        Tell  him  to  paint  it  out, 
And   put   some   fresh   device  in  lieu  of 

it  — 
A  pair  of  gloves,  a  pair  of  gloves,  sir; 

ha? 
There  is  no  heresy  there. 

Attendant.  I  will,  my  Lord; 

The  man  shall  paint  a  pair  of  gloves.     I 

am  sure 
(Knowing  the  man)  he  wrought  it  igno- 

rantly, 
And  not  from  any  malice. 

Gardiner.  Word  of  God 

In  English  !  over  this  the  brainless  loons 
That  cannot  spell  Esa'ias  from  St.  Paul, 
Make  themselves  drunk  and  mad,  fly  out 

and  flare 
Into    rebellions.     I'll   have   their  Bibles 

burnt. 
The  Bible  is  the  priest's.     Ay!   fellow, 

what ! 
Stand  staring  at  me !  shout,  you  gaping 
rogue ! 
Man.     I  have,  my  Lord,  shouted  till 

I  am  hoarse. 
Gardiner.     What  hast  thou  shouted, 

knave? 
Man.  Long  live  Queen  Mary ! 

Gardiner.         Knave,    there   be   two. 
There  be  both  King  and  Queen, 
Philip  and  Mary.     Shout ! 

Man.  Nay,  but,  my  Lord, 

The  Queen  comes  first,  Mary  and  Philip. 
Gardiner.  Shout,  then, 

Mary  and  Philip ! 

Man.  Mary  and  Philip  ! 

Gardiner.  Now, 

Thou  hast  shouted  for  thy  pleasure,  shout 

for  mine ! 
Philip  and  Mary ! 

Man.  Must  it  be  so,  my  Lord? 

Gardiner.     Ay,  knave. 
Man.  Philip  and  Mary ! 

Gardiner.  I  distrust  thee. 

Thine  is  a  half  voice  and  a  lean  assent. 
What  is  thy  name? 
2Q 


Man.  Sanders. 

Gardiner.  What  else? 

Man.  Zerubbabel. 

Gardiner.     Where  dost  thou  live? 
Man.  In  Cornhill. 

Gardiner.  Where,  knave,  where? 

Man.     Sign  of  the  Talbot. 
Gardiner.     Come  to  me  to-morrow.  — 
Rascal !  —  this  land  is  like  a  hill  of  fire, 
One  crater  opens  when  another  shuts. 
But  so  I  get  the  laws  against  the  heretic, 
Spite  of  Lord  Paget  and  Lord  William 

Howard, 
And  others  of  our  Parliament,  revived, 
I  will  show  fire  on  my  side  —  stake  and 

fire  — 
Sharp  work  and  short.     The  knaves  are 

easily  cow'd. 
Follow  their  Majesties. 

[Exit.      The  crowd  following. 
Bagenhall.  As  proud  as  Becket. 

Stafford.     You   would   not   have   him 

murder'd  as  Becket  was? 
Bagenhall.     No  —  murder  fathers  mur- 
der :  but  I  say 
There  is  no  man  —  there  was  one  woman 

with  us  — 
It  was  a  sin  to  love  her  married,  dead 
I  cannot  choose  but  love  her. 

Stafford.  Lady  Jane? 

Crowd  (going  off).     God  save  their 

Graces ! 
Stafford.  Did  you  see  her  die? 

Bagenhall.  No,  no;   her  innocent 

blood  had  blinded  me. 
You  call   me   too   black-blooded  —  true 

enough 
Her  dark  dead  blood  is  in  my  heart  with 

mine. 
If  ever  I  cry  out  against  the  Pope 
Her  dark  dead  blood  that   ever   moves 

with  mine 
Will  stir  the  living  tongue  and  make  the 
cry. 
Stafford.     Yet  doubtless  you  can  tell 

me  how  she  died? 
Bagenhall.        Seventeen  —  and   knew 
eight  languages  —  in  music 
Peerless  —  her  needle   perfect,  and   her 

learning 
Beyond  the  churchmen;   yet  so  meek,  so 

modest, 
So  wife-like  humble  to  the  trivial  boy 


594 


QUEEN  MARY. 


ACT  IH 


Mismatch'd  with  her  for  policy !     I  have 

heard 
She  would  not  take  a  last  farewell  of  him, 
She  fear'd  it  might  unman  him  for  his  end. 
She   could  not  be  unmann'd  —  no,  nor 

outwoman'd  — 
Seventeen  —  a  rose  of  grace  ! 
Girl  never  breathed  to  rival  such  a  rose; 
Rose  never  blew  that  equall'd  such  a  bud. 
Stafford.     Pray  you  gc  on. 
Bagenhall.  She    came    upon    the 

scaffold, 
And  said  she  was  condemn'd  to  die  for 

treason; 
She  had  but  follow'd  the  device  of  those 
Her  nearest  kin :  she  thought  they  knew 

the  laws. 
But  for  herself,  she  knew  but  little  law, 
And  nothing  of  the  titles  to  the  crown; 
She  had  no  desire  for  that,  and  wrung 

her  hands, 
And  trusted  God  would  save  her  thro'  the 

blood 
Of  Jesus  Christ  alone. 

Stafford.  Pray  you  go  on. 

Bagenhall.     Then  knelt  and  said  the 

Miserere  Mei  — 
But  all  in  English,  mark  you;   rose  again, 
And,  when  the   headsman  pray'd  to  be 

forgiven, 
Said,  '  You  will  give  me  my  true  crown 

at  last, 
But   do   it   quickly;  '  then  all  wept  but 

she, 
Who  changed  not  colour  when  she  saw 

the  block, 
But  ask'd  him,  childlike :   '  Will  you  take 

it  off 
Before  I  lay  me  down?'     'No,  Madam,' 

he  said, 
Gasping;    and  when   her  innocent  eyes 

were  bound, 
She,  with  her  poor  blind  hands  feeling  — 

'  where  is  it? 
Where   is  it  ?  '  —  You    must   fancy  that 

which  follow'd, 
If  you  have  heart  to  do  it ! 

Crowd  (in  the  distance).     God   save 

their  Graces ! 
Stafford.     Their  Graces,  our  disgraces ! 

God  confound  them ! 
Why,  she's  grown  bloodier!  when  I  last 

was  here, 


This  was  against  her  conscience  —  would 

be  murder ! 
Bagenhall.     The  'Thou   shalt   do  no 

murder,'  which  God's  hand 
Wrote  on  her  conscience,  Mary  rubb'd 

out  pale  — 
She  could  not  make  it  white  —  and  over 

that, 
Traced  in  the  blackest  text  of  Hell  — 

'  Thou  shalt ! ' 
And  sign'd  it  —  Mary  ! 

Stafford.  Philip  and  the  Pope 

Must    have    sign'd    too.      I    hear    this 

Legate's  coming 
To  bring  us  absolution  from  the  Pope. 
The  Lords  and  Commons  will  bow  down 

before  him  — 
You  are  of  the  house?  what  will  you  do, 

Sir  Ralph? 
Bagenhall.       And   why   should   I   be 

bolder  than  the  rest, 
Or  honester  than  all? 

Stafford.  But,  sir,  if  I  — 

And  oversea  they  say  this  state  of  yours 
Hath  no  more  mortice  than  a  tower  of 

cards; 
And  that  a  puff  would  do  it  —  then  if  I 
And  others  made  that  move   I   touch'd 

upon, 
Back'd  by  the  power  of  France,  and  land- 
ing here, 
Came  with  a  sudden  splendour,  shout, 

and  show, 
And  dazzled  men  and.deafen'd  by  some 

bright 
Loud  venture,  and  the  people  so  unquiet — 
And   I   the   race  of  murder'd  Bucking- 
ham— 
Not  for  myself,  but  for  the  kingdom — 

Sir, 
I  trust  that  you  would  fight  along  with  us. 
Bagenhall.     No ;   you  would  fling  your 

lives  into  the  gulf. 
Stafford.     But  if  this  Philip,  as  he's 

like  to  do, 
Left  Mary  a  wife-widow  here  alone, 
Set  up  a  viceroy,  sent  his  myriads  hither 
To   seize  upon  the   forts  and  fleet,  and 

make  us 
A  Spanish  province;   would  you  not  fight 

then? 
Bagenhall.     I  think  I  should  fight  then. 
Stafford.     I  am  sure  of  it. 


QUEEN  MARY. 


595 


Hist !  there's  the  face  coming  on  here  of 

one 
Who   knows   me.      I   must    leave   you. 

Fare  you  well, 
You'll  hear  of  me  again. 

Bagenhall.  Upon  the  scaffold. 

\_Exeunt. 


SCENE  II.  — Room  in  Whitehall 
Palace. 

Mary.     Enter  Philip  and 
Cardinal  Pole. 

Pole.     Ave  Maria,  gratia  plena,  Bene- 

dicta  tu  in  mulieribus. 
Mary.     Loyal      and      royal      cousin, 
humblest  thanks. 

Had  you  a  pleasant  voyage  up  the  river? 
Pole.     We  had  your  royal  barge,  and 
that  same  chair, 

Or  rather  throne  of  purple,  on  the  deck. 

Our    silver    cross    sparkled    before    the 
prow, 

The  ripples  twinkled  at  their  diamond- 
dance, 

The  boats  that  follow'd  were  as  glowing- 
gay 

As   regal   gardens;   and   your   flocks   of 
swans, 

As  fair  and  white  as  angels;   and  your 
shores 

Wore  in  mine  eyes  the  green  of  Paradise. 

My    foreign    friends,    who    dream'd   us 
blanketed 

In  ever-closing  fog,  were  much  amazed 

To  find  as  fair  a  sun  as  might  have  flash 'd 

Upon     their    lake    of    Garda,   fire    the 
Thames; 

Our  voyage  by  sea  was  all  but  miracle; 

A.nd   here   the   river   flowing   from   the 
sea, 

Not  toward  it  (for  they  thought  not  of 
our  tides), 

Seem'd   as   a    happy   miracle    to   make 
glide  — 

tn  quiet  —  home  your  banish'd  country- 
man. 
Mary.     We  heard  that  you  were  sick 

in  Flanders,  cousin. 
Pole.     A  dizziness. 

Mary.  And  how  came 

you  round  again? 


Pole.     The   scarlet   thread   of  Rahab 

saved  her  life; 
And  mine,  a  little  letting  of  the  blood. 
Mary.     Well?  now? 
Pole.  Ay,  cousin,  as  the 

heathen  giant 
Had  but  to  touch  the  ground,  his  force 

return'd  — 
Thus,  after  twenty  years  of  banishment, 
Feeling  my  native  land  beneath  my  foot, 
I  said  thereto  :  '  Ah,  native  land  of  mine, 
Thou  art  much  beholden  to  this  foot  of 

mine, 
That   hastes  with  full  commission  from 

the  Pope 
To  absolve  thee  from  thy  guilt  of  heresy. 
Thou  hast  disgraced  me  and  attainted  me, 
And  mark'd  me  ev'n  as  Cain,  and  I  return 
As  Peter,  but  to  bless  thee  :  make  me  well.' 
Methinks  the  good  land  heard  me,  for  to- 
day 
My  heart  beats  twenty,  when  I  see  you, 

cousin. 
Ah,  gentle  cousin,  since   your    Herod's 

death, 
How  oft  hath  Peter  knock'd  at  Mary's 

gate! 
And  Mary  would  have  risen  and  let  him  in, 
But,  Mary,  there   were  those  within  the 

house 
Who  would  not  have  it. 

Mary.  True,  good  cousin  Pole ; 

And  there  were  also  those  without  the 

house 
Who  would  not  have  it. 

Pole.  .  I  believe  so,  cousin. 

State-policy  and  church-policy  are  con- 
joint, 
But  Janus-faces  looking  diverse  ways. 
I  fear  the  Emperor  much  misvalued  me. 
But  all  is  well;  'twas  ev'n  the  will  of  God, 
Who,  waiting  till  the  time  had  ripen'd, 

now, 
Makes  me  his  mouth  of  holy  greeting. 

« Hail, 
Daughter  of  God,  and  saver  of  the  faith. 
Sit  benedictus  fructus  ventris  tui ! ' 
Mary.     Ah,  heaven ! 
Pole.  Unwell,  your  Grace? 

Mary.  No,  cousin,  happy  — ■ 

Happy  to  see  you;   never  yet  so  happy 
Since  I  was  crown'd. 
Pole.  Sweet  cousin,  you  forget 


596 


QUEEN  MARY. 


ACT  III 


That  long  low  minster  where  you  gave 

your  hand 
To  this  great  Catholic  King. 

Philip.  Well  said,  Lord  Legate. 

Mary.     Nay,  not  well  said ;   I  thought 

of  you,  my  liege, 
Ev'n  as  I  spoke. 

Philip.     Ay,  Madam;    my  Lord  Paget 
Waits   to    present    our    Council   to    the 

Legate. 
Sit  down  here,  all;   Madam,  between  us 

you. 
Pole.     Lo,  now  you  are  enclosed  with 

boards  of  cedar, 
Our  little  sister  of  the  Song  of  Songs  ! 
You  are  doubly  fenced  and  shielded  sit- 
ting here 
Between  the  two  most  high-set  thrones 

on  earth, 
The  Emperor's  highness  happily  symboll'd 

by 
The    King    your   husband,    the    Pope's 

Holiness 
By  mine  own  self. 

Mary.  True,  cousin,  I  am  happy. 

When  will  you  that  we  summon  both  our 

houses 
To  take  this  absolution  from  your  lips, 
And  be  regather'd  to  the  Papal  fold  ? 
Pole.     In  Britain's  calendar  the  bright- 
est day 
Beheld  our  rough  forefathers  break  their 

Gods, 
And  clasp  the  faith  in  Christ;    but  after 

that 
Might  not  St.  Andrew's  be  her  happiest 

day? 
Mary.    Then  these  shall  meet  upon 

St.  Andrew's  day. 

Enter  Paget,  who  presents  the  Council 
Dumb  show. 

Pole.     I  am  an  old  man  wearied  with 
my  journey, 
Ev'n  with  my  joy.     Permit  me  to  with- 
draw. 
To  Lambeth? 

Philip.  Ay,  Lambeth  has  ousted 

Cranmer. 
It  was  not  meet  the  heretic  swine  should 

live 
In  Lambeth. 
Mary,      There  or  anywhere,  or  at  all. 


Philip.     We  have   had   it  swept  and 

garnish'd  after  him. 
Pole.     Not  for  the  seven  devils  to  enter 

in? 
Philip.     No,  for  we  trust  they  parted 

in  the  swine. 
Pole.     True,  and  I  am  the  Angel   of 
the  Pope. 
Farewell,  your  Graces. 

Philip.  Nay,  not  here  —  to  me; 

I  will  go  with  you  to  the  waterside. 
Pole.    Not  be  my  Charon  to  the  counter 

side? 
Philip.     No,    my   Lord    Legate,   the 

Lord  Chancellor  goes. 
Pole.     And  unto  no  dead  world;   but 
Lambeth  palace, 
Henceforth  a  centre  of  the  living  faith. 
[Exeunt  Philip,  Pole,  Paget,  etc. 

Manet  Mary. 
Mary.     He   hath   awaked!    he   hath 

awaked ! 
He  stirs  within  the  darkness ! 
Oh,  Philip,   husband!  now   thy  love   to 

mine 
Will  cling  more  close,  and  those  bleak 

manners  thaw, 
That  make  me  shamed  and  tongue-tied 

in  my  love. 
The  second  Prince  of  Peace  — 
The  great  unborn  defender  of  the  Faith, 
Who  will  avenge  me  of  mine  enemies  -- 
He  comes,  and  my  star  rises. 
The  stormy  Wyatts  and  Northumberlands, 
The  proud  ambitions  of  Elizabeth, 
And  all  her  fieriest  partisans — are  pale 
Before  my  star ! 
The  light  of  this  new  learning  wanes  and 

dies: 
The   ghosts    of    Luther    and    Zuinglius 

fade 
Into  the  deathless  hell  which  is  their 

doom 
Before  my  star ! 

His  sceptre  shall  go  forth  from  Ind  to  Ind ! 
His  sword  shall  hew  the  heretic  peoples 

down ! 
His  faith  shall  clothe  the  world  that  will 

be  his, 
Like  universal  air  and  sunshine  !     Open, 
Ye  everlasting  gates !  The  King  is  here  ! — 
My  star,  my  son ! 


SCENE   III. 


QUEEN  MARY. 


597 


Enter  Philip,  Duke  of  Alva,  etc. 

Oh,  Philip,  come  with  me; 
Good  news  I  have  to  tell  you,  news  to 

make 
Both  of  us  happy  —  ay,  the  Kingdom  too. 
Nay,  come  with  me  —  one  moment ! 

Philip  (to  Alva).  More  than  that : 

There  was  one  here  of  late  —  William  the 

Silent 
They  call  him  —  he  is  free  enough  in  talk, 
But  tells  me  nothing.     You  will  be,  we 

trust, 
Sometime  theviceroy  of  those  provinces — 
He  must  deserve  his  surname  better. 

Alva.  Ay,  sir; 

Inherit  the  Great  Silence. 

Philip.  True;   the  provinces 

Are  hard  to  rule   and  must   be    hardly 

ruled ; 
Most  fruitful,  yet,  indeed,  an  empty  rind, 
All  hollow'd  out  with  stinging  heresies; 
And  for  their  heresies,  Alva,  they  will 

fight; 

You  must  break  them  or  they  break  you. 

Alva  (proudly).  The  first. 

Philip.     Good ! 

Well,  Madam,  this  newhappiness  of  mine  ? 

[Exeunt. 

Enter  Three  Pages. 

First  Page.     News,  mates !  a  miracle, 
a  miracle  !  news ! 
The  bells  must  ring;  Te  Deums  must  be 

sung; 
The  Queen  hath  felt  the  motion  of  her 
babe! 
Second  Page.     Ay ;   but  see  here  ! 
First  Page.  See  what  ? 

Second  Page.  This  paper,  Dickon. 

1  found  it  fluttering  at  the  palace  gates : — 
6  The  Queen  of  England  is  delivered  of  a 
dead  dog ! ' 
Third  Page.     These   are   the    things 

that  madden  her.     Fie  upon  it ! 
First  Page.     Ay;   but  I  hear  she  hath 
a  dropsy,  lad, 
Or  a  high-dropsy,  as  the  doctors  call  it. 
Third  Page.     Fie    on   her  dropsy,  so 
she  have  a  dropsy  ! 
I  know  that  she  was  ever  sweet  to  me. 
First  Page.     For  thou  and  thine  are 
Roman  to  the  core. 


Third  Page.     So  thou  and  thine  must 

be.     Take  heed ! 
First  Page.  .     Not  I, 

And  whether  this  flash  of  news  be  false 

or  true, 
So  the  wine  run,  and  there  be  revelry, 
Content    am    I.      Let    all    the    steeples 

clash, 
Till  the  sun  dance,  as  upon  Easter  Day. 
[Exeunt. 

SCENE  III.  — Great  Hall  in 

Whitehall. 

At  the  far  end  a  dais.  On  this  three 
chairs,  hvo  under  one  canopy  for  Mary 
and  Philip,  another  on  the  right  of 
these  for  Pole.  Under  the  dais  on 
Pole's  side,  ranged  along  the  wall, 
sit  all  the  Spiritual  Peers,  and  along 
the  wall  opposite,  all  the  Tejnporal. 
The  Commons  on  cross  benches  in  front, 
a  line  of  approach  to  the  dais  between 
them.  In  the  foreground,  Sir  Ralph 
Bagenhall  and  other  Members  of  the 
Commons. 

First  Member.     St.  Andrew's  day;   sit 

close,  sit  close,  we  are  friends. 
Is  reconciled  the  word?  the  Pope  again? 
It  must  be  thus;    and  yet,  cocksbody  ! 

how  strange 
That  Gardiner,  once  so  one  with  all  of  us 
Against   this    foreign    marriage,   should 

have  yielded 
So  utterly !  —  strange  !  but  stranger  still 

that  he, 
So   fierce  against   the   headship   of  the 

Pope, 
Should    play   the   second   actor   in   this 

pageant 
That  brings  him  in;   such  a  cameleon  he  ! 
Second  Member.     This  Gardiner  turn'd 

his  coat  in  Henry's  time; 
The    serpent    that    hath    slough'd    will 

slough  again. 
Third  Member.     Tut,  then  we  all  are 

serpents. 
Second  Member.        Speak  for  yourself. 
Third  Member.    Ay,  and  for  Gardiner  ! 

being  English  citizen, 
How  should  he  bear  a  bridegroom  out  of 

Spain? 


598 


QUEEN  MARY. 


ACT  m 


The    Queen    would    have    him !    being 

English  churchman 
How  should  he  bear  the  headship  of  the 

Pope? 
The  Queen  would  have  it!     Statesmen 

that  are  wise 
Shape  a  necessity,  as  a  sculptor  clay, 
To  their  own  model. 

Second  Member.     Statesmen  that  are 

wise 
Take  truth  herself  for  model.     What  say 

you?       [  To  Sir  Ralph  Bagenhall. 
Bagenhall.     We  talk  and  talk. 
First  Member.     Ay,  and  what  use  to 

talk? 
Philip's  no  sudden  alien  —  the  Queen's 

husband, 
He's  here,  and  king,  or  will  be  —  yet 

cocksbody ! 
So  hated  here  !     I  watch'd  a  hive  of  late ; 
My  seven-years'  friend  was  with  me,  my 

young  boy; 
Out  crept  a  wasp,  with  half  the  swarm 

behind. 
*  Philip  ! '  says  he.     I  had  to  cuff  the  rogue 
For  infant  treason. 

Third  Member.    But  they  say  that  bees, 
If  any  creeping  life  invade  their  hive 
Too  gross  to  be  thrust  out,  will  build  him 

round, 
And  bind  him  in  from  harming  of  their 

combs. 
And  Philip  by  these  articles  is  bound 
From  stirring  hand  or  foot  to  wrong  the 

realm. 
Second  Member.     By  bonds  of  beeswax 

like  your  creeping  thing; 
But  your  wise  bees  had  stung  him  first 

to  death. 
Third  Member.     Hush,  hush  ! 
You  wrong  the  Chancellor:  the  clauses 

added 
To  that  same  treaty  which  the  Emperor 

sent  us 
Were  mainly  Gardiner's :  that  no  foreigner 
Hold  office  in  the  household,  fleet,  forts, 

army ; 
That  if  the  Queen  should  die  without  a 

child, 
The   bond    between   the    kingdoms   be 

dissolved; 
That  Philip  should  not  mix  us  any  way 
With  his  French  wars  — 


Second  Member.  Ay,  ay,  but  what 

security, 
Good  sir,  for  this,  if  Philip  — 

Third  Member.      Peace  —  the  Queen, 
Philip,  and  Pole.        \All  rise,  and  stand. 

Enter  Mary,  Philip,  and  Pole. 

[Gardiner  conducts  them  to  the  three 
chairs  of  state.     Philip  sits  on  the 
Queen's  left,  Pole  on  her  right. 
Gardiner.     Our  short-lived  sun,  before 
his  winter  plunge, 
Laughs  at  the  last  red  leaf,  and  Andrew's 
day. 
Mary.     Should  not  this  day  be  held 
in  after  years 
More  solemn  than  of  old? 

Philip.  Madam,  my  wish 

Echoes  your  Majesty's. 

Pole.  It  shall  be  so. 

Gardiner.      Mine   echoes   both   your 
Graces';    {aside)  but  the  Pope  — 
Can  we  not  have  the  Catholic  church  as 

well 
Without  as  with  the  Italian?  if  we  cannot, 
Why  then  the  Pope. 

.My  Lords  of  the  upper  house, 
And  ye,  my  masters,  of  the  lower  house, 
Do  ye  stand  fast  by  that  which  ye  resolved  ? 
Voices.     We  do. 

Gardiner.     And  be  you  all  one  mind 
to  supplicate 
The  Legate  here  for  pardon,  and  acknow- 
ledge 
The  primacy  of  the  Pope? 

Voices.  We  are  all  one  mind. 

Gardiner.     Then  must  I  play  the  vas- 
sal to  this  Pole.  [Aside. 
[He  draws  a  paper  from  under  his 
robes  and  presents  it  to  the  King 
and  Queen,  xvho  look  through  it 
and  return  it  to  him  ;  then  ascends 
a  tribune  and  reads. 
We,  the  Lords  Spiritual  and  Temporal, 
And  Commons  here  in  Parliament  assem- 
bled, 
Presenting  the  whole  body  of  this  realm 
Of  England,  and  dominions  of  the  same, 
Do  make  most   humble  suit  unto  your 

Majesties, 
In  our  own  name  and  that  of  all  the  state, 
That  by  your  gracious  means  and  inter- 
cession 


SCENE  III. 


QUEEN  MARY. 


599 


Our  supplication  be  exhibited 

To  the  Lord  Cardinal  Pole,  sent  here  as 

Legate 
From  our  most  Holy  Father  Julius,  Pope, 
And  from  the  Apostolic  see  of  Rome; 
And  do  declare  our  penitence  and  grief 
For  our  long  schism  and  disobedience, 
Either  in  making  laws  and  ordinances 
Against  the  Holy  Father's  primacy, 
Or  else  by  doing  or  by  speaking  aught 
Which  might  impugn  or  prejudice  the 

same; 
By  this  our  supplication  promising, 
As  well  for  our  own  selves  as  all  the  realm, 
That  now  we  be  and  ever  shall  be  quick, 
Under  and  with  your  Majesties'  authori- 
ties, 
To  do  to  the  utmost  all  that  in  us  lies 
Towards  the  abrogation  and  repeal 
Of  all  such  laws  and  ordinances  made; 
Whereon  we  humbly  pray  your  Majesties, 
As  persons  undefiled  with  our  offence, 
So  to  set  forth  this  humble  suit  of  ours 
That  we  the  rather  by  your  intercession 
May  from  the  Apostolic  see  obtain, 
Thro'  this  most  reverend  Father,  absolu- 
tion, 
And    full   release    from    danger  of '  all 

censures 
Of  Holy  Church  that  we  be  fall'n  into, 
So  that  we  may,  as  children  penitent, 
Be  once  again  received  into  the  bosom 
And  unity  of  Univeisal  Church; 
And  that  this  noble  realm  thro'  after  years 
May  in  this  unity  and  obedience 
Unto  the  holy  see  and  reigning  Pope 
Serve  God  and  both  your  Majesties. 
Voices.  Amen.     [All  sit. 

[He  again  presents  the  petition  to  the 
King   and  Queen,    who  hand  it 
reverentially  to  Pole. 
Pole  {sitting) .    This  is  the  loveliest  day 
that  ever  smiled 
On   England.      All   her   breath   should, 

incenselike, 
Rise  to  the  heavens  in  grateful  praise  of 

Him 
Who  now  recalls  her  to  His  ancient  fold. 
Lo !  once  again  God  to  this  realm  hath 

given 
A  token  of  His  more  especial  Grace; 
For  as  this  people  were  the  first  of  all 
The  islands  call'd  into  the  dawning  church 


Out  of  the  dead,  deep  night  of  heathen- 
dom, 
So  now  are  these   the   first  whom   God 

hath  given 
Grace   to    repent    and   sorrow  for   their 

schism ; 
And  if  your  penitence  be  not  mockery, 
Oh  how  the  blessed  angels  who  rejoice 
Over  one  saved  do  triumph  at  this  hour 
In  the  reborn  salvation  of  a  land 
So  noble.  [A  pause. 

For  ourselves  we  do  protest 
That  our  commission  is  to  heal,  not  harm; 
We  come  not  to  condemn,  but  reconcile; 
We  come  not  to  compel,  but  call  again; 
We  come  not  to  destroy,  but  edify; 
Nor  yet  to  question  things  already  done; 
These  are  forgiven — matters  of  the  past  — 
And   range  with  jetsam    and  with  offal 

thrown 
Into  the  blind  sea  of  forgetfulness. 

[A  pause. 
Ye  have  reversed  the  attainder  laid  on  us 
By  him  who  sack'd  the  house  of  God; 

and  we, 
Amplier  than  any  field  on  our  poor  earth 
Can  render  thanks  in  fruit  for  being  sown, 
Do  here  and  now  repay  you  sixty-fold, 
A  hundred,  yea,  a  thousand  thousand-fold, 
With  heaven  for  earth. 

[Rising   and   stretching  forth    his 

hands.     All  kneel  but  Sir  Ralph 

Bagenhall,  who  rises  and  remains 

standing. 

The  Lord  who  hath  redeem'd  us 

With  His  own  blood,  and  wash'd  us  from 

our  sins, 
To  purchase  for  Himself  a  stainless  bride; 
He,  Whom  the    Father   hath   appointed 

head 
Of  all   his   church,    He   by   His   mercy 
absolve  you !  [A  pause. 

And  we  by  that  authority  Apostolic 
Given  unto  us,  his  Legate,  by  the  Pope, 
Our  Lord  and  Holy  Father,  Julius, 
God's  Vicar  and  Vicegerent  upon  earth, 
Do  here  absolve  you  and  deliver  you 
And  every  one  of  you,  and  all  the  realm 
And  its  dominions  from  all  heresy, 
All  schism,  and  from  all  and  every  cen- 
sure, 
Judgment,  and  pain  accruing  thereupon; 
And  also  we  restore  you  to  the  bosom 


6oo 


QUEEN  MARY. 


And  unity  of  Universal  Church. 

[  Turning  to  Gardiner. 
Our  letters  of  commission  will    declare 

this  plainlier. 
[Queen   heard    sobbing.       Cries   of 

Amen  !      Amen  !       Some    of  the 

Members    embrace    one    another. 

All  but  Sir  Ralph  Bagenhall  pass 

out  into  the  neighbouring  chapel, 

whence  is  heard  the  Te  Deum. 
Bagenhall.      We   strove    against    the 

papacy  from  the  first, 
In  William's  time,  in  our  first  Edward's 

time, 
And  in  my  master  Henry's  time;  but  now, 
The  unity  of  Universal  Church, 
Mary  would  have  it;    and  this  Gardiner 

follows ; 
The  unity  of  Universal  Hell, 
Philip  would  have  it;   and  this  Gardiner 

follows ! 
A  Parliament  of  imitative  apes ! 
Sheep  at  the  gap  which  Gardiner  takes, 

who  not 
Believes    the    Pope,   nor   any   of    them 

believe  — 
These  spaniel-Spaniard    English  of  the 

time, 
Who  rub  their  fawning  noses  in  the  dust, 
For  that  is  Philip's  gold-dust,  and  adore 
This  Vicar  of  their  Vicar.     Would  I  had 

been 
Born  Spaniard  !     I  had  held  my  head  up 

then. 
I  am  ashamed  that  I  am  Bagenhall, 
English. 

Enter  Officer. 

Officer.     Sir  Ralph  Bagenhall !  ■ 
Bagenhall.  What  of  that? 

Officer.     You  were  the  one  sole  man 

in  either  house 
Who  stood  upright  when  both  the  houses 

fell. 
Bagenhall.     The  houses  fell ! 
Officer.  I  mean  the  houses  knelt 

Before  the  Legate. 

Bagenhall.  Do  not  scrimp  your 

phrase, 
But  stretch  it  wider;   say  when  England 

fell. 
Officer.     I  say  you  were  the  one  sole 

man  who  stood. 


Bagenhall.     I  am  the  one  sole  man  in 
either  house, 
Perchance  in  England,  loves  her  like  a 
son. 
Officer.     Well,  you  one  man,  because 
you  stood  upright, 
Her  Grace  the  Queen  commands  you  to 
the  Tower. 
Bagenhall.     As  traitor,  or  as  heretic, 

or  for  what? 
Officer.     If  any  man  in  any  way  would 
be 
The  one  man,  he  shall  be  so  to  his  cost. 
Bagenhall.     What !  will  she  have  my 

head? 
Officer.  A  round  fine  likelier. 

Your  pardon.  ^Calling  to  Attendant. 

By  the  river  to  the  Tower.  \_Exeunt. 


SCENE  IV.  —  Whitehall, 
in  the  Palace. 


A  Room 


Mary,  Gardiner,  Pole,  Paget, 
Bonner,  etc. 

Mary.     The  King  and  I,  my  Lords, 
now  that  all  traitors 

Against  our  royal  state  have  lost  the  heads 

Wherewith  they  plotted  in  their  treason- 
ous malice, 

Have  talk'd  together,  and  are  well  agreed 

That  those  old  statutes  touching  Lollard- 
ism 

To  bring  the  heretic  to  the  stake,  should 
be 

No  longer  a  dead  letter,  but  requicken'd. 
One  of  the  Council.     Why,  what  hath 
fluster'd  Gardiner?  how  he  rubs 

His  forelock  ! 
Paget.     I  have  changed  a  word  with 
him 

In  coming,  and  may  change  a  word  again. 
Gardiner.     Madam,  your  Highness  is 
our  sun,  the  King 

And  you  together  our  two  suns  in  one; 

And  so  the  beams  of  both  may  shine  upon 
us, 

The  faith  that  seem'd  to  droop  will  feel 
your  light, 

Lift   head,  and    flourish;    yet   not   light 
alone, 

There  must  be  heat  —  there  must  be  heal 
enough 


SCENE  IV. 


QUEEN  MARY. 


601 


To  scorch  and  wither  heresy  to  the  root. 
For  what  saith  Christ?     'Compel  them 

to  come  in.' 
And  what  saith   Paul?     'I  would   they 

were  cut  off 
That  trouble  you.'     Let  the  dead  letter 

live ! 
Trace   it   in   fire,  that   all   the   louts   to 

whom 
Their  A  B  C  is  darkness,  clowns   and 

grooms 
May  read  it !   so  you  quash  rebellion  too, 
For  heretic  and  traitor  are  all  one : 
Two  vipers  of  one  breed  —  an  amphisbsena, 
Each  end  a  sting:    Let  the  dead  letter 

burn ! 
Paget.      Yet   there   be   some    disloyal 

Catholics, 
And  many  heretics  loyal;   heretic  throats 
Cried  no  God-bless-her  to  the  Lady  Jane, 
But  shouted  in  Queen  Mary.    So  there  be 
Some   traitor-heretic,  there   is   axe   and 

cord. 
To  take  the  lives  of  others  that  are  loyal, 
And  by  the  churchman's  pitiless  doom  of 

fire, 
Were  but  a  thankless  policy  in  the  crown, 
Ay,   and   against   itself;     for   there    are 

many. 
Mary.     If  we  could  burn  out  heresy, 

my  Lord  Paget, 
We  reck  not  tho'  we  lost  this  crown  of 

England  — 
Ay  !  tho'  it  were  ten  Englands  ! 

Gardiner.  Right,  your  Grace. 

Paget,  you  are  all  for  this  poor  life  of  ours, 
And  care  but  little  for  the  life  to  be. 
Paget.     I  have  some  time,  for  curious- 

ness,  my  Lord, 
Watch'd  children  playing  at  their  life  to 

be, 
And  cruel  at  it,  killing  helpless  flies; 
Such  is  our  time  —  all  times  for  aught  I 

know. 
Gardiner.     We  kill  the  heretics  that 

sting  the  soul  — 
They,  with  right  reason,  flies  that  prick 

the  flesh. 
Paget.     They   had    not   reach'd   right 

reason;   little  children  ! 
They  kill'd  but  for  their  pleasure  and  the 

power 
They  felt  in  killing. 


Gardiner.  A  spice  of  Satan,  ha ! 

Why,  good  !  what  then  ?  granted  !  —  we 

are  fallen  creatures; 
Look  to  your  Bible,  Paget !  we  are  fallen. 
Paget.     I  am  but  of  the  laity,  my  Lord 

Bishop, 
And  may  not  read  your  Bible,  yet  I  found 
One  day,  a  wholesome  scripture,  '  Little 

children, 
Love  one  another.' 

Gardiner.        Did  you  find  a  scripture, 
'  I  come  not  to  bring  peace  but  a  sword '  ? 

The  sword 
Is  in  her  Grace's  hand  to  smite  with. 

Paget, 
You  stand  up  here  to  fight  for  heresy, 
You  are  more  than  guess'd  at  as  a  heretic, 
And  on  the  steep-up  track  of  the  true 

faith 
Your  lapses  are  far  seen. 

Paget.  The  faultless  Gardiner  ! 

Mary.     You  brawl  beyond  the  ques- 
tion;  speak,  Lord  Legate  ! 
Pole.     Indeed,   I    cannot   follow  with 

your  Grace : 
Rather  would  say  —  the  shepherd  doth 

not  kill 
The  sheep  that  wander  from  his  flock,  but 

sends 
His  careful  dog  to  bring  them  to  the  fold. 
Look  to  the  Netherlands,  wherein  have 

been 
Such  holocausts  of  heresy  !  to  what  end? 
For  yet  the  faith  is  not  established  there. 
Gardiner.    The  end's  not  come. 
Pole.  No  —  nor  this  way 

will  come, 
Seeing  there  lie  two  ways  to  every  end, 
A  better  and  a  worse  —  the  worse  is  here 
To  persecute,  because  to  persecute 
Makes  a  faith  hated,  and  is  furthermore 
No  perfect  witness  of  a  perfect  faith 
In  him  who  persecutes :  when  men  are 

tost 
On  tides  of  strange  opinion,  and  not  sure 
Of  their  own  selves,  they  are  wroth  with 

their  own  selves, 
And  thence  with  others;  then,  who  lights 

the  faggot? 
Not  the  full  faith,  no,  but   the   lurking 

doubt. 
Old  Rome,  that  first  made  martyrs  in  the 

Church, 


602 


QUEEN  MARY. 


ACT  IU 


Trembled    for   her  own  gods,  for  these 

were  trembling  — 
But  when  did  our  Rome  tremble? 

Paget.  Did  she  not 

In  Henry's  time  and  Edward's? 

Pole.  What,  my  Lord  ! 

The  Church  on  Peter's  rock?  never!    I 

have  seen 
A  pine  in  Italy  that  cast  its  shadow 
Athwart  a  cataract;  firm  stood  the  pine  — 
The  cataract  shook  the  shadow.     To  my 

mind, 
The  cataract  typed  the  headlong  plunge 

and  fall 
Of  heresy  to  the  pit :  the  pine  was  Rome. 
You  see,  my  Lords, 
It  was  the  shadow  of  the  Church  that 

trembled; 
Your  church  was  but  the  shadow  of  a 

church, 
Wanting  the  Papal  mitre. 

Gardiner  (muttering).  Here  be  tropes. 
Pole.     And  tropes  are  good  to  clothe  a 

naked  truth, 
And  make  it  look  more  seemly. 

Gardiner.  Tropes  again ! 

Pole.     You  are  hard  to  please.     Then 

without  tropes,  my  Lord, 
An  overmuch  severeness,  I  repeat, 
When    faith    is    wavering    makes    the 

waverer  pass 
Into  more  settled  hatred  of  the  doctrines 
Of  those  who  rule,  which  hatred  by  and 

by 
Involves  the  ruler  (thus  there  springs  to 

light 
That  Centaur  of  a  monstrpus  Common- 
weal, 
The  traitor-heretic)  then  tho'  some  may 

quail, 
Yet  others  are  that  dare  the  stake  and 

fire, 
And  their  strong  torment  bravely  borne, 

begets 
An  admiration  and  an  indignation, 
And  hot  desire  to  imitate;   so  the  plague 
Of  schism  spreads;  were  there  but  three 

or  four 
Of  these  misleaders,  yet  I  would  not  say 
Burn !  and  we  cannot  burn  whole  towns; 

they  are  many, 
As  my  Lord  Paget  says. 

Gardiner.      Yet  my  Lord  Cardinal  — 


Pole.     I  am  your  Legate;   please  you 

let  me  finish. 
Methinks  that  under  our  Queen's  regimen 
We  might  go  softlier  than  with  crimson 

rowel 
And    streaming    lash.      When    Herod- 
Henry  first 
Began  to  batter  at  your  English  Church, 
This  was  the  cause,  and  hence  the  judg- 
ment on  her. 
She  seethed  with  such  adulteries,  and  the 

lives 
Of  many  among  your  churchmen  were  so 

foul 
That  heaven  wept  and  earth  blush'd.     I 

would  advise 
That  we  should  thoroughly  cleanse  the 

Church  within 
Before  these  bitter  statutes  be  requick- 

en'd. 
So  after  that  when  she  once  more  is  seen 
White  as  the  light,  the  spotless  bride  of 

Christ, 

Like  Christ   himself  on  Tabor,  possibly 

The  Lutheran  may  be  won  to  her  again; 

Till  when,  my  Lords,  I  counsel  tolerance. 

Gardiner.     What,  if  a  mad   dog  bit 

your  hand,  my  Lord, 
Would  you  not  chop  the  bitten  finger  off, 
Lest   your  whole   body  should   madden 

with  the  poison  ? 
I  would  not,  were  I  Queen,  tolerate  the 

heretic, 
No,  not  an  hour.     The  ruler  of  a  land 
Is  bounden  by  his  power  and  place  to  see 
His  people  be   not   poison'd.     Tolerate 

them ! 
Why?  do  they  tolerate  you?    Nay,  many 

of  them 
Would   burn  —  have  burnt  each  other; 

call  they  not 
The   one   true    faith,  a  loathsome   idol- 
worship? 
Beware,  Lord  Legate,  of  a  heavier  crime 
Than  heresy  is  itself;  beware,  I  say, 
Lest  men  accuse  you  of  indifference 
To  all  faiths,  all  religion ;  for  you  know 
Right  well  that  you  yourself  have  been 

supposed 
Tainted  with  Lutheranism  in  Italy. 
Pole  {a tigered).     But  you,  my  Lord, 

beyond  all  supposition, 
In  clear  and  open  day  were  congruent 


SCENE   IV. 


QUEEN  MARY. 


603 


With  that  vile  Cranmer  in  the  accursed  lie 
Of  good    Queen    Catharine's  divorce  — 

the  spring 
Of  all  those  evils  that  have  flow'd  upon  us ; 
For   you  yourself  have  truckled  to  the 

tyrant, 
And  done   your   best  to  bastardise   our 

Queen, 
For  which  God's  righteous  judgment  fell 

upon  you 
In  your  five  years  of  imprisonment,  my 

Lord, 
Under  young  Edward.    Who  so  bolster'd 

up 
The  gross  King's  headship  of  the  Church, 

or  more 
Denied  the  Holy  Father ! 

Gardiner.  Ha!  what!  eh? 

But  you,  my  Lord,  a  polish'd  gentleman, 
A  bookman,  flying   from  the  heat   and 

tussle, 
You  lived  among  your  vines  and  oranges, 
In   your  soft   Italy  yonder !     You  were 

sent  for, 
You  were    appeal'd    to,    but    you    still 

preferr'd 
Your  learned  leisure.     As  for  what  I  did 
I   suffer'd    and    repented.      You,    Lord 

Legate 
And  Cardinal-Deacon,  have  not  now  to 

learn 
That  ev'n  St.  Peter  in  his  time  of  fear 
Denied  his    Master,  ay,  and  thrice,  my 

Lord. 
Pole.     But    not    for    five-and-twenty 

years,  my  Lord. 
Gardiner.     Ha !  good !  it  seems  then 

I  was  summon'd  hither 
But  to  be  mock'd  and  baited.     Speak, 

friend  Bonner, 
And  tell  this  learned  Legate  he  lacks  zeal. 
The  Church's  evil  is  not  as  the  King's, 
Cannot  be  heal'd  by  stroking.     The  mad 

bite 
Must  have  the  cautery  — tell  him  —  and  at 

once. 
What  would'st  thou  do  had'st  thou  his 

power,  thou 
That  layest  so  long  in  heretic  bonds  with 

me; 
Would'st  thou  not  burn  and  blast  them 

root  and  branch? 
Bonner.  Av,  after  you,  my  Lord. 


Gardiner.     Nay,  God's  passion,  before 

me !  speak ! 
Bonner.     I  am  on  fire  until  I  see  them 

flame. 
Gardiner.        Ay,    the    psalm-singing 

weavers,  cobblers,  scum  — 
But  this  most  noble  prince  Plantagenet, 
Our  good  Queen's  cousin  —  dallying  over 

seas 
Even  when  his  brother's,  nay,  his  noble 

mother's, 
Head  fell  — 

Pole.     Peace,  madman ! 
Thou  stirrest  up  a  grief  thou  canst  not 

fathom. 
Thou  Christian  Bishop,  thou  Lord  Chan- 
cellor 
Of  England !  no  more  rein  upon  thine 

anger 
Than  any  child  !     Thou  mak'st  me  much 

ashamed 
That  I  was  for  a  moment  wroth  at  thee. 
Mary.     I  come  for  counsel  and  ye  give 

me  feuds, 
Like  dogs  that  set  to  watch  their  master's 

gate, 
Fall,  when  the  thief  is  ev'n  within  the 

walls, 
To  worrying   one   another.      My   Lord 

Chancellor, 
You  have  an  old  trick  of  offending  us; 
And  but  that  you  are  art  and  part  with  us 
In  purging  heresy,  well  we  might,  for  this 
Your  violence  and  much  roughness  to  the 

Legate, 
Have     shut     you     from    our    counsels. 

Cousin  Pole, 
You  are  fresh  from  brighter  lands.     Re- 
tire with  me. 
His  Highness  and  myself  (so  you  allow 

us) 
Will  let  you  learn  in  peace  and  privacy 
What  power  this  cooler  sun  of  England 

hath 
In  breeding  godless  vermin.     And  pray 

Heaven 
That  you  may  see  according  to  our  sight. 
Come,  cousin. 

[Exeunt  Queen  and  Pole,  etc. 
Gardiner.     Pole  has  the  Plantagenet 

face, 
But  not  the  force  made  them  our  mightiest 

kings. 


604 


QUEEN  MARY. 


act  m 


Fine  eyes  —  but  melancholy,  irresolute  — 
A  fine   beard,  Bonner,    a  very  full    fine 

beard. 
But  a  weak  mouth,  an  indeterminate — ha? 
Bonner.     Well,  a  weak   mouth,  per- 
chance. 
Gardiner.         And  not  like  thine 
To  gorge  a  heretic  whole,  roasted  or  raw. 
Bonner.     I'd  do  my  best,  my  Lord; 

but  yet  the  Legate 
Is  here  as  Pope  and  Master  of  the  Church, 
And  if  he  go  not  with  you  — 

Gardiner.  Tut,  Master  Bishop, 

Our  bashful  Legate,  saw'st  not  how  he 

flush'd? 
Touch  him  upon  his  old  heretical  talk, 
He'll  burn  a  diocese  to  prove  his  ortho- 
doxy. 
And  let  him  call  me  truckler.     In  those 

times, 
Thou  knowest  we  had  to  dodge,  or  duck, 

or  die; 
I  kept  my  head  for  use  of  Holy  Church; 
And  see  you,  we  shall  have  to  dodge  again, 
And  let  the  Pope  trample  our  rights,  and 

plunge 
His  foreign  fist  into  our  island  Church 
To  plump  the  leaner  pouch  of  Italy. 
For  a  time,  for  a  time. 
Why?  that  these  statutes  may  be  put  in 

force, 
And  that  his  fan  may  thoroughly  purge 

his  floor. 
Bonner.    So  then  you  hold  the  Pope  — 
Gardiner,  I  hold  the  Pope  ! 

What  do  I  hold    him?  what  do  I  hold 

the  Pope? 
Come,   come,    the    morsel    stuck  —  this 

Cardinal's  fault  — 
I  have  gulpt  it  down.     I  am  wholly  for 

the  Pope, 
Utterly  and  altogether  for  the  Pope, 
The  Eternal  Peter  of  the  changeless  chair, 
Crown'd  slave  of  slaves,  and  mitred  king 

of  kings, 
God  upon  earth  !  what  more?  what  would 

you  have? 
Hence,  let's  be  gone. 

Enter  Usher. 

Usher.     Well   that  you  be  not  gone, 
My  Lord.    The   Queen,  most  wroth  at 
first  with  you, 


Is  now  content  to  grant  you  full  forgive^ 

ness, 
So  that  you   crave  full   pardon  of  the 

Legate. 
I  am  sent  to  fetch  you. 

Gardiner.       Doth  Pole  yield,  sir,  ha ! 
Did  you  hear  'em?  were  you  by? 

Usher.  I  cannot  tell  you, 

His  bearing  is  so  courtly-delicate; 
And  yet  methinks  he  falters:  their  two 

Graces 
Do  so  dear-cousin  and  royal-cousin  him, 
So  press  on  him  the  duty  which  as  Legate 
He  owes  himself,  and  with    such   royal 

smiles  — 
Gardiner.       Smiles   that   burn   men. 

Bonner,  it  will  be  carried. 
He  falters,  ha?  'fore  God,  we  change  and 

change; 
Men  now  are  bow'd  and  old,  the  doctors 

tell  you, 
At  three-score  years;   then  if  we  change 

at  all 
We  needs  must  do  it  quickly;   it  is  an  age 
Of  brief  life,  and  brief  purpose,  and  brief 

patience, 
As  I  have  shown  to-day.     I  am  sorry  for  it 
If  Pole  be  like  to  turn.     Our  old  friend 

Cranmer, 
Your  more  especial  love,  hath  turn'd  so 

often, 
He  knows  not  where  he  stands,  which, 

if  this  pass, 
We  two  shall  have  to  teach  him;   let  'em 

look  to  it, 
Cranmer  and  Hooper,  Ridley  and  Latimer. 
Rogers  and  Ferrar,  for  their  time  is  come, 
Their  hour  is  hard  at  hand,  their  'dies 

Irae,' 
Their  ■  dies  Ilia,'  which  will  test  their  sect.' 
I  feel  it  but  a  duty  —  you  will  find  in  it 
Pleasure  as  well  as  duty,  worthy  Bonner, — 
To  test  their  sect.    Sir,  I  attend  the  Queen 
To  crave  most  humble  pardon  —  of  her 

most 
Royal,  Infallible,  Papal  Legate-cousin. 

[Exeunt. 

SCENE  V.  —  Woodstock. 

Elizabeth,  Lady  in  Waiting. 

Elizabeth.     So   they   have   sent   pool 
Courtenay  over  sea. 


QUEEN  MARY. 


605 


Lady.     And  banish'd  us  to  Woodstock, 
and  the  fields. 
The  colours  of  our  queen  are  green  and 

white, 
These  fields  are  only  green,  they  make 
me  gape. 
Elizabeth.     There's  whitethorn,  girl. 
Lady.  Ay,  for  an  hour  in  May. 

But  court  is  always   May,  buds  out  in 

masques, 
Breaks   into   feather'd   merriments,  and 

flowers 
In  silken  pageants.     Why  do  they  keep 

us  here? 
Why  still  suspect  your  Grace? 

Elizabeth.  Hard  upon  both. 

[  Writes  on  the  window  with  a  diamond. 

Much  suspected,  of  me 
Nothing  proven  can  be. 

Quoth  Elizabeth,  prisoner. 

Lady.      What    hath    your    Highness 
written? 

Elizabeth.  A  true  rhyme. 

Lady.     Cut  with  a  diamond;  so  to  last 
like  truth. 

Elizabeth.     Ay,  if  truth  last. 

Lady.         But  truth,  they  say,  will  out, 
So  it  must  last.     It  is  not  like  a  word, 
That  comes  and  goes  in  uttering. 

Elizabeth.  Truth,  a  word  ! 

The  very  Truth  and  very  Word  are  one. 
But  truth  of  story,  which  I  glanced  at, 

girk 
Is  like  a  word  that  comes  from  olden 

days, 
And  passes  thro'  thepeoples :  every  tongue 
Alters  it  passing,  till  it  spells  and  speaks 
Quite  other  than  at  first. 

Lady.  I  do  not  follow. 

Elizabeth.     How  many  names  in   the 
long  sweep  of  time 
That  so  foreshortens  greatness,  may  but 

hang 
On  the  chance  mention  of  some  fool  that 

once 
Brake  bread  with  us,  perhaps :  and  my 

poor  chronicle 
Is  but  of  glass.     Sir  Henry  Bedingfield 
May  split  it  for  a  spite. 

Lady.  God  grant  it  last, 

And  witness  to  your  Grace's  innocence, 
Till  doomsday  melt  it. 


Elizabeth.  Or  a  second  fire, 

Like  that  which  lately  crackled  underfoot 
And  in  this  very  chamber,  fuse  the  glass, 
And  char  us  back  again  into  the  dust 
We  spring  from.     Never  peacock  against 

rain 
Scream'd  as  you  did  for  water. 

Lady.  And  I  got  it. 

I  woke  Sir  Henry  —  and   he's   true   to 

you  — 
I  read  his  honest  horror  in  his  eyes. 
Elizabeth.     Or  true  to  you? 
Lady.  Sir  Henry  Bedingfield ! 

I  will  have  no  man   true  to  me,  your 

Grace, 
But  one  that  pares  his  nails;   to  me?  the 
clown ! 
Elizabeth.     Out,   girl!    you   wrong   a 

noble  gentleman. 
Lady.     For,  like  his  cloak,  his  man- 
ners want  the  nap 
And  gloss  of  court;   but  of  this  fire  he 

says, 
Nay  swears,  it  was  no  wicked  wilfulness, 
Only  a  natural  chance. 

Elizabeth.  A  chance  —  perchance 

One  of  those  wicked  wilfuls  that  men 

make, 
Nor  shame  to  call  it  nature.     Nay,  I  know 
They  hunt  my  blood.     Save  for  my  daily 

range 
Among  the  pleasant  fields  of  Holy  Writ 
I  might  despair.     But  there  hath  some 

one  Come; 
The  house  is  all  in  movement.     Hence, 
and  see.  \_Exit  Lady. 

Milkmaid  {singing  without}. 

Shame  upon  you,  Robin, 

Shame  upon  you  now ! 
Kiss  me  would  you?  with  my  hands 

Milking  the  cow? 

Daisies  grow  again, 

Kingcups  blow  again, 
And  you  came  and  kiss'd  me  milking  the  cow 

Robin  came  behind  me, 

Kiss'd  me  well  I  vow; 
Cuff  him  could  I?  with  my  hands 

Milking  the  cow? 

Swallows  fly  again, 

Cuckoos  cry  again, 
And  you  came  and  kiss'd  me  milking  the  cow 


6o6 


QUEEN  MARY. 


ACT  Hi 


Come,  Robin,  Robin, 

Come  and  kiss  me  now; 
Help  it  can  1  ?  with  my  hands 

Milking  the  cow? 

Ringdoves  coo  again, 

All  things  woo  again. 
Come  behind  and  kiss  me  milking  the  cow ! 

Elizabeth.      Right    honest    and    red- 

cheek'd ;    Robin  was  violent, 
And  she  was  crafty  —  a  sweet  violence, 
And  a  sweet  craft.     I  would  I  were  a 

milkmaid, 
To  sing,  love,  marry,  churn,  brew,  bake, 

and  die, 
Then  have  my  simple  headstone  by  the 

church, 
And  all  things  lived  and  ended  honestly. 
I  could  not  if  I  would.     I  am  Harry's 

daughter : 
Gardiner  would  have  my  head.     They  are 

not  sweet, 
The  violence  and  the  craft  that  do  divide 
The  world  of  nature;   what  is  weak  must 

lie; 
The  lion  needs  but  roar  to  guard  his 

young; 
The  lapwing  lies,  says  •  here '  when  they 

are  there. 
Threaten  the  child;   'I'll  scourge  you  if 

you  did  it : ' 
What  weapon   hath  the  child,,  save  his 

soft  tongue, 
To  say  «I  did  not'?  and  my  rod's  the 

block. 
I  never  lay  my  head  upon  the  pillow 
But  that  I  think,  *  Wilt  thou  lie  there  to- 
morrow ? ' 
How  oft  the  falling  axe,  that  never  fell, 
Hath  shock'd  me  back  into  the  daylight 

truth 
That  it  may  fall  to-day!    Those  damp, 

black,  dead 
Nights  in  the  Tower;    dead  —  with  the 

fear  of  death 
Too  dead  ev'n  for  a  death-watch  !     Toll 

of  a  bell, 
Stroke  of  a  clock,  the  scurrying  of  a  rat 
Affrighted  me,  and  then  delighted  me, 
For  there  was  life  —  And  there  was  life 

in  death  — 
The  little  murder'd  princes,  in  a  pale  light, 
Rose  hand  in  hand,  and  whisper'd,  •  Come 

awayi 


The  civil  wars  are  gone  for  evermore : 
Thou  last  of  all  the  Tudors,  come  away ! 
With  us  in  peace! '     The  last?     It  was  a 

dream ; 
I  must  not  dream,  not  wink,  but  watch. 

She  has  gone, 
Maid  Marian  to  her  Robin  —  by  and  by 
Both  happy !  a  fox  may  filch  a  hen  by 

night, 
And  make  a  morning  outcry  in  the  yard; 
But  there's  no  Renard  here  to  ;  catch  her 

tripping.' 
Catch  me  who  can;   yet,  sometime  I  have 

wish'd 
That  I  were  caught,  and  kill'd  away  at 

once 
Out    of    the    nutter.      The   gray  rogue, 

Gardiner, 
Went  on  his  knees,  and  pray'd  me  to 

confess 
In  Wyatt's  business,  and  to  cast  myself 
Upon  the  good  Queen's  mercy;  ay,  when, 

my  Lord? 
God  save  the  Queen !     My  jailor  — 

Enter  Sir  Henry  Bedingfield. 
Bedingfield.  One,  whose  bolts, 

That  jail  you  from  free  life,  bar  you  from 

death. 
There  haunt  some  Papist  ruffians  here- 
about 
Would  murder  you. 

Elizabeth.         I  thank  you  heartily,  sir, 
But  I  am  royal,  tho'  your  prisoner, 
And  God  hath  blest  or  cursed  me  with  a 

nose  — 
Your  boots  are  from  the  horses. 

Bedingfield.  Ay,  my  Lady. 

When  next  there  comes  a  missive  from 

the  Queen 
It  shall  be  all  my  study  for  one  hour 
To  rose  and  lavender  my  horsiness, 
Before  I  dare  to  glance  upon  your  Grace. 
Elizabeth.     A  missive  from  the  Queen : 
last  time  she  wrote, 
I  had  like  to  have  lost  my  life :  it  takes 

my  breath: 
O  God,  sir,  do  you  look  upon  your  boots> 
Are   you  so  small    a   man?     Help  me: 

what  think  you, 
Is  it  life  or  death? 

Bedingfield.      I   thought   not   on  my 
boots; 


SCENE  VI. 


QUEEN  MARY. 


607 


The  devil  take  all  boots  were  ever  made 
Since  man  went  barefoot.     See,  I  lay  it 

here, 
For  I  will  come  no  nearer  to  your  Grace; 
\_Laying  down  the  letter. 
And,  whether  it  bring  you  bitter  news  or 

sweet, 
And  God  hath  given  your  Grace  a  nose, 

or  not, 
I'll  help  you,  if  I  may. 

Elizabeth.  Your  pardon,  then; 

It   is   the   heat   and   narrowness  of  the 

cage 
That  makes  the  captive  testy;  with  free 

wing 
The  world  were  all  one  Araby.     Leave 

me  now, 
Will  you,  companion  to  myself,  sir? 

Beding field.  Willi? 

With  most  exceeding  willingness,  I  will; 
You  know  I  never  come  till  I  be  call'd. 

{Exit. 

Elizabeth.    It  lies  there  folded :  is  there 

venom  in  it? 

A  snake  —  and  if  I  touch  it,  it  may  sting. 

Come,  come,  the  worst ! 

Best  wisdom  is  to  know  the  worst  at  once. 

[Reads  : 

'It  is  the  King's  wish,  that  you 
should  wed  Prince  Philibert  of  Savoy. 
You  are  to  come  to  Court  on  the  instant; 
and  think  of  this  in  your  coming. 

'Mary  the  Queen.' 

Think!  I  have  many  thoughts; 

I  think  there  may  be  birdlime  here  for 

me; 
I  think  they  fain  would  have  me  from  the 

realm; 
I  think  the  Queen   may  never   bear   a 

child; 
I   think   that   I  may   be   sometime   the 

Queen, 
Then,  Queen  indeed  :  no  foreign  prince 

or  priest 
Should  fill  my  throne,  myself  upon  the 

steps. 
I  think  I  will  not  marry  anyone, 
Specially  not  this  landless  Philibert 
Of  Savoy;   but,  if  Philip  menace  me, 
I  think  that  I  will  play  with  Philibert,  — 
As  once  the  Holy  Father  did  with  mine, 


Before    my    father     married    my    good 

mother,  — 
For  fear  of  Spain. 

Enter  Lady. 

Lady.        O  Lord!   your  Grace,  your 
Grace, 
I  feel  so  happy :  it  seems  that  we  shall  fly 
These  bald,  blank  fields,  and  dance  into 

the  sun 
That  shines  on  princes. 

Elizabeth.  Yet,  a  moment  since, 

I  wish'd   myself  the    milkmaid   singing 

here, 
To  kiss  and  cuff  among  the  birds  and 

flowers  — 
A  right  rough  life  and  healthful. 

Lady.  But  the  wench 

Hath  her  own  troubles;   she  is  weeping 

now; 
For  the  wrong  Robin  took  her  at  her  word. 
Then  the  cow  kick'd,  and  all  her  milk 

was  spilt. 
Your  Highness  such  a  milkmaid? 

Elizabeth.  I  had  kept 

My  Robins  and  my  cows  in  sweeter  order 
Had  I  been  such. 

Lady  {slyly).     And  had  your  Grace  a 

Robin? 
Elizabeth.     Come,  come,  you  are  chill 
here;   you  want  the  sun 
That  shines  at  court;   make  ready  for  the 

journey. 
Pray    God,    we    'scape    the    sunstroke. 
Ready  at  once.  [Exeunt. 


SCENE  VI.  — London.     A  Room  in 
the  Palace. 

Lord  Petre  and  Lord  William 
Howard. 

Petre.      You  cannot   see  the   Queen. 

Renard  denied  her, 
Ev'n  now  to  me. 

Hozvard.       Their  Flemish  go-between 
And   all-in-all.      I    came   to   thank   her 

Majesty  . 
For   freeing   my  friend   Bagenhall  from 

the  Tower; 
A  grace  to   me !     Mercy,  that   herb-of« 

grace, 
Flowers  now  but  seldom. 


6o8 


QUEEN  MARY. 


ACT  IIL 


Petre.  Only  now  perhaps. 

Because  the  Queen  hath  been  three  days 

in  tears 
For  Philip's  going  —  like  the  wild  hedge- 
rose 
Of  a  soft  winter,  possible,  not  probable, 
However  you  have  prov'n  it. 

Howard.  I  must  see  her. 

Enter  Renard. 

Renard.     My  Lords,  you  cannot  see 

her  Majesty. 
Howard.     Why  then  the  King !  for  I 

would  have  him  bring  it 
Home  to  the  leisure  wisdom  of  his  Queen, 
Before  he  go,  that   since  these   statutes 

past, 
Gardiner  out-Gardiners   Gardiner  in  his 

heat, 
Bonner  cannot  out-Bonner  his  own  self — 
Beast !  —  but  they  play  with  fire  as  chil- 
dren do, 
And  burn  the  house.     I  know  that  these 

are  breeding 
A  fierce  resolve  and  fixt  heart-hate  in  men 
Against  the  King,  the  Queen,  the  Holy 

Father, 
The  faith  itself.     Can  I  not  see  him? 

Renard.  Not  now. 

And  in  all  this,  my  Lord,  her  Majesty 
Is  flint  of  flint,  you  may  strike  fire  from 

her, 
Not  hope  to  melt  her.     I  will  give  your 

message. 

\_Exeunt  Petre  and  Howard. 

Enter  Philip  (musing). 

Philip.      She    will    not    have    Prince . 

Philibert  of  Savoy, 
I  talk'd  with  her  in  vain  —  says  she  will 

live 
And  die  true  maid  —  a  goodly  creature  too. 
Would  she  had  been  the  Queen !  yet  she 

must  have  him; 
She  troubles  England :  that  she  breathes 

in  England 
Is  life  and  lungs  to  every  rebel  birth 
That  passes  out  of  embrjto. 

Simon  Renard !  — 
This  Howard,  whom  they  fear,  what  was 

he  saying? 
Renard.     What   your   imperial  father 

said,  my  liege, 


To  deal  with  heresy  gentlier.     Gardiner 

burns, 
And  Bonner  burns;   and  it  would  seem 

this  people 
Care  more  for  our  brief  life  in  their  wet 

land, 
Than  yours  in  happier  Spain.     I  told  my 

Lord 
He  should  not  vex  her  Highness;    she 

would  say 
These   are   the  means  God  works  with, 

that  His  church 
May  flourish. 

Philip.  Ay,  sir,  but  in  statesmanship 
To  strike  too  soon  is  oft  to  miss  the  blow. 
Thou  knowest  I  bade  my  chaplain,  Castro, 

preach 
Against  these  burnings. 

Renard.  And  the  Emperor 

Approved  you,  and  when  last  he  wrote, 

declared 
His  comfort  in  your  Grace  that  you  were 

bland 
And  affable  to  men  of  all  estates, 
In  hope  to  charm  them  from  their  hate  of 

Spain. 
Philip.      In  hope  to  crush  all  heresy 

under  Spain. 
But,  Renard,  I  am  sicker  staying  here 
Than  any  sea  could   make  me  passing 

hence, 
Tho'  I  be  ever  deadly  sick  at  sea. 
So  sick  am  I  with  biding  for  this  child. 
Is  it  the  fashion  in  this  clime  for  women 
To  go  twelve  months  in  bearing  of  a 

child? 
The  nurses  yawn'd,  the   cradle   gaped, 

they  led 
Processions,  chanted  litanies,  clash'd  their 

bells, 
Shot  off   their  lying  cannon,   and   her 

priests 
Have   preach'd,   the   fools,   of  this  fair 

prince  to  come; 
Till,  by  St.  James,  I  find  myself  the  fool. 
Why  do  you   lift  your  eyebrow  at   me 

thus? 
Renard.     I  never  saw  your  Highness 

moved  till  now. 
Philip.     So  weary  am  I  of  this  wet 

land  of  theirs, 
And   every   soul  of  man  that   breathes 

therein. 


SCENE   VI. 


QUEEN  MARY. 


609 


Renard.     My  liege,  we  must  not  drop 
the  mask  before 
The  masquerade  is  over  — 

Philip.  —Have  I  dropt  it? 

I  have  but  shown  a  loathing  face  to  you, 
Who  knew  it  from  the  first. 

Enter  Mary. 

Mary  {aside).       With  Renard.     Still 
Parleying  with  Renard,  all  the  day  with 

Renard, 
And  scarce  a  greeting  all  the  day  for  me  — 
And  goes  to-morrow.  \_Exit  Mary. 

Philip    (to   Renard,   who   advances  to 

him).     Well,  sir,  is  there  more? 
Renard  (who  has  perceived  the  Queen). 
May  Simon  Renard  speak  a  single 
word? 
Philip.     Ay. 

Renard.     And  be  forgiven  for  it? 
Philip.  Simon  Renard 

Knows  me  too  well   to  speak  a  single 

word 
That  could  not  be  forgiven. 

Renard.  Well,  my  liege, 

Your  Grace  hath  a  most  chaste  and  loving 
wife. 
Philip.     Why  not?      The   Queen  of 

Philip  should  be  chaste. 
Renard.     Ay,  but,  my  Lord,  you  know 
what  Virgil  sings, 
Woman  is  various  and  most  mutable. 
Philip.     She  play  the  harlot !  never. 
Renard.  No,  sire,  no, 

Not  dream'd  of  by  the  rabidest  gospeller. 
There  was  a  paper  thrown  into  the  palace, 
'The  King  hath  wearied  of  his  barren 

bride.' 
She  came  upon  it,  read  it,  and  then  rent  it, 
With  all  the  rage  of  one  who  hates  a 

truth 
He    cannot   but   allow.     Sire,    I   would 

have  you  — 
What  should  I  say,   I  cannot  pick  my 

words  — 
Be    somewhat    less  —  majestic   to    your 
Queen. 
Philip.     Am  I  to  change  my  manners, 
Simon  Renard, 
Because  these  islanders  are  brutal  beasts? 
Or  would  you  have  me  turn  a  sonneteer, 
And  warble  those  brief-sighted  eyes  of 
hers? 
2R 


Renard.      Brief-sighted    tho'  they  be, 

I  have  seen  them,  sire, 
When  you  perchance  were  trifling  royally 
With  some  fair  dame  of  court,  suddenly 

fill 
With  such  fierce  fire  —  had  it  been  fire 

indeed 
It  would  have  burnt  both  speakers. 
Philip.  Ay,  and  then? 

Renard.     Sire,  might  it  not  be  policy 

in  some  matter 
Of  small  importance  now  and  then  to 

cede 
A  point  to  her  demand? 

Philip.  Well,  I  am  going. 

Renard.     For  should    her  love  when 

you  are  gone,  my  liege, 
Witness  these  papers,  there  will  not  be 

wanting 
Those  that  will  urge  her  injury  —  should 

her  love  — 
And  I  have  known   such  women  more 

than  one  — 
Veer  to  the  counterpoint,  and  jealousy 
Hath  in  it  an  alchemic  force  to  fuse 
Almost  into  one  metal  love  and  hate,  — 
And  she  impress  her  wrongs  upon  her 

Council, 
And  these  again  upon  her  Parliament  — 
We  are  not  loved  here,  and  would  be 

then  perhaps 
Not   so   well   holpen   in  our  wars  with 

France,     ' 
As  else  we  might  be  —  here  she  comes. 

Enter  Mary. 

Mary.  O  Philip ! 

Nay,  must  you  go  indeed? 

Philip.  Madam,  I  must. 

Mary.     The  parting  of  a  husband  and 
a  wife 
Is  like. the  cleaving  of  a  heart;   one  half 
Will  flutter  here,  one  there. 

Philip.  You  say  true,  Madam. 

Mary.     The  Holy  Virgin  will  not  have 
me  yet 
Lose  the  sweet  hope  that  I  may  bear  a 

prince. 
If  such  a  prince  were  born  and  you  not 
here  ! 
Philip.      I  should  be  here  if  such  a 

prince  were  born. 
Mary.     But  must  you  go? 


6io 


QUEEN  MARY. 


ACT   IV. 


Philip.     Madam,  you  know  my  father, 
Retiring  into  cloistral  solitude 
To  yield   the  remnant  of  his  years  to 

heaven, 
Will  shift  the  yoke  and  weight  of  all  the 

world 
From  off  his  neck  to  mine.     We  meet  at 

Brussels. 
But  since  mine  absence  will  not  be  for 

long, 
Your  Majesty  shall  go  to  Dover  with  me, 
And  wait  my  coming  back. 

Mary.  To  Dover?  no, 

I  am  too  feeble.    I  will  go  to  Greenwich, 
So  you  will  have  me  with  you;   and  there 

watch 
All  that   is  gracious  in   the   breath   of 

heaven 
Draw  with  your  sails  from  our  poor  land, 

and  pass 
And  leave  me,  Philip,  with  my  prayers 
for  you. 
Philip.      And  doubtless  I  shall  profit 

by  your  prayers. 
Mary.    Methinks  that  would  you  tarry 
one  day  more 
(The  news  was  sudden)  I  could  mould 

myself 
To  bear  your  going  better;  will  you  do 
it? 
Philip.     Madam,  a  day  may  sink   or 

save  a  realm. 
Mary.     A  day  may  save  a  heart  from 

breaking  too. 
Philip.     Well,  Simon  Renard,  shall  we 

stop  a  day? 
Renard.     Your  Grace's  business  will 
not  suffer,  sire, 
For  one  day  more,  so  far  as  I  can  tell. 
Philip.     Then  one  day  more  to  please 

her  Majesty. 
Mary.     The  sunshine   sweeps   across 
my  life  again. 

0  if  I  knew  you  felt  this  parting,  Philip, 
As  I  do ! 

Philip.     By  St.  James  I  do  protest, 
Upon  the  faith  and  honour  of  a  Span- 
iard, 

1  am  vastly  grieved  to  leave  your  Majesty. 
Simon,  is  supper  ready? 

Renard.  Ay,  my  liege, 

I  saw  the  covers  laying. 

Philip,         Let  us  have  it.     [Exeunt. 


ACT   IV. 

SCENE  I.  —  A  Room  in  the  Palace 

Mary,  Cardinal  Pole. 

Mary.     What  have  you  there? 
Pole.  So  please  your  Majesty, 

A  long  petition  from  the  foreign  exiles 
To  spare  the  life  of  Cranmer.     Bishop 

Thirlby, 
And  my  Lord  Paget  and  Lord  William 

Howard, 
Crave,  in  the  same  cause,  hearing  of  your 

Grace. 
Hath   he   not  written   himself — infatu- 
ated— 
To  sue  you  for  his  life  ? 

Mary.  His  life?     Oh,  no; 

Not  sued  for  that — he  knows  it  were  in 

vain. 
But  so  much  of  the  anti-papal  leaven 
Works  in  him  yet,  he  hath  pray'd  me  not 

to  sully 
Mine  own  prerogative,  and  degrade  the 

realm 
By  seeking  justice  at  a  stranger's  hand 
Against  my  natural  subject.     King  and 

Queen, 
To  whom  he  owes  his  loyalty  after  God, 
Shall    these    accuse    him   to    a    foreign 

prince? 
Death  would  not  grieve  him  more.     I 

cannot  be 
True  to  this  realm  of  England  and  the 

Pope 
Together,  says  the  heretic. 

Pole.  And  there  errs; 

As  he  hath  ever  err'd  thro'  vanity. 
A  secular  kingdom  is  but  as  the  body 
Lacking  a  soul;   and  in  itself  a  beast. 
The  Holy  Father  in  a  secular  kingdom 
Is  as  the  soul  descending  out  of  heaven 
Into  a  body  generate. 

Mary.  Write  to  him,  then. 

Pole.     I  will. 

Mary.  And  sharply,  Pole. 

Pole.  Here  come  the  Cranmerites ! 

Enter  Thirlby,  Lord  Paget,  Lord 
William  Howard. 

Hoivard.         Health    to    your   Grace! 
Good  morrow,  my  Lord  Cardinal; 


SCENE   I. 


QUEEN  MARY. 


611 


We  make  our  humble  prayer  unto  your 

Grace 
That  Cranmer  may  withdraw  to  foreign 

parts, 
Or  into  private  life  within  the  realm. 
In  several  bills  and  declarations,  Madam, 
He  hath  recanted  all  his  heresies. 

Paget.     Ay,  ay;    if  Bonner  have  not 

forged  the  bills.  [Aside. 

Mary.     Did  not  More  die,  and  Fisher? 

he  must  burn. 
Howard.     He  hath  recanted,  Madam. 
Mary.  The  better  for  him. 

He  burns  in  Purgatory,  not  in  Hell. 
Howard.     Ay,  ay,  your  Grace;   but  it 

was  never  seen 
That  anyone  recanting  thus  at  full, 
As  Cranmer  hath,  came   to   the  fire  on 

earth. 

Mary.     It  will  be  seen  now,  then. 

Thirlby.  O  Madam,  Madam  ! 

I  thus  implore  you,  low  upon  my  knees, 

To  reach  the  hand  of  mercy  to  my  friend. 

I  have  err'd  with  him;   with  him  I  have 

recanted. 
What   human  reason  is  there  why  my 

friend 
Should  meet  with  lesser  mercy  than  my- 
self? 
Mary.     My  Lord  of  Ely,  this.     After 

a  riot 
We  hang  the  leaders,  let  their  following 

go- 
Cranmer  is  head  and  father  of  these  here- 
sies, 
New  learning  as  they  call  it;   yea,  may 

God 
Forget  me  at  most  need  when  I  forget 
Her  foul  divorce  —  my  sainted  mother  — 

No!  — 
Howard.     Ay,  ay,  but  mighty  doctors 

doubted  there. 
The  Pope  himself  waver'd;    and   more 

than  one 
Row'd  in  that  galley  —  Gardiner  to  wit, 
Whom  truly  I  deny  not  to  have  been 
Your  faithful  friend  and  trusty  councillor. 
Hath  not   your  Highness  ever  read  his 

book, 
His  tractate  upon  True  Obedience, 
Writ  by  himself  and  Bonner? 

Mary.  I  will  take 

Such  order  with  all  bad,  heretical  books 


That  none  shall  hold  them  in  his  house 
and  live, 

Henceforward.     No,  my  Lord. 

Howard.  Then  never  read  it.. 

The  truth  is  here.    Your  father  was  a  man 

Of  such  colossal  kinghood,  yet  so  cour- 
teous, 

Except   when   wroth,  you  scarce   could 
meet  his  eye 

And  hold  your  own;   and  were  he  wroth 
indeed, 

You  held  it  less,  or  not  at  all.     I  say, 

Your  father  had  a  will  that  beat  men  down; 

Your  father  had  a  brain  that  beat  men 
down  — 
Pole.     Not  me,  my  Lord. 
Howard.     No,  for  you  were  not  here; 

You  sit  upon  this  fallen  Cranmer's  throne; 

And  it  would  more  become  you,  my  Lord 
Legate, 

To  join  a  voice,  so  potent  with  her  High- 
ness, 

To  ours  in  plea  for  Cranmer  than  to  stand 

On  naked  self-assertion. 

Mary.  All  your  voices 

Are  waves  on  flint.     The   heretic  must 
burn. 
Howard.      Yet   once   he   saved   your 
Majesty's  own  life; 

Stood  out  against  the  King  in  your  be- 
half, 

At  his  own  peril. 

Mary.  I  know  not  if  he  did; 

And   if   he    did   I    care   not,   my   Lord 
Howard. 

My  life  is  not  so  happy,  no  such  boon, 

That  I  should  spare   to    take  a  heretic 
priest's, 

Who  saved  it  or  not  saved.    Why  do  you 
vex  me  ? 
Paget.     Yet  to  save  Cranmer  were  to 
serve  the  Church, 

Your  Majesty's  I  mean;   he  is  effaced, 

Self-blotted    out;     so    wounded    in    his 
honour, 

He  can  but  creep  down  into  some  dark 
hole 

Like  a  hurt  beast,  and  hide  himself  and 
die; 

But  if  you  burn  him,  —  well,  your  High- 
ness knows 

The  saying,  •  Martyr's  blood  —  seed  of  the 
Church.' 


6l2 


QUEEN  MARY. 


Mary.     Of  the  true  Church;    but  his 
is  none,  nor  will  be. 
You   are   too   politic   for   me,  my  Lord 

Paget. 
And  if  he  have  to  live  so  loath'd  a  life, 
It  were  more  merciful  to  burn  him  now. 
Thirlby.     Oh,  yet  relent.     O  Madam, 
if  you  knew  him 
As  I  do,  ever  gentle,  and  so  gracious, 
With  all  his  learning  — 

Mary.  Yet  a  heretic  still. 

His  learning  makes  his  burning  the  more 
just. 
Thirlby.    So  worshipt  of  all  those  that 
came  across  him; 
The  stranger  at  his  hearth,  and  all  his 
house  — 
Mary.     His  children  and   his  concu- 
bine, belike. 
Thirlby.     To  do  him  any  wrong  was 
to  beget 
A  kindness  from  him,  for  his  heart  was 

rich, 
Of  such   fine  mould,  that  if  you  sow'd 

therein 
The  seed  of  Hate,  it  blossom'd  Charity. 
Pole.     'After   his   kind   it   costs   him 
nothing,'  there's 
An    old   world    English    adage   to    the 

point. 
These  are  but  natural  graces,  my  good 

Bishop, 
Which   in   the   Catholic   garden  are  as 

flowers, 
But  on  the  heretic  dunghill  only  weeds. 
Howard.     Such  weeds  make  dunghills 

gracious. 
Mary.  Enough,  my  Lords. 

It  is  God's  will,  the  Holy  Father's  will, 
And    Philip's   will,    and   mine,    that    he 

should  burn. 
He  is  pronounced  anathema. 

Howard.  Farewell,  Madam, 

God   grant   you   ampler   mercy  at   your 

call 
Than  you  have  shown  to  Cranmer. 

[Exeunt  Lords. 
Pole.  After  this, 

Your  Grace  will  hardly  care  to  overlook 
This  same  petition  of  the  foreign  exiles 
For  Cranmer's  life. 

Mary.         Make  out  the  writ  to-night. 
[Exeunt. 


SCENE    II. 


Oxford.     Cranmer  in 
Prison. 


Cranmer.     Last  night,  I  dream'd  the 

faggots  were  alight, 
And  that  myself  was  fasten'd  to  the  stake, 
And  found  it  all  a  visionary  flame, 
Cool  as  the  light  in  old  decaying  wood ; 
And  then  King  Harry  look'd  out  from 

a  cloud, 
And  bade  me  have  good  courage;   and 

I  heard 
An    angel   cry,    'There   is   more  joy  in 

Heaven,'  — 
And  after  that,  the  trumpet  of  the  dead. 
[  Trumpets  without. 
Why,  there  are  trumpets  blowing  now: 

what  is  it? 

Enter  Father  Cole. 

Cole.     Cranmer,  I    come   to   question 
you  again; 
Have  you  remain'd  in  the  true  Catholic 

faith 
I  left  you  in? 

Cranmer.     In  the  true  Catholic  faith, 
By  Heaven's  grace,  I  am  more  and  more 

confirm'd. 
Why  are  the  trumpets  blowing,  Father 
Cole? 
Cole.     Cranmer,  it  is  decided   by  the 
Council 
That  you  to-day  should  read  your  recan- 
tation 
Before  the  people  in  St.  Mary's  Church. 
And  there  be  many  heretics  in  the  town, 
Who  loathe  you  for  your  late  return  to 

Rome, 
And   might  assail   you   passing  through 

the  street, 
And   tear  you  piecemeal:  so  you  have 
a  guard. 
Cranmer.     Or  seek  to  rescue  me.     I 

thank  the  Council. 
Cole.     Do  you  lack  any  money? 
Cranmer.  Nay,  why  should  I? 

The  prison  fare  is  good  enough  for  me. 
Cole.     Ay,  but  to  give  the  poor. 
Cranmer.  Hand  it  me,  then ! 

I  thank  you. 

Cole.  For  a  little  space,  farewell; 

Until  I  see  you  in  St.  Mary's  Church. 

[Exit  Cola 


SCENE   II. 


QUEEN  MARY. 


613 


Cranmer.     It  is  against  all  precedent 

to  burn 
One  who  recants;   they  mean  to  pardon 

me. 
To  give  the  poor  —  they  give  the  poor 

who  die. 
Well,  burn  me  or   not   burn  me    I    am 

fixt; 
It  is  but  a  communion,  not  a  mass : 
A  holy  supper,  not  a  sacrifice ; 
No  man   can   make   his    Maker  —  Villa 

Garcia. 

Enter  Villa  Garcia. 

Villa  Garcia.     Pray  you  write  out  this 

paper  for  me,  Cranmer. 
Cranmer.     Have  I    not  writ  enough 

to  satisfy  you? 
Villa  Garcia.     It  is  the  last. 
Cranmer.     Give  it  me,  then. 

\_He  writes. 
Villa  Garcia.  Now  sign. 

Cranmer.     I  have  sign'd  enough,  and 

I  will  sign  no  more. 
Villa    Garcia.     It   is   no    more   than 
what  you  have  sign'd  already, 
The  public  form  thereof. 

Cranmer.  It  may  be  so; 

I  sign  it  with  my  presence,  if  I  read  it. 
Villa  Garcia.     But  this  is  idle  of  you. 
Well,  sir,  well, 
You  are  to  beg  the  people  to  pray  for 

you; 
Exhort    them    to   a   pure    and    virtuous 

life; 
Declare  the  Queen's  right  to  the  throne; 

confess 
Your  faith  before  all  hearers;  and  retract 
That  Eucharistic  doctrine  in  your  book. 
Will  you  not  sign  it  now? 

Cranmer.  No,  Villa  Garcia, 

I  sign  no  more.     Will  they  have  mercy 

on  me? 

Villa  Garcia.     Have  you  good  hopes 

of  mercy !     So,  farewell.     [Exit. 

Cranmer.      Good   hopes,    not   theirs, 

have  I  that  I  am  fixt, 

Fixt   beyond   fall;    however,  in   strange 

hours, 
After  the  long  brain-dazing  colloquies, 
And  thousand-times  recurring  argument 
Of  those  two  friars  ever  in  my  prison, 
When  left  alone  in  my  despondency, 


Without  a  friend,  a  book,  my  faith  would 

seem 
Dead    or    half-drown'd,    or    else    swam 

heavily 
Against    the    huge    corruptions   of    the 

Church, 
Monsters  of  mistradition,  old  enough 
To  scare  me  into  dreaming,  '  what  am  I, 
Cranmer,  against  whole  ages?  '  was  it  so, 
Or  am  I  slandering  my  most  inward  friend, 
To  veil  the   fault  of  my  most  outward 

foe  — 
The  soft  and   tremulous  coward   in  the 

flesh? 

0  higher,  holier,  earlier,  purer  church, 

1  have  found   thee  and  not  leave  thee 

any  more. 
It  is  but  a  communion,  not  a  mass  — 
No  sacrifice,  but  a  life-giving  feast ! 
(  Writes.)     So,  so;   this  will  I  say  —  thus 

will  I  pray.       [Puts  up  the  paper. 

Enter  Bonner. 

Bonner.     Good-day,  old  friend;  what, 

you  look  somewhat  worn; 
And  yet  it  is  a  day  to  test  your  health 
Ev'n  at  the  best :  I  scarce  have  spoken 

with  you 
Since   when?  —  your    degradation.      At 

your  trial 
Never  stood  up  a  bolder  man  than  you; 
You  would  not  cap  the  Pope's  commis- 
sioner — 
Your  learning,  and  your  stoutness,  and 

your  heresy, 
Dumbfounded  half  of  us.     So,  after  that, 
We  had  to  dis-archbishop  and  unlord, 
And    make   you   simple   Cranmer  once 

again. 
The  common  barber  dipt  your  hair,  and  I 
Scraped  from  your  finger-points  the  holy 

oil; 
And  worse  than  all,  you  had  to  kneel  to 

me  ; 
Which  was  not  pleasant  for  you,  Master 

Cranmer. 
Now  you,  that  would  not  recognise  the 

Pope, 
And  you,  that  would  not  own  the  Real 

Presence, 
Have  found  a  real  presence  in  the  stake, 
Which  frights  you  back  into  the  ancient 

faith; 


614 


QUEEN  MARY. 


ACT  IV 


And  so  you  have  recanted  to  the  Pope. 
How    are    the    mighty    fallen,    Master 

Cranmer ! 
Cranmer.     You  have  been  more  fierce 

against  the  Pope  than  I; 
But  why  fling  back  the  stone  he  strikes 

me  with  ?  {Aside. ' 

0  Bonner,  if  I  ever  did  you  kindness  — 
Power  hath  been  given  you  to  try  faith 

by  fire  — 
Pray  you,  remembering  how  yourself  have 

changed, 
Be  somewhat  pitiful,  after  I  have  gone, 
To  the  poor  flock  —  to  women  and   to 

children  — 
That  when  I  was  archbishop  held  with 

me. 
Bonner.     Ay  —  gentle  as  they  call  you 

—  live  or  die  ! 
Pitiful  to  this  pitiful  heresy? 

1  must  obey  the  Queen  and  Council,  man. 
Win  thro'  this  day  with  honour  to  your- 
self, 

And  I'll  say  something  for  you  —  so  — 
good-bye.  {Exit. 

Cranmer.  This  hard  coarse  man  of 
old  hath  crouch'd  to  me 

Till  I  myself  was  half  ashamed  for  him. 

Enter  Thirlby. 

Weep  not,  good  Thirlby. 

Thirlby.  O  my  Lord,  my  Lord ! 

My  heart  is  no  such  block  as  Bonner's  is : 
Who  would  not  weep? 

Cranmer.     Why  do  you  so  my-lord  me, 
Who  am  disgraced? 

Thirlby.      On    earth;     but    saved    in 
heaven 
By  your  recanting. 

Cranmer.  Will  they  burn  me, 

Thirlby? 
Thirlby.     Alas,  they  will;   these  burn- 
ings will  not  help 
The  purpose  of  the  faith;   but  my  poor 

voice 
Against  them  is  a  whisper  to  the  roar 
Of  a  spring-tide. 

Cranmer.  And  they  will  surely 

burn  me? 
Thirlby.    Ay;  and  besides,  will  have 
you  in  the  church 
Repeat  your  recantation  in  the  ears 


Of  all  men,  to  the  saving  of  their  souls, 
Before  your  execution.     May  God  help 

you 
Thro'  that  hard  hour  ! 

Cranmer.         And  may  God  bless  you, 

Thirlby ! 
Well,    they   shall    hear    my   recantation 

there. 

[Exit  Thirlby. 
Disgraced,  dishonour'd! — not  by  them, 

indeed, 
By  mine  own  self — by  mine  own  hand ! 

0  thin-skinn'd  hand   and  jutting  veins, 

'twas  you 
That  sign'd  the  burning  of  poor  Joan  of 

Kent; 
But  then  she  was  a  witch.     You   have 

written  much, 
But  you  were  never  raised  to  plead  for 

Frith, 
Whose  dogmas  I  have  reach'd:  he  was 

deliver'd 
To  the  secular  arm  to  burn;   and  there 

was  Lambert; 
Who   can   foresee   himself?  truly  these 

burnings, 
As   Thirlby   says,    are   profitless   to   the 

burners, 
And  help  the  other  side.     You  shall  burn 

too, 
Burn  first  when  I  am  burnt. 
Fire  —  inch  by  inch   to   die   in   agony! 

Latimer 
Had  a  brief  end  —  not  Ridley.     Hooper 

burn'd 
Three-quarters   of   an   hour.      Will   my 

faggots 
Be  wet  as  his  were?     It  is  a  day  of  rain. 

1  will  not  muse  upon  it. 

My  fancy  takes   the   burner's  part,  and 

makes 
The  fire  seem  even  crueller  than  it  is. 
No,  I  doubt  not  that  God  will  give  me 

strength, 
Albeit  I  have  denied  him. 

Enter  Soto  and  Villa  Garcia. 

Villa  Garcia.  We  are  ready 

To    take    you    to    St.    Mary's,    Master 

Cranmer. 

Cranmer.    And  I:  lead  on;  ye  loose 

me  from  my  bonds.  [Exeunt. 


SCENE  III. 


QUEEN  MARY. 


615 


SCENE  III.  — St.  Mary's  Church. 

Cole  in  the  Pulpit,  Lord  Williams  of 
Thame  presiding.  Lord  William 
Howard,  Lord  Paget,  and  others. 
Cranmer  enters  between  Soto  and 
Villa  Garcia,  and  the  whole  Choir 
strike  up  '  Nunc  Dimittis.'  Cranmer 
is  set  upon  a  scaffold  before  the  people. 

Cole.     Behold  him  — 

\_A  pause:  people  in  the  foreground. 
People.     Oh,  unhappy  sight ! 
First  Protestant.      See  how  the  tears 

run  down  his  fatherly  face. 
Second  Protestant.     James,  didst  thou 
ever  see  a  carrion  crow 
Stand  watching  a  sick  beast   before  he 
dies? 
First  Protestant.      Him    perch'd    up 
there?     I  wish  some  thunderbolt 
Would  make  this  Cole  a  cinder,  pulpit 
and  all. 
Cole.     Behold  him,  brethren  :  he  hath 
cause  to  weep  !  — 
So  have  we  all :  weep  with  him  if  ye  will, 
Yet  — 

It  is  expedient  for  one  man  to  die, 
Yea,  for  the  people,  lest  the  people  die. 
Yet  wherefore  should  he  die  that  hath 

return'd 
To  the  one  Catholic  Universal  Church, 
Repentant  of  his  errors? 

Protestant  murmurs.     Ay,  tell  us  that. 
Cole.     Those  of  the  wrong  side  will 
despise  the  man, 
Deeming  him  one  that  thro'  the  fear  of 

death 
Gave  up  his  cause,  except  he  seal  his  faith 
In  sight  of  all  with  flaming  martyrdom. 
Cranmer.     Ay. 

Cole.     Ye  hear  him,  and  albeit  there 
may  seem 
According  to  the  canons  pardon  due 
To  him   that   so   repents,  yet  are  there 

causes 
Wherefore  our  Queen  and  Council  at  this 

time 
Adjudge  him  to  the  death.     He  hath  been 

a  traitor, 
A  shaker  and  confounder  of  the  realm; 
And  when  the  King's  divorce  was  sued 
at  Rome, 


He  here,  this  heretic  metropolitan, 
As  if  he  had  been  the  Holy  Father,  sat 
And  judged  it.     Did  I  call  him  heretic? 
A  huge  heresiarch  !  never  was  it  known 
That  any  man  so  writing,  preaching  so, 
So  poisoning  the  Church,  so  long  con- 
tinuing, 
Hath  found  his  pardon;  therefore  he  must 

die, 
For  warning  and  example. 

Other  reasons 
There  be  for  this  man's  ending,  which 

our  .Queen 
And  Council  at  this  present  deem  it  not 
Expedient  to  be  known. 

Protestant  murmurs.      I  warrant  you. 
Cole.     Take  therefore,  all,  example  by 

this  man, 
For  if  our  Holy  Queen  not  pardon  him, 
Much   less   shall .  others   in    like    cause 

escape, 
That   all    of   you,   the    highest    as    the 

lowest, 
May  learn  there  is  no  power  against  the 

Lord. 
There   stands  a  man,  once   of  so   high 

degree, 
Chief  prelate  of  our  Church,  archbishop, 

first 
In  Council,  second  person  in  the  realm, 
Friend  for  so  long  time  of  a  mighty  King : 
And  now  ye  see  downfallen  and  debased 
From  councillor  to  caitiff —  fallen  so  low, 
The  leprous  flutterings  of  the  byway,  scum 
And  offal  of  the  city,  would  not  change 
Estates  with  him;   in  brief,  so  miserable, 
There  is  no  hope  of  better  left  for  him, 
No  place  for  worse. 

Yet,  Cranmer,  be  thou  glad. 
This  is  the  work  of  God.  He  is  glorified 
In  thy  conversion:  lo  !  thou  art  reclaim'd; 
He  brings  thee  home :  nor  fear  but  that 

to-day 
Thou  shalt  receive  the  penitent  thief's 

award, 
And  be  with  Christ  the  Lord  in  Paradise. 
Remember  how  God  made  the  fierce  fire 

seem 
To  those  three  children  like  a  pleasant 

dew. 
Remember,  too,  • 

The  triumph  of  St.  Andrew  on  his  cross, 
The  patience  of  St.  Lawrence  in  the  fire. 


6i6 


QUEEN  MARY. 


ACT   IV. 


Thus,  if  thou  call  on  God  and  all  the 

saints, 
God  will  beat  down  the  fury  of  the  flame, 
Or  give  thee  saintly  strength  to  undergo. 
And  for  thy  soul  shall  masses  here  be  sung 
By  every  priest  in  Oxford.  Pray  for  him. 
Cranmer.      Ay,    one    and    all,    dear 

brothers,  pray  for  me; 
Pray  with  one  breath,  one  heart,  one  soul 

for  me. 
Cole.     And  now,  lest  anyone  among 

you  doubt 
The  man's   conversion   and   remorse  of 

heart, 
Yourselves  shall  hear  him  speak.     Speak, 

Master  Cranmer, 
Fulfil  your  promise  made  me,  and  pro- 
claim 
Your  true  undoubted  faith,  that  all  may 

hear. 
Cranmer.     And  that  I  will.     O  God, 

Father  of  Heaven ! 
O  Son  of  God,  Redeemer  of  the  world  ! 

0  Holy  Ghost!   proceeding  from  them 

both, 
Three  persons  and  one  God,  have  mercy 

on  me, 
Most  miserable  sinner,  wretched  man. 

1  have  offended  against  heaven  and  earth 
More  grievously  than  any  tongue  can  tell. 
Then  whither  should  I  flee  for  any  help? 
I  am  ashamed  to  lift  mine  eyes  to  heaven, 
And  I  can  find  no  refuge  upon  earth. 
Shall  I  despair  then?  — God  forbid!     O 

God, 
For  thou  art  merciful,  refusing  none 
That   come  to  Thee  for   succour,   unto 

Thee, 
Therefore,   I    come;    humble    myself  to 

Thee; 
Saying,  O  Lord  God,  although  my  sins 

be  great, 
For  thy   great   mercy  have   mercy!     O 

God  the  Son, 
Not  for  slight  faults  alone,  when  thou 

becamest 
Man  in  the  Flesh,  was  the  great  mystery 

wrought ; 
O  God  the  Father,  not  for  little  sins 
Didst  thou  yield  up  thy  Son  to  human 

death ; 
But  for  the  greatest  sin  that  can  be  sinn'd, 
Yea,  even  such  as  mine,  incalculable, 


Unpardonable, —  sin  against  the  light, 
The  truth  of  God,  which  I  had  proven 

and  known. 
Thy  mercy  must  be  greater  than  all  sin. 
Forgive  me,  Father,  for  no  merit  of  mine, 
But  that  Thy  name  by  man  be  glorified, 
And  Thy  most  blessed  Son's,  who  died 

for  man. 
Good   people,   every  man    at  time  of 

death 
Would  fain  set  forth  some  saying  that 

may  live 
After  his  death  and  better  humankind ; 
For  death  gives  life's  last  word  a  power 

to  live, 
And,  like  the  stone-cut  epitaph,  remain 
After  the  vanish'd  voice,  and  speak  to 

men. 
God  grant  me  grace  to  glorify  my  God ! 
And  first  I  say  it  is  a  grievous  case, 
Many  so  dote  upon  this  bubble  world, 
Whose  colours  in  a  moment  break  and 

fly, 

They  care  for  nothing  else.     What  saith 

St.  John :  — 
'  Love   of  this   world   is   hatred    against 

God.' 
Again,  I  pray  you  all  that,  next  to  God, 
You  do  unmurmuringly  and  willingly 
Obey  your  King  and  Queen,  and  not  for 

dread 
Of  these   alone,    but  from   the   fear  of 

Him 
Whose  ministers  they  be  to  govern  you. 
Thirdly,  I  pray  you  all  to  live  together 
Like  brethren;  yet  what  hatred  Christian 

men 
Bear    to    each    other,    seeming    not    as 

brethren, 
But  mortal  foes !     But  do  you  good  to  all 
As  much  as  in  you  lieth.     Hurt  no  man 

more 
Than  you  would  harm  your  loving  natural 

brother 
Of  the  same  roof,  same  breast.    If  any  do, 
Albeit  he  think   himself  at  home  with 

God, 
Of   this    be   sure,    he    is   whole    worlds 

away. 
Protestant  murmurs.      What   sort  of 

brothers  then  be  those  that  lust 
To  burn  each  other? 

Williams.      Peace  among  you,  there ! 


SCENE   III. 


QUEEN  MARY. 


617 


Cranmer.     Fourthly,  to  those  that  own 

exceeding  wealth, 
Remember  that  sore  saying  spoken  once 
By  Him  that  was  the  truth,  '  How  hard 

it  is 
For  the  rich  man  to  enter  into  Heaven;  ' 
Let  all  rich  men  remember  that  hard  word. 
I  have  not  time  for  more :  if  ever,  now 
Let  them  flow  forth  in  charity,  seeing  now 
The  poor  so  many,  and  all  food  so  dear. 
Long   have  I  lain   in  prison,  yet   have 

heard 
Of  all  their  wretchedness.     Give  to  the 

poor, 
Ye  give  to  God.     He  is  with  us  in  the 

poor. 
And  now,  and  forasmuch  as  I   have 

come 
To  the  last  end  of  life,  and  thereupon 
Hangs  all  my  past,  and  all  my  life  to  be, 
Either  to  live  with  Christ  in  heaven  with 

joy. 

Or  to  be  still  in  pain  with  devils  in  hell; 
And,  seeing  in  a  moment,  I  shall  find 

[Pointing  upwards. 
Heaven  or  else  hell  ready  to  swallow  me, 
[Pointing  doxvnwards. 
I  shall  declare  to  you  my  very  faith 
Without  all  colour. 

Cole.        Hear  him,  my  good  brethren. 
Cranmer.     I  do  believe  in  God,  Father 
of  all; 
In  every  article  of  the  Catholic  faith, 
And  every  syllable  taught  us  by  our  Lord, 
His  prophets,  and  apostles,  in  the  Testa- 
ments, 
Both  Old  and  New. 

Cole.  Be  plainer,  Master  Cranmer. 

Cranmer.     And  now  I   come  to  the 
great  cause  that  weighs 
Upon  my  conscience  more  than  anything 
Or  said  or  done  in  all  my  life  by  me; 
For  there  be  writings  I  have  set  abroad 
Against  the  truth  I  knew  within  my  heart, 
Written  for  fear  of  death,  to  save  my  life, 
If  that  might  be;   the  papers  by  my  hand 
Sign'd   since    my  degradation  —  by  this 
hand 

[Holding  out  his  right  hand. 
Written   and   sign'd  —  I  here  renounce 

them  all; 
And,  since   my   hand   offended,   having 
written 


Against  my  heart,  my  hand  shall  first  be 

burnt, 
So  I  may  come  to  the  fire. 

[  Dead  silence. 
Protestant  murmurs. 
First  Protestant.     I  knew  it  would  be 

so. 
Second  Protestant.      Our   prayers  are 

heard ! 
Third  Protestant.     God  bless  him  ! 
Catholic  murmurs.      Out   upon    him  ! 
out  upon  him ! 
Liar !  dissembler !  traitor  !  to  the  fire  ! 
Williams    {raising  his  voice).      You 
know  that  you  recanted  all  you 
said 
Touching   the   sacrament   in  that   same 

book 
You  wrote  against  my  Lord  of  Winches- 
ter; 
Dissemble  not;   play  the  plain  Christian 
man. 
Cranmer.     Alas,  my  Lord, 
I  have  been  a  man  loved  plainness  all  my 

life; 
I  did  dissemble,  but  the  hour  has  come 
For  utter  truth  and  plainness;  wherefore, 

I  say, 
I  hold  by  all  I  wrote  within  that  book. 
Moreover, 

As  for  the  Pope  I  count  him  Antichrist, 

With  all  his  devil's  doctrines;   and  refuse, 

Reject  him,  and  abhor  him.     I  have  said. 

[  Cries  on  all  sides,  '  Pull  him  down  ! 

Away  with  him ! ' 

Cole.     Ay,  stop  the  heretic's  mouth ! 

Hale  him  away ! 
Williams.     Harm  him  not,  harm  him 
not !  have  him  to  the  fire  ! 
[Cranmer  goes  out  between    Two 
Friars,  smiling;  hands  are  reached 
to  him  from   the   crowd.     Lord 
William    Howard    and   Lord 
Paget  are  left  alone  in  the  church. 
Paget.     The  nave  and  aisles  all  empty 
as  a  fool's  jest ! 
No,  here's  Lord  William  Howard.    What, 

my  Lord, 
You  have  not  gone  to  see  the  burning? 

Howard.  Fie ! 

To  stand  at  ease,  and  stare  as  at  a  show, 
And  watch  a  good  man   burn !     Never 
again. 


6i8 


QUEEN  MARY. 


ACT  IV 


I  saw  the  deaths  of  Latimer  and  Ridley. 
Moreover,  tho'  a  Catholic,  I  would  not, 
For   the  pure    honour   of  our   common 

nature, 
Hear   what  I  might  —  another  recanta- 
tion 
Of  Cranmer  at  the  stake. 

Paget.  You'd  not  hear  that. 

He  pass'd   out    smiling,  and    he  walk'd 

upright; 
His  eye  was  like  a  soldier's,  whom  the 

general 
He  looks  to  and  he  leans  on  as  his  God, 
Hath  rated  for  some  backwardness  and 

bidd'n  him 
Charge  one  against  a  thousand,  and  the 

man 
Hurls  ,his  soil'd  life   against  the  pikes 

and  dies. 
Howard.     Yet  that  he  might  not  after 

all  those  papers 
Of  recantation  yield  again,  who  knows? 
Paget.     Papers  of  recantation !    Think 
'  you  then 
That  Cranmer  read  all   papers  that   he 

sign'd  ? 
Or  sign'd  all  those  they  tell  us  that  he 

sign'd? 
Nay,  I  trow  not :  and  you  shall  see,  my 

Lord, 
That  howsoever  hero-like  the  man 
Dies  in  the  fire,  this  Bonner  or  another 
Will  in  some  lying  fashion  misreport 
His  ending  to  the  glory  of  their  church. 
And  you  saw  Latimer  and  Ridley  die  ? 
Latimer  was  eighty,  was  he  not?  his  best 
Of  life  was  over  then. 

Howard.  His  eighty  years 

Look'd  somewhat  crooked  on  him  in  his 

frieze ; 
But    after   they   had   stript  him   to   his 

shroud, 
He  stood  upright,  a  lad  of  twenty-one, 
And  gather'd  with  his  hands  the  starting 

flame, 
And  wash'd  his  hands  and  all  his  face 

therein, 
Until   the   powder   suddenly   blew    him 

dead. 
Ridley  was  longer  burning;   but  he  died 
As  manfully  and  boldly,  and,  'fore  God, 
I  know  them  heretics,  but  right  English 


If  ever,  as  heaven  grant,  we  clash  with 

Spain, 
Our    Ridley-soldiers    and   our    Latimer- 

sailors 
Will  teach  her  something. 

Paget.  Your  mild  Legate  Pole 

Will  tell  you  that  the  devil  helpt  them 

thro'  it. 
[A  murmur  of  the  crowd  in  the  dis- 
tance. 
Hark,  how  those  Roman  wolfdogs  howl 

and  bay  him ! 
Howard.      Might  it  not  be  the  other 

side  rejoicing 
In  his  brave  end? 

Paget.  They  are  too  crush'd, 

too  broken, 
They  can  but  weep  in  silence. 

Howard.  Ay,  ay,  Paget, 

They  have  brought  it  in  large  measure 

on  themselves. 
Have  I  not  heard  them  mock  the  blessed 

Host 
In  songs  so  lewd,  the  beast  might  roar 

his  claim 
To   being  in   God's   image,   more    than 

they? 
Have  I  not   seen  the  gamekeeper,  the 

groom, 
Gardener,  and  huntsman,  in  the  parson's 

place, 
The  parson  from  his  own   spire   swung 

out  dead, 
And  Ignorance  crying  in  the  streets,  and 

all  men 
Regarding  her?     I  say  they  have  drawn 

the  fire 
On  their  own  heads:    yet,   Paget,  I  do 

hold 
The    Catholic,   if  he  have   the  greater 

right, 
Hath  been  the  crueller. 

Paget.  Action  and  re-action, 

The  miserable  see-saw  of  our  child-world, 
Make   us    despise  it  at  odd   hours,  my 

Lord. 
Heaven  help  that  this  re-action  not  re- 
act 
Yet  fiercelier  under  Queen  Elizabeth, 
So  that  she  come  to  rule  us. 

Hoxvard.  The  world's  mad. 

Paget.     My  Lord,  the  world  is  like  a 

drunken  man, 


SCENE   III. 


QUEEN  MARY. 


619 


Who  cannot  move  straight  to  his  end  — 

but  reels 
Now  to  the  right,  then  as  far  to  the  left, 
Push'd  by  the  crowd  beside  —  and  under- 
foot 
An  earthquake;   for  since  Henry  for   a 

doubt  — 
Which  a  young  lust  had  clapt  upon  the 

back, 
Crying,  '  Forward ! '  —  set  our  old  church 

rocking,  men 
Have  hardly  known  what  to  believe,  or 

whether 
They   should  believe   in  anything;     the 

currents 
So  shift  and  change,  they  see  not  how 

they  are  borne, 
Nor   whither.     I  conclude   the   King  a 

beast; 
Verily  a  lion  if  you  will  —  the  world 
A  most  obedient  beast  and  fool  —  myself 
Half  beast  and  fool  as  appertaining  to  it; 
Altho'   your    Lordship  hath  as  little  of 

each 
Cleaving  to  your  original  Adam-clay, 
As  may  be  consonant  with  mortality. 
Howard.       We     talk     and    Cranmer 

suffers. 
The  kindliest  man  I  ever  knew;  see,  see, 
I  speak  of  him  in  the  past.     Unhappy 

land  ! 
Hard-natured     Queen,    half-Spanish    in 

herself, 
And  grafted  on  the  hard-grain'd  stock  of 

Spain  — 
Her  life,  since  Philip  left  her,  and  she 

lost 
Her  fierce  desire  of  bearing  him  a  child, 
Hath,  like  a  brief  and  bitter  winter's  day, 
Gone  narrowing  down  and  darkening  to 

a  close. 
There  will  be  more  conspiracies,  I  fear. 
Paget.     Ay,  ay,  beware  of  France. 
Howard.  O  Paget,  Paget, 

I  have  seen  heretics  of  the  poorer  sort, 
Expectant  of  the  rack  from  day  to  day, 
To  whom  the  fire  were  welcome,  lying 

chain'd 
In  breathless   dungeons   over   steaming 

sewers, 
Fed  with  rank  bread  that  crawl'd  upon 

the  tongue, 
And  putrid  water,  every  drop  a  worm, 


Until   they   died    of  rotted   limbs;    and 
then 

Cast  on  the  dunghill  naked,  and  become 

Hideously  alive  again  from  head  to  heel, 

Made  even  the   carrion-nosing  mongrel 
vomit 

With  hate  and  horror. 

Paget.  Nay,  you  sicken  me 

To  hear  you. 

Howard.       Fancy-sick;     these    things 
are  done, 

Done  right  against   the  promise  of  this 
Queen 

Twice  given. 

Paget.  No  faith  with  heretics,  mv 

Lord! 

Hist !  there  be  two  old  gossips  —  gospel- 
lers, 

I  take  it;   stand  behind  the  pillar  here; 

I  warrant  you  they  talk  about  the  burn- 
ing. 

Enter  Two   Old  Women.      Joan,  and 
after  her  Tib. 

Joan.  Why,  it  be  Tib  ! 
Tib.  I  cum  behind  tha,  gall,  and 
couldn't  make  tha  hear.  Eh,  the  wind 
and  the  wet !  What  a  day,  what  a  day  ! 
nigh  upo'  judgment  daay  loike.  Pwoaps 
be  pretty  things,  Joan,  but  they  wunt  set 
i'  the  Lord's  cheer  o'  that  daay. 

Joan.  I  must  set  down  myself,  Tib;  it 
be  a  var  waay  vor  my  owld  legs  up  vro' 
Islip.  Eh,  my  rheumatizy  be  that  bad 
howiver  be  I  to  win  to  the  burnin'. 

Tib.     I   should   saay   'twur   ower   by 
now.      I'd    ha'    been   here    avore,    but 
Dumble  wur  blow'd  wi'  the  wind,  and 
Dumble's  the  best  milcher  in  Islip. 
Joan.     Our  Daisy's  as  good  'z  her. 
Tib.     Noa,  Joan. 

Joan.  Our  Daisy's  butter's  as  good  'z 
hern. 

Tib.     Noa,  Joan. 

Joan.     Our  Daisy's  cheeses  be  better. 
Tib.     Noa,  Joan. 

Joan.  Eh,  then  ha'  thy  waay  wi'  me, 
Tib;   ez  thou  hast  wi'  thy  owld  man. 

Tib.  Ay,  Joan,  and  my  owld  man 
wur  up  and  awaay  betimes  wi'  dree  hard 
eggs  for  a  good  pleace  at  the  burnin'; 
and  barrin'  the  wet,  Hodge  'ud  ha'  been 
a-harrowin'  o'  white  peasen  i'  the  outfield 


620 


QUEEN  MARY. 


—  and  barrin'  the  wind,  Dumble  wur 
blow'd  wi'  the  wind,  so  'z  we  was  forced 
to  stick  her,  but  we  fetched  her  round  at 
last.  Thank  the  Lord  therevore.  Bum- 
ble's the  best  milcher  in  Islip. 

Joan.  Thou's  thy  way  wi'  man  and 
beast,  Tib.  I  wonder  at  tha',  it  beats 
me !  Eh,  but  I  do  know  ez  Pwoaps  and 
vires  be  bad  things;  tell  'ee  now,  I  heerd 
summat  as  summun  towld  summun  o' 
owld  Bishop  Gardiner's  end;  there  wur 
an  owld  lord  a-cum  to  dine  wi'  un,  and 
a  wur  so  owld  a  couldn't  bide  vor  his 
dinner,  but  a  had  to  bide  howsomiver, 
vor  'I  wunt  dine,'  says  my  Lord  Bishop, 
says  he,  '  not  till  I  hears  ez  Latimer  and 
Ridley  be  a-vire;'  and  so  they  bided  on 
and  on  till  vour  o'  the  clock,  till  his  man 
cum  in  post  vro'  here,  and  tells  un  ez  the 
vire  has  tuk  holt.  'Now,'  says  the 
Bishop,  says  he,  'we'll  gwo  to  dinner;' 
and  the  owld  lord  fell  to  's  meat  wi'  a 
will,  God  bless  un !  but  Gardiner  wur 
struck  down  like  by  the  hand  o'  God 
avore  a  could  taste  a  mossel,  and  a  set 
un  all  a-vire,  so  'z  the  tongue  on  un  cum 
a-lolluping  out  o'  'is  mouth  as  black  as  a 
rat.     Thank  the  Lord,  therevore. 

Paget.     The  fools ! 

Tib.  Ay,  Joan;  and  Queen  Mary 
gwoes  on  a-burnin'  and  a-burnin',  to  get 
her  baaby  born;  but  all  her  burnin's  'ill 
never  burn  out  the  hypocrisy  that  makes 
the  water  in  her.  There's  nought  but 
the  vire  of  God's  hell  ez  can  burn  out 
':hat. 

Joan.     Thank  the  Lord,  therevore. 

Paget.     The  fools ! 

Tib.  A-burnin',  and  a-burnin',  and 
a-makin'  o'  volk  madder  and  madder; 
but  tek  thou  my  word  vor't,  Joan,  —  and 
I  bean't  wrong  not  twice  i'  ten  year  —  the 
burnin'  o'  the  owld  archbishop  'ill  burn 
the  Pwoap  out  o'  this  'ere  land  vor  iver 
and  iver. 

Howard.      Out   of    the    church,   you 
brace  of  cursed  crones, 
Or  I  will  have  you  duck'd !     (  Women 

hurry  out.)     Said  I  not  right? 
For    how  should    reverend    prelate    or 

throned  prince 
Brook  for  an  hour  such  brute  malignity? 
Ah,  what  an  acrid  wine  has  Luther  brew'd  ! 


Paget.     Pooh,  pooh,  my   Lord !    pool 
garrulous  country-wives. 
Buy  you  their  cheeses,  and  they'll  side 

with  you; 
You  cannot  judge  the  liquor  from  the  lees. 
Howard.     I  think  that  in  some  sort 
we  may.     But  see, 

Enter  Peters. 

Peters,  my  gentleman,  an  honest  Catholic, 
Who  follow'd  with  the  crowd  to  Cran- 

mer's  tire. 
One  that  would  neither  misreport  nor  lie, 
Not  to  gain  Paradise  :  no,  nor  if  the  Pope, 
Charged  him  to  do  it — he  is  white  as  death. 
Peters,  how  pale  you   look!   you  bring 

the  smoke 
Of  Cranmer's  burning  with  you. 

Peters.  Twice  or  thrice 

The  smoke  ot  Cranmer's  burning  wrapt 

me  round. 
Howard.       Peters,     you     know     me 

Catholic,  but  English. 
Did  he  die  bravely  ?    Tell  me  that,  or  leave 
All  else  untold. 

Peters.  My  Lord,  he  died  most 

bravely. 
Howard.     Then  tell  me  all. 
Paget.  Ay,  Master  Peters,  tell  us. 

Peters.     You   saw   him   how   he   past 

among  the  crowd; 
And  ever  as  he  walk'd  the  Spanish  friars 
Still  plied  him  with  entreaty  and  reproach  : 
But  Cranmer,  as  the  helmsman  at  the  helm 
Steers,  ever  looking  to  the  happy  haven 
Where  he  shall  rest  at  night,  moved  to 

his  death; 
And  I  could  see  that  many  silent  hands 
Came  from  the  crowd  and  met  his  own; 

and  thus, 
When  we  had  come  where  Ridley  burnt 

with  Latimer, 
He,  with  a  cheerful  smile,  as  one  whose 

mind 
Is  all  made  up,  in  haste  put  off  the  rags 
They  had  mock'd  his  misery  with,  and  all 

in  white, 
His  long  white  beard,  which  he  had  never 

shaven 
Since  Henry's  death,  down-sweeping  to 

the  chain, 
Wherewith  they  bound  him  to  the  stake, 

he  stood 


QUEEN  MARY. 


621 


More  like  an  ancient  father  of  the  Church, 
Than   heretic  of  these  times;    and  still 

the  friars 
Plied  him,  but  Cranmer  only  shook  his 

head, 
Or  answer'd  them  in  smiling  negatives; 
Whereat  Lord  Williams  gave  a  sudden 

cry:  — 
*  Make  short !  make  short ! '  and  so  they 

lit  the  wood. 
Then   Cranmer   lifted   his   left   hand   to 

heaven, 
And  thrust  his  right  into  the  bitter  flame; 
And  crying,  in  his  deep  voice,  more  than 

once, 
1  This    hath     offended  —  this    unworthy 

hand ! » 
So  held  it  till  it  all  was  burn'd,  before 
The  flame  had  reach'd  his  body;   I  stood 

near  — 
Mark'd  him  —  he  never  uttered  moan  of 

pain : 
He  never  stirr'd  or  writhed,  but,  like  a 

statue, 
Unmoving  in  the  greatness  of  the  flame, 
Gave  up  the  ghost;   and  so  past  martyr- 
like — 
Martyr  I  may  not  call  him  —  past  —  but 

whither? 
Paget.     To  purgatory,  man,  to  purga- 
tory. 
Peters.     Nay,  but,  my  Lord,  he  denied 

purgatory. 
Paget.     Why  then  to  heaven,  and  God 

ha'  mercy  on  him. 
Howard.     Paget,    despite    his    fearful 

heresies, 
I  loved  the  man,  and  needs  must  moan 

for  him; 

0  Cranmer ! 

Paget.     But  your  moan  is  useless  now : 

Come  out,  my  Lord,  it  is  a  world  of  fools. 

[Exeunt, 

ACT  V. 

SCENE  I.  —  London.    Hall  in    the 
Palace. 

Queen,  Sir  Nicholas  Heath. 

Heath.     Madam, 

1  do  assure  you,  that  it  must  be  look'd 

to: 


Calais  is  but  ill-garrison'd,  in  Guisnes 
Are  scarce  two  hundred  men,  and  the 

French  fleet 
Rule  in  the   narrow  seas.     It  must   be 

look'd  to, 
If  war  should  fall  between  yourself  and 

France^ 
Or  you  will  lose  your  Calais. 

Mary.  It  shall  be  look'd  to; 

I   wish  you   a  good  morning,  good    Sir 

Nicholas : 
Here  is  the  King.  \_Exit  Heath. 

Enter  Philip. 

Philip.         Sir  Nicholas  tells  you  true, 

And  you  must  look  to  Calais  when  I  go. 

Mary.      Go?  must  you  go,  indeed  — 

again  —  so  soon? 

Why,    nature's   licensed   vagabond,    the 

swallow, 
That  might  live  always  in  the  sun's  warm 

heart, 
Stays  longer  here  in  our  poor  north  than 

you :  — 
Knows  where  he   nested — ever   comes 
again. 
Philip.     And,  Madam,  so  shall  I. 
Mary.  Oh,  will  you?  will  you? 

I  am  faint  with  fear  that  you  will  come 
no  more. 
Philip.     Ay,  ay;   but  many  voices  call 

me  hence. 
Mary.     Voices  —  I  hear  unhappy  ru- 
mours —  nay, 
I  say  not,  I  believe.     What  voices  call 

you 
Dearer  than  mine  that  should  be  dearest 

to  you? 
Alas,  my   Lord !  what  voices   and  how 
many? 
Philip.    The    voices   of  Castille  and 
Aragon, 
Granada,  Naples,   Sicily,   and  Milan, — 
The  voices  of  Franche-Comt6,  and  the 

Netherlands, 
The  voices  of  Peru  and  Mexico, 
Tunis,  and  Oran,  and  the  Philippines, 
And  all  the  fair  spice-islands  of  the  East. 
Mary    {admiringly).      You    are    the 
mightiest  monarch  upon  earth, 
I  but  a  little  Queen :  and  so,  indeed, 
Need  you  the  more. 
Philip.         A  little  Queen !  but  when 


622 


QUEEN  MARY. 


ACT  V. 


I  came  to  wed  your  majesty,  Lord  Howard, 
Sending  an  insolent  shot  that  dash'd  the 

seas 
Upon  us,  made  us  lower  our  kingly  flag 
To  yours  of  England. 

Mary.  Howard  is  all  English  ! 

There  is  no  king,  not  were  he  ten  times 

king, 
Ten  times  our  husband,  but  must  lower 

his  flag 
To  that  of  England  in  the  seas  of  Eng- 
land. 
Philip.     Is  that  your  answer? 
Mary.  Being  Queen  of  England, 

I  have  none  other. 
Philip.  So. 

Mary.  But  wherefore  not 

Helm  the  huge  vessel  of  your  state,  my 

liege, 
Here  by  the  side  of  her  who  loves  you 
most? 
Philip.     No,  Madam,  no  !  a  candle  in 
the  sun 
Is  all  but  smoke  —  a  star  beside  the  moon 
Is    all   but   lost;    your   people   will   not 

crown  me  — 
Your   people   are   as   cheerless  as  your 

clime; 
Hate  me  and  mine :  witness  the  brawls, 

the  gibbets. 
Here  swings  a  Spaniard  — there  an  Eng- 
lishman; 
The   peoples   are   unlike   as  their  com- 
plexion; 
Yet  will  I  be  your  swallow  and  return  — 
But  now  I  cannot  bide. 

Mary.  Not  to  help  me  ? 

They  hate  me  also  for  my  love  to  you, 
My  Philip;   and  these  judgments  on  the 

land  — 
Harvestless    autumns,     horrible     agues, 
plague  — 
Philip.    The  blood  and  sweat  of  here- 
tics at  the  stake 
Is  God's  best  dew  upon  the  barren  field. 
Burn  more ! 

Mary.     I  will,  I  will ;  and  you  will  stay  ? 
Philip.     Have  I  not  said?     Madam,  I 
came  to  sue 
Your  Council  and  yourself  to  declare  war. 
Mary.     Sir,  there  are  many  English  in 
your  ranks 
To  help  your  battle. 


Philip.  So  far,  good.     I  say 

I  came  to  sue  your  Council  and  yourself 
To   declare    war   against    the    King   ot 

France. 
Mary.     Not  to  see  me  ? 
Philip.  Ay,  Madam,  to  see  you. 

Unalterably  and  pesteringly  fond  !  [Aside. 
But,  soon  or  late  you  must  have  war  with 

France; 
King  Henry  warms  your  traitors  at  his 

hearth. 
Carew   is    there,   and  Thomas    Stafford 

there. 
Courtenay,  belike  — 

Mary.  A  fool  and  featherhead ! 

Philip.     Ay,  but  they   use  his  name. 

In  brief,  this  Henry 
Stirs  up  your  land  against  you  to  the  in- 
tent 
That  you  may  lose  your  English  heritage. 
And  then,  your  Scottish  namesake  mar- 
rying 
The  Dauphin,  he  would    weld   France, 

England,  Scotland, 
Into  one  sword  to  hack  at  Spain  and  me. 
Mary.     And  yet  the  Pope  is  now  col- 
leagued  with  France; 
You  make  your  wars  upon  him  down  in 

Italy :  — 
Philip,  can  that  be  well? 

Philip.  Content  you,  Madam; 

You  must  abide  my  judgment,  and  my 

father's, 
Who  deems  it  a  most  just  and  holy  war. 
The  Pope  would  cast  the  Spaniard  out 

of  Naples: 
He   calls   us  worse   than  Jews,  Moors, 

Saracens. 
The  Pope  has  pushed  his  horns  beyond 

his  mitre  — 
Beyond  his  province.     Now, 
Duke  Alva  will   but  touch  him  on  the 

horns, 
And    he   withdraws;    and   of    his   holy 

head  — 
For  Alva  is  true  son  of  the  true  church  — 
No  hair  is  harm'd.    Will  you  not  help  me 

here? 
Mary.    Alas!     the   Council  will  not 

hear  of  war. 
They  say  your  wars  are  not  the  wars  of 

England. 
They  will  not  lay  more  taxes  on  a  land 


SCENE   I. 


QUEEN  MARY. 


623 


So  hunger-nipt  and  wretched;   and  you 

know 
The  crown  is  poor.     We  have  given  the 

church-lands  back : 
The  nobles  would  not;   nay,  they  clapt 

their  hands 
Upon    their    swords   when   ask'd;    and 

therefore  God 
Is  hard  upon  the  people.     What's  to  be 

done? 
Sir,    I    will   move   them   in   your   cause 

again, 
And  we  will  raise  us  loans  and  subsidies 
Among  the  merchants;   and  Sir  Thomas 

Gresham 
Will  aid  us.     There  is  Antwerp  and  the 
Jews. 
Philip.     Madam,  my  thanks. 
Mary.  And  you  will  stay  your 

going? 
Philip.     And  further  to  discourage  and 
lay  lame 
The  plots  of  France,  altho'  you  love  her 

not, 
You  must  proclaim  Elizabeth  your  heir. 
She  stands  between  you  and  the  Queen 
of  Scots. 
Mary.     The  Queen  of  Scots  at  least  is 

Catholic. 
Philip.     Ay,  Madam,  Catholic;   but  I 
will  not  have 
The  King  of  France  the  King  of  England 
too. 
Mary.     But  she's  a  heretic,  and,  when 
I  am  gone, 
Brings  the  new  learning  back. 

Philip.  It  must  be  done. 

You  must  proclaim  Elizabeth  your  heir. 
Mary.     Then  it  is  done;   but  you  will 
stay  your  going 
Somewhat  beyond  your  settled  purpose? 
Philip.  No ! 

Mary.     What,  not  one  day? 
Philip.  You  beat  upon  the  rock. 

Mary.     And  I  am  broken  there. 
Philip.  Is  this  a  place 

To  wail  in,  Madam?  what !  a  public  hall. 
Go  in,  I  pray  you. 

Mary.  Do  not  seem  so  changed. 

Say  go;  but  only  say  it  lovingly. 

Philip.     You  do  mistake.     I    am  not 
one  to  change. 
I  never  loved  you  more. 


Mary. 
Come  quickly. 
Philip.  Ay. 


Sire,  I  obey  you, 
\_Exit  Mary. 


Enter  Count  de  Feria. 

Feria  {aside).     The  Queen  in  tears! 
Philip.  Feria ! 

Hast  thou  not  mark'd  —  come  closer  to 

mine  ear  — 
How  doubly  aged  this  Queen  of  ours  hath 

grown 
Since   she   lost   hope   of    bearing   us   a 
child? 
Feria.    Sire,  if  your  Grace  hath  mark'd 

it,  so  have  I. 
Philip.     Hast  thou  not  likewise  mark'd 
Elizabeth, 
How    fair    and    royal  —  like    a   Queen, 
indeed? 
Feria.     Allow  me  the  same  answer  as 
before  — 
That  if  your  Grace  hath  mark'd  her,  so 
have  I. 
Philip.     Good,    now;     methinks    my 
Queen  is  like  enough 
To  leave  me  by  and  by. 

Feria.  To  leave  you,  sire? 

Philip.     I    mean    not     like    to    live. 
Elizabeth  — 
To  Philibert  of  Savoy,  as  you  know, 
We   meant  to  wed  her;   but  I  am  not 

sure 
She  will   not   serve  me  better  —  so  my 

Queen 
Would  leave  me  —  as  —  my  wife. 

Feria.  Sire,  even  so. 

Philip.     She    will    not    have    Prince 

Philibert  of  Savoy. 
Feria.     No,  sire. 

Philip.  I  have  to  pray  you,  some 

odd  time, 
To  sound  the  Princess  carelessly  on  this; 
Not  as  from  me,  but  as  your  phantasy; 
And  tell  me  how  she  takes  it. 

Feria.  Sire,  I  will. 

Philip.     I    am   not   certain   but    that 
Philibert 
Shall  be  the  man;   and  I  shall  urge  his 

suit 
Upon  the  Queen,  because  I  am  not  cer- 
tain : 
You  understand,  Feria? 

Feria.  Sire,  I  do. 


624 


QUEEN  MARY. 


ACT  V 


Philip.     And  if  you  be  not  secret  in 
this  matter, 
You  understand  me  there,  too? 

Feria.  Sire,  I  do. 

Philip.    You  must  be  sweet  and  supple, 

like  a  Frenchman. 

She    is   none  of  those  who   loathe  the 

honeycomb.  [Exit  Feria. 

Enter  Renard. 

Renard.     My  liege,  I  bring  you  goodly 

tidings. 
Philip.  Well? 

Renard.     There    will    be    war    with 

France,  at  last,  my  liege; 
Sir  Thomas  Stafford,  a  bull-headed  ass, 
Sailing  from  France,  with  thirty  English- 
men, 
Hath  taken    Scarboro'   Castle,  north  of 

York; 
Proclaims  himself  protector,  and  affirms 
The  Queen  has  forfeited  her  right  to  reign 
By  marriage  with  an  alien — other  things 
As  idle;  a  weak  Wyatt !     Little  doubt 
This  buzz  will  soon  be  silenced;   but  the 

Council 
(I  have  talk'd  with  some  already)   are 

for  war. 
This  is  the  fifth  conspiracy  hatch'd  in 

France ; 
They  show  their  teeth  upon  it;  and  your 

Grace, 
So  you  will  take  advice  of  mine,  should  stay 
Yet  for  awhile,  to  shape  and  guide  the 

event. 
Philip.     Good !    Renard,   I   will   stay 

then. 
Renard.         Also,  sire, 
Might  I  not  say  —  to  please  your  wife, 

the  Queen? 
Philip.     Ay,  Renard,  if  you   care  to 

put  it  so.  [Exeunt. 


SCENE  II.  —  A  Room  in  the 
Palace. 

Mary,  sitting:  a  rose  in  her  hand. 
Lady  Clarence.  Alice  in  the  back- 
ground. 

Mary.     Look  !  I  have  play'd  with  this 
poor  rose  so  long 
I  have  broken  off  the  head. 


Lady  Clarence.     Your  Grace  bath  been 
More  merciful  to  many  a  rebel  head 
That   should  have  fallen,  and  may  rise 
again. 
Mary.     There  were  not  many  hang'd 

for  Wyatt's  rising. 
Lady  Clarence.    Nay,  not  two  hundred. 
Mary.  I  could  weep  for  them 

And  her,  and  mine  own  self  and  all  the 
world. 
Lady  Clarence.     For  her?  for  whom, 
your  Grace? 

Enter  Usher. 

Usher.     The  Cardinal. 

Enter  Cardinal  Pole.     (Mary  rises.) 

Mary.    Reginald  Pole,  what  news  hath 

plagued  thy  heart? 
What  makes  thy  favour  like  the  bloodless 

head 
Fall'n  on  the  block,  and  held  up  by  the 

hair? 
Philip?  — 

Pole.        No,  Philip  is  as  warm  in  life 
As  ever. 

Mary.     Ay,  and  then  as  cold  as  ever. 
Is  Calais  taken? 

Pole.  Cousin,  there  hath  chanced 

A  sharper  harm  to  England  and  to  Rome, 
Than  Calais  taken.     Julius  the  Third 
Was  ever  just,  and  mild,  and  father-like; 
But    this    new   Pope   Caraffa,    Paul   the 

Fourth, 
Not  only  reft  me  of  that  legateship 
Which  Julius  gave  me,  and  the  legateship 
Annex'd  toCanterbury  —  nay,  but  worse — 
And  yet  I  must  obey  the  Holy  Father, 
And  so  must  you,  good  cousin ;  —  worse 

than  all, 
A  passing  bell  tolPd  in  a  dying  ear  — 
He  hath  cited  me  to  Rome,  for  heresy, 
Before  his  Inquisition. 

Mary.  I  knew  it,  cousin, 

But   held  from  you  all  papers  sent  by 

Rome, 
That  you  might  rest  among  us,  till  the 

Pope, 
To   compass   which   I   wrote    myself  to 

Rome, 
Reversed  his  doom,  and  that  you  might 

not  seem 
To  disobey  his  Holiness* 


SCENE   II. 


QUEEN  MARY. 


625 


Pole.                             He  hates  Philip; 

(It  was  God's  cause) ;    so  far  they  call 

fje   is   all    Italian,   and    he    hates    the 

me  now, 

Spaniard; 

The  scourge  and  butcher  of  their  English 

He    cannot   dream    that   /  advised   the 

church. 

war; 

Mary.     Have  courage,  your  reward  is 

He  strikes  thro'  me  at  Philip  and  your- 

Heaven itself. 

self. 

Pole.     They  groan  amen;   they  swarm 

Nay,  but  I  know  it  of  old,  he  hates  me 

into  the  fire 

too; 

Like  flies  —  for  what?  no  dogma.     They 

So  brands  me  in  the  stare  of  Christendom 

know  nothing; 

A  heretic  ! 

They  burn  for  nothing. 

Now,  even  now,  when  bow'd  before  my 

Mary.             You  have  done  your  best. 

time, 

Pole.      Have  done  my  best,  and  as  a 

The  house  half-ruin'd  ere  the  lease  be 

faithful  son, 

out; 

That  all  day  long  hath  wrought  his  father's 

When  I  should  guide  the  Church  in  peace 

work, 

at  home, 

When  back  he  comes  at  evening  hath  the 

After  my  twenty  years  of  banishment, 

door 

And  all  my  lifelong  labour  to  uphold 

Shut   on    him   by  the   father  whom   he 

The  primacy — a  heretic.     Long  ago, 

loved, 

When  I  was  ruler  in  the  patrimony, 

His  early  follies  cast  into  his  teeth, 

I  was  too  lenient  to  the  Lutheran, 

And  the  poor   son  turn'd  out   into  the 

And  I  and  learned  friends  among  our- 

street 

selves 

To    sleep,    to    die  —  I    shall    die    of   it, 

Would  freely  canvass  certain  Lutheran- 

cousin. 

isms. 

Mary.      I   pray   you   be   not   so    dis- 

What then,  he  knew  I  was  no  Lutheran. 

consolate  ; 

A  heretic  ! 

I  still  will  do  mine  utmost  with  the  Pope. 

He   drew  this  shaft   against  me  to  the 

Poor  cousin  ! 

head, 

Have  not  I  been  the  fast  friend  of  your 

When  it  was  thought  I  might  be  chosen 

life 

Pope, 

Since  mine  began,  and  it  was  thought  we 

But  "then  withdrew   it.     In  full  consis- 

two 

tory, 

Might  make  one  flesh,  and  cleave  unto 

When     I    was    made    Archbishop,    he 

each  other 

approved  me. 

As  man  and  wife? 

And  how  should  he  have  sent  me  Legate 

Pole.                  Ah,  cousin,  I  remember 

hither, 

How  I  would  dandle  you  upon  my  knee 

Deeming  me  heretic?  and  what  heresy 

At  lisping-age.     I  watch'd  you  dancing 

since? 

once 

But  he  was  evermore  mine  enemy, 

With  your  huge  father;    he  look'd  the 

And  hates  the  Spaniard  —  fiery-choleric, 

Great  Harry, 

A    drinker    of    black,    strong,   volcanic 

You    but    his    cockboat;     prettily    you 

wines, 

did  it, 

That  ever  make  him  fierier.     I,  a  heretic? 

And  innocently.    No  —  we  were  not  made 

Your  Highness  knows  that  in  pursuing 

One   flesh   in    happiness,   no    happiness 

heresy 

here; 

I   have    gone    beyond    your    late    Lord 

But    now    we    are    made    one    flesh    in 

Chancellor,  — 

misery; 

He  cried  Enough !   enough !  before  his 

Our    bridemaids   are    not   lovely  —  Dis- 

death. — 

appointment, 

Gone  beyond  him  and  mine  own  natural 

Ingratitude,  Injustice,  Evil-tongue, 

man 

Labour-in-vain. 

2S 


626 


QUEEN  MARY. 


Mary.  Surely,  not  all  in  vain. 

Peace,  cousin,  peace  !     I  am  sad  at  heart 

myself. 
Pole.     Our  altar  is  a  mound  of  dead 

men's  clay, 
Dug  from  the  grave  that  yawns  for  us 

beyond; 
And  there  is  one  Death  stands  behind 

the  Groom, 
And  there  is  one  Death  stands  behind 

the  Bride  — 
Mary.     Have  you  been  looking  at  the 

i  Dance  of  Death  '? 
Pole.     No;    but  these  libellous  papers 

which  I  found 
Strewn  in  your  palace.     Look  you  here 

—  the  Pope 
Pointing  at  me  with  '  Pole,  the  heretic, 
Thou  hast  burnt  others,   do  thou  burn 

thyself, 
Or  I  will  burn  thee;  '  and  this  other; 

see !  — 
'  We  pray  continually  for  the  death 
Of  our   accursed   Queen   and    Cardinal 

Pole.' 
This  last  —  I  dare  not  read  it  her.    [Aside. 
Mary.  Away ! 

Why  do  you  bring  me  these? 
I  thought  you  knew  me  better.     I  never 

read, 
I  tear  them;   they  come  back  upon  my 

dreams. 
The  hands  that  write   them   should  be 

burnt  clean  off 
As  Cranmer's,  and  the  fiends  that  utter 

them 
Tongue-torn  with  pincers,  lash'd  to  death, 

or  lie 
Famishing  in  black  cells,  while  famish'd 

rats 
Eat  them  alive.     Why  do  they  bring  me 

these? 
Do  you  mean  to  drive  me  mad? 

Pole.  I  had  forgotten 

How  these  poor  libels  trouble  you.    Your 

pardon, 
Sweet  cousin,  and  farewell !     '  O  bubble 

world, 
Whose  colours  in  a  moment  break  and  fly ! ' 
Why,    who   said   that?     I   know   not  — 

true  enough ! 
[Puts  up  the  papers,  all  but  the  last, 
which  falls.     Exit  Pole. 


Alice.      If    Cranmer's    spirit    were    a 
mocking  one, 
And  heard  these   two,   there  might   be 
sport  for  him.  [Aside. 

Mary.     Clarence,  they  hate  me;   even 
while  I  speak 
There  lurks  a  silent  dagger,  listening 
In  some  dark  closet,  some  long  gallery, 

drawn, 
And  panting  for  my  blood  as  I  go  by. 
Lady   Clarence.     Nay,   Madam,  there 
be  loyal  papers  too, 
And  I  have  often  found  them. 

Mary.  Find  me  one  ! 

Lady  Clarence.     Ay,  Madam;   but  Sir 
Nicholas  Heath,  the  Chancellor, 
Would  see  your  Highness. 

Mary.      Wherefore  should  I  see  him? 
Lady    Clarence.      Well,    Madam,    he 

may  bring  you  news  from  Philip. 
Mary.     So,  Clarence. 
Lady  Clarence.  Let  me  first  put 

up  your  hair; 
It  tumbles  all  abroad. 

Mary.  And  the  gray  dawn 

Of  an  old  age  that  never  will  be  mine 
Is  all  the  clearer  seen.     No,  no;    what 

matters? 
Forlorn  I  am,  and  let  me  look  forlorn. 

Enter  Sir  Nicholas  Heath. 

Heath.      I   bring   your   Majesty   such 
grievous  news 
I  grieve  to  bring  it.     Madam,  Calais  is 
taken. 
Mary.     What  traitor   spoke?     Here, 
let  my  cousin  Pole 
Seize  him  and  burn  him  for  a  Lutheran. 
Heath.     Her   Highness   is  unwell.     I 

will  retire. 
Lady  Clarence.     Madam,  your  Chan- 
cellor, Sir  Nicholas  Heath. 
Mary.     Sir  Nicholas !    I  am   stunn'd 
— Nicholas  Heath? 
Methought  some  traitor  smote  me  on  the 

head. 
What  said  you,  my  good  Lord,  that  our 

brave  English 
Had  sallied  out  from  Calais  and  driven 

back 
The  Frenchmen  from  their  trenches  ? 

Heath.  Alas!  no. 

That  gateway  to  the  mainland  over  which 


SCENE  II. 


QUEEN  MARY. 


627 


Our  flag  hath  floated  for  two  hundred 

years 
Is  France  again. 

Mary.  So;  but  it  is  not  lost  — 

Not  yet.     Send  out:  let  England  as  of 

old 
Rise  lionlike,  strike  hard  and  deep  into 
The  prey  they  are  rending  from  her  —  ay, 

and  rend 
The  renders  too.     Send   out,  send   out, 

and  make 
Musters  in  all  the  counties;   gather  all 
From  sixteen  years  to  sixty;   collect  the 

fleet; 
Let  every  craft  that  carries  sail  and  gun 
Steer    toward    Calais.      Guisnes    is    not 

taken  yet? 
Heath.     Guisnes  is  not  taken  yet. 
Mary.  There  yet  is  hope. 

Heath.     Ah,  Madam,  but  your  people 

are  so  cold; 
I  do  much  fear  that  England  will  not 

care. 
Methinks  there  is  no  manhood  left  among 

us. 
Mary.     Send  out;   I  am  too  weak  to 

stir  abroad : 
Tell  my  mind  to  the  Council  —  to    the 

Parliament : 
Proclaim  it  to  the  winds.     Thou  art  cold 

thyself 
To  babble  of  their  coldness.     O  would  I 

were 
My  father  for  an  hour !     Away  now  — 

Quick  !  [Exit  Heath. 

I  hoped  I  had  served  God  with  all  my 

might ! 
It  seems  I  have  not.     Ah  !  much  heresy 
Shelter'd  in  Calais.     Saints,  I  have  re- 
built 
Your  shrines,  set  up  your  broken  images; 
Be  comfortable  to  me.     Suffer  not 
That  my  brief  reign  in  England  be  de- 
famed 
Thro'  all  her  angry  chronicles  hereafter 
By   loss   of    Calais.      Grant   me    Calais. 

Philip, 
We    have    made   war    upon   the    Holy 

Father 
All  for  your  sake :  what  good  could  come 

of  that? 
Lady     Clarence.      No,     Madam,    not 

against  the  Holy  Father; 


You  did  but  help  King  Philip's  war  with 

France, 
Your  troops  were  never  down  in  Italy. 
Mary.     I  am  a  byword.     Heretic  and 
rebel 
Point  at  me  and  make  merry.    Philip  gone  ! 
And   Calais   gone !     Time   that   I   were 
gone  too ! 
Lady  Clarence.    Nay,  if  the  fetid  gutter 
had  a  voice 
And  cried  I  was  not  clean,  what  should 

I  care? 
Or  you,  for  heretic  cries?    And  I  believe, 
Spite  of  your  melancholy  Sir  Nicholas, 
Your  England  is  as  loyal  as  myself. 
Mary  {seeing  the  paper  dropt  by  Pole). 
There  !  there  !  another  paper !  said 
you  not 
Many  of  these  were  loyal?     Shall  I  try 
If  this  be  one  of  such? 

Lady  Clarence.         Let  it  be,  let  it  be. 

God    pardon    me !      I   have   never   yet 

found  one.  [Aside. 

Mary  (reads).    '  Your  people  hate  you 

as  your  husband  hates  you.' 

Clarence,  Clarence,  what  have  I  done? 

what  sin 
Beyond  all  grace,  all  pardon?     Mother 

of  God, 
Thou  knowest  never  woman  meant  so 

well, 
And  fared  so  ill  in  this  disastrous  world. 
My  people  hate  me  and  desire  my  death. 
Lady  Clarence.     No,  Madam,  no. 
Mary.     My   husband   hates   me,   and 

desires  my  death. 
Lady  Clarence.     No,  Madam;    these 

are  libels. 
Mary.     I  hate  myself,  and  I  desire  my 

death. 
Lady     Clarence.       Long     live     your 
Majesty  !     Shall  Alice  sing  you 
One  of  her  pleasant  songs?     Alice,  my 

child, 
Bring  us  your  lute.     (Alice  goes.)     They 

say  the  gloom  of  Saul 
Was  lighten'd  by  young  David's  harp. 

Mary.  Too  young ! 

And  never  knew  a  Philip. 


Re-enter  Alice. 


Give  me  the  lute, 


He  hates  me ! 


628 


QUEEN  MARY. 


ACT  V. 


{She  sings.) 

Hapless  doom  of  woman  happy  in  betrothing ! 

Beauty  passes  like  a  breath  and  love  is  lost  in 
loathing: 

Low,  my  lute ;  speak  low,  my  lute,  but  say  the 
world  is  nothing  —r 

Low,  lute,  low! 

Love  will  hover  round  the  flowers  when  they  first 
awaken ; 

Love  will  fly  the  fallen  leaf,  and  not  be  over- 
taken ; 

Low,  my  lute!  oh  low,  my  lute!  we  fade  and  are 
forsaken  — 

Low,  dear  lute,  low! 

Take  it  away  !  not  low  enough  for  me  ! 

Alice.     Your  Grace  hath  a  low  voice. 

Mary.  How  dare  you  say  it? 

Even  for  that  he  hates  me.     A  low  voice 

Lost   in   a  wilderness  where  none   can 

hear! 
A  voice  of  shipwreck  on  a  shoreless  sea ! 
A  low  voice  from  the  dust  and  from  the 
grave 
{Sitting  on  the  ground).     There,  am  I 

low  enough  now? 
Alice.     Good    Lord !    how   grim    and 
ghastly  looks  her  Grace, 
With  both  her  knees  drawn  upward  to 

her  chin. 
There  was  an  old-world  tomb  beside  my 

father's, 
And  this  was  open'd,  and  the  dead  were 

found 
Sitting,  and  in  this  fashion;   she  looks  a 
corpse. 

Enter  Lady  Magdalen  Dacres. 

Lady  Magdalen.     Madam,  the  Count 
de  Feria  waits  without, 
In  hopes  to  see  your  Highness. 

Lady    Clarence    {pointing  to   Mary). 
Wait  he  must  — 
Her  trance  again.     She  neither  sees  nor 

hears, 
And  may  not  speak  for  hours. 

Lady  Magdalen.  Unhappiest 

Of  Queens  and  wives  and  women  ! 

Alice  {in  the  foreground  with   Lady 
Magdalen).  And  all  along 

Of  Philip. 

Lady  Magdalen.     Not  so  loud !     Our 
Clarence  there 


Sees   ever    such   an   aureole   round    the 

Queen, 
It  gilds  the  greatest  wronger  of  her  peace, 
Who  stands  the  nearest  to  her. 

Alice.  Ay,  this  Philip; 

I  used  to  love  the  Queen  with  all  my 

heart  — 
God  help  me,  but  methinks  I  love  her  less 
For  such  a  dotage  upon  such  a  man. 
I  would  I  were  as  tall  and  strong  as  you. 
Lady  Magdalen.     I  seem  half-shamed 

at  times  to  be  so  tall. 
Alice.     You  are  the  stateliest  deer  in 
all  the  herd  — 
Beyond  his  aim  —  but  I  am  small  and 

scandalous, 
And  love  to  hear  bad  tales  of  Philip. 

Lady  Magdalen.  Why? 

I  never  heard  him  utter  worse  of  you 
Than  that  you  were  low-statured. 

Alice.  Does  he  think 

Low  stature  is  low  nature,  or  all  women's 
Low  as  his  own? 

Lady  Magdalen.     There  you  strike  in 
the  nail. 
This  coarseness  is  a  want  of  phantasy. 
It  is  the  low  man  thinks  the  woman  low; 
Sin  is  too  dull  to  see  beyond  himself. 
Alice.     Ah,  Magdalen,  sin  is  bold  as 
well  as  dull. 
How  dared  he? 

Lady  Magdalen.     Stupid  soldiers  oft 
are  bold. 
Poor  lads,  they  see  not  what  the  general 

sees, 
A  risk  of  utter  ruin.     I  am  not 
Beyond  his  aim,  or  was  not. 

Alice.  Who?     Not  you? 

Tell,  tell  me ;  save  my  credit  with  myself. 

Lady  Magdalen.     I  never  breathed  it 

to  a  bird  in  the  eaves, 

Would  not  for  all  the  stars  and  maiden 

moon 
Our  drooping  Queen  should  know !     In 

Hampton  Court 
My  window  look'd  upon  the  corridor; 
And  I  was  robing;  — this  poor  throat  of 

mine, 
Barer  than  I  should  wish  a  man  to  see  it,  — 
When  he  we  speak  of  drove  the  window 

back, 
And,  like  a  thief,   push'd  in  his   royal 
hand; 


QUEEN  MARY. 


629 


But  by  God's  providence  a  good  stout 

staff 
Lay  near  me;   and  you  know  me  strong 

of  arm ; 
I  do  believe  I  lamed  his  Majesty's 
For  a  day  or  two,  tho',  give  the   Devil 

his  due, 
I  never  found  he  bore  me  any  spite. 
Alice.     I  would  she  could  have  wedded 

that  poor  youth, 
My  Lord  of  Devon  —  light  enough,  God 

knows, 
And  mixt  with  Wyatt's  rising  —  and  the 

boy 
Not  out  of  him  —  but  neither  cold,  coarse, 

cruel, 
And  more  than  all  —  no  Spaniard. 

Lady  Clarence.  Not  so  loud. 

Lord  Devon,  girls !  what  are  you  whis- 
pering here? 
Alice.     Probing  an  old  state-secret  — 

how  it  chanced 
That  this  young  Earl  was  sent  on  foreign 

travel, 
Not  lost  his  head. 

Lady  Clarence.     There  was  no  proof 

against  him. 
Alice.    Nay,  Madam ;  did  not  Gardiner 

intercept 
A  letter  which  the   Count   de   Noailles 

wrote 
To   that  dead   traitor   Wyatt,  with   full 

proof 
Of  Courtenay's  treason?     What  became 

of  that? 
L.ady  Clarence.     Some  say  that  Gardi- 
ner, out  of  love  for  him, 
Burnt   it,  and   some  relate   that  it  was 

lost 
When    Wyatt    sack'd    the    Chancellor's 

house  in  Southwark. 
Let  dead  things  rest. 

Alice.         Ay,  and  with  him  who  died 
Alone  in  Italy. 

Lady   Clarence.      Much    changed,    I 

hear, 
Had  put  off  levity  and  put  graveness  on. 
The    foreign    courts   report    him   in   his 

manner 
Noble  as  his  young  person  and  old  shield. 
It  might  be  so  —  but  all  is  over  now; 
He  caught  a  chill  in  the  lagoons  of  Venice, 
And  died  in  Padua. 


Mary  {looking  up  suddenly).    Died  in 

the  true  faith? 
Lady  Clarence.     Ay,  Madam,  happily. 
Mary.  Happier  he  than  I. 

Lady  Magdalen.     It  seems  her  High- 
ness hath  awaken'd.     Think  you 
That  I  might  dare  to  tell  her  that  the 
Count  — 
Mary.     I  will  see  no  man  hence  for 
evermore, 
Saving  my  confessor  and  my  cousin  Pole. 
Lady  Magdalen.     It  is  the  Count  de 

Feria,  my  dear  lady. 
Mary.  What  Count? 

Lady  Magdalen.     The  Count  de  Feria, 
from  his  Majesty 
King  Philip. 

Mary.     Philip !    quick !    loop   up   my 
hair ! 
Throw  cushions  on  that  seat,  and  make 

it  throne-like. 
Arrange  my  dress  —  the  gorgeous  Indian 

shawl 
That   Philip  brought   me  in  our  happy 

days ! — 
That  covers  all.     So  —  am  I  somewhat 

Queenlike, 
Bride  of  the   mightiest   sovereign  upon 
earth  ? 
Lady  Clarence.     Ay,    so   your   Grace 

would  bide  a  moment  yet. 
Mary.     No,    no,   he   brings   a  letter. 
I  may  die 
Before  I  read  it.      Let  me  see  him  at 
once. 

Enter  Count  de  Feria  (kneels) . 

Feria.     I    trust   your    Grace   is   well. 

(Aside)   How  her  hand  burns  ! 
Mary.     I    am   not   well,   but   it   will 

better  me, 
Sir  Count,  to  read  the  letter  which  you 

bring. 
Feria.     Madam,  I  bring  no  letter. 
Mary.  How!   no  letter? 

Feria.     His  Highness  is  so  vex'd  with 

strange  affairs  — 
Mary.     That  his  own  wife  is  no  affair 

of  his. 
Feria.     Nay,  Madam,  nay !  he  sends 

his  veriest  love, 
And  says,  he  will  come  quickly. 


630 


QUEEN  MARY. 


ACT  V. 


Mary.  Doth  he,  indeed? 

You,  sir,  do  you  remember  what  you  said 
When  last  you  came  to  England? 

Feria.  Madam,  I  brought 

My  King's  congratulations;   it  was  hoped 
Your  Highness  was  once  more  in  happy 

state 
To  give  him  an  heir  male. 

Mary.  Sir,  you  said  more; 

You  said  he  would  come  quickly.     I  had 

horses 
On    all  the  road  from  Dover,   day  and 

night; 
On  all  the  road  from  Harwich,  night  and 

day; 
But  the  child  came  not,  and  the  husband 

came  not; 
And  yet  he  will  come  quickly.   .  .    Thou 

hast  learnt 
Thy  lesson,  and   I  mine.     There  is  no 

need 
For  Philip  so  to  shame  himself  again. 
Return, 
And  tell  him  that  I  know  he  comes  no 

more. 
Tell    him   at   last   I   know    his    love    is 

dead, 
And   that  I  am   in  state  to  bring  forth 

death  — 
Thou  art  commission'd  to  Elizabeth, 
And  not  to  me  ! 

Feria.     Mere  compliments  and  wishes. 
But  shall  I  take  some  message  from  your 

Grace  ? 
Mary.     Tell  her  to  come  and  close  my 

dying  eyes, 
And  wear  my  crown,  and  dance  upon  my 

grave. 
Feria.     Then  I  may  say  your  Grace 

will  see  your  sister? 
Your  Grace  is  too  low-spirited.     Air  and 

sunshine. 
I  would  we  had  you,  Madam,  in  our  warm 

Spain. 
You  droop  in  your  dim  London. 

Mary.  Have  him  away  ! 

I  sicken  of  his  readiness. 

Lady  Clarence.  My  Lord  Count, 

Her  Highness  is  too  ill  for  colloquy. 
Feria  {kneels,  and  kisses  her  hand).    I 

wish  her  Highness  better.   (Aside) 

How  her  hand  burns !     [Exeunt. 


SCENE  III.  — A  House  near 
London. 

Elizabeth,   Steward  of  the  House- 
hold, Attendants. 

Elizabeth.      There's     half    an     angel 
wrong'd  in  your  account; 
Methinks  I  am  all  angel,  that  I  bear  it 
Without    more     ruffling.      Cast   it   o'er 
again. 
Steward.     I    were   whole    devil   if    I 
wrong'd  you,  Madam. 

[Exit  Steward. 
Attendant.     The  Count  de  Feria,  from 

the  King  of  Spain. 
Elizabeth.     Ah !  —  let  him  enter.  Nay, 
you  need  not  go  : 

[  To  her  Ladies. 
Remain  within  the  chamber,  but  apart. 
We'll  have  no  private  conference.     Wel- 
come to  England ! 

Enter  Feria. 

Feria.     Fair  island  star ! 

Elizabeth.  I  shine !     What  else, 

Sir  Count? 
Feria.     As   far   as   France,  and   into 
Philip's  heart. 
My  King  would  know  if  you  be  fairly 

served, 
And  lodged,  and  treated. 

Elizabeth.     You   see  the  lodging,  sir, 
I  am  well-served,  and  am  in  everything 
Most  loyal    and    most    grateful   to   the 
Queen. 
Feria.     You  should  be  grateful  to  my 
master,  too. 
He  spoke  of  this;   and  unto  him  you  owe 
That  Mary  hath  acknowledged  you  her 
heir. 
Elizabeth.     No,  not  to  her  nor  him; 
but  to  the  people, 
Who  know  my  right,  and  love  me,  as  I 

love 
The  people  !  whom  God  aid ! 

Feria.  You  will  be  Queen, 

And,  were  I  Philip  — 

Elizabeth.         Wherefore  pause  you  — 

what? 
Feria.     Nay,  but  I  speak  from  mine 
own  self,  not  him; 
Your  royal  sister  cannot  last;   your  hand 


SCENE   IV. 


QUEEN  MARY. 


631 


Will  be  much  coveted !    What  a  delicate 

one ! 
Our  Spanish  ladies  have  none  such  —  and 

there, 
Were  you  in  Spain,  this  fine  fair  gossamer 

gold  — 
Like    sun-gilt     breathings   on    a    frosty 

dawn  — 
That  hovers  round  your  shoulder  — 

Elizabeth.  Is  it  so  fine? 

Troth,  some  have  said  so. 

Feria.     —  would  be  deemed  a  miracle. 
Elizabeth.     Your  Philip  hath  gold  hair 
and  golden  beard; 
There  must  be  ladies  many  with  hair  like 
mine. 
Feria.     Some   few    of    Gothic   blood 
have  golden  hair, 
But  none  like  yours. 

Elizabeth.     I  am  happy  you  approve  it. 
Feria.     But   as    to    Philip   and    your 
Grace  —  consider,  — 
If  such  a  one  as  you  should  match  with 

Spain, 
What  hinders  but  that  Spain  and  England 

join'd, 
Should  make  the  mightiest  empire  earth 

has  known. 
Spain  would  be  England  on  her  seas,  and 

England 
Mistress  of  the  Indies. 

Elizabeth.  It  may  chance,  that 

England 
Will  be  the  Mistress  of  the  Indies  yet, 
Without,  the  help  of  Spain. 

Feria.  Impossible ; 

Except  you  put  Spain  down. 
Wide  of  the  mark  ev'n  for  a  madman's 
dream. 
Elizabeth.       Perhaps;    but    we    have 
seamen.     Count  de  Feria, 
I  take  it  that  the  King  hath  spoken  to 

you; 
But  is  Don  Carlos  such  a  goodly  match? 
Feria.     Don   Carlos,    Madam,  is   but 

twelve  years  old. 
Elizabeth.     Ay,  tell  the  King  that  I 
will  muse  upon  it; 
He  is  my  good  friend,  and  I  would  keep 

him  so; 
But  —  he   would    have   me   Catholic   of 

Rome, 
And  that  I  scarce  can  be ;  and,  sir,  till  now 


My   sister's    marriage,   and   my   father's 

marriages, 
Made  me  full  fain  to  live  and  die  a  maid. 
But  I  am  much  beholden  to  your  King. 
Have  you  aught  else  to  tell  me  ? 

Feria.  Nothing,  Madam, 

Save  that  methought  I  gather'd  from  the 

Queen 
That  she  would  see  your  Grace  before  she 

—  died. 
Elizabeth.     God's  death  !   and  where- 
fore spake  you  not  before? 
We  dally  with  our  lazy  moments  here, 
And  hers  are  number'd.      Horses  there, 

without ! 
I  am  much  beholden  to  the  King,  your 

master. 
Why  did  you  keep  me  prating?     Horses, 

there  !  [Exit  Elizabeth,  etc. 

Feria.     So  from  a  clear  sky  falls  the 

thunderbolt ! 
Don    Carlos?      Madam,    if    you    marry 

Philip, 
Then  I  and  he  will  snaffle  your  'God's 

death,' 
And  break  your  paces  in,  and  make  you 

tame; 
God's  death,  forsooth  —  you  do  not  know 

King  Philip.  [Exit. 

SCENE  IV.  —  London.     Before  the 
Palace. 

A  light  burning  within.     Voices  of  the 
night  passing. 

First.     Is  not  yon  light  in  the  Queen's 

chamber? 
Second.  Ay, 

They  say  she's  dying. 

First.  So  is  Cardinal  Pole. 

May  the  great  angels  join  their  wings, 

and  make 
Down  for  their  heads  to  heaven ! 

Second.  Amen.     Come  on. 

[Exeunt. 

Two  Others. 

First.    There's  the  Queen's  light.     I 

hear  she  cannot  live. 
Second.    God  curse  her  and  her  Legate  J 

Gardiner  burns 
Already;   but  to  pay  them  full  in  kind, 


632 


QUEEN  MARY. 


The  hottest  hold  in  all  the  devil's  den 
Were  but  a  sort  of  winter;   sir,  in  Guern- 
sey, 
I  watch'd  a  woman  burn;    and   in  her 

agony 
The  mother   came    upon   her  —  a  child 

was  born  — 
And,  sir,  they  hurl'd   it   back  into  the 

fire, 
That,   being   but    baptized   in   fire,    the 

babe 
Might  be  in   fire   for   ever.      Ah,  good 

neighbour, 
There  should  be  something  fierier  than 

fire 
To  yield  them  their  deserts. 

First.  Amen  to  all 

Your  wish,  and  further. 

A  Third  Voice.  Deserts !  Amen  to 
what?  Whose  deserts?  Yours?  You 
have  a  gold  ring  on  your  finger,  and  soft 
raiment  about  your  body;  and  is  not  the 
woman  up  yonder  sleeping  after  all  she 
has  done,  in  peace  and  quietness,  on  a 
soft  bed,  in  a  closed  room,  with  light, 
fire,  physic,  tendance;  and  I  have  seen 
the  true  men  of  Christ  lying  famine-dead 
by  scores,  and  under  no  ceiling  but  the 
cloud  that  wept  on  them,  not  for  them. 
First.     Friend,  tho'  so  late,  it  is  not 

safe  to  preach. 
You  had  best  go  home.  What  are  you? 
Third.  What  am  I  ?  One  who  cries 
continually  with  sweat  and  tears  to  the 
Lord  God  that  it  would  please  Him  out 
of  His  infinite  love  to  break  down  all 
kingship  and  queenship,  all  priesthood 
and  prelacy;  to  cancel  and  abolish  all 
bonds  of  human  allegiance,  all  the  magis- 
tracy, all  the  nobles,  and  all  the  wealthy; 
and  to  send  us  again,  according  to  His 
promise,  the  one  King,  the  Christ,  and 
all  things  in  common,  as  in  the  day  of  the 
first  church,  when  Christ  Jesus  was  King. 
•      First.     If  ever  I  heard  a  madman,  — 

let's  away ! 
Why,  you  long-winded  —    Sir,  you   go 

beyond  me. 
I  pride  myself  on  being  moderate. 
Good  night !     Go  home.     Besides,  you 

curse  so  loud, 
The  watch  will  hear  you.     Get  you  home 

at  once.  [Exeunt. 


SCENE  V.  —  London.    A  Room  in 
the  Palace. 

A  Gallery  on  one  side.  The  Moonlight 
streaming  through  a  range  of  windows 
on  the  wall  opposite.  Mary,  Lady 
Clarence,  Lady  Magdalen  Dacres, 
Alice.  Queen  pacing  the  Gallery. 
A  writing-table  in  front.  Queen 
comes  to  the  table  and  writes  and  goes 
again,  pacing  the  Gallery. 

Lady  Clarence.     Mine  eyes  are  dim : 

what  hath  she  written?  read. 
Alice.     'I  am  dying,  Philip;   come  to 

me.' 
Lady   Magdalen.       There  —  up    and 

down,  poor  lady,  up  and  down. 
Alice.     And  how  her  shadow  crosses 
one  by  one 
The  moonlight  casements  pattern'd  on 

the  wall, 
Following   her    like   her   sorrow.      She 
turns  again. 
[Queen  sits  and  writes,  and  goes  again. 
Lady  Clarence.     What  hath  she  written 

now? 
Alice.      Nothing;    but   'come,   come, 
come,'  and  all  awry, 
And  blotted  by  her  tears.     This  cannot 
last.  [Queen  returns. 

Mary.     I    whistle    to   the    bird    has 
broken  cage, 
And  all  in  vain.  [Sitting  down. 

Calais  gone  —  Guisnes  gone,  too  —  and 
Philip  gone  ! 
Lady  Clarence.     Dear  Madam,  Philip 
is  but  at  the  wars; 
I  cannot  doubt  but  that  he  comes  again; 
And  he  is  with  you  in  a  measure  still. 
I  never  look'd  upon  so  fair  a  likeness 
As  your  great  King  in  armour  there,  his 

hand 
Upon  his  helmet. 

[Pointing  to  the  portrait  of  Philip  on 

the  wall. 

Mary.  Doth  he  not  look  noble? 

I  had  heard  of  him  in  battle  over  seas, 

And  I  would  have  my  warrior  all  in  arms. 

He   said    it   was    not   courtly   to   stand 

helmeted 
Before  the  Queen.     He  had  his  gracious 
moment, 


QUEEN  MARY. 


633 


Altho'  you'll  not  believe  me.     How  he 

smiles 
As  if  he  loved  me  yet ! 

Lady  Clarence.  And  so  he  does. 

Mary.     He  never  loved  me  —  nay,  he 

could  not  love  me. 
It  was  his  father's  policy  against  France. 
I  am  eleven  years  older  than   he,  poor 

boy !  [  Weeps. 

Alice.     That  was  a  lusty  boy  of  twenty- 
seven  ;  [Aside. 
Poor  enough  in  God's  grace  ! 

Mary.  — And  all  in  vain  ! 

The    Queen  of   Scots  is  married  to  the 

Dauphin, 
And  Charles,  the  lord  of  this  low  world, 

is  gone ; 
And  all  his  wars  and  wisdoms  past  away; 
And  in  a  moment  I  shall  follow  him. 
Lady   Clarence.     Nay,   dearest   Lady, 

see  your  good  physician. 
Mary.     Drugs  —  but   he  knows   they 

cannot  help  me  —  says 
That   rest  is  all  —  tells  me  I  must   not 

think  — 
That  I  must  rest  —  I  shall  rest  by  and  by. 
Catch  the  wild  cat,  cage  him,  and  when 

he  springs 
And  maims  himself  against  the  bars,  say 

'  rest ' : 
Why,  you   must   kill  him  if  you  would 

have  him  rest  — 
Dead   or   alive   you   cannot   make   him 

happy. 
Lady    Clarence.      Your    Majesty   has 

lived  so  pure  a  life, 
And  done  such  mighty  things  by  Holy 

Church, 
I  trust  that  God  will  make  you  happy  yet. 
Mary.       What   is   the   strange   thing 

happiness?     Sit  down  here: 
Tell  me  thine  happiest  hour. 

Lady  Clarence.  I  will,  if  that 

May  make  your  Grace  forget  yourself  a 

little. 
There  runs  a  shallow  brook  across  our 

field 
For  twenty  miles,  where  the  black  crow 

flies  five, 
And  doth  so  bound  and  babble  all  the 

way 
As  if  itself  were   happy.     It  was  May- 
time, 


And  I  was  walking  with  the  man  I  loved. 
I  loved  him,  but  I  thought  I  was  not  loved. 
And   both  were   silent,  letting  the  wild 

brook 
Speak  for  us  —  till  he  stoop'd  and  gath- 

er'd  one 
From  out  a  bed  of  thick  forget-me-nots, 
Look'd  hard  and  sweet  at  me,  and  gave 

it  me. 
I  took  it,  tho'  I  did  not  know  I  took  it, 
And  put  it  in  my  bosom,  and  all  at  once 
I  felt  his  arms  about  me,  and  his  lips  — 
Mary.     O  God  !  I  have  been  too  slack, 

too  slack; 
There  are  Hot  Gospellers   even   among 

our  guards  — 
Nobles  we  dared  not  touch.     We  have 

but  burnt 
The  heretic  priest,  workmen,  and  women 

and  children. 
Wet,  famine,  ague,  fever,  storm,  wreck, 

wrath,  — 
We  have  so  play'd  the  coward;   but  by 

God's  grace, 
We'll  follow  Philip's  leading,  and  set  up 
The  Holy  Office  here  —  garner  the  wheat, 
And  burn  the  tares  with  unquenchable 

fire! 
Burn !  — 
Fie,  what  a  savour !    tell  the  cooks   to 

close 
The  doors  of  all  the  offices  below. 
Latimer ! 
Sir,   we    are    private   with    our   women 

here  — 
Ever  a  rough,  blunt,  and  uncourtly  fel- 
low— 
Thou   light  a  torch    that   never  will  go 

out! 
'Tis   out  —  mine   flames.      Women,   the 

Holy  Father 
Has  ta'en  the  legateship  from  our  cousin 

Pole  — 
Was  that  well  done?  and  poor  Pole  pines 

of  it, 
As  I  do,  to  the  death.    I  am  but  a  woman, 
I  have  no  power.  —  Ah,  weak  and  meek 

old  man, 
Seven-fold  dishonour'd  even  in  the  sight 
Of  thine   own  sectaries  —  No,  no.     No 

pardon !  — 
Why  that  was  false:    there  is  the  right 

hand  still 


634 


QUEEN  MARY. 


ACT  V. 


Beckons  me  hence. 

Sir,  you  were  burnt  for  heresy,  not  for 

treason, 
Remember  that !  'twas  I  and  Bonner  did 

it, 
And  Pole;   we  are  three  to  one  —  Have 

you  found  mercy  there, 
Grant  it  me  here :  and  see,  he  smiles  and 

goes, 
Gentle  as  in  life. 

Alice.  Madam,  who  goes?     King 

Philip? 
Mary.     No,  Philip  comes    and   goes, 

but  never  goes. 
Women,  when  I  am  dead, 
Open  my  heart,  and  there  you  will  find 

written 
Two    names,    Philip   and   Calais;     open 

his, — 
So  that  he  have  one, — 
You  will  find  Philip  only,  policy,  policy,  — 
Ay,  worse  than  that  —  not  one  hour  true 

to  me ! 
Foul  maggots  crawling  in  a  fester'd  vice  ! 
Adulterous  to  the  very  heart  of  Hell. 
Hast  thou  a  knife? 

Alice.  Ay,  Madam,  but  o'  God's 

mercy  — 
Mary.     Fool,  think'st   thou   I  would 

peril  mine  own  soul 
By  slaughter  of  the  body?     I  could  not, 

girl, 
Not  this  way  —  callous  with  a  constant 

stripe, 
Unwoundable.     The  knife ! 

Alice.  Take  heed,  take  heed  ! 

The  blade  is  keen  as  death. 

Mary.  This  Philip  shall  not 

Stare  in  upon  me  in  my  haggardness; 
Old,  miserable,  diseased, 
Incapable  of  children.    Come  thou  down. 
[  Cuts  out  the  picture  and  throws  it  down. 
Lie  there.     (  Wails)  O  God,  I  have  kill'd 

my  Philip ! 
Alice.  No, 

Madam,  you  have   but   cut  the   canvas 

out; 
We  can  replace  it. 

Mary.  All  is  well  then;   rest  — 

I  will  to  rest;   he  said,  I  must  have  rest. 

[  Cries  of '  Elizabeth '  in  the  street. 
Aery!  What's  that?  Elizabeth?  revolt? 
A  new  Northumberland,  another  Wyatt  ? 


I'll    fight    it   on    the    threshold   of    the 

grave. 
Lady    Clarence.     Madam,   your   royal 

sister  comes. to  see  you. 
Mary.     I  will  not  see  her. 
Who  knows  if  Boleyn's  daughter  be  my 

sister? 
I  will  see  none  except  the  priest.     Your 

arm.  [  To  Lady  Clarence. 

O  Saint  of  Aragon,  with  that  sweet  worn 

smile 
Among  thy  patient  wrinkles  —  Help  me 

hence.  [Exeunt. 

The  Priest  passes.    Enter  Elizabeth 
and  Sir  William  Cecil. 

Elizabeth.     Good  counsel  yours  — 

No  one  in  waiting?  still, 

As  if  the  chamberlain  were  Death  him- 
self! 

The  room  she  sleeps  in  —  is  not  this  the 
way? 

No,  that  way  there   are  voices.     Am  I 
too  late? 

Cecil  .  .  .  God  guide  me  lest  I  lose  the 
way.  [Exit  Elizabeth. 

Cecil.     Many  points  weather'd,  many 
perilous  ones, 

At   last  a  harbour   opens;     but    therein 

Sunk  rocks  —  they  need  fine  steering  — 
much  it  is 

To    be    nor    mad,   nor    bigot  —  have   a 
mind  — 

Nor  let  Priests'  talk,  or  dream  of  worlds 
to  be, 

Miscolour    things    about    her  —  sudden 
touches 

For  him,  or  him  —  sunk  rocks;   no  pas- 
sionate faith  — 

But  —  if  let  be  —  balance  and  compro- 
mise; 

Brave,  wary,  sane  to  the  heart  of  her  — 
a  Tudor  x 

School'd   by   the   shadow  of  death  —  a 
Boleyn,  too, 

Glancing  across  the  Tudor —  not  so  well. 

Enter  Alice. 

How  is  the  good  Queen  now? 

Alice.  Away  from  Philip. 

Back  in  her  childhood  —  prattling  to  her 

mother 
Of  her  betrothal  to  the  Emperor  Charles, 


SCENE  V. 


QUEEN  MARY. 


635 


And  childlike-jealous  of  him  again  —  and 

once 
She  thank'd  her  father   sweetly  for   his 

book 
Against  that  godless  German.     Ah,  those 

days 
Were  happy.     It  was  never  merry  world 
In  England,  since  the  Bible  came  among 
us. 
Cecil.      And  who  says  that? 
Alice.      It    is    a    saying    among    the 

Catholics. 
Cecil.      It  never  will  be  merry  world 
in  England,  , 

Till  all  men  have  their  Bible,  rich  and 
poor. 
Alice.     The    Queen   is  dying,  or  you 
dare  not  say  it. 

Enter  Elizabeth. 

Elizabeth.     The  Queen  is  dead. 
Cecil.     Then    here    she    stands !    my 

homage. 
Elizabeth.     She    knew    me,   and    ac- 
knowledged me  her  heir, 
Pray'd  me  to  pay  her  debts,  and   keep 

the  Faith; 
Then  claspt  the  cross,  and  pass'd  away 

in  peace. 
I  left  her  lying  still  and  beautiful, 


More  beautiful  than  in  life.     Why  would 

you  vex  yourself, 
Poor  sister?    Sir,  I  swear  I  have  no  heart 
To  be  your  Queen.     To  reign  is  restless 

fence, 
Tierce,   quart,   and   trickery.      Peace   is 

with  the  dead. 
Her  life  was  winter,  for  her  spring  was 

nipt: 
And  she  loved  much :  pray  God  she  be 

forgiven. 
Cecil.    Peace  with  the  dead,  who  never 

were  at  peace ! 
Yet   she   loved   one  so  much  —  I  needs 

must  say  — 
That  never  English  monarch  dying  left 
England  so  little. 

Elizabeth.  But  with  Cecil's  aid 

And  others,  if  our  person  be  secured 
From  traitor  stabs  —  we  will  make  Eng- 
land great. 

Enter  Paget,  and  other  Lords  of  the 
Council,  Sir  Ralph  Bagenhall,  etc. 

Lords.     God  save  Elizabeth,  the  Queen 

of  England ! 
Bagenhall.     God  save  the  Crown  !  the 

Papacy  is  no  more. 
Paget  {aside) .     Are  we  so  sure  of  that  ? 
Acclamation.     God  save  the  Queen  ! 


HAROLD: 

A  DRAMA. 

To  His  Excellency 
THE   RIGHT   HON.   LORD   LYTTON, 

Viceroy  and  Governor-General  of  India. 

My  dear  Lord  Lytton,  —  After  old-world  records  —  such  as  the  Bayeux  tapestry  and  the  Roman 
de  Rou,  —  Edward  Freeman's  History  of  the  Norman  Conquest,  and  your  father's  Historical  Romance 
treating  of  the  same  times,  have  been  mainly  helpful  to  me  in  writing  this  Drama.  Your  father 
dedicated  his  '  Harold '  to  my  father's  brother  ;  allow  me  to  dedicate  my  '  Harold '  to  yourself. 

A.  TENNYSON. 

SHOW-DAY  AT  BATTLE  ABBEY,  1876. 

A  GARDEN  here  —  May  breath  and  bloom  of  spring  — 

The  cuckoo  yonder  from  an  English  elm 

Crying  '  with  my  false  egg  I  overwhelm 

The  native  nest :  '  and  fancy  hears  the  ring 

Of  harness,  and  that  deathful  arrow  sing, 

And  Saxon  battleaxe  clang  on  Norman  helm. 

Here  rose  the  dragon-banner  of  our  realm : 

Here  fought,  here  fell,  our  Norman-slander'd  king. 

O  Garden  blossoming  out  of  English  blood  ! 

O  strange  hate-healer  Time  !     We  stroll  and  stare 

Where  might  made  right  eight  hundred  years  ago; 

Might,  right?  ay  good,  so  all  things  make  for  good— - 

But  he  and  he,  if  soul  be  soul,  are  where 

Each  stands  full  face  with  all  he  did  below. 


DRAMATIS  PERSONS. 
King  Edward  the  Confessor. 

Stigand,  created  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  by  the  Antipope  Benedict. 
Aldked,  Archbishop  of  York.  The  Norman  Bishop  of  London. 

Harold,  Earl  of  Wessex,  afterwards  King  of  England  ] 
Tostig,  Earl  of  Northtimbria  ~  , 

Gurth,  Earl  of  East  Anglia  \  C  d* 

Leofwin,  Earl  of  Kent  and  Essex 

Wulfnoth  J 

Count  William  of  Normandy.  William  Rufus. 

William  Malet,  a  Norman  Noble.1 

Edwin,  Earl  of  Mercia  i  Sons  of  Alfgar  of 

Morcar,  Earl  of  Northtimbria  after  Tostig  \  Mercia. 

Gamel,  a  Northumbrian  Thane.  Guy,  Count  of  Ponthieu. 

Rolf,  a  Ponthieu  Fisherman.  Hugh  Margot,  a  Norman  Monk. 

Osgod  and  Athrlric,  Canons  from  Waltham. 
The  Queen,  Edward  the  Confessor's  Wife,  Daughter  of  Godwin. 
Aldwyth,  Daughter  of  Alfgar  and  Widow  of  Griffith,  King  of  Wales. 
Edith,  Ward  of  King  Edward. 

Courtiers,  Earls  and  Thanes,  Men-at-Arms,  Canons  of  Waltham,  Fishermen,  etc. 

1  .  .  .  quidam  partim  Normannus  et  Anglus 
Compater  Heraldi.     {Guy  of  A  miens,  587.) 


ACT   I,    SCENE   I. 


HAROLD. 


637 


ACT   I. 

SCENE  I.  — London. 
Palace. 


The  King's 


{A  comet  seen  through  the  open  zuindozu.) 

Aldwyth,   Gamel,    Courtiers  talking 
together. 

First  Courtier.     Lo?  there  once  more 

—  this  is  the  seventh  night ! 

Yon    grimly  -  glaring,    treble  -  brandish'd 

scourge 
Of  England  ! 

Second  Courtier.     Horrible ! 
First  Courtier.     Look  you,  there's  a  star 
That  dances  in  it  as  mad  with  agony ! 
Third  Courtier.     Ay,  like  a  spirit  in 
Hell  who  skips  and  flies 
To  right  and  left,  and  cannot  scape  the 
flame. 
Second    Courtier.       Steam'd    upward 
from  the  undescendible 
Abysm. 

First  Courtier.     Or  floated  downward 
from  the  throne 
Of  God  Almighty. 

Aldwyth.  Gamel,  son  of  Orm, 

What  thinkest  thou  this  means? 

Gamel.  War,  my  dear  lady ! 

Aldwyth.     Doth  this  affright  thee? 
Gamel.  Mightily,  my  dear  lady ! 

Aldzvyth.     Stand  by  me  then,  and  look 
upon  my  face, 
Not  on  the  comet. 

{Enter  Morcar.) 

Brother  !  why  so  pale? 
Morcar.     It  glares  in  heaven,  it  flares 
upon  the  Thames, 
The  people  are  as  tnick  as  bees  below, 
They  hum  like  bees,  —  they  cannot  speak 

—  for  awe ; 

Look  to  the  skies,  then  to  the  river,  strike 
Their  hearts,  and  hold  their  babies  up  to  it. 
I  think  that  they  would  Molochise  them 

too, 
To  have  the  heavens  clear. 

Aldwyth.  They  fright  not  me. 

{Enter  Leofwin,  after  him  Gurth.) 

Ask  thou  Lord  Leofwin  what  he  thinks 
of  this ! 


Morcar.      Lord    Leofwin,  dost   thou 
believe,  that  these 
Three  rods  of  blood-red  fire  up  yonder 

mean 
The  doom  of  England  and  the  wrath  of 
Heaven? 
Bishop  of  London  {passing).     Did  ye 
not  cast  with  bestial  violence 
Our  holy  Norman  bishops  down  from  all 
Their   thrones    in    England?      I    alone 

remain. 
Why  should  not  Heaven  be  wroth? 
Leofwin.  With  us,  or  thee? 

Bishop  of  London.     Did  ye  not  outlaw 
your  archbishop  Robert, 
Robert  of  Jumieges — well-nigh  murder 

him  too? 
Is  there    no    reason    for    the   wrath    of 
Heaven? 
Leofwin.       Why   then   the   wrath    of 
Heaven  hath  three  tails, 
The  devil  only  one. 

[Exit  Bishop  of  London. 

{Enter  Archbishop  Stigand.  ) 

Ask  our  Archbishop. 

Stigand   should   know   the   purposes   of 

Heaven. 

Stigand.     Not  I.     I  cannot  read  the 

face  of  heaven; 

Perhaps  our  vines  will  grow  the  better  for  it. 

Leofwin  {laughing).     He  can  but  read 

the  king's  face  on  his  coins. 
Stigand.     Ay,  ay,  young  lord,  there  the 

king's  face  is  power. 
Gurth.     O  father,  mock  not  at  a  public 
fear, 
But  tell  us,  is  this  pendent  hell  in  heaven 
A  harm  to  England? 

Stigand.  Ask  it  of  King  Edward  ! 

And  he  may  tell  thee,  /  am  a  harm  to 

England. 
Old  uncanonical  Stigand  —  ask  of  me 
Who  had  my  pallium  from  an  Antipope  ! 
Not  he  the  man  —  for  in  our  windy  world 
What's  up  is  faith,  what's  down  is  heresy. 
Our  friends,  the  Normans,  holp  to  shake 

his  chair. 
I  have  a  Norman  fever  on  me,  son, 
And  cannot  answer  sanely.  .  .  .  What  it 

means? 
Ask  our  broad  Earl. 

[Pointing  to  Harold,  who  enters. 


638 


HAROLD. 


ACT  L 


Harold  {seeing  Gamel) .     Hail,  Gamel, 

son  of  Orm ! 
Albeit  no  rolling  stone,  my  good  friend 

Gamel, 
Thou  hast  rounded  since  we  met.    Thy 

life  at  home 
Is  easier  than  mine  here.     Look  !  am  I  not 
Work- wan,  flesh-fallen? 
•    Gamel.  Art  thou  sick,  good  Earl? 

Harold.     Sick  as  an  autumn  swallow 

for  a  voyage, 
Sick  for  an  idle  week  of  hawk  and  hound 
Beyond   the   seas  —  a   change  !      When 

earnest  thou  hither? 
Gamel.     To-day,  good  Earl. 
Harold.     Is  the  North  quiet,  Gamel? 
Gamel.     Nay,  there  be  murmurs,  for 

thy  brother  breaks  us 
With  over-taxing  —  quiet,  ay,  as  yet  — 
Nothing  as  yet. 

Harold.      Stand    by   him,    mine    old 

friend, 
Thou  art  a  great  voice  in  Northumber- 
land ! 
Advise  him :  speak  him  sweetly,  he  will 

hear  thee. 
He  is  passionate  but  honest.     Stand  thou 

by  him ! 
More  talk  of  this  to-morrow,  if  yon  weird 

sign 
Not  blast  us  in  our  dreams.  —  Well,  father 

Stigand  — 

[  To  Stigand,  who  advances  to  him. 
Stigand  {pointing  to  the  comet).     War 

there,  my  son?  is  that  the  doom 

of  England? 
Harold.     Why  not  the  doom  of  all  the 

world  as  well? 
For  all  the  world  sees  it  as  well  as  Eng- 
land. 
These  meteors  came  and  went  before  our 

day, 
Not   harming   any:    it   threatens   us   no 

more 
Than   French   or  Norman.      War?   the 

worst  that  follows 
Things  that  seem  jerk'd  out  of  the  com- 
mon rut 
Of  Nature  is  the  hot  religious  fool, 
Who,  seeing  war  in  heaven,  for  heaven's 

credit 
Makes   it   on   earth :    but    look,   where 

Edward  draws 


A  faint  foot  hither,  leaning  upon  Tostig. 
He  hath  learnt  to  love  our  Tostig  much 
of  late. 
Leofwin.     And  he  hath  learnt,  despite 
the  tiger  in  him, 
To  sleek  and  supple  himself  to  the  king's 
hand. 
Gurth.     I  trust  the  kingly  touch  that 
cures  the  evil 
May  serve  to  charm  the  tiger  out  of  him. 
Leofwin.     He  hath  as  much  of  cat  as 
tiger  in  him. 
Our  Tostig  loves  the  hand  and  not  the 
man. 
Harold.     Nay !     Better  die  than  lie  ! 

Enter  King,  Queen,  and  Tostig. 

Edzvard.  In  heaven  signs ! 

Signs   upon   earth !    signs    everywhere ! 

your  Priests 
Gross,  worldly,  simoniacal,  unlearn'd ! 
They  scarce  can  read  their  Psalter;   and 

your  churches 
Uncouth,  unhandsome,  while  in  Norman- 
land 
God  speaks   thro'   abler  voices,  as   He 

dwells 
In  statelier  shrines.     I  say  not  this,  as 

being 
Half  Norman-blooded,  nor  as  some  have 

held, 
Because  I  love  the  Norman  better  —  no, 
But   dreading  God's  revenge  upon  this 

realm 
For  narrowness  and  coldness :  and  I  say 

it 
For  the  last  time  perchance,  before  I  go 
To  find   the   sweet   refreshment   of  the 

Saints. 
I  have  lived  a  life  of  utter  purity : 
I  have  builded  the  great  church  of  Holy 

Peter : 
I  have  wrought  miracles  —  to  God  the 

glory  — 
And  miracles  will  in  my  name  be  wrought 
Hereafter. —  I  have  fought  the  fight  and 

go  — 
I  see  the  flashing  of  the  gates  of  pearl  — 
And  it  is  well  with  me,  tho'  some  of  you 
Have  scorn'd  me  —  ay  —  but  after  I  am 

gone 
Woe,  woe  to  England!      I  have  had  a 

vision; 


HAROLD. 


639 


The  seven  sleepers  in  the  cave  at  Ephesus 
Have  turn'd  from  right  to  left. 

Harold.  My  most  dear  Master, 

What  matters?  let  them  turn  from  left  to 

right 
And  sleep  again. 

Tostig.  Too  hardy  with  thy  king ! 

A  life  of  prayer  and  fasting  well  may  see 
Deeper  into  the  mysteries  of  heaven 
Than  thou,  good  brother. 

Aldxvyth  {aside).      Sees  he  into  thine, 

That  thou  wouldst  have  his  promise  for 

the  crown? 

Edward.       Tostig  says  true;   my  son, 

thou  art  too  hard, 

Not  stagger'd  by  this  ominous  earth  and 

heaven : 
But  heaven  and  earth  are  threads  of  the 

same  loom, 
Play  into  one  another,  and  weave  the  web 
That  may  confound  thee  yet. 

Harold.  Nay,  I  trust  not, 

For  I  have  served  thee  long  and  honestly. 

Edward.     I  know  it,  son;   I  am  not 

thankless :  thou 

Hast  broken  all  my  foes,  lighten'd  for  me 

The  weight  of  this  poor  crown,  and  left 

me  time 
And  peace  for  prayer  to  gain  a  better  one. 
Twelve  years  of  service  !     England  loves 

thee  for  it. 
Thou  art  the  man  to  rule  her ! 

Aldwyth  {aside) .  So,  not  Tostig  ! 

Harold.     And  after  those  twelve  years 
a  boon,  my  king, 
Respite,  a  holiday :  thyself  wast  wont 
To  love  the  chase :  thy  leave  to  set  my  feet 
On  board,  and  hunt  and  hawk  beyond 
the  seas ! 
Edward.      What    with    this    flaming 

horror  overhead? 
Harold.     Well,  when  it  passes  then. 
Edzvard.  Ay  if  it  pass. 

Go  not  to  Normandy  —  go  not  to  Nor- 
mandy. 
Harold.    And  wherefore  not,  my  king, 
to  Normandy? 
Is  not  my  brother  Wulfnoth  hostage  there 
For  my  dead  father's  loyalty  to  thee? 
I  pray  thee,  let  me  hence  and  bring  him 
home. 
Edward.     Not   thee,  my  son:    some 
other  messenger. 


Harold.     And  why  not  me,  my  lord, 
to  Normandy? 
Is  not  the  Norman  Count  thy  friend  and 
mine  ? 
Edward.     I  pray  thee,  do  not  go  to 

Normandy. 
Harold.     Because  my  father  drove  the 
Normans  out 
Of  England  ?  —  That  was  many  a  summer 

gone  — 
Forgotten  and  forgiven  by  them  and  thee. 
Edward.     Harold,  I  will  not  yield  thee 

leave  to  go. 
Harold.      Why  then  to  Flanders.     I 
will  hawk  and  hunt 
In  Flanders. 

Edward.     Be  there  not  fair  woods  and 
fields 
In  England?     Wilful,  wilful.     Go  — the 

Saints 
Pilot  and  prosper  all  thy  wandering  out 
And  homeward.    Tostig,  I  am  faint  again. 
Son  Harold,  I  will  in  and  pray  for  thee. 
[Exit,  leaning  on  Tostig,  and  fol- 
lowed by  Stigand,    Morcar,    and 
Courtiers. 
Harold.     What  lies  upon  the  mind  of 
our  good  king 
That  he  should  harp  this  way  on  Nor- 
mandy? 
Queen.      Brother,  the   king   is   wiser 
than  he  seems; 
And  Tostig  knows  it;    Tostig  loves  the 
king. 
Harold.     And  love  should  know;   and 
—  be  the  king  so  wise,  — 
Then   Tostig   too   were    wiser    than   he 

seems. 
I  love  the  man  but  not  his  phantasies. 

{Re-enter  Tostig.) 

Well,  brother, 

When  didst  thou  hear  from  thy  North- 

umbria? 
Tostig.     When  did  I  hear  aught  but 

this  *  When  '  from  thee? 
Leave  me  alone,  brother,  with  my  North- 

umbria : 
She  is  my  mistress,  let  me  look  to  her ! 
The  King  hath  made  me  Earl;   make  me 

not  fool ! 
Nor  make  the  King  a  fool,  who  made 

me  Earl ! 


640 


HAROLD. 


ACT   I 


Harold.      No,   Tostig  —  lest    I   make 
myself  a  fool 
Who  made  the  King    who  made   thee, 
make  thee  Earl. 
Tostig.     Why  chafe  me  then?      Thou 

knowest  I  soon  go  wild. 
Gurth.     Come,  come  !  as  yet  thou  art 
not  gone  so  wild 
But  thou  canst  hear  the  best  and  wisest 
of  us. 
Harold.      So  says  old  Gurth,  not  I : 
1       yet  hear  !  thine  earldom, 
Tostig,  hath  been  a  kingdom.     Their  old 

crown 
Is  yet  a  force  among  them,  a  sun  set 
But    leaving   light   enough   for   Alfgar's 

house 
To  strike  thee  down  by  —  nay,  this  ghastly 

glare 
May  heat  their  fancies. 

Tostig.  My  most  worthy  brother, 

Thou  art  the    quietest   man   in   all   the 

world  — 
Ay,  ay  and  wise  in  peace  and  great  in 

war  — 
Pray  God   the   people    choose    thee  for 

their  king ! 
But  all  the  powers  of  the  house  of  Godwin 
Are  not  enframed  in  thee. 

Harold.  Thank  the  Saints,  no  ! 

But  thou  hast  drain'd  them  shallow  by 

thy  tolls, 
And  thou  art  ever  here  about  the  King : 
Thine  absence  well  may  seem  a  want  of 

care. 
Cling  to  their  love;   for,  now  the  sons  of 

Godwin 
Sit  topmost  in  the  field  of  England,  envy, 
Like  the  rough  bear  beneath   the  tree, 

good  brother, 
Waits  till  the  man  let  go. 

Tostig.  Good  counsel  truly ! 

I  heard  from  my  Northumbria  yesterday. 

Harold.      How  goes  it  then  with  thy 

Northumbria?     Well? 
Tostig.    And  wouldst  thou  that  it  went 

aught  else  than  well? 
Harold.     I  would  it  went  as  well  as 
with  mine  earldom, 
Leofwin's  and  Gurth's. 

Tostig.  Ye  govern  milder  men. 

Gurth.     We  have  made  them  milder 
by  just  government. 


Tostig.     Ay,  ever  give  yourselves  your 

own  good  word. 
Leofwin.     An  honest  gift,  by  all  the 
Saints,  if  giver 
And  taker  be  but  honest !  but  they  bribe 
Each  other,  and  so  often,  an  honest  world 
Will  not  believe  them. 

Harold.  I  may  tell  thee,  Tostig, 

I  heard  from  thy  Northumberland  to-day. 
Tostig.    From  spies  of  thine  to  spy  my 
nakedness 
In  my  poor  North  !    • 

Harold.     There  is  a  movement  there, 
A  blind  one  —  nothing  yet. 

Tostig.  Crush  it  at  once 

With  all  the  power  I  have  !  —  I  must  —  I 

will !  — 
Crush  it  half-born!     Fool  still?  or  wis- 
dom there, 
My  wise  head-shaking  Harold? 

Harold.  Make  not  thou 

The  nothing  something.     Wisdom  when 

in  power 
And  wisest,  should  not  frown  as  Power, 

but;  smile 
As  kindness,  watching  all,  till  the  true 

must 
Shall  make  her   strike   as   Power:    but 

when  to  strike  — 
O  Tostig,  O  dear  brother  —  If  they  prance, 
Rein  in,  not  lash  them,  lest  they  rear  and 

run 
And  break  both  neck  and  axle. 

Tostig.  Good  again ! 

Good  counsel  tho'  scarce  needed.     Pour 

not  water 
In  the  full  vessel  running  out  at  top 
To  swamp  the  house. 

Leofivin.         Nor  thou  be  a  wild  thing 
Out  of  the  waste,  to  turn  and  bite  the 

hand 
Would  help  thee  from  the  trap. 

Tostig.  Thou  playest  in  tune. 

Leofwin.     To  the  deaf  adder  thee,  that 
wilt  not  dance 
However  wisely  charm'd. 

Tostig.  No  more,  no  more ! 

Gurth.     I    likewise    cry    ■  no    more.' 
Unwholesome  talk 
For  Godwin's  house  !    Leofwin,  thou  hast 

a  tongue ! 
Tostig,    thou    look'st    as    thou   wouldst 
spring  upon  him. 


HAROLD. 


641 


St.  Olaf,  not  while  I  am  by  !    Come,  come, 
Join  hands,  let  brethren  dwell  in  unity; 
Let   kith   and   kin   stand    close   as   our 

shield-wall, 
Who  breaks  us  then?     I  say,  thou  hast  a 

tongue, 
AndTostig  is  not  stout  enough  to  bear  it. 
Vex  him  not,  Leofwin. 

Tostig.  No,  I  am  not  vext,  — 

Altho'  ye  seek  to  vex  me,  one  and  all. 
I  have  to  make  report  of  my  good  earl- 
dom 
To  the  good  king  who  gave  it  —  not  to 

you  — 
Not  any  of  you.  —  I  am  not  vext  at  all. 
Harold.     The  king?  the  king  is  ever 

at  his  prayers; 
In  all  that  handles  matter  of  the  state 
I  am  the  king. 

Tostig.  That  shalt  thou  never  be 

If  I  can  thwart  thee. 

Harold.  Brother,  brother ! 

Tostig.  Away ! 

[Exit  Tostig. 
Queen.     Spite   of  this   grisly  star   ye 

three  must  gall 
Poor  Tostig. 

Leofwin.     Tostig,  sister,  galls  himself; 
He  cannot  smell  a  rose   but  pricks  his 

nose 
Against  the  thorn,  and  rails  against  the 

rose. 
Queen.     I  am  the  only  rose  of  all  the 

stock 
That  never  thorn'd  him;   Edward  loves 

him,  so 
Ye  hate  him.     Harold  always  hated  him. 
Why — how  they  fought  when  boys  — 

and,  Holy  Mary ! 
How  Harold  used  to  beat  him ! 

Harold.  Why,  boys  will  fight. 

Leofwin  would  often  fight  me,  and  I  beat 

him. 
Even  old  Gurth  would  fight.    I  had  much 

ado 
To   hold   mine    own  against  old  Gurth. 

Old  Gurth, 
We   fought   like   great  states   for  grave 

cause ;   but  Tostig  — 
On  a  sudden  —  at  a  something  —  for  a 

nothing  — 
The  boy  would  fist  me  hard,  and  when 

we  fought 


I  conquer'd,  and  he  loved  me  none  the 

less, 
Till  thou  wouldst  get  him  all  apart,  and 

tell  him 
That  where  he  was  but  worsted,  he  was 

wrong'd. 
Ah !  thou  hast  taught  the  king  to  spoil 

him  too; 
Now  the  spoilt  child  sways  both.     Take 

heed,  take  heed; 
Thou  art  the  Queen;  ye  are  boy  and  girl 

no  more : 
Side  not  with  Tostig  in  any  violence, 
Lest  thou  be  sideways  guilty  of  the  vio- 
lence. 
Queen.     Come  fall  not  foul  on  me.    I 

leave  thee,  brother. 
Harold.     Nay,  my  good  sister  — 
[Exeunt  Queen,  Harold,  Gurth,  and 
Leofwin. 
Aldwyth.  Gamel,  son  of  Orm, 

What  thinkest  thou  this  means? 

[Pointing  to  the  comet. 
Gamel.  War,  my  dear  lady, 

War,  waste,  plague,  famine,  all  maligni- 
ties. • 
Aldwyth.     It  means  the  fall  of  Tostig 

from  his  earldom. 
Gamel.     That  were  too  small  a  matter 

for  a  comet ! 
Aldwyth.     It  means  the  lifting  of  the 

house  of  Alfgar. 
Gamel.     Too   small !   a  comet   would 

not  show  for  that ! 
Aldwyth.     Not  small  for  thee,  if  thou 

canst  compass  it. 
Gamel.     Thy  love? 

Aldwyth.  As  much  as  I  can  give 

thee,  man; 
This  Tostig  is,  or  like  to  be,  a  tyrant; 
Stir  up  thy  people  :  oust  him  ! 

Gamel.  And  thy  love? 

Aldwyth.    As  much  as  thou  canst  bear. 
Gamel.  I  can  bear  all, 

And  not  be  giddy. 

Aldwyth.     No  more  now :  to-morrow. 

SCENE  II.  —  In  the  Garden.  The 
King's  House  near  London.  Sun- 
set. 

Edith.     Mad  for  thy  mate,  passionate 
nightingale  .  .  . 


642 


HAROLD. 


ACT   1, 


I  love  thee  for  it  —  ay,  but  stay  a  mo- 
ment; 

He  can  but  stay  a  moment  :  he  is  going. 

I  fain  would  hear  him  coming!  .  .  .  near 
me  .  .  .  near, 

Somewhere  — To  draw  him  nearer  with  a 
charm 

Like  thine  to  thine. 

{Singing.) 

Love  is  come  with  a  song  and  a  smile, 
Welcome  Love  with  a  smile  and  a  song : 
Love  can  stay  but  a  little  while. 
Why   cannot   he    stay?     They  call    him 

away: 
Ye  do  him  wrong,  ye  do  him  wrong; 
Love  will  stay  for  a  whole  life  long. 

Enter  Harold. 

Harold.     The   nightingales  in    Have- 
ringatte-Bower 
Sang  out  their  loves  so  loud,  that  Ed- 
ward's prayers 
Were  deafen'd  and  he  pray'd  them  dumb, 

and  thus 
I  dumb  thee  too,  my  wingless  nightingale  ! 
[Kissing  her. 
Edith.     Thou  art  my  music  !     Would 
their  wings  were  mine 
To  follow  thee  to  Flanders !     Must  thou 
go? 
Harold.     Not  must,  but  will.     It  is  but 

for  one  moon. 
Edith.     Leaving  so  many  foes  in  Ed- 
ward's hall 
To  league  against  thy  weal.     The  Lady 

Aldwyth 
Was  here  to-day,  and  when  she  touch'd 

on  thee, 
She  stammer' d  in  her  hate;   I  am  sure 

she  hates  thee, 
Pants  for  thy  blood. 

Harold.  Well,  I  have  given  her 

cause  — 
I  fear  no  woman. 

Edith.  Hate  not  one  who  felt 

Some  pity  for  thy  hater  !     I  am  sure 
Her   morning   wanted   sunlight,   she   so 

praised 
The  convent  and  lone  life  —  within  the 

pale  — 
Beyond   the   passion.     Nay  —  she   held 
with  Edward, 


At  least  methought  she  held  with  holy 

Edward, 
That  marriage  was  half  sin. 

Harold.  A  lesson  worth 

Finger  and  thumb  —  thus  {snaps  his  fin- 
gers) .     And  my  answer  to  it  — 
See  here  —  an  interwoven  H  and  E! 
Take  thou  this  ring;   I  will  demand  his 

ward 
From  Edward  when  I  come  again.     Ay, 

would  she? 
She  to  shut  up  my  blossom  in  the  dark  ! 
Thou  art  my  nun,  thy  cloister  in   mine 

arms. 
Edith    {taking  the   ring).      Yea,  but 

EarlTostig  — 
Harold.  That's  a  truer  fear ! 

For  if  the  North  take  fire,  I  should  be 

back; 
I  shall  be,  soon  enough. 

Edith.  Ay,  but  last  night 

An  evil  dream  that  ever  came  and  went  — 

Harold.     A  gnat  that  vext  thy  pillow ! 

Had  I  been  by, 
I  would  have  spoil'd  his  horn.     My  girl, 

what  was  it? 
Edith.    Oh  !  that  thou  wert  not  going ! 
For  so  methought  it  was  our  marriage- 
morn, 
And  while  we  stood  together,  a  dead  man 
Rose  from  behind  the  altar,  tore  away 
My  marriage  ring,  and   rent   my  bridal 

veil; 
And  then  I  turn'd,  and  saw  the  church 

all  fill'd 
With  dead  men  upright  from  their  graves, 

and  all 
The  dead  men  made  at  thee  to  murder 

thee, 
But   thou  didst   back   thyself  against  a 

pillar, 
And  strike  among  them  with  thy  battle- 
axe  — 
There,  what  a  dream  ! 

Harold.  Well,  well  —  a  dream  — 

no  more ! 
Edith.    Did  not  Heaven  speak  to  men 

in  dreams  of  old  ? 
Harold.     Ay  — well  — of  old.     I  tell 

thee  what,  my  child; 
Thou  hast  misread  this  merry  dream  of 

thine, 
Taken  the  rifted  pillars  of  the  wood 


SCENE   II. 


HAROLD. 


643 


For  smooth  stone  columns  of  the  sanct- 
uary, 
The  shadows  of  a  hundred  fat  dead  deer 
For  dead  men's  ghosts.     True,  that  the 

battle-axe 
Was  out  of  place;   it  should  have  been 

the  bow.  — 
Come,  thou  shalt    dream  no  more  such 

dreams;    I  swear  it, 
By  mine  own  eyes  —  and  these  two  sap- 
phires —  these 
Twin  rubies,  that  are  amulets  against  all 
The  kisses  of  all  kind  of  womankind 
In  Flanders,  till  the  sea  shall  roll  me  back 
To  tumble  at  thy  feet. 

Edith.  That  would  but  shame  me, 

Rather  than  make  me  vain.    The  sea  may 

roll 
Sand,  shingle,  shore-weed,  not  the  living 

rock 
Which  guards  the  land. 

Harold.  Except  it  be  a  soft  one, 

And    undereaten    to    the    fall.        Mine 

amulet  .  .  . 
This   last  .    .  .  upon   thine    eyelids,    to 

shut  in 
A  happier  dream.    Sleep,  sleep,  and  thou 

shalt  see 
My  greyhounds  fleeting  like  a  beam  of 

light, 
And  hear  my  peregrine  and  her  bells  in 

heaven; 
And  other  bells  on  earth,  which  yet  are 

heaven's; 
Guess  what  they  be. 

Edith.      He  cannot  guess  who  knows. 
Farewell,  my  king. 

Harold.   Not  yet,  but  then  —  my  queen. 
\_Exeunt. 

Enter  Aldwyth  from  the  thicket. 

Aldwyth.     The  kiss  that  charms  thine 

eyelids  into  sleep, 
Will  hold  mine  waking.     Hate  him?     I 

could  love  him 
More,  tenfold,  than  this  fearful  child  can 

do; 
Griffyth  I  hated :  why  not  hate  the  foe 
Of  England?     Griffyth  when  I  saw  him 

flee, 
Chased   deer-like  up  his  mountains,  all 

the  blood 


That  should  have  only  pulsed  for  Griffyth, 

beat 
For  his  pursuer.     I  love  him  or  think  I 

love  him. 
If  he  were  King  of  England,  I  his  queen, 
I  might  be  sure  of  it.     Nay,  I  do  love 

him.  — 
She  must  be  cloister'd  somehow,  lest  the 

king 
Should  yield  his  ward  to  Harold's  will. 

What  harm? 
She  hath  but  blood  enough  to  live,  not 

love.  — 
When  Harold  goes  and  Tostig,  shall  I 

play 
The  craftier  Tostig  with  him?  fawn  upon 

him? 
Chime  in  with  all?     •  O  thou  more  saint 

than  king ! ' 
And  that  were  true  enough.     *  O  blessed 

relics !  ' 
*■  O  Holy  Peter ! '     If  he  found  me  thus, 
Harold  might  hate  me;   he  is  broad  and 

honest, 
Breathing   an    easy   gladness   .    .    .   not 

like  Aldwyth  .  .  . 
For  which  I  strangely  love  him.     Should 

not  England 
Love  Aldwyth,  if  she  stay  the  feuds  that 

part 
.  The  sons  of  Godwin  from   the  sons  of 

Alfgar 
By  such    a   marrying?     Courage,    noble 

Aldwyth  ! 
Let  all  thy  people  bless  thee ! 

Our  wild  Tostig, 
Edward  hath  made  him  Earl :   he  would 

be  king :  — 
The  dog  that  snapt  the  shadow,  dropt  the 

bone.  — 
I  trust  he  may  do  well,  this  Gamel,  whom 
I  play  upon,  that  he  may  play  the  note 
Whereat  the  dog  shall  howl  and  run,  and 

Harold 
Hear  the   king's  music,  all   alone  with 

him, 
Pronounced  his  heir  of  England. 
I  see  the  goal  and  half  the  way  to  it.  — 
Peace-lover  is  our  Harold  for  the  sake 
Of  England's  wholeness  —  so  —  to  shake 

the  North 
With  earthquake  and  disruption  —  some 

division  — 


644 


HAROLD. 


act  a 


Then  fling  mine  own  fair  person  in  the  gap 
A  sacrifice  to  Harold,  a  peace-offering, 
A  scape-goat  marriage  —  all  the  sins  of 

both 
The  houses  on  mine  head  —  then  a  fair 

life 
And  bless  the  Queen  of  England. 

Morcar  (coming from  the  thicket).    Art 
thou  assured 
By  this,  that  Harold  loves  but  Edith? 

Aldwyth.  Morcar ! 

Why  creep'st  thou  like  a  timorous  beast 

of  prey 
Out  of  the  bush  by  night? 

Morcar.  I  follow'd  thee. 

Aldwyth.     Follow  my  lead,  and  I  will 

make  thee  earl. 
Morcar.     What  lead  then? 
Aldwyth.     Thou  shalt  flash  it  secretly 
Among   the    good    Northumbrian    folk, 

that  I  — 
That  Harold  loves  me  —  yea,  and  pres- 
ently 
That  I  and  Harold  are  betroth'd  —  and 

last  — 
Perchance  that  Harold  wrongs  me;   tho' 

I  would  not 
That  it  should  come  to  that. 

Morcar.  I  will  both  flash 

And  thunder  for  thee. 

Aldwyth.  I  said  '  secretly ';  . 

It  is  the    flash   that   murders,  the   poor 

thunder 
Never  harm'd  head. 

Morcar.    But  thunder  may  bring  down 
That  which  the  flash  hath  stricken. 

Aldwyth.  Down  with  Tostig ! 

That  first  of  all.  —  And  when  doth  Harold 
go? 
Morcar.  To-morrow  —  first  to  Bosham, 

then  to  Flanders. 
Aldzvyth.       Not    to    come    back    till 
Tostig  shall  have  shown 
And  redden'd  with  his  people's  blood  the 

teeth 
That  shall  be  broken  by  us  —  yea,  and 

thou 
Chair'd  in  his  place.     Good-night,  and 

dream  thyself 
Their  chosen  Earl.  [Exit  Aldwyth. 

Morcar.  Earl  first,  and  after  that 

Who  knows  I  may  not  dream  myself  their 
king! 


ACT    II. 

SCENE  I.  —  Seashore.     Ponthieu. 
Night. 

Harold  and  his  Men,  wrecked. 

Harold.     Friends,  in  that   last  inhos- 
pitable plunge 

Our  boat  hath  burst  her  ribs;   but  ours 
are  whole; 

I  have  but  bark'd  my  hands. 

Attendant.  I  dug  mine  into 

My  old  fast  friend  the  shore,  and  clinging 
thus 

Felt  the  remorseless  outdraught  of  the 
deep 

Haul  like  a  great  strong  fellow  at  my  legs. 

And  then  I  rose  and  ran.    The  blast  that 
came 

So  suddenly  hath  fallen  as  suddenly  — 

Put  thou   the  comet  and  this   blast  to- 
gether — 
Harold.     Put  thou  thyself  and  mother- 
wit  together. 

Be  not  a  fool ! 

{Enter  Fishermen  with  torches,  Harold 
going  up  to  one  of  them,  Rolf.) 

Wicked  sea-will-o'-the-wisp ! 
Wolf  of  the  shore !  dog,  with  thy  lying 

lights 
Thou  hast  betray'd  us  on  these  rocks  of 
thine ! 
Rolf.     Ay,  but  thou  liest  as  loud  as  the 
black  herring-pond  behind  thee.    We  be 
fishermen ;   I  came  to  see  after  my  nets. 
Harold.      To     drag    us    into     them. 
Fishermen?  devils! 
Who,  while   ye  fish  for  men  with  your 

false  fires, 
Let  the  great  Devil  fish  for  your  own  souls. 
Rolf.    Nay  then,  we  be  liker  the  blessed 
Apostles;  they  were  fishers  of  men,  Father 
Jean  says. 

Harold.     I  had  liefer  that  the  fish  had 
swallowed  me, 
Like  Jonah,  than  have  known  there  were 

such  devils. 
What's  to  be  done? 

[  To  his  Men  — goes  apart  with  them. 
Fisherman.    Rolf,  what  fish  did  swallow 
Jonah  ? 


HAROLD. 


645 


Rolf.     A  whale ! 

Fisherman.  Then  a  whale  to  a  whelk 
we  have  swallowed  the  King  of  England. 
I  saw  him  over  there.  Look  thee,  Rolf, 
when  I  was  down  in  the  fever,  she  was 
down  with  the  hunger,  and  thou  didst 
stand  by  her  and  give  her  thy  crabs,  and 
set  her  up  again,  till  now,  by  the  patient 
Saints,  she's  as  crabb'd  as  ever. 

Rolf.  And  I'll  give  her  my  crabs  again, 
when  thou  art  down  again. 

Fisherman.  I  thank  thee,  Rolf.  Run 
thou  to  Count  Guy;  he  is  hard  at  hand. 
Tell  him  what  hath  crept  into  our  creel, 
and  he  will  fee  thee  as  freely  as  he  will 
wrench  this  outlander's  ransom  out  of 
him  —  and  why  not?  for  what  right  had 
he  to  get  himself  wrecked  on  another 
man's  land? 

Rolf.  Thou  art  the  human-heartedest, 
Christian-charitiest  of  all  crab-catchers. 
Share  and  share  alike  !  [Exit. 

Harold  {to  Fisherman).  Fellow,  dost 
thou  catch  crabs? 

Fisherman.  As  few  as  I  may  in  a 
wind,  and  less  than  I  would  in  a  calm. 
Ay! 

Harold.  I  have  a  mind  that  thou  shalt 
catch  no  more. 

Fisherman.     How? 

Harold.  I  have  a  mind  to  brain  thee 
with  mine  axe. 

Fisherman.  Ay,  do,  do,  and  our  great 
Count  crab  will  make  his  nippers  meet 
in  thine  heart;  he'll  sweat  it  out  of  thee, 
he'll  sweat  it  out  of  thee.  Look,  he's 
here!  He'll  speak  for  himself!  Hold 
thine  own,  if  thou  canst ! 

Enter  Guy,  Count  of  Ponthieu. 

Harold.     Guy,  Count  of  Ponthieu? 
Guy.  Harold,  Earl  of  Wessex ! 

Harold.     Thy  villains  with  their  lying 

lights  have  wreck'd  us! 
Guy.     Art  thou  not  Earl  of  Wessex? 
Harold.  In  mine  earldom 

A   man  may  hang   gold  bracelets  on  a 

bush, 
And  leave  them  for  a  year,  and  coming 

back 
Find  them  again. 

Guy.  Thou  art  a  mighty  man 

In  thine  own  earldom ! 


Harold.         Were  such  murderous  liars 
In    Wessex  —  if    I    caught    them,    they 

should  hang 
Cliff-gibbeted  for  sea-marks;  our  sea-mew 
Winging  their  only  wail ! 

Guy.  Ay,  but  my  men 

Hold  that  the  shipvvreckt  are  accursed  of 

God;  — 
What  hinders  me  to  hold  with  mine  own 
men? 
Harold.      The  Christian   manhood  of 

the  man  who  reigns ! 
Guy.     Ay,  rave  thy  worst,  but  in  our 
oubliettes 
Thou  shalt  or  rot  or  ransom.     Hale  him 
hence  !    [  Too?teof  his  Attendants. 
Fly  thou  to  William;   tell  him  we  have 
Harold. 

SCENE  II.  —  Bayeux.     Palace. 

Count  William  and  William  Malet. 

William.     We  hold  our  Saxon  wood- 
cock in  the  springe, 
But  he  begins  to  flutter.     As  I  think 
He  was  thine  host  in  England  when  I 

went 
To  visit  Edward. 

Malet.  Yea,  and  there,  my  lord, 

To    make    allowance    for   their   rougher 

fashions, 
I  found  him  all  a  noble  host  should  be. 
William.     Thou  art  his  friend :  thou 
know'st  my  claim  on  England 
Thro'   Edward's  promise :  we  have  him 

in  the  toils. 
And  it  were  well,  if  thou  shouldst  let  him 

feel 
How  dense  a  fold  of  danger   nets  him 

round, 
So  that  he  bristle  himself  against  my  will. 
Alalet.     What  would  I  do,  my  lord,  if 

I  were  you? 
William.     What  wouldst  thou  do? 
Malet.  My  lord,  he  is  thy  guest. 

William.     Nay,  by  the  splendour   of 
God,  no  guest  of  mine. 
He  came  not  to  see  me,  had  past  me  by 
To  hunt   and  hawk   elsewhere,  save  for 

the  fate 
Which  hunted  him  when  that  un-Saxon 
blast, 


646 


HAROLD. 


ACT  II. 


And  bolts  of   thunder  moulded  in  high 

heaven 
To  serve  the  Norman  purpose,  drave  and 

crack'd 
His  boat  on  Ponthieu  beach;   where  our 

friend  Guy 
Had  wrung  his  ransom  from  him  by  the 

rack, 
But  that  I  stept  between  and  purchased 

him, 
Translating  his  captivity  from  Guy 
To  mine  own  hearth  at  Bayeux,  where  he 

sits 
My  ransom'd  prisoner. 

Malet  Well,  if  not  with  gold, 

With  golden  deeds  and  iron  strokes  that 

brought 
Thy  war  with  Brittany  to  a  goodlier  close 
Than  else  had  been,  he  paid  his  ransom 

back. 
William.     So  that  henceforth  they  are 

not  like  to  league 
With  Harold  against  me. 

Malet.  A  marvel,  how 

He  from  the  liquid  sands  of  Coesnon 
Haled    thy    shore-swallow'd,    armour'd 

Normans  up 
To  fight  for  thee  again ! 

William.  Perchance  against 

Their   saver,  save  thou   save   him    from 

himself. 
Malet.     But  I   should   let   him   home 

again,  my  lord. 
William.     Simple !    let   fly   the    bird 

within  the  hand, 
To  catch  the  bird  again  within  the  bush  ! 
No. 
Smooth  thou   my  way,  before  he   clash 

with  me; 
I   want   his   voice    in  England   for    the 

crown, 
I  want  thy  voice  with  him  to  bring  him 

round ; 
And  being  brave  he  must  be  subtly  cow'd, 
And  being  truthful  wrought  upon  to  swear 
Vows  that  he  dare  not  break.     England 

our  own 
Thro'  Harold's  help,  he  shall  be  my  dear 

friend 
As  well  as  thine,  and  thou  thyself  shalt 

have 
Large  lordship  there  of  lands  and  terri- 
tory. 


Malet.     I  knew  thy  purpose;   he  and 
Wulfnoth  never 
Have  met,  except  in  public;   shall  they 

meet 
In   private?     I  have    often   talk'd   with 

Wulfnoth, 
And  stuff'd  the  boy  with  fears  that  these 

may  act 
On  Harold  when  they  meet. 

William.  Then  let  them  meet ! 

Malet.      I   can   but   love   this    noble, 

honest  Harold. 
William.     Love  him!  why  not?  thine 
is  a  loving  office, 
I   have  commission'd  thee  to  save  the 

man: 
Help  the  good  ship,  showing  the  sunkei? 

rock, 
Or  he  is  wreckt  for  ever. 

Enter  William  Rufus. 

William  Rufus.  Father. 

William.  Well,  boy. 

William    Rufus.      They   have   taken 
away  the  toy  thou  gavest  me, 
The  Norman  knight. 

William.  Why,  boy? 

William  Rufus.  Because  I  broke 

The  horse's  leg — it  was  mine  own  to 

break; 
I  like  to  have  my  toys,  and  break  them 
too. 
William.     Well,  thou  shalt  have  an- 
other Norman  knight ! 
William  Rufus.     And   may  I  break 

his  legs? 
William.     Yea,  —  get  thee  gone ! 
William  Rufus.     I'll  tell  them  I  have 
had  my  way  with  thee.         [Exit. 
Malet.     I  never  knew  thee  check  thy 
will  for  aught 
Save  for  the  prattling  of  thy  little  ones. 
William.     Who    shall    be    kings    of 
England.     I  am  heir 
Of  England  by  the  promise  of  her  king. 
Malet.     But  there  the  great  Assembly 
choose  their  king, 
The  choice  of  England  is  the  voice  of 
England. 
William.     I  will  be  king  of  England 
by  the  laws, 
The  choice,  and  voice  of  England. 

Malet.  Can  that  be? 


SCENE  II. 


HAROLD. 


647 


William.     The  voice  of  any  people  is 

the  sword 
That  guards  them,  or  the  sword  that  beats 

them  down. 
Here  comes  the  would-be  what  I  will 

be  .  .  .  kinglike  .  .  . 
Tho' scarce  at  ease;  for,  save  our  meshes 

break, 
More  kinglike  he  than  like  to  prove  a 

king. 

{Enter  Harold,  musing,  with  his  eyes 
on  the  ground.') 

He  sees  me  not  —  and  yet  he  dreams  of 

me. 
Earl,  wilt  thou  fly  my  falcons  this  fair 

day? 
They  are  of  the  best,  strong-wing'd  against 

the  wind. 
Harold  {looking  up  suddenly,  having 

caught  but  the  last  word) .     Which 

way  does  it  blow? 
William.     Blowing  for  England,  ha? 
Not  yet.     Thou  hast  not  learnt  thy  quar- 
ters here. 
The   winds   so   cross   and  jostle  among 

these  towers. 
Harold.     Count  of  the  Normans,  thou 

hast  ransom'd  us, 
Maintain'd,  and  entertain'd  us  royally ! 
William.     And  thou  for  us  hast  fought 

as  loyally, 
Which  binds  us  friendship-fast  for  ever! 
Harold.  Good ! 

But  lest  we  turn  the  scale  of  courtesy 
By  too  much  pressure  on  it,  I  would  fain, 
Since  thou  hast  promised  Wulfnoth  home 

with  us, 
Be  home  again  with  Wulfnoth. 

William.  Stay  —  as  yet 

Thou  hast  but  seen  how  Norman  hands 

can  strike, 
But    walk'd    our    Norman    field,   scarce 

touch'd  or  tasted 
The  splendours  of  our  Court. 

Harold.  I  am  in  no  mood : 

I  should  be  as  the  shadow  of  a  cloud 
Crossing  your  light. 

William.     Nay,  rest  a  week  or  two, 
And  we  will  fill  thee  full  of  Norman  sun, 
And  send  thee  back  among  thine  island 

mists 
With  laughter. 


Harold.         Count,  I  thank  thee,  but 
had  rather 
Breathe  the  free  wind  from  off  our  Saxon 

downs, 
Tho'  charged  with  all  the  wet  of  all  the 
west. 
William.     Why  if  thou  wilt,  so  let  it 
be  —  thou  shalt. 
That  were  a  graceless  hospitality 
To  chain  the  free  guest  to  the  banquet- 
board; 
To-morrow   we   will   ride   with   thee  to 

Harfleur, 
And  see  thee  shipt,  and  pray  in  thy  behalf 
For  happier  homeward  winds  than  that 

which  crack'd 
Thy  bark  at  Ponthieu,  —  yet  to  us,  in  faith, 
A  happy  one  —  whereby  we  came  to  know 
Thy  valour  and  thy  value,  noble  earl. 
Ay,  and  perchance  a  happy  one  for  thee, 
Provided  —  I  will  go  with  thee  to-mor- 
row— 
Nay  —  but    there    be    conditions,    easy 

ones, 
So  thou,  fair  friend,  will  take  them  easily. 

Enter  Page. 

Page.     My  lord,  there  is  a  post  from 

over  seas 
With  news  for  thee.  [Exit  Page. 

William.     Come,  Malet,  let  us  hear  ! 
[Exeunt  Count  William  and  Malet. 
Harold.      Conditions?      What   condi- 
tions? pay  him  back 
His  ransom?  *  easy'  —  that  were  easy  — 

nay  — 
No   money-lover   he !      What   said    the 

King? 
'  I  pray  you  do  not  go  to  Normandy. ' 
And  fate  hath  blown  me  hither,  bound 

me  too 
With  bitter  obligation  to  the  Count  — 
Have  I  not  fought  it  out?     What  did  he 

mean? 
There  lodged  a  gleaming  grimness  in  his 

eyes, 
Gave  his  shorn  smile  the  lie.     The  walls 

oppress  me, 
And  yon  huge  keep  that  hinders  half  the 

heaven. 
Free  air  !  free  field  ! 

[Moves  to  go  out.     A  Man-at-arms 

follows  him. 


648 


HAROLD. 


ACT  H 


Harold  {to  the  Man-at-arms).     I  need 
thee  not.     Why  dost  thou  follow 
me? 
Man-at-arms.      I   have    the    Count's 

commands  to  follow  thee. 
Harold.    What  then?    Am  I  in  danger 

in  this  court? 
Man-at-arms.     I  cannot  tell.     I  have 

the  Count's  commands. 
Harold.     Stand  out  of  earshot  then, 
and  keep  me  still 
In  eyeshot. 

Man-at-arms.  Yea,  lord  Harold. 

[  Withdraws. 

Harold.  And  arm'd  men 

Ever  keep  watch  beside  my  cnamber  door, 

And  if  I  walk  within  the  lonely  wood, 

There  is  an  arm'd  man  ever  glides  behind ! 

{Enter  Malet.) 

Why  am  I  follow'd,  haunted,  harass'd, 

watch'd? 
See  yonder ! 

[Pointing  to  the  Man-at-arms. 
Malet.     Tis  the  good  Count's  care  for 
thee! 
The  Normans  love  thee  not,  nor  thou  the 

Normans, 
Or  —  so  they  deem. 

Harold.  But  wherefore  is  the  wind, 
Which  way  soever  the  vane-arrow  swing, 
Not  ever   fair   for   England?     Why  but 

now 
He  said  (thou  heardst  him)  that  I  must 

not  hence 
Save  on  conditions. 

Malet.  So  in  truth  he  said. 

Harold.     Malet,   thy  mother   was   an 
Englishwoman; 
There  somewhere  beats  an  English  pulse 
in  thee ! 
Malet.     Well  —  for  my  mother's  sake 
I  love  your  England, 
But  for  my  father  I  love  Normandy. 
Harold.     Speak  for  thy  mother's  sake, 

and  tell  me  true. 
Malet.     Then  for  my  mother's  sake, 
and  England's  sake 
That  surfers  in  the  daily  want  of  thee, 
Obey  the  Count's  conditions,  my  good 
friend. 
Harold.     How,  Malet,  if  they  be  not 
honourable ! 


Malet.     Seem  to  obey  them. 
Harold.  Better  die  than  lie  ! 

Malet.     Choose  therefore  whether  thou 
wilt  have  thy  conscience 
White   as  a  maiden's  hand,  or  whether 

England 
Be  shatter'd  into  fragments. 

Harold.  News  from  England? 

Malet.     Morcar  and  Edwin  have  stirr'd 

up  the  Thanes 

Against  thy  brother  Tostig's  governance; 

And  all   the  North  of  H  umber  is   one 

storm. 

Harold.     I  should  be  there,  Malet,  I 

should  be  there ! 
Malet.     And  Tostig   in  his   own  hall 
on  suspicion 
Hath  massacred  the  Thane  that  was  his 

guest, 
Gamel,  the  son  of  Orm :  and  there  be  more 
As  villainously  slain. 

Harold.  The  wolf !  the  beast ! 

Ill  news  for  guests,  ha,  Malet !     More  ? 

What  more? 
What  do  they  say?  did  Edward  know  of 
this? 
Malet.     They  say  his  wife  was  know- 
ing and  abetting. 
Harold.      They   say,   his    wife! — To 
marry  and  have  no  husband 
Makes  the  wife  fool.     My  God,  I  should 

be  there. 
I'll  hack  my  way  to  the  sea. 

Malet.  Thou  canst  not,  Harold; 

Our  Duke  is  all  between  thee  and  the 

sea, 
Our  Duke  is  all  about  thee  like  a  God; 
All   passes   block'd.      Obey   him,  speak 

him  fair, 
For  he  is  only  debonair  to  those 
That  follow  where  he  leads,  but  stark  as 

death 
To  those  that  cross  him.  —  Look  thou, 

here  is  Wulfnoth  ! 
I  leave  thee  to  thy  talk  with  him  alone; 
How  wan,  poor  lad !  how  sick  and  sad 
for  home  !  [Exit  Malet. 

Harold  {muttering).     Go  not  to  Nor- 
mandy —  go  not  to  Normandy ! 

{Enter  Wulfnoth.) 

Poor  brother !  still  a  hostage  1 

Wulfnoth.  Yea,  and  1 


HAROLD. 


649 


Shall  see  the  dewy  kiss  of  dawn  no  more 
Make  blush  the  maiden-white  of  our  tall 

cliffs, 
Nor  mark  the  sea-bird  rouse  himself  and 

hover 
Above  the  windy  ripple,  and  fill  the  sky 
With    free    sea-laughter  —  never  —  save 

indeed 
Thou  canst  make  yield  this  iron-mooded 

Duke 
To  let  me  go. 

Harold.     Why,   brother,  so   he   will; 
But  on  conditions.     Canst  thou  guess  at 

them? 
Wulfnoth.     Draw  nearer,  —  I  was  in 

the  corridor, 
I  saw  him  coming  with  his  brother  Odo 
The  Bayeux  bishop,  and  I  hid  myself. 
Harold.     They  did   thee    wrong  who 

made  thee  hostage;   thou 
Wast   ever   fearful. 

Wulfnoth.  And  he  spoke  —  I 

heard  him  — 
'This  Harold  is  not  of  the  royal  blood, 
Can  have  no  right  to  the   crown,'  and 

Odo  said, 
'Thine  is  the  right,  for  thine  the  might; 

he  is  here, 
And  yonder  is  thy  keep.' 

Harold.  No,  Wulfnoth,  no. 

Wulfnoth.     And  William  laugh'd  and 

swore  that  might  was  right, 
Far  as  he   knew  in  this  poor  world  of 

ours  — 
'  Marry,  the  Saints  must  go  along  with 

us, 
And,  brother,  we  will  find  a  way,'  said 

he  — 
Yea,  yea,  he  would  be  king  of  England. 
Harold.  Never ! 

Wulfnoth.     Yea,  but  thou  must  not  this 

way  answer  him. 
Harold.     Is  it  not  better  still  to  speak 

the  truth? 
Wulfnoth.      Not   here,   or    thou   wilt 

never  hence  nor  I : 
For   in   the  racing   toward   this   golden 

goal 
He  turns  not  right  or  left,  but  tramples 

flat 
Whatever  thwarts  him;   hast  thou  never 

heard 
His  savagery  at  Alencon —  the  town    ■ 


Hung  out  raw  hides  along  their  walls, 

and  cried, 
'  Work  for  the  tanner.' 

Harold.  That  had  anger'd  me 

Had  I  been  William. 

Wulfnoth.     Nay,  but  he  had  prisoners, 
He  tore  their  eyes  out,  sliced  their  hands 

away, 
And  flung  them  streaming  o'er  the  battle- 
ments 
Upon   the   heads   of  those  who  walk'd 

within  — 
Oh,  speak  him  fair,  Harold,  for  thine  own 
sake. 
Harold.     Your  Welshman  says,  '  The 
Truth  against  the  World,' 
Much  more  the  truth  against  myself. 

Wulfnoth.  Thyself? 

But   for   my   sake,  O  brother !    oh !    for 
my  sake ! 
Harold.     Poor  Wulfnoth !  do  they  not 

entreat  thee  well? 
Wulfnoth.     I  see  the  blackness  of  my 
dungeon  loom 
Across  their  lamps  of  revel,  and  beyond 
The  merriest  murmurs  of  their  banquet 

clank 
The  shackles  that  will  bind  me  to  the 
wall. 
Harold.     Too  fearful  still ! 
Wulfnoth.  Oh  no,  no  —  speak 

him  fair ! 
Call  it  to  temporise;   and  not  to  lie; 
Harold,  I  do  not  counsel  thee  to  lie. 
The  man  that  hath  to  foil  a  murderous  aim 
May,  surely,  play  with  words. 

Harold.  Words  are  the  man. 

Not  ev'n  for  thy  sake,  brother,  would  I 
lie. 
Wulfnoth.     Then  for  thine  Edith? 
Harold.  There   thou    prick'st   me 

deep. 
Widfnoth.     And  for  our  Mother  Eng- 
land? 
Harold.  Deeper  still. 

Widfnoth.     And  deeper  still  the  deep- 
down  oubliette, 
Down  thirty  feet  below  the  smiling  day  — 
In  blackness  —  dogs'  food  throv/n  upon 

thy  head. 
And  over  thee  the  suns  arise  and  set, 
And  the  lark  sings,  the  sweet  stars  come 
and  go, 


650 


HAROLD. 


ACT  IL 


And  men  are  at  their  markets,  in  their 

fields, 
And  woo  their  loves  and  have  forgotten 

thee; 
And  thou  art  upright  in  thy  living  grave, 
Where  there  is  barely  room  to  shift  thy 

side, 
And  all  thine  England  hath  forgotten  thee ; 
And  he  our  lazy-pious  Norman  King, 
With  all  his  Normans  round  him  once 

again, 
Counts  his  old  beads,  and  hath  forgotten 

thee. 
Harold.     Thou  art  of  my  blood,  and 

so  methinks,  my  boy, 
Thy    fears    infect    me    beyond    reason. 

Peace ! 
Wulfnoth.     And  then  our  fiery  Tostig, 

while  thy  hands 
Are  palsied  here,  if  his  Northumbrians  rise 
And  hurl  him  from  them,  —  I  have  heard 

the  Normans 
Count  upon  this  confusion  —  may  he  not 

make 
A  league  with  William,  so  to  bring  him 

back? 
Harold.     That  lies  within  the  shadow 

of  the  chance. 
Wulfnoth.     And  like  a  river  in  flood 

thro'  a  burst  dam 
Descends  the  ruthless  Norman — our  good 

King 
Kneels  mumbling  some  old  bone  —  our 

helpless  folk 
Are  wash'd  away,  wailing,  in  their  own 

blood  — 
Harold.    Wailing!  not  warring?    Boy, 

thou  hast  forgotten 
That  thou  art  English. 

Wulfnoth.    Then  our  modest  women  — 
I  know  the  Norman  license  —  thine  own 

Edith  — 
Harold.     No  more !    I  will   not   hear 

thee  —  William  comes. 
Wulfnoth.     I    dare  not  well  be  seen 

in  talk  with  thee. 
Make  thou  not   mention   that   I    spake 

with  thee. 
[Moves  away  to  the  back  of  the  stage. 

Enter  William,  Malet,  and  Officer. 

Officer.     We  have  the  man  that  rail'd 
against  thy  birth. 


William.     Tear  out  his  tongue. 
Officer.  He  shall  not  rail  again. 

He  said    that  he  should  see  confusion 

fall 
On  thee  and  on  thine  house. 

William.  Tear  out  his  eyes, 

And  plunge  him  into  prison. 

Officer.  It  shall  be  done. 

[Exit  Officer. 
William.    Look  not  amazed,  fair  earl ! 
Better  leave  undone 
Than  do  by  halves  —  tongueless  and  eye- 
less, prison'd  — 
Harold.     Better  methinks   have  slain 

the  man  at  once ! 
William.     We  have  respect  for  man's 
immortal  soul, 
We  seldom   take  man's   life,  except   in 

war; 
It  frights  the  traitor  more  to  maim  and 
blind. 
Harold.     In  mine  own  land  I  should 
have  scorn'd  the  man, 
Or  lash'd  his  rascal  back,  and  let  him  go. 
William.     And  let  him  go?     To  slan- 
der thee  again ! 
Yet  in  thine  own  land  in  thy  father's  day 
They  blinded  my  young  kinsman,  Alfred 

—  ay, 
Some  said  it  was  thy  father's  deed. 
Harold.  They  lied. 

William.     But  thou  and  he  —  whom 
at  thy  word,  for  thou 
Art  known  a  speaker  of  the  truth,  I  free 
From  this  foul  charge  — 
.    Harold.       Nay,  nay,  he  freed  himself 
By  oath    and   compurgation    from    the 

charge. 
The  king,  the  lords,  the  people  clear'd 
him  of  it. 
William.     But  thou  and  he  drove  our 
good  Normans  out 
From  England,  and  this  rankles  in  us  yet. 
Archbishop  Robert   hardly  scaped  with 
life. 
Harold.     Archbishop  Robert !  Robert 
the  Archbishop ! 
Robert  of  Jumieges,  he  that  — 

Malet.  Quiet !  quiet ! 

Harold.     Count !    if  there   sat  within 

the  Norman  chair 

A  ruler  all  for  England  —  one  who  fill'd 

All  offices,  all  bishopricks  with  English  — 


HAROLD. 


651 


We  could  not  move  from  Dover  to  the 

Humber 
Saving  thro'  Norman  bishopricks  —  I  say 
Ye   would    applaud    that   Norman   who 

should  drive 
The  stranger  to  the  fiends ! 

William.  Why,  that  is  reason  ! 

Warrior  thou  art,  and  mighty  wise  withal ! 
Ay,  ay,  but   many  among  our   Norman 

lords 
Hate  thee  for  this,  and  press  upon  me  — 

saying 
God  and  the  sea  have  given  thee  to  our 

hands  — 
To    plunge   thee   into    life-long    prison 

here :  — 
Yet  I  hold  out  against  them,  as  I  may, 
Yea  —  would   hold   out,   yea,   tho'   they 

should  revolt  — 
For   thou   hast   done    the   battle  in  my 

cause; 
I  am  thy  fastest  friend  in  Normandy. 
Harold.     I  am  doubly  bound  to  thee 

...  if  this  be  so. 
William.     And    I   would   bind    thee 
more,  and  would  myself 
Be  bounden  to  thee  more. 

Harold.  Then  let  me  hence 

With  Wulfnoth  to  King  Edward. 

William.  So  we  will. 

We  hear  he  hath  not  long  to  live. 

Harold.  It  may  be. 

William.     Why  then  the  heir  of  Eng- 
land, who  is  he? 
Harold.     The  Atheling  is  nearest   to 

the  throne. 
William.      But    sickly,    slight,    half- 
witted and  a  child, 
Will  England  have  him  king? 

Harold.  It  may  be,  no. 

William.     And    hath    King   Edward 

not  pronounced  his  heir? 
Harold.     Not  that  I  know. 
William.  When  he  was  here 

in  Normandy, 
He  loved  us  and  we  him,  because  we 

found  him 
A  Norman  of  the  Normans. 

Harold.  So  did  we. 

William.     A   gentle,   gracious,   pure 
and  saintly  man! 
And  grateful  to  the  hand  that  shielded 
him, 


He  promised  that  if  ever  he  were  king 
In  England,  he  would   give   his   kingly 

voice 
To  me  as  his  successor.     Knowest  thou 


this? 
Harold. 
William. 


I  learn  it  now. 
Thou  knowest  I  am  his 
cousin, 
And  that  my  wife  descends  from  Alfred? 
Harold.  Ay. 

William.     Who  hath   a  better  claim 
then  to  the  crown 
So  that  ye  will  not  crown  the  Atheling? 
Harold.     None   that    I    know  ...  if 
that  but  hung  upon 
King  Edward's  will. 

William.    Wilt  thou  uphold  my  claim  ? 

Malet  {aside  to  Harold).     Be  careful 

of  thine  answer,  my  good  friend. 

Wulfnoth    {aside  to   Harold).      Oh! 

Harold,  for  my  sake  and  for  thine 

own ! 

Harold.      Ay  ...  if   the   king   have 

not  revoked  his  promise. 
William.     But  hath  he  done  it  then? 
Harold.  Not  that  I  know. 

William.     Good,  good,  and  thou  wilt 

help  me  to  the  crown? 
Harold.     Ay  ...  if   the   Witan   will 

consent  to  this. 
William.    Thou  art  the  mightiest  voice 
in  England,  man, 
Thy  voice  will  lead  the  Witan  —  shall  I 
have  it? 
Wulfnoth    {aside  to   Harold).      Oh! 
Harold,  if  thou  love  thine  Edith, 
ay. 
Harold.     Ay,  if — 
Malet  {aside  to  Harold).     Thine  *  ifs ' 

will  sear  thine  eyes  out  —  ay. 
William.     I  ask  thee,  wilt  thou  help 
me  to  the  crown? 
And  I  will  make  thee  my  great  Earl  of 

Earls, 
Foremost  in  England  and  in  Normandy; 
Thou  shalt  be  verily  king  —  all  but  the 

name  — 
For  I  shall  most  sojourn  in  Normandy; 
And  thou  be  my  vice-king  in  England. 
Speak. 
Wulfnoth    {aside    to    Harold).      Ay, 
brother  —  for  the  sake  of  England 
—  ay. 


652 


HAROLD. 


Harold.     My  lord  — 

Malet  {aside  to  Harold).     Take  heed 

now. 
Harold.        Ay. 

IVilliam.  I  am  content, 

For  thou  art  truthful,  and  thy  word  thy 

bond. 

To-morrow  will   we    ride   with    thee   to 

Harfleur.  [Exit  William. 

Malet.     Harold,  I  am  thy  friend,  one 

life  with  thee, 

And  even  as  I  should  bless  thee  saving 

mine, 
I  thank  thee  now  for  having  saved  thy- 
self. [Exit  Malet. 
Harold.     For   having   lost   myself  to 
save  myself, 
Said  •  ay '  when  I  meant  '  no,'  lied  like 

a  lad 
That   dreads  the  pendent  scourge,  said 

'  ay '  for  '  no ' ! 
Ay !  No  !  —  he  hath  not   bound  me  by 

an  oath  — 
Is  •  ay '  an   oath  ?   is  '  ay '  strong  as  an 

oath? 
Or  is  it  the  same  sin  to  break  my  word 
As   break   mine   oath?      He    call'd   my 

word  my  bond ! 
He  is  a  liar  who  knows  I  am  a  liar, 
And  makes  believe  that  he  believes  my 

word  — 
The  crime  be  on  his  head  —  notbounden 
—  no. 
[Suddenly  doors  are  flung  open,  dis- 
covering in   an  inner  hall  Count 
William   in  his  state  robes,  seated 
upon     his      throne,     between      two 
Bishops,    Odo    of    Bayeux    being 
one  :  in  the  centre  of  the  hall  an  ark 
covered  with  cloth  of  gold;  and  on 
either  side  of  it  the  Norman  barons. 

Enter  a  Jailor  before  William's  throjie. 

William    {to  Jailor).        Knave,   hast 

thou  let  thy  prisoner  scape? 

Jailor.  Sir  Count, 

He  had  but  one  foot,  he  must  have  hopt 

away, 
Yea,   some    familiar  spirit     must    have 
help'd  him. 
William.     Woe  knave  to  thy  familiar 
and  to  thee ! 
Give  me  thy  keys.       [  They  fall  clashing. 


Nay  let  them  lie.     Stand  there  and  wait 
my  will. 

[  The  Jailor  stands  aside. 

William    {to   Harold).       Hast    thou 

such  trustless  jailors  in  thy  North? 

Harold.     We    have    few   prisoners  in 

mine  earldom  there, 

So  less  chance  for  false  keepers. 

William.  We  have  heard 

Of  thy  just,  mild,  and  equal  governance ; 
Honour  to  thee!  thou  art  perfect  in  all 

honour ! 
Thy  naked  word  thy  bond!    confirm  it 

now 
Before  our  gather'd  Norman  baronage, 
For  they  will   not  believe   thee  —  as   I 
believe. 
[Descends  from  his  throne  and  stands 
by  the  ark. 
Let  all  men   here    bear   witness  of  our 
bond  ! 
[Beckons  to  Harold,  who  advances. 

{Enter  Malet  behind  him.) 

Lay  thou   thy   hand   upon   this   golden 

pall! 
Behold  the  jewel  of  St.  Pancratius 
Woven   into  the  gold.     Swear  thou  on 

this! 
Harold.     What  should  I  swear?   Why 

should  I  swear  on  this? 
William  {savagely).     Swear   thou  to 

help  me  to  the  crown  of  England. 
Malet     {whispering    Harold).       My 

friend,  thou  hast  gone  too  far  to 

palter  now. 
Wulfnoth  {whispering Harold).  Swear 

thou  to-day,   to-morrow   is   thine 

own. 
Harold.     I  swear  to  help  thee  to  the 

crown  of  England  .   .  . 
According  as  King  Edward  promises. 
William.      Thou   must   swear    abso- 
lutely, noble  Earl. 
Malet  {whispering).     Delay  is  death 

to  thee,  ruin  to  England. 
Wulfnoth  {whispering).   Swear,  dear- 
est brother,  I  beseech  thee,  swear  ! 
Harold    {putting    his    hand   on   the 

jewel).     I  swear  to  help  thee  to 

the  crown  of  England. 
William.      Thanks,  truthful  Earl;    I 

did  not  doubt  thy  word, 


SCENE   II. 


HAROLD. 


653 


But  that  my  barons   might  believe  thy 

word, 
And  that  the  Holy  Saints  of  Normandy 
When  thou  art  home  in  England,  with 

thine  own, 
Might  strengthen  thee  in  keeping  of  thy 

word, 
I    made     thee   swear.  —  Show   him    by 

whom  he  hath  sworn. 
[  The  two  Bishops  advance,  and  raise 

the  cloth  of  gold.      '1  he  bodies  and 

bones  of  saints  are  seen  lying  in 

the  ark. 
The  holy  bones  of  all  the  Canonised 
From  all  the  holiest  shrines  in  Normandy  ! 
Harold.     Horrible  !    [They  let  the  cloth 

fall  again. 
William.     Ay,  for  thou  hast  sworn  an 

oath 
Which,   if  not   kept,   would   make   the 

hard  earth  rive 
To  the  very  Devil's  horns,  the  bright  sky 

cleave 
To  the  very  feet  of  God,  and  send  her 

hosts 
Of  injured   Saints   to   scatter  sparks  of 

plague 
Thro'  all  your  cities,  blast  your  infants, 

dash 
The  torch  of  war  among  your  standing 

corn, 
Dabble  your  hearths  with  your  own  blood. 

—  Enough ! 
Thou  wilt  not  break  it !     I,  the  Count  — 

the  King  — 
Thy  friend  —  am  grateful  for  thine  honest 

oath, 
Not  coming  fiercely  like  a  conqueror,  now, 
But  softly  as  a  bridegroom  to  his  own. 
For  I  shall  rule  according  to  your  laws, 
And   make   your   ever-jarring  Earldoms 

move 
To  music  and  in  order  —  Angle,  Jute, 
Dane,  Saxon,  Norman,  help  to  build  a 

throne 
Out-towering  hers  of  France.  .  .  .     The 

wind  is  fair 
For    England    now.  .   .  .     To-night   we 

will  be  merry. 
To-morrow  will  I  ride  with  thee  to  Har- 

fieur. 
[Exeunt  William  and  all  the  Nor- 
man barons,  etc, 


Harold.     To-night  we  will  be  merry  — 

and  to-morrow  — 
Juggler  and  bastard  —  bastard  —  he  hates 

that  most  — 
William  the  tanner's   bastard !      Would 

he  heard  me ! 

0  God,  that  I  were  in  some  wide,  waste 

field 
With    nothing    but   my   battle-axe    and 

him 
To  spatter  his  brains !      Why  let  earth 

rive,  gulf  in 
These  cursed  Normans  —  yea  and  mine 

own  self. 
Cleave  heaven,  and  send  thy  saints  that 

I  may  say 
Ev'n    to   their   faces,   '  If  ye   side   with 

William 
Ye  are  not  noble.'     How  their   pointed 

fingers 
Glared  at  me !     Am  I  Harold,  Harold, 

son 
Of  our  great    Godwin?       Lo !   I    touch 

mine  arms, 
My   limbs  —  they   are   not  mine  —  they 

are  a  liar's  — 

1  mean  to  be  a  liar  —  I  am  not  bound  — 
Stigand    shall    give   me    absolution    for 

it  — 
Did  the  chest  move?    did  it   move?    I 

am  utter  craven ! 
O   Wulfnoth,    Wulfnoth,   brother,   thou 

hast  betray'd  me ! 
Wulfnoth.       Forgive   me,   brother,    I 

will  live  here  and  die. 

Enter  Page. 

Page.      My   lord !    the    Duke   awaits 
thee  at  the  banquet. 

Harold.     Where  they  eat  dead  men's 
flesh,  and  drink  their  blood. 

Page.     My  lord  — 

Harold.     I  know  your  Norman  cook- 
ery is  so  spiced, 
It  masks  all  this. 

Page.  My   lord !    thou   art 

white  as  death. 

Harold.     With  looking  on  the  dead. 
Am  I  so  white? 
Thy  duke  will  seem  the  darker.     Hence, 
I  follow.  [Exeunt, 


654 


HAROLD. 


act  in. 


ACT  III. 

SCENE  I.  —  The  King's  Palace. 
London. 

King  Edward  dying  on  a  couch,  and  by 
him  standing  the  Queen,  Harold, 
Archbishop  Stigand,  Gurth,  Leof- 
win,  Archbishop  Aldred,  Aldwyth, 
and  Edith. 

Stigand.      Sleeping   or   dying   there? 
If  this  be  death, 
Then   our  great  council  wait   to  crown 

thee  king  — 
Come  hither,  I  have  a  power; 

[To  Harold. 
They  call  me  near,  for  I  am  close  to  thee 
And  England — I,  old  shrivell'd  Stigand, 

I, 
Dry  as  an  old  wood-fungus  on  a  dead 

tree. 
I  have  a  power  ! 

See  here  this  little  key  about  my  neck ! 
There  lies  a  treasure  buried  down  in  Ely : 
If  e'er    the  Norman  grow  too  hard  for 

thee, 
Ask  me  for  this  at  thy  most  need,  son 

Harold, 
At  thy  most  need  —  not  sooner. 

Harold.  So  I  will. 

Stigand.    Red  gold  —  a  hundred  purses 

—  yea,  and  more  ! 
If  thou  canst  make  a  wholesome  use  of 

these 
To   chink    against    the    Norman,    I    do 

believe 
My  old  crook'd  spine  would  bud  out  two 

young  wings 
To  fly  to  heaven  straight  with. 

Harold.  Thank  thee,  father ! 

Thou  art  English,  Edward  too  is  English 

now, 
He  hath  clean  repented  of  his  Norman- 
ism. 
Stigand.     Ay,  as  the  libertine  repents 

who  cannot 
Make  done  undone,  when  thro'  his  dying 

sense 
Shrills  '  lost  thro'  thee.'     They  have  built 

their  castles  here; 
Our  priories  are  Norman;  the  Norman 

adder 


Hath   bitten   us;   we  are  poison'd:  our 

dear  England 
Is  demi-Norman.     He  !  — 

^Pointing  to  King  Edward,  sleeping. 
Harold.  I  would  I  were 

As  holy  and  as  passionless  as  he  ! 
That  I  might  rest  as  calmly !     Look  at 

him — * 
The  rosy  face,  and  long  down-silvering 

beard, 
The   brows    unwrinkled    as    a    summer 

mere. — 
Stigand.     A  summer  mere  with  sudden 

wreck ful  gusts 
From  a  side-gorge.     Passionless?     How 

he  flamed 
When    Tostig's   anger'd   earldom   flung 

him,  nay, 
He  fain  had  calcined  all  Northumbria 
To  one  black  ash,  but  that  thy  patriot 

passion 
Siding   with  our   great  Council   against 

Tostig, 
Out-passion'd   his!     Holy?  ay,  ay,  for- 
sooth, 
A  conscience  for  his  own  soul,  not  his 

realm; 
A   twilight    conscience   lighted   thro'   a 

chink; 
Thine  by  the  sun;  nay,  by  some  sun  to  be, 
When  all  the  world  hath  learnt  to  speak 

the  truth, 
And  lying  were  self-murder  by  that  state 
Which  was  the  exception. 

Harold.     That  sun  may  God  speed ! 
Stigand.     Come,    Harold,   shake   the 

cloud  off! 
Harold.  Can  I,  father? 

Our  Tostig  parted  cursing  me  and  Eng- 
land; 
Our  sister  hates  us  for  his  banishment; 
He  hath  gone  to  kindle  Norway  against 

England, 
And  Wulfnoth  is  alone  in  Normandy. 
For  when  I  rode  with  William  down  to 

Harfleur, 
'Wulfnoth  is  sick,'  he  said;   'he  cannot 

follow;' 
Then  with  that  friendly-fiendly  smile  of 

his, 
'  We  have  learnt  to  love  him,  let  him  a 

little  longer 
Remain  a  hostage  for  the  loyalty 


SCENE   I. 


HAROLD. 


655 


Of  Godwin's  house.'     As  far  as  touches 

Wulfnoth 
I  that  so  prized  plain  word  and  naked 

truth 
Have  sinn'd  against  it  —  all  in  vain. 

Leofwin.  Good  brother, 

By  all  the  truths  that  ever  priest  hath 

preach'd, 
Of  all  the  lies  that  ever  men  have  lied, 
Thine  is  the  pardonablest. 

Harold.  May  be  so  ! 

I  think  it  so,  I  think  I  am  a  fool 
To  think  it  can  be  otherwise  than  so. 
Stigand.     Tut,    tut,   I   have    absolved 

thee  :  dost  thou  scorn  me, 
Because  I  had  my  Canterbury  pallium, 
From  one  whom  they  dispoped  ? 

Harold.  No,  Stigand,  no  ! 

Stigand.     Is  naked  truth   actable   in 

true  life? 
I   have   heard   a   saying   of    thy   father 

Godwin, 
That,  were  a  man  of  state  nakedly  true, 
Men  would  but  take  him  for  the  craftier 

liar. 
Leofwin.     Be  men   less  delicate  than 

the  Devil  himself  ? 
I  thought  that  naked  Truth  would  shame 

the  Devil 
The  Devil  is  so  modest. 

Gurth.  He  never  said  it ! 

Leofwin.     Be  thou  not  stupid-honest, 

brother  Gurth ! 
Harold.     Better  to  be  a  liar's  dog,  and 

hold 
My    master    honest,    than    believe    that 

lying 
And   ruling   men    are    fatal    twins    that 

cannot 
Move  one  without  the  other.     Edward 

wakes !  — 
Dazed  —  he  hath  seen  a  vision. 

Edward.  The  green  tree  ! 

Then  a  great  Angel  past  along  the  highest 
Crying  'the  doom   of  England,'  and  at 

once 
He  stood  beside  me,  in  his  grasp  a  sword 
Of  lightnings,  wherewithal  he  cleft  the 

tree 
From  off  the  bearing  trunk,  and  hurl'd  it 

from  him 
Three  fields  away,  and  then  he  dash'd 

and  drench'd, 


He    dyed,   he    soak'd    the   trunk   with 

human  blood, 
And  brought    the   sunder'd   tree   again, 

and  set  it 
Straight  on  the  trunk,  that  thus  baptized 

in  blood 
Grew  ever  high  and  higher,  beyond  my 

seeing, 
And  shot  out  sidelong  boughs  across  the 

deep 
That  dropt  themselves,  and  rooted  in  far 

isles 
Beyond  my  seeing :  and  the  great  Angel 

rose 
And  past  again  along  the  highest  crying 
'The  doom  of  England  ! '  —  Tostig,  raise 

my  head  !        [Falls  back  senseless. 
Harold  {raising  him).        Let  Harold 

serve  for  Tostig ! 

Queen.  Harold  served 

Tostig  so  ill,  he  cannot  serve  for  Tostig ! 

Ay,  raise  his  head,  for  thou  hast  laid  it  low  ! 

The   sickness    of    our    saintly   king,    for 

whom 
My  prayers  go  up  as  fast  as  my  tears  fall, 
I  well  believe,  hath  mainly  drawn  itself 
From  lack  of  Tostig  —  thou  hast  banish'd 

him. 
Harold.     Nay  —  but  the  council,  and 

the  king  himself. 
Queen.     Thou  hatest  him,  hatest  him. 
Harold  {coldly).  Ay — Stigand, 

unriddle 
This  vision,  canst  thou? 

Stigand.  Dotage ! 

Edward  {starting  up) .      It  is  finish'd. 
I  have  built  the  Lord  a  house  —  the  Lord 

hath  dwelt 
In   darkness.     I  have  built  the  Lord  a 

house  — 
Palms,     flowers,    pomegranates,   golden 

cherubim 
With  twenty-cubit   wings   from   wall  to 

wall  — 
I   have  built  the    Lord  a  house  —  sing, 

Asaph  !  clash 
The  cymbal,  Heman  !  blow  the  trumpet, 

priest ! 
Fall,  cloud,  and  fill  the  house  —  lo  !  my 

two  pillars, 
Jachin  and  Boaz  !  — 

[Seeing  Harold  and  Gurth. 
Harold,  Gurth,  —  where  am  I? 


656 


HAROLD. 


act  in. 


Where  is  the  charter  of  our  Westminster? 
Stigand.     It   lies   beside    thee,    king, 

upon  thy  bed. 
Edward.     Sign,  sign  at  once  —  take, 
sign  it,  Stigand,  Aldred ! 
Sign  it,  my  good  son  Harold,  Gurth,  and 

Leofwin, 
Sign  it,  my  queen  ! 

All.  We  have  sign'd  it. 

Edward.  It  is  finish'd  ! 

The     kingliest  Abbey   in    all   Christian 

lands, 
The  lordliest,  loftiest  minster  ever  built 
To  Holy  Peter  in  our  English  isle ! 
Let  me  be  buried  there,  and  all  our  kings, 
And  all  our  just  and  wise  and  holy  men 
That    shall    be    born   hereafter.      It   is 

finish'd ! 
Hast  thou  had  absolution  for  thine  oath  ? 
[  To  Harold. 
Harold.     Stigand  hath  given  me  abso- 
lution for  it. 
Edward.     Stigand    is    not    canonical 
enough 
To  save  thee  from  the  wrath  of  Norman 
Saints. 
Stigand.     Norman  enough  !     Be  there 
no  Saints  of  England 
To  help  us  from  their  brethren  yonder? 

Edward.  Prelate, 

The  Saints  are  one,  but  those  of  Norman- 
land 
Are  mightier  than  our  own.     Ask  it  of 
Aldred.  [  To  Harold. 

Aldred.     It  shall  be  granted  him,  my 
king;   for  he 
Who  vows  a  vow  to  strangle   his  own 

mother 
Is  guiltier  keeping  this,  than  breaking  it. 
Edward.     O  friends,  I  shall  not  over- 
live the  day. 
Stigand.     Why    then    -the    throne    is 
empty.     Who  inherits? 
For  tho'  we  be  not  bound  by  the  king's 

voice 
In   making  of  a  king,   yet   the   king's 

voice 
Is    much    toward    his    making.      Who 

inherits  ? 
Edgar  the  Atheling? 

Edward.  No,  no,  but  Harold. 

I  love  him:  he  hath  served  me;  none 
but  he 


Can  rule  all  England.     Yet  the  curse  is 

on  him 
For  swearing   falsely   by   those   blessed 

bones; 
He  did  not  mean  to  keep  his  vow. 

Harold.  Not  mean 

To  make  our  England  Norman. 

Edward.  There  spake  Godwin, 

Who  hated  all  the  Normans;   but  their 

Saints 
Have  heard  thee,  Harold. 

Ediih.  O  my  lord,  my  king ! 

He  knew  not  whom  he  sware  by. 

Edward.  Yea,  1  know 

He   knew  not,  but   those  heavenly  ears 

have  heard, 
Their  curse  is  on  him;  wilt  thou  bring 

another, 
Edith,  upon  his  head? 

Edith.  No,  no,  not  I. 

Edward.     Why  then,  thou  must  not 

wed  him. 
Harold.  Wherefore,  wherefore? 

Edward.     O  son,  when  thou  didst  tell 
me  of  thine  oath, 
I  sorrow'd  for  my  random  promise  given 
To  yon  fox-lion.     I  did  not  dream  then 
I  should  be  king.  —  My  son,  the  Saints 

are  virgins; 
They  love  the  white  rose  of  virginity, 
The  cold,  white  lily  blowing  in  her  cell : 
I   have   been  myself  a  virgin;    and    I 

sware 
To  consecrate  my  virgin  here  to  heaven  — 
The  silent,  cloister'd,  solitary  life, 
A  life  of  life-long  prayer  against  the  curse 
That  lies  on  thee  and  England. 

Harold.  No,  no,  no. 

Edward.     Treble  denial  of  the  tongue 
of  flesh, 
Like  Peter's  when  he  fell,  and  thou  wilt 

have 
To  wail  for  it  like  Peter.     O  my  son ! 
Are   all   oaths   to   be   broken   then,   all 

promises 
Made  in  our  agony  for  help  from  heaven? 
Son,  there  is  one  who  loves  thee  :  and  a 

wife, 
What  matters  who,  so  she  be  serviceable 
In  all  obedience,  as  mine  own  hath  been  : 
God  bless  thee,  wedded  daughter. 

[Laying  his  hand  on  the  Queen's  head. 
Queen.  Bless  thou  too 


SCENE  I. 


HAROLD. 


657 


That   brother  whom  I  love  beyond   the 

rest, 
My  banish'd  Tostig. 

Edivard.  All  the  sweet  Saints 

bless  him ! 
Spare    and   forbear   him,  Harold,  if  he 

comes ! 
And  let  him  pass  unscathed;   he  loves 

me,  Harold ! 
Be  kindly  to  the  Normans  left  among  us, 
Who  follow'd  me  for  love  !  and  dear  son, 

swear 
When  thou  art  king,  to  see  my  solemn 

vow 
Accomplish'd. 

Harold.  Nay,  dear  lord,  for  I  have 

sworn 
Not  to  swear  falsely  twice. 

Edward.  Thou  wilt  not  swear? 

Harold.     I  cannot. 

Edward.  Then  on  thee  remains 

the  curse, 
Harold,  if  thou  embrace  her :  and  on  thee, 
Edith,  if  thou  abide  it,  — 

[  The  King  swoons ;  Edith  falls  and 
kneels  by  the  couch. 
Stigand.  He  hath  swoon'd  ! 

Death?  .  .  .  no,  as  yet  a  breath. 

Harold.  Look  up  !  look  up  ! 

Edith ! 

Aldred.     Confuse  her  not;    she  hath 
begun 
Her  life-long  prayer  for  thee. 

Aldwyth.  O  noble  Harold, 

I  would  thou  couldst  have  sworn. 

Harold.  For  thine  own  pleasure? 

Aldwyth.     No,  but  to  please  our  dying 
king,  and  those 
Who   make   thy   good    their   own  —  all 
England,  Earl. 
Aldred.     I  would   thou   couldst  have 
sworn.     Our  holy  king 
Hath   given   his  virgin   lamb    to    Holy 

Church 
To  save  thee  from  the  curse. 

Harold.  Alas  !  poor  man, 

His  promise  brought  it  on  me. 

Aldred.  O  good  son ! 

That  knowledge  made  him  all  the  care- 

'  fuller 
To  find  a  means  whereby  the  curse  might 

glance 
From  thee  and  England. 
2U 


Harold.  Father,  we  so  loved  — 

Aldred.      The    more    the    love,    the 
mightier  is  the  prayer; 
The  more  the  love,  the  more  acceptable 
The    sacrifice    of    both    your    loves    to 

heaven. 
No   sacrifice   to   heaven,   no   help   from 

heaven; 
That  runs  thro'  all  the  faiths  of  all  the 

world. 
And  sacrifice  there  must  be,  for  the  king 
Is  holy,  and  hath  talk'd  with  God,  and 

seen 
A  shadowing  horror;   there  are  signs  in 
heaven  — 
Harold.      Your  comet  came  and  went. 
Aldred.  And  signs  on  earth  ! 

Knowest  thou  Senlac  hill? 

Harold.  I  know  all  Sussex; 

A    good    entrenchment    for   a   perilous 

hour ! 

Aldred.     Pray    God    that    come    not 

suddenly  !     There  is  one 

Who  passing  by  that   hill  three  nights 

ago  — 
He  shook  so  that  he  scarce  could  out 

with  it  — 
Heard,  heard  — 

Harold.     The  wind  in  his  hair? 
Aldred.  A  ghostly  horn 

Blowing   continually,   and    faint   battle- 
hymns, 
And  cries,  and  clashes,  and  the  groans  of 

men; 
And  dreadful   shadows  strove  upon  the 

hill, 
And  dreadful  lights  crept  up  from  out 

the  marsh  — 
Corpse-candles    gliding    over    nameless 
graves  — < 
Harold.     At  Senlac? 
Aldred.  Senlac. 

Edward  {waking) .  Senlac !  Sanguelac, 
The  Lake  of  Blood ! 

Stigand.     This  lightning  before  death 

Plays   on   the  word,  —  and   Normanises 

too! 

Harold.     Hush,  father,  hush  ! 

1  Edivard.  Thou  uncanonical  fool, 

Wilt  thou  play  with  the  thunder?    North 

and  South 
'Blunder  together,  showers  of  blood  arq 
^.       blown 


658 


HAROLD. 


ACT   III. 


Before  a  never  ending  blast,  and  hiss 
Against  the  blaze  they  cannot  quench  — 

a  lake, 
A  sea   of  blood  —  we   are   drown'd   in 

blood  —  for  God 
Has    fill'd   the    quiver,    and    Death   has 

drawn  the  bow  — 
Sanguelac  !    Sanguelac  !   the  arrow  !  the 

arrow !  [Dies, 

Stigand.     It  is  the  arrow  of  death  in 

his  own  heart  — 
And  our  great  council  wait  to  crown  thee 

king. 

SCENE   II.  — In  the   Garden.    The 
King's  House  near  London. 

Edith.      Crown'd,    crown'd    and   lost, 
crown'd  king  —  and  lost  to  me  ! 

{Singing.) 

Two  young  lovers  in  winter  weather, 

None  to  guide  them, 
Walk'd  at  night  on  the  misty  heather; 
Night,  as  black  as  a  raven's  feather; 
Both  were  lost  and  found  together, 

None  beside  them. 

That  is  the  burthen  of  it  —  lost  and  found 
Together  in  the  cruel  river  Swale 
A  hundred  years  ago;    and  there's  an- 
other, 

Lost,  lost,  the  light  of  day, 

To  which  the  lover  answers  lovingly, 

'  I  am  beside  thee.'  * 

Lost,  lost,  we  have  lost  the  way. 

'  Love,  I  will  guide  thee.' 
Whither,  oh,  whither?  into  the  river, 
Where  we  two  may  be  lost  together, 
And  lost  for  ever  ?     '  Oh  !   never,  oh  ! 

never, 
Tho'  we  be  lost  and  be  found  together.' 

Some  think   they  loved  within  the  pale 

forbidden 
By  Holy  Church  :  but  who  shall  say?  the 

truth 
Was  lost  in  that  fierce  North,  where  they 

were  lost, 


Where   all  good  things  are  lost,  where 

Tostig  lost 
The    good  hearts  of  his  people.     It  is 

Harold ! 

{Enter  Harold.) 

Harold  the  King ! 

Harold.  Call  me  not  King,  but 

Harold. 
Edith.     Nay,  thou  art  King ! 
Harold.  Thine,  thine,  or  King 

or  churl ! 
My  girl,  thou  hast  been  weeping:  turn 

not  thou 
Thy  face  away,  but  rather  let  me  be 
King  of  the  moment  to  thee,  and  com- 
mand 
That  kiss  my  due  when   subject,  which 

will  make 
My  kingship  kinglier  to  me  than  to  reign 
King  of  the  world  without  it. 

Edith.  Ask  me  not, 

Lest  I  should   yield  it,  and  the  second 

curse 
Descend  upon  thine  head,  and  thou  be 

only 
King  of  the  moment  over  England. 

Harold.  Edith, 

Tho'  somewhat  less  a  king  to  my  true  self 
Than  ere  they  crown'd  me  one,  for  I  have 

lost 
Somewhat  of  upright  stature  thro'  mine 

oath, 
Yet  thee  I  would  not  lose,  and  sell  not 

thou 
Our   living    passion   for   a   dead    man's 

dream; 
Stigand  believed  he  knew  not  what  he 

spake. 
O  God  !  I  cannot  help  it,  but  at  times 
They  seem  to  me  too   narrow,  all  the 

faiths 
Of  this  grown  world  of  ours,  whose  baby 

eye 
Saw  them  sufficient.     Fool  and  wise,  I 

fear 
This   curse    and   scorn   it.     But  a  little 

light !  — 
And  on  it  falls  the  shadow  of  the  priest; 
Heaven    yield    us    more !     for    better, 

Woden,  all 
Our    cancell'd    warrior-gods,   our    grim 

Walhalla, 


HAROLD. 


659 


Eternal   war,t>  than    that    the    Saints    at 

peace 
The  Holiest  of  our  Holiest  one  should  be 
This  William's  fellow-tricksters;  — better 

die 
Than  credit  this,  for  death  is  death,  or 

else 
Lifts  us  beyond  the  lie.     Kiss  me  —  thou 

art  not 
A  holy  sister  yet,  my  girl,  to  fear 
There  might  be  more  than  brother  in  my 

kiss, 
And  more  than  sister  in  thine  own. 
Edith.  I  dare  not. 

Harold.      Scared    by    the    church  — 
'  Love  for  a  whole  life  long ' 
When  was  that  sung? 

Edith.  Here  to  the  nightingales. 

Harold.     Their  anthems  of  no  church, 
how  sweet  they  are  ! 
Nor  kingly  priest,  nor  priestly  king  to 

cross 
Their  billings  ere  they  nest. 

Edith.  They  are  but  of  spring, 

They  fly  the  winter  change  —  not  so  with 

us  — 
No  wings  to  come  and  go. 

Harold.  But  wing'd  souls  flying 

Beyond  all  change  and   in   the  eternal 

distance 
To  settle  on  the  Truth. 

Edith.  They  are  not  so  true, 

They  change  their  mates. 

Harold.     Do  they?  I  did  not  know  it. 
Edith.     They  say  thou  art  to  wed  the 

Lady  Aldwyth. 
Harold.     They  say,  they  say. 
Edith.  If  this  be  politic, 

And  well  for  thee  and  England  —  and  for 

her  — 
Care  not  for  me  who  love  thee. 

Gurth  {calling).  Harold,  Harold  ! 

Harold.     The  voice  of  Gurth  !   {Enter 
Gurth.)     Good   even,  my   good 
brother ! 
Gurth.     Good  even,  gentle  Edith. 
Edith.  Good  even,  Gurth. 

Gurth.     Ill   news   hath    come !      Our 
hapless  brother,  Tostig  — 
He,   and   the    giant   King   of    Norway, 

Harold 
Hardrada —  Scotland,  Ireland,  Iceland, 
Orkney, 


Are  landed  North  of  Humber,  and  in  a 

field 
So  packt  with  carnage  that  the  dykes  and 

brooks 
Were   bridged   and  damm'd  with  dead, 

have  overthrown 
Morcar  and  Edwin. 

Harold.  Well  then,  we  must 

fight. 
How  blows  the  wind? 

Gurth.  Against  St.  Valery 

And  William. 

Harold.  Well  then,  we  will  to  the 

,  North. 
Gurth.     Ay,    but    worse    news:    this 
•William  sent  to  Rome, 
Swearing    thou    swarest    falsely   by   his 

Saints : 
The  Pope  and  that  Archdeacon  Hilde- 

brand 
His  master,  heard  him,  and  have  sent  him 

back 
A  holy  gonfanon,  and  a  blessed  hair 
Of  Peter,  and  all  France,  all  Burgundy, 
Poitou,  all  Christendom  is  raised  against 

thee; 
He  hath  cursed  thee,  and  all  those  who 

fight  for  thee, 
And  given  thy  realm  of  England  to  the 
bastard. 
Harold.     Ha!  ha! 

Edith.     Oh  !  laugh  not !  .  .  .  Strange 
and  ghastly  in  the  gloom 
And  shadowing  of  this  double  thunder- 
cloud 
That  lours  on  England  —  laughter ! 

Harold.  No,  not  strange  ! 

This  was  old  human  laughter  in  old  Rome 
Before  a  Pope  was  born,  when  that  which 

reign'd 
CalFd  itself  God.  —  A  kindly  rendering 
Of 'Render  unto  Caesar.' .  .  .     The  Good 

Shepherd ! 
Take  this,  and  render  that. 

Gurth.  They  have  taken  York. 

Harold.     The  Lord  was  God  and  came 

as  man  —  the  Pope 

Is  man  and  comes  as  God.  —  York  taken? 

Gurth.  Yea, 

Tostig  hath  taken  York  ! 

Harold.  To  York  then.     Edith, 

Hadst  thou  been   braver,  I  had  better 
braved 


66o 


HAROLD. 


ACT   IV. 


All 


and 


but  I  love  thee  and  thou  me 

that 
Remains    beyond   all   chances    and    all 

churches, 
And  that  thou  knowest. 

Edith.  Ay,  but  take  back  thy  ring. 
It  burns  my  hand — a  curse  to  thee  and  me. 
I  dare  not  wear  it. 

\_Proffers  Harold  the  ring,  which  he  takes. 

Harold.     But  I  dare.     God  with  thee  ! 

[Exeunt  Harold  and  Gurth. 

Edith.     The  King  hath  cursed  him,  if 

he  marry  me; 
The  Pope  hath  cursed  him,  marry  me  or 

no ! 
God  help  me  !  I  know  nothing — can  but 

pray 
For  Harold  —  pray,  pray,  pray  —  no  help 

but  prayer, 
A  breath  that  fleets  beyond  this  iron  world, 
And  touches  Him  that  made  it. 


ACT   IV. 

SCENE  I.  — In  Northumbria. 

Archbishop  Aldred,  Morcar,  Edwin, 
and  Forces.  Enter  Harold.  The 
standard  of  the  golden  Dragon  of  Wes- 
sex  preceding  him. 

Harold.     What !  are  thy  people  sullen 
from  defeat? 
Our  Wessex    dragon    flies   beyond    the 

Humber, 
No  voice  to  greet  it. 

Edwin.  Let  not  our  great  king 

Believe  us  sullen  —  only  shamed  to  the 

quick 
Before    the    king  —  as   having   been   so 

bruised 
By  Harold,  king  of  Norway;   but  our  help 
Is  Harold,  king  of  England.     Pardon  us, 

thou! 
Our  silence  is  our  reverence  for  the  king  ! 
Harold.     Earl  of  the  Mercians  !  if  the 
truth  be  gall, 
Cram  me  not  thou  with  honey,  when  our 

good  hive 
Needs  every  sting  to  save  it. 

Voices.  Aldwyth  !  Aldwyth  ! 

Harold.    Why  cry  thy  people  on  thy 
sister's  name? 


Morcar.     She    hath    won    upon    out 
people  thro'  her  beauty, 
And  pleasantness  among  them. 

Voices.  Aldwyth  !  Aldwyth  ! 

Harold.     They   shout   as   they  would 

have  her  for  a  queen. 
Morcar.     She  hath  follow'd  with  our 

host,  and  suffer'd  all. 
Harold.     What  would  ye,  men? 
Voice.  Our  old  Northumbrian 

crown, 
And  kings  of  our  own  choosing. 

Harold.  Your  old  crown 

Were  little  help  without  our  Saxon  carles 
Against  Hardrada. 

Voice.  Little !  we  are  Danes, 

Who  conquer'd  what  we  walk  on,  our 

own  field. 

Harold.   They  have  been  plotting  here  ! 

[Aside. 

Voice.  He  calls  us  little  ! 

Harold.     The  kingdoms  of  this  world 

began  with  little, 

A  hill,  a  fort,  a  city  —  that  reach'd  a  hand 

Down  to  the  field  beneath  it,  'Be  thou 

mine,' 
Then  to  the  next,  » Thou  also ! '  If  the 

field 
Cried  out  *  I  am  mine  own,'  another  hill 
Or  fort,  or  city,  took  it,  and  the  first 
Fell,  and  the  next  became  an  Empire. 

Voice.  Yet 

Thou  art  but  a  West  Saxon  :  we  are  Danes ! 
Harold.     My  mother  is  a  Dane,  and  I 
am  English; 
There  is  a  pleasant  fable  in  old  books, 
Ye  take  a  stick,  and  break  it;  bind  a  score 
All  in  one  faggot,  snap  it  over  knee, 
Ye  cannot. 

Voice.  Hear  King  Harold !  he 

says  true ! 
Harold.     Would  ye  be  Norsemen? 
Voices.  No ! 

Harold.  Or  Norman? 

Voices.  No ! 

Harold.  Snap  not  the  faggot-band  then. 
Voice.  That  is  true  ! 

Voice.     Ay,  but  thou  art  not  kingly, 
only  grandson 
To  Wulfnoth,  a  poor  cow-herd. 

Harold.  This  old  Wulfnoth 

Would  take  me  on  his  knees  and  tell  me 
tales 


HAROLD. 


66l 


Of  Alfred  and  of  Athelstan  the  Great 
"Who  drove  you  Danes;  and  yet  he  held 

that  Dane, 
Jute,  Angle,  Saxon,  were  or  should  be  all 
One  England,  for  this  cow-herd,  like  my 

father, 
Who  shook  the  Norman  scoundrels  off 

the  throne, 
Had  in  him  kingly  thoughts  —  a  king  of 

men, 
Not  made  but  born,  like  the  great  king 

of  all, 
A  light  among  the  oxen. 

Voice.  That  is  true ! 

Voice.     Ay,  and  I  love  him  now,  for 

mine  own  father 
Was  great,  and  cobbled. 

Voice.  Thou  art  Tostig's  brother, 

Who  wastes  the  land. 

Harold.       This  brother  comes  to  save 
Your  land  from  waste;   I  saved  it  once 

before, 
For  when  your  people  banish'd  Tostig 

hence, 
And    Edward  would   have   sent   a   host 

against  you, 
Then  I,  who  loved  my  brother,  bade  the 

king 
Who  doted  on  him,  sanction  your  decree 
Of  Tostig's  banishment,  and  choice  of 

Morcar, 
To  help  the  realm  from  scattering. 

Voice.  King !  thy  brother, 

If  one  may  dare  to  speak  the  truth,  was 

wrong'd. 
Wild  was  he,  born  so:   but   the  plots 

against  him 
Had  madden1  d  tamer  men. 

Morcar.  Thou  art  one  of  those 

Who  brake  into  Lord  Tostig's  treasure- 
house 
And  slew  two  hundred  of  his  following, 
And  now,  when  Tostig  hath  come  back 

with  power, 
Are  frighted  back  to  Tostig. 

Old  Thane.       Ugh  !  Plots  and  feuds ! 
This  is  my  ninetieth  birthday.     Can  ye 

not 
Be  brethren?     Godwin  still  at  feud  with 

Alfgar, 
And  Alfgar  hates  King  Harold.     Plots 

and  feuds ! 
This  is  my  ninetieth  birthday  1 


Harold.  Old  man,  Harold 

Hates  nothing;   not  his  fault,  if  our  two 

houses 
Be  less  than  brothers. 

Voices.     Aldwyth,  Harold,  Aldwyth  ! 
Harold.       Again  !    Morcar !    Edwin ! 

What  do  they  mean? 
Edwin.     So  the  good  king  would  deign 
to  lend  an  ear 
Not  overscornful,  we  might  chance  — per- 
chance — 
To  guess  their  meaning. 

Morcar.     Thine  own  meaning,  Harold , 
To  make  all  England  one,  to  close  all 

feuds, 
Mixing  our  bloods,  that  thence  a  king 

may  rise 
Half-Godwin  and  half-Alfgar,  one  to  rule 
All   England   beyond   question,   beyond 
quarrel. 
Harold.     Who  sow'd  this  fancy  here 

among  the  people? 
Morcar.     Who  knows  what  sows  itself 
among  the  people? 
A  goodly  flower  at  times. 

Harold.  The  Queen  of  Wales? 

Why,  Morcar,  it  is  all  but  duty  in  her 
To  hate  me;   I  have  heard  she  hates  me. 
Morcar.  No ! 

For  I  can  swear  to  that,  but  cannot  swear 
That  these  will  follow  thee  against  the 

Norseman, 
If  thou  deny  them  this. 

Harold.  Morcar  and  Edwin, 

When  will  ye  cease  to  plot  against  my 
house? 
Edwin.     The  king  can  scarcely  dream 
that  we,  who  know 
His  prowess  in  the  mountains  of  the  West, 
Should  care  to  plot  against  him  in  the 
North. 
Morcar.     Who  dares  arraign  us,  king, 

of  such  a  plot? 
Harold.     Ye  heard  one  witness  even 

i    now. 
Morcar.  The  craven ! 

There  is  a  faction  risen  again  for  Tostig, 
Since  Tostig  came  with  Norway  —  fright 
not  love. 
Harold.     Morcar  and  Edwin,  will  ye, 
if  I  yield, 
Follow  against  the  Norseman? 

Morcar.  Surely,  surely .' 


662 


HAROLD. 


ACT  IV 


Harold.     Morcar  and  Edwin,  will  ye 
upon  oath, 
Help  us  against  the  Norman? 

Morcar.  With  good  will; 

Yea,  take  the  Sacrament  upon  it,  king. 
Harold.     Where  is  thy  sister? 
Morcar.         Somewhere  hard  at  hand. 
Call  and  she  comes. 

[  One  goes  out,  then  enter  Aldwyth. 
Harold.     I  doubt  not  but  thou  knowest 
Why  thou  art  summon'd. 

Aldwyth.     Why?  — I  stay  with  these, 
Lest  thy  fierce  Tostig  spy  me  out  alone, 
And  flay  me  all  alive. 

Harold.  Canst  thou  love  one 

Who  did  discrown  thine  husband,  unqueen 

thee? 
Didst  thou  not  love  thine  husband? 

Aldwyth.  Oh  !  my  lord, 

The    nimble,    wild,    red,    wiry,    savage 

king  — 
That  was,  my  lord,  a  match  of  policy. 

Harold.  Was  it? 

I  knew  him  brave :   he  loved  his  land : 

he  fain 
Had  made  her  great:  his  finger  on  her 

harp 
(I  heard  him  more  than  once)  had  in  it 

Wales, 
Her  floods,  her  woods,  her  hills :   had  I 

been  his, 
I  had  been  all  Welsh. 

Aldwyth.     Oh,  ay  *—  all  Welsh  —  and 
yet 
I  saw  thee  drive  him  up  his  hills  —  and 

women 
Cling  to  the  conquer'd,  if  they  love,  the 

more; 
If  not,  they  cannot  hate  the  conqueror. 
We  never  —  oh !  good  Morcar,  speak  for 

us, 
His  conqueror  conquer'd  Aldwyth. 
Harold.  Goodly  news ! 

Morcar.     Doubt  it  not  thou!     Since 
Griffyth's  head  was  sent        , 
To  Edward,  she  hath  said  it. 

Harold.  I  had  rather 

She   would    have    loved    her    husband. 

Aldwyth,  Aldwyth, 
Canst  thou  love  me,  thou  knowing  where 
I  love? 
Aldwyth.     I    can,  my   lord,  for   mine 
own  sake,  for  thine, 


For  England,  for  thy  poor  white  dove, 

who  flutters 
Between  thee  and  the  porch,  but  then 

would  find 
Her  nest  within  the  cloister,  and  be  still 
Harold.     Canst    thou    love    one   whc 

cannot  love  again? 
Aldwyth.     Full  hope  have  I  that  love 

will  answer  love. 
Harold.     Then   in   the   name   of   the 
great  God,  so  be  it ! 
Come,  Aldred,  join  our  hands  before  the 

hosts, 
That  all  may  see. 

[Aldred  joins  the  hands   of  Harold 

and  Aldwyth  and  blesses  them. 
Voices.     Harold,  Harold  and  Aldwyth ! 
Harold.     Set  forth  our  golden  Dragon 
let  him  flap 
The  wings  that  beat  down  Wales ! 
Advance  our  Standard  of  the  Warrior, 
Dark  among  gems  and  gold;   and  tho, 

brave  banner, 
Blaze  like  a  night  of  fatal  stars  on  those 
Who  read  their  doom  and  die. 
Where  lie  the  Norsemen?  on  the  Der- 

went?  ay 
At  Stamford-bridge. 
Morcar,   collect  thy  men;    Edwin,  my 

friend  — 
Thou  lingerest.  —  Gurth,  — 
Last  night  King  Edward  came  to  me  in 

dreams  — 
The  rosy  face  and  long  down-silvering 

beard  — 
He  told  me  I  should  conquer :  — 
I  am  no  woman  to  put  faith  in  dreams. 

(  To  his  army.) 
Last  night  King  Edward  came  to  me  in 

dreams, 
And  told  me  we  should  conquer. 

Voices.  Forward!  Forward! 

Harold  and  Holy  Cross ! 
Aldwyth.  The  day  is  won ! 

SCENE   II.  — A  Plain.    Before  the 
Battle  of  Stamford-bridge. 

Harold  and  his  Guard. 

Harold.     Who  is  it  comes  this  way? 
Tostig?     {Enter  Tostig  with   a 
small  force.)     O  brother, 
What  art  thou  doing  here? 


SCENE  III. 


HAROLD. 


663 


Tostig.  I  am  foraging 

For  Norway's  army. 

Harold.        I  could  take  and  slay  thee. 
Thou  art  in  arms  against  us. 

Tostig.  Take  and  slay  me, 

For  Edward  loved  me. 

Harold.     Edward  bade  me  spare  thee. 
Tastig.     I  hate  King  Edward,  for  he 
join'd  with  thee 
To  drive  me  outlaw'd.     Take   and   slay 

me,  I  say, 
Or  I  shall  count  thee  fool. 

Harold.  Take  thee,  or  free  thee, 

Free  thee  or  slay  thee,  Norway  will  have 

war; 
No  man  would  strike  with  Tostig,  save 

for  Norway. 
Thou  art  nothing  in  thine  England,  save 

for  Norway, 
Who  loves  not  thee  but  war.     What  dost 

thou  here, 
Trampling  thy  mother's  bosom  into  blood  ? 
Tostig.     She  hath  wean'd  me  from  it 
with  such  bitterness. 
I   come   from   mine   own   Earldom,  my 

North  umbria; 
Thou  hast  given  it  to  the  enemy  of  our 
house. 
Harold.     Northumbria  threw  thee  off, 
she  will  not  have  thee, 
Thou  hast  misused  her :  and,  O  crowning 

crime ! 
Hast  murder'd  thine  own  guest,  the  son 

of  Orrn, 
Gamel,  at  thine  own  hearth. 

Tostig.  The  slow,  fat  fool ! 

He  drawl'd  and  prated  so,  I  smote  him 

suddenly, 
I  knew  not  what  I  did.     He  held  with 

Morcar.  — 
I  hate  myself  for  all  things  that  I  do. 
Harold.     And  Morcar  holds  with  us. 
Come  back  with  him. 
Know  what  thou  dost;   and  we  may  find 

for  thee, 
So  thou  be  chasten'd  by  thy  banishment, 
Some  easier  earldom. 

Tostig.  What  for  Norway  then? 

He   looks   for   land   among  us,  he  and 
his. 
Harold.     Seven  feet  of  English  land, 
or  something  more, 
Seeing  he  is  a  giant. 


Tostig.  That  is  noble  ! 

That  sounds  of  Godwin. 

Harold.  Come  thou  back,  and  be 

Once  more  a  son  of  Godwin. 

Tostig  {turns  away).  O  brother, 

brother, 

0  Harold  — 

Harold  {laying  his  hand  on  Tostig's 

shotdder).     Nay  then,  come  thou 

back  to  us ! 
Tostig  {after  a  pause  turning  to  him). 

Never  shall  any  man  say  that  I, 

that  Tostig 
Conjured  the  mightier  Harold  from  his 

North 
To  do  the  battle  for  me  here  in  England, 
Then  left  him  for  the  meaner  !  thee  !  — 
Thou  hast  no  passion  for  the  House  of 

Godwin  — 
Thou  hast  but  cared  to  make  thyself  a 

king  — 
Thou  hast  sold  me  for  a  cry.  — 
Thou  gavest  thy  voice  against  me  in  the 

Council  — 

1  hate  thee,  and  despise  thee,  and  defy 

thee. 
Farewell  for  ever !  [Exit. 

Harold.  On  to  Stamford-bridge  ! 


SCENE  III. 

After  the  Battle  of  Stamford- 
bridge.   'Banquet. 

Harold  and  Aldwyth.  Gurth, 
Leofwin,  Morcar,  Edwin,  and 
other  Earls  and  Thanes. 

Voices.         Hail!    Harold!    Aldwyth! 

hail,  bridegroom  and  bride ! 
Aldwyth  {talking  with  Harold).     An- 
swer them  thou ! 

Is  this   our   marriage-banquet?     Would 
the  wines 

Of  wedding  had   been  dash'd  into  the 
cups 

Of  victory,  and  our  marriage  and  thy  glory 

Been  drunk  together !  these  poor  hands 
but  sew, 

Spin,   broider  —  would    that    they   were 
man's  to  have  held 

The  battle-axe  by  thee  ! 

Harold.  There  was  a  moment 


664 


HAROLD. 


ACT   IV. 


When  being  forced  aloof  from  all  my 

guard, 
And  striking  at  Hardrada  and  his  mad- 
men 
I  had  wish'd  for  any  weapon. 

Aldwyth.  Why  art  thou  sad? 

Harold.      I   have   lost   the   boy   who 

play'd  at  ball  with  me, 
With  whom  I  fought  another  fight  than 

this 
Of  Stamford-bridge. 

Aldwyth.  Ay !  ay  !  thy  victories 

Over  our  own  poor  Wales,  when  at  thy 

side 
He  conquer'd  with  thee. 

Harold.  No  —  the  childish  fist 

That  cannot  strike  again. 

Aldivyth.  Thou  art  too  kindly. 

Why  didst  thou  let  so  many  Norsemen 

hence? 
Thy  fierce  forekings  had  clench'd  their 

pirate  hides 
To  the  bleak   church  doors,  like    kites 

upon  a  barn. 
Harold.     Is  there  so  great  a  need  to 

tell  thee  why? 
Aldwyth.     Yea,  am  I  not  thy  wife? 
Voices.  Hail,  Harold,  Aldwyth  ! 

Bridegroom  and  bride  ! 

Aldwyth.    Answer  them  !    [  To  Harold. 

Harold  {to  all).       Earls  and  Thanes ! 

Full  thanks  for  your  fair  greeting  of  my 

bride ! 
Earls,  Thanes,  and  all  our  countrymen ! 

the  day, 
Our  day  beside   the  Derwent  will  not 

shine 
Less  than  a  star  among  the   goldenest 

hours 
Of  Alfred,  or  of  Edward  his  great  son, 
Or  Athelstan,  or  English  Ironside 
Who  fought  with    Knut,  or  Knut  who 

coming  Dane 
Died    English.     Every   man   about   his 

king 
Fought  like  a  king;   the  king  like  his  own 

man, 
No  better;   one  for  all,  and  all  for  one, 
One  soul !  and  therefore  have  we  shatter'd 

back 
The  hugest  wave  from  Norseland  ever 

yet 
Surged  on  us,  and  our  battle-axes  broken 


The  Raven's  wing,  and  dumb'd  his  carrion 

croak 
From  the  gray  sea  for  ever.     Many  are 

gone  — 
Drink  to  the  dead  who  died  for  us,  the 

living 
Who  fought  and  would  have  died,  but 

happier  lived, 
If  happier  be  to  live;   they  both  have  life 
In  the  large  mouth  of  England,  till  her 

voice 
Die  with  the  world.     Hail  —  hail ! 

Morcar.     May  all  invaders  perish  like 

Hardrada ! 
All  traitors  fail  like  Tostig ! 

[All  drink  but  Harold. 
Aldwyth.  Thy  cup's  full ! 

Harold.     I  saw  the   hand  of  Tostig 

cover  it. 
Our  dear,  dead,  traitor-brother,  Tostig, 

him 
Reverently  we  buried.     Friends,  had  I 

been  here, 
Without  too   large   self-lauding   I   must 

hold 
The   sequel  had  been  other    than    his 

league 
With   Norway,  and  this  battle.     Peace 

be  with  him ! 
He  was  not  of  the  worst.     If  there  be 

those 
At  banquet  in  this  hall,  and  hearing  me  — 
For  there  be  those  I  fear  who  prick'd  the 

lion 
To  make  him  spring,  that  sight  of  Danish 

blood 
Might  serve  an  end  not  English  —  peace 

with  them 
Likewise,  if  they  can  be  at  peace  with 

what 
God  gave  us  to  divide  us  from  the  wolf! 
Aldzuylh  {aside  to  Harold).     Make  not 

our  Morcar  sullen :  it  is  not  wise. 
Harold.    Hail  to  the  living  who  fought, 

the  dead  who  fell ! 
Voices.     Hail,  hail ! 
First  Thane.     How  ran  that  answer 

which  King  Harold  gave 
To  his  dead  namesake,  when  he  ask'd 

for  England? 
Leofivin.    '  Seven  feet  of  English  earth, 

or  something  more, 
Seeing  he  is  a  giant ! ' 


HAROLD. 


665 


First  Thane.         Then  for  the  bastard 
Six  feet  and  nothing  more ! 

Leofwin.  Ay,  but  belike 

Thou  hast  not  learnt  his  measure. 

First  Thane.  By  St.  Edmund 

I  over-measure  him.     Sound  sleep  to  the 

man 
Here  by  dead  Norway  without  dream  or 

dawn ! 
Second  Thane.     What !  is  he  bragging 

still  that  he  will  come 
To  thrust  our  Harold's  throne  from  under 

him? 
My  nurse  would  tell  me  of  a  molehill  crying 
To  a  mountain  •  Stand  aside  and  room 

for  me !  ' 
First  Thane.     Let  him  come  !  let  him 

come.      Here's   to   him,   sink    or 

swim !        •  \_Drinks. 

Second  Thane.     God  sink  him  ! 
First    Thane.      Cannot   hands  which 

had  the  strength 
To  shove  that  stranded  iceberg  off  our 

shores, 
And  send  the  shatter'd  North  again  to 

sea, 
Scuttle  his  cockle-shell?     What's  Brun- 

anburg 
To  Stamford-bridge?  a  war- crash,  and  so 

hard, 
So  loud,  that,  by  St.  Dunstan,  old  St. 

Thor  — 
By  God,  we  thought  him  dead  —  but  our 

old  Thor 
Heard  his  own  thunder  again,  and  woke 

and  came 
Among  us  again,  and  mark'd  the  sons  of 

those 
Who  made  this  Britain  England,  break 

the  North : 

Mark'd  how  the  war-axe  swang, 
Heard  how  the  war-horn  sang, 
Mark'd  how  the  spear-head  sprang, 
Heard  how  the  shield-wall  rang, 
Iron  on  iron  clang, 
Anvil  on  hammer  bang  — 

Second    Thatte.      Hammer   on   anvil, 
hammer  on  anvil.     Old  dog, 
Thou  art  drunk,  old  dog ! 

First  Thane.     Too  drunk  to  fight  with 
thee! 


Second  Thane.     Fight  thou  with  thine 
own  double,  not  with  me, 
Keep  that  for  Norman  William ! 

First  Thane.         Down  with  William  ! 

Third    Thane.     The  washerwoman's 
brat! 

Fourth  Thane.     The  tanner's  bastard ! 

Fifth  Thane.     The  Falaise  byblow ! 

\_Enter  a  Thane,  from  Pevensey,  spat- 
tered with  mud. 

Harold.  Ay,  but  what  late  guest, 

As  haggard  as  a  fast  of  forty  days, 

And  caked  and  plaster'd  with  a  hundred 
mires, 

Hath  stumbled  on  our  cups? 

Thane  from  Pevensey.     My  lord    the 
King! 

William  the  Norman,  for  the  wind  had 
changed  — 
Harold.     I  felt  it  in  the  middle  of  that 
fierce  fight 

At  Stamford-bridge.  William  hath  landed, 
ha? 
Thane  from   Pevensey.      Landed    at 
Pevensey  —  I  am  from  Pevensey  — 

Hath  wasted  all  the  land  at  Pevensey  — 

Hath  harried  mine  own  cattle  —  God  con- 
found him ! 

I  have  ridden  night  and  day  from  Peven- 
sey— 

A  thousand  ships  —  a  hundred  thousand 
men  — 

Thousands  of  horses,  like  as  many  lions 

Neighing  and  roaring  as  they  leapt   to 
land  — 
Harold.     How  oft  in  coming  hast  thou 

broken  bread? 
Thane  from  Pevensey.     Some  thrice, 

or  so. 
Harold.  Bring  not  thy  hollowness 

On  our  full  feast.     Famine  is  fear,  were 
it  but 

Of  being  starved.     Sit  down,  sit  down, 
and  eat, 

And,   when    again    red-blooded,    speak 
again ; 

{Aside.)     The  men  that  guarded  Eng- 
land to  the  South 

Were  scatter'd  to  the  harvest.  .  .  .     No 


power  mine 
To  hold  their  force  together.  . 
are  fallen 


Many 


666 


HAROLD. 


ACT  V 


At    Stamford-bridge    ...   the    people 

stupid-sure 
Sleep  like  their  swine  ...  In  South  and 

North  at  once 
I  could  not  be. 

{Aloud.')    Gurth,  Leofwin, 

Morcar,  Edwin ! 
{Pointing  to  the  revellers.)     The  curse  of 

England!    these   are   drown'd   in 

wassail, 
And  cannot  see  the  world  but  thro'  their 

wines ! 
Leave   them!    and  thee  too,   Aldwyth, 

must  I  leave  — 
Harsh  is  the  news!  hard  is  our  honey- 
moon ! 
Thy   pardon.      (  Turning  round  to  his 

attendants.)     Break  the  banquet 

up.  ...     Ye  four  ! 
And  thou,  my  carrier-pigeon   of  black 

news, 
Cram  thy  crop  full,  but  come  when  thou 

art  call'd.  [Exit  Harold. 


ACT  V. 
SCENE  I. —  A  Tent  on   a  Mound, 

FROM  WHICH   CAN  BE  SEEN  THE  FlELD 

OF  Senlac. 

Harold  sitting;  by  him  standing  Hugh 
Margot  the  Monk,  Gurth,  Leofwin. 

Harold.     Refer  my  cause,  my  crown 

to  Rome !  .  .  .     The  wolf 
Mudded  the  brook  and  predetermined  all. 
Monk, 
Thou  hast   said   thy  say,  and   had  my 

constant  '  No ' 
For  all  but  instant  battle.     I  hear   no 

more. 
Margot.     Hear  me  again  —  for  the  last 

time.     Arise, 
Scatter  thy  people   home,  descend  the 

hill, 
Lay  hands  of  full  allegiance  in  thy  Lord's 
And  crave  his  mercy,  for  the  Holy  Father 
Hath  given  this  realm  of  England  to  the 

Norman. 
Harold.     Then  for  the  last  time,  monk, 

I  ask  again 
When  had  the  Lateran   and  the   Holy 

Father 


To  do  with  England's  choice  of  her  own 

king? 
Margot.      Earl,     the     first     Christian 

Csesar  drew  to  the  East 
To  leave  the  Pope  dominion  in  the  West. 
He  gave  him  all  the  kingdoms  of  the 

West. 
Harold.     So  !  —  did   he?  — Earl  — I 

have  a  mind  to  play 
The  William  with  thine  eyesight  and  thy 

tongue. 
Earl  —  ay  —  thou  art  but  a  messenger  of 

William. 
I  am  weary  —  go:   make  me  not  wroth 

with  thee ! 
Margot.     Mock-king,  I  am  the  mes- 
senger of  God, 
His    Norman    Daniel !      Mene,    Mene, 

Tekel ! 
Is  thy  wrath  Hell,  that  I  should  spare  to 

cry, 
Yon  heaven  is  wroth  with  thee?     Hear 

me  again ! 
Our  Saints  have  moved  the  Church  that 

moves  the  world, 
And  all  the  Heavens  and  very  God  :  they 

heard  — 
They  know  King  Edward's  promise  and 

thine  —  thine. 
Harold.     Should  they  not  know  free 

England  crowns  herself? 
Not  know  that  he  nor  I  had  power  to 

promise? 
Not  know  that  Edward  cancell'd  his  own 

promise? 
And  for  my  part  therein  —  back  to  that 

juggler,  [Rising. 

Tell  him  the  Saints  are  nobler  than  he 

dreams, 
Tell  him  that  God  is  nobler   than   the 

Saints, 
And  tell  him  we  stand  arm'd  on  Senlac 

hill, 
And  bide  the  doom  of  God. 

Margot.  Hear  it  thro'  me. 

The  realm  for  which  thou  art  forsworn  is 

cursed, 
The  babe  enwomb'd  and  at  the  breast  is 

cursed, 
The   corpse   thou  whelmest  with   thine 

earth  is  cursed, 
The  soul  who  fighteth   on   thy  side   is 

cursed, 


SCENE   I. 


HAROLD. 


66? 


The   seed   thou   sowest   in   thy  field   is 

cursed, 
The  steer  wherewith  thou  plowest   thy 

field  is  cursed, 
The  fowl   that   fleeth    o'er   thy    field   is 

cursed, 
And  thou,  usurper,  liar  — 

Harold.  Out,  beast  monk  ! 

[Lifting  his  hand  to    strike   him. 

Gurth  stops  the  blow. 
I  ever  hated  monks. 

Margot.  I  am  but  a  voice 

Among  you:   murder,  martyr  me  if  ye 

will  — 
Harold.    Thanks,  Gurth  !    The  simple, 

silent,  selfless  man 
Is  worth  a  world  of  tonguesters.     ( To 

Margot.)     Get  thee  gone  ! 
He  means  the  thing  he  says.     See  him 

out  safe ! 
Leofwin.     He  hath  blown  himself  as 

red  as  fire  with  curses. 
An  honest  fool !    Follow  me,  honest  fool, 
But  if  thou  blurt  thy  curse  among  our 

folk, 
I  know  not  —  I  may  give  that  egg-bald 

head 
The  tap  that  silences. 

Harold.  See  him  out  safe. 

[Exeunt  Leofwin  and  Margot. 

Gurth.      Thou   hast   lost   thine    even 

temper,  brother  Harold ! 
Harold.      Gurth,    when     I    past    by 

Waltham,  my  foundation 
For  men  who  serve  the  neighbour,  not 

themselves, 
I  cast  me  down   prone,   praying;    and, 

when  I  rose, 
They  told  me  that  the  Holy  Rood  had 

lean'd 
And  bow'd  above  me;  whether  that  which 

held  it 
Had  weaken'd,  and  the  Rood  itself  were 

bound 
To  that  necessity  which  binds  us  down; 
Whether  it  bow'd  at  all  but  in  their  fancy; 
Or  if  it  bow'd,  whether  it  symboll'd  ruin 
Or  glory,  who  shall  tell?  but  they  were 

sad, 
And  somewhat  sadden'd  me. 

Gurth.         •  Yet  if  a  fear, 

Or  shadow   of  a   fear,  lest  the  strange 

Saints 


By  whom  thou  swarest,  should  have  power 

to  balk 
Thy  puissance  in  this  fight  with  him,  who 

made 
And  heard  thee  swear  —  brother — /have 

not  sworn  — 
If  the  king  fall,  may  not  the  kingdom 

fall? 
But  if  I  fall,  I  fall,  and  thou  art  king; 
And,  if  I  win,  I  win,  and  thou  art  king; 
Draw    thou    to    London,     there    make 

strength  to  breast 
Whatever  chance,  but  leave  this  day  to 

me. 
Leofwin   {entering).     And  waste  the 

land  about  thee  as  thou  goest, 
And  be  thy  hand  as  winter  on  the  field, 
To  leave  the  foe  no  forage. 

Harold.  Noble  Gurth ! 

Best  son  of  Godwin  !     If  I  fall,  I  fall  — 
The  doom   of  God!     How  should   the 

people  fight 
When  the  king  flies?     And,  Leofwin,  art 

thou  mad? 
How  should  the  King  of  England  waste 

the  fields 
Of  England,  his  own  people  ? —  no  glance 

yet 
Of    the   Northumbrian    helmet    on    the 

heath? 
Leofwin.     No,  but  a   shoal   of  wives 

upon  the  heath, 
And  someone  saw  thy  willy-nilly  nun 
Vying  a  tress  against  our  golden  fern. 
Harold.     Vying  a  tear  with  our  cold 

dews,  a  sigh 
With  these  low-moaning  heavens.     Let 

her  be  fetch'd. 
We  have  parted  from  our  wife  without 

reproach, 
Tho'    we    have    pierced    thro'   all    her 

practices; 
And  that  is  well. 

Leofwin.  I  saw  her  even  now : 

She  hath  not  left  us. 

Harold.  Naught  of  Morcar  then  ? 

Gurth.     Nor  seen,  nor  heard;    thine, 

William's  or  his  own 
As  wind  blows,  or  tide  flows :  belike  he 

watches, 
If  this  war-storm  in  one  of  its  rough  rolls 
Wash  up  that  old  crown  of  Northumber- 
land. 


668 


HAROLD. 


Harold.     I  married  her  for  Morcar  — 

a  sin  against 
The   truth    of  love.     Evil   for   good,   it 

seems, 
Is  oft  as  childless  of  the  good  as  evil 
For  evil. 
Leofwin.     Good  for  good  hath  borne 

at  times 
A  bastard  false  as  William. 

Harold.  Ay,  if  Wisdom 

Pair'd  not  with  Good.     But  I  am  some- 
what worn, 
A  snatch  of  sleep  were  like  the  peace  of 

God. 
Gurth,  Leofwin,  go  once  more  about  the 

hill  — 
What  did  the  dead  man  call  it  —  Sangue- 

lac, 
The  Lake  of  Blood? 

Leofwin.     A  lake  that  dips  in  William 
As  well  as  Harold. 

Harold.     Like  enough.     I  have  seen 
The  trenches  dug,  the  palisades  uprear'd 
And  wattled  thick  with  ash  and  willow- 
wands; 
Yea,  wrought  at  them  myself.     Go  round 

once  more; 
See  all  be  sound  and  whole.     No  Norman 

horse 
Can  shatter  England,  standing  shield  by 

shield; 
Tell  that  again  to  all. 

Gurth.  I  will,  good  brother. 

Harold.      Our    guardsman    hath    but 

toil'd  his  hand  and  foot, 
I  hand,  foot,  heart   and   head.      Some 

wine  !      ( One  pours  wine  into  a 

goblet  zvhich  he  hands  to  Harold.) 

Too  much ! 
What?  we  must  use  our  battle-axe  to-day. 
Our  guardsmen  have  slept  well,  since  we 

came  in? 
Leofwin.     Ay,  slept  and  snored.    Your 

second-sighted  man 
That  scared  the  dying  conscience  of  the 

king, 
Misheard  their  snores  for  groans.     They 

are  up  again 
And  chanting  that  old  song  of  Brunan- 

burg 
Where  England  conquer'd. 

Harold.     That  is  well.     The  Norman, 
What  is  he  doing? 


Leofivin.  Praying  for  Normandy; 

Our  scouts  have  heard  the  tinkle  of  their 
bells. 
Harold.     And  our  old  songs  are  prayers 
for  England  too ! 
But  by  all  Saints  — 

Leofwin.  Barring  the  Norman  ! 

LLarold.  Nay, 

Were  the  great  trumpet  blowing  dooms- 
day dawn, 
I    needs    must    rest.       Call    when    the 
Norman  moves  — 

[Exeunt  all  but  Harold. 
No  horse  —  thousands  of   horses  —  our 

shield  wall  — 
Wall — break  it  not — break  not — break — 

[Sleeps. 
Vision  of  Edward.     Son  Harold,  I  thy 
king,  who  came  before 
To  tell  thee  thou  shouldst  win  at  Stam- 
ford-bridge, 
Come  yet  once  more,  from  where  I  am 

at  peace, 
Because  I  loved  thee  in  my  mortal  day, 
To  tell  thee  thou  shalt   die  on  Senlac 

bill  — 
Sanguelac ! 

Vision  of  Wulfnoih.     O  brother,  from 
my  ghastly  oubliette 
I  send  my  voice  across  the  narrow  seas  — 
No  more,  no  more,  dear  brother,  never- 
more— 
Sanguelac ! 

Vision   of  Tostig.     O  brother,   most 
unbrotherlike  to  me, 
Thou  gavest  thy  voice  against  me  in  my 

life, 
I  give  my  voice  against  thee  from  the 

grave  — 
Sanguelac ! 

Vision  of  Norman  Saints.     O  hapless 
Harold  !   King  but  for  an  hour  ! 
Thou    swarest    falsely    by   our    blessed 

bones, 
We  give  our  voice  against  thee  out  of 

heaven ! 
Sanguelac  !  Sanguelac  !    The  arrow  !  the 
arrow ! 
Harold    (starting    up,    battle-axe    in 
hand).     Away! 
My  battle-axe  against  your  ¥oices.  Peace  ! 
The  king's  last  word  —  'the  arrow  1'    I 
shall  die  — 


SCENE  I. 


HAROLD. 


669 


I  die   for  England  then,  who  lived  for 

England  — 
What  nobler?  men  must  die. 
I  cannot  fall  into  a  falser  world  — 
I  have   done    no  man  wrong.      Tostig, 

poor  brother, 
Art  thou  so  anger'd? 
Fain  had  I  kept  thine  earldom  in  thy 

hands 
Save  for  thy  wild  and  violent  will  that 

wrench'd 
All  hearts  of  freemen  from  thee.    I  could 

do 
No  other  than  this  way  advise  the  king 
Against  the  race  of  Godwin.    Is  it  possible 
That  mortal  men  should  bear  their  earthly 

heats 
Into  yon  bloodless  world,  and  threaten  us 

thence 
Unschool'd  of  Death?     Thus  then  thou 

art  revenged  — 
I  left  our  England  naked  to  the  South 
To  meet  thee  in  the  North.     The  Norse- 
man's raid 
Hath  helpt  the  Norman,  and  the  race  of 

Godwin 
Hath  ruin'd  Godwin.     No  —  our  waking 

thoughts 
Suffer  a  stormless  shipwreck  in  the  pools 
Of  sullen  slumber,  and  arise  again 
Disjointed  :   only  dreams  —  where  mine 

own  self 
Takes  part  against  myself!     Why?  for  a 

spark 
Of  self-disdain  born  in  me  when  I  sware 
Falsely  to  him,  the  falser  Norman,  over 
His    gilded   ark    of    mummy-saints,   by 

whom 
I  knew  not  that  I  sware,  —  not  for  my- 
self— 
For  England — yet  not  wholly  — 

{Enter  Edith.) 

Edith,  Edith, 
Get  thou  into  thy  cloister  as  the  king 
Will'd  it :  be  safe :  the  perjury-mongering 

Count 
Hath   made  too   good  an  use  of  Holy 

Church 
To  break  her  close !     There    the   great 

God  of  truth 
Fill  all  thine  hours  with  peace !  —  A  lying 

devil 


Hath    haunted    me  —  mine   oath  —  my 

wife  —  I  fain 
Had   made   my  marriage   not   a  lie;    1 

could  not: 
Thou  art  my  bride !  and   thou  in  after 

years 
Praying  perchance  for  this  poor  soul  of 

mine 
In  cold,  white  cells  beneath  an  icy  moon  — 
This    memory   to   thee !  —  and    this    to 

England, 
My  legacy  of  war  against  the  Pope 
From  child  to  child,  from  Pope  to  Pope, 

from  age  to  age, 
Till  the  sea  wash  her  level  with  her  shores, 
Or  till  the  Pope  be  Christ's. 

Enter  Aldwyth. 

Aldwyth  {to  Edith).    Away  from  him  ! 
Edith.     I  will  ...  I  have  not  spoken 
to  the  king 
One  word;   and  one  I  must.     Farewell! 

[Going. 
Harold.  Not  yet. 

Stay. 

Edith.     To  what  use? 
Harold.     The   king   commands  thee, 
woman ! 

(  To  Aldwyth.) 
Have  thy  two  brethren  sent  their  forces 
in? 
Aldwyth.     Nay,  I  fear  not.  . 
Harold.   Then  there's  no  force  in  thee  ! 
Thou  didst  possess  thyself  of  Edward's  ear 
To  part  me  from  the  woman  that  I  loved  ! 
Thou  didst  arouse  the  fierce  Northum- 
brians ! 
Thou  hast  been  false  to  England  and  to 

me!  — 
As  ...  in  some  sort  ...  I  have  been 

false  to  thee. 

Leave  me.     No  more  —  Pardon  on  both 

sides  —  Go ! 

Aldwyth.     Alas,  my  lord,  I  loved  thee. 

Harold  {bitterly).  With  a  love 

Passing  thy  love  for  Griffyth !  wherefore 

now 
Obey  my  first  and  last  commandment. 
Go! 
Aldivyth.     O  Harold !  husband !    Shall 

we  meet  again? 
Harold.    After  the  battle  — after  the 
battle.     Go. 


670 


HAROLD. 


Aldwyth.    I  go.    (Aside.)    That  I  could 
stab  her  standing  there  ! 

[Exit  Aldwytli. 
Edith.  Alas,  my  lord,  she  loved  thee. 
Harold.  Never !  never  ! 

Edith.     I  saw  it  in  her  eyes ! 
Harold.  I  see  it  in  thine. 

And  not  on  thee  —  nor   England  —  fall 
God's  doom ! 
Edith.     On  thee?  on  me.     And  thou 
art  England !     Alfred 
Was    England.     Ethelred  was   nothing. 

England 
Is  but  her  king,  and  thou  art  Harold ! 

Harold.  Edith, 

The  sign  in  heaven  —  the  sudden  blast 

at  sea  — 
My  fatal   oath  —  the  dead  Saints — the 

dark  dreams  — 
The  Pope's  Anathema  —  the  Holy  Rood 
That  bow'd  to  me  at  Waltham  —  Edith,  if 
I,  the  last  English  king  of  England  — 

Edith.  No, 

First  of  a  line  that  coming  from  the  people, 
And  chosen  by  the  people  — 

Harold.  And  fighting  for 

And  dying  for  the  people  — 

Edith.  Living!  living! 

Harold.     Yea   so,   good   cheer !    thou 
art  Harold,  I  am  Edith ! 
Look  not  thus  wan  ! 

Edith.  ■       What  matters  how  I  look? 
Have  we  not  broken  Wales  and  Norse- 
land?  slain, 
Whose  life  was  all  one  battle,  incarnate 

war, 
Their  giant-king,  a  mightier  man-in-arms 
Than  William? 

Harold.     Ay,   my   girl,   no    tricks   in 
him  — 
No  bastard  he !    when  all  was  lost,  he 

yell'd, 
And  bit  his  shield,  and  dash'd  it  on  the 

ground, 
And  swaying  his  two-handed  sword  about 

him, 
Two  deaths  at  every  swing,  ran  in  upon  us 
And  died  so,  and  I  loved  him  as  I  hate 
This  liar  who  made  me  liar.     If  Hate 

can  kill, 
And  Loathing  wield  a  Saxon  battle-axe  — 
Edith.     Waste  not  thy  might  before 
the  battle  1 


Harold.  No, 

And  thou  must  hence.     Stigand  will  see 

thee  safe, 
And  so  —  farewell. 

[He  is  going,  but  turns  back. 
The  ring  thou  darest  not  wear, 
I  have  had  it  fashion'd,  see,  to  meet  my 
hand. 

[Harold  shozvs  the  ring  zuhich  is  on 
his  finger. 
Farewell ! 

[He  is  going,  but  turns  back  again. 
I  am  dead  as  Death  this  day  to  aught  of 

earth's 
Save  William's  death  or  mine. 

Edith.  Thy  death  !  —  to-day ! 

Is  it  not  thy  birthday? 

Harold.  Ay,  that  happy  day ! 

A  birthday  welcome !    happy  days  and 

many ! 
One  —  this !  [  They  embrace. 

Look,  I  will  bear  thy  blessing  into  the 

battle 
And  front  the  doom  of  God. 

Norman  cries  {heard  in  the  distance). 
HaRou!     HaRou! 

Enter  Gurth. 

Gurth.     The  Norman  moves ! 
Harold.     Harold  and  Holy  Cross ! 

[Exeunt  Harold  and  Gurth. 

Enter  Stigand. 

Stigand.     Our  Church  in  arms  —  the 

lamb  the  lion  —  not 
Spear  into  pruning-hook  —  the  counter 

way  — 
Cowl,    helm ;     and    crozier,    battle-axe. 

Abbot  Alfwig, 
Leofric,   and   all   the   monks  of  Peter- 

boro' 
Strike  for  the  king;   but  I,  old  wretch, 

old  Stigand, 
With  hands  too  limp  to  brandish  iron  — 

and  yet 
I  have  a  power  —  would  Harold  ask  me 

for  it  — 
I  have  a  power. 

Edith.  What  power,  holy  father  ? 

Stigand.     Power  now  from  Harold  to 

command  thee  hence 
And  see  thee  safe  from  Senlac. 

Edith.  I  remain! 


SCENE   I. 


HAROLD. 


671 


Stigand.     Yea,   so   will   I,    daughter, 

until  I  find 
Which   way  the  battle  balance.     I  can 

see  it 
From  where  we  stand :  and,  live  or  die, 

I  would 
I  were  among  them  ! 

Canons  from  Waltham  {singing  without). 

Salva  patriam 
Sancte  Pater, 
Salva  Fili, 
Salva  Spiritus, 
Salva  patriam, 
Sancta  Mater.1 

Edith.    Are  those  the  blessed  angels 

quiring,  father? 
Stigand.   No,  daughter,  but  the  canons 
out  of  Waltham, 
The  king's  foundation,  that  have  follow'd 
him. 
Edith.     O  God  of  battles,  make  their 
wall  of  shields 
Firm    as    thy     cliffs,    strengthen     their 

palisades ! 
What  is  that  whirring  sound? 

Stigand.  The  Norman  arrow  ! 

Edith.     Look  out  upon  the  battle  —  is 

he  safe? 
Stigand.     The  king  of  England  stands 
between  his  banners. 
He  glitters  on  the  crowning  of  the  hill. 
God  save  King  Harold  ! 

Edith.  —  chosen  by  his  people 

And  fighting  for  his  people  ! 

Stigand.  There  is  one 

Come  as  Goliath  came  of  yore — he  flings 
His  brand  in  air  and  catches  it  again, 
He  is  chanting  some  old  war-song. 

Edith.  And  no  David 

To  meet  him? 

Stigand.    Ay,  there  springs  a  Saxon 
on  him, 
Falls  —  and  another  falls. 

Edith.  Have  mercy  on  us ! 

Stigand.     Lo !   our  good  Gurth  hath 

smitten  him  to  the  death. 
Edith.     So  perish  all  the  enemies  of 

Harold ! 
Canons  {singing). 

1  The  a  throughout  these  Latin  hymns  should 
be  sounded  broad,  as  in  '  father.' 


Hostis  in  Angliam 

Ruit  praedator, 
Illorum,  Domine, 

Scutum  scindatur! 
Hostis  per  Anglise 

Plagas  bacchatur; 

Casa  crematur, 

Pastor  fugatur 

Grex  trucidatur- — 

Stigand.     Illos  trucida,  Domine. 
Edith.  Ay,  good  father. 

Canons  {singing). 

Illorum  scelera 
Poena  sequatur ! 

English  cries.  Harold  and  Holy 

Cross !     Out !  out ! ' 
Stigand.  Our  javelins 

Answer  their  arrows.     All  the  Norman 

foot 
Are  storming  up  the  hill.     The  range  of 

knights 
Sit,  each  a  statue  on  his  horse,  and  wait. 
English  cries.     Harold  and  God  Al- 
mighty ! 
Nortnan  cries.        Ha  Rou !  Ha  Rou ! 
Canons  {singing). 

Eques  cum  pedite 

Prsepediatur ! 
Illorum  in  lacrymas 

Cruor  fundatur ! 
Pereant,  pereant, 

Anglia  precatur. 

Stigand.     Look,  daughter,  look. 

Edith.  Nay,  father,  look  for  me  ! 

Stigand.      Our   axes    lighten   with    a 

single  flash 

About  the  summit  of  the  hill,  and  heads 

And  arms  are  sliver'd  off  and  splinter'd 

by 
Their  lightning  —  and  they  fly  —  the  Nor- 
man flies. 
Edith.      Stigand,  O   father,  have  we 

won  the  day? 
Stigand.     No,  daughter,  no  —  they  fall , 
behind  the  horse  — 
Their   horse   are   thronging  to  the   bar- 
ricades ; 
I  see  the  gonfanon  of  Holy  Peter 
Floating  above  their  helmets  —  ha !  he  ir 
down! 


672 


HAROLD. 


ACT  V 


Edith.     He  down  !     Who  clown? 
Stigand.     The  Norman  Count  is  down. 
Edith.     So  perish  all  the  enemies  of 

England ! 
Stigand.     No,  no,  he  hath  risen  again 
—  he  bares  his  face  — 
Shouts  something  —  he  points  onward  — 

all  their  horse 
Swallow  the  hill  locust-like,  swarming  up. 
Edith.     O  God    of  battles,  make    his 
battle-axe  keen 
As    thine    own    sharp-dividing    justice, 

heavy 
As  thine  own  bolts  that  fall  on  crimeful 

heads 
Charged    with    the    weight    of    heaven 
wherefrom  they  fall ! 
Canons  {singing). 

Jacta  tonitrua 

Deus  bellator ! 
Surgas  e  tenebris, 

Sis  vindicator ! 
Fulmina,  fulmina 

Deus  vastator ! 

Edith.     O   God   of  battles,  they   are 
three  to  one, 
Make  thou  one  man  as  three  to  roll  them 
down ! 
Canons  {singing). 

Equus  cum  equite 

Dejiciatur ! 
Acies,  Acies 

Prona  sternatur ! 
Illorum  lanceas 

Frange  Creator ! 

Stigand.    Yea,  yea,  for  how  their  lances 

snap  and  shiver 
Against  the   shifting  blaze   of   Harold's 

axe! 
War-woodman   of  old  Woden,  how  he 

fells 
The  mortal  copse  of  faces !   There  !  And 

there ! 
The  horse  and  horseman  cannot  meet  the 

shield, 
The    blow    that    brains    the    horseman 

cleaves  the  horse, 
The  horse  and  horseman  roll  along  the 

hill, 
They  fly  once  more,  they  fly,  the  Norman 

flies! 


Equus  cum  equite 
Praecipitatur. 

Edith.     O  God,  the  God  of  truth  hath 
heard  my  cry. 
Follow  them,  follow  them,  drive  them  to 
the  sea ! 

Illorum  scelera 
Poena  sequatur ! 

Stigand.     Truth!    no;    a  lie;   a  tricK, 
a  Norman  trick ! 
They  turn  on  the  pursuer,  horse  against 

foot, 
They  murder  all  that  follow. 

Edith.  Have  mercy  on  us ! 

Stigand.     Hot-headed  fools  — to  burst 
the  wall  of  shields  ! 
They  have  broken  the  commandment  of 
the  king ! 
Edith.     His  oath  was  broken  —  O  holy 
Norman  Saints, 
Ye   that   are   now   of   heaven,   and   see 

beyond 
Your  Norman  shrines,  pardon  it,  pardon  it, 
That  he  forsware  himself  for  all  he  loved, 
Me,  me  and  all !     Look  out  upon  the 
battle ! 
Stigand.     They   thunder   again   upon 
the  barricades. 
My  sight  is  eagle,  but  the  strife  so  thick  — > 
This  is  the  hottest  of  it :  hold,  ash  !  hold, 
willow ! 
English  cries.     Out,  out ! 
Norman  cries.  Ha  Rou ! 

Stigand.     Ha !  Gurth  hath  leapt  upon 
him 
And  slain  him :  he  hath  fallen. 

Edith.  And  I  am  heard. 

Glory  to   God  in  the   Highest!    fallen, 

fallen ! 

Stigand.      No,    no,    his    horse  —  he 

mounts  another  —  wields 

His  war-club,  dashes  it  on  Gurth,  and 

Gurth, 
Our  noble  Gurth,  is  down ! 

Edith.  Have  mercy  on  us ! 

Stigand.     And  Leofwin  is  down ! 
Edith.  Have  mercy  on  us ! 

O  Thou  that  knowest,  let  not  my  strong 

prayer 
Be  weak  en 'd  in  thy  sight,  because  I  love 
The  husband  of  another ! 


SCENE  II. 


HAROLD. 


673 


Norman  cries.        Ha  Rou !  Ha  Rou ! 
Edith.         I  do  not  hear  our  English 

war-cry. 
Stigand.  No. 

Edith.     Look  out  upon  the  battle  —  is 

he  safe? 
Stigand.     He  stands  between  the  ban- 
ners with  the  dead 
So  piled  about  him  he  can  hardly  move. 
Edith  {takes  up  the  war-cry).      Out ! 

out! 
Norman  cries.     Ha  Rou ! 
Edith  {cries  out).     Harold  and  Holy 

Cross ! 
Norman  cries.     Ha  Rou  !  Ha  Rou ! 
Edith.     What  is  that  whirring  sound  ? 
Stigand.       The     Norman     sends    his 

arrows  up  to  Heaven, 
They  fall  on  those  within  the  palisade ! 
Edith.     Look  out  upon  the   hill  —  is 

Harold  there  ? 
Stigand.       Sanguelac  —  Sanguelac  — 

the  arrow  —  the  arrow !  —  away ! 


SCENE  II.. 


■  Field  of  the  Dead. 
Night. 


Aldwyth  and  Edith. 

Aldwyth.     O  Edith,  art  thou  here?    O 
Harold,  Harold  — 
Our   Harold  —  we  shall  never   see   him 
more. 
Edith.     For  there  was  more  than  sister 
in  my  kiss, 
And  so  the  Saints  were  wroth.     I  cannot 

love  them, 
For  they  are  Norman  Saints  —  and  yet  I 

should  — 
They  are  so  much  holier  than  their  har- 
lot's son 
With    whom    they    play'd    their    game 
against  the  king ! 
Aldwyth.       The     king    is    slain,    the 

Kingdom  overthrown ! 
Edith.     No  matter ! 
Aldwyth.         How  no  matter,  Harold 
slain?  — 
I  cannot  find  his  body.     O  help  me  thou  ! 
O  Edith,  if  I  ever  wrought  against  thee, 
Forgive  me  thou,  and  help  me  here  ! 
Edith.  No  matter ! 

Aldwyth.   Not  help  me,  nor  forgive  me  ? 
2X 


Edith.  So  thou  saidest. 

Aldwyth.     I  say  it  now,  forgive  me ! 
Edith.  Cross  me  not ! 

I   am   seeking  one  who  wedded  me  in 

secret. 
Whisper !    God's   angels   only   know  it. 

Ha! 
What   art  thou  doing   here   among   the 

dead? 
They  are  stripping  the  dead  bodies  naked 

yonder, 
And  thou  art  come  to  rob  them  of  their 
rings ! 
Aldwyth.     O  Edith,  Edith,  I  have  lost 
both  crown 
And  husband. 

Edith.  So  have  I. 

Aldwyth.  I  tell  thee,  girl, 

I  am  seeking  my  dead  Harold. 

Edith.  And  I  mine  ! 

The  Holy  Father  strangled  him  with  a  hair 
Of  Peter,  and  his  brother  Tostig  helpt; 
The  wicked  sister  clapt  her  hands  and 

laugh'd; 
Then  all  the  dead  fell  on  him. 

Aldwyth.  Edith,  Edith  — 

Edith.     What  was  he  like,  this  hus- 
band? like  to  thee? 
Call  not  for  help  from  me.     I  knew  him 

not. 
He  lies  not  here :  not  close  beside  the 

standard. 
Here  fell  the  truest,  manliest  hearts  of 

England. 
Go  further  hence  and  find  him. 

Aldivyth.  She  is  crazed  ! 

Edith.     That  doth   not  matter  either. 
Lower  the  light. 
He  must  be  here. 

Enter  tzvo  Canons,  Osgod  and 
Athelric,  with  torches.  They 
turn  over  the  dead  bodies  and 
examine  them  as  they  pass. 

Osgod.     I  think  that  this  is  Thurkill. 

Athelric.     More  likely  Godric. 

Osgod.  I  am  sare  this  body 

Is  Alfwig,  the  king's  uncle. 

Athelric.  So  it  is ! 

No,  no  —  brave    Gurth,    one   gash   from 
brow  to  knee ! 

Osgod.     And  here  is  Leofwin. 

Edith.  And  here  is  He  I 


674 


HAROLD. 


ACT  V. 


Aldwyth.     Harold?     Oh  no  —  nay,  if 
it  were  —  my  God, 
They  have  so  maim'd  and  murder'd  all 

his  face 
There  is  no  man  can  swear  to  him. 

Edith.  But  one  woman  ! 

Look  you,  we  never  mean  to  part  again. 
I  have  found  him,  I  am  happy. 
Was  there  not  someone    ask'd    me  for 

forgiveness? 
I  yield  it  freely,  being  the  true  wife 
Of  this  dead  King,  who  never  bore  re- 
venge. 

Enter  Count  William   and  William 
Malet. 

William.     Who    be    these    women? 

And  what  body  is  this? 
Edith.  Harold,  thy  better ! 
William.  Ay,  and  what  art  thou? 

Edith.     His  wife ! 

Malet.     Not  true,  my  girl,  here  is  the 

Queen  !     [Pointing  out  Aldwyth. 

William    {to   Aldwyth).     Wast   thou 

his  Queen? 

Aldwyth.     I  was  the  Queen  of  Wales. 

William.     Why     then    of    England. 

Madam,  fear  us  not. 

{To  Malet.)     Knowest  thou  this  other? 

Malet.  When  I  visited  England, 

Some  held  she  was  his  wife  in  secret  — 

some  — 
Well — some  believed  she  was  his  para- 
mour. 
Edith.     Norman,  thou  liest !    liars  all 
of  you, 
Your  Saints   and   all !     /  am   his  wife ! 

and  she  — 
For  look,  our  marriage  ring ! 

[She  draws  it  off  the  finger  of  Harold. 

I  lost  it  somehow  — 

I  lost  it,  playing  with  it  when  I  was  wild. 

That  bred  the  doubt !  but  I  am  wiser 

now.  .  .  . 
I  am  too  wise.  .  .  .     Will  none  among 

you  all 
Bear   me   true    witness  —  only  for    this 

once  — 
That  I  have  found  it  here  again? 

[She  puts  it  on. 
And  thou, 
Thy  wife  am  I  for  ever  and  evermore. 

[Falls  on  the  body  and  dies. 


William.     Death  !  —  and  enough   of 

death  for  this  one  day, 
The  day  of  St.  Calixtus,  and  the  day, 
My  day  when  I  was  born. 

Malet.  And  this  dead  king's 

Who,  king  or  not,  hath  kinglike  fought 

and  fallen, 
His  birthday,  too.  It  seems  but  yestereven 
I  held  it  with  him  in  his  English  halls, 
His  day,  with   all   his   rooftree   ringing 

'  Harold,' 
Before  he  fell  into  the  snare  of  Guy; 
When  all  men  counted  Harold  would  be 

king, 
And  Harold  was  most  happy. 

William.  Thou  art  half  English. 

Take  them  away ! 

Malet,  I  vow  to  build  a  church  to  God 
Here  on  the  hill  of  battle;   let  our  high 

altar 
Stand   where    their    standard    fell  .  .  . 

where  these  two  lie.  . 
Take   them  away,  I  do  not  love  to  see 

them. 
Pluck  the  dead  woman  off  the  dead  man, 

Malet ! 
Malet.     Faster  than  ivy.     Must  I  hack 

her  arms  off  ? 
How  shall  I  part  them? 

William.     Leave  them.    Let  them  be ! 
Bury  him  and  his  paramour  together. 
He  that  was  false  in  oath  to  me,  it  seems 
Was  false  to  his  own  wife.     We  will  not 

give  him 
A  Christian  burial :  yet  he  was  a  warrior, 
And  wise,  yea  truthful,  till  that  blighted 

vow 
Which  God  avenged  to-day. 
Wrap  them  together  in  a  purple  cloak 
And  lay  them  both  upon  the  waste  sea- 
shore 
At  Hastings,  there  to  guard  .he  land  for 

which 
He  did  forswear  himself —  a  warrior  —  ay, 
And  but  that  Holy  Peter  fought  for  us, 
And   that  the   false  Northumbrian  held 

aloof, 
And  save  for  that  chance  arrow  which  the 

Saints 
Sharpen'd  and  sent  against  him  —  who 

can  tell?  — 
Three   horses  had  I  slain  beneath  me: 

twice 


SCENE  II. 


HAROLD. 


675 


I   thought   that   all   was   lost.     Since   I 

knew  battle, 
And  that  was  from  my  boyhood,  never 

yet  — 
No,  by  the  splendour  of  God  —  have   I 

fought  men 
Like   Harold  and  his  brethren,  and  his 

guard 
Of  English.     Every  man  about  his  king 
Fell  where  he  stood.      They  loved  him : 

and,  pray  God 
My  Normans  may  but  move  as  true  with 

me 
To  the  door  of  death.     Of  one  self-stock 

at  first, 


Make  them  again  one  people  — Norman, 

English ; 
And  English,  Norman;  we  should  have 

a  hand 
To  grasp  the  world  with,  and  a  foot  to 

stamp  it  .  .  . 
Flat.     Praise    the    Saints.     It    is    over. 

No  more  blood ! 
I  am  king  of  England,  so  they  thwart  me 

not, 
And  I  will  rule  according  to  their  laws. 
(  To  Aldwyth.)     Madam,  we  will  entreat 

thee  with  all  honour. 
Aldivyth.     My   punishment     is     more 

than  I  can  bear. 


BECKET. 

To  the  Lord  Chancellor, 
THE   RIGHT   HONOURABLE   EARL   OF   SELBORNE. 


My  dear  Selborne  —  To  you,  the  honoured  Chancellor  of  our  own  day,  I  dedicate  this  dramatic 
memorial  of  your  great  predecessor; — which,  altho'  not  intended  in  its  present  form  to  meet  the 
exigencies  of  our  modern  theatre,  has  nevertheless  —  for  so  you  have  assured  me  —  won  your  approba- 
tion. —  Ever  yours,  TENNYSON. 

DRAMATIS  PERSONS. 

Henry  II.  {son  of  the  Earl  of  A?ij'ou). 

Thomas  Becket,  Chancellor  of  England,  afterwards  Archbishop  of  Canterbury. 
Gilbert  Foliot,  Bishop  of  London. 
Roger,  A  rchbishop  of  York. 
Bishop  of  Hereford. 
Hilary,  Bishop  of  Chichester. 
Jocelyn,  Bishop  of  Salisbury. 
John  of  Salisbury      j  friends  of  ^^ 
Herbert  of  Bosham  ) 

Walter  Map,  reputed  author  of  'Golias,'  Latin  poems  against  the  priesthood. 
King  Louis  of  France. 
Geoffrey,  son  of  Rosamund  and  Henry. 
Grim,  a  monk  of  Cambridge. 
Sir  Reginald  Fitzurse 
Sir  Richard  de  Brito 
Sir  William  de  Tracy 
Sir  Hugh  de  MorvIlle 
De  Broc  of  Saltwood  Castle. 
Lord  Leicester. 
Philip  de  Eleemosyna. 
Two  Knight  Templars. 
John  of  Oxford  {called  the  Swearer). 

Eleanor  of  Aquitaine,  Queen  of  England  {divorced from  Louis  of  France). 
Rosamund  de  Clifford. 
Margery. 

Knights,  Monks,  Beggars,  etc. 


the  four  knights  of  the  King's  household,  enemies  of  Becket. 


PROLOGUE. 

A  Castle  in  Normandy.  Interior  of  the 
Hall.  Roofs  of  a  City  seen  thro1 
Windows. 

Henry  and  Becket  at  chess. 

Henry.     So  then  our  good  Archbishop 
Theobald 
Lies  dying. 
Becket.        I  am   grieved  to  know  as 

much. 
Henry.     But  we  must  have  a  mightier 
man  than  he 
For  his  successor. 


Becket.  Have  you  thought  of  one? 

Henry.     A  cleric  lately  poison'd   his 
own  mother, 
And  being  brought  before  the  courts  of 

the  Church, 
They  but  degraded  him.     I  hope  they 

whipt  him. 
I  would  have  hang'd  him. 

Becket.  It  is  your  move. 

Henry.  Well  —  there.     [Moves. 

The  Church  in  the  pell-mell  of  Stephen's 

time 
Hath   climb'd    the    throne    and    almost 

clutch'd  the  crown; 
But  by  the  royal  customs  of  our  realm 


PROLOGUE. 


BECKET. 


677 


The  Church  should  hold  her  baronies  of 

me, 
Like  other  lords  amenable  to  law. 
I'll  have  them  written  down  and  made 
the  law. 
Becket.      My  liege,  I  move  my  bishop. 
Henry.  And  if  I  live, 

No  man  without  my  leave  shall  excom- 
municate 
My  tenants  or  my  household. 

Becket.  Look  to  your  king. 

Henry.     No   man   without   my   leave 
shall  cross  the  seas 
To  set  the  Pope  against  me  —  I  pray  your 
pardon. 
Becket.     Well  —  will  you  move  ? 
Henry.  There.      [Moves. 

Becket.     Check  —  you  move  so  wildly. 
Henry.     There  then  !  [Moves. 

Becket.     Why  —  there  then,  for  you  see 
my  bishop 
Hath  brought  your  king  to  a  standstill. 
You  are  beaten. 
Henry  {kicks  over  the  board).     Why, 
there  then  —  down  go  bishop  and 
king  together. 
I  loathe   being  beaten;    had  I  fixt  my 

fancy 
Upon  the   game  I  should   have   beaten 

thee, 
But  that  was  vagabond. 

Becket.  Where,  my  liege?     With 

Phryne, 
Or  Lais,  or  thy  Rosamund,  or  another? 
Henry.     My   Rosamund    is   no   Lais, 
Thomas  Becket; 
And  yet  she  plagues  me  too  —  no  fault  in 

her  — 
But  that  I  fear  the  Queen  would  have  her 
life. 
Becket.     Put  her  away,  put  her  away, 
my  liege  ! 
Put  her  away  into  a  nunnery  ! 
Safe  enough  there  from  her  to  whom  thou 

art  bound 
By  Holy  Church.     And  wherefore  should 

she  seek 
The  life  of  Rosamund  de  Clifford  more 
Than  that  of  other  paramours  of  thine? 
Henry.     How  dost   thou  know  I  am 

not  wedded  to  her? 
Becket.     How  should  I  know? 
Henry.        That  is  my  secret,  Thomas. 


Becket.     State  secrets  should  be  patent 
to  the  statesman 
Who  serves  and  loves  his  king,  and  whom 

the  king 
Loves  not  as  statesman,  but  true  lover 
and  friend. 
Henry.      Come,    come,    thou   art   but 
deacon,  not  yet  bishop, 
No,  nor   archbishop,  nor   my  confessor 

yet. 
I  would  to  God  thou  wert,  for  I  should 

find 
An  easy  father  confessor  in  thee. 

Becket.     St.  Denis,  that  thou  shouldst 
not.     I  should  beat 
Thy  kingship  as  my  bishop  hath  beaten 
it. 
Henry.     Hell  take  thy  bishop  then, 
and  my  kingship  too  ! 
Come,  come,  I  love  thee  and  I  know  thee, 

I  know  thee, 
A  doter  on  white  pheasant-flesh  at  feasts, 
A  sauce-deviser  for  thy  days  of  fish, 
A  dish-designer,  and  most  amorous 
Of  good  old  red  sound  liberal  Gascon 

wine : 
Will   not   thy  body  rebel,  man,  if  thou 
flatter  it? 
Becket.    That   palate  is  insane  which 
cannot  tell 
A  good  dish  from  a  bad,  new  wine  from 
old. 
Henry.     Well,  who   loves  wine  loves 

woman. 
Becket.  So  I  do. 

Men   are    God's   trees,  and  women   are 

God's  flowers; 
And  when  the  Gascon  wine  mounts  to 

my  head, 
The  trees  are  all  the  statelier,  and  the 

flowers 
Are  all  the  fairer. 

Henry.    And  thy  thoughts,  thy  fancies? 
Becket.     Good    dogs,    my   liege,   well 
train'd,  and  easily  call'd 
Off  from  the  game. 

Henry.     Save  for  some  once  or  twice, 
When   they   ran   down    the    game    and 
worried  it. 
Becket.     No,  my  liege,  no  !  —  not  once 

—  in  God's  name,  no  ! 
Henry.     Nay,  then,  I  take  thee  at  thy 
word  —  believe  thee 


678 


BECKET. 


PROLOGUE. 


The  veriest  Galahad  of  old  Arthur's  hall. 
And  so  this   Rosamund,  my  true  heart- 
wife, 
Not  Eleanor  —  she  whom  I  love  indeed 
As  a  woman  should  be  loved  —  Why  dost 

thou  smile 
So  dolorously? 

Becket.  My  good  liege,  if  a  man 

Wastes  himself  among  women,  how  should 

he  love 
A  woman,  as  a  woman  should  be  loved? 
Henry.     How    shouldst    thou    know 
that  never  hast  loved  one? 
Come,  I  would  give  her  to  thy  care  in 

England 
When  I  am  out  in  Normandy  or  Anjou. 
Becket.     My  lord,  I  am  your  subject, 

not  your 

Henry.  Pander. 

God's  eyes  !    I  know  all  that  —  not  my 

purveyor 
Of  pleasures,  but  to  save  a  life  —  her  life ; 
Ay,  and  the  soul  of  Eleanor  from  hell-fire. 
I  have  built  a  secret  bower  in  England, 

Thomas, 
A  nest  in  a  bush. 

Becket.  And  where,  my  liege  ? 

Henry  (tvhispers).  Thine  ear. 

Becket.     That's  lone  enough. 
Henry  {laying paper  on  table).     This 
chart  here  mark'd  lHer  Bower,' 
Take,  keep  it,  friend.     See,  first,  a  cir- 
cling wood, 
A  hundred  pathways  running  everyway, 
And  then  a  brook,  a  bridge;   and  after 

that 
This    labyrinthine    brickwork    maze    in 

maze, 
And  then  another  wood,  and  in  the  midst 
A   garden   and   my    Rosamund.     Look, 

this  line  — 
The  rest  you  see  is  colour'd  green  —  but 

this 
Draws  thro'  the  chart  to  her. 

Becket.  This  blood-red  line  ? 

Henry.     Ay  !  blood,  perchance,  except 

thou  see  to  her. 
Becket.     And  where   is  she?      There 

in  her  English  nest? 
Henry.     Would   God  she  were  —  no, 
here  within  the  city. 
We  take  her  from  her  secret  bower  in 
Anjou 


And   pass  her  to   her   secret  bower  in 

England. 
She   is   ignorant   of  all  but  that  I  love 

her. 
Becket.     My  liege,  I  pray  thee  let  me 

hence :  a  widow 
And  orphan  child,  whom  one  of  thy  wild 

barons 

Henry.     Ay,  ay,  but  swear  to  see  to 

her  in  England. 
Becket.     Well,  well,  I  swear,  but  not 

to  please  myself. 
Henry.     Whatever  come  between  us? 
Becket.  What  should  come 

Between  us,  Henry? 

Henry.     Nay  —  I  know  not,  Thomas. 
Becket.     What   need   then?      Well  — 

whatever  come  between  us. 

[  Going. 
Henry.     A  moment !    thou  didst  help 

me  to  my  throne 
In  Theobald's   time,   and    after   by   thy 

wisdom 
Hast   kept   it   firm   from  shaking;     but 

now  I, 
For  my  realm's  sake,  myself  must  be  the 

wizard 
To  raise  that  tempest  which  will  set  it 

trembling 
Only  to  base  it  deeper.     I,  true  son 
Of  Holy   Church  —  no  croucher  to  the 

Gregories 
That  tread  the  kings  their  children  under- 

heel  — 
Must   curb   her;    and  the  Holy  Father, 

while 
This  Barbarossa  butts  him  from  his  chair, 
Will  need  my  help  —  be   facile   to   my 

hands. 
Now  is  my  time.     Yet  —  lest  there  should 

be  flashes 
And  fulminations  from  the  side  of  Rome, 
An  interdict  on  England  —  I  will  have 
My  young  son  Henry  crown'd  the  King 

of  England, 
That  so  the   Papal   bolt   may  pass  by 

England, 
As  seeming  his,  not  mine,  and  fall  abroad. 
I'll  have  it  done  —  and  now. 

Becket.  Surely  too  young 

Even  for  this  shadow  of  a  crown;   and 

tho' 
I  love  him  heartily,  I  can  spy  already 


PROLOGUE. 


BECKET. 


679 


A  strain  of  hard  and  headstrong  in  him. 

Say, 
The   Queen    should    play   his    kingship 
against  thine ! 
Henry.     I  will  not  think  so,  Thomas. 
Who  shall  crown  him? 
Canterbury  is  dying. 

Becket.  The  next  Canterbury. 

Henry.     And   who    shall   he    be,   my 

friend  Thomas?    Who? 
Becket.     Name  him;   the  Holy  Father. 

will  confirm  him. 
Henry    (Jays  his  hand   on    Becket's 

shoulder).     Here! 
Becket.         Mock  me  not.     I  am  not 
even  a  monk. 
Thy  jest  —  no  more.     Why  —  look  —  is 

this  a  sleeve 
For  an  archbishop? 

Henry.  But  the  arm  within 

Is  Becket's,  who  hath  beaten  down  my 
foes. 
Becket.     A    soldier's,    not   a   spiritual 

arm. 
Henry.     I  .  lack    a    spiritual    soldier, 
Thomas  — 
A  man  of  this  world  and  the  next  to  boot. 
Becket.     There's  Gilbert  Foliot. 
Henry.  He  !  too  thin,  too  thin. 

Thou  art  the  man  to  fill  out  the  Church 

robe; 
Your  Foliot  fasts  and  fawns  too  much 
for  me. 
Becket.     Roger  of  York. 
henry.  Roger  is  Roger  of  York. 

King,  Church,  and  State  to  him  but  foils 

wherein 
To  set  that  precious  jewel,  Roger  of  York. 
No. 

Becket.     Henry  of  Winchester? 
Henry.     Him  who  crown'd  Stephen  — 
King  Stephen's  brother !     No;   too  royal 

for  me. 
And  I'll  have  no  more  Anselms. 

Becket.  Sire,  the  business 

Of  thy  whole   kingdom   waits   me :    let 
me  go. 
Henry.     Answer  me  first. 
Becket.  Then  for  thy  barren  jest 

Take  thou  mine  answer  in  bare  common- 
place — 
Nolo  episcopari. 
Henry.  Ay,  but  Nolo 


Archiepiscopari,  my  good  friend, 

Is  quite  another  matter. 

Becket.  A  more  awful  one. 

Make  me  archbishop !     Why,  my  liege, 
I  know 

Some  three  or  four  poor  priests  a  thou- 
sand times 

Fitter  for  this  grand  function.     Me  arch- 
bishop ! 

God's  favour  and  king's  favour  might  so 
clash 

That  thou  and  I 'That  were  a  jest 

indeed ! 
Henry.     Thou  angerest  me,  man:    I 
do  not  jest. 

Enter  Eleanor  and  Sir  Reginald 
Fitzurse. 

Eleanor  {singing).      Over!  the  sweet 
summer  closes, 

The  reign  of  the  roses  is  done 

Henry  {to  Becket,  %vho  is  going) .    Thou 

shalt  not  go.     I  have  not  ended 

with  thee. 

Eleanor  {seeing  chart  on  table) .      This 

chart   with   the   red   line !    her    bower ! 

whose  bower? 

Henry.  The  chart  is  not  mine,  but 
Becket's :    take  it,  Thomas. 

Eleanor.  Becket !  O — ay  —  and  these 
chessmen  on  the  floor  —  the  king's  crown 
broken  !  Becket  hath  beaten  thee  again 
—  and  thou  hast  kicked  down  the  board. 
I  know  thee  of  old. 

Henry.     True  enough,  my  mind   was 

set  upon  other  matters. 
Eleanor.     What  matters?     State  mat- 
ters? love  matters? 
Henry.     My  love  for  thee,  and  thine 

for  me. 
Eleanor.      Over!    the   sweet   summer- 
closes, 
The  reign  of  the  roses  is  done; 
Over  and  gone  with  the  roses, 
And  over  and  gone  with  the  sun. 

Here;  but  our  sun  in  Aquitaine  lasts 
longer.  I  would  I  were  in  Aquitaine 
again  —  your  north  chills  me. 

Over  !  the  sweet  summer  closes, 
And  never  a  flower  at  the  close; 

Over  and  gone  with  the  roses, 
And  winter  again  and  the  snows. 


68o 


BECKET. 


PROLOGUE. 


That  was  not  the  way  I  ended  it  first  — 
but  unsymmetrically,  preposterously,  illog- 
ically,  out  of  passion,  without  art  —  like 
a  song  of  the  people.  Will  you  have 
it?  The  last  Parthian  shaft  of  a  for- 
lorn Cupid  at  the  King's  left  brc;ti.it, 
and  all  left-handedness  and  under  .ja.id- 
edness. 

And  never  a  flower  at  the  close, 
Over  and  gone,  with  the  roses, 
Not  over  and  gone  with  the  rose. 

True,  one  rose  will  outblossom  the  rest, 
one  rose  in  a  bower.  I  speak  after  my 
fancies,  for  I  am  a  Troubadour,  you 
know,  and  won  the  violet  at  Toulouse; 
but  my  voice  is  harsh  here,  not  in  tune, 
a  nightingale  out  of  season;  for  marriage, 
rose  or  no  rose,  has  killed  the  golden 
violet. 

Becket.     Madam,  you  do  ill  to  scorn 
wedded  love. 

Eleanor.  So  I  do.  Louis  of  France 
loved  me,  and  I  dreamed  that  I  loved 
Louis  of  France:  and  I  loved  Henry  of 
England,  and  Henry  of  England  dreamed 
that  he  loved  me;  but  the  marriage-gar- 
land withers  even  with  the  putting  on, 
the  bright  link  rmts  with  the  breath  of 
the  first  after-marriage  kiss,  the  harvest 
moon  is  the  ripening  of  the  harvest,  and 
the  honeymoon  is  the  gall  of  love;  he 
dies  of  his  honeymoon.  I  could  pity 
this  poor  world  myself  that  it  is  no  better 
ordered. 

Henry.  Dead  is  he,  my  Queen? 
What,  altogether?  Let  me  swear  nay  to 
that  by  this  cross  on  thy  neck.  God's 
eyes !  what  a  lovely  cross !  what  jewels ! 

Eleanor.  Doth  it  please  you?  Take 
it  and  wear  it  on  that  hard  heart  of  yours 
—  there.  [  Gives  it  to  him. 

Henry  {puts  it  on).    On  this  left  breast 
before  so  hard  a  heart, 
To  hide  the  scar  left  by  thy  Parthian  dart. 

Eleanor.  Has  my  simple  song  set 
you  jingling?  Nay,  if  I  took  and  trans- 
lated that  hard  heart  into  our  Provencal 
facilities,  I  could  so  play  about  it  with 
the  rhyme 

Henry.  That  the  heart  were  lost  in 
the  rhyme  and  the  matter  in  the  metre. 


May  we  not  pray  you,  Madam,  to  spare 
us  the  hardness  of  your  facility? 

Eleanor.  The  wells  of  Castaly  are 
not  wasted  upon  the  desert.  We  did 
but  jest. 

Henry.  There's  no  jest  on  the  brows 
of  Herbert  there.     What  is  it,  Herbert? 

Enter  Herbert  of  Bosham. 

Herbert.  My  liege,  the  good  Arch- 
bishop is  no  more. 

Henry.  Peace  to  his  soul ! 
Herbert.  I  left  him  with  peace  on  his 
face  —  that  sweet  other- world  smile,  which 
will  be  reflected  in  the  spiritual  body 
among  the  angels.  But  he  longed  much 
to  see  your  Grace  and  the  Chancellor 
ere  he  past,  and  his  last  words  were  a 
commendation  of  Thomas  Becket  to  your 
Grace  as  his  successor  in  the  archbishop- 
rick. 

Henry.      Ha,    Becket !    thou   remem- 

berest  our  talk ! 
Becket.     My  heart  is  full  of  tears  —  I 

have  no  answer. 
Henry.     Well,    well,   old    men    must 
die,  or   the  world  would  grow  mouldy, 
would  only  breed  the  past  again.     Come 
to   me   to-morrow.      Thou    hast   but   to 
hold    out    thy    hand.      Meanwhile    the 
revenues  are  mine.     A-hawking,  a-hawk- 
v  fat. 
\_Leafis  over  the  table,  and  exit. 
Becket.      He    did    prefer    me   to   the 
chancellorship, 
Believing  I  should  ever  aid  the  Church  — 
But  have  I  done  it  ?     He  commends  me 

now 
From  out  his  grave  to  this  archbishop- 
rick. 
Herbert.     A   dead   man's  dying   wish 

should  be  of  weight. 
Becket.     His  should.     Come  with  me. 
Let  me  learn  at  full 
The  manner  of  his  death,  and  all  he  said. 
[Exeunt  Herbert  and  Becket. 
Eleanor.     Fitzurse,  that  chart  with  the 
red  line  —  thou  sawest  it  —  her  bower. 
Fitzurse.     Rosamund's? 
Eleanor.     Ay — there  lies  the  secret  of 
her  whereabouts,  and  the  King  gave  it  to 
his  Chancellor. 


PROLOGUE. 


BECKET. 


681 


Fitzurse.  To  this  son  of  a  London 
merchant  —  how  your  Grace  must  hate 
him  ! 

Eleanor.  Hate  him?  as  brave  a 
soldier  as  Henry  and  a  goodlier  man : 
but  thou  —  dost  thou  love  this  Chancellor, 
that  thou  hast  sworn  a  voluntary  alle- 
giance to  him? 

Fitzurse.  Not  for  my  love  toward 
him,  but  because  he  had  the  love  of  the 
King.  How  should  a  baron  love  a 
beggar  on  horseback,  with  the  retinue  of 
three  kings  behind  him,  outroyalling 
royalty?  Besides,  he  holp  the  King  to 
break  down  our  castles,  for  the  which  I 
hate  him. 

Eleanor.  For  the  which  I  honour 
him.  Statesman  not  Churchman  he. 
A  great  and  sound  policy  that:  I  could 
embrace  him  for  it :  you  could  not  see 
the  King  for  the  kinglings. 

Fitzurse.  Ay,  but  he  speaks  to  a 
noble  as  tho'  he  were  a  churl,  and  to  a 
churl  as  if  he  were  a  noble. 

Eleanor.     Pride  of  the  plebeian  ! 

Fitzurse.  And  this  plebeian  like  to  be 
Archbishop ! 

Eleanor.  True,  and  I  have  an  in- 
herited loathing  of  these  black  sheep  of 
the  Papacy.  Archbishop?  I  can  see 
further  into  a  man  than  our  hot-headed 
Henry,  and  if  there  ever  come  feud 
between  Church  and  Crown,  and  I  do 
not  then  charm  this  secret  out  of  our 
loyal  Thomas,  I  am  not  Eleanor. 

Fitzurse.  Last  night  I  followed  a 
woman  in  the  city  here.  Her  face  was 
veiled,  but  the  back  methought  was 
Rosamund  —  his  paramour,  thy  rival.  I 
can  feel  for  thee. 

Eleanor.  Thou  feel  for  me  !  —  para- 
mour—  rival!  King  Louis  had  no  para- 
mours, and  I  loved  him  none  the  more. 
Henry  had  many,  and  I  loved  him  none 
the  less  —  now  neither  more  nor  less  — 
not  at  all;  the  cup's  empty.  I  would  she 
were  but  his  paramour,  for  men  tire  of 
their  fancies;  but  I  fear  this  one  fancy 
hath  taken  root,  and  borne  blossom  too, 
and  she,  whom  the  King  loves  indeed,  is 
a  power  in  the  State.  Rival !  —  ay,  and 
when  the  King  passes,  there  may  come  a 
crash  and  embroilment  as  in  Stephen's 


time;  and  her  children —  canst  thou  not 
—  that  secret  matter  which  would  heat 
the  King  against  thee  (whispers  him  and 
he  starts) .  Nay,  that  is  safe  with  me  as 
with  thyself:  but  canst  thou  not  —  thou 
art  drowned  iri  debt  —  thou  shalt  have  our 
love,  our  silence,  and  our  gold  —  canst 
thou  not  —  if  thou  light  upon  her  —  free 
me  from  her? 

Fitzurse.     Well,  Madam,  I  have  loved 
her  in  my  time. 

Eleanor.  No,  my  bear,  thou  hast  not. 
My  Courts  of  Love  would  have  held 
thee  guiltless  of  love  —  the  fine  attrac- 
tions and  repulses,  the  delicacies,  the 
subtleties. 

Fitzurse.  Madam,  I  loved  accord- 
ing to  the  main  purpose  and  intent  of 
nature. 

Eleanor.  I  warrant  thee !  thou 
wouldst  hug  thy  Cupid  till  his  ribs 
cracked  —  enough  of  this.  Follow  me 
this  Rosamund  day  and  night,  whither- 
soever she  goes;  track  her,  if  thou  canst, 
even  into  the  King's  lodging,  that  I  may 
(clenches  her  fist) — may  at  least  have 
my  cry  against  him  and  her,  —  and  thou 
in  thy  way  shouldst  be  jealous  of  the 
King,  for  thou  in  thy  way  didst  once, 
what  shall  I  call  it,  affect  her  thine  own 
self. 

Fitzurse.  Ay,  but  the  young  colt 
winced  and  whinnied  and  flung  up  her 
heels;  and  then  the  King  came  honey- 
ing about  her,  and  this  Becket,  her 
father's  friend,  like  enough  staved  us 
from  her. 

Eleanor.     Us ! 

Fitzurse.  Yea,  by  the  Blessed  Virgin  ! 
There  were  more  than  I  buzzing  round 
the  blossom  —  Ue  Tracy  —  even  that 
flint  De  Brito. 

Eleanor.  Carry  her  off  among  you; 
run  in  upon  her  and  devour  her,  one  and 
all  of  you;  make  her  as  hateful  to  her- 
self and  to  the  King,  as  she  is  to  me. 

Fitzurse.  I  and  all  would  be  glad  to 
wreak  our  spite  on  the  rosefaced  minion 
of  the  King,  and  bring  her  to  the  level 
of  the  dust,  so  that  the  King 

Eleanor.  Let  her  eat  it  like  the  ser- 
pent, and  be  driven  out  of  her  para- 
dise. 


682 


BECKET. 


ACT  I. 


ACT  I. 

SCENE  I.  —  Becket's  House  in  Lon- 
don. 

Chamber  barely  furnished.  Becket 
unrobing.  Herbert  of  Bosham  and 
Servant. 

Servant.     Shall  I  not  help  your  lord- 
ship to  your  rest? 
Becket.     Friend,  am  I  so  much  better 
than  thyself 
That  thou  shouldst  help  me?     Thou  art 

wearied  out 
With  this  day's  work,  get  thee  to  thine 

own  bed. 
Leave  me  with  Herbert,  friend. 

[Exit  Servant. 
Help  me  off,    Herbert,  with  this  —  and 
this. 
Herbert.     Was  not  the  people's  bless- 
ing as  we  past 
Heart-comfort     and    a    balsam    to   thy 
blood? 
Becket.    The  people  know  their  Church 
a  tower  of  strength, 
A  bulwark  against  Throne  and  Baronage. 
Too    heavy    for   me,   this;    off  with   it, 
Herbert ! 
Herbert.     Is  it  so  much  heavier  than 

thy  Chancellor's  robe? 
Becket.     No;  but  the  Chancellor's  and 
the  Archbishop's 
Together   more    than    mortal   man   can 
bear. 
Herbert.       Not    heavier    than    thine 

armour  at  Thoulouse? 
Becket.     O   Herbert,  Herbert,  in  my 
chancellorship 
I  more  than  once  have  gone  against  the 
Church. 
Herbert.     To  please  the  King? 
Becket.         Ay,  and  the  King  of  kings, 
Or  justice;   for  it  seem'd  to  me  but  just 
The  Church  should  pay  her  scutage  like 

the  lords. 
But  hast  thou  heard  this  cry  of  Gilbert 

Foliot 
That   I   am    not    the   man  to   be   your 

Primate, 
For  Henry  could  not  work  a  miracle  — 
Make  an  Archbishop  of  a  soldier? 


Herbert.  Ay, 

For  Gilbert  Foliot  held  himself  the  man. 

Becket.     Am  I  the  man  ?     My  mother, 

ere  she  bore  me, 

Dream'd  that  twelve  stars  fell  glittering 

out  of  heaven 
Into  her  bosom. 

Herbert.  Ay,  the  fire,  the  light, 

The  spirit  of  the  twelve  Apostles  enter'd 
Into  thy  making. 

Becket.  And  when  I  was  a  child, 

The  Virgin,  in  a  vision  of  my  sleep, 
Gave   me  the  golden  keys  of  Paradise. 

Dream, 
Or  prophecy,  that? 

Herbert.     Well,  dream  and  prophecy 

both. 
Becket.   And  when  I  was  of  Theobald's 
household,  once  — 
The  good  old  man  would  sometimes  have 

his  jest  — 
He  took  his  mitre  off,  and  set  it  on  me, 
And  said,  *  My  young  Archbishop  —  thou 

wouldst  make 
A  stately  Archbishop  i '   Jest  or  prophecy 
there? 
Herbert.     Both,  Thomas,  both. 
Becket.       Am  I  the  man?     That  rang 
Within  my  head  last  night,  and  when  I 

slept 
Methought  I  stood  in  Canterbury  Min- 
ster, 
And  spake  to  the  Lord  God,  and  said, 

'O  Lord, 
I  have  been  a  lover  of  wines,  and  deli- 
cate meats, 
And  secular  splendours,  and  a  favourer 
Of  players,  and  a  courtier,  and  a  feeder 
Of  dogs  and  hawks,  and  apes,  and  lions, 

and  lynxes. 
Am  /  the  man  ? '   And  the  Lord  answer'd 

me, 
•  Thou  art  the  man,  and  all  the  more  the 

man.' 
And  then  I  ask'd  again,  •  O  Lord  my  God, 
Henry  the  King  hath  been  my  friend,  my 

brother, 
And    mine    uplifter   in   this   world,  and 

chosen  me 
For   this  thy  great   archbishoprick,  be- 
lieving 
That  I   should   go   against   the   Church 
with  him, 


BECKET. 


683 


And  I   shall   go    against  him   with    the 

Church, 
And  I  have  said  no  word  of  this  to  him : 
Am  /  the  man  ?  '  And  the  Lord  answer'd 

me, 

*  Thou  art  the  man,  and  all  the  more  the 

man.' 
And   thereupon,    methought,    He    drew 

toward  me, 
And  smote  me  down  upon  the  Minster 

floor. 
I  fell. 

Herbert.     God  make  not  thee,  but  thy 

foes,  fall. 
Becket.     I  fell.     Why  fall?     Why  did 

He  smite  me?     What? 
Shall  I  fall  off — to  please  the  King  once 

more? 
Not  fight  —  tho'  somehow  traitor  to  the 

King  — 
My   truest   and    mine    utmost    for    the 

Church? 
Herbert.      Thou  canst   not   fall    that 

way.     Let  traitor  be; 
For  how  have  fought  thine  utmost  for  the 

Church, 
Save  from  the  throne  of  thine  archbishop- 
rick? 
And  how  been  made  Archbishop  hadst 

thou  told  him, 

*  I  mean  to  fight  mine   utmost   for   the 

Church, 
Against  the  King'? 

Becket.     But  dost  thou  think  the  King 
Forced  mine  election? 

Herbert.  I  do  think  the  King 

Was   potent   in   the   election,   and  why 

not? 
Why  should  not  Heaven  have  so  inspired 

the  King? 
Be  comforted.     Thou  art  the  man  —  be 

thou 
A  mightier  Anselm. 

Becket.     I  do  believe  thee,  then.      I 

am  the  man. 
And  yet   I    seem   appall'd* — on  such  a 

sudden 
At  such  an  eagle-height  I  stand  and  see 
The  rift  that  runs  between  me  and  the 

King. 
I  served  our  Theobald  well  when  I  was 

with  him; 
I  served  King  Henry  well  as  Chancellor; 


I  am  his  no  more,  and  I  must  serve  the 

Church. 
This  Canterbury  is  only  less  than  Rome, 
And  all  my  doubts  I  fling  from  me  like 

dust, 
Winnow  and  scatter  all  scruples  to  the 

wind, 
And  all  the  puissance  of  the  warrior, 
And  all  the  wisdom  of  the  Chancellor, 
And  all  the  heap'd  experiences  of  life, 
I  cast  upon  the  side  of  Canterbury  — 
Our  holy  mother  Canterbury,  who  sits 
With  tatter'd  robes.     Laics  and  barons 

thro' 
The  random  gifts  of  careless  kings,  have 

graspt 
Her    livings,   her    advowsons,   granges, 

farms, 
And   goodly  acres  —  we  will  make  her 

whole; 
Not  one  rood  lost.     And  for  these  Royal 

customs, 
These  ancient  Royal  customs  —  they  are 

Royal, 
Not  of  the  Church  —  and   let  them  be 

anathema, 
And  all  that  speak  for  them  anathema. 
Herbert.    Thomas,  thou  art  moved  too 

much. 
Becket.  O  Herbert,  here 

I  gash  myself  asunder  from  the  King, 
Tho'  leaving  each,  a  wound;   mine  own, 

a  grief 
To  show  the  scar  for  ever  —  his,  a  hate 
Not  ever  to  be  heal'd. 

Enter  Rosamund  de  Clifford,  fly- 
ing from  Sir  Reginald  Fitzurse. 
Drops  her  veil. 

Becket.  Rosamund  de  Clifford ! 

Rosamund.     Save  me,  father,  hide  me 
—  they  follow  me  —  and  I  must  not  be 
known. 
Becket.     Pass  in  with  Herbert  there. 
[Exeunt  Rosamund  and  Herbert  by 
side  door. 

Enter  Fitzurse. 

Fitzurse.     The  Archbishop ! 

Becket.  Ay !  what  wouldst  thou,  Regi- 
nald? 

Fitzurse.  Why  —  why,  my  lord,  I  fol- 
low'd  —  follow'd  one 


684 


BECKET. 


ACT  I. 


Becket.     And  then  what  follows?     Let 

me  follow  thee. 
Fitzurse.    It  much  imports  me  I  should 

know  her  name. 
Becket.  What  her? 
Fitzurse.     The  woman  that  I  follow'd 

hither. 
Becket.     Perhaps   it   may  import   her 
all  as  much 
Not  to  be  known. 

Fitzurse.       And  what  care  I  for  that? 
Come,  come,  my  lord  Archbishop;   I  saw 

that  door 
Close  even  now  upon  the  woman. 

Becket.  Well? 

Fitzurse  {making for  the  door).     Nay, 
let  me  pass,  my  lord,  for  I  must 
know. 
Becket.     Back,  man ! 
Fitzurse.  Then  tell  me  who 

and  what  she  is. 
Becket.     Art   thou  so  sure    thou   fol- 
lowedst  anything? 
Go   home,  and   sleep  thy  wine  off,    for 

thine  eyes 
Glare  stupid-wild  with  wine. 

Fitzurse  {making to  the  door).     I  must 
and  will. 
I  care  not  for  thy  new  archbishoprick. 
Becket.      Back,    man,    I     tell     thee ! 
What ! 
Shall  I  forget  my  new  archbishoprick 
And  smite  thee  with  my  crozier  on  the 

skull? 
'Fore  God,  I   am  a  mightier  man  than 
thou. 
Fitzurse.     It  well  befits  thy  new  arch- 
bishoprick 
To    take   the   vagabond    woman  of  the 

street 
Into  thine  arms ! 

Becket.  O  drunken  ribaldry  ! 

Out,  beast !  out,  bear  ! 

Fitzurse.  I  shall  remember  this. 

Becket.     Do,  and  begone  ! 

[Exit  Fitzurse. 

\_Going  to  the  door,  sees  De  Tracy. 

Tracy,  what  dost  thou  here? 

De  Tracy.  My   lord,    I    follow'd 

Reginald  Fitzurse. 
Becket.     Follow  him  out ! 
De  Tracy.  I  shall  remember  this 

Discourtesy.  [Exit. 


Becket.     Do.     These  be  those  baron- 
brutes 
That  havock'd  all  the  land  in  Stephen's 

day. 
Rosamund  de  Clifford. 

Re-enter  Rosamund  and  Herbert. 

Rosamund.  Here  am  I. 

Becket.  Why  here? 

We  gave  thee  to  the  charge  of  John  of 

Salisbury, 
To   pass  thee   to  thy  secret   bower   to- 
morrow. 
Wast  thou  not  told  to  keep  thyself  from 

sight? 
Rosamund.     Poor  bird  of  passage !  so 

I  was;   but,  father, 
They  say  that   you   are  wise   in  winged 

things, 
And  know  the  ways  of  Nature.     Bar  the 

bird 
From    following   the    fled    summer  —  a 

chink  —  he's  out, 
Gone !     And  there  stole  into  the  city  a 

breath 
Full  of  the  meadows,  and  it  minded  me 
Of  the  sweet  woods  of  Clifford,  and  the 

walks 
Where  I  could  move  at  pleasure,  and  I 

thought 
Lo  !  I  must  out  or  die. 

Becket.  Or  out  and  die. 

And   what   hast   thou   to   do   with    this 

Fitzurse? 
Rosamund.     Nothing.     He   sued   my 

hand.     I  shook  at  him. 
He   found   me  once  alone.     Nay  —  nay 

I  cannot 
Tell  you :  my  father  drove  him  and  his 

friends, 
De  Tracy  and  De  Brito,  from  our  castle. 
I  was  but  fourteen  and  an  April  then. 
I  heard  him  swear  revenge. 

Becket.  Why  will  you  court  it 

By  self-exposure?  flutter  out  at  night? 
Make  it  so  hard  to  save  a  moth  from  the 

fire? 
Rosamund.      I    have   saved   many   of  j 

'em.     You  catch  'em,  so, 
Softly,  and    fling  them  out   to  the    free 

air. 
They  burn  themselves  within-door. 
Becket.  Our  good  John 


SCENE   I. 


BECKET. 


685 


Must  speed  you  to  your  bower  at  once. 

The  child 
Is  there  already. 

Rosamund.         Yes  —  the  child  —  the 
child  — 
O  rare,  a  whole  long  day  of  open  field. 
Becket.     Ay,  but  you  go  disguised. 
Rosamund.  O  rare  again  ! 

We'll    baffle    them,    I   warrant.      What 

shall  it  be? 
I'll  go  as  a  nun. 
Becket.  No. 

Rosamund.       What,  not  good  enough 
Even  to  play  at  nun  ? 

Becket.  Dan  John  with  a  nun, 

That  Map,  and  these  new  railers  at  the 

Church 
May  plaister  his  clean  name  with  scur- 
rilous rhvmes ! 
No! 

Go  like  a  monk,  cowling  and  clouding  up 
That   fatal   star,   thy  Beauty,    from   the 

squint 
Of    lust    and    glare    of    malice.     Good 
night !  good  night ! 
Rosamund.     Father,  I   am  so   tender 
to  all  hardness ! 
Nay,  father,  first  thy  blessing. 

Becket.  Wedded? 

Rosamund.  Father ! 

Becket.     Well,  well !   I  ask  no  more. 

Heaven  bless  thee  !  hence  ! 
Rosamund.     O  holy  father,  when  thou 
seest  him  next, 
Commend  me  to  thy  friend. 

Becket.  What  friend? 

Rosamund.  The  King. 

Becket.     Herbert,  take  out  a  score  of 
armed  men 
To  guard   this   bird   of  passage  to   her 

cage; 
And  watch    Fitzurse,  and   if  he   follow 

thee, 
Make  him  thy  prisoner.     I  am  Chancel- 
lor yet. 

[Exeunt  Herbert  and  Rosamund. 
Poor  soul !  poor  soul ! 
My    friend,    the    King !   .  .  .     O    thou 

Great  Seal  of  England, 
Given  me  by  my  dear  friend  the  King 

of  England  — 
We   long  have  wrought  together,  thou 
and  I  — 


Now  must   I   send   thee   as   a  common 

friend 
To  tell  the  King,  my  friend,  I  am  against 

him. 
We  are    friends   no  more :    he  will   say 

that,  not  I. 
The  worldly  bond  between  us  is  dissolved, 
Not  yet  the  love :  can  I  be  under  him 
As  Chancellor?  as  Archbishop  over  him? 
Go  therefore   like  a  friend  slighted  by 

one 
That  hath  climb'd  up  to  nobler  company. 
Not  slighted  —  all  but  moan'd  for :  thou 

must  go. 
I  have  not  dishonour'd  thee  —  I  trust  I 

have  not; 
Not   mangled  justice.      May   the   hand 

that  next 
Inherits  thee  be  but  as  true  to  thee 
As  mine  hath  been  !     O  my  dear  friend, 

the  King ! 

0  brother  !  — I  may  come  to  martyrdom. 

1  am  martyr  in   myself  already.  —  Her- 

bert! 
Herbert  (re-entering).     My  lord,  the 
town  is  quiet,  and  the  moon 

Divides  the  whole  long  street  with  light 
and  shade. 

No  footfall  —  no  Fitzurse.    We  have  seen 
her  home. 
Becket.     The  hog  hath  tumbled  him- 
self into  some  corner, 

Some  ditch,  to  snore  away  his  drunken- 
ness 

Into     the    sober     headache,  —  Nature's 
moral 

Against  excess.     Let  the  Great  Seal  be 
sent 

Back  to  the  King  to-morrow. 

Herbert.  Must  that  be  ? 

The  King  may  rend  the  bearer  limb  from 
limb. 

Think  on  it  again. 

Becket.  Against  the  moral  excess 

No  physical  ache,  but  failure  it  may  be 

Of  all  we  aim'd  at.     John  of  Salisbury 

Hath   often   laid   a   cold    hand   on   my 
heats, 

And    Herbert    hath   rebuked   me   even 
now. 

I  will  be  wise  and  wary,  not  the  soldier 

As  Foliot  swears  it.  —  John,  and  out  of 
breath ! 


686 


BECKET. 


ACT   I 


Enter  John  of  Salisbury. 

John  of  Salisbury.     Thomas,  thou  wast 

not  happy  taking  charge 
Of  this  wild   Rosamund   to   please    the 

King, 
Nor  am  I  happy  having  charge  of  her  — 
The  included  Danae  has  escaped  again 
Her  tower,  and  her  Acrisius  —  where  to 

seek? 
I  have  been  about  the  city. 

Becket.  Thou  wilt  find  her 

Back  in  her  lodging.     Go  with  her  —  at 

once  — 
To-night  —  my  men  will   guard   you  to 

the  gates. 
Be  sweet  to  her,  she  has  many  enemies. 
Send  the  Great  Seal  by  daybreak.    Both, 

good  night ! 


SCENE  II.  —  Street  in  Northampton 

LEADING  TO  THE  CASTLE. 

Eleanor's  Retainers  and  Becket's 
Retainers  fighting.  Enter  Eleanor 
and  Becket  from  opposite  streets. 

Eleanor.     Peace,  fools ! 

Becket.  Peace,  friends !  what  idle 

brawl  is  this? 
Retainer  of  Becket.      They  said  —  her 

Grace's       people  —  thou       wast 

found  — 
Liars!  I  shame  to  quote  'em  —  caught, 

my  lord, 
With  a  wanton   in    thy   lodging  —  Hell 

requite  'em ! 
Retainer  of  Eleanor.      My  liege,  the 

Lord  Fitzurse  reported  this 
In  passing  the  Castle  even  now. 

Retainer  of  Becket.     And   then   they 

mock'd  us  and  we  fell  upon  'em, 
For  we  would  live  and  die  for  thee,  my 

lord, 
However  kings  and  queens  may  frown 

on  thee. 
Becket  to  his  Retainers.     Go,  go  —  no 

more  of  this ! 
Eleanor  to  her  Retainers.     Away !  — 

{Exeunt  Retainers)  Fitzurse 

Becket.     Nay,  let  him  be. 

Eleanor.  No,  no,  my  Lord 

Archbishop, 


'Tis    known    you   are   midwinter   to   all 

women, 
But   often   in   your   chancellorship    you 

served 
The  follies  of  the  King. 

Becket.  No,  not  these  follies  ! 

Eleanor.     My   lord,    Fitzurse    beheld 

her  in  your  lodging. 
Becket.     Whom? 
Eleanor.  Well  —  you  know  —  the 

minion,  Rosamund. 
Becket.     He  had  good  eyes ! 
Eleanor.        Then  hidden  in  the  street 
He  watch'd  her  pass  with  John  of  Salis- 
bury 
And  heard  her  cry  '  Where  is  this  bower 
of  mine?' 
Becket.     Good  ears  too  ! 
Eleanor.     You  are  going  to  the  Castle, 
Will  you  subscribe  the  customs? 

Becket.  I  leave  that, 

Knowing  how  much  you  reverence  Holy 

Church, 
My  liege,  to  your  conjecture. 

Eleanor.  I  and  mine  — 

And    many  a   baron   holds  along  with 

me  — 
Are   not  so  much   at  feud   with   Holy 

Church 
But  we  might  take  your  side  against  the 

customs  — 
So  that  you  grant  me  one  slight  favour. 
Becket.  What? 

Eleanor.     A  sight  of  that  same  chart 
which  Henry  gave  you 
With  the  red  line  —  ■  her  bower.' 

Becket.  And  to  what  end? 

Eleanor.  That  Church  must  scorn 

herself  whose  fearful  Priest 

Sits  winking  at  the  license  of  a  king, 

Altho'  we  grant  when  kings  are  dangerous 

The  Church  must  play  into  the  hands  of 

kings; 
Look!  I  would  move  this  wanton  from 

his  sight 
And  take  the  Church's  danger  on  myself. 
Becket.     For  which  she  should  be  duly 

grateful. 
Eleanor.  True ! 

Tho'   she  that   binds  the   bond,  herself 

should  see 
That  kings  are  faithful  to  their  marriage 
vow. 


SCENE   III. 


BECKET. 


687 


Becket.     Ay,  Madam,  and  queens  also. 

Eleanor.  And  queens  also  ! 

What  is  your  drift? 

Becket.  My  drift  is  to  the  Castle, 

Where  I  shall  meet  the  Barons  and  my 

King.  [Exit. 

De  Broc,  De  Tracy,  De  Brito, 
De  Morville  (passing). 

Eleanor.     To  the  Castle  ? 
De  Broc.  Ay ! 

Eleanor.    Stir  up  the  King,  the  Lords ! 
Set  all  on  fire  against  him  ! 

De  Brito.  Ay,  good  Madam  ! 

[Exeunt. 

Eleanor.      Fool !    I   will   make   thee 

hateful  to  thy  King. 

Churl!    I  will   have    thee    frighted  into 

France, 
And  I  shall  live  to  trample  on  thy  grave. 


SCENE  III.— The  Hall  in  North- 
ampton Castle. 

On  one* side  of  the  stage  the  doors  of  an 
inner  Council-chamber,  half-open. 
At  the  bottom,  the  great  doors  of  the 
Hall.  Roger  Archbishop  of  York, 
Foliot  Bishop  of  London,  Hilary 
of  Chichester,  Bishop  of  Here- 
ford, Richard  de  Hastings  (  Grand 
Prior  of  Templars),  Philip  de  Elee- 
MOSYNA  (the  Pope's  Almoner),  and 
others.  De  Broc,  Fitzurse,  De  Brito, 
De  Morville,  De  Tracy,  and  other 
Barons  assembled — a  table  before 
them.  John  of  Oxford,  President 
of  the  Council. 

Enter  Becket  and  Herbert  of 
Bosham. 

Becket.     Where  is  the  King? 
Roger  of  York.  Gone  hawking  on 

the  Nene, 

His  heart  so  gall'd  with  thine  ingrati- 
tude, 

He  will  not  see  thy  face  till  thou  hast 
sign'd 

These  ancient  laws  and  customs  of  the 
realm. 

Thy  sending  back  the  Great  Seal  mad- 
den'd  him, 


He   all   but   pluck'd    the   bearer's   eyes 

away. 
Take  heed,  lest  he  destroy  thee  utterly. 
Becket.     Then  shalt  thou  step  into  my 

place  and  sign. 
Roger  of  York.    Didst  thou  not  promise 

Henry  to  obey 
These  ancient  laws  and  customs  of  the 

realm? 
Becket.     Saving    the   honour   of    my 

order  — ay. 
Customs,  traditions,  —  clouds  that  come 

and  go; 
The  customs  of  the  Church  are  Peter's 

rock. 
Roger  of  York.     Saving  thine  order ! 

But  King  Henry  sware 
That,    saving    his    King's   kingship,   he 

would  grant  thee 
The  crown   itself.     Saving  thine   order, 

Thomas, 
Is  black  and  white  at  once,  and  comes 

to  naught. 
O   bolster'd    up   with   stubbornness  and 

pride, 
Wilt  thou  destroy  the  Church  in  fighting 

for  it, 
And  bring  us  all  to  shame  ? 

Becket.  Eoger  of  York, 

When  I  and  thou  were  youths  in  Theo- 
bald's house, 
Twice  did  thy  malice  and  thy  calumnies 
Exile  me  from  the  face  of  Theobald. 
Now  I  am  Canterbury  and  thou  art  York. 
Roger  of  York.     And  is  not  York  the 

peer  of  Canterbury? 
Did  not  Great  Gregory  bid  St.  Austin  here 
Found  two  archbishopricks,  London  and 

York? 
Becket.     What   came    of   that?     The 

first  archbishop  fled, 
And  York  lay  barren  for  a  hundred  years. 
Why,  by  this  rule,  Foliot  may  claim  the 

pall 
For  London  too. 

Foliot.  And  with  good  reason  too, 

For  London  had  a  temple  and  a  priest 
When  Canterbury  hardly  bore  a  name. 
Becket.    The  pagan  temple  of  a  pagan 

Rome ! 
The   heathen   priesthood   of  a   heathen 

creed ! 
Thou  goest  beyond  thyself  in  petulancy  1 


688 


BECKET. 


Who   made    thee    London?      Who,  but 

Canterbury  ? 
John  of  Oxford.  Peace,  peace,  my 

lords !  these  customs  are  no  longer 
As    Canterbury   calls    them,    wandering 

clouds, 
But  by  the  King's  command  are  written 

down, 
And  by  the  King's  command  I,  John  of 

Oxford, 
The  President  of  this  Council,  read  them. 
Becket.  Read ! 

John  of  Oxford  (reads).  *  All  causes 
of  advowsons  and  presentations,  whether 
between  laymen  or  clerics,  shall  be  tried 
in  the  King's  court.' 

Becket.     But  that  I   cannot  sign :   for 

that  would  drag 
The  cleric  before  the  civil  judgment-seat, 
And  on  a  matter  wholly  spiritual. 

John  of  Oxford.  '  If  any  cleric  be 
accused  of  felony,  the  Church  shall  not 
protect  him;  but  he  shall  answer  to  the 
summons  of  the  King's  court  to  be  tried 
therein.' 

Becket.     And  that  I  cannot  sign. 
Is  not  the  Church  the  visible  Lord  on 

earth? 
Shall  hands  that  do  create  the  Lord  be 

bound 
Behind  the  back  like  laymen-criminals? 
The  Lord  be  judged  again  by  Pilate?  No  ! 
John  of  Oxford.  *  When  a  bishoprick 
falls  vacant,  the  King,  till  another  be 
appointed,  shall  receive  the  revenues 
thereof.' 

Becket.     And  that  I  cannot  sign.     Is 

the  King's  treasury 
A  fit  place  for  the  monies  of  the  Church, 
That  be  the  patrimony  of  the  poor? 

John  of  Oxford.  <  And  when  the  va- 
cancy is  to  be  filled  up,  the  King  shall 
summon  the  chapter  of  that  church  to 
court,  and  the  election  shall  be  made  in 
the  Chapel  Royal,  with  the  consent  of  our 
lord  the  King,  and  by  the  advice  of  his 
Government.' 

Becket.     And  that  I  cannot  sign:  for 

that  would  make 
Our  island-Church  a  schism  from  Chris- 
tendom, 
And  weight  down  all  free  choice  beneath 

the  throne. 


Foliot.     And  was  thine  own  election 
so  canonical, 
Good  father? 

Becket.     If  it  were  not,  Gilbert  Foliot 
I  mean  to  cross  the  sea  to  France,  and  lay 
My  crozier  in  the  Holy  Father's  hands, 
And  bid  him  re-create  me,  Gilbert  Foliot. 

Foliot.     Nay;   by  another  of  these  cus- 
toms thou 
Wilt  not  be  suffer'd  so  to  cross  the  seas 
Without  the  license  of  our  lord  the  King 

Becket.     That,  too,  I  cannot  sign. 

De  Broc,  De  Brito,  De  Tracy,  Fitz- 
URSE,  De  Morville,  start  up  —  a  clash 
of  swords. 

Sign  and  obey  I 

Becket.     My  lords,  is  this  a  combat  or 

a  council? 

Are  ye  my  masters,  or  my  lord  the  King? 

Ye  make  this  clashing  for  no  love  o'  the 

customs 
Or  constitutions,  or  whate'er  ye  call  them, 
But  that  there  be  among  you  those  that 

hold 
Lands  reft  from  Canterbury. 

De  Broc.         And  mean  to  keep  them, 
In  spite  of  thee  ! 

Lords  {shouting).     Sign,  and  obey  the 

crown ! 
Becket.     The  crown?     Shall  I  do  less 
for  Canterbury 
Than  Henry  for  the  crown?     King  Ste- 
phen gave 
Many  of  the  crown  lands  to  those  that 

helpt  him; 
So  did  Matilda,  the  King's  mother.   Mark, 
When  Henry  came  into  his  own  again, 
Then  he  took  back  not  only  Stephen's 

gifts, 
But   his  own   mother's,  lest   the    crown 

should  be 
Shorn  of  ancestral  splendour.     This  did 

Henry. 
Shall  I  do  less  for  mine  own  Canterbury? 
And  thou,  De  Broc,  that  holdest  Salt- 
wood  Castle 

De  Broc.    And  mean  to  hold  it,  or 

Becket.  To  have  my  life. 

De  Broc.     The  King  is  quick  to  anger ; 
if  thou  anger  him, 
We  wait  but  the  King's  word  to  strike 
thee  dead. 


SCENE   III. 


BECKET. 


689 


Becket.     Strike,  and  I  die  the  death  of 

martyrdom; 
Strike,  and  ye  set  these  customs  by  my 

death 
Ringing  their  own  death-knell  thro'  all 

the  realm. 
Herbert.     And  I  can  tell  you,  lords,  ye 

are  all  as  like 
To  lodge  a  fear  in  Thomas  Becket's  heart 
As  find  a  hare's  form  in  a  lion's  cave. 
John  of  Oxford.  Ay,  sheathe  your 

swords,  ye  will  displease  the  King. 
De  Broc.     Why  down  then  thou !  but 

an  he  come  to  Saltwood, 
By  God's  death,  thou  shalt  stick  him  like 

a  calf!  [Sheathing his  sword. 

Hilary.     O  my  good  lord,  I  do  entreat 

thee  —  sign. 
Save  the  King's  honour  here  before  his 

barons. 
He  hath  sworn  that  thou  shouldst  sign, 

and  now  but  shuns 
The  semblance  of  defeat;   I  have  heard 

him  say 
He  means  no  more;   so  if  thou  sign,  my 

lord, 
That  were  but  as  the  shadow  of  an  assent. 
Becket.      'Twould    seem    too  like   the 

substance,  if  I  sign'd. 
Philip  de  Eleemosyna.     My  lord,  thine 

ear !    I  have  the  ear  of  the  Pope. 
As  thou  hast  honour  for  the  Pope  our 

master, 
Have  pity  on  him,  sorely  prest  upon 
By  the  fierce  Emperor  and  his  Antipope. 
Thou   knowest  he  was  forced  to  fly  to 

France; 
He  pray'd  me  to  pray  thee  to  pacify 
Thy   King;   for   if  thou   go  against  thy 

King, 
Then  must  he  likewise   go  against  thy 

King, 
And  then  thy  King  might  join  the  Anti- 
pope, 
And  that  would  shake  the  Papacy  as  it 

stands. 
Besides,  thy  King  swore  to  our  cardinals 
He  meant  no  harm  nor  damage  to  the 

Church. 
Smooth  thou  his  pride  —  thy  signing  is 

but  form; 
Nay,  and  should  harm  come  of  it,  it  is 

the  Pope 

2Y 


Will  be  to  blame  —  not  thou.     Over  and 

over 
He   told    me    thou   shouldst   pacify   the 

King, 
Lest  there  be  battle  between  Heaven  and 

Earth, 
And  Earth  should  get  the  better  —  for  the 

time. 
Cannot   the    Pope  absolve  thee  if  thou 

sign? 
Becket.     Have   I   the    orders   of    the 

Holy  Father? 
Philip   de  Eleemosyna.      Orders,   my 

lord  —  why,  no;  for  what  am  I? 
The  secret  whisper  of  the  Holy  Father. 
Thou,  that  hast  been  a  statesman,  couldst 

thou  always  • 

Blurt  thy  free  mind  to  the  air? 

Becket.     If  Rome  be  feeble,  then  should 

I  be  firm. 
Philip.     Take  it  not  that  way — balk 

not  the  Pope's  will. 
When  he  hath  shaken  off  the  Emperor, 
He  heads  the  Church  against  the  King 

with  thee. 
Richard    de      Hastings      {kneeling). 

Becket,  I  am    the   oldest  of  the 

Templars; 
I  knew  thy  father;  he  would  be  mine  age 
Had  he  lived  now;   think  of  me  as  thy 

father ! 
Behold    thy    father    kneeling    to    thee, 

Becket. 
Submit;   I  promise  thee  on  my  salvation 
That   thou   wilt    hear   no   more    o'   the 

customs. 
Becket.  What ! 

Hath  Henry  told  thee?  hast  thou  talk'd 

with  him? 
Another  Templar  {kneeling).    Father, 

I  am  the   youngest  of  the  Tem- 
plars, 
Look  on  me  as  I  were  thy  bodily  son, 
For,  like  a  son,  I  lift  my  hands  to  thee. 
Philip.     Wilt  thou  hold  out  for  ever, 

Thomas  Becket? 
Dost  thou  not  hear? 

Becket  (signs) .     Why  —  there  then  — 

there  —  I  sign, 
And  swear  to  obey  the  customs. 

Foliot.  Is  it  thy  will, 

My  lord  Archbishop,  that  we  too  should 

sign? 


G90 


BECKET. 


ACT  1 


Becket.      O    ay,    by    that    canonical 
obedience 
Thou  still  hast  owed  thy  father,  Gilbert 
Foliot. 
Foliot.     Loyally  and  with  good  faith, 

my  lord  Archbishop? 
Becket.     O   ay,    with   all   that   loyalty 
and  good  faith 
Thou  still  hast  shown  thy  primate,  Gilbert 
Foliot. 
[Becket  draws  apart  with  Herbert. 
Herbert,    Herbert,   have  I  betray'd  the 

Church? 
I'll  have  the  paper  back  —  blot  out  my 
name. 
Herbert.     Too  late,  my  lord :  you  see 

they  are  signing  there. 
Becket.     False  to  myself  —  it  is  the  will 
of  God 
To  break  me,  prove  me  nothing  of  my- 
self! 
This  Almoner  hath  tasted  Henry's  gold. 
The  cardinals  have  finger'd  Henry's  gold. 
And  Rome  is  venal  ev'n  to  rottenness. 
I  see  it,  I  see  it. 

I  am  no  soldier,  as  he  said  —  at  least 
No  leader.     Herbert,  till  I  hear  from  the 

Pope 
I  will  suspend  myself  from  all  my  func- 
tions. 
If     fast     and     prayer,     the     lacerating 

scourge 

Foliot    {from    the    table).      My    lord^ 

Archbishop,  thou  hast  yet  to  seal. 

Becket.     First,  Foliot,  let  me  see  what 

I  have  sign'd.     [  Goes  to  the  table. 

What,  this !  and  this !  —  what !  new  and 

old  together ! 
Seal?     If  a  seraph  shouted  from  the  sun, 
And  bade  me  seal  against  the  rights  of 

the  Church, 
I  would  anathematise  him.    I  will  not  seal. 
[Exit  with  Herbert. 

Enter  KING  HENRY. 

Henry.     Where's  Thomas?    hath    he 
sign'd?  show  me  the  papers! 
Sign'd  and  not  seal'd  !     How's  that? 

John  of  Oxford.     He  would  not  seal. 
And  when  he  sign'd,  his  face  was  stormy- 
red — 
Shame,  wrath,  I  know   not  what.     He 
sat  down  there 


And  dropt  it  in  his  hands,  and   then  a 

paleness, 

Like  the  wan  twilight  after  sunset,  crept 

Up  even  to  the  tonsure,  and  he  groan'd, 

1  False  to  myself!    It  is  the  will  of  God  ! ' 

Henry.     God's  will   be  what   it  will, 

the  man  shall  seal, 
Or  I  will  seal  his  doom.     My  burgher's 

son  — 
Nay,  if  I  cannot  break  him  as  the  prelate, 
I'll  crush  him  as  the  subject.     Send  for 

him  back.  [Sits  on  his  throne. 

Barons  and  bishops  of  our  realm  of  Eng- 
land, 
After    the    nineteen    winters    of    King 

Stephen  — 
A  reign  which  was  no  reign,  when  none 

could  sit 
By  his  own  hearth  in  peace;   when  mur- 
der common 
As  nature's  death,  like  Egypt's  plague, 

had  fill'd 
All  things  with  blood ;  when  every  door- 
way blush'd, 
Dash'd  red  with  that  unhallow'd  passover ; 
When  every  baron  ground  his  blade  in 

blood;  / 

The    household  dough  was  kneaded  up 

with  blood; 
The   mill    wheel   turn'd   in   blood;    the 

wholesome  plow 
Lay  rusting  in  the  furrow's  yellow  weeds, 
Till  famine    dwarft   the  race  —  I    came, 

your  King ! 
Nor  dwelt  alone,  like  a  soft  lord  of  the 

East, 
In   mine    own   hall,  and   sucking   thro' 

fools'  ears 
The  flatteries  of  corruption  —  went  abroad 
Thro'  all  my  counties,  spied  my  people's 

ways; 
Yea,  heard  the  churl  against  the  baron 

—  yea, 
And  did  him  justice;    sat  in  mine  own 

courts 
Judging   my  judges,   that   had   found   a 

King 
Who  ranged  confusions,  made  the  twilight 

day. 
And  struck  a  shape  from  out  the  vague, 

and  law 
From  madness.     And   the   event  — oui 

fallows  till'd, 


SCENE   III. 


BECKET. 


691 


Much    corn,   repeopled   towns,  a   realm 
again. 

So   far    my   course,    albeit    not    glassy- 
smooth, 

Had  prosper'd  in  the  main,  but  suddenly 

Jarr'd  on  this  rock.     A  cleric  violated 

The  daughter  of  his  host,  and  murder'd 
him. 

Bishops — York,     London,     Chichester, 
Westminster  — 

Ye  haled  this  tonsured  devil  into   your 
courts; 

But  since  your  canon  will  not  let  you  take 

Life  for  a  life,  ye  but  degraded  him 

Where  I  had  hang'd  him.     What  doth 
hard  murder  care 

For   degradation?    and   that    made   me 
muse, 

Being  bounden  by  my  coronation  oath 

To  do   men  justice.     Look  to  it,  your 
own  selves ! 

Say  that  a  cleric  murder'd  an  archbishop, 

What  could  ye  do?     Degrade,  imprison 
him  — 

Not  death  for  death. 
John   of  Oxford.      But   I,   my   liege, 
could  swear, 

To  death  for  death. 

Henry.     And,  looking  thro'  my  reign, 

I  found  a  hundred  ghastly  murders  done 

By  men,   the  scum    and    offal    of    the 
Church; 

Then,   glancing   thro'  the  story  of  this 
realm, 

I  came  on  certain  wholesome  usages, 

Lost  in  desuetude,  of  my  grandsire's  day, 

Good  royal  customs  —  had  them  written 
fair 

For  John  of  Oxford  here  to  read  to  you. 
John  of  Oxford.     And   I    can    easily 
swear  to  these  as  being 

The  King's  will  and  God's  will  and  justice; 
yet 

I    could    but    read   a   part   to-day,   be- 
cause   

Fitzurse.     Because  my  lord  of  Canter- 
bury  

De  Tracy.         Ay, 

This  lord  of  Canterbury 

De  Brito.  As  is  his  wont 

Too  much  of  late  whene'er  your  royal 
rights 

Are  mooted  in  our  councils  — — 


Fitzurse.  —  made  an  uproar. 

Henry.     And  Becket  had  my  bosom 

on  all  this; 
If  ever  man  by  bonds  of  gratefulness  — 
I   raised    him    from   the    puddle    of  the 

gutter, 
I  made  him  porcelain  from  the  clay  of 

the  city  — 
Thought   that   I   knew  him,  err'd  thro' 

love  of  him, 
Hoped,    were    he    chosen    archbishop, 

Church  and  Crown, 
Two  sisters  gliding  in  an  equal  dance, 
Two  rivers  gently  flowing  side  by  side  — 
But  no ! 
The  bird  that  moults  sings  the  same  song 

again, 
The  snake  that  sloughs  comes  out  a  snake 

again. 
Snake  —  ay,  but  he  that  lookt  a  fangless 

one, 
Issues  a  venomous  adder. 
For  he,  when  having  dofft  the  Chancellor's 

robe  — 
Flung  the  Great  Seal  of  England  in  my 

face  — 
Claim'd   some   of  our  crown  lands    for 

Canterbury  — 
My  comrade,  boon  companion,  my  co- 
reveller, 
The  master   of  his   master,  the    King's 

king.  — 
God's  eyes !     I  had  meant  to  make  him 

all  but  king. 
Chancellor-Archbishop,   he    might    well 

have  sway'd 
All   England   under   Henry,  the   young 

King, 
When  I  was  hence.    What  did  the  traitor 

say? 
False  to  himself,  but  ten -fold  false  to  me  ! 
The  will  of  God  —  why,  then  it  is  my 

will- 
Is  he  coming? 

Messenger  {entering).     With  a  crowd 

of  worshippers, 
And  holds  his  cross  before  him  thro'  the 

crowd, 
As  one  that  puts  himself  in  sanctuary. 
Henry.     His  cross ! 
Roger  of  York.     His  cross !  I'll  front 

him,  cross  to  cross. 

[Exit  Roger  of  York. 


692 


BECKET. 


ACT  1 


Henry.     His  cross!    it  is  the   traitor 
that  imputes 
Treachery  to  his  King ! 
It  is  not  safe  for  me  to  look  upon  him. 
Away  —  with  me  ! 

\_Goes  in  with  his  Barons  to  the 
Council- Chamber,  the  door  of 
which  is  left  open. 

Enter  Becket,  holding  his  cross  of  silver 
before  him.  The  Bishops  come  round 
him. 

Hereford.     The   King  will  not  abide 
thee  with  thy  cross. 
Permit  me,  my  good  lord,  to  bear  it  for 

thee, 
Being  thy  chaplain. 

Becket.  No :  it  must  protect  me. 

Herbert.     As  once  he  bore  the  stand- 
ard of  the  Angles, 
So  now  he  bears  the   standard   of  the 
angels. 
Foliot.     I  am  the  Dean  of  the  province  : 
let  me  bear  it. 
Make  not  thy  King  a  traitorous  murderer. 
Becket.     Did    not   your    barons   draw 
their  swords  against  me? 

Enter  Roger  of  York,  with  his  cross, 
advancing  to  Becket. 

Becket.     Wherefore  dost  thou  presume 
to  bear  thy  cross, 
Against  the  solemn  ordinance  from  Rome, 
Out  of  thy  province? 

Roger  of  York.        Why  dost  thou  pre- 
sume, 
Arm'd  with  thy  cross,  to  come  before  the 

King? 
If  Canterbury  bring  his  cross  to  court, 
Let  York  bear  his  to  mate  with  Canter- 
bury. 
Foliot  {seizing  hold  of  Becket's  cross). 
Nay,  nay,  my  lord,  thou  must  not 
brave  the  King. 
Nay,  let  me  have  it.     I  will  have  it ! 
Becket.  Away ! 

\_Flinging  him  off. 
Foliot.     He  fasts,  they  say,  this  mitred 
Hercules ! 
He  fast !   is  that  an  arm  of  fast  ?     My 

lord, 
Hadst  thou  not  sign'd,  I  had  gone  along 
with  thee; 


But  thou  the  shepherd  hast  betray'd  the 

sheep, 
And  thou  art  perjured,  and  thou  wilt  not 

seal. 
As   Chancellor   thou   wast    against    the 

Church, 
Now  as   Archbishop   goest   against   the 

King; 
For,  like  a  fool,  thou  knowst  no  middle 

way. 
Ay,  ay !  but  art  thou  stronger  than  the 

King? 
Becket.     Strong  —  not   in   mine    own 

self,  but  Heaven;   true 
To  either  function,  holding  it;   and  thou 
Fast,    scourge   thyself,  and   mortify  thy 

flesh, 
Not  spirit  —  thou  remainest  Gilbert  Foliot, 
A  worldly  follower  of  the  worldly  strong. 
I,  bearing  this  great  ensign,  make  it  clear 
Under  what  Prince  I  fight. 

Foliot.  My  lord  of  York, 

Let  us  go  in  to  the  Council,  where  our 

bishops 
And  our  great  lords  will  sit  in  judgment 

on  him. 
Becket.     Sons  sit  in  judgment  on  their 

father!  — then 
The  spire  of  Holy  Church  may  prick  the 

graves  — 
Her  crypt  among  the  stars.     Sign?  seal? 

I  promised 
The  King  to  obey  these  customs,  not  yet 

written, 
Saving  mine  order;   true  too,  that  when 

written 
I  sign'd  them  —  being  a  fool,  as  Foliot 

call'd  me. 
I  hold  not  by  my  signing.     Get  ye  hence, 
Tell  what  I  say  to  the  King. 

\_Exeunt  Hereford,  Foliot,  and  other 

Bishops. 
Roger  of  York.  The  Church 

will  hate  thee.  [Exit. 

Becket.     Serve    my   best    friend    and 

make  him  my  worst  foe; 
Fight  for  the  Church,  and  set  the  Church 

against  me ! 
Herbert.     To  be  honest  is  to  set  all 

knaves  against  thee. 
Ah  !  Thomas,  excommunicate  them  all ! 
Hereford    (re-entering).       I     cannot 

brook  the  turmoil  thou  hast  raised, 


SCENE  III. 


BECKET. 


693 


I  would,  my  lord  Thomas  of  Canterbury, 
Thou  wert  plain  Thomas  and  not  Canter- 
bury, 
Or  that  thou  wouldst  deliver  Canterbury 
To  our  King's  hands  again,  and  be  at 
peace. 
Hilary  (re-entering).     For  hath  not 
thine  ambition  set  the  Church 
This  day  between  the  hammer  and  the 

anvil  — 
Fealty  to  the  King,  obedience  to  thyself? 
Herbert.     What  say  the  bishops? 
Hilary.     Some  have  pleaded  for  him, 
But  the  King  rages  —  most  are  with  the 

King; 
And  some  are  reeds,  that  one  time  sway 

to  the  current, 
And  to  the  wind  another.     But  we  hold 
Thou    art   forsworn;     and   no   forsworn 

Archbishop 
Shall  helm  the  Church.     We  therefore 

place  ourselves 
Under  the  shield  and  safeguard  of  the 

Pope, 
And  cite  thee  to  appear  before  the  Pope, 
And   answer   thine   accusers.  .  .  .     Art 
thou  deaf? 
Becket.     I  hear  you.     [  Clash  of  arms. 
Hilary.    Dost  thou  hear  those  others? 
Becket.  Ay ! 

Roger  of   York    (re-entering).      The 
King's  '  God's  eyes !  '  come  now 
so  thick  and  fast, 
We  fear  that  he  may  reave  thee  of  thine 

own. 
Come  on,  come  on !  it  is  not  fit  for  us 
To  see  the  proud  Archbishop  mutilated. 
Say  that  he  blind  thee  and  tear  out  thy 
tongue. 
Becket.     So  be  it.     He  begins  at  top 
with  me : 
They  crucified  St.  Peter  downward. 

Roger  of  York.  Nay, 

But  for  their  sake  who  stagger  betwixt 

thine 
Appeal,  and  Henry's  anger,  yield. 

Becket.  Hence,  Satan  ! 

[Exit  Roger  of  York. 

Fitzurse  (re-entering).     My  lord,  the 

King     demands     three    hundred 

marks, 

Due  from  his  castles  of  Berkhamstead  and 

Eye 


When  thou  thereof  wast  warden. 

Becket.  Tell  the  King 

I  spent  thrice  that  in  fortifying  his  castles. 

De Tracy  (re-entering).     My  lord,  the 

King     demands    seven    hundred 

marks, 

Lent  at  the  siege  of  Thoulouse  by  the 

King. 

Becket.     I  led  seven  hundred  knights 

and  fought  his  wars. 
De  Brito  (re-entering).     My  lord,  the 
King  demands  five  hundred  marks, 
Advanced  thee  at   his   instance   by  the 

Jews, 
For  which  the  King  was  bound  security. 
Becket.     I    thought   it   was   a  gift;    I 
thought  it  was  a  gift. 

Enter  Lord  Leicester  (follozved  by 
Barons  and  Bishops). 

Leicester.    My  lord,  I  come  unwillingly. 
The  King 
Demands  a  strict  account  of  all  those 

revenues 
From  all  the  vacant  sees  and  abbacies, 
Which  came  into  thy  hands  when  Chan- 
cellor. 
Becket.    How  much  might  that  amount 

to,  my  lord  Leicester? 
Leicester.      Some   thirty — forty  thou- 
sand silver  marks. 
Becket.     Are  these  your  customs?     O 
my  good  lord  Leicester, 
The  King  and  I  were  brothers.     All  I 

had 
I  lavish'd  for  the  glory  of  the  King; 
I  shone  from  him,  for  him,  his  glory,  his 
Reflection :  now  the  glory  of  the  Church 
Hath  swallow'd  up  the  glory  of  the  King; 
I  am  his  no  more,  but  hers.     Grant  me 

one  day 
To  ponder  these  demands. 

Leicester.  Hear  first  thy  sentence ! 

The  King  and  all  his  lords 

Becket.  Son,  first  hear  me  ( 

Leicester.     Nay,  nay,  canst  thou,  that 
holdest  thine  estates 
In  fee  and  barony  of  the  King,  decline 
The  judgment  of  the  King? 

Becket.  The  King !  I  hold 

Nothing  in  fee  and  barony  of  the  King. 
Whatever  the  Church  owns  —  she  holds 
it  in 


694 


BECKET. 


ACT   I 


Free  and  perpetual  alms,  unsubject  to 
One  earthly  sceptre. 

Leicester.    Nay,  but  hear  thy  judgment. 

The  King  and  all  his  barons 

Becket.  Judgment !  Barons ! 

Who  but  the  bridegroom  dares  to  judge 

the  bride, 
Or  he  the  bridegroom  may  appoint?    Not 

he 
That  is  not  of  the  house,  but  from  the 

street 
Stain'd  with  the  mire  thereof. 

I  had  been  so  true 
To  Henry  and  mine  office  that  the  King 
Would  throne  me   in   the   great   Arch- 

bishoprick : 
And  I,  that  knew  mine  own  infirmity, 
For  the  King's  pleasure  rather  than  God's 

cause 
Took  it  upon  me  —  err'd  thro'  love  of 

him. 
Now  therefore  God  from  me  withdraws 

Himself, 
And  the  King  too. 

What !  forty  thousand  marks ! 
WThy    thou,    the    King,   the    Pope,    the 

Saints,  the  world, 
Know  that  when  made  Archbishop  I  was 

freed, 
Before  the  Prince  and  chief  Justiciary, 
From  every  bond  and  debt  and  obligation 
lncurr'd  as  Chancellor. 

Hear  me,  son. 

As  gold 
Outvalues    dross,    light    darkness,   Abel 

Cain, 
The  soul  the  body,  and  the  Church  the 

Throne, 
I  charge  thee,  upon  pain  of  mine  anath- 
ema, 
That  thou  obey,  not  me,  but  God  in  me, 
Rather  than  Henry.     I  refuse  to  stand 
By  the  King's  censure,  make  my  cry  to 

the  Pope, 
By  whom  I  will  be  judged;   refer  myself, 
The  King,  these  customs,  all  the  Church, 

to  him, 
And  under  his  authority  —  I  depart. 

[  Going. 

[Leicester  looks  at  him  doubtingly. 
Am  I  a  prisoner? 

Leicester.  By  St.  Lazarus,  no  ! 

I  am  confounded  by  thee.     Go  in  peace. 


De  Broc.     In  peace  now  —  but  after. 

Take  that  for  earnest. 
[Flings  a  bone  at  him  from  the  rushes. 
De  Brito,  Fitzurse,  De  Tracy,  and 
others  {flinging  wisps  of  rushes).  Ay, 
go  in  peace,  caitiff,  caitiff!  And  that 
too,  perjured  prelate  —  and  that,  turncoat 
shaveling !  There,  there,  there  !  traitor, 
traitor,  traitor ! 

Becket.     Mannerless  wolves ! 

[  Turning  and  facing  them. 

Herbert.       Enough,  my  lord,  enough  ! 

Becket.      Barons  of   England   and   of 

Normandy, 

When  what  ye  shake  at  doth  but  seem  to 

fly, 
True  test  of  coward,  ye  follow  with  a  yell. 
But  I  that  threw  the  mightiest  knight  of 
France, 

Sir  Engelram  de  Trie, 

Herbert.  Enough,  my  lord. 

Becket.     More  than  enough.      I  play 
the  fool  again. 

Enter  Herald. 

Herald.      The  King   commands   you, 
upon  pain  of  death, 
That  none  should  wrong  or  injure  your 
Archbishop. 
Foliot.     Deal  gently  with   the  young 
man  Absalom. 
[  Great  doors  of  the  Hall  at  the  back 
open,  and  discover  a  crowd.     They 
shout  : 
Blessed  is  he  that  cometh  in  the  name  of 
the  Lord ! 


SCENE  IV.  —  Refectory  of  the 
Monastery  at  Northampton. 

A  banquet  on  the  Tables. 

Enter  Becket.      Becket's  Retainers. 

1st  Retainer.     Do  thou  speak  first. 

2nd  Retainer.  Nay,  thou!  Nay, 
thou!  Hast  not  thou  drawn  the  short 
straw  ? 

ist  Retainer.  My  lord  Archbishop, 
wilt  thou  permit  us 

Becket.  To  speak  without  stammering 
and  like  a  free  man?     Ay. 

i si  Retainer.  My  lord,  permit  us  then 
to  leave  thy  service. 


SCENE   IV. 


BECKET. 


695 


Becket.     When? 

1st  Retainer.     Now. 

Becket.     To-night? 

1st  Retainer.     To-night,  my  lord. 

Becket.     And  why? 

1st  Retainer.  My  lord,  we  leave  thee 
not  without  tears. 

Becket.  Tears?  Why  not  stay  with 
me  then? 

1st  Retainer.  My  lord,  we  cannot 
yield  thee  an  answer  altogether  to  thy 
satisfaction. 

Becket.  I  warrant  you,  or  your  own 
either.  Shall  I  find  you  one?  The 
King  hath  frowned  upon  me. 

1st  Retainer.  That  is  not  altogether 
our  answer,  my  lord. 

Becket.  No;  yet  all  but  all.  Go, 
go !  Ye  have  eaten  of  my  dish  and 
drunken  of  my  cup  for  a  dozen  years. 

1st  Retainer.  And  so  we  have.  We 
mean  thee  no  wrong.  Wilt  thou  not 
say,  'God  bless  you/  ere  we  go? 

Becket.  God  bless  you  all !  God 
redden  your  pale  blood !  But  mine  is 
human-red ;  and  when  ye  shall  hear  it  is 
poured  out  upon  earth,  and  see  it  mount- 
ing to  Heaven,  my  God  bless  you,  that 
seems  sweet  to  you  now,  will  blast  and 
blind  you  like  a  curse. 

1st  Retainer.  We  hope  not,  my  lord. 
Our  humblest  thanks  for  your  blessing. 
Farewell !  [Exeunt  Retainers. 

Becket.  Farewell,  friends !  farewell, 
swallows!  I  wrong  the  bird;  she  leaves 
only  the  nest  she  built,  they  leave  the 
builder.  Why?  Am  I  to  be  murdered 
to-night?  \_Knocking  at  the  door. 

Attendant.  Here  is  a  missive  left  at 
the  gate  by  one  from  the  castle. 

Becket.  Cornwall's  hand  or  Leices- 
ter's:  they  write  marvellously  alike. 

[Reading. 

*  Fly  at  once  to  France,  to  King  Louis 
of  France :  there  be  those  about  our 
King  who  would  have  thy  blood.' 

Was  not  my  lord  of  Leicester  bidden 
to  our  supper? 

Attendant.  Ay,  my  lord,  and  divers 
other  earls  and  barons.  But  the  hour 
is  past,  and  our  brother,  Master  Cook, 


he  makes  moan  that  all  be  a-getting 
cold. 

Becket.  And  I  make  my  moan  along 
with  him.  Cold  after  warm,  winter  after 
summer,  and  the  golden  leaves,  these 
earls  and  barons,  that  clung  to  me, 
frosted  off  me  by  the  first  cold  frown  of 
the  King.  Cold,  but  look  how  the  table 
steams,  like  a  heathen  altar;  nay,  like 
the  altar  at  Jerusalem.  Shall  God's  good 
gifts  be  wasted?  None  of  them  here! 
Call  in  the  poor  from  the  streets,  and  let 
them  feast. 

Herbert.  That  is  the  parable  of  our 
blessed  Lord. 

Becket.  And  why  should  not  the 
parable  of  our  blessed  Lord  be  acted 
again?  Call  in  the  poor!  The  Church 
is  ever  at  variance  with  the  kings,  and 
ever  at  one  with  the  poor.  I  marked  a 
group  of  lazars  in  the  marketplace  —  half- 
rag,  half-sore  —  beggars,  poor  rogues 
(Heaven  bless  'em)  who  never  saw  nor 
dreamed  of  such  a  banquet.  I  will 
amaze  them.  Call  them  in,  I  say. 
They  shall  henceforward  be  my  earls  and 
barons  —  our  lords  and  masters  in  Christ 
Jesus.  [Exit  Herbert. 

If  the  King  hold  his  purpose,  I  am 
myself  a  beggar.  Forty  thousand  marks ! 
forty  thousand  devils  —  and  these  craven 
bishops ! 

Enter  a  Poor  Man  with  his  dog. 

Man.  My  lord  Archbishop,  may  I 
come  in  with  my  poor  friend,  my  dog? 
The  King's  verdurer  caught  him  a-hunt- 
ing  in  the  forest,  and  cut  off  his  paws. 
The  dog  followed  his  calling,  my  lord.  I 
ha'  carried  him  ever  so  many  miles  in  my 
arms,  and  he  licks  my  face  and  moans 
and  cries  out  against  the  King. 

Becket.  Better  thy  dog  than  thee. 
The  King's  courts  would  use  thee  worse 
than  thy  dog  —  they  are  too  bloody. 
Were  the  Church  king,  it  would  be 
otherwise.  Poor  beast !  poor  beast ! 
set  him  down.  I  will  bind  up  his 
wounds  with  my  napkin.  Give  him  a 
bone,  give  him  a  bone !  Who  misuses 
a  dog  would  misuse  a  child  —  they  cannot 
speak  for  themselves.  Past  help!  his 
paws  are  past  help.     God  help  him! 


696 


BECKET. 


ACT  I. 


Enter  the  Beggars  {and  seat  themselves 
at  the  Tables').  Becket  and  Her- 
bert wait  upon  them. 

1st  Beggar.  Swine,  sheep,  ox  — 
here's  a  French  supper.  Wl  en  thieves 
fall  out,  honest  men 

2nd  Beggar.  Is  the  Archbishop  a 
thief  who  gives  thee  thy  supper? 

1st  Beggar.  Well,  then,  how  does  it 
go?  When  honest  men  fall  out,  thieves 
—  no,  it  can't  be  that. 

2nd  Beggar.  Who  stole  the  widow's 
one  sitting  hen  o'  Sunday,  when  she  was 
at  mass? 

1st  Beggar.  Come,  come !  thou 
hadst  thy  share  on  her.  Sitting  hen! 
Our  Lord  Becket's  our  great  sitting-hen 
cock,  and  we  shouldn't  ha'  been  sitting 
here  if  the  barons  and  bishops  hadn't 
been  a-sitting  on  the  Archbishop. 

Becket.  Ay,  the  princes  sat  in  judg- 
ment against  me,  and  the  Lord  hath 
prepared  your  table  —  Sederunt principes, 
ederunt  pauperes. 

A  voice.     Becket,  beware  of  the  knife  ! 

Becket.     Who  spoke? 

yd  Beggar.  Nobody,  my  lord. 
What's  that,  my  lord? 

Becket.     Venison. 

yd  Beggar.     Venison  ? 

Becket.     Buck;   deer,  as  you  call  it. 

yd  Beggar.  King's  meat !  By  the 
Lord,  won't  we  pray  for  your  lo' Iship ! 

Becket.  And,  my  children,  your 
prayers  will  do  more  for  me  in  the  day 
of  peril  that  dawns  darkly  and  drearily 
over  the  house  of  God  —  yea,  and  in  the 
day  of  judgment  also,  than  the  swords  of 
the  craven  sycophants  would  have  done 
had  they  remained  true  to  me  whose 
bread  they  have  partaken.  I  must  leave 
you  to  your  banquet.  Feed,  feast,  and 
be  merry.  Herbert,  for  the  sake  of  the 
Church  itself,  if  not  for  my  own,  I  must 
fly  to  France  to-night.  Come  with  me. 
[Exit  with  Herbert. 

yd  Beggar.  Here  —  all  of  you  — 
my  lord's  health  {they  drink) .  Well  — 
if  that  isn't  goodly  wine 

1st  Beggar.  Then  there  isn't  a  goodly 
wench  to  serve  him  with  it :  they  were 
fighting  for  her  to-day  in  the  street. 


yd  Beggar.     Peace ! 

1st  Beggar.     The  black  sheep  baaed 
to  the  miller's  ewe-lamb, 

The  miller's  away  for  to-night. 
Black  sheep,  quoth  she,  too  black  a  sin 
for  me. 

And  what  said  the  black  sheep,  my 
masters? 

We  can  make  a  black  sin  white. 

yd  Beggar.     Peace ! 

1st  Beggar.     '  Ewe    lamb,  ewe    lamb, 
I  am  here  by  the  dam.' 

But  the  miller  came  home  that  night, 
And  so  dusted  his  back  with  the  meal  in 
his  sack, 

That  he  made  the  black  sheep  white. 

yd  Beggar.  Be  we  not  of  the  family? 
be  we  not  a-supping  with  the  head  of  the 
family?  be  we  not  in  my  lord's  own 
refractory?  Out  from  among  us;  thou 
art  our  black  sheep. 

Enter  the  four  Knights. 

Fitzurse.  Sheep,  said  he?  And  sheep 
without  the  shepherd,  too.  Where  is  my 
lord  Archbishop  ?  Thou  the  lustiest  and 
lousiest  of  this  Cain's  brotherhood,  answer. 

yd  Beggar.  With  Cain's  answer,  my 
lord.  Am  I  his  keeper?  Thou  shouldst 
call  him  Cain,  not  me. 

Fitzurse.  So  I  do,  for  he  would 
murder  his  brother  the  State. 

yd  Beggar  {rising  and  advancing). 
No,  my  lord;  but  because  the  Lord  hath 
set  his  mark  upon  him  that  no  man  should 
murder  him. 

Fitzurse.     Where  is  he?  where  is  he? 

yd  Beggar.  With  Cain  belike,  in 
the  land  of  Nod,  or  in  the  land  of  France 
for  aught  I  know. 

Fitzurse.  France  !  Ha !  De  Morville, 
Tracy,  Brito  —  fled  is  he  ?  Cross  swords 
all  of  you !  swear  to  follow  him ! 
Remember  the  Queen ! 

[  The  four  Knights  cross  their  swords. 

De  Brito.  They  mock  us;  he  is  here. 
[All  the  Beggars  rise  and  advance 
upon  them. 

Fitzurse.  Come,  you  filthy  knaves,  let 
us  pass. 

yd  Beggar.  Nay,  my  lord,  let  us 
pass.  We  be  a-going  home  after  our 
supper  in  all  humbleness,  my  lord;    fot 


SCENE   IV. 


BECKET. 


697 


the  Archbishop  loves  humbleness,  my 
lord;  and  though  we  be  fifty  to  four,  we 
daren't  fight  you  with  our  crutches,  my 
lord.  There  now,  if  thou  hast  not  laid 
hands  upon  me  !  and  my  fellows  know 
that  I  am  all  one  scale  like  a  fish.  I 
pray  God  I  haven't  given  thee  my  leprosy, 
my  lord. 

[Fitzurse  shrinks  from  him  and  another 
presses  upon  De  Brito. 

De  Brito.     Away,  dog ! 

4th  Beggar.  And  I  was  bit  by  a  mad 
dog  o'  Friday,  an'  I  be  half  dog  already 
by  this  token,  that  tho'  I  can  drink  wine 
I  cannot  bide  water,  my  lord;  and  I 
want  to  bite,  I  want  to  bite,  and  they  do 
say  the  very  breath  catches. 

De  Brito.  Insolent  clown !  Shall  I 
smite  him  with  the  edge  of  the  sword? 

De  Morville.  No,  nor  with  the  flat  of 
it  either.  Smite  the  shepherd  and  the 
sheep  are  scattered.  Smite  the  sheep 
and  the  shepherd  will  excommunicate 
thee. 

De  Brito.  Yet  my  fingers  itch  to  beat 
him  into  nothing. 

$th  Beggar.  So  do  mine,  my  lord.  I 
was  born  with  it,  and  sulphur  won't  bring 
it  out  o'  me.  But  for  all  that  the  Arch- 
bishop washed  my  feet  o'  Tuesday.  He 
likes  it,  my  lord. 

6th  Beggar.  And  see  here,  my  lord, 
this  rag  fro'  the  gangrene  i'  my  leg.  It's 
humbling  —  it  smells  o'  human  natur'. 
Wilt  thou  smell  it,  my  lord?  for  the 
Archbishop  likes  the  smell  on  it,  my  lord; 
for  I  be  his  lord  and  master  i'  Christ,  my 
lord. 

De  Morville.  Faugh  !  we  shall  all  be 
poisoned.     Let  us  go. 

[  They  drazv  back,  Beggars  following.. 

yth  Beggar.  My  lord,  I  ha'  three 
sisters  a-dying  at  home  o'  the  sweating 
sickness.  They  be  dead  while  I  be  a- 
supping. 

8th  Beggar.  And  I  ha'  nine  darters  i' 
the  spital  that  be  dead  ten  times  o'er  i' 
one  day  wi'  the  putrid  fever;  and  I  bring 
the  taint  on  it  along  wi'  me,  for  the 
Archbishop  likes  it,  my  lord. 

[Pressing  upon  the  Knights  till  they 
disappear  thro1  the  door. 

yd  Beggar.     Crutches,  and  itches,  and 


leprosies,  and  ulcers,  and  gangrenes,  and 
running  sores,  praise  ye  the  Lord,  for 
to-night  ye  have  saved  our  Archbishop ! 

1st  Beggar.  I'll  go  back  again.  I 
hain't  half  done  yet. 

Herbert  of  Bo  sham  {entering).  My 
friends,  the  Archbishop  bids  you  good 
night.  He  hath  retired  to  rest,  and 
being  in  great  jeopardy  of  his  life,  he 
hath  made  his  bed  between  the  altars, 
from  whence  he  sends  me  to  bid  you 
this  night  pray  for  him  who  hath  fed  you 
in  the  wilderness. 

yd  Beggar.  So  we  will  —  so  we  will, 
I  warrant  thee.  Becket  shall  be  king, 
and  the  Holy  Father  shall  be  king,  and 
the  world  shall  live  by  the  King's  venison 
and  the  bread  o'  the  Lord,  and  there 
shall  be  no  more  poor  for  ever.  Hurrah  ! 
Vive  le  Roy !     That's  the  English  of  it. 


ACT  II. 

SCENE  I.  — Rosamund's  Bower. 

A  Garden  of  Flowers.  In  the  midst  a 
bank  of  wild-flowers  with  a  bench  be- 
fore it. 

Voices  heard  singing  among  the  trees. 

Duet. 

1.  Is  it  the  wind  of  the  dawn  that  I  hear 

in  the  pine  overhead? 

2.  No;   but  the  voice  of  the  deep  as  it 

hollows  the  cliffs  of  the  land. 

1.  Is  there  a  voice  coming  up  with  the 

voice  of  the  deep  from  the  strand, 
One  coming  up  with  a  song  in  the 
flush  of  the  glimmering  red? 

2.  Love  that  is  born  of  the  deep  coming 

up  with  the  sun  from  the  sea. 

1.  Love  that  can  shape  or  can  shatter  a 

life  till  the  life  shall  have  fled? 

2.  Nay,  let  us  welcome  him,-  Love  that 

can  lift  up  a  life  from  the  dead. 

1.  Keep  him  away  from  the  lone  little 

isle.     Let  us  be,  let  us  be. 

2.  Nay,  let  him  make  it  his  own,  let  him 

reign  in  it  —  he,  it  is  he, 
Love  that  is  born  of  the  deep  coming 
up  with  the  sun  from  the  sea. 


698 


BECKET. 


act  n. 


Enter  Henry  and  Rosamund. 

Rosamund.     Be  friends  with  him  again 

—  I  do  beseech  thee. 
Henry.     With    Becket?      I  have   but 
one  hour  with  thee  — 
Sceptre   and   crozier   clashing,   and  the 

mitre 
Grappling  the  crown  —  and  when  I  flee 

from  this 
For   a   gasp   of  freer  air,  a  breathing- 
while 
To    rest    upon    thy    bosom    and    forget 

him  — 
Why  thou,  my  bird,  thou  pipest  Becket, 

Becket  — 
Yea,  thou  my  golden  dream  of  Love's 

own  bower, 
Must  be  the  nightmare  breaking  on  my 

peace 
With  '  Becket.' 

Rosamund.     O   my  life's   life,  not   to 
smile 
Is  all   but   death  to  me.      My  sun,  no 

cloud  ! 
Let  there  not  be  one  frown  in  this  one 

hour. 
Out  of  the  many  thine,  let  this  be  mine ! 
Look  rather  thou  all-royal  as  when  first 
I  met  thee. 

Henry.     Where  was  that? 
Rosamund.  Forgetting  that 

Forgets  me  too. 

Henry.  Nay,  I  remember  it  well. 

There  on  the  moors. 

Rosamund.         And  in  a  narrow  path. 
A  plover  flew  before  thee.     Then  I  saw 
Thy  high  black  steed  among  the  flaming 

furze, 
Like  sudden  night  in  the  main  glare  of 

day. 
And   from   that   height    something   was 

said  to  me 
I  knew  not  what. 
Henry.  I  ask'd  the  way. 

Rosamund.  I  think  so. 

So  I  lost  mine. 

Henry.  Thou  wast  too  shamed  to 

answer. 
Rosamund.    Too  scared  —  so  young ! 
Henry.     The  rosebud  of  my  rose  !  — 
Well,  well,  no  more  of  him  —  I  have  sent 
his  folk, 


His  kin,  all  his  belongings,  overseas; 
Age,  orphans,  and  babe-breasting  mothers 

—  all 
By   hundreds    to    him  —  there    to    beg, 

starve,  die  — 
So  that  the  fool  King  Louis  feed  them 

not. 
The  man  shall  feel  that  I  can  strike  him 

yet. 
Rosamund.     Babes,  orphans,  mothers ! 

is  that  royal,  Sire  ? 
Henry.     And   I   have  been   as  royal 

with  the  Church. 
He  shelter'd  in  the  Abbey  of  Pontigny. 
There  wore  his  time  studying  the  canon 

law 
To  work   it   against   me.     But  since  he 

cursed 
My  friends  at  Veselay,  I  have  let  them 

know, 
That  if  they  keep  him  longer  as  their 

guest, 
I  scatter  all  their  cowls  to  all  the  hells. 
Rosamund.      And  is  that   altogether 

royal? 
Henry.  Traitress ! 

Rosamund.     A  faithful  traitress  to  thy 

royal  fame. 
Henry.     Fame  !  what  care  I  for  fame? 

Spite,  ignorance,  envy, 
Yea,  honesty  too,  paint  her  what  way 

they  will. 
Fame  of  to-day  is  infamy  to-morrow; 
Infamy  of  to-day  is  fame  to-morrow; 
And   round    and    round    again.      What 

matters?     Royal  — 
I  mean  to  leave  the  royalty  of  my  crown 
Unlessen'd  to  mine  heirs. 

Rosamund.  Still  —  thy  fame  too: 

I  say  that  should  be  royal. 
.     Henry.  And  I  say, 

I  care  not  for  thy  saying. 

Rosamund.  And  I  say, 

I   care    not   for   thy  saying.     A   greater 

King 
Than  thou  art,  Love,  who  cares  not  for 

the  word, 
Makes  ■  care  not '  —  care.     There  have  I 

spoken  true? 
Henry.     Care  dwell  with  me  for  ever, 

when  I  cease 
To  care  for  thee  as  ever ! 

Rosamund.     No  need  !  no  need  !  .  .  . 


SCENE   I. 


BECKET. 


699 


There  is  a  bench.     Come,  wilt  thou  sit? 

.  .  .  My  bank 
Of  wild-flowers  (he  sits) .     At  thy  feet ! 

[She  sits  at  his  feet. 
Henry.  I  bade  them  clear 

A  royal  pleasaunce  for  thee,  in  the  wood, 
Not  leave  these  countryfolk  at  court. 

Rosamund.  I  brought  them 

In  from  the  wood,  and  set  them  here.     I 

love  them 
More  than  the  garden  flowers,  that  seem 

at  most 
Sweet  guests,  or  foreign  cousins,  not  half 

speaking 
The  language  of  the  land.     I  love  them 

too, 
Yes.     But,  my  liege,  I  am  sure,  of  all 

the  roses  — 
Shame  fall  on  those  who  gave  it  a  dog's 

name  — 
This  wild  one  {picking  a  briar-rose)  — 

nay,  I  shall  not  prick  myself — 
Is  sweetest.     Do  but  smell ! 

Henry.  Thou  rose  of  the  world  ! 

Thou  rose  of  all  the  roses !     [Muttering. 
I   am   not  worthy  of  her  —  this   beast- 
body 
That  God  has  plunged  my  soul  in  —  I, 

that  taking 
The  Fiend's  advantage  of  a  throne,  so 

long 
Have  wander'd  among  women,  —  a  foul 

stream 
Thro'  fever-breeding  levels,  —  at  her  side, 
Among  these  happy  dales,  run  clearer, 

drop 
The  mud  I  carried,  like  yon  brook,  and 

glass 

The  faithful  face  of  heaven 

[Looking  at  her,  and  unconsciously  aloud, 

—  thine !  thine  ! 

Rosamund.  I  know  it. 

Henry  {muttering).     Not  hers.     We 

have  but  one  bond,  her  hate  of 

Becket. 
Rosamund  (half  hearing) .  Nay  !  nay  ! 

what  art  thou  muttering?     /hate 

Becket? 
Henry    (muttering).       A    sane    and 

natural  loathing  for  a  soul 
Purer,  and  truer  and  nobler  than  herself; 
And  mine  a  bitterer  illegitimate  hate, 
A  bastard  hate  born  of  a  former  love. 


Rosamund.     My  fault  to  name  him  I 
O  let  the  hand  of  one 
To  whom  thy  voice  is  all  her  music,  stay  it 
But  for  a  breath. 

[Puts  her  hand  before  his  lips. 

Speak  only  of  thy  love. 

Why  there  —  like  some  loud  beggar  at 

thy  gate  — 
The  happy  boldness  of  this  hand  hath 

won  it 
Love's  alms,  thy  kiss  (looking  at  her  hand) 
—  Sacred !     I'll  kiss  it  too. 

[Kissing  it. 
There  !  wherefore  dost  thou  so  peruse  it? 

Nay, 
There  may  be  crosses  in  my  line  of  life. 
Henry.     Not  half  her  hand  —  no  hand 
to  mate  with  her, 
If  it  should  come  to  that. 

Rosamund.       With  her?  with  whom? 
Henry.     Life  on  the   hand   is  naked 
gipsy-stuff; 
Life  on  the  face,  the  brows  —  clear  inno- 
cence ! 
Vein'd  marble  —  not  a  furrow  yet  —  and 
hers  [Muttering. 

Crost  and  recrost,  a  venomous  spider's 

web 

Rosamund  (springing up) .    Out  of  the 
cloud,  my  Sun  —  out  of  the  eclipse 
Narrowing  my  golden  hour ! 

Henry.  O  Rosamund, 

I  would  be  true  —  would  tell  thee  all  — 

and  something 
I  had  to  say  —  I  love  thee  none  the  less  — 
Which  will  so  vex  thee. 

Rosamund.     Something  against  me? 
Henry.     No,  no,  against  myself. 
Rosamund.  I  will  not  hear  it. 

Come,  come,  mine  hour !     I  bargain  for 

mine  hour. 
I'll  call  thee  little  Geoffrey. 

Henry.  Call  him ! 

Rosamund.  Geoffrey ! 

Enter  Geoffrey. 

Henry.     How  the  boy  grows ! 
Rosamund.     Ay,   and   his    brows   are 

thine; 
The    mouth    is   only   Clifford,   my    dear 

father. 
Geoffrey.     My  liege,  what   hast  thou 

brought  me? 


700 


BECKET. 


ACT   II. 


Henry.  Venal  imp  ! 

What  say'st  thou  to  the  Chancellorship  of 
England  ? 
Geoffrey.     0  yes,  my  liege. 
Henry.  *  0  yes,  my  liege  ! '     He 

speaks 
As  if  it  were  a  cake  of  gingerbread. 

Dost  thou  know,  my  boy,  what  it  is  to 
be  Chancellor  of  England? 

Geoffrey.  Something  good,  or  thou 
wouldst  not  give  it  me. 

Henry.  It  is,  my  boy,  to  side  with 
the  King  when  Chancellor,  and  then  to 
be  made  Archbishop  and  go  against  the 
King  who  made  him,  and  turn  the  world 
upside  down. 

Geoffrey.  I  won't  have  it  then.  Nay, 
but  give  it  me,  and  I  promise  thee  not  to 
turn  the  world  upside  down. 

Henry  {giving  him  a  bait).     Here  is  a 

ball,  my  boy,  thy  world,  to  turn  anyway 

and  play  with  as  thou  wilt  — which  is  more 

than  I  can  do  with  mine.     Go  try  it,  play. 

[Exit  Geoffrey. 

A  pretty  lusty  boy. 

Rosamund.  So  like  to  thee; 

Like  to  be  liker. 

Henry.  Not  in  my  chin,  I  hope  ! 

That  threatens  double. 
Rosamund.  Thou  art  manlike 

perfect. 
Henry.     Ay,  ay,  no  doubt;   and  were 
I  humpt  behind, 
Thou'dst  say  as  much  —  the  goodly  way 

of  women 
Who  love,  for  which  I  love  them.     May 

God  grant 
No  ill  befall  or  him  or  thee  when  I 
Am  gone.  . 

Rosamund.     Is  he  thy  enemy? 
Henry.  He?  who?  ay! 

Rosamund.     Thine  enemy  knows  the 

secret  of  my  bower. 
Henry.     And  I  could  tear  him  asunder 
with  wild  horses 
Before  he  would  betray  it.  Nay  —  no  fear  ! 
More  like  is  he  to  excommunicate  me. 
Rosamund.     And  I  would  creep,  crawl 
over  knife-edge  flint 
Barefoot,  a  hundred  leagues,  to  stay  his 

hand 
Before  he  flash'd  the  bolt. 

Henry.  And  when  he  flash'd  it 


Shrink  from  me,  like  a  daughter  of  the 
Church. 
Rosamund.     Ay,  but  he  will  not. 
Henry.  Ay!  but  if  he  did? 

Rosamund.      O    then !    O    then !      I 
almost  fear  to  say 
That  my  poor  heretic  heart  would  ex- 
communicate 
PI  is  excommunication,  clinging  to  thee 
Closer  than  ever. 

Henry  {raising  Rosamund  and  kissing 
her).        My  brave-hearted  Rose  ! 
Hath  he  ever  been  to  see  thee? 

Rosamund.  Here?  not  he. 

And  it  is  so  lonely  here — no  confessor. 
Henry.     Thou    shalt    confess   all   thy 

sweet  sins  to  me. 
Rosamund.     Besides,  we   came   away 
in  such  a  heat, 
I  brought  not  ev'n  my  crucifix. 

Henry.  Take  this. 

[Giving  her  the  Crucifix  which  Elea- 
nor gave  him. 
Rosamund.    O  beautiful !     May  I  have 
it  as  mine,  till  mine 
Be  mine  again? 

Henry  {throwing  it  round  her  neck). 

Thine  —  as  I  am  —  till  death  ! 
Rosamund.     Death?  no!     I'll  have  it 
with  me  in  my  shroud, 
And  wake  with  it,  and  show  it  to  all  the 
Saints. 
Henry.     Nay  —  I  must  go ;   but  when 
thou  layest  thy  lip 
To  this,  remembering  One  who  died  for 

thee, 
Remember  also  one  who  lives  for  thee 
Out  there  in  France;   for  I  must  hence 

to  brave 
The  Pope,  King  Louis,  and  this  turbu- 
lent priest. 
Rosamund  {kneeling).     O  by  thy  love 
for  me,  all  mine  for  thee, 
Fling  not  thy  soul  into  the  flames  of  hell : 
I  kneel   to  thee  —  be  friends  with  him 
again. 
Henry.     Look,  look  !  if  little  Geoffrey 
have  not  tost 
His  ball  into  the  brook  !  makes  after  it  too 
To  find  it.     Why,  the  child  will  drown 
himself. 
Rosamund.     Geoffrey !  Geoffrey  ! 

[Exeunt. 


SCENE  II. 


BECKET. 


701 


SCENE  II.  — Montmirail. 

1  The  Meeting  of  the  Kings.1  John  of 
Oxford  and  Henry.  Crowd  in  the 
distance. 

John  of  Oxford.    You  have  not  crown'd 

young  Henry  yet,  my  liege? 
Henry.     Crown'd !  by  God's  eyes,  we 
will  not  have  him  crown'd. 
I  spoke  of  late  to  the  boy,  he  answer'd 

me, 
As  if  he  wore  the  crown  already  —  No, 
We  will  not  have  him  crown'd. 
Tis  true  what  Becket  told  me,  that  the 

mother 
Would    make    him    play    his    kingship 
against  mine. 
John    of    Oxford.       Not    have    him 

crown'd? 
Henry.  Not  now  — not  yet !  and 

Becket  — 
Becket  should  crown  him  were  he  crown'd 

at  all : 
But,  since  we  would  be  lord  of  our  own 

manor, 
This  Canterbury,  like  a  wounded  deer, 
Has  fled  our  presence  and  our  feeding- 
grounds. 
John   of  Oxford.      Cannot   a   smooth 
tongue  lick  him  whole  again 
To  serve  your  will? 

Henry.  He  hates  my  will,  not  me. 

John   of  Oxford.     There's   York,  my 

liege. 
Henry.         But  England  scarce  would 
hold 
Young  Henry  king,  if  only  crown'd  by 

York, 
And  that  would  stilt  up  York  to  twice 

himself. 
There    is   a   movement    yonder    in    the 

crowd  — 
See  if  our  pious  —  what  shall  I  call  him, 

John?  — 
Husband-in-law,  our  smooth-shorn  suze- 
rain, 
Be  yet  within  the  field. 
John  of  Oxford.  I  will.         [Exit. 

Henry.  Ay  !     Ay ! 

Mince  and  go  back !  his  politic  Holiness 
Hath  all  but  climb'd  the  Roman  perch 
again, 


And  we  shall  hear  him  presently  with 
clapt  wing 

Crow  over  Barbarossa  —  at  last  tongue- 
free 

To  blast  my  realms  with  excommunication 

And  interdict.    I  must  patch  up  a  peace — 

A  piece  in  this  long-tugged-at,  threadbare- 
worn 

Quarrel  of  Crown  and  Church  —  to  rend 
again. 

His  Holiness  cannot  steer  straight  thro' 
shoals, 

Nor  I.  The  citizen's  heir  hath  conquer'd 
me 

For  the  moment.  So  we  make  our 
peace  with  him. 

Enter  Louis. 

Brother  of  France,  what  shall  be  done 

with  Becket? 
Louis.     The  holy  Thomas!     Brother, 

you  have  traffick'd    . 
Between    the    Emperor   and   the    Pope, 

between 
The    Pope    and    Antipope  —  a   perilous 

game 
For  men  to  play  with  God. 

Henry.  Ay,  ay,  good  brother, 

They  call  you  the  Monk-King. 

Louis.  Who  calls  me?  she 

That   was   my  wife,    now   yours?     You 

have  her  Duchy, 
The  point  you  aim'd  at,  and  pray  God 

she  prove 
True  wife  to  you.     You   have   had   the 

better  of  us 
In  secular  matters. 

Henry.     Come,  confess,  good  brother, 
You  did  your  best  or  worst  to  keep  her 

Duchy. 
Only  the  golden  Leopard  printed  in  it 
Such  hold-fast  claws  that  you  perforce 

again 
Shrank  into  France.     Tut,  tut!    did  we 

convene 
This   conference  but   to  babble  of  our 

wives  ? 
They  are  plagues  enough  in-door. 

L^ouis.  We  fought  in  the  East, 

And  felt  the  sun  of  Antioch  scald  our 

mail, 
And    push'd    our   lances    into    Saracen 

hearts. 


702 


BECKET. 


ACT  II. 


We  never  hounded  on  the  State  at  home 
To  spoil  the  Church. 

Henry.  How  should  you  see  this 

rightly? 
Louis.     Well,  well,  no   more !     I  am 

proud  of  my  ■  Monk-King,' 
Whoever  named  me;   and,  brother,  Holy 

Church 
May  rock,  bnt  will  not  wreck,  nor  our 

Archbishop 
Stagger  on  the  slope  decks  for  any  rough 

sea 
Blown  by  the  breath  of  kings.     We  do 

forgive  you 
For  aught  you  wrought  against  us. 

\_Henry  holds  up  his  hand. 

Nay,  I  pray  you, 

Do   not   defend  yourself.     You  will  do 

much 
To  rake  out  all  old  dying  heats,  if  you, 
At  my  requesting,  will  but  look  into 
The  wrongs  you  did  him,  and  restore  his 

kin, 
Reseat  him  on  his  throne  of  Canterbury, 
Be,  both,  the  friends  you  were. 

Henry.  The  friends  we  were  ! 

Co-mates  we  were,  and   had   our   sport 

together, 
Co-kings  we  were,  and   made  the  laws 

together. 
The  world  had  never  seen  the  like  before. 
You  are  too  cold  to  know  the  fashion  of  it. 
Well,  well,  we  will  be  gentle  with  him, 

gracious  — 
Most  gracious. 

Enter  Becket,  after  him,  John  OF 
Oxford,  Roger  of  York,  Gilbert 
Foliot,  De  Broc,  Fitzurse,  etc. 

Only  that  the  rift  he  made 
May  close  between  us,  here  I  am  wholly 

king, 
The  word  should  come  from  him. 

Becket  (kneeling) .  Then,  my  dear  liege, 
I  here  deliver  all  this  controversy 
Into  your  royal  hands. 

Henry.  Ah,  Thomas,  Thomas, 

Thou  art  thyself  again,  Thomas  again. 

Becket  (rising).  Saving  God's  honour ! 

Henry.  Out  upon  thee,  man  ! 

Saving  the  Devil's  honour,  his  yes  and  no. 

Knights,    bishops,    earls,    this    London 

spawn  —  by  Mahound, 


I  had  sooner  have  been  born  a  Mussul- 
man— 
Less  clashing  with  their  priests  — 
I  am  half-way  down  the  slope  —  will  no 

man  stay  me? 
I  dash  myself  to  pieces  —  I  stay  myself — 
Puff  —  it  is  gone.     You,  Master  Becket, 

you 
That  owe  to  me  your  power  over  me  — 
Nay,  nay  — 
Brother    of    France,   you    have    taken, 

cherish'd  him 
Who  thief-like  fled  from  his  own  church 

by  night, 
No  man   pursuing.     I  would   have  had 

him  back. 
Take  heed  he  do  not  turn  and  rend  you 

too: 
For  whatsoever  may  displease  him  —  that 
Is  clean  against  God's  honour  — a  shift,  a 

trick 
Whereby  to  challenge,  face  me  out  of  all 
My  regal  rights.     Yet,  yet  —  that   none 

may  dream 
I  go  against  God's  honour  —  ay,  or  him- 
self 
In  any  reason,  choose 
A   hundred   of  the   wisest  heads   from 

England, 
A   hundred,    too,    from   Normandy   and 

Anjou : 
Let  these  decide  on  what  was  customary 
In  olden   days,   and  all  the  Church  of 

France 
Decide  on  their  decision,  I  am  content. 
More,  what  the  mightiest  and  the  holiest 
Of  all  his  predecessors  may  have  done 
Ev'n  to  the   least  and  meanest  of  my 

own, 
Let  him  do  the  same  to  me  —  I  am  con- 
tent. 
Louis.     Ay,   ay!    the    King   humbles 

himself  enough. 
Becket.       (Aside.)     Words!     he    will 

wriggle  out  of  them  like  an  eel 
When  the  time   serves.     (Aloud.)     My 

lieges  and  my  lords, 
The  thanks  of  Holy  Church  are  due  to 

those 
That  went  before  us  for  their  work,  which 

we 
Inheriting     reap     an     easier     harvest 

Yet 


BECKET. 


703 


Louis.     My  lord,  will  you  be  greater 

than  the  Saints, 
More  than  St.  Peter?  whom what  is 

it  you  doubt? 
Behold  your  peace  at  hand. 

Becket.  I  say  that  those 

Who  went  before  us  did  not  wholly  clear 
The  deadly  growths  of  earth,  which  Hell's 

own  heat 
So  dwelt  on  that  they  rose  and  darken'd 

Heaven. 
Yet   they  did  much.     Would  God  they 

had  torn  up  all 
By  the  hard  root,  which    shoots  again; 

our  trial 
Had  so  been  less ;  but,  seeing  they  were 

men 
Defective  or  excessive,  must  we  follow 
All  that  they  overdid  or  underdid? 
Nay,  if  they  were  defective  as  St.  Peter 
Denying    Christ,    who    yet    defied    the 

tyrant, 
We  hold  by  his  defiance,  not  his  defect. 

0  good  son  Louis,  do  not  counsel  me, 
No,  to  suppress  God's  honour  for  the  sake 
Of  any   king   that   breathes.     No,  God 

forbid ! 
Henry.     No !    God  forbid !    and  turn 

me  Mussulman ! 
No  God  but  one,  and  Mahound  is  his 

prophet. 
But  for   your  Christian,  look   you,  you 

shall  have 
None  other  God  but  me  —  me,  Thomas, 

son 
Of  Gilbert   Becket,   London   merchant. 

Out! 

1  hear  no  more.  \_Exit. 
Louis.     Our  brother's  anger  puts  him, 

Poor    man,   beside    himself — not   wise. 

My  lord, 
We  have  claspt  your  cause,  believing  that 

our  brother 
Had   wrong'd    you;     but    this    day    he 

proffer'd  peace. 
You  will  have  war;    and  tho'  we  grant 

the  Church 
King   over   this   world's   kings,  yet,  my 

good  lord, 
We  that  are  kings  are  something  in  this 

world, 
And  so  we  pray  you,  draw  yourself  from 

under 


The  wings  of  France.     We  shelter  you 
no  more.  \_Exit. 

John  of  Oxford.         I    am    glad   that 
France  hath  scouted  him  at  last : 
I  told  the  Pope  what  manner  of  man  he 
was.  \_Exit. 

Roger  of  York.     Yea,  since  he  flouts 
the  will  of  either  realm, 
Let  either  cast  him  away  like  a  dead 
dog !  [Exit. 

Foliot.     Yea,  let  a  stranger  spoil  his 
heritage, 
And  let  another  take  his  bishoprick  ! 

[Exit. 
De  Broc.     Our   castle,    my   lord,   be- 
longs to  Canterbury. 
I  pray  you  come  and  take  it.  [Exit. 

Fitzurse.  When  you  will.     [Exit. 

Becket.     Cursed  be   John   of  Oxford, 
Roger  of  York, 
And   Gilbert    Foliot!    cursed  those   De 

Brocs 
That  hold  our  Saltwood  Castle  from  our 

see ! 
Cursed  Fitzurse,  and  all  the  rest  of  them 
That  sow  this  hate  between  my  lord  and 
me! 
Voices  from  the  Crowd.  Blessed  be 
the  Lord  Archbishop,  who  hath  with- 
stood two  Kings  to  their  faces  for  the 
honour  of  God. 

Becket.     Out  of  the  mouths  of  babes 
and  sucklings,  praise ! 
I  thank  you,  sons;   when  kings  but  hold 

by  crowns, 
The  crowd  that  hungers  for  a  crown  in 

Heaven 
Is  my  true  king. 

Herbert.     Thy  true  King  bade  thee  be 

A  fisher  of  men;   thou  hast  them  in  thy 

net. 

Becket.     I  am  too  like  the  King  here; 

both  of  us 

Too  headlong  for  our  office.     Better  have 

been 
A  fisherman  at  Bosham,  my  good  Herbert, 
Thy     birthplace  —  the     sea-creek  —  the 

petty  rill 
That  falls  into  it  —  the  green  field  —  the 

gray  church  — 
The     simple     lobster-basket,     and     the 

mesh  — 
The  more  or  less  of  daily  labour  done  — 


7°4 


BECKET. 


ACT  II. 


The  pretty  gaping  bills  in  the  home-nest 
Piping  for  bread  —  the  daily  want  sup- 
plied — 
The  daily  pleasure  to  supply  it. 

Herbert.  Ah,  Thomas, 

You  had  not  borne  it,  no,  not  for  a  day. 

Becket.     Well,  maybe,  no. 

Herbert.     But  bear  with  Walter  Map, 
For  here  he  comes  to  comment  on  the 
time. 

Enter  Walter  Map. 

Walter  Map.  Pity,  my  lord,  that  you 
have  quenched  the  warmth  of  France  to- 
ward you,  tho'  His  Holiness,  after  much 
smouldering  and  smoking,  be  kindled 
again  upon  your  quarter. 

Becket.     Ay,  if  he  do  not  end  in  smoke 
again. 

Walter  Map.  My  lord,  the  fire,  when 
first  kindled,  said  to  the  smoke,  '  Go  up, 
my  son,  straight  to  Heaven.'  And  the 
smoke  said, '  I  go;  '  but  anon  the  North- 
east took  and  turned  him  South-west, 
then  the  South-west  turned  him  North- 
east, and  so  of  the  other  winds;  but  it 
was  in  him  to  go  up  straight  if  the  time 
had  been  quieter.  Your  lordship  affects 
the  unwavering  perpendicular;  but  His 
Holiness,  pushed  one  way  by  the  Em- 
pire and  another  by  England,  if  he 
move  at  all,  Heaven  stay  him,  is  fain  to  ' 
diagonalise. 

Herbert.    Diagonalise  !  thou  art  a  word- 
monger. 
Our  Thomas  never  will  diagonalise. 
Thou  art  a  jester  and  a  verse-maker. 
Diagonalise  ! 

Walter  Map.  Is  the  world  any  the 
worse  for  my  verses  if  the  Latin  rhymes 
be  rolled  out  from  a  full  mouth?  or  any 
harm  done  to  the  people  if  my  jest  be  in 
defence  of  the  Truth? 

Becket.     Ay,  if  the  jest  be  so  done  that 
the  people 
Delight  to  wallow  in  the  grossness  of  it, 
Till   Truth    herself  be   shamed   of    her 

defender. 
Non  defensoribus  istis,  Walter  Map. 

Walter  Map.  Is  that  my  case?  so  if 
the  city  be  sick,  and  I  cannot  call  the 
kennel  sweet,  your  lordship  would  sus- 
pend me  from  verse-writing,  as  you  sus- 


pended yourself  after  sub-writing  to  the 
customs. 

Becket.  I  pray  God  pardon  mine  in- 
firmity. 
Walter  Map.  Nay,  my  lord,  take 
heart;  for  tho'  you  suspended  yourself, 
the  Pope  let  you  down  again;  and  tho' 
you  suspend  Foliot  or  another,  the  Pope 
will  not  leave  them  in  suspense,  for  the 
Pope  himself  is  always  in  suspense,  like 
Mahound's  coffin  hung  between  heaven 
and  earth  —  always  in  suspense,  like  the 
scales,  till  the  weight  of  Germany  or  the 
gold  of  England  brings  one  of  them 
down  to  the  dust  —  always  in  suspense, 
like  the  tail  of  the  horologe  —  to  and 
fro  —  tick-tack  —  we  make  the  time,  we 
keep  the  time,  ay,  and  we  serve  the 
time;  for  I  have  heard  say  that  if  you 
boxed  the  Pope's  ears  with  a  purse,  you 
might  stagger  him,  but  he  would  pocket 
the  purse.  No  saying  of  mine  —  Jocelyn 
of  Salisbury.  But  the  King  hath  bought 
half  the  College  of  Redhats.  He  warmed 
to  you  to-day,  and  you  have  chilled  him 
again.  Yet  you  both  love  God.  Agree 
with  him  quickly  again,  even  for  the  sake 
of  the  Church.  My  one  grain  of  good 
counsel  which  you  will  not  swallow.  I 
hate  a  split  between  old  friendships  as  I 
hate  the  dirty  gap  in  the  face  of  a  Cis- 
tercian monk,  that  will  swallow  anything. 
Farewell.  \_Exit. 

Becket.     Map  scoffs  at  Rome.     I  all 
but  hold  with  Map. 
Save  for  myself  no  Rome  were  left  in 

England, 
All   had   been    his.      Why   should    this 

Rome,  this  Rome, 
Still  choose   Barabbas  rather   than   the 

Christ, 
Absolve  the  left-hand  thief  and  damn  the 

right? 
Take    fees  of   tyranny,   wink    at    sacri- 
lege, 
Which  even  Peter  had  not  dared?  con- 
demn 
The  blameless  exile?  — 

Herbert.        Thee,  thou  holy  Thomas ! 
I  would  that  thou  hadst  been  the  Holy 
Father. 
Becket.     I  would  have  done  my  most 
to  keep  Rome  holy, 


SCENE  II. 


BECKET. 


705 


I  would  have  made  Rome  know  she  still 

is  Rome  — 
Who  stands  aghast  at  her  eternal  self 
And  shakes  at  mortal  kings  —  her  vacilla- 
tion, 
Avarice,  craft  —  O  God,  how  many  an 

innocent 
Has  left  his  bones  upon  the  way  to  Rome 
Unwept,    uncared   for.     Yea  —  on   mine 

own  self 
The  King  had  had  no  power  except  for 

Rome. 
'Tis  not  the  King  who  is  guilty  of  mine 

exile, 
But  Rome,  Rome,  Rome  ! 

Herbert.  My  lord,  I  see  this  Louis 

Returning,  ah !    to  drive  thee  from  his 

realm. 
Becket.       He    said   as    much    before. 

Thou  art  no  prophet, 
Nor  yet  a  prophet's  son. 

Herbert.  Whatever  he  say, 

Deny  not  thou  God's  honour  for  a  king. 
The  King  looks  troubled. 

Re-enter  King  Louis. 

Louis.  My  dear  lord  Archbishop, 

I  learn  but  now  that  those  poor  Poitevins, 
That   in  thy  cause  were  stirr'd  against 

King  Henry, 
Have  been,  despite  his  kingly  promise 

given 
To  our  own  self  of  pardon,  evilly  used 
And  put  to  pain.     I  have  lost  all  trust  in 

him. 
The  Church  alone  hath  eyes  —  and  now 

I  see 
That  I  was  blind  —  suffer  the  phrase  — 

surrendering 
God's  honour  to  the  pleasure  of  a  man. 
Forgive  me  and  absolve  me,  holy  father. 

[Kneels. 
Becket.      Son,  I  absolve  thee  in  the 

name  of  God. 
Louis  (rising).     Return  to  Sens,  where 

we  will  care  for  you. 
The  wine  and  wealth  of  all  our  France 

are  yours; 
Rest  in  our  realm,  and  be  at  peace  with 

all.  [Exeunt. 

Voices  fro?n  the  Crowd.       Long   live 
the  good  King  Louis !     God  bless   the 
great  Archbishop ! 
2  z 


Re-enter  Henry  and  John  of  Oxford. 

Henry  {looking  after  King  Louis  and 
Becket) .  Ay,  there  they  go  —  both 
backs  are  turn'd  to  me  — 

Why  th^en  I  strike  into  my  former  path 

For  England,  crown  young  Henry  there, 
and  make 

Our  waning  Eleanor  all  but  love  me ! 

John, 

Thou   hast   served   me   heretofore   with 
Rome  —  and  well. 

They  call  thee  John  the  Swearer. 
John  of  Oxford.  For  this  reason, 

That,  being  ever  duteous  to  the  King, 

I  evermore  have  sworn  upon  his  side, 

And  ever  mean  to  do  it. 

Henry    {claps  him    on   the   shoulder). 
Honest  John ! 

To  Rome  again  !  the  storm  begins  again. 

Spare  not  thy  tongue !  be  lavish  with  our 
coins, 

Threaten  our  junction  with  the  Emperor 
—  flatter 

And  fright  the  Pope  —  bribe  all  the  Car- 
dinals—  leave 

Lateran  and  Vatican  in  one  dust  of  gold  — 

Swear  and  unswear,  state  and   misstate 
thy  best ! 

I  go  to  have  young  Henry  crown'd  by 
York. 


ACT  III. 

SCENE  I.  — The  Bower. 

Henry  and  Rosamund. 

Henry,     All  that  you  say  is  just.     I 
cannot  answer  it. 
Till    better    times,    when    I    shall    put 

away 

Rosamund.     What  will  you  put  away? 

Henry.  That  which  you  ask  me 

Till   better   times.     Let   it   content   you 

now 
There  is  no  woman  that  I  love  so  well. 
Rosamund.     No  woman  but  should  be 

content  with  that 

Henry..    And  one  fair  child  to  fondle ! 
Rosamund.  O  yes,  the  child 

We  waited  for  so  long  — heaven's  gift  at 
last  — 


706 


BECKET. 


And  how  you  doted  on  him  then !     To- 
day 
I  almost  fear'd  your  kiss  was  colder  — 

yes  — 
But  then  the  child  is  such  a  child.     What 

chance  * 

That  he  should  ever  spread  into  the  man 
Here  in  our  silence?     I  have  done  my 

best. 
I  am  not  learn'd. 

Henry.  I  am  the  King,  his  father, 

And  I  will  look  to  it.     Is  our  secret  ours? 
Have  you  had  any  alarm?  no  stranger? 

Rosamund.  f         No. 

The  warder   of  the   bower   hath   given 

himself 
Of  late  to  wine.     I  sometimes  think  he 

sleeps 
When  he  should  watch;    and  yet  what 

fear?  the  people 
Believe  the  wood  enchanted.      No  one 

comes, 
Nor  foe  nor  friend;    his  fond  excess  of 

wine 
Springs  from  the  loneliness  of  my  poor 

bower, 
Which  weighs  even  on  me. 

Henry.  Yet  these  tree-towers, 

Their  long  bird-echoing  minster-aisles,  — 

the  voice 
Of  the    perpetual   brook,    these   golden 

slopes 
Of  Solomon-shaming  flowers  —  that  was 

your  saying, 
All  pleased  you  so  at  first. 

Rosamund.  Not  now  so  much. 

My  Anjou  bower  was  scarce  as  beautiful. 
But  you  were  oftener  there.     I  have  none 

but  you. 
The  brook's  voice  is  not  yours,  and  no 

flower,  not 
The  sun  himself,  should  he  be  changed 

to  one, 
Could  shine  away  the  darkness  of  that  gap 
Left  by  the  lack  of  love. 

Henry.  The  lack  of  love  ! 

Rosamund.     Of  one  we  love.     Nay,  I 

would  not  be  bold, 

Yet  hoped  ere  this  you  might 

\_Looks  earnestly  at  him. 
Henry.  Anything  further? 

Rosamund.       Only    my    best    bower- 
maiden  died  of  late, 


And  that  old  priest  whom  John  of  Salis- 
bury trusted 
Hath  sent  another. 

Henry.  Secret? 

Rosamund.  I  but  ask'd  her 

One    question,   and    she    primm'd    her 

mouth  and  put 
Her  hands  together — thus  —  and  said, 

God  help  her, 
That  she  was  sworn  to  silence. 

Henry.  What  did  you  ask  her? 

Rosamund.       Some  daily  something- 
nothing. 
Henry.  Secret,  then? 

Rosamund.     I  do  not  love  her.     Must 
you  go,  my  liege, 
So  suddenly? 

Henry.  I  came  to  England  suddenly, 
And  on  a  great  occasion  sure  to  wake 

As  great  a  wrath  in  Becket 

Rosamund.  Always  Becket ! 

He  always  comes  between  us. 

Henry.  —  And  to  meet  it 

I  needs  must  leave  as  suddenly.     It  is 

raining, 
Put  on  your  hood  and  see  me  to  the 
bounds.  [Exeunt. 

Margery  (singing  behind  scene). 

Babble  in  bower 

Under  the  rose ! 
Bee  mustn't  buzz, 

Whoop  —  but  he  knows. 

Kiss  me,  little  one, 

Nobody  near ! 
Grasshopper,  grasshopper, 

Whoop  —  you  can  hear. 

Kiss  in  the  bower, 

Tit  on  the  tree  ! 
Bird  mustn't  tell, 

Whoop  —  he  can  see. 

Enter  Margery. 

I  ha'  been  but  a  week  here  and  I  ha* 
seen  what  I  ha'  seen,  for  to  be  sure  it's 
no  more  than  a  week  since  our  old 
Father  Philip  that  has  confessed  our 
mother  for  twenty  years,  and  she  was 
hard  put  to  it,  and  to  speak  truth,  nigh 
at  the  end  of  our  last  crust,  and  that 
mouldy,  and  she  cried  out  on  him  to  put 


BECKET. 


707 


me  forth  in  the  world  and  to  make  me  a 
woman  of  the  world,  and  to  win  my  own 
bread,  whereupon  he  asked  our  mother 
if  I  could  keep  a  quiet  tongue  i'  my  head, 
and  not  speak  till  I  was  spoke  to,  and  I 
answered  for  myself  that  I  never  spoke 
more  than  was  needed,  and  he  told  me 
he  would  advance  me  to  the  service  of  a 
great  lady,  and  took  me  ever  so  far  away, 
and  gave  me  a  great  pat  o'  the  cheek  for 
a  pretty  wench,  and  said  it  was  a  pity  to 
blindfold  such  eyes  as  mine,  and  such  to 
be  sure  they  be,  but  he  blinded  'em  for 
all  that,  and  so  brought  me  no-hows  as 
I  may  say,  and  the  more  shame  to  him 
after  his  promise,  into  a  garden  and  not 
into  the  world,  and  bade  me  whatever  I 
saw  not  to  speak  one  word,  an'  it  'ud  be 
well  for  me  in  the  end,  for  there  were 
great  ones  who  would  look  after  me,  and 
to  be  sure  I  ha'  seen  great  ones  to-day  — 
and  then  not  to  speak  one  word,  for 
that's  the  rule  o'  the  garden,  tho'  to  be 
sure  if  I  had  been  Eve  i'  the  garden  I 
shouldn't  ha'  minded  the  apple,  for  what's 
an  apple,  you  know,  save  to  a  child,  and 
I'm  no  child,  but  more  a  woman  o'  the 
world  than  my  lady  here,  and  I  ha'  seen 
what  I  ha'  seen  —  tho'  to  be  sure  if  I 
hadn't  minded  it  we  should  all  on  us 
ha'  had  to  go,  bless  the  Saints,  wi'  bare 
backs,  but  the  backs  'ud  ha'  counte- 
nanced one  another,  and  belike  it  'ud  ha' 
been  always  summer,  and  anyhow  I  am 
as  well-shaped  as  my  lady  here,  and  I 
ha'  seen  what  I  ha'  seen,  and  what's  the 
good  of  my  talking  to  myself,  for  here 
comes  my  lady  {enter  Rosamund),  and, 
my  lady,  tho'  I  shouldn't  speak  one 
word,  I  wish  you  joy  o'  the  King's 
brother. 

Rosamund.     What  is  it  you  mean? 

Margery.  I  mean  your  goodman, 
your  husband,  my  lady,  for  I  saw  your 
ladyship  a-parting  wi'  him  even  now  i' 
the  coppice,  when  I  was  a-getting  o' 
bluebells  for  your  ladyship's  nose  to 
smell  on — and  I  ha'  seen  the  King  once 
at  Oxford,  and  he's  as  like  the  King  as 
fingernail  to  fingernail,  and  I  thought  at 
first  it  was  the  King,  onlv  you  know  the 
King's  married,  for  King  Louis 

Rosamund.     Married ! 


Margery.  Years  and  years,  my  lady, 
for  her  husband,  King  Louis 

Rosamund.     Hush ! 

Margery.  —  And  I  thought  if  it  were 
the  King's  brother  he  had  a  better  bride 
than  the  King,  for  the  people  do  say 
that  his  is  bad  beyond  all  reckoning, 
and 

Rosamund.     The  people  lie. 

Margery.  Very  like,  my  lady,  but 
most  on  'em  know  an  honest  woman  and 
a  lady  when  they  see  her,  and  besides 
they  say,  she  makes  songs,  and  that's 
against  her,  for  I  never  knew  an  honest 
woman  that  could  make  songs,  tho'  to  be 
sure  our  mother  'ill  sing  me  old  songs  by 
the  hour,  but  then,  God  help  her,  she 
had  'em  from  her  mother,  and  her  mother 
from  her  mother  back  and  back  for  ever 
so  long,  but  none  of  'em  ever  made 
songs,  and  they  were  all  honest. 

Rosamund.  Go,  you  shall  tell  me  of 
her  some  other  time. 

Margery.  There's  none  so  much  to 
tell  on  her,  my  lady,  only  she  kept  the 
seventh  commandment  better  than  some 
I  know  on,  or  I  couldn't  look  your  lady- 
ship i'  the  face,  and  she  brew'd  the  best 
ale  in  all  Glo'ster,  that  is  to  say  in  her 
time  when  she  had  the  '  Crown.' 

Rosamund.     The  crown !  who? 

Margery.     Mother. 

Rosamund.  I  mean  her  whom  you 
call  —  fancy' — my  husband's  brother's 
wife. 

Margery.  Oh,  Queen  Eleanor.  Yes, 
my  lady;  and  tho'  I  be  sworn  not  to 
speak  a  word,  I  can  tell  you  all  about 
her,  if 

Rosamund.  No  word  now.  I  am 
faint  and  sleepy.  Leave  me.  Nay  —  go. 
What !  will  you  anger  me? 

[Exit  Margery. 
He  charged  me  not  to  question  any  of  those 
About  me.     Have  I  ?  no  !  she  questional 

me. 
Did  she  not  slander  him  ?    Should  she 

stay  here? 
May  she  not  tempt  me,  being  at  my  side, 
To  question  her?    Nay,  can  I  send  her 

hence 
Without  his  kingly  leave?     I  am  in  the 
dark. 


7o8 


BECKET. 


ACT   III. 


I   have  lived,   poor  bird,  from  cage  to 

cage,  and  known 
Nothing  but  him  —  happy  to  know  no 

more, 
So  that  he  loved  me  —  and  he  loves  me 

—  yes, 
And  bound  me  by  his  love  to  secrecy 
Till  his  own  time. 

Eleanor,  Eleanor,  have  I 
Not  heard  ill  things  of  her  in  France? 

Oh,  she's 
The  Queen  of  France.     I  see  it  —  some 

confusion, 
Some  strange  mistake.     I  did  not  hear 

aright, 
Myself  confused  with  parting  from  the 
King. 
Margery  (behind  scene) .     Bee  mustn't 
buzz, 
Whoop  —  but  he  knows. 
Rosamund.     Yet  her  —  what  her?  he 
hinted  of  some  her  — 
When  he  was  here  before  — 
Something    that    would    displease    me. 

Hath  he  stray'd 
From  love's  clear  path  into  the  common 

bush, 
And,  being  scratch'd,  returns  to  his  true 

rose, 
Who  hath  not  thorn  enough  to  prick  him 

for  it, 
Ev'n  with  a  word? 

Margery  {behind scene).   Bird  mustn't 

tell, 

Whoop — he  can  see. 

Rosamund.     I    would   not  hear   him. 

Nay  —  there's  more  —  he  frown'd 

'  No  mate  for  her,  if  it  should  come  to 

that '  — 
To  that  —  to  what? 

Margery    {behind  scene).     Whoop  — 
but  he  knows, 
Whoop  —  but  he  knows. 
Rosamund.     O   God !    some  dreadful 
truth  is  breaking  on  me  — 
Some  dreadful  thing  is  coming  on  me. 

[Enter  Geoffrey. 

Geoffrey ! 

Geoffrey.     What  are  you   crying   for, 

when  the  sunshines? 
Rosamund.     Hath  not  thy  father  left 

us  to  ourselves? 
Geoffrey.     Ay,  but  he's  taken  the  rain 


with  him.  I  hear  Margery :  I'll  go  play 
with  her.  [Exit  Geoffrey. 

Rosamund.     Rainbow,  stay, 

Gleam  upon  gloom, 

Bright  as  my  dream, 

Rainbow,  stay ! 

But  it  passes  away, 

Gloom  upon  gleam, 

Dark  as  my  doom  — 

O  rainbow,  stay. 


SCENE    II.— Outside    the    Woods 
near  Rosamund's  Bower. 

Eleanor.    Fitzurse. 

Eleanor.     Up  from  the  salt  lips  of  the 
land,  we  two 
Have  track'd  the  King  to  this  dark  inland 

wood; 
And  somewhere  hereabouts  he  vanish'd. 

Here 
His  turtle  builds;   his  exit  is  our  adit : 
Watch  !  he  will  out  again,  and  presently, 
Seeing    he    must    to    Westminster    and 

crown 
Young  Henry  there  to-morrow. 

Fitzurse.  We  have  watch'd 

So  long  in  vain,  he  hath  pass'd  out  again, 
And  on  the  other  side. 

[A  great  horn  winded. 
Hark!   Madam! 
Eleanor.  Ay, 

How  ghostly  sounds    that    horn  in  the 
black  wood ! 

[A  countryman  flying. 
Whither  away,  man  ?  what  are  you  flying 
from? 
Countryman.  The  witch  !  the  witch  ! 
she  sits  naked  by  a  great  heap  of  gold  in 
the  middle  of  the  wood,  and  when  the 
horn  sounds  she  comes  out  as  a  wolf. 
Get  you  hence !  a  man  passed  in  there 
to-day :  I  holla'd  to  him,  but  he  didn't 
hear  me  :  he'll  never  out  again,  the  witch 
has  got  him.  I  daren't  stay  —  I  daren't 
stay! 

Eleanor.     Kind  of  the  witch  to  give 

thee  warning  tho'.        [Man  flies. 

Is  not  this  wood-witch  of  the  rustic's  fear 

Our  woodland  Circe  that  hath  witch'd 

the  King? 

[Horn  sounded.     Another  flying. 


BECKET. 


709 


Fitzurse.     Again !  stay,  fool,  and  tell 

me  why  thou  fliest. 

Countryman.     Fly    thou    too.      The 

King  keeps  his  forest  head  of  game  here, 

and   when   that  horn  sounds,  a  score  of 

wolf-dogs  are  let  loose  that  will  tear  thee 

piecemeal.      Linger   not   till    the    third 

horn.     Fly!  [Exit. 

Eleanor.     This     is   the   likelier   tale. 

We  have  hit  the  place. 

Now  let  the  King's  fine  game  look  to 

itself.  [Horn. 

Fitzurse.     Again !  — 

And  far  on  in  the  dark  heart  of  the  wood 

I  hear  the  yelping  of  the  hounds  of  hell. 

Eleanor.     I  have  my  dagger  here  to 

still  their  throats. 
Fitzurse.     Nay,  Madam,  not  to-night 
—  the  night  is  falling. 
What  can  be  done  to-night? 

Eleanor.  Well  —  well  —  away. 

SCENE  III.  — Traitor's  Meadow  at 
Freteval.  Pavilions  and  Tents 
of  the  English  and  French  Bar- 
onage. 

Becket  and  Herbert  of  Bosham. 
Becket.     See  here ! 
Herbert.  What's  here? 

Becket.  A  notice  from  the  priest, 

To   whom   our  John  of  Salisbury  com- 
mitted 
The  secret  of  the  bower,  that  our  wolf- 
Queen 
Is  prowling  round  the  fold.     I  should  be 

back 
In  England  ev'n  for  this. 

Herbert.  These  are  by-things 

In  the  great  cause. 

Becket.  The  by-things  of  the  Lord 

Are  the  wrong'd  innocences  that  will  cry 
From  all  the    hidden    by-ways  of    the 

world 
In  the  great  day  against  the  wronger.     I 

know 
Thy  meaning.     Perish  she,  I,  all,  before 
The  Church  should  suffer  wrong ! 

Herbert.  Do  you  see,  my  lord, 

There  is  the  King  talking  with  Walter 
Map? 
Becket.     He     hath    the     Pope's    last 
letters,  and  they  threaten 


The  immediate  thunder-blast  of  interdict : 
Yet  he  can  scarce  be  touching  upon  those, 
Or  scarce  would  smile  that  fashion. 

Herbert.  Winter  sunshine ! 

Beware  of  opening  out  thy  bosom  to  it, 
Lest     thou,   myself,  and    all    thy   flock 

should  catch 
An  after  ague-fit  of  trembling.     Look  ! 
He  bows,  he  bares  his  head,  he  is  coming 

hither. 
Still  with  a  smile. 

Enter  King  Henry  and  Walter  Map. 

Henry.     We  have  had  so  many  hours 
together,  Thomas, 
So  many  happy  hours  alone  together, 
That  I  would  speak  with  you  once  more 
alone. 

Becket.     My  liege,  your  will  and  happi- 
ness are  mine. 

[Exeunt  King  and  Becket. 

Herbert.     The  same  smile  still. 
Walter  Map.     Do  you  see  that  great 
black  cloud  that  hath  come  over  the  sun 
and  cast  us  all  into  shadow? 

Herbert.     And  feel  it  too. 

Waller  Map.  And  see  you  yon  side- 
beam  that  is  forced  from  under  it,  and 
sets  the.  church-tower  over  there  all 
a-hell-fire  as  it  were? 

Herbert.     Ay. 

Walter  Map.  It  is  this  black,  bell- 
silencing,  anti-marrying,  burial-hindering 
interdict  that  hath  squeezed  out  this  side- 
smile  upon  Canterbury,  whereof  may 
come  conflagration.  Were  I  Thomas,  I 
wouldn't  trust  it.  Sudden  change  is  a 
house  on  sand;  and  tho'  I  count  Henry 
honest  enough,  yet  when  fear  creeps  in 
at  the  front,  honesty  steals  out  at  the 
back,  and  the  King  at  last  is  fairly  scared 
by  this  cloud  —  this  interdict.  I  have 
been  more  for  the  King  than  the  Church 
in  this  matter  —  yea,  even  for  the  sake  of 
the  Church  :  for,  truly,  as  the  case  stood, 
you  had  safelier  have  slain  an  archbishop 
than  a  she-goat :  but  our  recoverer  and 
upholder  of  customs  hath  in  this  crown- 
ing of  young  Henry  by  York  and  London 
so  violated  the  immemorial  usage  of  the 
Church,  that,  like  the  gravedigger's  child 
I  have  heard  of,  trying  to  ring  the  bell, 
he  hath  half-hanged  himself  in  the  rope 


710 


BECKET. 


of  the  Church,  or  rather  pulled  all  the 
Church  with  the  Holy  Father  astride  of 
it  down  upon  his  own  head. 

Herbert.     Were  you  there? 

Walter  Map.  In  the  church  rope?  — 
no.  I  was  at  the  crowning,  for  I  have 
pleasure  in  the  pleasure  of  crowds,  and 
to  read  the  faces  of  men  at  a  great 
show. 

Herbert.  And  how  did  Roger  of  York 
comport  himself? 

Walter  Map.  As  magnificently  and 
archiepiscopally  as  our  Thomas  would 
have  done :  only  there  was  a  dare-devil 
in  his  eye  —  I  should  say  a  dare-Becket. 
He  thought  less  of  two  kings  than  of  one 
Roger  the  king  of  the  occasion.  Foliot 
is  the  holier  man,  perhaps  the  better. 
Once  or  twice  there  ran  a  twitch  across 
his  face  as  who  should  say  what's  to 
follow?  but  Salisbury  was  a  calf  cowed 
by  Mother  Church,  and  every  now  and 
then  glancing  about  him  like  a  thief  at 
night  when  he  hears  a  door  open  in  the 
house  and  thinks  '  the  master.' 

Herbert.     And  the  father-king? 

Walter  Map.  The  father's  eye  was  so 
tender  it  would  have  called  a  goose  off 
the  green,  and  once  he  strove  to  hide 
his  face,  like  the  Greek  king  when  his 
daughter  was  sacrificed,  but  he  thought 
better  of  it :  it  was  but  the  sacrifice  of  a 
kingdom  to  his  son,  a  smaller  matter; 
but  as  to  the  young  crownling  himself,  he 
looked  so  malapert  in  the  eyes,  that  had 
I  fathered  him  I  had  given  him  more  of 
the  rod  than  the  sceptre.  Then  followed 
the  thunder  of  the  captains  and  the 
shouting,  and  so  we  came  on  to  the 
banquet,  from  whence  there  puffed  out 
such  an  incense  of  unctuosity  into  the 
nostrils  of  our  Gods  of  Church  and  State, 
that  Lucullus  or  Apicius  might  have 
sniffed  it  in  their  Hades  of  heathenism, 
so  that  the  smell  of  their  own  roast  had 
not  come  across  it 

Herbert.  Map,  tho'  you  make  your 
butt  too  big,  you  overshoot  it. 

Walter  Map.  —  For  as  to  the  fish, 
they  de-miracled  the  miraculous  draught, 
and  might  have  sunk  a  navy 

Herbert.  There  again,  Goliasing  and 
Goliathising ! 


Walter  Map.  —  And  as  for  the  flesh 
at  table,  a  whole  Peter's  sheet,  with  all 
manner  of  game,  and  four-footed  things, 
and  fowls 

Herbert.  And  all  manner  of  creeping 
things  too? 

Walter  Map.  —  Well,  there  were 
Abbots  —  but  they  did  not  bring  their 
women;  and  so  we  were  dull  enough  at 
first,  but  in  the  end  we  flourished  out 
into  a  merriment;  for  the  old  King 
would  act  servitor  and  hand  a  dish  to 
his  son;  whereupon  my  Lord  of  York  — 
his  fine-cut  face  bowing  and  beaming 
with  all  that  courtesy  which  hath  less 
loyalty  in  it  than  the  backward  scrape 
of  the  clown's  heel  —  'great  honour,' 
says  he,  'from  the  King's  self  to  the 
King's  son.'  Did  you  hear  the  young 
King's  quip? 

Herbert.     No,  what  was  it?     V 

Walter  Map.  Glancing  at  the  days 
when  his  father  was  only  Earl  of  Anjou, 
he  answered :  — '  Should  not  an  earl's 
son  wait  on  a  king's  son?'  And  when 
the  cold  corners  of  the  King's  mouth 
began  to  thaw,  there  was  a  great  motion 
of  laughter  among  us,  part  real,  part 
childlike,  to  be  freed  from  the  dulness 
—  part  royal,  /or  King  and  kingling  both 
laughed,  and  so  we  could  not  but  laugh, 
as  by  a  royal  necessity  —  part  childlike 
again  —  when  we  felt  we  had  laughed 
too  long  and  could  not  stay  ourselves  — 
many  midriff-shaken  even  to  tears,  as 
springs  gush  out  after  earthquakes — but 
from  those,  as  I  said  before,  there  may 
come  a  conflagration  —  tho',  to  keep  the 
figure  moist  and  make  it  hold  water,  I 
should  say  rather,  the  lacrymation  of  a 
lamentation;  but  look  if  Thomas  have 
not  flung  himself  at  the  King's  feet. 
They  have  made  it  up  again  —  for  the 
moment. 

Herbert.  Thanks  to  the  blessed  Mag- 
dalen, whose  day  it  is. 

Re-enter  Henry  and  Becket.  {Dur- 
ing their  conference  the  Barons  and 
Bishops  of  France  and  England 
come  in  at  back  of  stage.') 

Becket.     Ay,  King!    for  in  thy  king- 
dom, as  thou  knowest, 


BECKET. 


7i: 


The  spouse  of  the  Great  King,  thy  King, 

hath  fallen  — 
The    daughter  of  Zion   lies   beside   the 

way  — 
The   priests   of  Baal   tread   her   under- 
foot— 
The  golden  ornaments  are  stolen   from 

her 

Henry.     Have  I  not  promised  to  re- 
store her,  Thomas, 
And   send   thee   back   again  to  Canter- 
bury? 
Becket.     Send  back  again  those  exiles 
of  my  kin 
Who   wander    famine-wasted    thro'   the 
world. 
Henry.     Have  I  not  promised,  man, 

to  send  them  back? 
Becket.     Yet  one  thing  more.     Thou 
hast  broken  thro'  the  pales 
Of  privilege,  crowning  thy  young  son  by 

York, 
London  and  Salisbury  —  not  Canterbury. 
Henry.     York  crown'd  the  Conqueror 

—  not  Canterbury. 
Becket.     There  was  no  Canterbury  in 

William's  time. 
Henry.      But    Hereford,    you    know, 

crown'd  the  first  Henry. 
Becket.      But    Anselm    crown'd    this 

Henry  o'er  again. 
Henry.     And    thou  shalt   crown   my 

Henry  o'er  again. 
Becket.     And  is  it  then  with  thy  good- 
will that  I 
Proceed  against  thine  evil  councillors, 
And  hurl  the  dread  ban  of  the  Church 

on  those 
Who  made  the  second  mitre  play  the  first, 
And  acted  me? 

Henry.     Well,  well,  then  —  have  thy 
way ! 
It  may  be  they  were  evil  councillors. 
What  more,  my  lord  Archbishop?     What 

more,  Thomas? 
I  make  thee  full  amends.     Say  all  thy  say, 
But  blaze  not  out  before  the  Frenchmen 
here. 
Becket.       More?       Nothing,    so     thy 

promise  be  thy  deed. 
Henry  (Jiolding  out  his  hand).     Give 
me    thy    hand.       My    Lords    of 
France  and  England, 


My  friend  of  Canterbury  and  myself 
Are  now  once  more  at  perfect  amity. 
Unkingly   should   I    be,   and   most   un- 

k  nightly, 
Not  striving  still,  however  much  in  vain, 
To  rival  him  in  Christian  charity. 

Herbert.     All  praise  to  Heaven,  and 

sweet  St.  Magdalen ! 
Henry.     And    so    farewell    until    we 

meet  in  England. 
Becket.     I  fear,  my  liege,  we  may  not 

meet  in  England. 
Henry.     How,   do    you   make   me   a 

traitor? 
Becket.  No,  indeed ! 

That  be  far  from  thee. 

Henry.  Come,  stay  with  us,  then, 

Before  you  part  for  England. 

Becket.  I  am  bound 

For   that   one   hour   to  stay  with   good 

King  Louis, 
Who  helpt  me  when  none  else. 

Herbert.  He  said  thy  life 

Was  not  one  hour's  worth   in  England 

save 
King  Henry  gave  thee  first  the  kiss  of 
peace. 
Henry.     He  said  so?     Louis,  did  he? 
look  you,  Herbert, 
When  I  was  in  mine  anger  with   King 

Louis, 
I   sware   I  would   not  give  the   kiss  of 

peace, 
Not  on  French  ground,  nor  any  ground 

but  English, 
Where  his  cathedral  stands.     Mine  old 

friend,  Thomas, 
I  would   there  were   that   perfect   trust 

between  us, 
That    health   of    heart,    once   ours,    ere 

Pope  or  King 
Had   come   between  us!     Even  now  — 

who  knows? — 
I  might  deliver  all  things  to  thy  hand  — 
If   .  .  .  but   I    say   no   more  .  .  .  fare- 
well, my  lord. 
Becket.     Farewell,  my  liege ! 

[Exit  Henry,  then  the  Barons  and 

Bishops. 

Walter  Map.     There  again  !  when  the 

full   fruit   of    the   royal    promise   might 

have   dropt  into  thy  mouth    hadst   thou 

but  opened  it  to  thank  him. 


7I2 


BECKET. 


ACT  IV. 


Becket.     He  fenced  his  royal  promise 
with  an  if. 

Walter  Map.  And  is  the  King's  if 
too  high  a  stile  for  your  lordship  to  over- 
step and  come  at  all  things  in  the  next 
field? 

Becket.     Ay,   if   this    if  be   like   the 
Devil's  <  •/ 
Thou  wilt  fall  down  and  worship  me.' 

Herbert.  Oh,  Thomas, 

I  could  fall  down  and  worship  thee,  my 

Thomas, 
For  thou   hast   trodden   this  wine-press 
alone. 

Becket.     Nay,  of  the  people  there  are 
many  with  me. 

Walter  Map.  I  am  not  altogether 
with-  you,  my  lord,  tho'  I  am  none  of 
those  that  would  raise  a  storm  between 
you,  lest  ye  should  draw  together  like 
two  ships  in  a  calm.  You  wrong  the 
King:  he  meant  what  he  said  to-day. 
Who  shall  vouch  for  his  to-morrows? 
One  word  further.  Doth  not  the  few- 
ness of  anything  make  the  fulness  of  it  in 
estimation?  Is  not  virtue  prized  mainly 
for  its  rarity,  and  great  baseness  loathed 
as  an  exception?  for  were  all,  my  lord, 
as  noble  as  yourself,  who  would  look  up 
to  you?  and  were  all  as  base  as  —  who 
shall  I  say  —  Fitzurse  and  his  following — 
who  would  look  down  upon  them?  My 
lord,  you  have  put  so  many  of  the  King's 
household  out  of  communion,  that  they 
begin  to  smile  at  it. 

Becket.   At  their  peril,  at  their  peril 

Walter  Map.  —  For  tho'  the  drop 
may  hollow  out  the  dead  stone,  doth  not 
the  living  skin  thicken  against  perpetual 
whippings?  This  is  the  second  grain  of 
good  counsel  I  ever  proffered  thee,  and 
so  cannot  suffer  by  the  rule  of  frequency. 
Have  I  sown  it  in  salt?  I  trust  not,  for 
before  God  I  promise  you  the  King  hath 
many  more  wolves  than  he  can  tame  in 
his  woods  of  England,  and  if  it  suit  their 
purpose  to  howl  for  the  King,  and  you 
still  move  against  him,  you  may  have  no 
less  than  to  die  for  it;  but  God  and  his 
free  wind  grant  your  lordship  a  happy 
home-return  and  the  King's  kiss  of  peace 
in  Kent.  Farewell !  I  must  follow  the 
King.  [Exit. 


Herbert.     Ay,  and  I  warrant  the  cus- 
toms.    Did  the  King 
Speak  of  the  customs? 

Becket.  No  !  —  To  die  for  it  — 

I  live  to  die  for  it,  I  die  to  live  for  it. 
The  State  will  die,  the  Church  can  never 

die. 
The  King's  not  like  to  die  for  that  which 

dies; 
But  I  must  die  for  that  which  never  dies. 
It  will  be  so  —  my  visions  in  the  Lord : 
It  must  be  so,  my  friend !  the  wolves  of 

England 
Must  murder  her  one  shepherd,  that  the 

sheep 
May  feed  in  peace.     False  figure,  Map 

would  say. 
Earth's  falses  are  heaven's  truths.     And 

when  my  voice 
Is  martyr'd  mute,  and  this  man  disappears, 
That  perfect  trust  may  come  again  between 

us, 
And  there,  there,  there,  not  here  I  shall 

rejoice 
To  find  my  stray  sheep  back  within  the 

fold. 
The  crowd  are   scattering,  let  us  move 

away ! 
And  thence  to  England.  {Exeunt. 

ACT  IV. 

SCENE   I.  —  The  Outskirts  of  the 
Bower. 

Geoffrey  {coming  out  of  the  wood). 
Light  again  !  light  again  !  Margery?  no, 
that's  a  finer  thing  there.     How  it  glitters ! 

Eleanor  {entering).  Come  to  me,  little 
one.     How  earnest  thou  hither? 

Geoffrey.     On  my  legs. 

Eleanor.  And  mighty  pretty  legs  too. 
Thou  art  the  prettiest  child  I  ever  saw. 
Wilt  thou  love  me? 

Geoffrey.     No;  I  only  love  mother. 

Eleanor.     Ay;  and  who  is  thy  mother? 

Geoffrey.     They  call  her But  she 

lives  secret,  you  see. 

Eleanor.     Why? 

Geoffrey.     Don't  know  why. 

Eleanor.  Ay,  but  some  one  comes  to 
see  her  now  and  then.     Who  is  he? 

Geoffrey.     Can't  tell. 


SCENE   II. 


BECKET. 


713 


Eleanor.     What  does  she  call  him? 

Geoffrey.     My  liege. 

Eleanor.    Pretty  one,  how  earnest  thou  ? 

Geoffrey.  There  was  a  bit  of  yellow 
silk  here  and  there,  and  it  looked  pretty 
like  a  glowworm,  and  I  thought  if  I 
followed  it  I  should  find  the  fairies. 

Eleanor.  I  am  the  fairy,  pretty  one, 
a  good  fairy  to  thy  mother.  Take  me 
to  her. 

Geoffrey.  There  are  good  fairies  and 
bad  fairies,  and  sometimes  she  cries,  and 
can't  sleep  sound  o'  nights  because  of  the 
bad  fairies. 

Eleanor.  She  shall  cry  no  more;  she 
shall  sleep  sound  enough  if  thou  wilt  take- 
me  to  her.     I  am  her  good  fairy. 

Geoffrey.  But  you  don't  look  like  a 
good  fairy.  Mother  does.  You  are  not 
pretty,  like  mother. 

Eleanor.  We  can't  all  of  us  be  as 
pretty  as  thou  art —  (aside)  little  bastard. 
Come,  here  is  a  golden  chain  I  will  give 
thee  if  thou  wilt  lead  me  to  thy  mother. 

Geoffrey.  No  —  no  gold.  Mother  says 
gold  spoils  all.     Love  is  the  only  gold. 

Eleanor.  I  love  thy  mother,  roy 
pretty  boy.  Show  me  where  thou  earnest 
out  of  the  wood. 

Geoffrey.  By  this  tree;  but  I  don't 
know  if  I  can  find  the  way  back  again. 

Eleanor.     Where's  the  warder? 

Geoffrey.  Very  bad.  Somebody  struck 
him. 

Eleanor.     Ay?  who  was  that? 

Geoffrey.  Can't  tell.  But  I  heard  say 
he  had  had  a  stroke,  or  you'd  have  heard 
his  horn  before  now.  Come  along,  then; 
we  shall  see  the  silk  here  and  there,  and 
I  want  my  supper.  \_Exeunt. 

SCENE  II.  —  Rosamund's  Bower. 

Rosamund.     The   boy   so   late;    pray 

God,  he  be  not  lost. 
I  sent  this  Margery,  and  she  comes  not 

back; 
I  sent  another,  and  she  comes  not  back. 
I  go  myself — so  many  alleys,  crossings, 
Paths,    avenues  —  nay,    if    I    lost    him, 

now 
The  folds  have  fallen  from  the  mystery, 
And  left  all  naked,  I  were  lost  indeed. 


Enter  Geoffrey  and  Eleanor. 

Geoffrey,  the  pain  thou  hast  put  me  to ! 
[Seeing  Eleanor. 
Ha,  you! 
How  came  you  hither? 

Eleanor.     Your  own  child  brought  me 

hither ! 
Geoffrey.  You  said  you  couldn't  trust 
Margery,  and  I  watched  her  and  followed 
her  into  the  woods,  and  I  lost  her  and 
went  on  and  on  till  I  found  the  light  and 
the  lady,  and  she  says  she  can  make  you 
sleep  o'  nights. 

Rosamund.     How  dared  you?    Know 

you  not  this  bower  is  secret, 
Of  and  belonging  to  the  King  of  England, 
More   sacred    than    his   forests   for   the 

chase  ? 
Nay,  nay,   Heaven  help  you;     get   you 

hence  in  haste 
Lest  worse  befall  you. 

Eleanor.     Child,  I  am  mine  own  self 
Of  and   belonging   to    the   King.     The 

King 
Hath  divers  ofs  and  ons,  ofs  and  belong- 
ings, 
Almost  as  many  as  your  true  Mussulman  — 
Belongings,  paramours,  whom  it  pleases 

him 
To    call   his   wives;     but   so  it  chances, 

child, 
That  I  am  his  main  paramour,  his  sultana. 
But  since  the  fondest  pair  of  doves  will 

jar, 
Ev'n  in  a  cage  of  gold,  we  had  words  of 

late, 
And   thereupon    he    call'd   my   children 

bastards. 
Do  you  believe  that  you  are  married  to 

him? 
Rosamund.     I  should  believe  it. 
Eleanor.  You  must  not  believe  it, ' 

Because  I  have  a  wholesome   medicine 

here 
Puts   that   belief  asleep.     Your  answer, 

beauty ! 
Do  you  believe  that  you  are  married  to 

him? 
Rosamund.     Geoffrey,  my  boy,  I  saw 
the  ball  you  lost  in  the  fork  of  the  great 
willow  over  the  brook.     Go.     See  that 
you  do  not  fall  in.     Go. 


7H 


BECKET. 


ACT   I> 


Geoffrey.  And  leave  you  alone  >vith 
the  good  fairy.  She  calls  you  beauty, 
but  I  don't  like  her  looks.  Well,  you 
bid  me  go,  and  I'll  have  my  ball  anyhow. 
Shall  I  find  you  asleep  when  I  come 
back? 

Rosamund.     Go.  [Exit  Geoffrey. 

Eleanor.     He  is  easily  found  again. 

Do  you  believe  it? 
I  pray  you  then  to  take  my  sleeping- 
draught; 
But  if  you  should  not  care  to  take  it  — 

See  !  [Draws  a  dagger. 

What !  have  I  scared  the  red  rose  from 

your  face 
Into  your  heart?     But  this  will  find  it 

there, 
And  dig  it  from  the  root  for  ever. 

Rosamund.  Help  !  help  ! 

Eleanor.     They   say  that  walls   have 

ears;   but  these,  it  seems, 
Have  none !  and  I  have  none  —  to  pity 

thee. 
Rosamund.     I  do  beseech  you  —  my 

child  is  so  young, 
So  backward  too;  I  cannot  leave  him  yet. 
I  am  not  so  happy  I  could  not  die  myself, 
But  the  child  is  so  young.     You  have 

children  —  his; 
And  mine  is  the  King's  child;   so,  if  you 

love  him  — 
Nay,  if  you  love  him,  there  is  great  wrong 

done 
Somehow;  but  if  you  do  not  —  there  are 

those 
Who  say  you  do  not  love  him  —  let  me  go 
With  my  young  boy,  and  I  will  hide  my 

face, 
Blacken  and  gipsyfy  it;  none  shall  know 

me; 
The  King  shall  never  hear  of  me  again, 
But  I  will  beg  my  bread  along  the  world 
With  my  young  boy,  and  God  will  be 

our  guide. 
I  never  meant  you  harm  in  any  way. 
See,  I  can  say  no  more. 

Eleanor.     Will  you  not  say  you  are 

not  married  to  him? 
Rosamund.     Ay,  Madam,  I  can  say  it, 

if  you  will. 
Eleanor.    Then   is  thy  pretty  boy  a 

bastard? 
Rosamund.       No. 


Eleanor.     And  thou  thyself  a  proven 

wanton? 
Rosamund.        No. 
I  am  none  such.     I  never  loved  but  one. 
I   have   heard  of  such  that  range  from 

love  to  love, 
Like  the  wild  beast  —  if  you  can  call  it 

love. 
I  have  heard  of  such  —  yea,  even  among 

those 
Who  sit  on  thrones  —  I  never  saw  any 

such, 
Never  knew  any  such,  and  howsoever 
You  do  misname  me,  match'd  with  any 

such, 
•I  am  snow  to  mud. 

Eleanor.  The  more  the  pity  then 

That  thy  true  home  —  the  heavens  —  cry 

out  for  thee 
Who  art  too  pure  for  earth. 

Enter  Fitzurse. 

Fitzurse.  Give  her  to  me. 

Eleanor.      The    Judas-lover    of    our 
passion-play 
Hath  track'd  us  hither. 

Fitzurse.     Well,  why  not?     I  follow'd 
You  and  the  child:  he  babbled  all  the 

way. 
Give  her  to  me  to  make  my  honey-moon. 
Eleanor.     Ay,  as  the  bears  love  honey. 
Could  you  keep  her 
Indungeon'd  from  one  whisper   of  the 

wind, 
Dark   even   from  a  side   glance  of  the 

moon, 
And  oublietted  in  the  centre  —  No! 
I  follow  out  my  hate  and  thy  revenge. 
Fitzurse.     You  bade  me  take  revenge 
another  way  — 
To  bring  her  to  the  dust.  .  .  .     Come 

with  me,  love, 
And  I  will  love  thee.  .  .  .     Madam,  let 

her  live. 
I  have  a  far-off  burrow  where  the  King 
Would  miss  her  and  for  ever. 

Eleanor.  How  sayest  thou, 

sweetheart? 
Wilt  thou  go  with  him?  he  will  marry 
thee. 
Rosamund.     Give  me  the  poison;   set 


me  free  of  hi 


[Eleanor  offers  the  vial. 


BECKET. 


715 


No,  no  !  I  will  not  have  it. 

Eleanor.  Then  this  other, 

The  wiser  choice,  because  my  sleeping- 
draught 
May  bloat  thy  beauty  out  of  shape,  and 

make 
Thy  body  loathsome  even  to  thy  child; 
"While  this  but  leaves  thee  with  a  broken 

heart; 
A  doll-face  blanch 'd  and  bloodless,  over 

which 
If  pretty  Geoffrey  do  not  break  his  own, 
It  must  be  broken  for  him. 

Rosamund.  O  I  see  now 

Your  purpose  is  to  fright  me  —  a  trouba- 
dour 
You  play  with  words.     You  had  never 

used  so  many, 
Not  if  you  meant  it,  I  am  sure.     The 

child  .   .  . 
No  .  .  .  mercy!     No!     {Kneels.} 
Eleanor.  Play !  .  .  .  that 

bosom  never 
Heaved  under  the  King's  hand  with  such 

true  passion 
As  at  this  loveless  knife  that  stirs  the  riot 
Which  it  will  quench  in  blood !     Slave, 

if  he  love  thee, 
Thy  life  is  worth  the  wrestle  for  it :  arise, 
And  dash  thyself  against  me  that  I  may 

slay  thee ! 
The   worm!    shall   I   let   her   go?     But 

ha!  what's  here? 
By  very  God,  the  cross  I  gave  the  King! 
His  village  darling  in  some  lewd  caress 
Has  wheedled  it  off  the  King's  neck  to 

her  own. 
By  thy   leave,  beauty.     Ay,  the   same ! 

I  warrant 
Thou   hast   sworn   on   this   my   cross   a 

hundred  times 
Never  to  leave  him  —  and   that   merits 

death, 
False  oath  on  holy  cross  —  for  thou  must 

leave  him 
To-day,   but   not   quite   yet.     My   good 

Fitzurse, 
The  running  down  the  chase  is  kindlier 

sport 
Ev'n  than  the  death.     Who  knows  but 

that  thy  lover 
May  plead  so  pitifully,  that  i  may  spare 

thee? 

3A 


Come   hither,  man;     stand   there.     {To 
Rosamund.)  Take  thy  one  chance; 

Catch  at  the  last  straw.     Kneel  to  thy 
lord  Fitzurse; 

Crouch  even  because  thou  hatest  him; 
fawn  upon  him 

For  thy  life  and  thy  son's. 

Rosamund  {rising).     I  am  a  Clifford, 

My  son  a  Clifford  and  Plantagenet. 

I  am  to  die  then,  tho'  there  stand  beside 
thee 

One  who  might  grapple  with  thy  dagger, 
if  he 

Had  aught  of  man,  or  thou  of  woman; 
or  I 

Would  bow  to  such  a  baseness  as  would 
make  me 

Most  worthy  of  it :  both  of  us  will  die, 

And  I  will  fly  with  my   sweet   boy   to 
heaven, 

And  shriek  to  all  the  saints  among  the 
stars : 

'  Eleanor  of  Aquitaine,  Eleanor  of  Eng- 
land ! 

Murder'd  by  that  adulteress  Eleanor, 

Whose  doings  are  a  horror  to  the  east, 

A  hissing  in  the  west ! '     Have  we  not 
heard 

Raymond  of  Poitou,  thine  own  uncle  — 
nay, 

Geoffrey    Plantagenet,    thine    own   hus- 
band's father  — 

Nay,  ev'n  the  accursed   heathen  Salad- 
deen 

Strike ! 

I  challenge  thee  to  meet  me  before  God. 

Answer  me  there. 

Eleanor  {raising  the  dagger) .    This  in 
thy  bosom,  fool, 

And  after  in  thy  bastard's ! 

Enter  Becket  from  behind.     Catches 
hold  of  her  arm. 

Becket.  Murderess ! 

[  The  dagger  falls;  they  stare  at  one 

another.     After  a  pause. 

Eleanor.      My    lord,   we    know    you 

proud  of  your  fine  hand, 

But  having  now  admired  it  long  enough, 

We    find    that    it    is    mightier    than    it 

seems  — 
At  least  mine  own  is  frailer:    you  are 
laming  it. 


BECKET. 


ACT  IV. 


Becket.     And   lamed   and   maim'd  to 

dislocation,  better 
Than  raised  to  take  a  life  which  Henry 

bade  me 
Guard  from  the  stroke  that  dooms  thee 

after  death 
To  wail  in  deathless  flame. 

Eleanor.  Nor  you,  nor  I 

Have  now  to  learn,  my  lord,  that  our 

good  Henry 
Says   many   a    thing    in   sudden    heats, 

which  he 
Gainsays  by  next  sunrising  —  often  ready 
To  tear  himself  for  having  said  as  much. 

My  lord,  Fitzurse 

Becket.  He  too  !  what  dost  thou  here? 
Dares  the  bear  slouch  into  the  lion's  den? 
One  downward  plunge  of  his  paw  Would 

rend  away 
Eyesight  and  manhood,  life  itself,  from 

thee. 
Go,  lest  I  blast  thee  with  anathema, 
And  make  thee  a  world's  horror. 

Fitzurse.  My  lord,  I  shall 

Remember  this. 

Becket.  I  do  remember  thee; 

Lest  I  remember  thee  to  the  lion,  go. 

[Exit  Fitzurse. 
Take   up    your   dagger;     put   it   in   the 

sheath. 
Eleanor.      Might   not    your   courtesy 

stoop  to  hand  it  me? 
But  crowns  must  bow  when  mitres  sit  so 

high. 
Well  —  well  —  too  costly  to  be  left  or  lost. 
[Picks  up  the  dagger. 
I  had  it  from  an  Arab  soldan,  who, 
When  I  was  there  in  Antioch,  marvell'd 

at 
Our  unfamiliar  beauties  of  the  west ; 
But  wonder'd  more  at  my  much  constancy 
To   the   monk-king,  Louis,    our   former 

burthen, 
From  whom,  as  being  too  kin,  you  know, 

my  lord, 
God's  grace  and  Holy  Church  deliver'd 

us. 
I  think,  time  given,  I  could  have  talk'd 

him  out  of 
His  ten  wives  into  one.     Look  at  the 

hilt. 
What   excellent  workmanship.     In   our 

poor  west 


We  cannot  do  it  so  well. 

Becket.  We  can  do  worse. 

Madam,  I  saw  your  dagger  at  her  throat; 
I  heard  your  savage  cry. 

Eleanor.  Well  acted,  was  it? 

A  comedy  meant  to  seem  a  tragedy  — 
A  feint,  a  farce.     My  honest  lord,  you 

are  known 
Thro'  all  the  courts  of  Christendom  as 

one 
That  mars  a  cause  with  over-violence. 
You  have  wrong'd  Fitzurse.     I  speak  not 

of  myself. 
We  thought  to  scare  this  minion  of  the 

King 
Back  from  her  churchless  commerce  with 

the  King 
To   the   fond   arms    of    her    first    love, 

Fitzurse, 
Who   swore   to   marry   her.     You   have 

spoilt  the  farce. 
My  savage  cry  ?    Why,  she  —  she  —  when 

I  strove 
To    work    against    her    license    for    her 

good, 
Bark'd  out  at  me  such  monstrous  charges, 

that 
The  King  himself,  for  love  of  his  own 

sons, 
If  hearing,    would    have   spurn'd    her; 

whereupon 
I  menaced  her  with  this,  as  when  we 

threaten 
A  yelper  with  a  stick.     Nay,  I  deny  not, 
That  I  was  somewhat  anger'd.     Do  you 

hear  me? 
Believe  or  no,  I   care  not.     You   have 

lost 
The  ear  of  the  King.     I  have  it.  .  .  . 

My  lord  Paramount, 
Our    great    High-priest,   will   not   your 

Holiness 
Vouchsafe    a   gracious   answer   to    your 

Queen? 
Becket.     Rosamund  hath  not  answer'd 

you  one  word; 
Madam,  I  will  not  answer  you  one  word. 
Daughter,  the  world  hath  trick'd  thee. 

Leave  it,  daughter; 
Come  thou  with  me  to  Godstow  nunnery, 
And  live  what  may  be  left  thee  of  a  life 
Saved  as  by  miracle  alone  with  Him 
Who  gave  it. 


SCENE  II. 


BECKET. 


717 


Re-enter  Geoffrey. 

Geoffrey.     Mother,  you  told  me  a  great 

fib :  it  wasn't  in  the  willow. 
Becket.     Follow  us,  my  son,  and  we 

will  find  it  for  thee  — 
Or  something  manlier. 

[Exeunt    Becket,    Rosamund,    and 

Geoffrey. 
Eleanor.     The  world  hath  trick'd  her 

—  that's  the  King;   if  so, 
There  was  the  farce,  the  feint  —  not  mine. 

And  yet 
I  am  all  but  sure  my  dagger  was  a  feint 
Till  the  worm  turn'd  —  not  life  shot  up 

in  blood, 
But  death   drawn  in ;  —  {looking  at  the 

vial)  this  was  no  feint  then?  no. 
But  can  I  swear  to  that,  had  she  but 

given 
Plain  answer  to  plain  query?  nay,  me- 

thinks 
Had  she  but  bow'd  herself  to  meet  the 

wave 
Of    humiliation,    worshipt     whom     she 

loathed, 
I  should  have  let  her  be,  scorn'd  her  too 

much 
To  harm  her.     Henry  —  Becket  tells  him 

this  — 
To  take  my  life  might  lose  him  Aquitaine. 
Too  politic  for  that.     Imprison  me? 
No,  for  it  came  to  nothing —  only  a  feint. 
Did  she  not  tell  me  I  was  playing  on 

her? 
I'll   swear   to  mine   own   self  it   was   a 

feint. 
Why  should  I  swear,  Eleanor,  who  am, 

or  was, 
A  sovereign  power?     The  King  plucks 

out  their  eyes 
Who  anger  him,  and   shall   not   I,  the 

Queen, 
Tear  out  her  heart  —  kill,  kill  with  knife 

or  venom 
One  of  his  slanderous   harlots?     'None 

of  such? ' 
I   love    her   none   the   more.     Tut,   the 

chance  gone, 
She  lives  —  but  not  for  him;  one  point  is 

gain'd. 
0  I,  that  thro'  the  Pope  divorced  King 

Louis, 


Scorning  his  monkery,  —  I  that  wedded 

Henry, 
Honouring  his  manhood,  —  will  he  not 

mock  at  me 
The  jealous  fool  balk'd  of  her  will  —  with 

him  ? 
But  he  and  he  must  never  meet  again. 
Reginald  Fitzurse ! 

Re-enter  Fitzurse. 

Fitzurse.  Here,  Madam,  at 

your  pleasure. 
Eleanor.     My  pleasure  is  to  have  a 
man  about  me. 
Why  did  you  slink  away  so  like  a  cur? 
Fitzurse.     Madam,  I  am  as  much  man 
as  the  King. 
Madam,    I     fear    Church-censures    like 
your  King. 
Eleanor.     He  grovels  to  the  Church 
when  he's  black-blooded, 
But  kinglike  fought  the  proud  archbishop, 

—  kinglike 

Defied  the  Pope,  and,  like  his  kingly  sires, 
The  Normans,  striving  still  to  break  or 

bind 
The  spiritual  giant  with  our  island  laws 
And  customs,  made  me  for  the  moment 

proud 
Ev'n   of  that   stale  Church-bond  which 

link'd  me  with  him 
To  bear  Jiim  kingly  sons.     I  am  not  so 

sure 
But  that  I  love  him  still.     Thou  as  much 

man ! 
No  more  of  that;  we  will  to  France  and  be 
Beforehand  with  the  King,  and  brew  from 

out 
This  Godstow-Becket  intermeddling  such 
A  strong  hate-philtre  as  may  madden  him 

—  madden 

Against  his  priest  beyond  all  hellebore. 

ACT  V. 

SCENE  I.  —  Castle  in  Normandy. 
King's  Chamber. 

Henry,  Roger  of  York,  Foliot, 
Jocelyn  of  Salisbury. 

Roger  of  York.  Nay,  nay,  my  liege, 
He  rides  abroad  with  armed  followers, 
Hath  broken  all  his  promises  to  thyself, 


7i8 


BECKET. 


Cursed  and  anathematised  us  right  and 
left, 

Stirr'd   up   a   party   there   against   your 

son 

Henry.     Roger  of  York,  you  always 
hated  him, 

Even  when  you  both  were  boys  at  Theo- 
bald's. 
Roger  of  York.    I  always  hated  bound- 
less arrogance. 

In  mine  own  cause  I  strove  against  him 
there, 

And  in   thy  cause  I  strive    against  him 
now. 
Henry.     I    cannot    think   he    moves 
against  my  son, 

Knowing  right  well  with  what  a  tender- 
ness 

He  loved  my  son. 

Roger  of  York.     Before  you  made  him 
king. 

But  Becket  ever  moves  against  a  king. 

The  Church  is  all  —  the  crime  to  be  a 
king. 

We  trust  your  Royal  Grace,  lord  of  more 
land 

Than   any    crown    in    Europe,  will   not 
yield 

To  lay  your  neck  beneath  your  citizen's 
heel. 
Henry.     Not  to  a  Gregory  of  my  thron- 
ing !     No. 
Foliot.     My  royal  liege,  in  aiming  at 
your  love, 

It  may  be  sometimes  I  have  overshot 

My  duties  to  our  Holy  Mother  Church, 

Tho'  all  the  world  allows  I  fall  no  inch 

Behind  this  Becket,  rather  go  beyond 

In  scourgings,  macerations,  mortifyings, 

Fasts,  disciplines  that  clear  the  spiritual 
eye, 

And  break  the  soul  from  earth.     Let  all 
that  be. 

I  boast  not :  but  you  know  thro'  all  this 
quarrel 

I  still  have  cleaved  to  the  crown,  in  hope 
the  crown 

Would  cleave  to  me  that  but  obey'd  the 
crown, 

Crowning  your  son;   for  which  our  loyal 
service, 

And  since  we  likewise  swore  to  obey  the 
customs, 


York  and  myself,  and  our  good  Salisbury 

here, 
Are  push'd  from  out  communion  of  the 
Church. 
Jocelyn   of  Salisbury.      Becket    hath 
trodden    on    us   like   worms,   my 
liege ; 
Trodden  one  half  dead;    one  half,  but 

half-alive, 
Cries  to  the  King. 

Henry  {aside).     Take  care  o'  thyself, 

O  King. 
Jocelyn  of  Salisbury.    Being  so  crush' d 
and  so  humiliated 
We  scarcely  dare  to  bless  the  food  we  eat 
Because  of  Becket. 

Henry.     What  would  ye  have  me  do? 
Roger  of  York.    Summon  your  barons; 
take  their  counsel :  yet 
I    know  —  could    swear  —  as    long    as 

Becket  breathes, 
Your   Grace   will  never  have  one  quiet 
hour. 
Henry.        What?  ...     Ay  .  .  .  but 
pray  you  do  not  work  upon  me. 
I  see  your  drift  ...  it  may  be  so  .  .  . 

and  yet 
You  know  me  easily  anger'd.     Will  you 

hence? 
He  shall  absolve  you  .  .   .  you  shall  have 

redress. 
I   have    a   dizzying  headache.     Let  me 

rest. 
I'll  call  you  by  and  by. 

[Exeunt  Roger  of  York,  Foliot,  and 
Jocelyn  of  Salisbury. 
Would  he  were  dead !     I  have  lost  all 

love  for  him. 
If  God  would  take  him  in  some  sudden 

way  — 
Would  he  were  dead.  [Lies  down. 

Page  {entering) .     My  liege,  the  Queen 

of  England. 
Henry.     God's  eyes!        [Starting  up. 

Enter  Eleanor. 

Eleanor.  Of  England?     Say  of 

Aquitaine. 
I    am   no   Queen   of  England.      I    had 

dream'd 
I  was  the  bride  of  England,  and  a  queen. 
Henry.      And, — while   you   dream'd 
you  were  the  bride  of  England,  — 


SCENE   I. 


BECKET. 


719 


Stirring  her  baby-king  against  me?  ha ! 
Eleanor.     The  brideless  Becket  is  thy 

king  and  mine  : 
I  will  go  live  and  die  in  Aquitaine. 
Henry.     Except  I  clap  thee  into  prison 

here, 
Lest  thou  shouldst  play  the  wanton  there 

again. 
Ha,  you  of  Aquitaine  !     O  you  of  Aqui- 
taine ! 
You  were  but  Aquitaine  to  Louis  —  no 

wife; 
You  are  only  Aquitaine  to  me  —  no  wife. 
Eleanor.     And  why,  my  lord,  should  I 

be  wife  to  one 
That  only  wedded  me  for  Aquitaine? 
Yet  this   no   wife  —  her   six   and   thirty 

sail 
Of  Provence  blew  you  to  your  English 

throne; 
And  this  no  wife  has  borne  you  four  brave 

sons, 

And  one  of  them  at  least  is  like  to  prove 

Bigger  in  our  small  world  than  thou  art. 

Henry.  Ay  — 

Richard,   if  he   be   mine — I  hope  him 

mine. 
But  thou  art  like  enough  to  make  him 

thine. 
Eleanor.     Becket   is   like    enough  to 

make  all  his. 
Henry.     Methought  I    had  recover'd 

of  the  Becket, 
That  all  was  planed  and  bevell'd  smooth 

again, 
Save  from  some  hateful  cantrip  of  thine 

own. 
Eleanor.     I   will   go  live  and  die   in 

Aquitaine. 
I  dream'd  I  was  the  consort  of  a  king, 
Not  one  whose  back  his  priest  has  broken. 
Henry.  "What ! 

Is  the  end  come?     You,  will  you  crown 

my  foe 
My  victor  in  mid-battle?     I  will  be 
Sole   master  of  my  house.     The  end  is 

mine. 
What  game,   what  juggle,  what  devilry 

are  you  playing? 
Why  do  you  thrust  this  Becket  on  me 

again  ? 
Eleanor.     Why?  for  I  am  true  wife, 

and  have  my  fears 


Lest  Becket  thrust  you  even  from  your 

throne. 
Do  you  know  this  cross,  my  liege? 

Henry    {turning  his  head).      Away  I 

Not  I. 
Eleanor.     Not  ev'n   the   central  dia- 
mond, worth,  I  think, 
Half  of  the  Antioch  whence  I  had  it? 
Henry.  That? 

Eleanor.     I  gave  it  you,  and  you  your 
paramour; 
She   sends   it   back,    as   being   dead   to 

earth, 
So  dead  henceforth  to  you. 

Henry.     Dead !     you  have   murder'd 
her, 
Found  out  her  secret  bower  and  murder'd 
her! 
Eleanor.     Your     Becket     knew     the 

secret  of  your  bower. 
Henry  {calling  out).     Ho  there  !  thy 

rest  of  life  is  hopeless  prison. 
Eleanor.     And  what   would   my  own 
Aquitaine  say  to  that? 
First,  free  thy  captive  from  her  hopeless 
prison. 
Henry.     O  devil,  can  I  free  her  from 

the  grave? 
Eleanor.     You   are  too   tragic :    both 
of  us  are  players 
In  such  a  comedy  as  our  court  of  Pro- 
vence 
Had  laugh'd  at.     That's  a  delicate  Latin 

lay 
Of  Walter    Map:    the    lady   holds   the 

cleric 
Lovelier    than    any    soldier,    his     poor 

tonsure 
A  crown  of  Empire.     Will  you  have  it 

again  ? 
(  Offering  the  cross.     He  dashes  it  down.) 
St.  Cupid,  that  is  too  irreverent. 
Then  mine  once  more.      {Puts  it  on.) 

Your  cleric  hath  your  lady. 
Nay,  what  uncomely  faces,  could  he  see 

you! 
Foam     at     the     mouth     because    King 

Thomas,  lord 
Not  only  of  your  vassals  but  amours, 
Thro'  chastest  honour  of  the  Decalogue 
Hath    used    the    full    authority    of    his 

Church 
To  put  her  into  Godstow  nunnery. 


720 


BECKET. 


ACT   V 


Henry.  To  put  her  into  Godstow 
nunnery ! 

He  dared  not  — •  liar  !  yet,  yet  I  remem- 
ber — 

I  do  remember. 

He  bade  me  put  her  into  a  nunnery  — 

Into  Godstow,  into  Hellstow,  Devilstow  ! 

The  Church  !  the  Church  ! 

God's  eyes !  I  would  the  Church  were 
down  in  hell !  \_Exit. 

Eleanor.     Aha ! 

Enter  the  four  Knights. 

Eitzurse.     What   made   the  King  cry 

out  so  furiously? 
Eleanor.     Our    Becket,  who  will  not 

absolve  the  Bishops. 
I  think  ye  four  have  cause  to  love  this 

Becket. 
Eitzurse.     I  hate  him  for  his  insolence 

to  all. 
De  Tracy.    And  I  for  all  his  insolence 

to  thee. 
De  Brito.     I  hate  him  for  I  hate  him 

is  my  reason, 
And  yet  I  hate  him  for  a  hypocrite. 
De  Morville.     I  do  not  love  him,  for 

he  did  his  best 
To  break  the  barons,  and  now  braves  the 

King. 
Eleanor.     Strike,   then,  at  once,  the 

King  would  have  him  —  See  ! 

Re-enter  Henry. 

Henry.     No  man  to  love  me,  honour 

me,  obey  me ! 
Sluggards  and  fools ! 
The  slave  that  eat  my  bread  has  kick'd 

his  King ! 
The  dog  I  cramm'd  with  dainties  worried 

me ! 
The  fellow  that  on  a  lame  jade  came  to 

court, 
A  ragged  cloak  for  saddle  —  he,  he,  he, 
To  shake  my  throne,  to  push  into  my 

chamber  — 
My  bed,  where  ev'n  the  slave  is  private 

—  he- 
I'll  have  her  out  again,  he  shall  absolve 
The  bishops  —  they  but  did  my  will  — 

not  you  — 
Sluggards  and  f©ols?  why  do  you  stand 

and  stare? 


You  are  no  King's  men  —  you  —  you  — 

you  are  Becket's  men. 
Down  with    King    Henry !  up   with  the 

Archbishop ! 
Will  no  man  free  me  from  this  pestilent 

priest?  [Exit. 

[  The  Knights  draw  their  swords. 
Eleanor.     Are  ye  king's  men?     I  am 

king's  woman,  I. 
The  Knights.     King's  men !     King's 


SCENE  II.  —  A  Room  in  Canterbury 
Monastery. 

Becket  and  John  of  Salisbury. 
Becket.     York  said  so? 
John  of  Salisbury.     Yes:    a  man  may 
take  good  counsel 
Ev'n  from  his  foe. 

Becket.  York  will  say  anything. 

What   is  he  saying  now?  gone    to    the 

King 

And  taken  our  anathema  with  him.  York  ! 

Can  the  King  de-anathematise  this  York? 

John  of  Salisbury.     Thomas,  I  would 

thou  hadst  return'd  to  England, 

Like  some  wise  prince  of  this  world  from 

his  wars, 
With  more  of  olive-branch  and  amnesty 
For  foes  at  home — thou  hast  raised  the 
world  against  thee. 
Becket.     Why,  John,  my   kingdom   is 

not  of  this  world. 
John  of  Salisbury.     If  it  were  more  of 
this  world  it  might  be 
More   of   the    next.     A   policy   of  wise 

pardon 
Wins  here  as  well  as  there.     To  bless 

thine  enemies 

Becket.     Ay,  mine,  not  Heaven's. 
John  of  Salisbury.         And  may  there 
not  be  something 
Of  this  world's  leaven  in  thee  too,  when 

crying 
On    Holy   Church   to    thunder   out    her 

rights 
And  thine  own  wrong  so  pitilessly?     Ah, 

Thomas, 
The   lightnings   that  we  think  are  only 

Heaven's 
Flash  sometimes  out  of  earth  against  the 
heavens. 


SCENE   II. 


BECKET. 


72! 


The  soldier,  when  he  lets  his  whole  self  go 
Lost  in  the  common  good,  the  common 

wrong, 
Strikes  truest  ev'n  for  his  own  self.     I 

crave 
Thy  pardon  —  I  have  still  thy  leave  to 

speak. 
Thou  hast  waged  God's  war  against  the 

King;   and  yet 
We  are  self-uncertain  creatures,  and  we 

may, 
Yea,  even  when  we  know  not,  mix  our 

spites 
And   private  hates  with  our  defence  of 

Heaven. 

Enter  Edward  Grim. 

Becket.     Thou  art  but  yesterday  from 
Cambridge,  Grim; 
What  say  ye  there  of  Becket? 

Grim.  /believe  him 

The  bravest  in  our  roll  of  Primates  down 
From    Austin  —  there    are    some  —  for 

there  are  men 
Of  canker'd  judgment  everywhere 

Becket.  Who  hold 

With  York,  with  York  against  me. 

Grim.  Well,  my  lord, 

A  stranger  monk  desires  access  to  you. 

Becket.     York      against      Canterbury, 
York  against  God ! 
I  am  open  to  him.  [Exit  Grim. 

Enter  Rosamund  as  a  Monk. 

Rosamund.  Can  I  speak  with  you 

Alone,  my  father? 

Becket.  Come  you  to  confess? 

Rosamund.     Not  now. 
Becket.  Then  speak;   this 

is  my  other  self, 
Who  like  my  conscience  never  lets  me  be. 
Rosamund  {throwing  back  the  cowl).    I 
know   him;     our   good    John    of 
Salisbury. 
Becket.      Breaking   already   from   thy 
noviciate 
To  plunge  into  this  bitter  world  again  — 
These   wells  of   Marah.     I  am  grieved, 

my  daughter. 
I  thought  that  I  had  made  a  peace  for 
thee. 
Rosamund.     Small  peace  was  mine  in 
my  noviciate,  father, 

3A 


Thro'  all  closed  doors  a  dreadful  whisper 

crept 
That   thou  wouldst  excommunicate   the 

King. 
I  could  not  eat,  sleep,  pray :  I  had  with  me 
The  monk's  disguise  thou  gavest  me  for 

my  bower : 
I  think  our  Abbess  knew  it  and  allow'd  it. 
I  fled,  and  found  thy  name  a  charm  to 

get  me 
Food,  roof,  and  rest.      I  met  a  robber 

once, 
I  told  him  I  was  bound  to  see  the  Arch- 
bishop; 
'  Pass  on,'  he    said,  and  in  thy  name  I 

pass'd 
From  house    to   house.     In    one   a  son 

stone-blind 
Sat  by  his  mother's  hearth :  he  had  gone 

too  far 
Into  the   King's   own  woods;    and   the 

poor  mother, 
Soon   as   she    learnt  I  was   a  friend   of 

thine, 
Cried   out   against    the    cruelty   of    the 

King. 
I  said  it  was  the  King's  courts,  not  the 

King; 
But  she  would  not  believe  me,  and  she 

wish'd 
The  Church  were   king:    she   had  seen 

the  Archbishop  once, 
So  mild,  so  kind.     The  people  love  thee, 

father. 
Becket.      Alas !    when    I    was    Chan- 
cellor to  the  King, 
I  fear  I  was  as  cruel  as  the  King. 

Rosamund.     Cruel?      Oh,    no  —  it   is 

the  law,  not  he; 
The  customs  of  the  realm. 

Becket.  The  customs!   customs! 

Rosamund.     My   lord,  you   have  not 

excommunicated  him? 
Oh,  if  you  have,  absolve  him  ! 

Becket.  Daughter,  daughter, 

Deal  not  with  things  you  know  not. 

Rosamund.  I  know  him. 

Then  you  have  done  it,  and  I  call  you 

cruel. 
John  of  Salisbury.     No,  daughter,  you 

mistake  our  good  Archbishop; 
For  once  in  France  the  King  had  been 

so  harsh. 


722 


BECKET. 


ACT    V. 


He    thought    to    excommunicate   him  — 

Thomas, 
You   could  not — old  affection  master'd 

you, 
You  falter'd  into  tears. 

Rosamund.  God  bless  him  for  it. 

Becket.     Nay,  make  me  not  a  woman, 
John  of  Salisbury, 
Nor  make  me  traitor  to  my  holy  office. 
Did   not  a  man's  voice  ring   along  the 

aisle, 
*■  The    King  is   sick    and    almost    unto 

death'? 
How  could  I  excommunicate  him  then? 
Rosamund.     And    wilt    thou    excom- 
municate him  now? 
Becket.     Daughter,  my  time  is  short, 
I  shall  not  do  it. 
And  were  it  longer  —  well  —  I  should  not 
do  it. 
Rosamund.     Thanks  in  this  life,  and 

in  the  life  to  come. 
Becket.     Get  thee  back  to  thy  nunnery 
with  all  haste; 
Let   this  be  thy  last  trespass.     But  one 

question  — 
How   fares    thy   pretty   boy,    the    little 

Geoffrey? 
No  fever,  cough,  croup,  sickness? 

Rosamund.  No,  but  saved 

From   all   that   by   our    solitude.      The 

plagues 
That  smite  the  city  spare  the  solitudes. 
Becket.     God  save  him  from  all  sick- 
ness of  the  soul ! 
•  Thee  too,  thy  solitude  among  thy  nuns, 
May  that  save  thee  !    Doth  he  remember 
me? 
Rosamund.     I  warrant  him. 
Becket.     He  is  marvellously  like  thee. 
Rosamund.     Liker  the  King. 
Becket.  No,  daughter. 

Rosamund.  Ay,  but  wait 

Till    his    nose    rises;    he    will    be    very 
king. 
Becket.     Ev'n   so :   but   think   not   of 

the  King :  farewell ! 
Rosamund.     My  lord,  the  city  is  full 

of  armed  men. 
Becket.     Ev'n  so  :  farewell ! 
Rosamund.     I  will  but  pass  to  vespers, 
And  breathe  one  prayer  for  my  liege-lord 
the  King, 


His  child    and   mine  own   soul,  and  so 

return. 
Becket.     Pray  for  me  too  :  much  need 

of  prayer  have  I. 

[Rosamund  kneels  and  goes. 
Dan  John,  how  much  we  lose,  we  celi- 
bates, 
Lacking  the  love  of  woman  and  of  child  ! 
John    of  Salisbury.     More   gain  than 

loss;  for  of  your  wives  you  shall 
Find  one  a  slut  whose  fairest  linen  seems 
Foul  as  her  dust-cloth,  if  she  used  it  — 

one 
So  charged  with  tongue,  that  every  thread 

of  thought 
Is  broken  ere  it  joins  —  a  shrew  to  boot, 
Whose  evil  song  far  on  into  the  night 
Thrills  to  the  topmost  tile  —  no  hope  but 

death ; 
One  slow,  fat,  white,  a  burthen   of  the 

hearth; 
And  one  that  being  thwarted  ever  swoons 
And   weeps   herself  into    the    place   of 

power; 
And  one  an  uxor  pauperis  Ibyci. 
So    rare    the    household    honeymaking 

bee, 
Man's  help  !  but  we,  we  have  the  blessed 

Virgin 
For   worship,   and   our   Mother  Church 

for  bride; 
And  all  the  souls  we  saved  and  father'd 

here 
Will  greet  us  as  our  babes  in  Paradise. 
What    noise   was   that?   she  told  us  of 

arm'd  men 
Here  in  the    city.     Will  you  not  with- 
draw? 
Becket.     I  once  was  out  with   Henry 

in  the  days 
When  Henry  loved   me,  and  we   came 

upon 
A  wild-fowl  sitting  on  her  nest,  so  still 
I  reach'd  my  hand  and  touch'd;   she  did 

not  stir; 
The  snow  had  frozen  round  her,  and  she 

sat 
Stone-dead    upon   a    heap    of    ice-cold 

eggs. 
Look !  how  this  love,  this  mother,  runs 

thro'  all 
The  world  God  made  —  even  the  beast 

—  the  bird  S 


SCENE   II. 


BECKET. 


723 


John  of  Salisbury.     Ay,  still  a  lover  of 
the  beast  and  bird? 
But  these  armM  men  —  will  you  not  hide 

yourself? 
Perchance  the  fierce  De  Brocs  from  Salt- 
wood  Castle, 
To    assail    our    Holy    Mother   lest    she 

brood 
Too  long  o'er  this  hard  egg,  the  world, 

and  send 
Her  whole   heart's   heat  into   it,   till   it 

break 
Into    young    angels.      Pray    you,    hide 
yourself. 
Becket.     There  was  a  little  fair-hair'd 
Norman  maid 
Lived  in  my  mother's   house :  if   Rosa- 
mund is 
The  world's  rose,  as  her  name  imports 

her  —  she 
Was  the  world's  lily. 
John  of  Salisbury.     Ay,  and  what  of 

her? 
Becket.     She  died  of  leprosy. 
John  of  Salisbury.         I  know  not  why 
You  call  these  old  things  back  again,  my 
lord. 
Becket.     The  drowning  man,  they  say, 
remembers  all 
The  chances  of  his  life,  just  ere  he  dies. 
John   of  Salisbury.     Ay  —  but    these 
arm'd  men  —  wiMyou  drown  your- 
self? 
He  loses  half  the  meed  of  martyrdom 
Who   will   be    martyr   when    he    might 
escape. 
Becket.      What    day    of    the    week? 

Tuesday? 
John  of  Salisbury.     Tuesday,  my  lord. 
Becket.     On  a  Tuesday  was   I    born, 
and  on  a  Tuesday 
Baptized;   and  on  a  Tuesday  did  I  fly 
Forth  from  Northampton;   on  a  Tuesday 

pass'd 
From  England  into  bitter  banishment; 
On    a    Tuesday   at    Pontigny   came    to 

me 
The  ghostly  warning  of  my  martyrdom; 
On  a  Tuesday  from  mine  exile  I  return'd, 

And  on  a  Tuesday 

[Tracy  enters,  then  Fitzurse,  De 
Brito,  and  De  Morville.  Monks 
following. 


—  on    a    Tuesday Tracy ! 

\A  long  silence  broken  by  Fitzurse  say- 
ing, contemptuously) 
God  help  thee ! 
John  of  Salisbury  {aside).     How  the 
good  Archbishop  reddens ! 
He  never   yet  could  brook  the  note  of 
scorn. 
Fitzurse.     My  lord,  we  bring  a  message 
from  the  King 
Beyond    the   water;     will    you   have   it 

alone, 
Or  with  these  listeners  near  you? 

Becket.  As  you  will. 

Fitzurse.     Nay,  as  you  will. 
Becket.  Nay,  as  you  will. 

John  of  Salisbury.  Why  then 

Better  perhaps  to  speak  with  them  apart. 
Let  us  withdraw. 

[All  go  out  except  the  four  Knights 
and  Becket. 
Fitzurse.     We  are  all  alone  with  him. 
Shall  I  not  smite  him  with  his  own  cross- 
staff? 
De  Morville.     No,  look !  the  door  is 

open  :  let  him  be. 
Fitzurse.     The   King  condemns  your 

excommunicating 

Becket.     This  is  no  secret,  but  a  public 
matter. 
In  here  again ! 

[John  of  Salisbury  and  Monks  return. 

Now,  sirs,  the  King's  commands ! 

Fitzurse.     The  King  beyond  the  water, 

thro'  our  voices, 

Commands  you  to  be  dutiful  and  leal 

To  your  young  King  on  this  side  of  the 

water, 
Not  scorn  him  for  the  foibles  of  his  youth. 
What !   you  would  make  his  coronation 

void 
By  cursing  those  who  crown'd  him  !     Out 
upon  you ! 
Becket.      Reginald,    all   men   know   I 
loved  the  Prince. 
His  father  gave  him  to  my  care,  and  I 
Became  his   second  father:    he  had  his 

faults, 
For  which  I  would  have  laid  mine  own 

life  down 
To  help  him  from  them,  since  indeed  I 

loved  him, 
And  love  him  next  after  my  lord  his  father. 


724 


BECKET. 


ACT  Y 


Rather  than  dim   the  splendour  of  his 
crown 

I  fain  would  treble  and  quadruple  it 

With  revenues,  realms,  and  golden  prov- 
inces 

So  that  were  done  in  equity. 

Fitzurse.  You  have  broken 

Your  bond  of  peace,  your  treaty  with  the 
King  — 

Wakening  such  brawls  and  loud  disturb? 
ances 

In  England,  that  he  calls  you  oversea 

To  answer  for  it  in  his  Norman  courts. 
Becket.     Prate  not  of  bonds,  for  never, 
oh,  never  again 

Shall  the  waste  voice  of  the  bond-break- 
ing sea 

Divide  me  from  the  mother  church  of 
England, 

My  Canterbury.     Loud  disturbances  ! 

Oh,   ay  —  the   bells    rang    out   even   to 
deafening, 

Organ  and  pipe,  and  dulcimer,    chants 
and  hymns 

In  all  the  churches,  trumpets  in  the  halls, 

Sobs,  laughter,  cries:  they  spread  their 
raiment  down 

Before  me  — would  have  made  my  path- 
way flowers, 

Save  that  it  was  mid-winter  in  the  street, 

But   full   mid-summer    in   those   honest 
hearts. 
Fitzurse.     The   King   commands  you 
to  absolve  the  bishops 

Whom  you  have  excommunicated. 
Becket.  I? 

Not  I,  the  Pope.     Ask  him  for  absolution. 
Fitzurse.     But  you  advised  the  Pope. 
Becket.  And  so  I  did. 

They  have  but  to  submit. 

The  four  Knights.     The    King  com- 
mands you. 

We  are  all  King's  men. 

Becket.  King's  men  at  least 

should  know 

That  their  own  King  closed  with  me  last 
July 

That  I  should  pass  the  censures  of  the 
Church 

On  those  that  crown'd  young  Henry  in 
this  realm, 

And  trampled  on  the  rights  of  Canter- 
bury. 


Fitzurse.      What !    dare    you   charge 

the  King  with  treachery? 
He  sanction  thee  to  excommunicate 
The  prelates   whom  he  chose  to  crown 

his  son! 
Becket.     I  spake  no  word  of  treachery, 

Reginald. 
But  for  the  truth  of  this  I  make  appeal 
To  all  the  archbishops,  bishops,  prelates, 

barons, 
Monks,  knights,  five  hundred,  that  were 

there  and  heard. 
Nay,  you  yourself  were  there :  you  heard 

yourself. 
Fitzurse.     I  was  not  there. 
Becket.  I  saw  you  there. 

Fitzurse.  I  was  not. 

Becket.     You  were.      I   never  forget 

anything. 
Fitzurse.       He    makes    the    King    a 

traitor,  me  a  liar. 
How  long  shall  we  forbear  him? 
John   of  Salisbury    (dratving  Becket 

aside).  O  my  good  lord, 

Speak  with  them  privately  on  this  here- 
after. 
You  see  they  have  been  revelling,  and  I 

fear 
Are     braced     and     brazen'd     up    with 

Christmas  wines 
For  any  murderous  brawl. 

Becket.  And  yet  they  prate 

Of  mine,  my  brawls,  when   those,  that 

name  themselves 
Of  the  King's  part,  have  broken  down 

our  barns, 
Wasted  our  diocese,  outraged  our  tenants, 
Lifted   our   produce,  driven  our   clerics 

out  — 
Why  they,  your  friends,  those  ruffians, 

the  De  Brocs, 
They  stood  on  Dover  beach  to  murder 

me, 
They  slew  my  stags  in  mine  own  manor 

here, 
Mutilated,  poor  brute,  my  sumpter-mule, 
Plunder'd  the  vessel  full  of  Gascon  wine, 
The  old  King's  present,  carried  off  the 

casks, 
Kill'd  half  the  crew,  dungeon'd  the  other 

half 

In  Pevensey  Castle 

De  Morvilie,     Why  not  rather  then, 


SCENE  II. 


BECKET. 


725 


If  this  be  so,  complain  to  your  young 

King, 
Not  punish  of  your  own  authority? 
Becket.     Mine  enemies  barr'd  all  access 

to  the  boy. 
They  knew  he  loved  me. 
Hugh,    Hugh,    how   proudly   you    exalt 

your  head ! 
Nay,  when   they   seek  to  overturn   our 

rights, 
I  ask  no  leave  of  king,  or  mortal  man, 
To  set  them  straight  again.     Alone  I  do  it. 
Give  to  the  King  the  things  that  are  the 

King's, 
And  those  of  God  to  God. 

Fitzurse.  Threats !  threats ! 

ye  hear  him. 
What !  will   he   excommunicate   all    the 

world? 

[  The  Knights  come  round  Becket. 
De  Tracy.     He  shall  not. 
De  Brito.  Well,  as  yet  — 

I  should  be  grateful  — 
He  hath  not  excommunicated  me. 

Becket.      Because  thou  wast  born  ex- 
communicate. 
I  never  spied  in  thee  one  gleam  of  grace. 
De  Brito.     Your  Christian's  Christian 

charity ! 

Becket.  By  St.  Denis 

De  Brito.     Ay,  by  St.  Denis,  now  will 

he  flame  out, 
And  lose  his  head  as  old  St.  Denis  did. 
Becket.     Ye   think  to  scare  me  from 

my  loyalty 
To  God  and  to  the  Holy  Father.     No ! 
Tho'  all  the   swords  in  England  flash'd 

above  me 
Ready  to  fall  at  Henry's  word  or  yours  — 
Tho'  all  the  loud-lung'd  trumpets  upon 

earth 
Blared  from  the  heights  of  all  the  thrones 

of  her  kings, 
Blowing  the  world  against  me,  I  would 

stand 
Clothed  with  the  full  authority  of  Rome, 
Mail'd  in  the  perfect  panoply  of  faith, 
First  of  the  foremost  of  their  files,  who 

die 
For  God,  to  people  heaven  in  the  great 

day 
When  God  makes  up  his  jewels.     Once 

I  fled  — 


Never  again,  and  you  —  I  marvel  at  you  — 
Ye  know  what  is  between  us.     Ye  have 

sworn 
Yourselves  my  men  when  I  was  Chan- 
cellor — 
My   vassals  —  and    yet     threaten    your 

Archbishop 
In  his  own  house. 

Knights.     Nothing  can  be  between  us 
That  goes  against  our  fealty  to  the  King. 
Fitzurse.     And  in  his  name  we  charge 
you  that  ye  keep 
This  traitor  from  escaping. 

Becket.  Rest  you  easy, 

For  I  am  easy  to  keep.     I  shall  not  fly. 
Here,  here,  here  will  you  find  me. 

De  Morville.  Know  you  not 

You  have  spoken  to  the   peril   of  your 
life? 
Becket.     As  I  shall  speak  again. 
Fitzurse,    De    Tracy,  and  De   Brito. 
To  arms ! 
[  They  rush  out,  De  Morville  lingers. 
Becket.  De  Morville, 

I  had  thought  so  well  of  you;   and  even 

now 
You  seem  the  least  assassin  of  the  four. 
Oh,  do  not  damn  yourself  for  company  ! 
Is  it  too  late  for  me  to  save  your  soul? 
I  pray   you  for   one  moment   stay   and 
speak. 
De  Morville.     Becket,  it  is  too  late. 

[Exit. 
Becket.  Is  it  too  late  ? 

Too  late  on  earth  may  be  too  soon  in 
hell. 
Knights  (in  the  distance).     Close  the 
great  gate  —  ho,  there  —  upon  the 
town. 
BeckePs   Retainers.      Shut    the    hall- 
doors.  [A  pause. 
Becket.     You  hear  them,  brother  John ; 
Why   do    you   stand   so   silent,   brother 
John? 
John  of  Salisbury.     For  I  was  musing 
on  an  ancient  saw, 
Suaviter  in  modo,  fortiter  in  re, 
Is   strength   less   strong   when  hand-in- 
hand  with  grace  ? 
Gratior     in    pulchro     corpore     virtus. 

Thomas, 
Why  should  you  heat  yourself  for  such  as 
these? 


726 


BECKET. 


ACT  V. 


Becket.     Methought  I  answer'd  mod- 
erately enough. 
John  of  Salisbury.     As  one  that  blows 
the  coal  to  cool  the  fire. 
My  lord,  I  marvel  why  you  never  lean 
On  any  man's  advising  but  your  own. 
Becket.      Is   it   so,    Dan   John?   well, 

what  should  I  have  done? 
John  of  Salisbury.     You  should  have 
taken  counsel  with  your  friends 
Before    these    bandits   brake    into    your 

presence. 
They   seek  —  you    make  —  occasion   for 
your  death. 
Becket.     My  counsel  is  already  taken, 
John. 
I  am  prepared  to  die. 

John  of  Salisbury.     We  are  sinners  all, 
The  best  of  all  not  all-prepared  to  die. 
Becket.     God's  will  be  done  ! 
John  of  Salisbury.  Ay,  well. 

God's  will  be  done  ! 
Grim    (re-entering).      My   lord,    the 
knights  are  arming  in  the  garden 
Beneath  the  sycamore. 

Becket.  Good  !  let  them  arm. 

Grim.     And  one  of  the  De  Brocs  is 
with  them,  Robert, 
The  apostate  monk  that  was  with  Ran- 

dulf  here. 
He  knows  the  twists  and  turnings  of  the 
place. 
Becket.     No  fear ! 

Grim.  No  fear,  my  lord. 

[Crashes   on  the   hall-doors.        The 

Monksy&v. 

Becket  (rising).     Our  dovecote  flown  ! 

I  cannot  tell  why  monks  should  all  be 

cowards. 

John   of  Salisbury.     Take    refuge   in 

your  own  cathedral,  Thomas. 
Becket.     Do  they  not  fight  the  Great 
Fiend  day  by  day? 
Valour  and  holy  life  should  go  together. 
Why  should  all  monks  be  cowards? 

John  of  Salisbury.  Are  they  so? 

I  say,  take  refuge  in  your  own  cathedral. 

Becket.     Ay,  but  I  told  them  I  would 

wait  them  here. 
Grim.     May  they  not  say  you  dared 
not  show  yourself 
In    your    old    place?    and  vespers   are 
beginning. 


[_Bell  rings  for  vespers  till  end  of  scene. 
You  should  attend  the  office,  give  them 

heart. 
They   fear   you   slain :    they    dread  they 
know  not  what. 
Becket.     Ay,  monks,  not  men. 
Grim.  1  am  a  monk,  my  lord. 

Perhaps,  my  lord,  you  wrong  us. 
Some  would  stand  by  you  to  the  death. 
Becket.  Your  pardon. 

John  of  Salisbury.     He  said,  '  Attend 

the  office.' 
Becket.  Attend  the  office? 

Why  then  —  The  Cross !  —  who  bears  my 

Cross  before  me  ? 
Methought  they  would  have  brain'd  me 
with  it,  John.         [Grim  takes  it. 
Grim.     I!     Would  that  I  could  bear 

thy  cross  indeed ! 
Becket.     The  Mitre ! 
John  of  Salisbury.     Will  you  wear  it? 
—  there ! 

[Becket  puts  on  the  mitre. 
Becket.  The  Pall! 

I  go  to  meet  my  King ! 

[Puts  on  the  pall. 

Grim.  To  meet  the  King ! 

[Crashes  on  the  doors  as  they  go  out. 

John  of  Salisbury.     Why  do  you  move 

with  such  a  stateliness? 

Can   you  not  hear  them   yonder  like  a 

storm, 
Battering  the  doors,  and  breaking  thro' 
the  walls? 
Becket.     Why  do  the   heathen   rage? 
My  two  good  friends, 
What  matters  murder'd  here,  or  murder'd 

there? 
And  yet  my  dream  foretold  my  martyr- 
dom 
In  mine  own  church.     It  is  God's  will. 

Go  on. 
Nay,  drag  me  not.     We  must  not  seem 
to  fly. 


SCENE  III. —North     Transept    of 
Canterbury  Cathedral. 

On  the  right  hand  a  flight  of  steps  leading 
to  the  Choir,  another  flight  on  the  left, 
leading  to  the  North  Aisle.  Winter 
afternoon    slowly    darkening.        Low 


SCENE   III. 


BECKET. 


727 


thunder  now  and  then  of  an  approach- 
ing storm .  Monks  heard  chan ting  the 
service.     Rosamund  kneeling. 

Rosamund.     O  blessed  saint,  O  glori- 
ous Benedict, — 
These  arm'd  men  in  the  city,  these  fierce 

faces  — 
Thy  holy  follower  founded  Canterbury  — 
Save  that  dear  head  which  now  is  Can- 
terbury, 
Save  him,  he  saved  my  life,  he  saved  my 

child, 
Save     him,    his    blood    would    darken 

Henry's  name; 
Save  him  till  all  as  saintly  as  thyself 
He  miss  the  searching  flame  of  purgatory, 
And  pass  at  once  perfect  to  Paradise. 

[Noise  of  steps  and  voices  in  the  cloisters. 
Hark  !    Is  it  they?    Coming!    He  is  not 

here  — 
Not  yet,  thank  heaven.     O  save  him ! 

[  Goes  up  steps  leading  to  choir. 
Becket  {entering,  forced  along  by  John 
of  Salisbury  and  Grim).     No,  I 
tell  you ! 
I  cannot  bear  a  hand  upon  my  person, 
Why  do  you  force  me  thus  against  my 
will? 
Grim.      My  lord,  we  force  you  from 

your  enemies. 
Becket.      As   you  would  force  a  king 

from  being  crown'd. 
John  of  Salisbury.    We  must  not  force 

the  crown  of  martyrdom. 
\_Service  stops.    Monks  come  dozun  from 

the  stairs  that  lead  to  the  choir. 
Monks.    Here  is  the  great  Archbishop  ! 
He  lives  !  he  lives  ! 
Die  with  him,  and  be  glorified  together. 
Becket.    Together  ?  .  .  .  get  you  back  ! 

go  on  with  the  office. 
Monks.       Come,    then,    with     us    to 

vespers. 
Becket.  How  can  I  come 

When  you  so  block  the  entry?     Back,  I 

say ! 
Go  on  with  the  office.    Shall  not  Heaven 

be  served 
Tho'  earth's  last  earthquake  clash'd  the 

minster-bells, 
And  the  great   deeps  were   broken    up 
again, 


And  hiss'd  against  the  sun? 

[Noise  in  the  cloisters. 
Monks.  The  murderers,  hark  ! 

Let  us  hide !  let  us  hide  ! 

Becket.     What  do  these  people  fear? 
Monks.     Those    arm'd    men    in    the 

cloister. 
Becket.  Be  not  such  cravens ! 

I  will  go  out  and  meet  them. 

Grim  and  others.  Shut  the  doors  ! 

We  will  not  have  him  slain  before  our 
face. 
[They  close  the  doors  of  the  transept. 
Knocking. 
Fly,  fly,  my  lord,  before  they  burst  the 
doors !  [Knocking. 

Becket.      Why,    these    are    our    own 
monks  who  follow'd  us ! 
And  will  you  bolt  them  out,  and  have 

them  slain? 
Undo  the  doors:    the  church  is  not  a 

castle : 
Knock,  and  it  shall  be  open'd.     Are  you 

deaf? 
What,  have  I  lost  authority  among  you? 
Stand  by,  make  way ! 

[Opens  the  doors.      Enter   Monks 
from  cloister. 

Come   in,  my  friends,    come   in ! 
Nay,  faster,  faster ! 

Monks.  Oh,  my  lord  Archbishop, 

A  score  of  knights  all  arm'd  with  swords 

and  axes  — 
To  the  choir,  to  the  choir ! 

[Monks   divide,  part  flying  by  the 
stairs  on  the  right,  part  by  those  on 
the  left.       The  rush  of  these  last 
bears  Becket  along  with  them  some 
way  up  the  steps,  zvhere  he  is  left 
standing  alone. 
Becket.     Shall  I  too  pass  to  the  choir, 
And  die  upon  the  Patriarchal  throne 
Of  all  my  predecessors? 

John  of  Salisbury.      No,  to  the  crypt! 
Twenty  steps  down.     Stumble  not  in  the 

darkness, 
Lest  they  should  seize  thee. 

Grim.  To  the  crypt?  no  —  no, 

To  the  chapel  of  St.  Blaise  beneath  the 

roof! 

John  of  Salisbury  (pointing  upward 

and  downward).     That  way,  or 

this !     Save  thyself  either  way. 


J28 


BECKET. 


ACT   V. 


Becket.     Oh,  no,  not  either  way,  nor 
any  way 
Save  by  that  way  which  leads  thro'  night 

to  light. 
Not  twenty  steps,  but  one. 
And  fear  not  I   should  stumble  in  the 

darkness, 
Not  tho'  it  be  their  hour,  the  power  of 

darkness, 
But  my  hour  too,  the  power  of  light  in 

darkness ! 
I  am  not  in  the  darkness  but  the  light, 
Seen    by  the    Church    in    Heaven,    the 

Church  on  earth  — 
The  power  of  life  in  death  to  make  her 
free ! 
[Enter  the  four  Knights.     John  of 
Salisbury  flies  to  the  altar  of  St. 
Benedict. 
Fitzurse.     Here,  here,  King's  men  ! 
[  Catches  hold  of  the  last  flying  Monk. 
Where  is  the  traitor  Becket? 
Monk.     I   am  not  he !    I  am  not  he, 
my  lord. 
I  am  not  he  indeed ! 

Fitzurse.  Hence  to  the  fiend ! 

[Pushes  him  away. 

Where  is  this  treble  traitor  to  the  King? 

De  Tracy.    Where  is  the  Archbishop, 

Thomas  Becket? 
Becket.  Here. 

No   traitor  to  the    King,  but    Priest   of 

God, 
Primate  of  England. 

[Descending  into  the  transept. 
I  am  he  ye  seek. 
What  would  ye  have  of  me  ? 

Fitzurse.  Your  life. 

De  Tracy.  Your  life. 

De  Morville.     Save  that  you  will  ab- 
solve the  bishops. 
Becket.  Never,  — 

Except    they   make    submission   to   the 

Church. 
You  had  my  answer  to  that  cry  before. 
De  Morville.     Why,  then   you  are  a 

dead  man;   flee ! 
Becket.  I  will  not. 

I  am  readier  to  be  slain,  than  thou  to  slay. 
Hugh,  I  know  well  thou  hast  but  half  a 

heart 
To  bathe  this  sacred  pavement  with  my 
blood. 


God  pardon   thee  and  these,  but  God's 

full  curse 
Shatter  you  all  to  pieces  if  ye  harm 
One  of  my  flock  ! 

Fitzurse.  Was  not  the  great  gate 

shut? 
They  are  thronging  in  to  vespers — half 

the  town. 
We   shall   be    overwhelm'd.     Seize   him 

and  carry  him ! 
Come  with  us  —  nay  —  thou  art  our  pris- 
oner—  come ! 
De  Morville.     Ay,  make  him  prisoner, 
do  not  harm  the  man. 
[Fitzurse    lays    hold   of  the  Arch- 
bishop's pall. 
Becket.    Touch  me  not ! 
De  Brito.  How  the  good 

priest  gods  himself ! 
He  is  not  yet  ascended  to  the  Father. 
Fitzurse.     I  will  not  only  touch,  but 

drag  thee  hence. 
Becket.     Thou  art   my  man,  thou  art 
my  vassal.     Away ! 
[Flings  him  off  till  he  reels,  almost 
to  falling. 
De    Tracy    {lays   hold  of  the  pall). 
Come;    as  he  said,  thou  art  our 
prisoner. 
Becket.  Down ! 

[  Throws  him  headlong. 
Fitzurse  {advances  with  drawn  sword). 
I    told    thee    that    I    should    re- 
member thee ! 
Becket.     Profligate  pander ! 
Fitzurse.  Do  you  hear  that? 

strike,  strike. 
[Strikes  off  the  Archbishop's  mitre, 
and  wounds  him  in  the  forehead. 
Becket  {covers  his  eyes  with  his  hand). 
I    do  commend  my  cause  to  God,  the 

Virgin, 
St.  Denis  of  France  and  St.  Alphege  of 

England, 
And   all   the   tutelar    Saints   of  Canter- 
bury. 
[Grim    wraps   his   arms   about  the 
Archbishop. 
Spare  this  defence,  dear  brother. 

[Tracy  has  arisen,  and  approaches, 
hesitatingly,      with      his     sxuord 
raised. 
Fitzurse.  Strike  him,  Tracy  J 


BECKET. 


729 


Rosamund  {rushing  dozvn  steps  from 

the  choir) .     No,  No,  No,  No  ! 
Fitzurse.  This  wanton  here.     De 

Morville, 
Hold  her  away. 

De  Morville.     I  hold  her. 
Rosamund  {held  back  by  De  Morville, 
and  stretching  out  her  arms). 

Mercy,  mercy, 
As  you  would  hope  for  mercy. 

Fitzurse.  Strike,  I  say. 

Grim.     O  God,  O  noble   knights,  O 
sacrilege ! 
Strike  our  Archbishop  in  his  own  cathe- 
dral! 
The  Pope,  the  King,  will  curse  you  — 

the  whole  world 

Abhor  you;  ye  will  die  the  death  of  dogs ! 

Nay,  nay,  good  Tracy.      [Lifts  his  arm. 

Fitzurse.  Answer  not,  but  strike. 

De  Tracy.     There  is  my  answer  then. 

[Sword  falls   on    Grim's  arm,  and 

glances      from       it,      wounding 

Becket. 

Grim.  Mine  arm  is  sever'd. 

I  can  no  more  —  fight  out  the  good  fight 

—  die 
Conqueror. 


[Staggers  into  the  chapel  of  St.  Benedict. 
Becket  {falling  on  his  knees) .     At  the 
right  hand  of  Power  — 
Power  and  great  glory  —  for  thy  Church, 

O  Lord  — 
Into   Thy   hands,    O    Lord  —  into    Thy 

hands  ! [Sinks prone. 

De  Brito.     This  last  to  rid  thee  of  a 

world  of  brawls  !  [Kills  him. 

The  traitor's  dead,  and  will  arise  no  more. 

Fitzurse.         Nay,  have  we  still'd  him? 

What !  the  great  Archbishop ! 

Does  he  breathe?     No? 

De  Tracy.     No,  Reginald,  he  is  dead. 

[Storm  bursts^ 

De  Morville.     Will  the  earth  gape  and 

swallow  us? 
De  Brito.  The  deed's  done  — 

Away ! 

[De  Brito,  De  Tracy,  Fitzurse,  rush 
out,  crying  '  King's  men  / '  De 
Morville  follows  slowly.  Flashes 
of  lightning  thro'  the  Cathedral. 
Rosamund  seen  kneeling  by  the 
body  of  Becket. 

1  A  tremendous  thunderstorm  actually 
broke  over  the  Cathedral  as  the  murderers 
were  leaving  it. 


THE   CUP. 

A    TRAGEDY. 


DRAMATIS  PERSONM. 


GALATIANS. 


Synorix,  an  ex-Tetrarch. 
Sinnatus,  a  Tetrarch. 
Attendant. 
Boy. 


Antonius,  a  Roman  General. 

PUBLIUS. 


ROMANS. 


ACT  I. 

SCENE  I.  — Distant  View  of  a  City 
of  Galatia. 

As  the  curtain  rises,  Priestesses  are  heard 
singing  in  the  Temple.  Boy  discovered 
on  a  pathway  among  Rocks,  picking 
grapes.  A  party  of  Roman  Soldiers, 
guarding  a  prisoner  in  chains,  come 
down  the  pathway  and  exeunt. 

Enter  Synorix  {looking  round') .     Sing- 
ing ceases. 

Synorix.     Pine,  beech  and  plane,  oak, 

walnut,  apricot, 
Vine,  cypress,  poplar,  myrtle,  bowering-in 
The  city  where  she  dwells.     She  past  me 

here 
Three  years  ago  when  I  was  flying  from 
My  tetrarchy  to  Rome.    I  almost  touch'd 

her  — 
A  maiden  slowly  moving  on  to  music 
Among  her  maidens  to  this  Temple  — 

O  Gods ! 
She  is  my  fate  —  else  wherefore  has  my 

fate 
Brought  me  again  to  her  own  city?  — 

married 
Since  —  married   Sinnatus,  the  Tetrarch 

here  — 
But    if   he    be    conspirator,    Rome   will 

chain, 
Or  slay  him.     I  may  trust  to  gain  her 

then 
When  I  shall  have  my  tetrarchy  restored 


Maid. 
Phcebe. 

Camma,  wife  of  Sinnatus,  afterwards 
Priestess  in  the  Temple  of  Artemis. 


Nobleman. 
Messenger. 


By  Rome,  our  mistress,  grateful   that  I 

show'd  her 
The  weakness  and  the  dissonance  of  our 

clans, 
And  how  to  crush  them  easily.    Wretched 

race  ! 
And  once  I  wish'd  to  scourge  them  to  the 

bones. 
But  in  this  narrow  breathing-time  of  life 
Is  vengeance  for  its  own  sake  worth  the 

while, 
If  once  our  ends  are  gain'd?   and  now 

this  cup  — 
I  never  felt  such  passion  for  a  woman. 
\_Brings  out  a  cup  and  scroll  from 

under  his  cloak. 
What  have  1  written  to  her? 

[Reading  the  scroll. 
'To  the  admired  Camma,  wife  of 
Sinnatus,  the  Tetrarch,  one  who  years 
ago,  himself  an  adorer  of  our  great  god- 
dess, Artemis,  beheld  you  afar  off  worship- 
ping in  her  Temple,  and  loved  you  for  it, 
sends  you  this  cup  rescued  from  the  burn- 
ing of  one  of  her  shrines  in  a  city  thro' 
which  he  past  with  the  Roman  army :  it 
is  the  cup  we  use  in  our  marriages. 
Receive  it  from  one  who  cannot  at  pres- 
ent write  himself  other  than 

'A  Galatian   serving  by  force  in 
the  Roman  Legion.' 

[  Turns  and  looks  up  to  Boy. 
Boy,    dost    thou    know    the    house    of 

Sinnatus? 
Boy.     These  grapes  are  for  the  house 

of  Sinnatus  — 


ACT   I,    SCENE   I. 


THE    CUP. 


731 


Close  to  the  Temple. 

Synorix.  Yonder? 

Boy.  Yes. 

Synorix  {aside).  That  I 

With  all  my  range  of  women  should  yet 

shun 
To  meet  her  face  to  face  at  once !     My 
boy, 

[Boy  comes  down  rocks  to  him. 
Take  thou  this  letter   and   this   cup  to 

Camma, 
The  wife  of  Sinnatus. 

Boy.  Going  or  gone  to-day 

To  hunt  with  Sinnatus. 

Synorix.  That  matters  not. 

Take  thou  this  cup  and  leave  it  at  her 
doors. 
[  Gives  the  cup  and  scroll  to  the  Boy. 
Boy.     I  will,  my  lord. 

[  Takes  his  basket  of  grapes  and  exit. 

Enter  Antonius. 

Antonius  {meeting  the  Boy  as  he  goes 

out) .     Why,  whither  runs  the  boy  ? 

Is  that  the  cup  you  rescued  from  the  fire? 

Synorix.     I   send    it   to   the   wife   of 

Sinnatus, 
One  half  besotted  in  religious  rites. 
You   come   here   with   your   soldiers   to 

enforce 
The  long-withholden  tribute  :  you  suspect 
This. Sinnatus  of  playing  patriotism, 
Which   in  your   sense   is  treason.     You 

have  yet 
No  proof  against  him  :  now  this  pious  cup 
Is   passport   to   their   house,    and    open 

arms 
To  him  who  gave  it;   and  once  there  I 

warrant 
I  worm  thro'  all  their  windings. 

Antonius.  If  you  prosper, 

Our  Senate,  wearied  of  their  tetrarchies, 
Their    quarrels    with    themselves,    their 

spites  at  Rome, 
Is  like  enough  to  cancel  them,  and  throne 
One  king  above  them  all,  who  shall  be 

true 
To  the  Roman :  and  from  what  I  heard 

in  Rome, 
This  tributary  crown  may  fall  to  you. 
Synorix.     The  king,  the  crown  !  their 

talk  in  Rome?  is  it  so? 

[Antonius  nods. 


Well  —  I  shall  serve  Galatia  taking  it, 
And  save  her  from  herself,   and  be  to 

Rome 
More  faithful  than  a  Roman. 

[  Turns  and  sees  Camma  coming. 
Stand  aside, 
Stand  aside;   here  she  comes! 

[  Watching    Camma    as   she   enters 

with  her  Maid. 

Camma  {to  Maid) .    Where  is  he,  girl  ? 

Maid.  You  know  the  waterfall 

That  in  the  summer  keeps  the  mountain 

side, 
But  after  rain  o'erleaps  a  jutting'  rock 
And  shoots  three  hundred  feet. 

Camma.  The  stag  is  there? 

Maid.     Seen    in   the    thicket    at   the 
bottom  there 
But  yester-even. 

Camma.         Good  then,  we  will  climb 
The  mountain   opposite  and  watch  the 
chase. 
[  They  descend  the  rocks  and  exeunt. 
Synorix  {watching her) .  {Aside.)  The 
bust  of  Juno  and  the  brows  and 
eyes 
Of  Venus;   face  and  form  unmatchable  ! 
Antonius.     Why  do  you  look  at  her 

so  lingeringly? 
Synorix.     To  see  if  years  have  changed 

her. 
Antonius  {sarcastically) .    Love  her,  do 

you? 
Synorix.     I  envied  Sinnatus  when  he 

married  her. 
Antonius.     She  knows  it?     Ha! 
Synorix.     She — no,  nor  ev'n  my  face. 
Antonius.     Nor  Sinnatus  either? 
Synorix.  No,  nor  Sinnatus. 

Antonius.       Hot-blooded !       I     have 
heard  them  say  in  Rome, 
That  your  own  people  cast  you. from  their 

bounds, 
For  some  unprincely  violence  to  a  woman, 
As  Rome  did  Tarquin. 

Synorix.  Well,  if  this  were  so, 

I  here  return  like  Tarquin  —  for  a  crown. 

Antonius.     And    may    be    foil'd    like 

Tarquin,  if  you  follow 

Not  the  dry  light  of  Rome's  straight-going 

policy, 
But  the  fool-fire  of  love  or  lust,  which 
well 


732 


THE    CUP. 


ACT  X 


May  make  you  lose  yourself,  may  even 

drown  you 
In  the  good  regard  of  Rome. 

Synorix.  Tut  —  fear  me  not; 

I  ever  had  my  victories  among  women. 
I  am  most  true  to  Rome. 

Antonius  {aside).  I  hate  the  man! 

What  filthy  tools  our  Senate  works  with ! 

Still 
I  must  obey  them.     {Aloud.)      Fare  you 

well.  [Going. 

Synorix.     Farewell ! 
Antonius  {stopping).     A  moment !     If 

you  track  this  Sinnatus 
In    any   treason,    I    give    you    here    an 

order  [Produces  a  paper. 

To    seize   upon    him.     Let   me    sign  it. 

{Signs  it.)     There 
'  Antonius  leader  of  the  Roman  Legion.' 
[Hands  the  paper  to  Synorix.      Goes 

up  pathway  and  exit. 
Synorix.     Woman  again !  —  but  I  am 

wiser  now. 
No  rushing  on  the  game  —  the  net,  —  the 

net. 

[Shouts  of  '  Sinnatus !   Sinnatus ! ' 

Then  horn. 

Looking  off  stage.~]     He  comes,  a  rough, 

bluff,  simple-looking  fellow. 
If    we    may  judge    the    kernel   by   the 

husk, 
Not  one  to  keep  a  woman's  fealty  when 
Assailed  by  Craft   and   Love.     I'll  join 

with  him: 
I  may  reap  something  from  him  —  come 

upon  her 
Again,  perhaps,  to-day — her.     Who  are 

with  him? 
I  see  no  face  that  knows  me.     Shall  I 

risk  it? 
I  am  a  Roman  now,  they  dare  not  touch 

me. 
I  will. 

Enter  Sinnatus,  Huntsmen  and  hounds. 

Fair  Sir,  a  happy  day  to  you ! 
You  reck  but  little  of  the  Roman  here, 
While  you  can  take  your  pastime  in  the 
woods. 
Sinnatus.     Ay,  ay,  why  not?     What 

would  you  with  me,  man? 
Synorix.     I  am  a  life-long  lover  of  the 
chase, 


And  tho'  a  stranger  fain  would  be  allow'd 
To  join  the  hunt. 

Sinnatus.     Your  name? 
Synorix.  Strato,  my  name. 

Sinnatus.     No  Roman  name? 
Synorix.     A    Greek,    my    lord;     you 
know 
That  we  Galatians   are  both  Greek  and 
Gaul. 

[Shouts  arid  horns  in  the  distance. 
Sinnatus.  Hillo,  the  stag !  ( To 
Synorix.)  What,  you  are  all  un- 
furnish'd  ? 
Give  him  a  bow  and  arrows  —  follow  — 
follow. 

[Exit,  followed  by  Huntsmen. 
Synorix.     Slowly   but    surely  —  till    I 
see  my  way. 
It  is  the  one  step  in  the  dark  beyond 
Our  expectation,  that  amazes  us. 

[Distant  shouts  and  horns. 
Hillo!     Hillo! 

[Exit  Synorix.   Shouts  and  horns. 

SCENE   II.  — A  Room  in  the 
Tetrarch's  House. 

Frescoed  figures  on  the  walls.  Evening. 
Moonlight  outside.  A  couch  with 
cushions  on  it.  A  small  table  with  a 
flagon  of  wine,  cups,  plate  of  grapes, 
etc.,  also  the  cup  of  Scene  I.  A  chair 
with  drapery  on  it. 

Camma  enters,  and  opens  curtains  of 
window. 

Camma.     No  Sinnatus  yet  —  and  there 
the  rising  moon. 
[  Takes  up  a  cithern  and  sits  on  couch. 
Plays  and  sings. 
Moon  on  the  field  and  the  foam, 

Moon  on  the  waste  and  the  wold, 
Moon  bring  him  home,  bring  him  home 

Safe  from  the  dark  and  the  cold, 
Home,  sweet  moon,  bring  him  home, 
Home  with  the  flock  to  the  fold  — 

Safe  from  the  wolf 

{Listening.)    Is  he  coming?  I  thought 
I  heard 
A  footstep.     No,  not  yet.     They  say  that 

Rome 
Sprang    from   a  wolf.     I    fear   my  dear 
lord  mixt 


SCENE   II. 


THE    CUP. 


733 


With  some  conspiracy  against  the  wolf. 
This  mountain  shepherd  never  dream'd 

of  Rome. 
(Sings.)       Safe   from   the   wolf   to   the 

fold 

And  that  great  break  of  precipice  that 

runs 
Thro'  all  the  wood,  where  twenty  years 

ago 
Huntsman,  and  hound,  and  deer  were  all 

neck-broken ! 
Nay,  here  he  comes. 

Enter  Sinnatus  followed  by  Synorix. 

Sinnatus  (angrily).     I  tell  thee,  my 
good  fellow, 
My  arrow  struck  the  stag. 

Synorix.  But  was  it  so? 

Nay,  you  were  further  off:    besides  the 

wind 
Went  with  my  arrow. 

Sinnatus.     I  am  sure  /struck  him. 
Synorix.     And  I  am  just  as  sure,  my 
lord,  /  struck  him. 
(Aside.)     And  I  may  strike  your  game 
when  you  are  gone. 
Camma.     Come,    come,  we   will   not 
quarrel  about  the  stag. 
I  have  had  a  weary  day  in  watching  you. 
Yours  must   have   been   a  wearier.     Sit 

and  eat, 
And  take  a  hunter's  vengeance  on  the 
meats. 
Sinnatus.     No,  no  —  we   have    eaten 

—  we  are  heated.     Wine! 
Camma.     Who  is  our  guest? 
Sinnatus.  Strato  he  calls  himself. 

[Camma  offers  zvine  to  Synorix,  while 
Sinnatus  helps  himself. 
Sinnatus.     I  pledge  you,  Strato. 

[Drinks. 
Synorix.  And  I  you,  my  lord. 

[Drinks. 
Sinnatus  (seeing  the  cup  sent  to  Cam- 
ma).    What's  here? 
Camma.     A  strange  gift  sent   to  me 
to-day. 
A   sacred    cup    saved    from    a    blazing 

shrine 
Of  our  great  Goddess,  in  some  city  where 
Antonius    past.      I    had    believed    that 

Rome 
Made  war  upon  the  peoples  not  the  Gods. 


Synorix.       Most    like    the    city   rose 
against  Antonius, 
Whereon   he   fired   it,   and    the    sacred 

shrine 
By  chance  was  burnt  along  with  it. 

Sinnatus.  Had  you  then 

No  message  with  the  cup? 

Camma.  Why,  yes,  see  here. 

[  Gives  him  the  scroll. 

Sinnatus  (reads).     'To  the  admired 

Camma,  —  beheld    you   afar   off —  loved 

you  —  sends  you  this  cup  —  the  cup  we 

use  in  our  marriages  —  cannot  at  present 

write  himself  other  than 

'A  Galatian  serving  by  force  in  • 

the  Roman  Legion.' 

Serving  by  force  !    Were  there  no  boughs 

to  hang  on, 
Rivers  to  drown   in?     Serve   by  force? 

No  force 
Could  make  me  serve  by  force. 

Synorix.  How  then,  my  lord? 

The    Roman   is   encampt   without   your 

city  — 
The  force  of  Rome  a  thousand-fold  our 

own. 
Must  all  Galatia  hang  or  drown  herself? 
And  you  a  Prince  and  Tetrarch  in  this 

province 

Sinnatus.     Province ! 

Synorix.  Well,  well,  they 

call  it  so  in  Rome. 
Sinnatus  (angrily) .     Province  ! 
Synorix.     A   noble    anger!    but   An- 
tonius 
To-morrow  will  demand  your  tribute  — 

you, 
Can  you  make  war  ?    Have  you  alliances  ? 
Bithynia,  Pontus,  Paphlagonia? 
We  have  had  our   leagues   of  old  with 

Eastern  kings. 
There   is   my  hand  —  if  such   a   league 

there  be. 
What  will  you  do? 

Sinnatus.  Not  set  myself  abroach 

And  run  my  mind  out  to  a  random  guest 
Who  join'd  me  in  the  hunt.     You  saw 

my  hounds 
True  to  the  scent;    and  we   have    two- 

legg'd  dogs 
Among  us  who  can  smell  a  true  occasion, 
And  when  to  bark  and  how. 

Synorix.         My  good  Lord  Sinnatus 


734 


THE    CUP. 


ACT   I. 


I  once  was  at  the  hunting  of  a  lion. 
Roused  by  the  clamour  of  the  chase  he 

woke, 
Came   to   the    front  of  the  wood  —  his 

monarch  mane 
Bristled  about  his  quick  ears  —  he  stood 

there 
Staring   upon   the   hunter.     A  score  of 

dogs 
Gnaw'd  at  his  ankles :  at  the  last  he  felt 
The  trouble  of  his  feet,  put   forth   one 

paw, 
Slew   four,    and    knew   it    not,   and    so 

remain'd 
Staring  upon  the  hunter :  and  this  Rome 
Will  crush  you  if  you  wrestle  with  her; 

then 
Save  for  some  slight  report  in  her  own 

Senate 
Scarce  know  what  she  has  done. 

(Aside.)  Would  I  could  move  him, 
Provoke  him  any  way !     (Aloud.)     The 

Lady  Camma, 
Wise  I  am  sure  as  she  is  beautiful, 
Will  close  with  me  that   to  submit   at 

once 
Is  better  than  a  wholly-hopeless  war, 
Our  gallant  citizens  murder'd  all  in  vain, 
Son,  husband,  brother  gash'd  to  death  in 

vain, 
And  the  small  state  more  cruelly  trampled 

on 
Than  had  she  never  moved. 

Camma.  Sir,  I  had  once 

A  boy  who  died  a  babe;    but  were  he 

living 
And  grown  to  man  and  Sinnatus  will'd 

it,  I 
Would  set  him  in  the  front  rank  of  the 

fight 
With  scarce  a  pang.     (Rises.)     Sir,  if  a 

state  submit 
At  once,  she  may  be  blotted  out  at  once 
And  swallow'd  in  the  conqueror's  chron- 
icle. 
Whereas  in  wars  of  freedom  and  defence 
The  glory  and  grief  of  battle  won  or  lost 
Solders  a  race  together  —  yea  —  tho'  they 

fail, 
The  names  of  those  who  fought  and  fell 

are  like 
A  bank'd-up  fire  that  flashes  out  again 
From  century  to  century,  and  at  last 


May  lead  them  on  to  victory  —  I  hope 

so  — 
Like  phantoms  of  the  Gods. 
Sinnatus.     Well  spoken,  wife. 
Synorix  (bowing).     Madam,  so  well  I 

yield. 
Sinnatus.     I  should  not  wonder 
If  Synorix,  who  has  dwelt  three  years  in 

Rome 
And  wrought  his  worst  against  his  native 

land, 
Returns  with  this  Antonius. 

Synorix.  What  is  Synorix? 

Sinnatus.     Galatian,  and  pot   know? 
This  Synorix 
Was  Tetrarch  here,  and  tyrant  also  —  did 
Dishonour  to  our  wives. 

Synorix.  Perhaps  you  judge  him 

With  feeble  charity:    being  as  you  tell 

me 
Tetrarch,  there  might   be  willing  wives 

enough 
To  feel  dishonour,  honour.  . 

Camma.  Do  not  say  so. 

I  know  of  no  such  wives  in  all  Galatia. 
There  may  be  courtesans   for   aught    I 

know 
Whose  life  is  one  dishonour. 

Enter  Attendant.   ■ 

Attendant  (aside) .     My  lord,  the  men ! 
Sinnatus    (aside).     Our    anti-Roman 

faction? 
Attendant  (aside).     Ay,  my  lord. 
Synorix   (overhearing).     (Aside.)     I 
have  enough  —  their  anti-Roman 
faction. 
Sinnatus  (aloud).     Some  friends   of 
mine  would  speak  with  me  with- 
out. 
You,  Strato,  make  good  cheer  till  I  re- 
turn. \_Exit. 
Synorix.     I   have    much   to   say,   no 
time  to  say  it  in. 
First,  lady,  know  myself  am  that  Galatian 
Who  sent  the  cup. 

Camma.     I  thank  you  from  my  heart. 
Synorix.     Then     that    I    serve   with 
Rome  to  serve  Galatia. 
That  is   my  secret:  keep  it,  or  you  sell 

me 
To  torment  and  to  death.    [  Coming  closer. 
For  your  ear  only  — 


THE   CUP. 


735 


I  love  you — for  your  love  to  the  great 

Goddess. 
The  Romans  sent  me  here  a  spy  upon 

you, 
To  draw  you  and  your  husband  to  your 

doom. 
I'd  sooner  die  than  do  it. 
[  Takes  out  paper  given  him  by  Antonius. 
This  paper  sign'd 
Antonius  —  will  you    take   it,   read    it? 
there ! 
Camma.     (Reads.}    '  You  are  to  seize 

on  Sinnatus,  —  if ' 

Synorix.    (Snatches paper.}  No  more. 
What   follows  is  for  no  wife's  eyes.     O 

Camma, 
Rome  has  a  glimpse  of  this  conspiracy; 
Rome  never  yet  hath  spar'd  conspirator. 
Horrible !     flaying,     scourging,   crucify- 
ing  

Camma.     I  am  tender  enough.     Why 

do  you  practise  on  me? 
Synorix.     Why  should  I  practise  on 
you?     How  you  wrong  me  ! 
I  am  sure  of  being  every  way  malign' d. 
And   if  you  should  betray  me   to   your 

husband 

Camma.     Will  you  betray  him  by  this 

order? 
Synorix.         See, 
I  tear  it  all  to  pieces,  never  dream'd 
Of  acting  on  it.  [  Tears  the  paper. 

Camma.     I  owe  you  thanks  for  ever. 
Synorix.     Hath    Sinnatus  never  told 

you  of  this  plot? 
Camma.     What  plot? 
Synorix.  A  child's  sand- 

.castle  on  the  beach 
For  the  next  wave  —  all  seen,  —  all  calcu- 
lated, 
All   known   by  Rome.     No   chance  for 
Sinnatus. 
Camma.     Why  said  you  not  as  much 

to  my  brave  Sinnatus? 
Synorix.     Brave  —  ay  —  too  brave,  too 
over-confident, 
Too  like  to  ruin  himself,  and  you,  and 

me ! 
Who  else,  with  this  black  thunderbolt  of 

Rome 
Above  him,  would  have  chased  .the  stag 

to-day 
In  the  full  face  of  all  the  Roman  camp? 


A  miracle  that  they  let  him  home  again, 
Not  caught,  maim'd,  blinded  him. 

[Camma  shudders. 

(Aside.}  I  have  made  her  tremble. 
(Aloud.}     I  know  they  mean  to  torture 

him  to  death. 
I  dare  not  tell  him  how  I  came  to  know 

it; 

I  durst  not  trust  him  with  —  my  serving 

Rome 
To  serve  Galatia :  you  heard  him  on  the 

letter. 
Not  say  as  much?     I  all   but  said   as 

much. 
I  am  sure   I  told  him  that  his  plot  was 

folly. 
I  say  it  to  you —  you  are  wiser  —  Rome 

knows  all, 
But  you  know  not  the  savagery  of  Rome. 
Camma.     O  —  have   you  power  with 

Rome  ?  use  it  for  him  ! 
Synorix.     Alas !     I     have     no     such 
power  with  Rome.     All  that 
Lies  with  Antonius. 

[As  if  struck  by  a  sudden  thought. 
Comes  over  to  her. 

He  will  pass  to-morrow 
In   the   gray   dawn   before  the  Temple 

doors. 
You  have  beauty,  —  O  great   beauty, — 

and  Antonius, 
So  gracious  toward  women,  never  yet 
Flung  back  a  woman's  prayer.     Plead  to 

him, 
I  am  sure  you  will  prevail. 

Camma.  Still  —  I  should  tell 

My  husband. 

Synorix.     Will  he  let   you  plead  for 
him 
To  a  Roman? 

Camma.     I  fear  not. 
Synorix.  Then  do  not  tell  him. 

Or  tell  him,  if  you  will,  when  you  return, 
When  you  have  charm'd  our  general  into 

mercy, 
And  all  is  safe  again.     O  dearest  lady, 
[Murmurs  of  '  Synorix !  Synorix !  • 
heard  outside. 
Think,  —  torture,  —  death,  —  and  come. 
Camma.  I  will,  I  will. 

And  I  will  not  betray  you. 

Synorix  (aside}.  (As  Sinnatus  enters.} 
Stand  apart. 


736 


THE   CUP. 


ACT  I 


Enter  Sinnatus  and  Attendant. 

Sinnatus.     Thou     art    that   Synorix ! 

One  whom  thou  hast  wrong'd 

Without  there,  knew  thee  with  Antonius. 

They  howl  for  thee,  to  rend  thee  head 

from  limb. 

Synorix.     I   am   much   malign'd.      I 

thought  to  serve  Galatia. 
Sinnatus.     Serve  thyself  first,  villain  ! 
They  shall  not  harm 
My   guest   within    my    house.      There ! 
{points  to  door)  there  !  this  door 
Opens  upon  the  forest !     Out,  begone  ! 
Henceforth  I  am  thy  mortal  enemy. 
Synorix.     However     I     thank     thee 
{draws  his   sword) ;     thou    hast 
saved  my  life.  [Exit. 

Sinnatus.     (To   Attendant.)     Return 
and  tell  them  Synorix  is  not  here. 
[Exit  Attendant. 
What  did  that  villain  Synorix  say  to  you  ? 
Camma.     Is  he  —  that  —  Synorix  ? 
Sinnatus.         Wherefore   should    you 
doubt  it? 
One  of  the  men  there  knew  him. 

Camma.  Only  one, 

And  he  perhaps  mistaken  in  the  face. 
Sinnatus.     Come,    come,     could     he 

deny  it?     What  did  he  say? 
Camma.     What  should  he  say? 
Sinnatus.     What   should  he   say,  my 
wife ! 
He  should  say  this,  that  being  Tetrarch 

once 
His  own  true  people  cast  him  from  their 

doors 
Like  a  base  coin. 

Camma,         Not  kindly  to  them? 
Sinnatus.  Kindly? 

O   the   most  kindly   Prince    in  all  the 

world ! 
Would  clap  his  honest  citizens  on  the 

back, 
Bandy  their  own  rude  jests  with   them, 

be  curious 
About  the  welfare  of  their  babes,  their 

wives, 
O  ay  —  their  wives  —  their  wives.     What 

should  he  say? 
He  should  say  nothing  to  my  wife  if  I 
Were  by  to  throttle  him!     He  steep'd 
himself 


In  all  the  lust  of  Rome.     How  should 
you  guess 

What  maner  of  beast  it  is? 

Camma.  Yet  he  seem'd  kindly, 

And  said   he  loathed  the  cruelties  that 
Rome 

Wrought  on  her  vassals. 

Sinnatus.  Did  he,  honest  man? 

Camma.     And  you,  that  seldom  brook 
the  stranger  here, 

Have  let  him  hunt  the  stag  with  you  to- 
day. 
Sinnatus.     I  warrant  you  now,  he  said 

he  struck  the  stag. 
Camma.     Why  no,  he  never  touch'd 

upon  the  stag. 
Sinnatus.      Why  so  I  said,  my  arrow. 
Well,  to  sleep. 

[  Goes  to  close  door. 
Camma.     Nay,  close  not  yet  the  door 
upon  a  night 

That  looks  half  day. 

Sinnatus.     True;   and  my  friends  may 
spy  him 

And  slay  him  as  he  runs. 

Camma.  He  is  gone  already. 

Oh  look, — yon  grove   upon   the  moun- 
tain, —  white 

In  the  sweet    moon  as  with  a  lovelier 
snow! 

But  what  a  blotch  of  blackness  under- 
neath ! 

Sinnatus,  you  remember  —  yea,  you  must, 

That  there    three  years   ago  —  the  vast 
vine-bowers 

Ran  to   the   summit   of  the  trees,   and 
dropt 

Their     streamers    earthward,    which    a 
breeze  of  May 

Took  ever  and  anon,  and  open'd  out 

The  purple   zone   of  hill   and    heaven; 
there 

You  told  your  love;   and  like  the  sway- 
ing vines  — 

Yea,  —  with  our  eyes,  —  our  hearts,  our 
prophet  hopes 

Let  in  the  happy  distance,  and  that  all 

But    cloudless   heaven   which   we   have 
found  together 

In  our  three  married  years !     You  kiss'd 
me  there 

For   the  first  time.     Sinnatus,   kiss  me 
now. 


SCENE   III. 


THE   CUP. 


737 


Sinnatus.      First  kiss.       {Kisses  her.} 
There  then.     You  talk  almost  as 
if  it 
Might  be  the  last. 

Camma.  Will  you  not  eat  a  little? 

Sinnatus.     No,  no,  we  found  a  goat- 
herd's hut  and  shared 
His   fruits   and  milk.     Liar !     You   will 

believe 
Now  that  he  never  struck  the  stag  —  a 

brave  one 
Which  you  shall  see  to-morrow. 

Camma.  I  rise  to-morrow 

In  the  gray  dawn,  and  take  this  holy  cup 
To  lodge  it  in  the  shrine  of  Artemis. 
Sinnatus.     Good ! 

Camma.  If  I  be  not  back 

in  half  an  hour, 
Come  after  me. 

Sinnatus.     What!    is  there  danger? 
Camma.  Nay, 

None  that  I  know :  'tis  but  a  step  from 

here 
To  the  Temple. 

Sinnatus.       All   my  brain   is   full   of 

sleep. 

Wake  me  before  you  go,  I'll  after  you  — 

After  me  now  !  [  Closes  door  and  exit. 

Camma   {drawing   curtains).      Your 

shadow.     Synorix  — 

His  face  was  not  malignant,  and  he  said 

That   men   malign'd   him.     Shall  I  go? 

Shall  I  go? 
Death,  torture  — 
1  He   never  yet   flung  back    a   woman's 

prayer  '  — 
I  go,  but  I  will  have   my   dagger   with 
me.  [Exit. 


SCENE  III.— Same  as  Scene  I. 
Dawn. 

Music  and  Singing  in  the  Temple. 

Enter  Synorix   watchfully,   after    him 
Publius  and  Soldiers. 

Synorix.     Publius ! 
Publius.  Here ! 

Synorix.  Do  you  re- 

member what  I  told  you? 

Publius.       When     you     cry    '  Rome, 
Rome,'  to  seize 


On   whomsoever   may    be    talking  with 

you, 
Or    man,    or   woman,   as    traitors    unto 
Rome. 
Synorix.     Right.     Back  again.    How 
many  of  you  are  there? 

Publius.     Some  half  a  score. 

[Exeunt  Soldiers  and  Publius. 
Synorix.  I  have  my  guard 

about  me. 
I  need  not  fear  the  crowd  that  hunted 

me 
Across  the  woods,  last  night.     I  hardly 

gain'd 
The  camp  at  midnight.     Will  she  come 

to  me 
Now  that  she  knows  me  Synorix?     Not 

if  Sinnatus 
Has  told  her  all   the    truth    about   me. 

Well, 
I  cannot  help  the  mould  that  I  was  cast 

in. 
I  fling  all  that  upon  my  fate,  my  star. 
I  know  that  I  am  genial,  I  would  be 
Happy,  and  make  all  others  happy  so 
They  did  not  thwart  me.     Nay,  she  will 

not  come. 
Yet  if  she  be  a  true  and  loving  wife 
She  may,  perchance,  to  save  this  husband. 

Ay! 
See,  see,  my  white  bird  stepping  toward 

the  snare. 
Why  now  I  count  it  all  but  miracle, 
That  this   brave    heart  of  mine   should 

shake  me  so, 
As  helplessly  as  some  unbearded  boy's 
When   first   he    meets   his  maiden  in  a 
bower. 

[Enter  Camma  {with  cup). 
The   lark  first  takes  the  sunlight  on  his 

wing, 
But   you,    twin   sister    of    the    morning 

star, 
Forelead  the  sun. 

Camma.  Where  is  Antonius? 

Synorix.     Not  here  as  yet.     You  are 
too  early  for  him. 

[She  crosses  tozuards  Temple. 
Synorix.  Nay,  whither  go  you  now? 
Camma.  To  lodge  this  cup 

Within  the  holy  shrine  of  Artemis, 
And  so  return. 

Synorix.  To  find  Antonius  here. 


3» 


738 


THE    CUP. 


ACT  X 


[She  goes  into  the  Temple,  he  looks' 

after  her. 
The    loveliest   life   that  ever    drew   the 

.        light 
From  heaven   to   brood    upon  her,  and 

enrich 
Earth  with  her  shadow !     I  trust  she  will 

return. 
These    Romans     dare    not   violate    the 

Temple. 
No,  I  must  lure  my  game  into  the  camp. 
A    woman    I    could    live    and    die    for. 

What! 
Die  for  a  woman,  what  new  faith  is  this? 
I  am  not  mad,  not  sick,  not  old  enough 
To  dote  on   one   alone.     Yes,   mad  for 

her, 
Camma  the  stately,    Camma   the   great- 
hearted, 
So  mad,  I    fear  some  strange  and  evil 

chance 
Coming   upon   me,  for   by   the    Gods  I 

seem 
Strange  to  myself. 

Re-enter  Camma. 

Camma.  Where  is  Antonius? 

Synorix.    Where?      As  I  said  before, 

you  are  still  too  early. 
Camma.     Too  early  to  be  here  alone 
with  thee; 
For  whether  men  malign  thy  name,  or 

no, 
It  bears  an  evil  savour  among  women. 
Where  is  Antonius ?    {Loud.) 

Synorix.  Madam,  as  you  know 

The  camp  is  half  a  league  without  the 

city; 
If  you  will  walk  with  me  we  needs  must 

meet 
Antonius  coming,  or  at  least  shall  find 

him 
There  in  the  camp. 

Camma.     No,  not  one  step  with  thee. 
Where  is  Antonius?   {Louder.) 

Synorix     {advancing    towards  her). 
Then  for  your  own  sake, 
Lady,  I  say  it  with  all  gentleness, 
And     for    the    sake   of    Sinnatus   your 

husband, 
I  must  compel  you. 

Camma  {drawing her  dagger).    Stay! 
—  too  near  is  death. 


Synorix  {disarming  her).     Is  it  not 
easy  to  disarm  a  woman? 

Enter  Sinnatus  {seizes  him  from  behind, 
by  the  throat). 

Synorix  {throttled  and  scarce  audible). 

Rome !     Rome ! 
Sinnatus.  Adulterous  dog ! 

Synorix  {stabbing  him  with  Camma's 

dagger) .    What !  will  you  have  it  ? 
[Camma  utters  a  cry  and 
runs  to  Sinnatus. 
Sinnatus  {falls  backward).     I   have 

it  in  my  heart  —  to  the  Temple  — 

fly- 
For  my  sake  —  or  they  seize  on   thee. 

Remember ! 
Away  —  farewell !  [Dies. 

Camma  {runs  up   the  steps  into   the 

Temple,  looking  back) .    Farewell ! 
Synorix    {seeing  her  escape).       The 

women  of  the  Temple  drag  her  in. 
Publius !     Publius !     No, 
Antonius  would  not  suffer  me  to  break 
Into  the  sanctuary.     She  hath  escaped. 

[Looking  down  at  Sinnatus. 
'  Adulterous  dog ! '  that  red-faced  rage  at 

me ! 
Then  with  one  quick  short  stab  —  eternal 

peace. 
So  end  all  passions.     Then  what  use  in 

passions  ? 
To  warm  the  cold  bounds  of  our  dying  life 
And,  lest  we  freeze  in  mortal  apathy, 
Employ  us,  heat  us,  quicken  us,  help  us, 

keep  us 
From  seeing  all  too  near  that  urn,  those 

ashes 
Which   all  must  be.     WTell   used,   they 

serve  us  well. 
I  heard  a  saying  in  Egypt,  that  ambition 
Is  like  the  sea  wave,  which  the  more  you 

drink, 
The  more  you  thirst  —  yea  —  drink  too 

much,  as  men 
Have  done  on  rafts  of  wreck — it  drives 

you  mad. 
I  will  be  no  such  wreck,  am  no  such 

gamester 
As,  having  won  the  stake,  would  dare 

the  chance 
Of  double,  or  losing  all.    The  Roman 

Senate, 


THE    CUP. 


739 


For    I    have    always    play'd    into    their 

hands, 
Means  me  the  crown.     And  Camma  for 

my  bride  — 
The  people  love  her  —  if  I  win  her  love, 
They  too  will  cleave  to  me,  as  one  with 

her. 
There  then  I  rest,  Rome's  tributary  king. 
[Looking  down  on  Sinnatus. 
Why  did  I  strike  him?  —  having  proof 

enough 
Against  the  man,  I  surely  should  have 

left 
That  stroke  to  Rome.     He  saved  my  life 

too.     Did  he? 
It  seem'd  so.     I  have  play'd  the  sudden 

fool. 
And  that  sets  her  against  me  —  for  the 

moment. 
Camma  —  well,  well,  I  never  found  the 

woman 
I    could   not    force    or   wheedle    to   my 

will. 
She   will   be   glad   at   last   to  wear  my 

crown. 
And  I  will  make  Galatia  prosperous  too, 
And  we  will  chirp  among  our  vines,  and 

smile 
At  bygone  things  till  that  {pointing  to 

Sinnatus)  eternal  peace. 
Rome !     Rome ! 

[Enter  Publius  and  Soldiers. 
Twice  I  cried  '  Rome.'    Why  came  ye  not 

before  ? 
Publius.     Why  come  we  now?   Whom 

shall  we  seize  upon? 
Synorix  {pointing  to  the  body  of  Sin- 
natus).    The  body  of  that  dead 

traitor  Sinnatus. 
Bear  him  away. 

Music  and  Singing  in  Temple. 

ACT  II. 

SCENE.  —  Interior    of   the   Temple 
of  Artemis. 

Small  gold  gates  on  platform  in  front  of 
the  veil  before  the  colossal  statue  of  the 
Goddess,  and  in  the  centre  of  the  Tem- 
ple a  tripod  altar,  on  which  is  a  lighted 
lamp.  Lamps  (lighted}  suspended  be- 
tween  each   pillar.       Tripods,   vases, 


garlands  of  flowers,  etc.,  about  stage. 
Altar  at  back  close  to  Goddess,  with 
two  cups.  Solemn  music.  Priestesses 
decorating  the  Temple. 

(The  Chorus  of  Priestesses  sing  as 
they  enter.} 

Artemis,  Artemis,  hear   us,    O   Mother, 

hear  us,  and  bless  us  ! 
Artemis,  thou  that  art  life  to  the  wind,  to 

the  wave,  to  the  glebe,  to  the  fire  ! 
Hear  thy  people  who  praise  thee !     O 

help  us  from  all  that  oppress  us ! 
Hear   thy  priestesses   hymn   thy  glory ! 

O  yield  them  all  their  desire ! 
Priestess.     Phoebe,  that  man  from  Syn- 
orix, who  has  been 
So  oft  to  see  the  Priestess,  waits  once  more 
Before  the  Temple. 

Phoebe.  We  will  let  her  know. 

[Signs  to  one  of  the  Priestesses,  who 

goes  out. 
Since  Camma  fled  from  Synorix  to  our 

Temple, 
And  for  her  beauty,  stateliness,  and  power 
Was  chosen  Priestess  here,  have  you  not 

mark'd 
Her  eyes  were  ever  on  the  marble  floor? 
To-day  they  are  fixt  and  bright  —  they 

look  straight  out. 
Hath  she  made  up  her  mind  to  marry 

him? 
Priestess.     To  marry  him  who  stabb'd 

her  Sinnatus ! 
You  will  not  easily  make  me  credit  that. 
Phoebe.     Ask  her. 

Enter  Camma  as  Priestess  (in  front  of 
the  curtains). 

Priestess.    You  will  not  marry  Synorix? 

Camma.     My  girl,  I  am  the  bride  of 
Death,  and  only 
Marry  the  dead. 

Priestess.        Not  Synorix  then? 

Camma.  My  girl, 

At  times  this  oracle  of  great  Artemis 
Has  no  more  power  than  other  oracles 
To  speak  directly. 

Phczbe.  Will  you  speak  to  him, 

The  messenger  from  Synorix  who  waits 
Before  the  Temple? 

Car?ima.     Why  not?     Let  him  enter. 
[  Comes  forward  on  to  step  by  tripod 


74Q 


THE    CUP. 


ACT   IL 


Enter  a  Messenger. 

Messenger    {kneels).       Greeting    and 
health  from  Synorix !     More  than 
once 
You  have  refused  his  hand.     When  last 

I  saw  you, 
You  all  but  yielded.     He  entreats  you 

now 
For  your  last  answer.     When  he  struck 

at  Sinnatus  — 
As  I  have  many  a  time  declared  to  you  — 
He  knew  not  at  the  moment  who  had 

fasten'd 
About  his  throat  —  he  begs  you  to  for- 
get it 
As  scarce  his  act:  —  a  random  stroke: 

all  else 
Was  love  for  you:  he  prays  you  to  be- 
lieve him. 
Camma.     I  pray  him  to  believe  — that 

I  believe  him. 
Messenger.     Why  that  is  well.     You 

mean  to  marry  him? 
Camma.     I  mean  to  marry  him  ■ —  if 

that  be  well. 
Messenger.    This  very  day  the  Romans 
crown  him  king 
For  all  his  faithful  services  to  Rome. 
He  wills  you  then  this  day  to  marry  him, 
And  so  be  throned  together  in  the  sight 
Of  all  the  people,  that  the  world  may 

know 
You  twain  are  reconciled,  and  no  more 

feuds 
Disturb  our  peaceful  vassalage  to  Rome. 
Camma.     To-day?     Too   sudden.     I 
will  brood  upon  it. 
When  do  they  crown  him? 

Messenger.  Even  now. 

Camma.  And  where? 

Messenger.     Here  by  your  temple. 
Camma.  Come  once  more  to  me 

Before  the  crowning,  —  I  will  answer  you. 
[Exit  Messenger. 
Phoebe.     Great   Artemis!     O   Camma, 
can  it  be  well, 
Or  good,  or  wise,  that  you  should  clasp 

a  hand 
Red  with  the  sacred  blood  of  Sinnatus? 
Camma.     Good !    mine   own   dagger 
driven  by  Synorix  found 
All  good  in  the  true  heart  of  Sinnatus, 


And  quench'd  it  there  for  ever.     Wise  ! 
Life  yields  to  death  and  wisdom  bows  to 

Fate, 
Is  wisest,  doing  so.     Did  not  this  man 
Speak  well?     We  cannot  fight  imperial 

Rome, 
But  he  and  I  are  both  Galatian-born, 
And  tributary  sovereigns,  he  and  I 
Might   teach    this    Rome  —  from  know- 
ledge of  our  people  — 
Where  to  lay  on  her  tribute  —  heavily 

here 
And  lightly  there.     Might  I  not  live  for 

that, 
And  drown  all  poor  self-passion  in  the 

sense 
Of  public  good? 

Phabe.  I  am  sure  you  will  not 

marry  him. 
Camma.     Are   you  so  sure?     I  pray 

you  wait  and  see. 

[Shouts  {from  the  distance), 

1  Synorix !  Synorix !  • 

Camma.     Synorix,  Synorix !     So  they 

cried  Sinnatus 
Not  so  long  since  —  they  sicken  me.     The 

One 
Who  shifts  his  policy  suffers  something, 

must 
Accuse    himself,    excuse    himself;     the 

Many 
Will  feel  no  shame  to  give  themselves  the 

lie. 
Phoebe.     Most  like  it  was  the  Roman 

soldiers  shouted. 
Camma.     Their    shield-borne   patriot 

of  the  morning  star 
Hang'd  at  mid-day,  their  traitor  of  the 

dawn 
The  clamour'd  darling  of  their  afternoon  ! 
And  that  same  head  they  would  have 

play'd  at  ball  with 
And    kick'd    it    featureless  —  they    now 

would  crown. 

[Flourish  of  trumpets. 

Enter  a  Galatian  Nobleman  with  crown 
on  a  cushion. 

Noble  {kneels).     Greeting   and  health 
from  Synorix.     He  sends  you 
This  diadem  of  the  first  Galatian  Queen, 
That  you  may  feed  your  fancy  on  the 
glory  of  it, 


ACT  II. 


THE    CUP. 


741 


And  join  your  life  this  day  with  his,  and 

wear  It 
Beside   him    on    his   throne.     He   waits 

your  answer. 
Camma.     Tell  him  there  is  one  shadow 

among  the  shadows, 
One  ghost  of  all  the  ghosts  —  as  yet  so 

new, 
So  strange  among  them  —  such  an  alien 

there, 
So  much  of  husband  in  it  still  —  that  if 
The  shout  of  Synorix  and  Camma  sitting 
Upon   one   throne,   should   reach   it,    it 

would  rise 
He!  .  .  .  He,  with  that  red  star  between 

the  ribs, 
And  my  knife  there  —  and  blast  the  king 

and  me, 
And  blanch  the  crowd  with   horror.     I 

dare  not,  sir ! 
Throne  him  —  and  then  the  marriage  — 

ay  and  tell  him 
That  I  accept  the  diadem  of  Galatia  — 

[All  are  amazed. 
Yea,    that    ye    saw    me    crown    myself 

withal.  [Puts  on  the  crown. 

I  wait  him  his  crown'd  queen. 

Noble.  So  will  I  tell  him.     [Exit. 

Music.  Two  Priestesses  go  up  the  steps 
before  the  shrine,  draw  the  curtains  on 
either  side  {discovering  the  Goddess), 
then  open  the  gates  and  remain  on 
steps,  one  on  either  side,  and  kneel.  A 
Priestess  goes  off  and  returns  with  a 
veil  of  marriage,  then  assists  Phoebe  to 
veil  Camma.  At  the  same  time 
Priestesses  enter  and  stand  on  either 
side  of  the  Temple.  Camma  and  all 
the  Priestesses  kneel,  raise  their  hands 
to  the  Goddess,  and  bow  down. 

[Shouts,  *  Synorix  !    Synorix ! '     All  rise. 
Camma.     Fling  wide   the   doors  and 
let  the  new-made  children 
Of  our  imperial  mother  see  the  show. 

[Sunlight pours  through  the  doors. 
I  have  no  heart  to  do  it.      (  To  Phoebe.') 
Look  for  me ! 

[  Crouches.     Phoebe  looks  out. 
[Shouts,  *  Synorix !  Synorix ! ' 
Phoebe.     He  climbs  the  throne.     Hot 
blood,  ambition,  pride 


So  bloat  and  redden  his  face  —  O  would 

it  were 
His  third  last  apoplexy  !     O  bestial ! 
O  how  unlike  our  goodly  Sinnatus. 

Camma  {on  the  ground).     You  wrong 
him  surely;   far  as  the  face  goes 
A  goodlier-looking  man  than  Sinnatus. 
Phoebe  {aside).     How  dare  she  say  it? 
I  could  hate  her  for  it 
But  that  she  is  distracted. 

[A  flourish  of  trumpets. 
Camma.  Is  he  crown'd? 

Phoebe.     Ay,  there  they  crown  him. 
[  Crowd   without   shout,   *  Synorix ! 
Synorix ! ' 
[A  Priestess   brings  a  box   of  spices  to 
Camma,    who   throws    them   on   the 
altar-flame. 
Camma.     Rouse  the  dead  altar-flame, 
fling  in  the  spices, 
Nard,  Cinnamon,  amomum,  benzoin. 
Let    all    the    air    reel    into    a    mist    of 

odour, 
As  in  the  midmost  heart  of  Paradise. 
Lay  down   the    Lydian   carpets  for   the 

king. 
The  king  should  pace  on  purple  to  his 

bride, 
And  music  there  to  greet   my  lord   the 
king.  [Music. 

(  To  Phoebe) .     Dost  thou  remember  when 

I  wedded  Sinnatus? 
Ay,   thou    wast    there  —  whether    from 

maiden  fears 
Or  reverential  love  for  him  I  loved, 
Or  some  strange  second-sight,  the  mar- 
riage cup 
Wherefrom    we    make    libation    to   the 

Goddess 
So  shook  within  my  hand,  that  the  red 

wine 
Ran   down   the   marble   and  lookt  like 
blood,  like  blood. 
Phoebe.     I    do    remember    your    first- 
marriage  fears. 
Camma.     I  have  no  fears  at  this  my 
second  marriage. 
See  here  —  I  stretch  my  hand  out  —  hold 

it  there. 
How  steady  it  is  ! 

Phoebe.        Steady  enough  to  stab  him  ! 
Camma.     O  hush !     O  peace !     This 
violence  ill  becomes 


742 


THE    CUP. 


The  silence  of  our  Temple.     Gentleness, 
Low  words  best  chime  with  this  solem- 
nity. 

Enter  a  procession  of  Priestesses  and 
Children  bearing  garlands  and  golden 
goblets,  and  strewing  flowers. 

Enter  Synorix  (as  King,  with  gold 
laurel-wreath  crozvn  and  purple 
robes),  followed  by  Antonius,  Pub- 
lius,  Noblemen,  Guards,  and k  the 
Populace. 

Camma.     Hail,  King! 
Synorix.  Hail,  Queen ! 

The  wheel  of  Fate  has  roll'd  me  to  the 

top. 
I  would  that  happiness  were  gold,  that  I 
Might  cast  my  largess  of  it  to  the  crowd ! 
I  would  that  every  man  made  feast  to-day 
Beneath   the    shadow  of   our  pines  and 

planes ! 
For  all  my  truer  life  begins  to-day. 
The  past  is  like  a  travell'd  land  now  sunk 
Below  the  horizon  —  like  a  barren  shore 
That    grew    salt    weeds,    but    now    all 

drown'd  in  love 
And  glittering  at  full  tide  —  the  bounteous 

bays 
And  havens  filling  with  a  blissful  sea. 
Nor   speak   I  now   too    mightily,  being 

King 
And    happy!     happiest,    Lady,   in    my 

power 
To  make  you  happy. 

Camma.  Yes,  sir. 

Synorix.  Our  Antonius, 

Our  faithful  friend  of  Rome,  tho'  Rome 

may  set 
A  free  foot  where   she  will,  yet   of  his 

courtesy 
Entreats    he    may    be    present    at    our 

marriage. 
Camma.     Let  him    come  —  a   legion 

with  him,  if  he  will. 
(  To  Antonius.)     Welcome,  my  lord  An- 
tonius, to  our  Temple. 
(  To  Synorix.)    You  on  this  side  the  altar. 

(  To  Antonius.)     You  on  that. 
Call  first  upon  the  Goddess,  Synorix. 

[All  face  the   Goddess.     Priestesses, 

Children,  Populace,  and  Guards 

kneel —  the  others  remain  standing. 


Synorix.     O  Thou,  that  dost  inspire 

the  germ  with  life, 
The  child,  a  thread  within  the  house  of 

birth, 
And  give  him  limbs,  then  air,  and  send 

him  forth 
The  glory  of  his  father  —  Thou  whose 

breath 
Is  balmy  wind  to  robe   our   hills   with 

grass, 
And  kindle  all   our  vales  with   myrtle- 
blossom, 
And  roll  the  golden  oceans  of  our  grain, 
And  sway  the  long  grape-bunches  of  our 

vines, 
And  fill  all  hearts  with  fatness  and  the  lust 
Of    plenty  —  make    me    happy    in    my 

marriage  ! 
Chorus  {chanting) .     Artemis,  Artemis, 

hear  him,  Ionian  Artemis ! 
Camma.        O  Thou  that  slayest  the 

babe  within  the  womb 
Or  in  the  being  born,  or  after  slayest  him 
As  boy  or  man,  great  Goddess,  whose 

storm -voice 
Unsockets  the  strong  oak,  and  rears  his 

root 
Beyond  his  head,  and  strows  our  fruits, 

and  lays 
Our  golden  grain,  and  runs  to  sea  and 

makes  it 
Foam  over  all  the  fleeted  wealth  of  kings 
And  peoples,  hear. 
Whose  arrow  is  the  plague  —  whose  quick 

flash  splits 
The  mid-sea  mast,  and  rifts  the  tower  to 

the  rock, 
And  hurls  the  victor's  column  down  with 

him 
That  crowns  it,  hear. 
Who  causes  the  safe   earth  to  shudder 

and  gape, 
And  gulf  and  flatten  in  her  closing  chasm 
Domed  cities,  hear. 
Whose  lava-torrents  blast  and  blacken  a 

province 
To  a  cinder,  hear. 
Whose  winter-cataracts  find  a  realm  and 

leave  it 
A  waste  of  rock  and  ruin,  hear.     I  call 

thee 
To   make   my  marriage   prosper   to   my 

wish! 


THE    CUP. 


743 


Chorus.     Artemis,  Artemis,  hear  her, 

Ephesian  Artemis ! 
Camma.     Artemis,  Artemis,  hear  me, 
Galatian  Artemis ! 
I  call  on  our  own  Goddess  in  our  own 
Temple. 
Chorus.     Artemis,  Artemis,  hear  her, 
Galatian  Artemis ! 

[  Thunder.     All  rise. 
Synorix  {aside) .     Thunder  !     Ay,  ay, 
the  storm  was  drawing  hither 
Across    the    hills    when    I    was    being 

crown'd. 
I  wonder  if  I  look  as  pale  as  she? 

Camma.     Art  thou  —  still   bent  —  on 

marrying? 
Synorix.  Surely  —  yet 

These    are   strange   words   to    speak    to 
Artemis. 
Camma.     Words  are  not  always  what 
they  seem,  my  King. 
I  will  be  faithful  to  thee  till  thou  die. 
Synorix.     I  thank  thee,  Camma,  —  I 

thank  thee. 
Camma  {turning  to  Antonius).     An- 
tonius, 
Much   graced   are   we   that   our  Queen 

Rome  in  you 
Deigns  to  look  in  upon  our  barbarisms. 
[  Turns,  goes  up  steps  to  altar  before 
the   Goddess.      Takes  a   cup  from 
off  the   altar.     Holds   it  towards 
Antonius.      Antonius  goes   up   to 
the  foot  of  the    steps    opposite   to 
Synorix. 
You  see  this  cup,  my  lord. 

[  Gives  it  to  him. 
Antonius.  Most  curious ! 

The  many-breasted  mother  Artemis 
Emboss'd  upon  it. 

Camma.  It  is  old,  I  know  not 

How  many  hundred  years.     Give  it  me 

again. 
It  is  the  cup  belonging  our  own  Temple. 
[Puts  it  back  on  altar,  and  takes  tip 
the  cup  of  Act  I.     Showing  it  to 
Antonius. 
Here  is  another  sacred  to  the  Goddess, 
The  gift  of  Synorix;    and  the  Goddess, 

being 
For  this   most   grateful,  wills,  thro'    me 

her  Priestess, 
In  honour  of  his  gift  and  of  our  marriage, 


That  Synorix  should  drink  from  his  own 
cup. 
Synorix.     I  thank  thee,  Camma,  —  I 

thank  thee. 
Camma.  For  —  my  lord  — 

It  is  our  ancient  custom  in  Galatia 
That  ere  two  souls  be  knit  for  life  and 

death, 
They  two  should  drink  together  from  one 

cup, 
In  symbol  of  their  married  unity, 
Making  libation  to  the  Goddess.     Bring 

me 
The  costly  wines  we  use  in  marriages. 

[  They  bring  in  a  large  jar  of  wine. 

Camma  pours  wine  into  cup. 

(  To  Synorix.)     See  here,  I  fill  it.     (  To 

Antonius.)     Will   you   drink,  my 

lord? 

Antonius.      I?     Why    should    I?      I 

am  not  to  be  married. 
Camma.      But    that    might    bring    a 

Roman  blessing  on  us. 
Antonius  {refusing  cup) .    Thy  pardon, 

Priestess ! 
Camma.  Thou  art  in  the  right. 

This  blessing  is  for  Synorix  and  for  me. 
See  first  I  make  libation  to  the  Goddess. 
[Makes  libation. 
And  now  I  drink. 

[Drinks  and  fills  the  cup  again. 

Thy  turn,  Galatian  King. 

Drink  and  drink  deep  —  our  marriage  will 

be  fruitful. 
Drink    and    drink    deep,   and   thou  wilt 
make  me  happy. 
[Synorix  goes  up  to  her.     She  hands 
him  the  cup.     He  drinks. 
Synorix.      There,   Camma !       I    have 
almost  drain'd  the  cup  — 
A  few  drops  left. 

Camma.  Libation  to  the  Goddess. 

[He  throws  the  remaining  drops  on 

the  altar  and  gives  Camma  the  cup. 

Camma  {placing  the  cup  on  the  altar). 

Why  then  the  Goddess  hears. 

[Comes  down  and  forward  to  tripod. 

Antonius  follows. 

Antonius, 
Where  wast  thou  on  that  morning  when 

I  came 
To  plead  to  thee  for  Sinnatus's  life, 
Beside  this  temple  half  a  year  ago? 


744 


THE   CUP. 


ACT   IL 


Antonius.  I  never  heard  of  this  re- 
quest of  thine. 
Synorix  (coming  forward  hastily  to 
foot  of  tripod  steps).  I  sought  him 
and  I  could  not  find  him.  Pray 
you, 
Go  on  with  the  marriage  rites. 

Camma.  Antonius 

'  Camma  ! '  who  spake  ? 
Antonius.  Not  I. 

Pheebe.  Nor  any  here. 

Camma.     I  am  all  but  sure  that  some 
one  spake.     Antonius, 
If  you  had  found  him  plotting  against 

Rome, 
Would  you  have   tortured   Sinnatus   to 
death? 
Antonius.     No  thought  was  mine  of 
torture  or  of  death, 
But  had  I  found   him   plotting,   I   had 

counseled  him 
To  rest  from  vain  resistance.     Rome  is 

fated 
To  rule  the  world.     Then,  if  he  had  not 

listen'd, 
I  might  have  sent  him  prisoner  to  Rome. 
Synorix.     Why  do  you  palter  with  the 
ceremony?  , 

Go  on  with  the  marriage  rites. 

Camma.  They  are  finish' d. 

Synorix.  How ! 

Camma.       Thou    hast    drunk    deep 

enough  to  make  me  happy. 

Dost  thou  not  feel  the  love  I  bear  to  thee 

Glow  thro'  thy  veins? 

Synorix.  The  love  I  bear  to  thee 

Glows  thro'  my  veins  since  first  I  look'd 

on  thee. 
But  wherefore  slur  the  perfect  ceremony? 
The  sovereign  of  Galatia  weds  his  Queen. 
Let  all  be  done  to  the  fullest  in  the  sight 
Of  all  the  Gods. 

Nay,  rather  than  so  clip 
The  flowery  robe  of  Hymen,  we  would 

add 
Some    golden    fringe    of    gorgeousness 

beyond 
Old    use,   to    make   the    day   memorial, 

when 
Synorix,  first  King,  Camma,  first  Queen 

o'  the  Realm, 
Drew  here  the  richest  lot  from  Fate,  to 
live 


And  die  together. 

This  pain  —  what  is  it?  —  again? 
I  had  a  touch  of  this  last  year  —  in  — 

Rome. 
Yes,  yes.     (  To  Antonius.)     Your  arm  — 

a  moment  —  it  will  pass. 
I  reel  beneath  the  weight  of  utter  joy  — 
This  all  too  happy  day,  crown  —  queen 

at  once.  [Staggers. 

0  all  ye  Gods  —  Jupiter !  —  Jupiter ! 

[Palls  backivard. 
Camma.     Dost  thou  cry  out  upon  the 
Gods  of  Rome? 
Thou  art  Galatian-born.     Our  Artemis 
Has  vanquish'd  their  Diana. 

Synorix    (on    the   ground).       I    am 
poison'd. 
She  —  close  the  Temple  door.     Let  her 
not  fly. 
Camma  (leaning  on  tripod).     Have  I 
not  drunk  of  the  same  cup  with 
thee? 
Synorix.     Ay,  by  the  Gods  of  Rome 
and  all  the  world, 
She    too  —  she    too  —  the    bride !     the 

Queen  !  and  I  — 
Monstrous !  I  that  loved  her. 

Camma.  I  loved  him. 

Synorix.     O  murderous  mad-woman  ! 
I  pray  you  lift  me 
And   make   me   walk    awhile.      I   have 

heard  these  poisons 
May  be  walk'd  down. 

[Antonius  and  Publius  raise  him  up. 

My  feet  are  tons  of  lead, 

They  will   break   in   the   earth  —  I   am 

sinking  —  hold  me  — 
Let  me  alone. 

[  They  leave  him  ;  he  sinks  down  on 
ground. 

Too  late  —  thought  myself  wise  — 
A  woman's   dupe.      Antonius,   tell  the 
Senate 

1  have  been  most  true  to  Rome  —  would 

have  been  true 

To  her  —  if  —  if [  Falls  as  if  dead. 

Camma  (coming  and leaning over  him). 

So  falls  the  throne  of  an  hour. 

Synorix  (half  rising).     Throne?  is  it 

thou?     the    Fates    are    throned, 

not  we  — 

Not  guilty  of  ourselves  —  thy  doom  and 

mine  — 


ACT   II. 


THE   CUP. 


745 


Thou  —  coming  my  way  too  —  Camma  — 
good-night.  [Dies. 

Camma  {upheld  by  weeping  Priest- 
esses). Thy  way?  poor  worm, 
crawl  down  thine  own  black  hole 

To   the   lowest   Hell.      Antonius,  is  he 
there? 

I  meant  thee  to  have  follow'd  —  better 
thus. 

Nay,  if  my  people   must   be   thralls   of 
Rome, 

He  is  gentle,  tho'  a  Roman. 

\_Sinks  back  into  the  arms  of  the  Priestesses. 
Antonius.  Thou  art  one 

With   thine  own  people,  and   though  a 
Roman  I 

Forgive  thee,  Camma. 

Camma  {raising  herself) .  '  Camma  ! ' 
—  why  there  again 

I  am  most  sure  that  some  one  call'd.     O 
women, 

Ye   will   have    Roman   masters.      I   am 
glad 

I  shall  not  see  it.     Did   not   some   old 
Greek 


Say  death  was  the  chief  good?     He  had 

my  fate  for  it, 
Poison'd.     {Sinks  back  again.)     Have  I 

the  crown  on  ?  I  will  go 
To  meet  him,  crown'd !    crown'd  victor 

of  my  will  — 
On  my  last  voyage  —  but  the  wind  has 

fail'd  — 
Growing  dark  too  —  but  light  enough  to 

row. 
Row  to  the  blessed   Isles!    the  blessed 

Isles !  — 
Sinnatus ! 
Why  comes  he  not  to  meet  me?     It  is 

the  crown 
Offends   him  —  and   my  hands   are   too 

sleepy 

To  lift  it  off.     [Phoebe  takes  the  crown  off. 

Who  touch'd  me  then?     I  thank  you. 

[Rises,  with  outspread  arms. 

There  —  league  on  league  of  ever-shining 

shore 
Beneath  an  ever-rising  sun  —  I  see  him  — 
4  Camma,  Camma ! '  Sinnatus,  Sinnatus ! 

[Dies. 


THE    FALCON. 


DRAMATIS  PERSONM. 

The  Count  Federigo  degli  Alberighi. 
Filippo,  Count's  foster-brother. 
The  Lady  Giovanna. 
Elisabetta,  the  Count's  nurse. 


SCENE.  —  An  Italian  Cottage. 
Castle  and  Mountains  seen 
through  Window. 

Elisabetta  discovered  seated  on  stool  in 
window,  darning.  The  Count  with 
Falcon  on  his  hand  comes  down  through 
the  door  at  back.  A  withered  wreath 
on  the  wall. 

Elisabetta.  So,  my  lord,  the  Lady 
Giovanna,  who  hath  been  away  so  long, 
came  back  last  night  with  her  son  to  the 
castle. 

Count.      Hear    that,  my   bird !      Art 

thou  not  jealous  of  her? 
My  princess   of  the    cloud,  my  plumed 

purveyor, 
My  far-eyed  queen  of  the  winds  —  thou 

that  canst  soar 
Beyond  the  morning  lark,  and  howsoe'er 
Thy  quarry  wind  and  wheel,  swoop  down 

upon  him 
Eagle-like,  lightning-like  —  strike,  make 

his  feathers 
Glance  in  mid  heaven. 

[  Crosses  to  chair. 

I  would  thou  hadst  a  mate  ! 

Thy  breed  will  die  with  thee,  and  mine 

with  me : 
I  am  as  lone  and  loveless  as  thyself. 

[Sits  in  chair. 
Giovanna  here!     Ay,  ruffle  thyself  —  be 

jealous ! 
Thou  should'st  be  jealous  of  her.     Tho' 

I  bred  thee 
The  full-train'd  marvel  of  all  falconry, 
And   love    thee    and    thou    me,   yet   if 

Giovanna 
Be  here  again  —  No,  no  !     Buss  me,  my 

bird  ! 
The  stately  widow  has  no  heart  for  me. 
Thou  art  the  last  friend   left   me    upon 

earth  — 


No,  no  again  to  that.     [Rises  and  turns. 
My  good  old  nurse, 
I  had  forgotten  thou  wast  sitting  there. 
Elisabetta.       Ay,   and    forgotten    thy 

foster-brother  too. 
Count.     Bird-babble    for    my   falcon ! 
Let  it  pass. 
What  art  thou  doing  there? 

Elisabetta.         Darning,  your  lordship. 
We    cannot    flaunt    it   in   new   feathers 

now: 
Nay,  if  we  will  buy  diamond  necklaces 
To  please  our  lady,  we   must  darn,  my 

lord. 
This  old  thing  here  {points  to  necklace 
round  her  neck), 
they  are  but  blue  beads  —  my  Piero, 
God  rest  his  honest  soul,  he  bought  'em 

for  me, 
Ay,  but  he  knew  I  meant  to  marry  him. 
How  couldst  thou  do  it,  my  son?     How 
couldst  thou  do  it? 
Count.     She  saw  it  at  a  dance,  upon 
a  neck 
Less  lovely  than  her  own,  and  long'd  for 
it. 
Elisabetta.     She  told  thee  as  much? 
Count.  No,  no  —  a  friend  of  hers. 

Elisabetta.     Shame   on   her   that   she 
took  it  at  thy  hands, 
She  rich  enough  to  have  bought  it  for 
herself! 
Count.     She   would   have   robb'd   me 

then  of  a  great  pleasure. 
Elisabetta.     But  hath  she  yet  retura'd 

thy  love? 
Count.  Not  yet ! 

Elisabetta.        She   should   return   thy 

necklace  then. 
Count.  Ay,  if 

She  knew  the  giver;     but  I  bound  the 

seller  t 

To  silence,  and  I  left  it  privily 


THE   FALCON. 


747 


At  Florence,  in  her  palace. 

Elisabetta.  And  sold  thine  own 

To  buy  it  for  her.     She  not  know?     She 
knows 

There's  none  such  other 

Count.  Madman  anywhere. 

Speak    freely,    tho'    to    call   a   madman 

mad 
Will  hardly  help  to  make  him  sane  again. 

Enter  Filippo. 

Filippo.  Ah,  the  women,  the  women !  * 
Ah,  Monna  Giovanna,  you  here  again  ! 
you  that  have  the  face  of  an  angel  and 
the  heart  of  a  —  that's  too  positive  !  You 
that  have  a  score  of  lovers  and  have  not 
a  heart  for  any  of  them  —  that's  positive- 
negative  :  you  that  have  not  the  head  of 
a  toad,  and  not  a  heart  like  the  jewel  in 
it  —  that's  too  negative;  you  that  have  a 
cheek  like  a  peach  and  a  heart  like  the 
stone  in  it  —  that's  positive  again  —  that's 
better ! 

Eiisabetta.     Sh  —  sh  —  Filippo  ! 

Filippo  {turns  half  round).  Here  has 
our  master  been  a-glorifying  and  a-velvet- 
ing  and  a-silking  himself,  and  a-peacock- 
ing  and  a-spreading  to  catch  her  eye  for 
a  dozen  year,  till  he  hasn't  an  eye  left  in 
his  own  tail  to  nourish  among  the  pea- 
hens, and  all  along  o'  you,  Monna  Gio- 
vanna, all  along  o'  you  ! 

Elisabetta.  Sh  —  sh  —  Filippo  !  Can't 
you  hear  that  you  are  saying  behind  his 
back  what  you  see  you  are  saying  afore 
his  face? 

Count.  Let  him  —  he  never  spares 
me  to  my  face  ! 

Filippo.  No,  my  lord,  I  never  spare 
your  lordship  to  your  lordship's  face,  nor 
behind  your  lordship's  back,  nor  to  right, 
nor  to  left,  nor  to  round  about  and  back 
to  your  lordship's  face  again,  for  I'm 
honest,  your  lordship. 

Count.  Come,  come,  Filippo,  what 
is  there  in  the  larder? 

[Elisabetta  crosses  to  fireplace  and 
puts  on  wood. 

Filippo.  Shelves  and  hooks,  shelves 
and  hooks,  and  when  I  see  the  shelves  I 
am  like  to  hang  myself  on  the  hooks. 

Count.     No  bread? 

Filippo.     Half  a  breakfast  for  a  rat ! 


Count.     Milk? 

Filippo.     Three  laps  for  a  cat ! 

Count.     Cheese  ? 

Filippo.     A  supper  for  twelve  mites. 

Count.     Eggs? 

Filippo.     One,  but  addled. 

Count.     No  bird? 

Filippo.     Half  a  tit  and  a  hern's  bill. 

Count.  Let  be  thy  jokes  and  thy 
jerks,  man  !     Anything  or  nothing? 

Filippo.  Well,  my  lord,  if  all-but- 
nothing  be  anything,  and  one  plate  of 
dried  prunes  be  all-but-nothing,  then 
there  is  anything  in  your  lordship's  larder 
at  your  lordship's  service,  if  your  lord- 
ship care  to  call  for  it. 

Count.     Good  mother,  happy  was  the 
prodigal  son, 
For  he  return'd  to  the  rich  father;   I 
But  add  my  poverty  to  thine.     And  all 
Thro'  following  of  my  fancy.     Pray  thee 

make 
Thy  slender  meal  out  of  those  scraps  and 

shreds 
Filippo  spoke  of.     As  for  him  and  me, 
There  sprouts  a  salad  in  the  garden  still. 
(  To  the  Falcon?)     Why  didst  thou  miss 

thy  quarry  yester-even? 
To-day,  my   beauty,  thou  must  dash  us 

down 
Our    dinner    from    the    skies.       Away, 
Filippo ! 

[Exit,  followed  by  Filippo. 

Elisabetta.  I  knew  it  would  come  to 
this.  She  has  beggared  him.  I  always 
knew  it  would  come  to  this  !  ( Goes  up 
to  table  as  if  to  resume  darning,  and 
looks  out  of  window.)  Why,  as  I  live, 
there  is  Monna  Giovanna  coming  down 
the  hill  from  the  castle.  Stops  and 
stares  at  our  cottage.  Ay,  ay !  stare  at 
it :  it's  all  you  have  left  us.  Shame 
on  you !  She  beautiful :  sleek  as  a 
miller's  mouse !  Meal  enough,  meat 
enough,  well  fed ;  but  beautiful  —  bah  ! 
Nay,  see,  why  she  turns  down  the  path 
through  our  little  vineyard,  and  I  sneezed 
three  times  this  morning.  Coming  to 
visit  my  lord,  for  the  first  time  in  her 
life  too !  Why,  bless  the  saints !  I'll 
be  bound  to  confess  her  love  to  him  at 
last.  I  forgive  her,  I  forgive  her!  I 
knew  it  would  come  to  this  —  I  always 


748 


THE  FALCON. 


knew  it  must  come  to  this !  ( Goes  up 
to  door  during  latter  part  of  speech  and 
opens  it.)  Come  in,  Madonna,  come  in. 
{Retires  to  front  of  table  and  curtseys  as 
the  Lady  Giovanna  enters,  then  moves 
chair  towards  the  hearth?)  Nay,  let  me 
place  this  chair  for  your  ladyship. 

[Lady  Giovanna  moves  slowly  down 
stage,  then  crosses  to  chair,  looking 
about  her,  bows  as  she  sees  the  Ma- 
donna over  fireplace,  then  sits  in 
chair. 
Lady  Giovanna.  Can  I  speak  with 
the  Count? 

Elisabetta.  Ay,  my  lady,  but  won't 
you  speak  with  the  old  woman  first,  and 
tell  her  all  about  it  and  make  her  happy? 
for  I've  been  on  my  knees  every  day  for 
these  half-dozen  years  in  hope  that  the 
saints  would  send  us  this  blessed  morning; 
and  he  always  took  you  so  kindly,  he 
always  took  the  world  so  kindly.  When 
he  was  a  little  one,  and  I  put  the  bitters 
on  my  breast  to  wean  him,  he  made  a 
wry  mouth  at  it,  but  he  took  it  so  kindly, 
and  your  ladyship  has  given  him  bitters 
enough  in  this  world,  and  he  never  made 
a  wry  mouth  at  you,  he  always  took  you 
so  kindly  —  which  is  more  than  I  did, 
my  lady,  more  than  I  did  —  and  he  so 
handsome  —  and  bless  your  sweet  face, 
you  look  as  beautiful  this  morning  as  the 
very  Madonna  her  own  self — and  better 
late  than  never  —  but  come  when  they 
will  —  then  or  now  —  it's  all  for  the  best, 
come  when  they  will —  they  are  made  by 
the  blessed  saints  —  these  marriages. 

\_Raises  her  hands. 
Lady  Giovanna.     Marriages?     I  shall 

never  marry  again ! 
Elisabetta  {rises  and  turns).     Shame 

on  her  then! 
Lady  Giovanna.    Where  is  the  Count? 
Elisabetta.  Just  gone 

To  fly  his  falcon. 
Lady  Giovanna.     Call  him  back  and 
say 
I  come  to  breakfast  with  him. 

Elisabetta.  Holy  mother ! 

To   breakfast !     Oh,   sweet  saints !    one 

plate  of  prunes ! 
Well,  Madam,  I  will  give  your  message 
to  him.  [Exit. 


Lady  Giovanna.     His  falcon,  and   1 

come  to  ask  for  his  falcon, 
The  pleasure  of  his  eyes  —  boast  of  his 

hand  — 
Pride  of  his   heart  —  the  solace   of  his 

hours  — 
His  one  companion  here  —  nay,  I  have 

heard 
That,    thro'    his    late    magnificence    of 

living 
And  this  last  costly  gift  to  mine  own  self, 
[Shows  diamond  necklace. 
He  hath   become  so  beggar'd,  that  his 

falcon 
Ev'n   wins    his   dinner   for   him   in   the 

field. 
That  must  be  talk,  not  truth,  but  truth 

or  talk, 
How  can  I  ask  for  his  falcon? 

[Rises  and  moves  as  she  speaks. 
O  my  sick  boy ! 
My  daily  fading  Florio,  it  is  thou 
Hath  set  me  this  hard  task,  for  when  I 

say 
What  can  I   do  —  what  can   I   get   for 

thee? 
He  answers,  '  Get  the  Count  to  give  me 

his  falcon, 
And  that  will  make  me  well.'     Yet  if  I 

ask, 
He  loves  me,  and  he  knows  I  know  he 

loves  me ! 
Will    he    not    pray   me    to    return    his 

love  — 
To  marry  him?  —  {pause)  —  I  can  never 

marry  him. 
His  grandsire  struck  my  grandsire  in  a 

brawl 
At  Florence,  and  my  grandsire  stabb'd 

him  there. 
The  feud  between  our  houses  is  the  bar 
I   cannot  cross;    I    dare  not   brave  my 

brother, 
Break  with  my  kin.     My  brother  hates 

him,  scorns 
The  noblest-natured  man  alive,  and  I  — 
Who  have  that  reverence  for   him  that 

I  scarce 
Dare  beg  him  to  receive  his   diamonds 

back  — 
How  can  I,  dare  I,  ask  him  for  his  fal- 
con? 

[Puts  diamonds  in  her  casket. 


THE  FALCON. 


749 


Re-enter  Count   and  Filippo.     Count 
turns  to  Filippo. 

Count.     Do  what  I  said;   I  cannot  do 

it  myself. 
Filippo.     Why  then,  my  lord,  we  are 

pauper'd  out  and  out. 
Count.     Do  what  I  said ! 

[Advances  and  bows  low. 
Welcome  to  this  poor  cottage,  my  dear 
lady. 
Lady  Giovanna.     And  welcome  turns 

a  cottage  to  a  palace. 
Count.     'Tis  long  since  we  have  met ! 
Lady  Giovanna.         To  make  amends 
I  come  this  day  to  break  my  fast  with  you. 
Count.     I  am  much  honour'd  —  yes  — 
[  Turns  to  Filippo. 
Do   what   I    told .  thee.     Must    I    do    it 
myself? 
Filippo.    I  will,  I  will.    {Sighs.)    Poor 
fellow !  [Exit. 

Count.     Lady,   you   bring  your   light 
into  my  cottage 
Who   never   deign'd   to   shine   into   my 

palace. 
My  palace  wanting  you  was  but  a  cot- 
tage; 
My   cottage,   while   you    grace   it,   is   a 
palace. 
Lady    Giovanna.     In    cottage    or    in 
palace,  being  still 
Beyond  your  fortunes,  you  are  still  the 

king 
Of  courtesy  and  liberality. 

Count.     I    trust   I   still   maintain   my 
courtesy; 
My  liberality  perforce  is  dead 
Thro'  lack  of  means  of  giving. 

Lady  Giovanna.  Yet  I  come 

To  ask  a  gift. 

[ Moves  toward  him  a  little. 
Count.  It  will  be  hard,  I  fear, 

To  find  one  shock  upon  the  field  when  all 
The  harvest  has  been  carried. 

Lady  Giovanna.  But  my  boy  — 

{Aside.)     No,  no  !  not  yet  —  I  cannot ! 

Count.  Ay,  how  is  he, 

That  bright  inheritor  of  your  eyes — your 
boy? 
Lady    Giovanna.       Alas,    my    Lord 
Federigo,  he  hath  fallen 
Into  a  sickness,  and  it  troubles  me. 


Count.     Sick !    is   it   so  ?   why,   when 

he  came  last  year 

To  see  me  hawking,  he  was  well  enough  : 

And  then  I  taught  him  all  our  hawking- 

phrases. 

Lady  Giovanna.     Oh  yes,  and  once 

you  let  him  fly  your  falcon. 
Count.     How  charm'd  he  was !  what 
wonder?  —  A  gallant  boy, 
A  noble  bird,  each  perfect  of  the  breed. 
Lady     Giovanna     {sinks    in    chair). 

What  do  you  rate  her  at? 
Count.  My  bird?  a  hundred 

Gold   pieces   once    were    offer'd   by  the 

Duke. 
I   had   no   heart   to   part  with   her   for 
money. 
Lady  Giovanna.     No,  not  for  money. 
[Count  turns  away  and  sighs. 
Wherefore  do  you  sigh? 

Count.     I  have  lost  a  friend  of  late. 
Lady   Giovanna.     I    could   sigh  with 
you 
For  fear  of  losing  more  than  friend,  a 

son; 
And   if  he   leave  me  —  all   the   rest   of 

life  — 
That  wither'd  wreath  were  of  more  worth 
to  me. 

[Looking  at  wreath  on  wall. 
Count.     That   wither'd   wreath   is   of 
more  worth  to  me 
Than  all  the  blossom,  all  the  leaf  of  this 
New-wakening  year. 

[Goes  and  takes  down  wreath. 

Lady  Giovanna.    And  yet  I  never  saw 

The  land  so  rich  in  blossom  as  this  year. 

Count  {holding  wreath  toward  her). 

Was  not  the  year  when  this  was 

gather'd  richer? 

Lady  Giovanna.     How  long  ago  was 

that? 
Count.  Alas,  ten  summers ! 

A  lady  that  was  beautiful  as  day 
Sat  by  me  at  a  rustic  festival 
With    other    beauties    on    a    mountain 

meadow, 
And  she  was  the  most  beautiful  of  all; 
Then  but  fifteen,  and  still  as  beautiful. 
The  mountain  flowers  grew  thickly  round 

about. 
I  made  a  wreath  with  some  of  these;   I 
ask'd 


75° 


THE  FALCON. 


A  ribbon  from  her  hair  to  bind  it  with; 
I  whisper'd,  Let  me  crown  you  Queen  of 

Beauty, 
And  softly  placed  the   chaplet   on    her 

head. 
A  colour,  which  has  colour'd  all  my  life, 
Flush'd  in  her  face;   then  I  was   call'd 

away; 
And  presently  all  rose,  and  so  departed. 
Ah !  she  had  thrown  my  chaplet  on  the 

grass, 
And  there  I  found  it. 

\_Lets  his  hands  fall,  holding  wreath 
despondingly. 
Lady  Giovanna  {after  pause).     How 

long  since  do  you  say? 
Count.     That  was  the  very  year  before 

you  married. 
Lady  Giovanna.    When  I  was  married 

you  were  at  the  wars. 
Count.      Had    she    not    thrown    my 
chaplet  on  the  grass, 
It  may  be  I  had  never  seen  the  wars. 
[Replaces  wreath  whence  he  has  taken  it. 
Lady    Giovanna.     Ah,  but,   my  lord, 
there  ran  a  rumour  then 
That  you  were  kill'd  in  battle.     I  can 

tell  you 
True  tears  that  year  were  shed  for  you  in 
Florence. 
Count.     It  might  have  been  as  well  for 
me.     Unhappily 
I  was  but  wounded  by  the  enemy  there 
And  then  imprison'd. 

Lady    Giovanna.     Happily,  however, 
I  see  you  quite  recover'd  of  your  wound. 
Count.     No,  no,  not  quite,  Madonna, 
not  yet,  not  yet. 

Re-enter  Filippo. 

Filippo.     My  lord,  a  word  with  you. 
Count.  Pray,  pardon  me  ! 

[Lady  Giovanna  crosses  and  passes 
behind    chair    and    takes    down 
wreath;    then    goes    to    chair   by 
table. 
Count  {to  Filippo).     What  is  it,  Fi- 
lippo? 
Filippo.     Spoons,  your  lordship. 
Count.  Spoons ! 

Filippo.  Yes,  my  lord,  for  wasn't  my 
lady  born  with  a  golden  spoon  in  her 
ladyship's  mouth,  and  we  haven't  never 


so  much  as  a  silver  one  for  the  golden 
lips  of  her  ladyship. 

Count.     Have  we  not  half  a  score  of 
silver  spoons? 

Filippo.     Half  o'  one,  my  lord ! 
Count.     How  half  of  one? 
Lilippo.     I  trod  upon  him  even  now, 
my  lord,  in  my  hurry,  and  broke  him. 
Count.     And  the  other  nine? 
Filippo.     Sold  !  but  shall  I  not  mount 
with  your  lordship's  leave  to  her  lady- 
ship's castle,  in  your  lordship's  and  her 
ladyship's   name,   and   confer   with    her 
ladyship's  seneschal,  and  so  descend  again 
with  some  of  her  ladyship's  own  appur- 
tenances? 

Count.     Why  —  no,   man.     Only   see 

your  cloth  be  clean.  [Exit  Filippo. 

Lady  Giovanna.     Ay,  ay,  this  faded 

ribbon  was  the  mode 

In   Florence,   ten   years  back.     What's 

here  ?  a  scroll 
Pinn'd  to  the  wreath. 

My  lord,  you  have  said  so  much 
Of  this  poor   wreath   that   I    was   bold 

enough 
To  take  it  down,  if  but  to  guess  what 

flowers 
Had  made  it;   and  I  find  a  written  scroll 
That  seems  to  run  in  rhymings.     Might 
I  read? 
Count.     Ay,  if  you  will. 
Lady  Giovanna.     It  should  be  if  you 
can. 
{Reads.)     '  Dead    mountain.'     Nay,  for 

who  could  trace  a  hand 
So  wild  and  staggering? 

Count.         This  was  penn'd,  Madonna, 
Close  to  the  grating  on  a  winter  morn 
In  the  perpetual  twilight  of  a  prison, 
When  he  that  made  it,  having  his  right 

hand 
Lamed  in  the  battle,  wrote  it  with  his 
left. 
JLady    Giovanna.      O    heavens!    the 
very  letters  seem  to  shake 
With    cold,    with    pain    perhaps,    poor 

prisoner !     Well, 
Tell  me  the  words —  or  better  —  for  I  see 
There  goes  a  musical  score  along  with 

them, 
Repeat  them  to  their  music. 

Count.  You  can  touch 


THE  FALCON. 


751 


No  chord  in  me  that  would  not  answer 
you 

In  music. 

Lady  Giovanna.  That  is  musically 
said. 
[Count  takes  guitar.  Lady  Gio- 
vanna sits  listening  with  wreath 
in  her  hand,  and  quietly  removes 
scroll  and  places  it  on  table  at  the 
end  of  the  song. 
Count  {sings,  playing  guitar) .  '  Dead 
mountain  flowers,  dead  mountain- 
meadow  flowers, 

Dearer  than  when  you  made  your  moun- 
tain gay, 

Sweeter  than  any  violet  of  to-day, 

Richer  than  all  the  wide  world-wealth  of 
May, 

To   me,   tho'  all  your   bloom   has   died 
away, 

You  bloom  again,  dead  mountain-meadow 
flowers.' 

Enter  Elisabetta  with  cloth. 

Elisabetta.      A   word    with    you,   my 

lord! 
Count  {singing) .  'O  mountain  flowers ! ' 
Elisabetta.   A  word,  my  lord  !  {Louder.) 
Count  {sings) .  '  Dead  flowers ! ' 

Elisabetta.  A  word,  my  lord  ! 

{Louder.) 
Count.     I  pray  you  pardon  me  again  ! 
[Lady  Giovanna  looking  at  wreath. 
Count  {to  Elisabetta).  What  is  it? 

Elisabetta.      My   lord,   we    have    but 
one  piece  of  earthenware  to  serve  the 
salad  in  to  my  lady,  and  that  cracked  ! 
Count.     Why  then,  that  flower'd  bowl 
my  ancestor 
Fetch'd  from  the  farthest  east  —  we  never 

use  it 
For  fear  of  breakage  —  but  this  day  has 

brought 
A  great  occasion.  You  can  take  it, 
nurse ! 
Elisabetta.  I  did  take  it,  my  lord,  but 
what  with  my  lady's  coming  that  had  so 
flurried  me,  and  what  with  the  fear  of 
breaking  it,  I  did  break  it,  my  lord :  it  is 
broken  ! 

Count.     My  one  thing  left  of  value  in 
the  world ! 


No  matter !  see  your  cloth  be  white  as 
snow  ! 
Elisabetta  {pointing  thro'  window). 
White?  I  warrant  thee,  my  son,  as  the 
snow  yonder  on  the  very  tip-top  o'  the 
mountain. 

Count.     And  yet  to  speak  white  truth, 
my  good  old  mother, 
I   have   seen   it   like   the   snow  on  the 
moraine. 
Elisabetta.      How   can   your   lordship 
say  so  ?     There,  my  lord  ! 

[Lays  cloth. 
O  my  dear  son,  be  not  unkind  to  me. 
And  one  word  more.     [  Going —  returns. 
Count  {touching  guitar) .     Good  !   let 

it  be  but  one. 
Elisabetta.  Hath  she  return'd  thy  love? 
Count.  Not  yet ! 

Elisabetta.  And  will  she? 

Count  {looking  at  Lady  Giovanna) .     I 

scarce,  believe  it ! 
Elisabetta.     Shame  upon  her  then  ! 

[Exit. 
Count  {sings).  'Dead   mountain 

flowers ' 

Ah  well,  my  nurse  has  broken 
The  thread  of  my  dead  flowers,  as   she 

has  broken 
My  china  bowl.     My  memory  is  as  dead. 
[Goes  and  replaces  guitar. 
Strange  that  the  words  at  home  with  me 

so  long 
Should  fly  like  bosom  friends  when  needed 

most. 
So  by  your  leave  if  you  would  hear  the 

rest, 
The  writing. 

Lady  Giovanna  {holding  wreath  tow- 
ard him).     There!   my  lord,  you 
are  a  poet, 
And  can  you  not  imagine  that  the  wreath, 
Set,  as  you  say,  so  lightly  on  her  head, 
Fell  with  her  motion  as  she  rose,  and  she, 
A  girJ,  a  child,  then  but  fifteen,  however 
Flutter'd  or  flatter'd  by  your  notice  of  her, 
Was  yet  too  bashful  to  return  for  it? 
Count.     Was  it  so  indeed?  was  it  so? 
was  it  so? 
[Leans  forward  to  take  wreath,  and 
touches    Lady    Giovanna's    hand, 
which  she  withdraws  hastily;  he 
places  wreath  on  corner  of  chair. 


752 


THE  FALCON. 


Lady  Giovanna  {with  dignity).    I  did 
not  say,  my  lord,  that  it  was  so; 
I  said  you  might  imagine  it  was  so. 

Enter  Filippo  with  bowl  of  salad,  which 
he  places  on  table. 

Filippo.  Here's  a  fine  salad  for  my 
lady,  for  tho'  we  have  been  a  soldier,  and 
ridden  by  his  lordship's  side,  and  seen 
the  red  of  the  battle-field,  yet  are  we  now 
drill-sergeant  to  his  lordship's  lettuces, 
and  profess  to  be  great  in  green  things 
and  in  garden-stuff. 

Lady  Giovanna.  I  thank  thee,  good 
Filippo.  [Exit  Filippo. 

Enter  Elisabetta  with  bird  on  a  dish 
which  she  places  on  table. 

Elisabetta    {close  to  table).     Here's   a 

fine  fowl  for  my  lady;  I  had  scant  time  to 

do  him  in.    I  hope  he  be  not  underdone, 

for  we  be  undone  in  the  doing  of  him. 

Lady   Giovanna.       I    thank  you,  my 

good  nurse. 
Filippo  (re-entering  tuith  plate  of 
prunes).  And  here  are  fine  fruits  for  my 
lady  —  prunes,  my  lady,  from  the  tree 
that  my  lord  himself  planted  here  in  the 
blossom  of  his  boyhood  —  and  so  I, 
Filippo,  being,  with  your  ladyship's  par- 
don, and  as  your  ladyship  knows,  his 
lordship's  own  foster-brother,  would  com- 
mend them  to  your  ladyship's  most  pecul- 
iar appreciation. 

[Puts  plate  on  table. 
Elisabetta.     Filippo ! 
Lady  Giovanna  (Count  leads  her  to 
table) .     Will  you  not  eat  with  me, 
my  lord? 
Count.  I  cannot, 

Not  a  morsel,  not  one  morsel.     I  have 

broken 
My   fast   already.      I    will    pledge   you. 

Wine ! 
Filippo,  wine ! 

[Sits  near  table;  Filippo  brings  flask, 
fills  the  Count's  goblet,  then  Lady 
Giovanna's;   Elisabetta  stands   at 
the  back  of  Lady  Giovanna's  chair. 
Count.  It  is  but  thin  and  cold, 

Not  like  the  vintage  blowing  round  your 
castle. 


We  lie  too  deep  down  in  the   shadow 

here. 
Your  ladyship  lives  higher  in  the  sun. 

[  They  pledge  each  other  and  drink. 
Lady  Giovanna.     If  I  might  send  you 
down  a  flask  or  two 
Of  that  same  vintage?   There  is  iron  in  it. 
It  has  been  much  commended  as  a  medi- 
cine. 
I  give  it  my  sick  son,  and  if  you  be 
Not  quite  recover'd  of  your  wound,  the 

wine 
Might  help  you.    None  has  ever  told  me 

yet 
The  story  of  your  battle  and  your  wound. 
Filippo  (coming  forward).     I  can  tell 
you,  my  lady,  I  can  tell  you. 

Elisabetta.    Filippo  !  will  you  take  the 
word  out  of  your  master's  own  mouth? 

Filippo.     Was  it  there  to  take?     Put 
it  there,  my  lord. 

Count.     Giovanna,  my   dear  lady,  in 
this  same  battle 
We  had  been  beaten  —  they  were  ten  to 

one. 
The   trumpets   of  the  fight  had   echo'd 

down, 
I  and  Filippo  here  had  done  our  best, 
And,  having  passed  unwounded  from  the 

field, 
Were  seated  sadly  at  a  fountain  side, 
Our  horses  grazing  by  us,  when  a  troop, 
Laden  with  booty  and  with  a  flag  of  ours 

Ta'en  in  the  fight 

Filippo.    Ay,  but  we  fought  for  it  back, 

And  kill'  d 

Elisabetta.     Filippo ! 

Count.  A  troop  of  horse 

Filippo.  Five  hundred ! 

Count.     Say  fifty ! 

Filippo.     And  we  kill'd  'em   by  the 

score ! 
Elisabetta.     Filippo ! 
Filippo.  Well,  well,  well ! 

I  bite  my  tongue. 

Count.     We  may  have  left  their  fifty 

less  by  five. 

However,  staying  not  to  count  how  many, 

But  anger'd  at  their  flaunting  of  our  flag, 

We   mounted,  and   we    dash'd  into  the 

heart  of  'em. 
I  wore  the  lady's  chaplet  round  my  neck; 
It  served  me  for  a  blessed  rosary. 


THE  FALCON. 


753 


I  am  sure  that  more  than  one  brave  fel- 
low owed 
His  death  to  the  charm  in  it. 

Elisabetta.  Hear  that,  my  lady ! 

Count.     I    cannot   tell  how   long   we 
strove  before 
Our   horses  fell    beneath   us;    down  we 

went 
Crush'd,  hack'd  at,  trampled  underfoot. 

The  night, 
As    some     cold-manner'd    friend     may 

strangely  do  us 
The  truest  service,  had  a  touch  of  frost 
That  help'd  to  check  the  flowing  of  the 

blood. 
My   last   sight   ere  I   swoon'd  was  one 

sweet  face 
Crown'd  with  the  wreath.      That  seem'd 

to  come  and  go. 
They  left  us  there  for  dead ! 

Elisabetta.  Hear  that,  my  lady ! 

Filippo.  Ay,  and  I  left  two  fingers 
there  for  dead.  See,  my  lady  !  (Show- 
ing his  hand?) 

Lady  Giovanna.     I  see,  Filippo  ! 
Filippo.       And  I  have  small  hope  of 
the  gentleman  gout  in  my  great  toe. 
Lady  Giovanna.      And  why,  Filippo? 
[Smiling  absently. 
Filippo.    I  left  him  there  for  dead,  too  ! 
Elisabetta.     She  smiles  at  him  —  how 
hard  the  woman  is ! 
My  lady,  if  your  ladyship  were  not 
Too  proud  to  look  upon  the  garland,  you 

Would  find  it  stain'd 

Count  (rising) .      Silence,  Elisabetta  ! 
Elisabetta.      —  Stain'd  with  the  blood 
of  the  best  heart  that  ever 
Beat  for  one  woman. 

[Points  to  wreath  on  chair. 
Lady  Giovanna  (rising  slozvly) .    I  can 

eat  no  more ! 
Count.     You  have  but  trifled  with  our 
homely  salad, 
But  dallied  with  a  single  lettuce-leaf; 
Not  eaten  anything. 

Lady  Giovanna.  Nay,  nay,  I  cannot. 
You   know,  my   lord,  I  told  you  I  was 

troubled. 
My  one  child  Florio  lying  still  so  sick, 
I  bound  myself,  and  by  a  solemn  vow, 
That  I  would  touch  no  flesh  till  he  were 
well 

3C 


Here,  or  else  well  in  Heaven,  where  all 
is  well. 
[Elisabetta  clears  table  of  bird  and 
salad:  Filippo  snatches  up  the 
plate  of  prunes  and  holds  them  to 
Lady  Giovanna. 
Filippo.      But    the    prunes,   my   lady, 

from  the  tree  that  his  lordship 

Lady    Giovanna.     Not   now,  P'ilippo. 
My  lord  Federigo, 
Can   I   not  speak   with  you  once  more 
alone  ? 
Count.     You  hear,  Filippo?    My  good 

fellow,  go ! 
Filippo.     But    the   prunes   that    your 

lordship  

Elisabetta.  Filippo ! 

Count.     Ay,   prune   our   company   of 

thine  own  and  go  ! 
Elisabetta.     Filippo ! 
Filippo    (turning) .      Well,  well !  the 
women !  [Exit. 

Count.     And  thou  too  leave   us,  my 

dear  nurse,  alone. 
Elisabetta  (folding  up  cloth  and  going). 
And  me  too !  Ay,  the  dear  nurse  will 
leave  you  alone;  but,  for  all  that,  she 
that  has  eaten  the  yolk  is  scarce  like  to 
swallow  the  shell. 

[  Turns  and  curtseys  stiffly  to  Lady 
Giovanna,  then  exit.  Lady  Gio- 
vanna takes  out  diamond  necklace 
from  casket. 
Lady  Giovanna.  I  have  anger'd  your 
good  nurse;  these  old-world 
servants 
Are  all  but  flesh  and  blood  with  those  they 

serve. 
My  lord,  I  have  a  present  to  return  you, 
And  afterwards  a  boon  to  crave  of  you. 
Count.     No,  my  most   honour'd   and 
long-worshipt  lady, 
Poor  Federigo  degli  Alberighi 
Takes  nothing  in  return  from  you  except 
Return  of  his  affection  —  can  deny 
Nothing    to    you    that    you    require    of 
him. 
Lady  Giovanna.     Then  I  require  you 
to  take  back  your  diamonds  — 

[  Offering  necklace. 
I  doubt  not  they  are  yours.     No  othel 

heart 
Of  such  magnificence  in  courtesy 


754 


THE  FALCON. 


Beats  —  out  of  heaven.     They  seem'd  too 

rich  a  prize 
To  trust  with  any  messenger.     I  came 
In  person  to  return  them. 

[  Count  draws  back. 
If  the  phrase 
*  Return '  displease  you,  we  will  say  — 
exchange  them 

For  your  —  for  your 

Count  {takes  a  step  toward her  and  then 
back) .     For  mine  —  and  what  of 
mine? 
Lady  Giovanna.  Well,  shall  we  say  this 

wreath  and  your  sweet  rhymes? 
Count.     But  have  you  ever  worn  my 

diamonds? 
Lady  Giovanna.     No ! 
For  that  would  seem  accepting  of  your 

love. 
I  cannot  brave  my  brother  —  but  be  sure 
That  I  shall  never  marry  again,  my  lord  ! 
Count.     Sure  ? 
Lady  Giovanna.     Yes ! 
Count.     Is  this  your  brother's  order? 
Lady  Giovanna.  No ! 

For  he  would  marry  me  to  the   richest 

man 
In  Florence;   but  I  think  you  know  the 

saying  — 
'  Better  a  man  without  riches,  than  riches 
without  a  man.' 
Count.     A  noble  saying  —  and  acted 
on  would  yield 
A   nobler   breed   of    men   and   women. 

Lady, 
I   find   you   a    shrewd    bargainer.     The 

wreath 
That   once  you  wore  outvalues  twenty- 
fold 
The  diamonds  that  you  never  deign'd  to 

wear. 
But  lay  them  there  for  a  moment ! 

[Points  to   table.      Lady   Giovanna 
places  necklace  on  table. 

And  be  you 
Gracious  enough  to  let  me  know  the  boon 
By  granting  which,  if  aught  be  mine  to 

grant, 
I  should  be  made  more  happy  than   I 

hoped 
Ever  to  be  again. 

Lady    Giovanna.      Then   keep    your 
wreath, 


But  you  will  find  me  a  shrewd  bargainer 

still. 
I   cannot  keep  your  diamonds,  for  the 

gift 
I  ask  for,  to  my  mind  and  at  this  present 
Outvalues  all  the  jewels  upon  earth. 
Count.     It  should   be  love  that  thus 

outvalues  all. 
You  speak  like  love,  and  yet  you  love 

me  not. 
I  have  nothing  in  this  world  but  love  for 

you. 
Lady    Giovanna.     Love?   it   is  love, 

love  for  my  dying  boy, 
Moves  me  to  ask  it  of  you. 

Count.  What?  my  time? 

Is  it   my  time?     Well,   I    can  give  my 

time 
To  him  that  is  a  part  of  you,  your  son. 
Shall  I  return   to  the  castle  with  you? 

Shall  I 
Sit  by  him,  read   to  him,  tell   him  my 

tales, 
Sing  him  my  songs?     You  know  that  I 

can  touch 
The  ghittern  to  some  purpose. 

Lady  Giovanna.  No,  not  that ! 

I    thank    you   heartily    for    that  —  and 

you, 
I   doubt   not   from    your    nobleness    of 

nature, 
Will  pardon  me  for  asking  what  I  ask. 
Count.     Giovanna,  dear   Giovanna,  I 

that  once 
The   wildest   of    the    random   youth   of 

Florence 
Before  I  saw  you  —  all  my  nobleness 
Of  nature,  as  you  deign  to  call  it,  draws 
From  you,  and  from  my  constancy  to  you. 
No  more,  but  speak. 

Lady  Giovanna.      I  will.     You  know 

sick  people, 
More  specially  sick  children,  have  strange 

fancies, 
Strange  longings;    and  to  thwart  them 

in  their  mood 
May  work  them  grievous  harm  at  times, 

may  even 
Hasten  their  end.     I   would  you  had  a 

son  ! 
It  might  be  easier  then  for  you  to  make 
Allowance    for    a    mother  —  her  —  who 

comes 


THE  FALCON. 


755 


To  rob  you  of  your  one  delight  on  earth. 
How  often  has  my  sick  boy  yearn'd  for 

this! 
I  have  put  him  off  as  often;   but  to-day 
I  dared  not  —  so  much  weaker,  so  much 

worse 
For  last  day's  journey.     I  was  weeping 

for  him; 
He  gave  me  his  hand :  '  I  should  be  well 

again 

If  the  good  Count  would  give  me ' 

Count.  •         Give  me. 

Lady  Giovanna.  His  falcon. 

Count  (starts  back).     My  falcon  ! 
Lady  Giovanna.         Yes,  your  falcon, 

Federigo ! 
Count.     Alas,  I  cannot ! 
Lady  Giovanna.     Cannot?     Even  so  ! 
I    fear'd    as    much.      O    this    unhappy 

world ! 
How  shall  I  break  it  to  him?  how  shall 

I  tell  him? 
The   boy  may  die :    more   blessed  were 

the  rags 
Of  some  pale  beggar-woman  seeking  alms 
For  her  sick  son,  if  he  were  like  to  live, 
Than    all   my  childless  wealth,   if  mine 

must  die. 
I  was  to  blame  —  the  love  you  said  you 

bore  me  — 
My  lord,  we  thank  you  for  your  enter- 
tainment  [  With  a  stately  curtsey. 
And  so  return  —  Heaven  help  him  !  —  to 

our  son.  [  Turns. 

Count  {rushes  forward).     Stay,  stay, 

I  am  most  unlucky,  most  unhappy. 

You  never  had  look'd  in  on  me  before, 

And   when    you   came    and    dipt  your 

sovereign  head 
Thro'  these  low  doors,  you  ask'd  to  eat 

with  me. 
I  had  but  emptiness  to  set  before  you, 
No  not  a  draught  of  milk,  no  not  an  egg, 
Nothing   but   my  brave  bird,  my   noble 

falcon, 
My  comrade  of  the  house,  and  of  the  field. 
She  had  to  die  for  it  —  she  died  for  you. 
Perhaps  I  thought  with  those  of  old,  the 

nobler 
The  victim  was,  the  more  acceptable 
Might  be  the  sacrifice.     I  fear  you  scarce 
Will   thank  me  for  your    entertainment 

now. 


Lady  Giovanna   (returning).     I  bear 

with  him  no  longer. 
Count.  No,  Madonna ! 

And  he  will  have  to  bear  with  it  as  he 

may. 
Lady   Giovanna.     I    break  with  him 

for  ever ! 
Count.  Yes,  Giovanna, 

But  he  will  keep   his  love  for  you  for 

ever ! 
Lady     Giovanna.      You?     you?    not 

you !       My    brother !       my    hard 

brother ! 

0  Federigo,  Federigo,  I  love  you ! 
Spite  of  ten  thousand  brothers,  Federigo. 

[Falls  at  his  feet. 
Count  (impetuously).     Why  then  the 
dying  of  my  noble  bird 
Hath  served  me  better  than  her  living  — 
then 

[Takes  diamonds  from  table. 
These  diamonds  are  both  yours  and  mine 

—  have  won 

Their  value  again  —  beyond  all  markets 

—  there 

1  lay  them  for  the  first  time  round  your 

neck. 

[Lays  necklace  round  her  neck. 
And  then  this  chaplet  —  No  more  feuds, 

but  peace, 
Peace  and  conciliation  !     I  will  make 
Your  brother  love  me.     See,  I  tear  away 
The  leaves  were  darken'd   by  the  bat- 
tle— 
[Pulls  leaves  off  and  throws  them  dozun. 
— •  crown  you 
Again  with  the  same  crown  my  Queen 
of  Beauty. 

[Places  wreath  on  her  head. 
Rise  —  I    could    almost   think    that   the 

dead  garland 
Will   break    once   more   into  the  living 

blossom. 
Nay,  nay,  I  pray  you  rise. 

[Raises  her  with  both  hands. 

We  two  together 

Will   help  to  heal  your  son  —  your  son 

and  mine  — 
We  shall  do  it  —  we  shall  do  it. 

[Embraces  her. 
The  purpose  of  my  being  is  accomplish'd, 
And  I  am  happy  ! 

L.ady  Giovanna.     And  I  too,  Federigo. 


THE   PROMISE   OF   MAY. 

'  A  surface  man  of  theories,  true  to  none.' 

DRAMATIS  PERSONS. 

Farmer  Dobson. 

Mr.  Philip  Edgar    {afterwards  Mr.  Harold). 

Farmer  Steer   (Dora  and  Eva's  Father). 

Mr.  Wilson   {a  Schoolmaster). 

Higgins  \ 

James 

Dan  Smith     >  Farm  Labourers. 

Jackson  I 

Allen  J 

Dora  Steer. 

Eva  Steer. 

Sally  Allen  )    ^  0  * 

\   Farm  Servants. 
Milly  ) 

Farm  Servants,  Labourers,  etc. 


ACT  I. 

SCENE.  —  Before  Farmhouse. 

Farming  Men  and  Women.  Farming 
Men  carrying  forms,  etc.  Women 
carrying  baskets  of  knives  and  forks, 
etc. 

\st  Farming  Man.  Be  thou  a-gawin' 
to  the  long  barn? 

2nd  Farming  Man.  Ay,  to  be  sewer ! 
Be  thou? 

1st  Farming  Man.  Why,  o'  coorse, 
fur  it  be  the  owd  man's  birthdaay.  He 
be  heighty  this  very  daay,  and  'e  telled 
all  on  us  to  be  i'  the  long  barn  by  one 
o'clock,  fur  he'll  gie  us  a  big  dinner,  and 
haafe  th'  parish  '11  be  theer,  an'  Miss 
Dora,  an'  Miss  Eva,  an'  all ! 

2nd  Farming  Man.  Miss  Dora  be 
coomed  back,  then? 

\st  Farming  Man.  Ay,  haafe  an  hour 
ago.  She  be  in  theer  now.  {Pointing 
to  housed)  Owd  Steer  wur  afeard  she 
wouldn't  be  back  i'  time  to  keep  his 
birthdaay,  and  he  wur  in  a  tew  about  it 
all  the  murnin';  and  he  sent  me  wi'  the 
gig  to  Littlechester  to  fetch  'er;  and  'er 
an'  the  owd  man  they  fell  a-kissin'  o'  one 
another  like  two  sweet'arts  i'  the  poorch 
as  soon  as  he  clapt  eyes  of  'er. 


2nd  Farming  Man.  Foalks  says  he 
likes  Miss  Eva  the  best. 

ist  Farming  Man.  Naay,  I  knaws 
nowt  o'  what  foalks  says,  an'  I  caares 
nowt  neither.  Foalks  doesn't  hallus 
knaw  thessens;  but  sewer  I  be,  they  be 
two  o'  the  purtiest  gels  ye  can  see  of  a 
summer  murnin'. 

2nd  Farming  Man.  Beant  Miss  Eva 
gone  off  a  bit  of  'er  good  looks  o'  laate  ? 

i st  Farming  Man.     Noa,  not  a  bit. 

2nd  Farming  Man.  Why  coom 
awaay,  then,  to  the  long  barn. 

[Exeunt. 

Dora  looks  out  of  window.  Enter  Dobson. 

Dora  {singing). 

The  town  lay  still  in  the  low  sun-light, 
The  hen  cluckt  late  by  the  white  farm  gate, 
The  maid  to  her  dairy  came  in  from  the 

cow, 
The  stock-dove  coo'd  at  the  fall  of  night, 
The  blossom  had  open'd  on  every  bough; 
O  joy  for  the  promise  of  May,  of  May, 
O  joy  for  the  promise  of  May. 
{Nodding  at  Dobson.)  I'm  coming 
down,  Mr.  Dobson.  I  haven't  seen  Eva 
yet.     Is  she  anywhere  in  the  garden? 

Dobson.  Noa,  Miss.  I  ha'n't  seed 
'er  neither. 


THE  PROMISE   OF  MAY. 


757 


Dora  {enters  singing) . 

But  a  red  fire  woke  in  the  heart  of  the 

town, 
And  a  fox  from  the  glen  ran  away  with 

the  hen, 
And  a  cat  to  the  cream,  and  a  rat  to  the 

cheese; 
And  the  stock-dove  coo'd,  till  a  kite  dropt 

down, 
And  a  salt  wind  burnt  the  blossoming 
trees; 

O  grief  for  the  promise  of  May,  of  May, 

O  grief  for  the  promise  of  May. 
I  don't  know  why  I  sing  that  song;   I 
don't  love  it. 

Dobson.  Blessings  on  your  pretty 
voice,  Miss  Dora.  Wheer  did  they  lam 
ye  that? 

Dora.     In  Cumberland,  Mr.  Dobson. 

Dobson.  An'  how  did  ye  leave  the 
owd  uncle  i'  Coomberland? 

Dora.  Getting  better,  Mr.  Dobson. 
But  he'll  never  be  the  same  man  again. 

Dobson.  An'  how  d'ye  find  the  owd 
man  'ere? 

Dora.  As  well  as  ever.  I  came  back 
to  keep  his  birthday. 

Dobson.  Well,  I  be  coomed  to  keep 
his  birthdaay  an'  all.  The  owd  man  be 
heigh ty  to-daay,  beant  he? 

Dora.  Yes,  Mr.  Dobson.  And  the 
day's  bright  like  a  friend,  but  the  wind 
east  like  an  enemy.  Help  me  to  move 
this  bench  for  him  into  the  sun.  (  They 
move  bench.)  No,  not  that  way  —  here, 
under  the  apple  tree.  Thank  you. 
Look  how  full  of  rosy  blossom  it  is. 

[Pointing  to  apple  tree. 

Dobson.  Theer  be  redder  blossoms 
nor  them,  Miss  Dora. 

Dora.  Where  do  they  blow,  Mr. 
Dobson? 

Dobson.     Under  your  eyes,  Miss  Dora. 

Dora.     Do  they? 

Dobson.  And  your  eyes  be  as  blue 
as 

Dora.  What,  Mr.  Dobson?  A 
butcher's  frock? 

Dobson.  Noa,  Miss  Dora;  as  blue 
as 

Dora.  Bluebell,  harebell,  speedwell, 
bluebottle,  succory,  forget-me-not? 


Dobson.  Noa,  Miss  Dora;  as  blue 
as 

Dora.  The  sky?  or  the  sea  on  a  blue 
day? 

Dobson.  Naay  then.  I  mean'd  they 
be  as  blue  as  violets. 

Dora.     Are  they? 

Dobson.  Theer  ye  goas  agean,  Miss, 
niver  believing  owt  I  says  to  ye  —  hallus 
a-fobbing  ma  off,  tho'  ye  knaws  I  love  ye. 
I  warrants  ye'll  think  moor  o'  this  young 
Squire  Edgar  as  ha'  coomed  among  us  — 
the  Lord  knaws  how — ye'll  think  more 
on  'is  little  finger  than  hall  my  hand  at 
the  haltar. 

Dora.  Perhaps,  Master  Dobson.  I 
can't  tell,  for  I  have  never  seen  him.  But 
my  sister  wrote  that  he  was  mighty 
pleasant,  and  had  no  pride  in  him. 

Dobson.  He'll  be  arter  you  now,  Miss 
Dora. 

Dora.     Will  he?     How  can  I  tell? 

Dobson.  He's  been  arter  Miss  Eva, 
haant  he? 

Dora.     Not  that  I  know. 

Dobson.  Didn't  I  spy  'em  a-sitting  i' 
the  woodbine  harbour  togither? 

Dora.  What  of  that?  Eva  told  me 
that  he  was  taking  her  likeness.  He's 
an  artist. 

Dobson.  What's  a  hartist?  I  doant 
believe  he's  iver  a  'eart  under  his  waist- 
coat. And  I  tells  ye  what,  Miss  Dora : 
he's  no  respect  for  the  Queen,  or  the 
parson,  or  the  justice  o'  peace,  or  owt. 
I  ha'  heard  'im  a-gawin'  on'  'ud  make 
your  'air  ■ —  God  bless  it !  —  stan'  'on  end. 
And  wuss  nor  that.  When  theer  wur  a 
meeting  o'  farmers  at  Littlechester  t'other 
daay,  and  they  was  all  a-crying  out  at  the 
bad  times,  he  cooms  up,  and  he  calls 
out  among  our  oan  men,  '  The  land 
belongs  to  the  people  ! ' 

Dora.     And  what  did  you  say  to  that? 

Dobson.  Well,  I  says,  s'pose  my  pig's 
the  land,  and  you  says  it  belongs  to  the 
parish,  and  theer  be  a  thousand  i'  the 
parish,  taakin'  in  the  women  and  childer; 
and  s'pose  I  kills  my  pig,  and  gi'es  it 
among  'em,  why  there  wudn't  be  a 
dinner  for  nawbody,  and  I  should  ha'  lost 
the  pig. 

Dora.     And  what  did  he  say  to  that? 


758 


THE  PROMISE   OF  MA  Y. 


ACT  I. 


Dobson.  Nowt  —  what  could  he  saay  ? 
But  I  taakes  'itn  fur  a  bad  lot  and  a  burn 
fool,  and  I  haates  the  very  sight  on  him. 

Dora  {looking  at  Dobson).  Master 
Dobson,  you  are  a  comely  man  to  look  at. 

Dobson.  I  thank  you  for  that,  Miss 
Dora,  onyhow. 

Dora.  Ay,  but  you  turn  right  ugly 
when  you're  in  an  ill  temper;  and  I 
promise  you  that  if  you  forget  yourself  in 
your  behaviour  to  this  gentleman,  my 
father's  friend,  I  will  never  change  word 
with  you  again. 

Enter  Farming  Man  from  barn. 

Farming  Man.  Miss,  the  farming 
men  'ull  hev  their  dinner  i'  the  long 
barn,  and  the  master  'ud  be  straange  an' 
pleased  if  you'd  step  in  fust,  and  see  that 
all  be  right  and  reg'lar  fur  'em  afoor  he 
coom.  [Exit. 

Dora.  I  go.  Master  Dobson,  did 
you  hear  what  I  said? 

Dobson.  Yeas,  yeas !  I'll  not  meddle 
wi'  'im  if  he  doant  meddle  wi'  mea. 
(Exit  Dora.)  Coomly,  says  she.  I 
niver  thowt  o'  mysen  i'  that  waay;  but 
if  she'd  taak  to  ma  i'  that  waay,  or  ony 
waay,  I'd  slaave  out  my  life  fur  'er. 
'  Coomly  to  look  at,'  says  she  —  but  she 
said  it  spiteful-like.  To  look  at  —  yeas, 
'coomly';  and  she  mayn't  be  so  fur  out 
theer.  But  if  that  be  nowt  to  she,  then 
it  be  nowt  to  me.  (Looking  off  stage.) 
Schoolmaster !  Why  if  Steer  ha'n't 
haxed  schoolmaster  to  dinner,  thaw  'e 
knaws  I  was  hallus  agean  heving  school- 
master i'  the  parish  !  fur  him  as  be  handy 
wi'  a  book  bean't  but  haafe  a  hand  at  a 
pitchfork. 

Enter  Wilson. 

Well,  Wilson.  I  seed  that  one  cow 
o'  thine  i'  the  pinfold  agean  as  I  wur  a- 
coomin'  'ere. 

Wilson.  Very  likely,  Mr.  Dobson. 
She  will  break  fence.  I  can't  keep  her 
in  order. 

Dobson.  An'  if  tha  can't  keep  thy 
one  cow  i'  horder,  how  can  tha  keep  all 
thy  scholards  i'  horder?  But  let  that 
goa  by.  What  dost  a  knaw  o'  this  Mr. 
Hedgar    as    be    a-lodgin'    wi'    ye?      I 


coom'd  upon  'im  t'other  daay  lookin'  at 
the  coontry,  then  a-scrattin  upon  a  bit  o' 
paaper,  then  a-lookin'  agean;  and  I 
taaked  'im  fur  soom  sort  of  a  land-sur- 
veyor—  but  a  beant. 

Wilson.  He's  a  Somersetshire  man, 
and  a  very  civil-spoken  gentleman. 

Dobson.  Gentleman !  What  be  he 
a-doing  here  ten  mile  an'  moor  fro'  a 
raail?  We  laays  out  o'  the  waay  fur 
gentlefoalk  altogither  —  leastwaays  they 
niver  cooms  'ere  but  fur  the  trout  i'  our 
beck,  fur  they  be  knaw'd  as  far  as 
Littlechester.     But  'e  doant  fish  neither. 

Wilson.  Well,  it's  no  sin  in  a  gentle- 
man not  to  fish. 

Dobson.     Noa,  but  I  haates  'im. 

Wilson.  Better  step  out  of  his  road, 
then,  for  he's  walking  to  us,  and  with  a 
book  in  his  hand. 

Dobson.  An'  I  haates  boooks  an'  all, 
fur  they  puts  foalk  off  the  owd  waays. 

Enter  Edgar,  reading —  not  seeing 
Dobson  and  Wilson. 

Edgar.     This  author,  with  his  charm 
of  simple  style 
And  close  dialectic,  all  but  proving  man 
An  automatic  series  of  sensations, 
Has  often  numb'd  me  into  apathy 
Against  the  unpleasant  jolts  of  this  rough 

road 
That  breaks  off  short  into  the  abysses — 

made  me 
A  Quietist  taking  all  things  easily. 

Dobson.  (Aside.)  There  mun  be 
summat  wrong  theer,  Wilson,  fur  I  doant 
understan'  it. 

Wilson.  (Aside.)  Nor  I  either,  Mr. 
Dobson. 

Dobson  (scornfully).  An'  thou  doant 
understan'  it  neither  —  and  thou  school- 
master an'  all. 

Edgar.     What  can  a  man,  then,  live 
for  but  sensations, 
Pleasant  ones?   men  of  old  would   un- 
dergo 
Unpleasant  for  the  sake  of  pleasant  ones 
Hereafter,    like    the    Moslem    beauties 

waiting 
To  clasp  their  lovers  by  the  golden  gates. 
For  me,  whose   cheerless   Houris  after 
death 


THE  PROMISE    OF  MA  Y. 


759 


Are  Night  and  Silence,  pleasant  ones  — 

the  while  — 
If  possible,  here  !  to  crop  the  flower  and 
pass. 
Dobson.     Well,  I  never  'eard  the  likes 
o'  that  afoor. 

Wilson.  {Aside.)  But  I  have,  Mr. 
Dobson.  It's  the  old  Scripture  text, 
*  Let  us  eat  and  drink,  for  to-morrow  we 
die.'  I'm  sorry  for  it,  for,  tho'  he  never 
comes  to  church,  I  thought  better  of 
him. 

Edgar.    '  What  are  we,'  says  the  blind 
old  man  in  Lear? 
'As  flies  to  the  Gods;    they  kill  us  for 
their  sport.' 
Dobson.     (Aside.)    Then  the  owd  man 
i'  Lear  should  be  shaamed  of  hissen,  but 
noan  o'  the  parishes  goas  by  that  naame 
'ereabouts. 

Edgar.      The    Gods!    but    they,   the 
shadows  of  ourselves, 
Have  past  for  ever.     It  is  Nature  kills, 
And  not  for  her  sport  either.    She  knows 

nothing. 
Man  only  knows,  the  worse  for  him !  for 

why 
Cannot  he  take  his  pastime  like  the  flies? 
And  if  my  pleasure  breed  another's  pain, 
Well  —  is  not  that  the  course  of  Nature 

too, 
From  the  dim  dawn  of  Being  —  her  main 

law 
Whereby  she  grows  in  beauty  —  that  her 

flies 
Must   massacre    each    other?    this   poor 
Nature ! 
Dobson.      Natur!      Natur!      Well,   it 
be  i'  my  natur  to  knock  'im  o'  the  'ead 
now;   but  I  weant. 

Edgar.     A  Quietist  taking  all  things 
easily  —  why  — 
Have  I  been  dipping  into  this  again 
To  steel  myself  against  the  leaving  her? 
[  Closes  book,  seeing  Wilson. 
Good  day ! 

Wilson.     Good  day,  sir. 

[Dobson  looks  hard  at  Edgar. 
Edgar    (to   Dobson).      Have    I    the 
pleasure,  friend,  of  knowing  you? 
Dobson.     Dobson. 
Edgar.     Good  day,  then,  Dobson. 

[Exit. 


Dobson.  '  Good  daay  then,  Dobson ! ' 
Civil-spoken  i'deed  !  Why,  Wilson,  tha 
'eard  'im  thysen  —  the  feller  couldn't  find 
a  Mister  in  his  mouth  fur  me,  as  farms 
five  hoonderd  haacre. 

Wilson.  You  never  find  one  for  me, 
Mr.  Dobson. 

Dobson.  Noa,  fur  thou  be  nobbut 
schoolmaster;  but  I  taakes  'im  for  a 
Lunnun  swindler,  and  a  burn  fool. 

Wilson.  He  can  hardly  be  both,  and 
he  pays  me  regular  every  Saturday. 

Dobson.     Yeas;   but  I  haates  'im. 

Enter  Steer,  Farm  Men  and  Women. 

Steer  (goes  and  sits  under  apple  tree). 
Hev'  ony  o'  ye  seen  Eva? 

Dobson.     Noa,  Mr.  Steer. 

Steer.  Well,  I  reckons  they'll  hev'  a 
fine  cider-crop  to-year  if  the  blossom 
'owds.  Good  murnin',  neighbours,  and 
the  saame  to  you,  my  men.  I  taakes  it 
kindly  of  all  o'  you  that  you  be  coomed 

—  what's  the  newspaaper  word,  Wilson? 

—  celebrate  —  to  celebrate  my  birthdaay 
i'  this  fashion.  Niver  man  'ed  better 
friends,  and  I  will  saay  niver  master  'ed 
better  men  :  fur  thaw  I  may  ha'  fallen  out 
wi'  ye  sometimes,  the  fault,  mebbe,  wur 
as  much  mine  as  yours;  and,  thaw  I  says 
it  mysen,  niver  men  'ed  a  better  master  — 
and  I  knaws  what  men  be,  and  what 
masters  be,  fur  I  wur  nobbut  a  laabourer, 
and  now  I  be  a  landlord  —  burn  a  plow- 
man, and  now,  as  far  as  money  goas,  I  be 
a  gentleman,  thaw  I  beant  naw  scholard, 
fur  I  'edn't  naw  time  to  maake  mysen  a 
scholard  while  I  wur  maakin'  mysen  a 
gentleman,  but  I  ha'  taaen  good  care  to 
turn  out  boath  my  darters  right  down 
fine  laadies. 

Dobson.     An'  soa  they  be. 

1st  Farming  Man.  Soa  they  be  !  soa 
they  be ! 

2nd  Farming  Man.  The  Lord  bless 
boath  on  'em ! 

3rd  Farming  Man.  An'  the  saame 
to  you,  Master. 

4th  Farming  Man.  And  long  life  to 
boath  on  'em.  An'  the  saame  to  you, 
Master  Steer,  likewise. 

Steer.     Thank  ye ! 


760 


THE  PROMISE    OF  MAY. 


Enter  Eva. 

Wheer  'asta  been? 

Eva  (timidly).  Many  happy  returns 
of  the  day,  father. 

Steer.  They  can't  be  many,  my  dear, 
but  I  'oapes  they'll  be  'appy. 

Dobson.  Why,  tha  looks  haale  anew 
to  last  to  a  hoonderd. 

Steer.  An'  why  shouldn't  I  last  to  a 
hoonderd?  Haale!  why  shouldn't  I  be 
haale?  fur  thaw  I  be  heighty  this  very 
daay,  I  niver  'es  sa  much  as  one  pin's 
prick  of  paain;  an'  I  can  taake  my  glass 
along  wi'  the  youngest,  fur  I  niver 
touched  a  drop  of  owt  till  my  oan  wed- 
ding-daay,  an'  then  I  wur  turned  huppads 
o'  sixty.  Why  shouldn't  I  be  haale?  I 
ha'  plowed  the  ten-aacre —  it  be  mine 
now  —  afoor  ony  o'  ye  wur  burn  —  ye  all 
knaws  the  ten-aacre  —  I  mun  ha'  plowed 
it  moor  nor  a  hoonderd  times;  hallus 
hup  at  sunrise,  and  I'd  drive  the  plow 
straait  as  a  line  right  i'  the  faace  o'  the 
sun,  then  back  agean,  a-follering  my  oan 
shadder  —  then  hup  agean  i'  the  faace  o' 
the  sun.  Eh !  how  the  sun  'ud  shine, 
and  the  larks  'ud  sing  i'  them  daays,  and 
the  smell  o'  the  mou'd  an'  all.  Eh  !  if  I 
could  ha'  gone  on  wi'  the  plowin'  nobbut 
the  smell  o'  the  mou'd  'ud  ha'  maade  ma 
live  as  long  as  Jerusalem. 

Eva.     Methusaleh,  father. 

Steer.  Ay,  lass,  but  when  thou  be  as 
owd  as  me  thou'll  put  one  word  fur 
another  as  I  does. 

Dobson.  But,  Steer,  thaw  thou  be 
haale  anew  I  seed  tha  a-limpin'  up  just 
now  wi'  the  roomatics  i'  the  knee. 

Steer.  Roomatics!  Noa;  I  laame't 
my  knee  last  night  running  arter  a  thief. 
Beant  there  house-breakers  down  i'  Little- 
chester,  Dobson  —  doant  ye  hear  of  ony? 

Dobson.  Ay,  that  there  be.  Im- 
manuel  Goldsmith's  was  broke  into  o' 
Monday  night,  and  ower  a  hoonderd 
pounds'  worth  o'  rings  stolen. 

Steer.  So  I  thowt,  and  I  heard  the 
winder  —  that's  the  winder  at  the  end  o' 
the  passage,  that  goas  by  thy  chaumber. 
( Turning  to  Eva.)  Why,  lass,  what 
maakes  tha  sa  red  ?  Did  'e  git  into  thy 
chaumber? 


Eva.     Father ! 

Steer.  Well,  I  runned  arter  thief  i' 
the  dark,  and  fell  agean  coalscuttle  and 
my  kneea  gev  waay  or  I'd  ha'  cotched 
'im,  but  afoor  I  coomed  up  he  got  thruff 
the  winder  agean. 

Eva.     Got  thro'  the  window  again? 

Steer.  Ay,  but  he  left  the  mark  of  'is 
foot  i'  the  flower-bed;  now  theer  be  noan 
o'  my  men,  thinks  I  to  mysen,  'ud  ha* 
done  it  'cep'  it  were  Dan  Smith,  fur  I 
cotched  'im  once  a-stealin'  coals,  an'  I 
sent  fur  'im,  an'  I  measured  his  foot  wi' 
the  mark  i'  the  bed,  but  it  wouldn't  fit 
—  seeams  to  me  the  mark  wur  maade  by 
a  Lunnun  boot.  {Looks  at  Eva.)  Why, 
now,  what  maakes  tha  sa  white? 

Eva.     Fright,  father ! 

Steer.  Maake  thysen  easy.  I'll  hev 
the  winder  naailed  up,  and  put  Towser 
under  it. 

Eva  (clasping  her  hands).  No,  no, 
father !    Towser'll  tear  him  all  to  pieces. 

Steer.  Let  him  keep  awaay,  then; 
but  coom,  coom !  let's  be  gawin'.  They 
ha'  broached  a  barrel  of  aale  i'  the  long 
barn,  and  the  fiddler  be  theer,  and  the 
lads  and  lasses  'ull  hev  a  dance. 

Eva.  (Aside.)  Dance !  small  heart 
have  I  to  dance.  I  should  seem  to  be 
dancing  upon  a  grave. 

Steer.  Wheer  be  Mr.  Edgar?  about 
the  premises? 

Dobson.     Hallus  about  the  premises  ! 

Steer.  So  much  the  better,  so  much 
the  better.  I  likes  'im,  and  Eva  likes 
'im.  Eva  can  do  owt  wi'  'im;  look  for 
'im,  Eva,  and  bring  'im  to  the  barn. 
He  'ant  naw  pride  in  'im,  and  we'll  git 
'im  to  speechify  for  us  arter  dinner. 

Eva.     Yes,  father !  [Exit. 

Steer.  Coom  along  then,  all  the  rest 
o'  ye  !  Churchwarden  be  a-coomin',  thaw 
me  and  'im  we  niver  'grees  about  the 
tithe;  and  Parson  mebbe,  thaw  he  niver 
mended  that  gap  i'  the  glebe  fence  as  I 
telled  'im;  and  Blacksmith,  thaw  he 
niver  shoes  a  herse  to  my  likings;  and 
Baaker,  thaw  I  sticks  to  hoam-maade  — 
but  all  on  'em  welcome,  all  on  'em  wel- 
come ;  and  I've  hed  the  long  barn  cleared 
out  of  all  the  machines,  and  the  sacks, 
and    the  taaters,  and  the    mangles,  and 


ACT  I. 


THE  PROMISE    OF  MA  Y. 


761 


theer'll   be   room    anew    for    all   o'   ye. 
Foller  me. 

All.  Yeas,  yeas !  Three  cheers  for 
Mr.  Steer ! 

\A II  exeunt  except  Dobson  into  barn. 

Enter  Edgar. 

Dobson  (tuho  is  going,  turns) .  Squire  ! 
—  if  so  be  you  be  a  squire. 

Edgar.     Dobbins,  I  think. 

Dobson.  Dobbins,  you  thinks;  and  I 
thinks  ye  wears  a  Lunnun  boot. 

Edgar.     Well? 

Dobson.  And  I  thinks  I'd  like  to 
taake  the  measure  o'  your  foot. 

Edgar.  Ay,  if  you'd  like  to  measure 
your  own  length  upon  the  grass. 

Dobson.  Coom,  coom,  that's  a  good 
un.  Why,  I  could  throw  four  o'  ye; 
but  I  promised  one  of  the  Misses  I 
wouldn't  meddle  wi'  ye,  and  I  weant. 

[Exit  into  barn. 

Edgar.     Jealous  of  me  with  Eva !     Is 
it  so? 
Well,  tho'  I  grudge  the  pretty  jewel,  that 

Have  worn,  to  such  a  clod,  yet  that 
might  be 

The  best  way  out  of  it,  if  the  child  could 
keep 

Her  counsel.  I  am  sure  I  wish  her 
happy. 

But  I  must  free  myself  from  this  en- 
tanglement. 

I  have  all  my  life  before  me  —  so  has 
she  — 

Give  her  a  month  or  two,  and  her  affec- 
tions 

Will  flower  toward  the  light  in  some  new 
face. 

Still  I  am  half-afraid  to  meet  her  now. 

She  will  urge  marriage  on  me.  I  hate 
tears. 

Marriage  is  but  an  old  tradition.     I  hate 

Traditions,  ever  since  my  narrow  father, 

After  my  frolic  with  his  tenant's  girl, 

Made  younger  elder  son,  violated  the 
whole 

Tradition  of  our  land,  and  left  his  heir, 

Born,  happily,  with  some  sense  of  art,  to 
live 

By  brush  and  pencil.  By  and  by,  when 
Thought 


Comes  down  among  the  crowd,  and  man 

perceives  that 
The  lost  gleam  of  an  after-life  but  leaves 

him 
A  beast  of  prey  in  the  dark,  why  then 

the  crowd 
May  wreak  my  wrongs  upon  my  wrongers. 

Marriage ! 
That  fine,  fat,  hook-nosed  uncle  of  mine, 

old  Harold, 
Who   leaves  me  all  his  land  at   Little- 

chester, 
He,  too,  would  oust  me  from  his  will, 

if  I 
Made  such  a  marriage.     And   marriage 

in  itself — 
The  storm  is  hard  at  hand  will  sweep 

away 
Thrones,     churches,     ranks,     traditions, 

customs,  marriage 
One  of  the  feeblest !     Then  the  man,  the 

woman, 
Following  their  best  affinities,  will  each 
Bid  their  old  bond  farewell  with  smiles, 

not  tears; 
Good  wishes,  not   reproaches;    with  no 

fear 
Of  the  world's  gossiping  clamour,  and  no 

need 
Of  veiling  their  desires. 

Conventionalism, 
Who  shrieks  by  day  at  what  she  does  by 

night, 
Would  call  this  vice;   but  one  time's  vice 

may  be 
The   virtue  of  another;    and  Vice  and 

Virtue 
Are  but  two  masks   of  self;    and  what 

hereafter 
Shall  mark  out  Vice  from  Virtue  in  the 

gulf 
Of  never-dawning  darkness? 

Enter  Eva. 

My  sweet  Eva, 
Where  have  you  lain  in  ambush  all  the 

morning? 
They  say  your  sister,  Dora,  has  return'd, 
And  that  should  make  you  happy,  if  you 

love  her ! 
But  you  look  troubled. 

Eva.  Oh,  I  love  her  so, 

I  was  afraid  of  her,  and  I  hid  myself. 


702 


THE  PROMISE    OF  MAY. 


ACT   \ 


We  never  kept  a  secret  from  each  other; 
She  would  have  seen  at   once  into  my 

trouble, 
And  ask'd  me  what  I  could  not  answer. 

Oh,  Philip, 
Father  heard  you  last  night.     Our  savage 

mastiff, 
That   all  but   kill'd  the  beggar,  will  be 

placed 
Beneath  the  window,  Philip. 

Edgar.  Savage,  is  he? 

What   matters?      Come,   give   me   your 

hand  and  kiss  me 
This  beautiful  May-morning. 

Eva.  The  most  beautiful 

May  we  have  had  for  many  years ! 

Edgar.  And  here 

Is   the   most   beautiful  morning  of  this 

May. 
Nay,  you  must  smile  upon  me !     There 

—  ycu  make 
i^he  May  and  morning  still  more  beauti- 
ful, 
You,  the  most  beautiful  blossom  of  the 

May. 
Eva.     Dear   Philip,  all  the   world   is 

beautiful 
If  we  were  happy,  and  could  chime  in 

with  it. 
Edgar.     True;    for  the   senses,  love, 

are  for  the  world; 
That  for  the  senses. 
Eva.  Yes. 

Edgar.  And  when  the  man, 

The  child  of  evolution,  flings  aside 
His  swaddling-bands,  the  morals  of  the 

tribe, 
He,   following  his  own   instincts  as  his 

God, 
Will  enter  on  the  larger  golden  age; 
No  pleasure  then  taboo'd :  for  when  the 

tide 
Of  full  democracy  has  overwhelm'd 
This  Old  world,  from  that  flood  will  rise 

the  New, 
Like  the   Love-goddess,  with  no  bridal 

veil, 
Ring,  trinket  of  the  Church,  but  naked 

Nature 
in  all  her  loveliness. 
Eva.  What  are  you  saying? 

Edgar.     That,  if  we  did  not  strain  to 

make  ourselves 


Better  and  higher  than  Nature,  we  might  be 
As   happy   as   the    bees   there   at   their 

honey 
In  these  sweet  blossoms. 

Eva.  Yes;   how  sweet  they  smell! 

Edgar.     There !   let  me   break  some 
off  for  you. 

[Breaking  branch  off. 

Eva.  My  thanks. 

But,  look,  how  wasteful  of  the  blossom 

you  are ! 
One,    two,    three,   four,   five,    six  —  you 

have  robb'd  poor  father 
Of  ten  good  apples.     Oh,  I  forgot  to  tell 

you 
He  wishes  you  to  dine  along  with  us, 
And  speak  for  him  after  —  you  that  are 
so  clever ! 
Edgar.     I  grieve  I  cannot;    but,  in- 
deed   

Eva.  What  is  it? 

Edgar.     Well,  business.     I  must  leave 

you,  love,  to-day. 
Eva.     Leave  me,  to-day !     And  wnen 

will  you  return? 
Edgar.       I     cannot     tell     precisely; 

but 

Eva.  But  what? 

Edgar.     I  trust,  my  dear,  we  shall  be 

always  friends. 
Eva.     After  all  that  has  gone  between 
us  —  friends ! 
What,  only  friends?  [Drops  branch. 

Edgar.  All  that  has  gone 

between  us 
Should  surely  make  us  friends. 

Eva.  But  keep  us  lovers. 

Edgar.     Child,  do  you  love  me  now  ? 

Eva.  Yes,  now  and  ever. 

Edgar.       Then   you   should   wish   us 

both  to  love  for  ever. 

But  if  you  will  bind  love  to  one  for  ever, 

Altho'   at   first   he   take   his   bonds   for 

flowers, 
As  years  go  on,  he  feels  them  press  upon 

him, 
Begins  to  flutter  in  them,  and  at  last 
Breaks  thro'  them,  and  so  flies  away  for 

ever; 
While,  had  you  left  him  free  use  of  his 

wings, 
Who  knows  that  he  had  ever  dream'd  of 
flying? 


ACT  I. 


THE  PROMISE    OF  MAY. 


763 


Eva.     But  all  that  sounds  so  wicked 
and  so  strange; 
*Till  death  us  part '  —  those  are  the  only 

words, 
The  true  ones  —  nay,  and  those  not  true 

enough, 
For  they  that  love  do  not  believe  that 

death 
Will  part  them.     Why  do  you  jest  with 

me,  and  try 
To  fright  me?     Tho'  you  are  a  gentle- 
man, 

I  but  a  farmer's  daughter 

Edgar.  Tut !    you  talk 

Old  feudalism.     When  the  great  Democ- 
racy 

Makes  a  new  world 

Eva.  And  if  you  be  not  jesting, 

Neither  the  old  world,  nor  the  new,  nor 

father, 
Sister,  nor  you,  shall  ever  see  me  more. 
Edgar  {moved) .   Then  —  {aside)  Shall 
I  say  it?  —  {aloud)  fly  with   me 
to-day. 
Eva.     No !     Philip,  Philip,  if  you  do 
not  marry  me, 
I    shall   go    mad   for    utter   shame    and 
die. 
Edgar.     Then,  if  we  needs  must  be 
conventional, 
When  shall  your  parish-parson  bawl  our 

banns 
Before  your  gaping  clowns? 

Eva.  Not  in  our  church  — 

I  think  I  scarce  could  hold  my  head  up 

there. 
Is  there  no  other  way? 

Edgar.  Yes,  if  you  cared 

To  fee  an  over-opulent  superstition, 
Then   they  would  grant  you  what  they 

call  a  license 
To  marry.     Do  you  wish  it? 

Eva.  Do  I  wish  it? 

Edgar.     In  London. 
Eva.  You  will  write  to  me? 

Edgar.  I  will. 

Eva.     And  I  will  fly  to  you  thro'  the 
night,  the  storm  — 
Yes,  tho'  the  fire  should  run  along  the 

ground, 
As  once  it  did  in  Egypt.     Oh,  you  see, 
I   was    just   out    of    school,   I    had   no 
mother  — 


My  sister  far  away  —  and  you,  a  gentle- 
man, 
Told   me  to   trust   you:   yes,   in   every- 
thing — 
That  was   the    only   true  love;    and   I 

trusted  — 
Oh,  yes,  indeed,  I  would  have  died  for 

you. 
How  could  you — oh,  how  could  you? 

—  nay,  how  could  I  ? 
But  now   you   will   set  all   right   again, 

and  I 
Shall  not  be  made  the  laughter  of  the 

village, 
And  poor  old  father  not  die  miserable. 
Dora  {singing  in  the  distance) . 

O  joy  for   the   promise  of  May,  of 

May, 
O  joy  for  the  promise  of  May. 
Edgar.     Speak   not   so   loudly;     that 
must  be  your  sister. 
You  never  told  her,  then,  of  what  has 

past 
Between  us. 

Eva.         Never ! 

Edgar.  Do  not  till  I  bid  you. 

Eva.     No,  Philip,  no.     [  Turns  away. 

Edgar    {moved).        How    gracefully 

there  she  stands. 

Weeping  —  the  little  Niobe  !    What !  we 

prize 
The  statue  or  the  picture  all  the  more 
When  we  have  made  them  ours !     Is  she 

less  lovable, 
Less   lovely,   being   wholly   mine?      To 

stay  — 
Follow  my  art  among  these  quiet  fields, 

Live  with  these  honest  folk 

And  play  the  fool ! 
No  !  she  that  gave  herself  to  me  so  easily 
Will  yield  herself  as  easily  to  another. 
Eva.     Did  you  speak,  Philip? 
Edgar.  Nothing  more,  farewell. 

[  They  embrace. 
Dora  {coming  nearer). 

O  grief  for  the  promise  of  May,  of 

May, 
O  grief  for  the  promise  of  May. 
Edgar  {still  embracing   her).     Keep 
up   your    heart    until    we    meet 
again. 
Eva.     If  that  should  break  before  we 
meet  again? 


764 


THE  PROMISE    OF  MAY. 


ACT  IL 


Edgar.       Break !     nay,   but   call    for 
Philip  when  you  will, 
And  he  returns. 

Eva.        Heaven     hears    you,     Philip 

Edgar ! 
Edgar  {moved).     And  he  would  hear 
you  even  from  the  grave. 
Heaven  curse  him   if  he    come    not   at 
your  call !  [Exit. 

Enter  Dora. 

Dora.     Well,  Eva ! 

Eva.  Oh,  Dora,  Dora,  how  long  you 
have  been  away  from  home !  Oh,  how 
often  I  have  wished  for  you !  It  seemed 
to  me  that  we  were  parted  for  ever. 

Dora.  For  ever,  you  foolish  child ! 
What's  come  over  you?  We  parted  like 
the  brook  yonder  about  the  alder  island, 
to  come  together  again  in  a  moment  and 
to  go  on  together  again,  till  one  of  us  be 
married.  But  where  is  this  Mr.  Edgar 
whom  you  praised  so  in  your  first  letters? 
You  haven't  even  mentioned  him  in  your 
last? 

Eva.     He  has  gone  to  London. 

Dora.  Ay,  child;  and  you  look  thin 
and  pale.  Is  it  for  his  absence?  Have 
you  fancied  yourself  in  love  with  him? 
That's  all  nonsense,  you  know,  such  a 
baby  as  you  are.  But  you  shall  tell  me 
all  about  it. 

Eva.  Not  now,  —  presently.  Yes,  I 
have  been  in  trouble,  but  I  am  happy  — 
I  think,  quite  happy  now. 

Dora  {taking  Eva's  hand).  Come, 
then,  and  make  them  happy  in  the  long 
barn,  for  father  is  in  his  glory,  and  there 
is  a  piece  of  beef  like  a  house-side,  and  a 
plum-pudding  as  big  as  the  round  hay- 
stack. But  see  they  are  coming  out  for 
the  dance  already.  Well,  my  child,  let 
us  join  them. 

Enter  all  from  barn  laughing.  Eva  sits 
reluctantly  under  apple  tree.  Steer 
enters  smoking,  sits  by  Eva. 

Dance. 


ACT   II. 

Five  years  have  elapsed  between  Acts 
Land  II. 

SCENE. — A  Meadow.  On  one  side 
a  Pathway  going  over  a  rustic 
Bridge.  At  back  the  Farmhouse 
among  Trees.  In  the  distance  a 
Church  Spire. 

Dobson  and  Dora. 

Dobson.  So  the  owd  uncle  i'  Coom- 
berland  be  dead,  Miss  Dora,  beant  he? 

Dora.  Yes,  Mr.  Dobson,  I've  been 
attending  on  his  deathbed  and  his  burial. 

Dobson.  It  be  five  year  sin'  ye  went 
afoor  to  him,  and  it  seems  to  me  nobbut 
t'other  day.     Hesn't  he  left  ye  nowt? 

Dora.     No,  Mr.  Dobson. 

Dobson.  But  he  were  mighty  fond  o' 
ye,  warn't  he? 

Dora.  Fonder  of  poor  Eva  —  like 
everybody  else. 

Dobson  {handing  Dora  basket  of  roses) . 
Not  like  me,  Miss  Dora;  and  I  ha' 
browt  these  roses  to  ye  —  I  forgits  what 
they  calls  'em,  but  I  hallus  gi'ed  soom 
on  'em  to  Miss  Eva  at  this  time  o'  year. 
Will  ya  taake  'em?  fur  Miss  Eva,  she 
set  the  bush  by  my  dairy  winder  afoor 
she  went  to  school  at  Littlechester  —  so 
I  alius  browt  soom  on  'em  to  her;  and 
now  she  be  gone,  will  ye  taake  'em,  Miss 
Dora? 

Dora.  I  thank  you.  They  tell  me 
that  yesterday  you  mentioned  her  name 
too  suddenly  before  my  father.  See  that 
you  do  not  do  so  again  ! 

Dobson.  Noa;  I  knaws  a  deal  better 
now.     I  seed  how  the  owd  man  wurvext. 

Dora.  I  take  them,  then,  for  Eva's 
sake. 

[  Takes  basket,  places  some  in  her  dress. 

Dobson.  Eva's  saake.  Yeas.  Poor 
gel,  poor  gel !  I  can't  abear  to  think  on 
'er  now,  fur  I'd  ha'  done  owt  fur  'er  my- 
sen;  an'  ony  o'  Steer's  men,  an'  ony  o' 
my  men  'ud  ha'  done  owt  fur  'er,  an'  all 
the  parish  'ud  ha'  done  owt  fur  'er,  fur 
we  was  all  on  us  proud  on  'er,  an'  them 
theer  be  soom  of  her  oan  roses,  an'  she 
wur  as  sweet  as  ony  on  'em  —  the  Lord 


ACT  II. 


THE  PROMISE   OF  MA  Y. 


765 


bless  'er  —  'er  oan  sen;  an'  weant  ye 
taake  'em  now,  Miss  Dora,  fur  'er  saake 
an'  fur  my  saake  an'  all? 

Dora.     Do  you  want  them  back  again  ? 

Dobson.  Noa,  noa !  Keep  'em.  But 
I  hed  a  word  to  saay  to  ye. 

Dora.  Why,  Farmer,  you  should  be 
in  the  hayfield  looking  after  your  men; 
you  couldn't  have  more  splendid  weather. 

Dobson.  I  be  a-going  theer;  but  I 
thovvt  I'd  bring  tha  them  roses  fust.  The 
weather's  well  anew,  but  the  glass  be  a 
bit  shaaky.     S'iver  we've  led  moast  on  it. 

Dora.  Ay  !  but  you  must  not  be  too 
sudden  with  it  either,  as  you  were  last 
year,  when  you  put  it  in  green,  and  your 
stack  caught  fire. 

Dobson.  I  were  insured,  Miss,  an'  I 
lost  nowt  by  it.  But  I  weant  be  too 
sudden  wi'  it;  and  I  feel  sewer,  Miss 
Dora,  that  I  ha'  been  noan  too  sudden 
wi'  you,  fur  I  ha'  sarved  for  ye  well  nigh 
as  long  as  the  man  sarved  for  'is  sweet'art 
i'  Scriptur'.  Weant  ye  gi'e  me  a  kind 
answer  at  last? 

Dora.  I  have  no  thought  of  marriage, 
my  friend.  We  have  been  in  such  grief 
these  five  years,  not  only  on  my  sister's 
account,  but  the  ill  success  of  the  farm, 
and  the  debts,  and  my  father's  breaking 
down,  and  his  blindness.  How  could  I 
think  of  leaving  him? 

Dobson.  Eh,  but  I  be  well  to  do; 
and  if  ye  would  nobbut  hev  me,  I  would 
taake  the  owd  blind  man  to  my  oan  fire- 
side.    You  should  hev  him  alius  wi'  ye. 

Dora.  You  are  generous,  but  it  can- 
not be.  I  cannot  love  you ;  nay,  I  think 
I  never  can  be  brought  to  love  any  man. 
It  seems  to  me  that  I  hate  men,  ever 
since  my  sister  left  us.  Oh,  see  here. 
{Pulls  out  a  letter. )  I  wear  it  next  my 
heart.  Poor  sister,  I  had  it  five  years 
ago.  •  Dearest  Dora,  —  I  have  lost  my- 
self, and  am  lost  for  ever  to  you  and  my 
poor  father.  I  thought  Mr.  Edgar  the 
best  of  men,  and  he  has  proved  himself 
the  worst.  Seek  not  for  me,  or  you  may 
find  me  at  the  bottom  of  the  river.  —  Eva.' 

Dobson.     Be  that  my  fault? 

Dora.  No;  but  how  should  I,  with 
this  grief  still  at  my  heart,  take  to  the 
milking  of  your  cows,  the  fatting  of  your 


calves,  the  making  of  your  butter,  and 
the  managing  of  your  poultry? 

Dobson.  Naay,  but  I  hev  an  owd 
woman  as  'ud  see  to  all  that;  and  you 
should  sit  i'  your  oan  parlour  quite  like  a 
laady,  ye  should ! 

Dora.     It  cannot  be. 

Dobson.  An'  plaay  the  pianner,  if  ye 
liked,  all  daay  long,  like  a  laady,  ye 
should  an'  all. 

Dora.     It  cannot  be. 

Dobson.  And  I  would  loove  tha  moor 
nor  ony  gentleman  'ud  loove  tha. 

Dora.     No,  no ;  it  cannot  be. 

Dobson.  And  p'raps  ye  hears  'at  I 
soomtimes  taakes  a  drop  too  much;  but 
that  be  all  along  o'  you,  Miss,  because 
ye  weant  hev  me;  but,  if  ye  would,  I 
could  put  all  that  o'  one  side  easy  anew. 

Dora.  Cannot  you  understand  plain 
words,  Mr.  Dobson?  I  tell  you,  it  can- 
not be. 

Dobson.  Eh  lass !  Thy  feyther  eddi- 
cated  his  darters  to  marry  gentlefoalk, 
and  see  what's  coomed  on  it. 

Dora.  That  is  enough,  Farmer  Dob- 
son. You  have  shown  me  that,  though 
fortune  had  born  you  into  the  estate  of  a 
gentleman,  you  would  still  have  been 
Parmer  Dobson.  You  had  better  attend 
to  your  hayfield.     Good  afternoon. 

[Exit. 

Dobson.  '  Farmer  Dobson  ! '  Well, 
I  be  Farmer  Dobson;  but  I  thinks 
Farmer  Dobson's  dog  'ud  ha'  knaw'd 
better  nor  to  cast  her  sister's  misfortin 
inter  'er  teeth  arter  she'd  been  a-readin' 
me  the  letter  wi'  'er  voice  a-shaakin',  and 
the  drop  in  'er  eye.  Theer  she  goas ! 
Shall  I  foller  'er  and  ax  'er  to  maake  it 
up?  Noa,  not  yet.  Let  'er  cool  upon 
it;  I  likes  'er  all  the  better  fur  taakin' 
me  down,  like  a  laady,  as  she  be. 
Farmer  Dobson  !  I  be  Farmer  Dobson, 
sewer  anew;  but  if  iver  I  cooms  upo' 
Gentleman  Hedgar  agean,  and  doant 
laay  my  cartwhip  athurt  'is  shou'ders, 
why  then  I  beant  Farmer  Dobson,  but 
summun  else  —  blaame't  if  I  beant ! 

Enter  HAYMAKERS  with  a  load  of  hay. 

The  last  on  it,  eh? 
1st  Haymaker.     Yeas. 


766 


THE  PROMISE    OF  MA  Y. 


ACT  II. 


Dobson.     Hoam  wi'  it,  then. 

[Exit  surlily. 

1st  Haymaker.  Well,  it  be  the  last 
load  hoam. 

2nd  Haymaker.  Yeas,  an'  owd  Dob- 
son should  be  glad  on  it.  What  maakes 
'im  alius  sa  glum? 

Sally  Allen.  Glum !  he  be  wuss  nor 
glum.  He  coom'd  up  to  me  yisterdaay 
i'  the  haayfield,  when  mea  and  my 
sweet'art  was  a-working  along  o'  one 
side  wi'  one  another,  and  he  sent  'im 
awaay  to  t'other  end  o'  the  field;  and 
when  I  axed  'im  why,  he  telled  me  'at 
sweet'arts  niver  worked  well  togither; 
and  I  telled  Hm  'at  sweet'arts  alius 
worked  best  togither;  and  then  he 
called  me  a  rude  naame,  and  I  can't 
abide  'im. 

James.  Why,  lass,  doant  tha  knaw  he 
be  sweet  upo'  Dora  Steer,  and  she  weant 
sa  much  as  look  at  'im?  And  wheniver 
'e  sees  two  sweet'arts  togither  like  thou 
and  me,  Sally,  he  be  fit  to  bust  hissen  wi' 
spites  and  jalousies. 

Sally.  Let  'im  bust  hissen,  then,  for 
owt  /  cares. 

1st  Haymaker.  Well  but,  as  I  said 
afoor,  it  be  the  last  load  hoam;  do  thou 
and  thy  sweet'art  sing  us  hoam  to  supper 
—  '  The  Last  Load  Hoam.' 

All.     Ay !     '  The  Last  Load  Hoam.' 

Song. 

What  did  ye  do,  and  what  did  ye  saay, 
Wi'  the  wild  white  rose,  an'  the  wood- 
bine sa  gaay, 
An'  the  midders  all  mow'd,  an'  the  sky 

sa  blue  — 
What  did  ye  saay,  and  what  did  ye  do, 
When   ye   thowt    there   were    nawbody 

watchin'  o'  you, 
And  you  an'  your  Sally  was  forkin'  the 
haay, 
At  the  end  of  the  daay, 
For  the  last  load  hoam? 

What  did  we  do,  and  what  did  we  saay, 
Wi'  the  briar  sa  green,  an'  the  wilier  sa 

graay, 
An'  the  midders  all  mow'd,  an'  the  sky 

sa  blue  — 
Do  ye  think  I  be  gawin'  to  tell  it  to  you, 


What  we  mowt  saay,  and  what  we  mowt 

do, 
When  me  an'  my  Sally  was  forkin'  the 
haay, 
At  the  end  of  the  daay, 
For  the  last  load  hoam? 

But  what  did  ye  saay,  and  what  did  ye  do, 
Wi'  the  butterflies  out,  and  the  svvallers 

at  plaay, 
An'  the  midders  all  mow'd,  an'  the  sky 

sa  blue? 
Why,  coom  then,  owd  feller,  I'll  tell  it  to 

you; 
For  me  an'  my  Sally  we  swear'd  to  be 

true, 
To  be  true  to  each  other,  let  'appen  what 

maay, 
Till  the  end  of  the  daay 
And  the  last  load  hoam. 

All.     Well  sung ! 

James.  Fanny  be  the  naame  i'  the 
song,  but  I  swopt  it  fur  she. 

[Pointing  to  Sally. 

Sally.  Let  ma  aloan  afoor  foalk,  wilt 
tha? 

1st  Haymaker.  Ye  shall  sing  that 
agean  to-night,  fur  owd  Dobson'll  gi'e  us 
a  bit  o'  supper. 

Sally.  I  weant  goa  to  owd  Dobson; 
he  wur  rude  to  me  i'  tha  haayfield,  and 
he'll  be  rude  to  me  agean  to-night.  Owd 
Steer's  gotten  all  his  grass  down  and 
wants  a  hand,  and  I'll  goa  to  him. 

1st  Haymaker.  Owd  Steer  gi'es  nub- 
but  cowd  tea  to  'is  men,  and  owd  Dob- 
son gi'es  beer. 

Sally.  But  I'd  like  owd  Steer's  cowd 
tea  better  nor  Dobson's  beer.     Good-bye. 

[  Going. 

James.     Gi'e  us  a  buss  fust,  lass. 

Sally.     I  telled  tha  to  let  ma  aloan ! 

James.  Why,  wasn't  thou  and  me 
a-bussin'  o'  one  another  t'other  side  o' 
the  haaycock,  when  owd  Dobson  coom'd 
upo'  us?  I  can't  let  tha  aloan  if  I 
would,  Sally.  [  Offering  to  kiss  her. 

Sally.     Git  along  wi'  ye,  do  !       [Exit. 
[All  laugh ;  exeunt  singing. 

'To  be  true  to  each   other,  let  'appen 
what  maay, 


ACT  II. 


THE  PROMISE    OF  MAY. 


767 


Till  the  end  o'  the  daay 
An'  the  last  load  hoam.' 

Enter  Harold. 

Harold.     Not  Harold !    '  Philip  Edgar, 

Philip  Edgar ! » 
Her  phantom  call'd  me  by  the  name  she 

loved. 
I  told  her  I  should  hear  her  from  the 

grave. 
Ay !    yonder    is    her    casement.      I    re- 
member 
Her  bright  face  beaming  starlike  down 

upon  me 
Thro'  that  rich  cloud  of  blossom.     Since 

I  left  her 
Here  weeping,  I  have  ranged  the  world, 

and  sat 
Thro'  every  sensual  course  of  that   full 

feast 
That  leaves  but  emptiness. 

Song. 

'To  be  true  to   each  other,  let  'appen 
what  maay, 
To  the  end  o'  the  daay 
An'  the  last  load  hoam.' 

Harold.     Poor   Eva !     O  my  God,  if 

man  be  only 
A  willy-nilly  current  of  sensations  — 
Reaction  needs  must  follow  revel  — yet — 
Why  feel  remorse,  he,  knowing  that  he 

must  have 
Moved  in  the  iron  grooves  of  Destiny? 
Remorse  then  is  a  part  of  Destiny, 
Nature  a  liar,  making  us  feel  guilty 
Of  her  own  faults. 

My  grandfather  —  of  him 
They  say,  that  women  — 

O  this  mortal  house, 
Which  we  are  born  into,  is  haunted  by 
The  ghosts  of  the  dead  passions  of  dead 

men;    ' 
And  these  take  flesh  again  with  our  own 

flesh, 
And  bring  us  to  confusion. 

He  was  only 
A  poor  philosopher  who  call'd  the  mind 
Of  children  a  blank  page,  a  tabula  rasa. 
There,  there,  is  written  in  invisible  inks 
'Lust,    Prodigality,  Covetousness,  Craft, 


Cowardice,  Murder'  —  and  the  heat  and 

fire 
Of  life  will  bring  them  out,  and  black 

enough, 
So  the  child  grow  to  manhood:  better 

death 
With  our  first  wail  than  life  — 

Song  {further  off). 

'Till  the  end  o'  the  daay 
An'  the  last  load  hoam, 
Load  hoam.' 

This  bridge  again  !     {Steps  on  the  bridge.) 

How  often  have  I  stood 

With  Eva  here !     The  brook  among  its 

flowers ! 
Forget-me-not,     meadowsweet,     willow- 
herb. 
I  had  some  smattering  of  science  then, 
Taught  her  the  learned  names,  anatomised 
The  flowers  for  her  —  and  now  I  only  wish 
This    pool    were    deep    enough,   that    I 

might  plunge 
And  lose  myself  for  ever. 

Enter  Dan  Smith  (singing). 

Gee  oop  !  whoa !     Gee  oop  !  whoa ! 
Scizzars  an'  Pumpy  was  good  uns  to  goa 
Thruf  slush  an'  squad 
When  roads  was  bad, 
But  hallus  'ud  stop  at  the  Vine-an'-the- 
Hop, 
Fur  boath  on  'em  knawed  as  well  as 

mysen 
That  beer   be  as  good   fur   'erses   as 

men. 
Gee    oop  !    whoa !     Gee   oop  !    whoa  ! 
Scizzars   an'   Pumpy   was    good  uns   to 
goa. 

The  beer's  gotten  oop  into  my  'ead. 
S'iver  I  mun  git  along  back  to  the  farm, 
fur  she  telled  ma  to  taake  the  cart  to 
Littlechester. 

Enter  Dora. 

Half  an  hour  late  !  why  are  you  loiter- 
ing here?     Away  with  you  at  once. 

[Exit  Dan  Smith. 
(Seeing  Harold  on  bridge.) 

Some  madman,  is  it, 


768 


THE  PROMISE    OF  MA  Y. 


ACT   II. 


Gesticulating  there  upon  the  bridge? 
I  am  half  afraid  to  pass. 

Harold.  Sometimes  I  wonder, 

When  man  has  surely  learnt  at  last  that 

all 
His  old-world  faith,  the  blossom  of  his 

youth, 
Has  faded,  falling  fruitless — whether  then 
All  of  us,  all  at  once,  may  not  be  seized 
With  some  fierce  passion,  not  so  much 

for  Death 
As  against  Life  !  all,  all,  into  the  dark  — 
No  more  !  — and  science  now  could  drug 

and  balm  us 
Back  into  nescience  with  as  little  pain 
As  it  is  to  fall  asleep. 

This  beggarly  life, 
This  poor,  fiat,  hedged-in  field  —  no  dis- 
tance —  this 
Hollow  Pandora-box, 
With   all  the  pleasures  flown,  not  even 

Hope 
Left  at  the  bottom  ! 

Superstitious  fool, 
What   brought   me   here?     To   see   her 

grave?  her  ghost? 
Her  ghost  is  everyway  about  me  here. 
Dora  {coming  forward).     Allow  me, 

sir,  to  pass  you. 
Harold.  Eva ! 

Dora.  Eva ! 

Harold.     What  are  you?     Where  do 

you  come  from? 
Dora.  From  the  farm 

Here,  close  at  hand. 
Harold.         Are  you  —  you  are  —  that 
Dora, 
The  sister.     I  have  heard  of  you.    The 

likeness 
Is  very  striking. 

Dora.  You  knew  Eva,  then  ? 

Harold.     Yes  —  I  was  thinking  of  her 
when  —  Oh  yes, 
Many  years  back,  and  never  since  have 

met 
Her  equal  for  pure  innocence  of  nature, 
And  loveliness  of  feature. 

Dora.  No,  nor  I. 

Harold.     Except,  indeed,  I  have  found 
it  once  again 
In  your  own  self. 

Dora.     You   flatter    me.     Dear    Eva 
Was  always  thought  the  prettier. 


Harold.  And  her  charm 

Of  voice  is  also  yours;   and  I  was  brood- 
ing 
Upon   a   great   unhappiness   when    you 
spoke. 
Dora.     Indeed,  you  seem'd  in  trouble, 

sir. 
Harold.     And  you 
Seem  my  good  angel  who  may  help  me 
from  it. 
Dora.    {Aside.)     How  worn  he  looks, 
poor  man  !  who  is  it,  I  wonder. 
How  can  I  help  him?    {Aloud.)     Might 
I  ask  your  name? 
Harold.     Harold. 

Dora.     I  never  heard  her  mention  you. 
Harold.     I  met  her  first  at  a  farm  in 
Cumberland  — 
Her  uncle's. 

Dora.         She  was  there  six  years  ago. 
Harold.     And  if  she  never  mention'd 
me,  perhaps 
The     painful     circumstances     which    I 

heard  — 
I  will  not  vex  you  by  repeating  them  — 
Only  last  week  at  Littlechester,  drove  me 
From    out   her   memory.     She   has  dis- 
appear^, 
They   told     me,   from    the    farm  —  and 
darker  news. 
Dora.     She     has     disappear'd,    poor 
darling,  from  the  world  — 
Left  but  one  dreadful  line  to  say,  that  we 
Should    find   her  in  the  river;   and  we 

dragg'd 
The  Littlechester  river  all  in  vain : 
Have  sorrow'd  for  her  all  these  years  in 

vain. 
And  my  poor  father,  utterly  broken  down 
By   losing   her  —  she   was   his  favourite 

child  — 
Has  let  his  farm,  all  his  affairs,  I  fear, 
But  for  the  slender  help  that  I  can  give, 
Fall  into  ruin.     Ah  !  that  villain,  Edgar, 
If  he  should  ever  show  his  face  among  us, 
Our  men  and  boys  would  hoot  him,  stone 

him,  hunt  him 
With   pitchforks  off  the  farm,  for  all  of 

them 
Loved  her,   and  she  was  worthy  of  all 
love. 
Harold.     They  say,  we  should  forgive 
our  enemies. 


THE  PROMISE    OF  MA  Y. 


769 


Dora.     Ay,  if  the  wretch  were  dead  I 
might  forgive  him; 
We   know   not  whether  he  be  dead  or 
living. 
Harold.     What  Edgar? 
Dora.  Philip  Edgar  of  Toft  Hall 

In  Somerset.     Perhaps  you  know  him? 

Harold.  Slightly. 

{Aside.)     Ay,   for   how   slightly  have  I 
known  myself. 
Dora.     This  Edgar,  then,  is  living? 
Harold.  Living?  well  — 

One  Philip  Edgar  of  Toft  Hall  in  Som- 
erset 
Is  lately  dead. 

Dora.     Dead  !  —  is  there  more   than 

one? 
Harold.     Nay — now — not  one,  {aside) 

for  I  am  Philip  Harold. 
Dora.     That  one,  is  he  then  —  dead  ! 
Harold.     {Aside.)     My  father's  death, 
Let  her   believe  it  mine;   this,   for   the 

moment, 
Will  leave  me  a  free  field. 

Dora.  Dead !   and  this  world 

Is  brighter  for  his  absence  as  that  other 
Is  darker  for  his  presence. 

Harold.  Is  not  this 

To  speak  too  pitilessly  of  the  dead? 
Dora.     My    five-years'    anger   cannot 
die  at  once, 
Not  all  at  once  with  death  and  him.     I 

trust 
I   shall    forgive   him  —  by-and-by  —  not 

now. 
O  sir,  you  seem  to  have  a  heart;   if  you 
Had  seen  us  that  wild  morning  when  we 

found 
Her   bed  unslept  in,  storm  and  shower 

lashing 
Her  casement,  her  poor  spaniel  wailing 

for  her, 
That   desolate    letter,   blotted  with   her 

tears, 
Which  told  us  we  should  never  see  her 

more  — 
Our   old  nurse  crying  as  if  for  her  own 

child, 
My  lather  stricken  with  his  first  paralysis, 
And  then  with  blindness  —  had  you  been 

one  of  us 
And  seen  all  this,  then  you  would  know 
it  is  not 

3D 


So  easy  to  forgive  —  even  the  dead. 
Harold.     But  sure  am  I  that  of  your 

gentleness 
You  will  forgive  him.     She,  you  mourn 

for,  seem'd 
A  miracle  of  gentleness  —  would  not  blur 
A  moth's  wing  by  the  touching ;  would 

not  crush 
The  fly  that  drew  her  blood;   and,  were 

she  living, 
Would  not  —  if  penitent  —  have  denied 

him  her 
Forgiveness.      And    perhaps    the    man 

himself, 
When  hearing  of  that  piteous  death,  has 

suffer'd 
More   than   we   know.      But   wherefore 

waste  your  heart 
In  looking  on  a  chill  and  changeless  Past? 
Iron  will  fuse,  and  marble  melt;  the  Past 
Remains  the  Past.     But  you  are  young, 

and  —  pardon  me  — 
As  lovely  as  your  sister.     Who  can  tell 
What  golden  hours,  with  what  full  hands, 

may  be 
Waiting  you  in  the  distance?     Might  I 

call 
Upon    your  father  —  I    have    seen    the 

world  — 
And  cheer  his  blindness  with  a  traveller's 

tales  ? 
Dora.     Call  if  you  will,  and  when  you 

will.     I  cannot 
Well  answer  for  my  father;   but  if  you 
Can  tell  me  anything  of  our  sweet  Eva 
When  in  her  brighter  girlhood,  I  at  least 
Will  bid  you  welcome,  and  will  listen  to 

you. 
Now  I  must  go. 

Harold.     But  give  me  first  your  hand  : 
I    do   not   dare,  like  an   old   friend,  to 

shake  it. 
I  kiss  it  as  a  prelude  to  that  privilege 
When  you  shall  know  me  better. 

Dora.  {Aside.)     How  beautiful 

His  manners  are,  and  how   unlike   the 

farmer's ! 
You  are  staying  here? 

Harold.  Yes,  at  the  wayside  inn 

Close  by  that  alder-island  in  your  brook, 
'The  Angler's  Home.' 

Dora.  Are  you  one? 

Harold.  No,  but  I 


Tjo 


THE  PROMISE    OF  MAY. 


ACT  IL 


Take  some  delight  in  sketching,  and  the 

country 
Has  many  charms,  altho'  the  inhabitants 
Seem  semi-barbarous. 

Dora.  I  am  glad  it  pleases  you; 

Yet   I,   born   here,   not    only   love    the 

country, 
But  its  inhabitants  too;  and  you,  I  doubt 

not, 
Would   take  to  them  as  kindly,  if  you 

cared 
To  live  some  time  among  them. 

Harold.  If  I  did, 

Then  one  at  least  of  its  inhabitants 
Might  have  more  charm  for  me  than  all 
the  country. 
Dora.     That   one,     then,    should    be 

grateful  for  your  preference. 
Harold.     I  cannot  tell,  tho'  standing 
in  her  presence. 
(Aside.)     She  colours ! 
Dora.  Sir ! 

Harold.  Be  not  afraid  of  me, 

For  these  are  no  conventional  flourishes. 
I  do  most  earnestly  assure  you  that 

Your  likeness 

\_Shouts  and  cries  without. 
Dora.     What    was    that?      my    poor 
blind  father 

Enter  Farming  Man. 

Farming  Man.  Miss  Dora,  Dan 
Smith's  cart  hes  runned  ower  a  laady  i' 
the  holler  laane,  and  they  ha'  ta'en  the 
body  up  inter  your  chaumber,  and  they 
be  all  a-callin'  for  ye. 

Dora.  The  body !  —  Heavens  !  I  come  ! 

Harold.  But  you  are  trembling. 

Allow  me  to  go  with  you  to  the  farm. 

\_Exeunt. 

Enter  Dobson. 

Dobson.  What  feller  wur  it  as  'a'  been 
a-talkin'  fur  haafe  an  hour  wi'  my  Dora? 
(Looking  after  him.)  Seeams  I  ommost 
knaws  the  back  on  'im  —  drest  like  a 
gentleman,  too.  Damn  all  gentlemen, 
says  I !  I  should  ha'  thowt  they'd  hed 
anew  o'  gentlefoak,  as  I  telled  'er  to-daay 
when  she  fell  foul  upo'  me. 

Minds  ma  o'  summun.  I  could  swear 
to  that;  but  that  be  all  one,  fur  I  haates 
'im  afoor  I  knaws  what  'e  be.     Theer ! 


he  turns  round.  Philip  Hedgar  o' 
Soomerset !  Philip  Hedgar  o'  Soomer- 
set !  —  Noa  —  yeas  —  thaw  the  feller's 
gone  and  maade  such  a  litter  of  his  faace. 
Eh  lad,  if  it  be  thou,  I'll  Philip  tha! 
a-plaayin'  the  saame  gaame  wi'  my  Dora 
—  I'll  Soomerset  tha. 

I'd  like  to  drag  'im  thruf  the  herse- 
pond,  and  she  to  be  a-lookin'  at  it.  I'd 
like  to  leather  'im  black  and  blue,  and 
she  to  be  a-laughin'  at  it.  I'd  like  to 
fell  'im  as  dead  as  a  bullock  !  (  Clenchr 
ing  his  fist.) 

But  what  'ud  she  saay  to  that?  She 
telled  me  once  not  to  meddle  wi'  'im,  and 
now  she  be  fallen  out  wi'  ma,  and  I  can't 
coom  at  'er. 

It  mun  be  him.  Noa !  Fur  she'd 
niver  'a'  been  talkin'  haafe  an  hour  wi' 
the  divil  'at  killed  her  oan  sister,  or  she 
beant  Dora  Steer. 

Yeas !  Fur  she  niver  knawed  'is  faace 
when  'e  wur  'ere  afoor;  but  I'll  maake 
'er  knaw  !     I'll  maake  'er  knaw ! 

Enter  Harold. 

Naay,  but  I  mun  git  out  on  'is  waay 
now,  or  I  shall  be  the  death  on  'im. 

[Exit. 
Harold.     How   the    clown   glared   at 

me  !  that  Dobbins,  is  it, 
With  whom  I  used  to  jar?   but  can  he 

trace  me 
Thro'  five  years'  absence,  and  my  change 

of  name, 
The  tan  of  southern   summers  and  the 

beard? 
I  may  as  well  avoid  him. 

Ladylike ! 
Lilylike  in  her  stateliness  and  sweetness ! 
How  came  she  by  it?  —  a  daughter   of 

the  fields, 
This  Dora ! 
She  gave  her  hand,  unask'd,  at  the  farm 

gate; 
I    almost   think   she   half    return'd    the 

pressure 
Of  mine.     What,  I  that  held  the  orange 

blossom 
Dark  as  the  yew?   but   may  not   those, 

who  march 
Before  their  age,  turn  back  at  times,  and 

make 


THE  PROMISE   OF  MAY. 


IV 


Courtesy    to    custom?     and     now     the 

stronger  motive, 
Misnamed    free-will  —  the   crowd  would 

call  it  conscience  — 
Moves  rne  —  to  what?     I  am  dreaming; 

for  the  past 
Look'd    thro'    the   present,    Eva's    eyes 

thro'  hers  — 
A  spell  upon  me  !     Surely  I  loved  Eva 
More  than  I  knew !  or  is  it  but  the  past 
That   brightens   in   retiring?      Oh,    last 

night, 
Tired,  pacing   my  new  lands   at  Little- 

chester, 
I  dozed  upon  the  bridge,  and  the  black 

river 
Flow'd  thro'  my  dreams  —  if  dreams  they 

were.     She  rose 
From  the  foul  flood  and  pointed  toward 

the  farm, 
And  her  cry  rang  to  me  across  the  years, 
*  I  call  you,  Philip  Edgar,  Philip  Edgar ! 
Come,  you  will  set  all  right  again,  and 

father 
Will  not  die  miserable.'     I  could  make 

his  age 
A  comfort  to  him  —  so  be  more  at  peace 
With  mine  own  self.     Some  of  my  former 

friends 
Would   find  my  logic  faulty;    let  them. 

Colour 
Flows   thro'  my  life   again,  and  I  have 

lighted 
On  a  new  pleasure.     Anyhow  we  must 
Move  in  the  line  of  least  resistance  when 
The  stronger  motive  rules. 

But  she  hates  Edgar, 
May  not  this  Dobbins,  or  some  other,  spy 
Edgar   in    Harold?     Well  then,  I  must 

make  her 
Love  Harold  first,  and  then  she  will  for- 
give 
Edgar  for  Harold's  sake.     She  said  her- 
self 
She  would   forgive  him,  by-and-by,  not 

now  — 
For  her  own  sake  then,  if  not  for  mine  — 

not  now  — 
But  by-and-by. 

Enter  DoBSON  behind. 

Dobson.     By-and-by  —  eh,    lad,    dosta 
knaw  this  paaper?     Ye  dropt  it  upo'  the 


road.  '  Philip  Edgar,  Esq.'  Ay,  you  be 
a  pretty  squire.  I  ha'  fun'  ye  out,  I  hev. 
Eh,  lad,  dosta  knaw  what  tha  means  wi' 
by-and-by?  Fur  if  ye  be  goin'  to  sarve 
our  Dora  as  ye  sarved  our  Eva  —  then, 
by-and-by,  if  she  weant  listen  to  me  when 
I  be  a-tryin'  to  saave  'er  —  if  she  weant 
—  look  to  thysen,  for,  by  the  Lord,  I'd 
think  na  moor  o'  maakin'  an  end  o'  tha 
nor  a  carrion  craw  —  noa  —  thaw  they 
hanged  ma  at  'Size  fur  it. 

Harold.     Dobbins,  I  think  ! 

Dobson.     I  beant  Dobbins. 

Harold.  Nor  am  I  Edgar,  my  good 
fellow. 

Dobson.  Tha  lies !  What  hasta  been 
saayin'  to  my  Dora? 

Harold.  I  have  been  telling  her  of 
the  death  of  one  Philip  Edgar  of  Toft 
Hall,  Somerset. 

Dobson.     Tha  lies ! 

Harold  {pulling  out  a  newspaper). 
Well,  my  man,  it  seems  that  you  can 
read.     Look  there  —  under  the  deaths. 

Dobson.  'O'  the  17th,  Philip  Edgar, 
o'  Toft  Hall,  Soomerset.'  How  coom 
thou  to  be  sa  like  'im,  then? 

Harold.  Naturally  enough;  for  I  am. 
closely  related  to  the  dead  man's  family. 

Dobson.  An'  'ow  coom  thou  by  the 
letter  to  'im? 

Harold.  Naturally  again;  for  as  I 
used  to  transact  all  his  business  for  him, 
I  had  to  look  over  his  letters.  Now 
then,  see  these  {takes  out  letters).  Half 
a  score  of  them,  all  directed  to  me  — 
Harold. 

Dobson.  'Arold!  'Arold !  'Arold,  so 
they  be. 

Harold.  My  name  is  Harold !  Good 
day,  Dobbins!  [Exit. 

Dobson.  'Arold !  The-  feller's  clean 
daazed,  an'  maazed,  an'  maated,  an'  mud- 
dled ma.  Dead  !  It  mun  be  true,  fur  it 
wur  i'  print  as  black  as  owt.  Naay,  but 
'  Good  daay,  Dobbins.'  Why,  that  wur 
the  very  twang  on  'im.  Eh,  lad,  but 
whether  thou  be  Hedgar,  or  Hedgar's 
business  man,  thou  hesn't  naw  business 
'ere  wi'  my  Dora,  as  I  knaws  on,  an' 
whether  thou  calls  thysen  Hedgar  or 
Harold,  if  thou  stick  to  she  I'll  stick  to 
thee  —  stick  to  tha  like  a  weasel   to   a 


772 


THE  PROMISE    OF  MA  Y. 


ACT   IIL 


rabbit,  I  will.  Ay  !  and  I'd  like  to  shoot 
tha  like  a  rabbit  an'  all.  'Good  daay, 
Dobbins.'     Dang  tha ! 

ACT   III. 

SCENE.  —  A  Room  in  Steer's  House. 
Door  leading  into  Bedroom  at  the 

BACK. 

Dora  {ringing  a  handbell).     Milly  ! 
Enter  Milly. 

Milly.  The  little  'ymn?  Yeas,  Miss; 
but  I  vvur  so  ta'en  up  wi'  leadin'  the  owd 
man  about  all  the  blessed  murnin'  'at  I 
ha'  nobbut  larned  mysen  haafe  on  it. 

1 0  man,  forgive  thy  mortal  foe, 
Nor  ever  strike  him  blow  for  blow; 
For  all  the  souls  on  earth  that  live 
To  be  forgiven  must  forgive. 
Forgive  him  seventy  times  and  seven; 
For  all  the  blessed  souls  in  Heaven 
Are  both  forgivers  and  forgiven.' 

But  I'll  git  the  book  agean,  and  larn 
mysen  the  rest,  and  saay  it  to  ye  afoor 
dark ;   ye  ringed  fur  that,  Miss,  didn't  ye  ? 

Dora.  No,  Milly;  but  if  the  farming 
men  be  come  for  their  wages,  to  send 
them  up  to  me. 

Milly.     Yeas,  Miss.  [Exit. 

Dora  {sitting  at  desk  counting  money) . 
Enough  at  any  rate  for  the  present. 
{Enter  Farming  Men.)  Good  afternoon, 
my  friends.  I  am  sorry  Mr.  Steer  still 
continues  too  unwell  to  attend  to  you, 
but  the  schoolmaster  looked  to  the  paying 
you  your  wages  when  I  was  away,  didn't 
he? 

Men.     Yeas;   and  thanks  to  ye. 

Dora.  Some  of  our  workmen  have 
left  us,  but  he  sent  me  an  alphabetical 
list  of  those  that  remain,  so,  Allen,  I  may 
as  well  begin  with  you. 

Allen  {with  his  hand  to  his  ear). 
Halfabitical !  Taake  one  o'  the  young 
'uns  fust,  Miss,  fur  I  be  a  bit  deaf,  and  I 
wur  hallus  scaared  by  a  big  word;  least- 
waays,  I  should  be  wi'  a  lawyer. 

Dora.  I  spoke  of  your  names,  Allen, 
as  they  are  arranged  here  {shoivs  book)  — 
according  to  their  first  letters. 


Allen.  Letters !  Yeas,  I  sees  now. 
Them  be  what  they  larns  the  childer'  at 
school,  but  I  were  burn  afoor  schoolin- 
time. 

Dora.  But,  Allen,  tho'  you  can't  read, 
you  could  whitewash  that  cottage  of  yours 
where  your  grandson  had  the  fever. 

Allen.     I'll  hev  it  done  o'  Monday. 

Dora.  Else  if  the  fever  spread,  the 
parish  will  have  to  thank  you  for  it. 

Allen.  Mea?  why,  it  be  the  Lord's 
doin',  noan  o'  mine;  d'ye  think  /Vgi'e 
'em  the  fever?  But  I  thanks  ye  all  the 
saame,  Miss.     (  Takes  money.) 

Dora  {calling  out  names).  Higgins, 
Jackson,  Luscombe,  Nokes,  Oldham, 
Skipvvorth  !  {All  take  money.)  Did  you 
find  that  you  worked  at  all  the  worse 
upon  the  cold  tea  than  you  would  have 
done  upon  the  beer? 

Higgins.  Noa,  Miss;  we  worked  naw 
wuss  upo'  the  cowd  tea;  but  we'd  ha' 
work'd  better  upo'  the  beer. 

Dora.  Come,  come,  you  worked  well 
enough,  and  I  am  much  obliged  to  all 
of  you.  There's  for  you,  and  you,  and 
you.  Count  the  money  and  see  if  it's  all 
right. 

Men.  All  right,  Miss;  and  thank  ye 
kindly. 

[Exeunt    Luscombe,    Nokes,    Old- 
ham, Skipworth. 

Dora.  Dan  Smith,  my  father  and  I 
forgave  you  stealing  our  coals. 

[Dan  Smith  advances  to  Dora. 

Dan  Smith  {bellowing).  Whoy,  O 
lor,  Miss !  that  wur  sa  long  back,  and 
the  walls  sa  thin,  and  the  winders  brok- 
ken,  and  the  weather  sa  cowd,  and  my 
missus  a-gittin'  ower  'er  lyin'-in. 

Dora.  Didn't  I  say  that  we  had  for- 
given you?  But,  Dan  Smith,  they  tell 
me  that  you — and  you  have  six  children 
—  spent  all  your  last  Saturday's  wages  at 
the  ale-house;  that  you  were  stupid 
drunk  all  Sunday,  and  so  ill  in  conse- 
quence all  Monday  that  you  did  not 
come  into  the  hayfield.  Why  should  I 
pay  you  your  full  wages? 

Dan  Smith.  I  be  ready  to  taake  the 
pledge. 

Dora.  And  as  ready  to  break  it  again. 
Besides  it  was  you  that  were  driving  the 


ACT   III. 


THE  PROMISE    OF  MAY. 


773 


cart  —  and  I  fear  you  were  tipsy  then, 
too  —  when  you  lamed  the  lady  in  the 
hollow  lane. 

Dan  Smith  (bellozving) .  O  lor,  Miss! 
noa,  noa.,  noa !  Ye  sees  the  holler  laane 
be  hallus  sa  dark  i'  the  arternoon,  and 
wheere  the  big  eshtree  cuts  athurt  it,  it 
gi'es  a  turn  like,  and  'ow  should  I  see  to 
laame  the  laady,  and  mea.  coomin'  along 
pretty  sharp  an'  all? 

Dora.  Well,  there  are  your  wages; 
the  next  time  you  waste  them  at  a  pot- 
house you  get  no  more  from  me.  {Exit 
Dan  Smith.)  Sally  Allen,  you  worked 
for  Mr.  Dobson,  didn't  you? 

Sally  {advancing).  Yeas,  Miss;  but 
he  wur  so  rough  wi'  ma,  I  couldn't 
abide  'im. 

Dora.  Why  should  he  be  rough  with 
you?  You  are  as  good  as  a  man  in  the 
hayfield.  What's  become  of  your 
brother? 

Sally.  'Listed  for  a  soadger,  Miss,  i' 
the  Queen's  Real  Hard  Tillery. 

Dora.  And  your  sweetheart  —  when 
are  you  and  he  to  be  married? 

Sally.  At  Michaelmas,  Miss,  please 
God. 

Dora.  You  are  an  honest  pair.  I 
will  come  to  your  wedding. 

Sally.  An'  I  thanks  ye  fur  that,  Miss, 
moor  nor  fur  the  waage. 

{Going — returns.)  'A  cotched  ma 
about  the  waaist,  Miss,  when  'e  wur  'ere 
afoor,  an'  axed  ma  to  be  'is  little  sweet- 
'art,  an  'soa  I  knaw'd  'im  when  I  seed 
'im  agean  an'  I  telled  feyther  on  'im. 

Dora.     What  is  all  this,  Allen? 

Allen.  Why,  Miss  Dora,  mea  and 
my  maates,  us  three,  we  wants  to  hev 
three  words  wi'  ye. 

Higgins.     That  be  'im,  and  mea,  Miss. 

Jackson.     An'  mea,  Miss. 

Allen.  An'  we  weant  mention  naw 
naames,  we'd  as  lief  talk  o'  the  Divil 
afoor  ye  as  'im,  fur  they  says  the  master 
goas  clean  off  his  'ead  when  he  'ears  the 
naame  on  'im;  but  us  three,  arter  Sally'd 
telled  us  on  'im,  we  fun'  'im  out  a-walkin' 
i'  West  Field  wi'  a  white  'at,  nine  o'clock, 
upo'  Tuesday  murnin',  and  all  on  us,  wi' 
your  leave,  we  wants  to  leather  'im. 

Dora.     Who? 


Allen.  Him  as  did  the  mischief  here, 
five  year  sin'. 

Dora.     Mr.  Edgar? 

Allen.  Theer,  Miss !  You  ha'  naamed 
'im  —  not  me. 

Dora.  He's  dead,  man  —  dead;  gone 
to  his  account  —  dead  and  buried. 

Allen.  I  beant  sa  sewer  o'  that,  fur 
Sally  knaw'd  'im.     Now  then? 

Dora.  Yes;  it  was  in  the  Somerset- 
shire papers. 

Allen.  Then  yon  mun  be  his  brother, 
an'  we'll  leather  Hm. 

Dora.  I  never  heard  that  he  had  a 
brother.  Some  foolish  mistake  of 
Sally's;  but  what!  would  you  beat  a 
man  for  his  brother's  fault?  That  were 
a  wild  justice  indeed.  Let  bygones  be 
bygones.  Go  home !  Good-night !  {All 
exeunt.)  I  have  once  more  paid  them 
all.  The  work  of  the  farm  will  go  on 
still,  but  for  how  long?  We  are  almost 
at  the  bottom  of  the  well :  little  more  to  be 
drawn  from  it  —  and  what  then  ?  Encum- 
bered as  we  are,  who  would  lend  us  any- 
thing? We  shall  have  to  sell  all  the 
land,  which  Father,  for  a  whole  life,  has 
been  getting  together,  again,  and  that,  I 
am  sure,  would  be  the  death  of  him. 
What  am  I  to  do?  Farmer  Dobson, 
were  I  to  marry  him,  has  promised  to 
keep  our  heads  above  water;  and  the 
man  has  doubtless  a  good  heart,  and  a 
true  and  lasting  love  for  me  :  yet —  though 
I  can  be  sorry  for  him  —  as  the  good  Sally 
says,  '  I  can't  abide  him  '  —  almost  brutal, 
and  matched  with  my  Harold  is  like  a 
hedge  thistle  by  a  garden  rose.  But 
then,  he,  too  —  will  he  ever  be  of  one 
faith  with  his  wife?  which  is  my  dream 
of  a  true  marriage.  Can  I  fancy  him 
kneeling  with  me,  and  uttering  the  same 
prayer;  standing  up  side  by  side  with  me, 
and  singing  the  same  hymn?  I  fear  not. 
Have  I  done  wisely,  then,  in  accepting 
him?  But  may  not  a  girl's  love-dream 
have  too  much  romance  in  it  to  be  real- 
ised all  at  once,  or  altogether,  or  any- 
where but  in  Heaven?  And  yet  I  had 
once  a  vision  of  a  pure  and  perfect  mar- 
riage, where  the  man  and  the  woman, 
only  differing  as  the  stronger  and  the 
weaker,  should  walk  hand  in  hand   to- 


774 


THE  PROMISE    OF  MA  Y. 


ACT   III 


gether  down  this  valley  of  tears,  as  they 
call  it  so  truly,  to  the  grave  at  the  bottom, 
and  lie  down  there  together  in  the  dark- 
ness which  would  seem  but  for  a  moment, 
to  be  wakened  again  together  by  the  light 
of  the  resurrection,  and  no  more  part- 
ings for  ever  and  for  ever.  (  Walks  up 
and  down.     She  sings.} 

*  O  happy  lark,  that  warblest  high 

Above  thy  lowly  nest, 
O  brook,  that  brawlest  merrily  by 

Thro'  fields  that  once  were  blest, 
O  tower  spiring  to  the  sky, 

O  graves  in  daisies  drest, 
O  Love  and  Life,  how  weary  am  I, 

And  how  I  long  for  rest.' 

There,  there,  I  am  a  fool !  Tears !  I 
have  sometimes  been  moved  to  tears  by 
a  chapter  of  fine  writing  in  a  novel;  but 
what  have  I  to  do  with  tears  now?  All 
depends  on  me  —  Father,  this  poor  girl, 
the  farm,  everything;  and  they  both  love 
me — I  am  all  in  all  to  both;  and  he 
loves  me  too,  I  am  quite  sure  of  that. 
Courage,  courage !  and  all  will  go  well. 
(Goes  to  bedroom  door ;  opens  it.)  How 
dark  your  room  is !  Let  me  bring  you 
in  here  where  there  is  still  full  daylight. 
(Brings  Eva  forward?)  Why,  you  look 
better. 

Eva.  And  I  feel  so  much  better,  that 
I  trust  I  may  be  able  by-and-by  to  help 
you  in  the  business  of  the  farm;  but  I 
must  not  be  known  yet.  Has  anyone 
found  me  out,  Dora? 

Dora.  Oh,  no;  you  kept  your  veil 
too  close  for  that  when  they  carried  you 
in;  since  then,  no  one  has  seen  you  but 
myself. 

Eva.     Yes  —  this  Milly. 

Dora.  Poor  blind  Father's  little  guide, 
Milly,  who  came  to  us  three  years  after 
you  were  gone,  how  should  she  know  you? 
But  now  that  you  have  been  brought  to 
us  as  it  were  from  the  grave,  dearest  Eva, 
and  have  been  here  so  long,  will  you  not 
speak  with  Father  to-day? 

Eva.  Do  you  think  that  I  may?  No, 
not  yet.     I  am  not  equal  to  it  yet. 

Dora.  Why  ?  Do  you  still  suffer 
from  your  fall  in  the  hollow  lane  ? 


Eva.     Bruised;   but  no  bones  broken. 

Dora.  I  have  always  told  Father  that 
the  huge  old  ashtree  there  would  cause 
an  accident  some  day;  but  he  would 
never  cut  it  down,  because  one  of  the 
Steers  had  planted  it  there  in  former  times. 

Eva.  If*  it  had  killed  one  of  the  Steers 
there  the  other  day,  it  might  have  been 
better  for  her,  for  him,  and  for  you. 

Dora.  Come,  come,  keep  a  good 
heart !  Better  for  me !  That's  good. 
How  better  for  me? 

Eva.  You  tell  me  you  have  a  lover. 
Will  he  not  fly  from  you  if  he  learn  the 
story  of  my  shame  and  that  I  am  still 
living? 

Dora.  No;  I  am  sure  that  when  we 
are  married  he  will  be  willing  that  you 
and  Father  should  live  with  us;  for,  in- 
deed, he  tells  me  that  he  met  you  once  in 
the  old  times,  and  was  much  taken  with 
you,  my  dear. 

Eva.  Taken  with  me;  who  was  he? 
Have  you  told  him  I  am  here? 

Dora.     No;   do  you  wish  it? 

Eva.  See,  Dora;  you  yourself  are 
ashamed  of  me  (weeps),  and  I  do  not 
wonder  at  it. 

Dora.  But  I  should  wonder  at  myself 
if  it  were  so.  Have  we  not  been  all  in 
all  to  one  another  from  the  time  when 
we  first  peeped  into  the  bird's  nest, 
waded  in  the  brook,  ran  after  the  butter- 
flies, and  prattled  to  each  other  that  we 
would  marry  fine  gentlemen,  and  played 
at  being  fine  ladies? 

Eva.  That  last  was  my  Father's  fault, 
poor  man.  And  this  lover  of  yours  — 
this  Mr.  Harold  —  is  a  gentleman? 

Dora.  That  he  is,  from  head  to  foot. 
I  do  believe  I  lost  my  heart  to  him  the 
very  first  time  we  met,  and  I  love  him  so 
much 

Eva.     Poor  Dora ! 

Dora.  That  I  dare  not  tell  him  how 
much  I  love  him. 

Eva.  Better  not..  Has  he  offered  you 
marriage,  this  gentleman? 

Dora.     Could  I  love  him  else? 

Eva.  And  are  you  quite  sure  that 
after  marriage  this  gentleman  will  not  be 
shamed  of  his  poor  farmer's  daughter 
among  the  ladies  in  his  drawing-room? 


ACT  III. 


THE  PROMISE    OF  MAY. 


775 


Dora.  Shamed  of  me  in  a  drawing- 
room!  Wasn't  Miss  Vavasour,  our 
schoolmistress  at  Littlechester,  a  lady 
born?  Were  not  our  fellow-pupils  all 
ladies?  Wasn't  dear  mother  herself  at 
least  by  one  side  a  lady?  Can't  I  speak 
like  a  lady;  pen  a  letter  like  a  lady;  talk 
a  little  French  like  a  lady;  play  a  little 
like  a  lady?  Can't  a  girl  when  she  loves 
her  husband,  and  he  her,  make  herself 
anything  he  wishes  her  to  be?  Shamed 
of  me  in  a  drawing-room,  indeed !  See 
here !  '  I  hope  your  Lordship  is  quite 
recovered  of  your  gout?'  (Curtseys.) 
'  Will  your  Ladyship  ride  to  cover  to-day? 
(  Curtseys.)  I  can  recommend  our  Volti- 
geur.'  '  I  am  sorry  that  we  could  not 
attend  your  Grace's  party  on  the  ioth !  ' 
(Curtseys.)  There,  I  am  glad  my  non- 
sense has  made  you  smile  ! 

Eva.  I  have  heard  that  'your  Lord- 
ship,' and  'your  Ladyship,'  and  'your 
Grace '  are  all  growing  old-fashioned  ! 

Dora.  But  the  love  of  sister  for  sister 
can  never  be  old-fashioned.  I  have  been 
unwilling  to  trouble  you  with  questions, 
but  you  seem  somewhat  better  to-day. 
We  found  a  letter  in  your  bedroom  torn 
into  bits.  I  couldn't  make  it  out. 
What  was  it? 

Eva.  From  him !  from  him !  He 
said  we  had  been  most  happy  together, 
and  he  trusted  that  sometime  we  should 
meet  again,  for  he  had  not  forgotten  his 
promise  to  come  when  I  called  him. 
But  that  was  a  mockery,  you  know,  for 
he  gave  me  no  address,  and  there  was 
no  word  of  marriage;  and,  O  Dora,  he 
signed  himself '  Yours  gratefully '  — fancy, 
Dora,  '  gratefully ' !  '  Yours  gratefully ' ! 

Dora.  Infamous  wretch !  (Aside.) 
Shall  I  tell  her  he  is  dead?  No;  she  is 
still  too  feeble. 

Eva.  Hark  !  Dora,  some  one  is  com- 
ing. I  cannot  and  I  will  not  see  any- 
body. 

Dora.     It  is  only  Milly. 

Enter  Milly  with  basket  of  roses. 

Dora.  Well,  Milly,  why  do  you  come 
in  so  roughly?  The  sick  lady  here  might 
have  been  asleep. 

Milly.      Please,    Miss,    Mr.     Dobson 


telled  me  to  saay  he's  browt  some  of  Miss 
Eva's  roses  for  the  sick  laady  to  smell  on. 

Dora.  Take  them,  dear.  Say  that 
the  sick  lady  thanks  him !     Is  he  here? 

Milly.  Yeas,  Miss;  and  he  wants  to 
speak  to  ye  partic'lar. 

Dora.  Tell  him  1  cannot  leave  the 
sick  lady  just  yet. 

Milly.  Yeas,  Miss;  but  he  says  he 
wants  to  tell  ye  summut  very  partic'lar. 

Dora.  Not  to-day.  What  are  you 
staying  for? 

Milly.  Why,  Miss,  I  be  afeard  I  shall 
set  him  a-swearing  like  onythink. 

Dora.  And  what  harm  will  that  do 
you,  so  that  you  do  not  copy  his  bad 
manners?  Go,  child.  (Exit  Milly.) 
But,  Eva,  why  did  you  write,  *  Seek  me  at 
the  bottom  of  the  river '  ? 

Eva.  Why?  because  I  meant  it!  — 
that  dreadful  night !  that  lonely  walk  to 
Littlechester,  the  rain  beating  in  my  face 
all  the  way,  dead  midnight  when  I  came 
upon  the  bridge;  the  river,  black,  slimy, 
swirling  under  me  in  the  lamplight,  by 
the  rotten  wharfs  —  but  I  was  so  mad, 
that  I  mounted  upon  the  parapet 

Dora.     You  make  me  shudder  ! 

Eva.  To  fling  myself  over,  when  I 
heard  a  voice,  '  Girl,  what  are  you  doing 
there?'  It  was  a  Sister  of  Mercy,  come 
from  the  death-bed  of  a  pauper,  who  had 
died  in  his  misery  blessing  God,  and  the 
Sister  took  me  to  her  house,  and  bit  by 
bit  —  for  she  promised  secrecy  —  I  told 
her  all. 

Dora.     And  what  then? 

Eva.  She  would  have  persuaded  me 
to  come  back  here,  but  I  couldn't. 
Then  she  got  me  a  place  as  nursery 
governess,  and  when  the  children  grew 
too  old  for  me,  and  I  asked  her  once 
more  to  help  me,  once  more  she  said, 
'  Go  home; '  but  I  hadn't  the  heart  or  face 
to  do  it.  And  then  —  what  would  Father 
say?  .1  sank  so  low  that  I  went  into 
service  —  the  drudge  of  a  lodging-house 
— and  when  the  mistress  died,  and  I 
appealed  to  the  Sister  again,  her  answer 
—  I  think  I  have  it  about  me  —  yes,  there 
it  is! 

Dora  (reads) .  '  My  dear  Child,  —  I 
can  do  no  more  for  you.     I  have  done 


776 


THE  PROMISE   OF  MAY. 


wrong  in  keeping  your  secret;  your  Father 
must  be  now  in  extreme  old  age.  Go 
back  to  him  and  ask  his  forgiveness  be- 
fore he  dies.  —  Sister  Agatha.'  Sister 
Agatha  is  right.  Don't  you  long  for 
Father's  forgiveness? 

Eva.     I  would  almost  die  to  have  it ! 

Dora.  And  he  may  die  before  he 
gives  it;  may  drop  off  any  day,  any  hour. 
You  must  see  him  at  once.  {Rings  bell. 
Enter  Milly.)  Milly,  my  dear,  how  did 
you  leave  Mr.  Steer? 

Milly.  He's  been  a-moanin'  and  a- 
groanin'  in  'is  sleep,  but  I  thinks  he  be 
wakkenin'  oop. 

Dora.  Tell  him  that  I  and  the  lady 
here  wish  to  see  him.  You  see  she  is 
lamed,  and  cannot  go  down  to  him. 

Milly.     Yeas,  Miss,  I  will. 

[Exit  Milly. 

Dora.  I  ought  to  prepare  you.  You 
must  not  expect  to  find  our  Father  as  he 
was  five  years  ago.  He  is  much  altered; 
but  I  trust  that  your  return  —  for  you 
know,  my  dear,  you  were  always  his 
favourite  —  will  give  him,  as  they  say,  a 
new  lease  of  life. 

Eva  {clinging  to  Dora).  Oh,  Dora, 
Dora! 

Enter  Steer  led  by  Milly. 

Steer.     Has  the  cow  cawved  ? 

Dora.     No,  Father. 

Steer.     Be  the  colt  dead? 

Dora.     No,  father. 

Steer.  He  wur  sa  bellows'd  out  wi' 
the  wind  this  murnin',  'at  I  telled  'em  to 
gallop  'im.     Be  he  dead? 

Dora.     Not  that  I  know. 

Steer.  What  hasta  sent  fur  me,  then, 
fur? 

Dora  {taking  Steer's  ami).  Well, 
Father,  I  have  a  surprise  for  you. 

Steer.  I  ha'  niver  been  surprised  but 
once  i'  my  life,  and  I  went  blind  upon  it. 

Dora.     Eva  has  come  home. 

Steer.  Hoam?  fro'  the  bottom  o' the 
river? 

Dora.  No,  Father,  that  was  a  mis- 
take.    She's  here  again. 

Steer.  The  Steers  were  all  gentlefoalks 
i'  the  owd  times,  an'  I  worked  early  an' 
laate  to  maake  'em  all  gentlefoalks  agean. 


The  land  belonged  to  the  Steers  i'  the 
owd  times,  an'  it  belongs  to  the  Steers 
agean :  I  bowt  it  back  agean ;  but  I 
couldn't  buy  my  darter  back  agean  when 
she  lost  hersen,  could  I?  I  eddicated 
boath  on  'em  to  marry  gentlemen,  an'  one 
on  'em  went  an'  lost  hersen  i'  the  river. 

Dora.     No,  Father,  she's  here. 

Steer.  Here !  she  moant  coom  here. 
What  would  her  mother  saay?  If  it  be 
her  ghoast,  we  mun  abide  it.  We  can't 
keep  a  ghoast  out. 

Eva  {falling  at  his  feet') .  Oh,  forgive 
me  !  forgive  me ! 

Steer.  Who  said  that?  Taake  me 
awaay,  little  gell.  It  be  one  o'  my  bad 
daays.  [Exit  Steer  led  by  Milly. 

Dora  {smoothing  Eva's  forehead).  Be 
not  so  cast  down,  my  sweet  Eva.  You 
heard  him  say  it  was  one  of  his  bad  days." 
He  will  be  sure  to  know  you  to-morrow. 

Eva.  It  is  almost  the  last  of  my  bad 
days,  I  think.  I  am  very  faint.  I 
must  lie  down.  Give  me  your  arm. 
Lead  me  back  again. 

[Dora  lakes  Eva  into  inner  room. 

Enter  MlLLY. 

Milly.     Miss  Dora  !  Miss  Dora ! 

Dora  {returning  and  leaving  the  bed- 
room door  ajar).  Quiet!  quiet!  What 
is  it? 

Milly.     Mr.  'Arold,  Miss. 

Dora.     Below? 

Milly.  Yeas,  Miss.  He  be  saayin' 
a  word  to  the  owd  man,  but  he'll  coom 
up  if  ye  lets  'im. 

Dora.  Tell  him,  then,  that  I'm  wait- 
ing for  him. 

Milly.     Yeas,  Miss. 

[Exit.     Dora  sits  pensively  and  waits. 

Enter  Harold. 

Harold.      You   are    pale,   my   Dora! 

but  the  ruddiest  cheek 
That  ever  charm'd  the  plowman  of  your 

wolds 
Might  wish  its  rose  a  lily,  could  it  look 
But    half  as  lovely.      I   was    speaking 

with 
Your   father,    asking  his  consent  —  you 

wish'd  me  — 


THE  PROMISE   OF  MA  Y. 


777 


That  we  should  marry :   he  would  answer 

nothing, 
I  could  make  nothing  of  him;   but,  my 

flower, 
You  look  so  weary  and  so  worn !     What 

is  it 
Has  put  you  out  of  heart? 

Dora.  It  puts  me  in  heart 

Again  to  see  you;  but  indeed  the  state 
Of  my  poor  father  puts  me  out  of  heart. 
Is  yours  yet  living? 

Harold.  No  —  I  told  you.' 

Dora.  When? 

Harold.     Confusion  !  —  Ah  well,  well ! 
the  state  we  all 
Must  come  to  in  our  spring-and-winter 

world 
If  we  live  long  enough  !  and  poor  Steer 

looks 
The  very  type  of  Age  in  a  picture,  bow'd 
To  the  earth  he  came  from,  to  the  grave 

he  goes  to, 
Beneath  the  burthen  of  years. 

Dora.  More  like  the  picture 

Of  Christian  in  my  '  Pilgrim's  Progress ' 

here, 
Bow'd  to  the  dust  beneath  the  burthen 
of  sin. 
Harold.    Sin  !    What  sin  ? 
Dora.  Not  his  own. 

Harold.  That  nursery-tale 

Still  read,  then? 

Dora.  Yes;    our  carters   and 

our  shepherds 
Still  find  a  comfort  there. 

Harold.  Carters  and  shepherds ! 

Dora.      Scorn !       I    hate    scorn.      A 
soul  with  no  religion  — 
My  mother  used  to  say  that  such  a  one 
Was  without  rudder,  anchor,  compass  — 

might  be 
Blown    everyway   with   every   gust   and 

wreck 
On  any  rock ;  and  tho'  you  are  good  and 
gentle, 

Yet  if  thro'  any  want 

Harold.  Of  this  religion  ? 

Child,  read  a  little  history,  you  will  find 
The   common   brotherhood  of  man  has 

been 
Wrong'd  by  the  cruelties  of  his  religions 
More  than  could  ever  have  happen'd  thro' 
the  want 


Of  any  or  all  of  them. 

Dora.  —  But,  O  dear  friend, 

If  thro'  the  want  of  any  —  I  mean  the  true 

one  — 
And  pardon  me  for  saying  it  —  you  should 

ever 
Be  tempted  into  doing  what  might  seem 
Not  altogether  worthy  of  you,  I  think 
That  I  should  break  my  heart,  for  you 

have  taught  me 
To  love  you. 

Harold.     What  is  this  ?  some  one  been 

stirring 
Against  me  ?  he,  your  rustic  amourist, 
The  polish'd  Damon  of  your  pastoral  here, 
This  Dobson  of  your  idyll? 

Dora.  No,  Sir,  no ! 

Did  you  not  tell  me  he  was  crazed  with 

jealousy, 
Had  threaten'd  ev'n  your  life,  and  would 

say  anything? 
Did  /  not  promise  not  to  listen  to  him, 
Nor  ev'n  to  see  the  man? 

Harold.  Good ;  then  what  is  it 

That  makes  you  talk  so  dolefully? 

Dora.  I  told  you  — 

My  father.     Well,  indeed,  a  friend  just 

now, 
One  that  has  been  much  wrong'd,  whose 

griefs  are  mine, 
Was  warning  me  that  if  a  gentleman 
Should   wed   a    farmer's    daughter,    he 

would  be 
Sooner  or  later  shamed  of  her  among 
The  ladies,  born  his  equals. 

Harold.  More  fool  he ! 

What  I  that  have  been  call'd  a  Socialist, 
A   Communist,    a    Nihilist  —  what    you 

will ! 

Dora.     What  are  all  these? 
Harold.  Utopian  idiotcies. 

They   did   not   last   three   Junes.     Such 

rampant  weeds 
Strangle  each  other,  die,  and  make  the 

soil 
For  Caesars,  Cromwells,  and  Napoleons 
To  root  their  power  in.     I   have  freed 

myself 
From  all  such  dreams,  and  some  will  say 

because 
I  have  inherited  my  Uncle.     Let  them. 
But  —  shamed  of  you,  my  Empress !     I 

should  prize 


778 


THE  PROMISE    OF  MAY. 


act  in. 


The  pearl  of  Beauty,  even  if  I  found  it 
Dark  with  the  soot  of  slums. 

Dora.  But  I  can  tell  you. 

We  Steers  are  of  old  blood,  tho'  we  be 

fallen. 
See  there  our  shield.     {Pointing  to  arms 
on  mantelpiece^) 

For  I  have  heard  the  Steers 
Had  land  in  Saxon  times;  and  your  own 

name 
Of  Harold  sounds  so  English  and  so  old 
I  am  sure  you  must  be  proud  of  it. 

Harold.  Not  I ! 

As  yet  I  scarcely  feel  it  mine.     I  took  it 
For  some  three  thousand  acres.     I  have 

land  now 
And  wealth,  and  lay  both  at  your  feet. 

Dora.  And  what  was 

Your  name  before? 

Harold.     Come,  come,  my  girl,  enough 
Of  this  strange  talk.     I  love  you  and  you 

me. 
True,  I  have  held  opinions,  hold  some  still, 
Which  you  would  scarce  approve  of:  for 

all  that, 
I  am  a  man  not  prone  to  jealousies, 
Caprices,    humours,    moods;     but    very 

ready 
To  make  allowances,  and  mighty  slow 
To  feel  offences.     Nay,  I  do  believe 
I  could  forgive  —  well,  almost  anything  — 
And  that  more  freely  than  your  formal 

priest, 
Because  I  know  more  fully  than  he  can 
What  poor  earthworms  are  all  and  each 

of  us, 
Here  crawling  in  this  boundless  Nature. 

Dora, 
If  marriage  ever  brought  a  woman  happi- 
ness 
I  doubt  not  I  can  make  you  happy. 

Dora.  You  make  me 

Happy  already. 

Harold.  And  I  never  said 

As  much  before  to  any  woman  living. 
Dora.     No? 

Harold.     No !    by  this  true  kiss,  you 
are  the  first 
I  ever  have  loved  truly. 

[  They  kiss  each  other. 
Eva  (with  a  wild  cry) .     Philip  Edgar ! 
Harold.     The  phantom  cry!      You  — 
did  you  hear  a  cry  ? 


Dora.     She  must  be  crying  out  *  Edgar  * 

in  her  sleep. 
Harold.     Who    must    be    crying   out 

'Edgar'  in  her  sleep? 
Dora.     Your    pardon    for    a   minute. 

She  must  be  waked. 
Harold.     Who  must  be  waked? 
Dora.     I  am  not  deaf:  you  fright  me. 
What  ails  you? 
Harold.     Speak. 

Dora.  You  know  her,  Eva. 

Harold.  Eva ! 

\_Eva  opens  the  door  and  stands  in  the  entry. 
She! 

Eva.     Make  her  happy,  then,  and   I 

forgive  you.  [Palls  dead. 

Dora.     Happy!    What?     Edgar?     Is 

it  so?     Can  it  be? 

They  told  me  so.      Yes,  yes !      I  see  it 

all  now. 
Oh,  she  has  fainted.     Sister,  Eva,  sister ! 
He   is   yours   again  —  he  will   love  you 

again; 
I  give  him  back  to  you  again.     Look  up ! 
One  word,  or  do  but  smile !     Sweet,  do 
you  hear  me? 

[Puts  her  hand  on  Eva's  heart. 
There,  there  —  the  heart,  O  God!  — the 

poor  young  heart 
Broken  at  last — all  still  —  and  nothing  left 
To  live  for. 

[Falls  on  body  of  her  sister. 
Harold.         Living   .    .    .   dead   .    .   . 
She  said  '  all  still. 
Nothing  to  live  for.' 

She  —  she  knows  me  —  now  .  .  . 
{A  paused) 
She  knew  me  from  the  first,  she  juggled 

with  me, 
She  hid  this  sister,  told  me  she  was  dead  — 
I    have  wasted  pity  on   her — not  dead 

now  — 
No  !  acting,  playing  on  me,  both  of  them. 
They  drag  the  river   for   her !    no,  not 

they! 
Playing  on  me  —  not  dead  now  —  a  swoon 

—  a  scene  — 
Yet  —  how  she  made  her  wail  as  for  the 
dead! 


Enter  Milly. 

Milly.     Please,  Mister  'Arold. 
Harold  {roughly). 


Well? 


ACT  III. 


THE  PROMISE    OF  MAY. 


779 


Milly.     The  owd  man's  coom'd  agean 
to  'issen,  an'  wants 
To  hev  a  word  wi'  ye  about  the  marriage. 
Harold.     The  what? 
Milly.  The  marriage. 

Harold.  The  marriage? 

Milly.  Yeas,  the  marriage. 

Granny  says  marriages  be  maade  i'  'eaven. 
Harold.      She  lies !      They  are  made 
in  Hell.     Child,  can't  you  see? 
Tell  them  to  fly  for  a  doctor. 

Milly.  Oh,  law  —  yeas,  Sir! 

I'll  run  fur  'im  mysen.  [Exit. 

Harold.  All  silent  there, 

Yes,   deathlike!       Dead?       I  dare  not 

look :    if  dead, 
Were  it  best  to  steal  away,  to  spare  my- 
self, 
And  her  too,  pain,  pain,  pain? 

My  curse  on  all 
This  world  of  mud,  on  all  its  idiot  gleams 
Of  pleasure,  all  the  foul  fatalities 
That   blast    our    natural    passions    into 
pains ! 

Enter  Dobson. 

Dobson.     You,  Master  Hedgar,  Harold, 
or  whativer 
They  calls  ye,  for  I  warrants  that  ye  goas 
By  haafe  a  scoor  o'  naames  —  out  o'  the 
chaumber. 

[Dragging  him  past  the  body. 
Harold.     Not  that  way,  man !     Curse 
on  your  brutal  strength  ! 
I.  cannot  pass  that  way. 

Dobson.  Out  o'  the  chaumber ! 

I'll  mash  tha  into  nowt. 

Harold.  The  mere  wild-beast ! 

Dobson.     Out  o'  the  chaumber,  dang 

tha! 
Harold.  Lout,  churl,  clown  ! 

[  While  they  are  shouting  and  strug- 
gling Dora    rises   and  comes   be- 
tween them. 
Dora  (Jo  Dobson).    Peace, let  him  be  : 
it  is  the  chamber  of  Death ! 
Sir,  you  are  tenfold  more  a  gentleman, 
A  hundred  times  more  worth  a  woman's 

love, 
Than  this,  this  —  but  I  waste  no  words 

upon  him : 
His  wickedness  is  like  my  wretchedness  — 
Beyond  all  language. 


(  To  Harold.) 
You  —  you  see  her  there ! 
Only  fifteen  when  first  you  came  on  her, 
And  then  the  sweetest  flower  of  all  the 

wolds, 
So  lovely  in  the  promise  of  her  May, 
So  winsome  in  her  grace  and  gaiety, 
So  loved  by  all  the  village  people  here, 

So  happy  in  herself  and  in  her  home 

Dobson  (agitated).     Theer,  theer  !  ha' 

done.     I  can't  abear  to  see  her. 

[Exit. 

Dora.     A  child,  and  all  as  trustful  as 

a  child ! 

Five  years  of  shame  and  suffering  broke 

the  heart 
That   only  beat   for   you;     and   he,  the 

father, 
Thro'  that  dishonour  which  you  brought 

upon  us, 
Has  lost  his   health,  his  eyesight,  even 
his  mind. 
Harold  {covering  his  face) .     Enough  ! 
Dora.     It  seem'd  so ;  only  there  was  left 
A  second  daughter,  and  to  her  you  came 
Veiling  one  sin  to  act  another. 

Harold.  No ! 

You  wrong  me   there !    hear,  hear  me ! 

I  wish'd,  if  you [Pauses. 

Dora.     If  I 

Harold.  Could  love  me,  could  be 

brought  to  love  me 

As  I  loved  you 

Dora.  What  then? 

Harold.  I  wish'd,  I  hoped 

To  make,  to  make 

Dora.      What  did  you  hope  to  make  ? 
Harold.     'Twere  best  to  make  an  end 
of  my  lost  life. 
O  Dora,  Dora ! 

Dora.      What  did  you  hope  to  make  ? 
Harold.     Make,  make  !     I  cannot  find 
the  word  —  forgive  it  — 
Amends. 

Dora.     For  what?  to  whom? 
Harold.  To  him,  to  you! 

[Falling  at  her  feet. 
Dora.     To  him  !  to  me  ! 

No,  not  with  all  your  wealth, 
Your  land,  your  life  !     Out  in  the  fiercest 

storm 
That    ever    made    earth    tremble  —  he, 
nor  I  — 


780 


THE  PROMISE    OF  MA  Y. 


ACT   III. 


The  shelter  of  your  roof — not  for  one 

moment  — 
Nothing  from  you  ! 
Sunk  in  the  deepest  pit  of  pauperism, 
Push'd  from  all  doors  as  if  we  bore  the 

plague, 
Smitten  with  fever  in  the  open  field, 
Laid    famine-stricken   at    the    gates    of 

Death  — 


Nothing  from  you ! 

But  she  there  —  her  last  word 
Forgave  —  and   I   forgive   you.     If 


you 


Forgive  yourself,  you  are  even  lower  and 

baser 
Than  even  I  can  well  believe  you.     Go ! 
\He  lies  at  her  feet.     Curtain  falls. 


DEMETER 

AND   OTHER   POEMS. 


TO  THE  MARQUIS   OF  DUF- 
FERIN    AND   AVA. 


At  times  our  Britain  cannot  rest, 

At  times  her  steps  are  swift  and  rash; 
She  moving,  at  her  girdle  clash 

The  golden  keys  of  East  and  West. 


Not  swift  or  rash,  when  late  she  lent 
The  sceptres  of  her  West,  her  East, 
To  one,  that  ruling  has  increased 

Her  greatness  and  her  self-content. 


Your  rule  has  made  the  people  love 
Their  ruler.  Your  viceregal  days 
Have  added  fulness  to  the  phrase 

Of '  Gauntlet  in  the  velvet  glove.' 


But  since  your  name  will  grow  with  Time, 
Not  all,  as  honouring  your  fair  name 
Of  Statesman,  have  I  made  the  name 

A  golden  portal  to  my  rhyme : 


But  more,  that  you  and  yours  may  know 
From  me  and  mine,  how  dear  a  debt 
We  owed  you,  and  are  owing  yet 

To  you  and  yours,  and  still  would  owe. 

VI. 

For  he  —  your  India  was  his  Fate, 
And  drew  him  over  sea  to  you  — 
He  fain  had  ranged  her  thro'  and  thro', 

To  serve  her  myriads  and  the  State,  — 


A  soul  that,  watch'd  from  earliest  youth, 
And  on  thro'  many  a  brightening  year, 


Had  never  swerved  for  craft  or  fear, 
By  one  side-path,  from  simple  truth; 

VIII. 

Who    might    have    chased    and    claspt 
Renown 
And   caught   her  chaplet  here  —  and 

there 
In  haunts  of  jungle-poison'd  air 
The  flame  of  life  went  wavering  down; 


But  ere  he  left  your  fatal  shore, 
And  lay  on  that  funereal  boat, 
Dying, '  Unspeakable,'  he  wrote, 

'Their  kindness,'  and  he  wrote  no  more: 


And  sacred  is  the  latest  word; 

And   now  the  Was,  the  Might-have- 
been, 

And  those  lone  rites  I  have  not  seen, 
And  one  drear  sound  I  have  not  heard, 

XI. 

Are  dreams  that  scarce  will  let  me  be, 
Not  there  to  bid  my  boy  farewell, 
When  That  within  the  coffin  fell, 

Fell  —  and  flash'd  into  the  Red  Sea, 

•    XII. 

Beneath  a  hard  Arabian  moon 

And  alien  stars.     To  question,  why 
The  sons  before  the  fathers  die, 

Not  mine  !  and  I  may  meet  him  soon; 


But  while  my  life's  late  eve  endures, 
Nor  settles  into  hueless  gray, 
My  memories  of  his  briefer  day 

Will  mix  with  love  for  you  and  yours. 


782 


ON   THE  JUBILEE    OF  QUEEN   VICTORIA. 


ON  THE    JUBILEE   OF  QUEEN 
VICTORIA. 


Fifty  times  the  rose  has  flower'd   and 

faded, 
Fifty  times  the  golden  harvest  fallen, 
Since  our  Queen  assumed  the  globe,  the 

sceptre. 

11. 

She  beloved  for  a  kindliness 
Rare  in  Fable  or  History, 
Queen,  and  Empress  of  India, 
Crown'd  so  long  with  a  diadem 
Never  worn  by  a  worthier, 
Now  with  prosperous  auguries 
Comes  at  last  to  the  bounteous 
Crowning  year  of  her  Jubilee. 


Nothing  of  the  lawless,  of  the  Despot, 
Nothing  of  the  vulgar,  or  vainglorious, 
All  is  gracious,  gentle,  great  and  Queenly. 

IV. 

You  then  joyfully,  all  of  you, 
Set  the  mountain  aflame  to-night, 
Shoot  your  stars  to  the  firmament, 
Deck  your  houses,  illuminate 
All  your  towns  for  a  festival, 
And  in  each  let  a  multitude 
Loyal,  each,  to  the  heart  of  it, 
One  full  voice  of  allegiance, 
Hail  the  fair  Ceremonial 
Of  this  year  of  her  Jubilee. 


Queen,  as  true  to  womanhood  as  Queen- 
hood, 
Glorying  in  the  glories  of  her  people, 
Sorrowing  with  the  sorrows  of  the  lowest ! 


You,  that  wanton  in  affluence, 
Spare  not  nQw  to  be  bountiful, 
Call  your  poor  to  regale  with  you, 
All  the  lowly,  the  destitute, 
Make  their  neighbourhood   health- 
fuller, 
Give  your  gold  to  the  Hospital, 


Let  the  weary  be  comforted, 
Let  the  needy  be  banqueted, 
Let  the  maim'd  in  his  heart  rejoice 
At  this  glad  Ceremonial, 
And  this  year  of  her  Jubilee. 

VII. 

Henry's  fifty  years  are  all  in  shadow, 
Gray  with  distance  Edward's  fifty  sum- 
mers, 
Ev'n  her  Grandsire's  fifty  half  forgotten. 


You,  the  Patriot  Architect, 
You  that  shape  for  Eternity, 
Raise  a  stately  memorial, 
Make  it  regally  gorgeous, 
Some  Imperial  Institute, 
Rich  in  symbol,  in  ornament, 
Which  may  speak  to  the  centuries, 
All  the  centuries  after  us, 
Of  this  great  Ceremonial, 
And  this  year  of  her  Jubilee. 

IX. 

Fifty    years    of    ever-broadening    Com- 
merce ! 
Fifty  years  of  ever-brightening  Science ! 
Fifty  years  of  ever-widening  Empire ! 

x. 

You,  the  Mighty,  the  Fortunate, 
You,  the  Lord-territorial, 
You,  the  Lord-manufacturer, 
You,  the  hardy,  laborious, 
Patient  children  of  Albion, 
You,  Canadian,  Indian, 
Australasian,  African, 
All  your  hearts  be  in  harmony, 
All  your  voices  in  unison, 
Singing  '  Hail  to  the  glorious 
Golden  year  of  her  Jubilee  ! ' 


Are  there  thunders  moaning  in  the  dis- 
tance? 

Are  there  spectres  moving  in  the.  dark- 
ness? 

Trust  the  Hand  of  Light  will  lead  her 
people, 

Till  the  thunders  pass,  the  spectres 
vanish, 


DEMETER  AND  PERSEPHONE. 


783 


And  the  Light  is  Victor,  and  the  dark- 
ness 
Dawns  into  the  Jubilee  of  the  Ages. 

TO  PROFESSOR  JEBB, 

with  the  Following  Poem. 

Fair  things  are  slow  to  fade  away, 
Bear  witness  you,  that  yesterday * 

From  out   the   Ghost  of  Pindar  in 
you 
Roll'd  an  Olympian;   and  they  say2 

That  here  the  torpid  mummy  wheat 
Of  Egypt  bore  a  grain  as  sweet 

As   that  which   gilds  the   glebe  of 
England, 
Sunn'd  with  a  summer  of  milder  heat. 

So  may  this  legend  for  awhile, 
If  greeted  by  your  classic  smile, 

Tho'  dead  in  its  Trinacrian  Enna, 
Blossom  again  on  a  colder  isle. 


DEMETER  AND   PERSEPHONE. 
(In  Enna.) 

Faint  as  a  climate-changing  bird   that 

flies 
All   night   across  the   darkness,  and   at 

dawn 
Falls  on  the  threshold  of  her  native  land, 
And  can  no  more,  thou  earnest,  O  my 

child, 
Led  upward  by  the  God  of  ghosts  and 

dreams, 
Who   laid   thee   at   Eleusis,    dazed   and 

dumb 
With   passing  thro'  at   once   from  state 

to  state, 
Until   I   brought   thee   hither,   that   the 

day, 
When  here  thy  hands  let  fall  the  gather'd 

flower, 
Might    break    thro'    clouded    memories 

once  again 
On  thy  lost  self.     A  sudden  nightingale 
Saw  thee,  and   flash'd   into    a   frolic   of 

song 

1  In  Bologna. 
1  They  say,  for  the  fact  is  doubtful. 


And  welcome;    and   a  gleam  as  of  the 

moon, 
When  first  she  peers  along  the  tremulous 

deep, 
Fled  wavering  o'er  thy  face,  and  chased 

away 
That  shadow  of  a  likeness  to  the  king 
Of  shadows,  thy  dark  mate.    Persephone  ! 
Queen  of  the  dead  no  more  —  my  child  ! 

Thine  eyes 
Again  were  human-godlike,  and  the  Sun 
Burst  from  a  swimming  fleece  of  winter 

gray, 
And  robed   thee  in  his   day  from  head 

to  feet  — 
1  Mother ! '    and   I  was   folded   in  thine 

arms. 

Child,  those  imperial,  disimpassion'd 
eyes 

Awed  even  me  at  first,  thy  mother  —  eyes 

That  oft  had  seen  the  serpent-wanded 
power 

Draw  downward  into  Hades  with  his 
drift 

Of  flickering  spectres,  lighted  from  below 

By  the  red  race  of  fiery  Phlegethon; 

But  when  before  have  Gods  or  men  be- 
held 

The  Life  that  had  descended  re-arise, 

And  lighted  from  above  him  by  the  Sun? 

So  mighty  was  the  mother's  childless 
cry, 

A  cry  that  rang  thro'  Hades,  Earth,  and 
Heaven ! 

So  in  this  pleasant  vale  we  stand  again, 
The  field  of  Enna,  now  once  more  ablaze 
With  flowers  that  brighten  as  thy  foot- 
step falls, 
All  flowers  —  but  for  one  black  blur  of 

earth 
Left  by  that  closing  chasm,  thro'  which 

the  car 
Of  dark  Aidoneus  rising  rapt  thee  hence. 
And  here,  my  child,  tho'  folded  in  thine 

arms, 
I  feel  the  deathless  heart  of  motherhood 
Within  me  shudder,  lest  the  naked  glebe 
Should  yawn  once  more  into  the  gulf, 

and  thence 
The  shrilly  whinnyings  of  the   team  of 
Hell, 


784 


DEMETER  AND  PERSEPHONE. 


Ascending,  pierce  the  glad  and  songful 

air, 
And  all  at  once  their  arch'd  necks,  mid- 

night-maned, 
Jet  upward  thro'  the  mid-day  blossom. 

No! 
For,  see,  thy  foot  has  touch'd  it;   all  the 

space 
Of   blank    earth-baldness   clothes    itself 

afresh, 
And  breaks  into  the  crocus-purple  hour 
That  saw  thee  vanish. 

Child,  when  thou  wert  gone, 
I  envied  human  wives,  and  nested  birds, 
Yea,  the  cubb'd  lioness;   went  in  search 

of  thee 
Thro'  many  a  palace,  many  a  cot,  and 

gave 
Thy  breast  to  ailing  infants  in  the  night, 
And  set  the  mother  waking  in  amaze 
To  find  her  sick  one  whole;    and  forth 

again 
Among  the  wail  of  midnight  winds,  and 

cried, 
'Where  is  my  loved   one?     Wherefore 

do  ye  wail?' 
And  out  from  all  the  night  an  answer 

shrill'd, 
\  We  know  not,  and  we  know  not  why 

we  wail.' 
I    climb'd   on    all   the    cliffs    of  all    the 

seas, 
And  ask'd  the  waves  that  moan  about 

the  world, 
'Where?  do  ye  make  your  moaning  for 

my  child  ? ' 
And  round  from  all  the  world  the  voices 

came, 
'  We  know  not,  ?uid  we  know  not  why 

we  moan.' 
'  Where  ? '  and  I  stared  from  every  eagle- 
peak, 
I   thridded  the  black   heart   of  all   the 

woods, 
I  peer'd  thro'  tomb  and  cave,  and  in  the 

storms 
Of  Autumn  swept  across  the  city,  and 

heard 
The  murmur  of  their  temples  chanting 

me, 
Me,  me,  the  desolate  Mother  !    '  Where  ? ' 

—  and  turn'd, 


And  fled  by  many  a  waste,  forlorn   of 

man, 
And  griev'd  for  man  thro'  all  my  grief 

for  thee,  — 
The  jungle  rooted  in  his  shatter'd  hearth, 
The  serpent  coil'd  about  his  broken  shaft, 
The     scorpion     crawling     over     naked 

skulls;  — 
I  saw  the  tiger  in  the  ruin'd  fane 
Spring  from  his  fallen  God,  but  trace  of 

thee 
I  saw  not;  and  far  on,  and,  following  out 
A  league  of  labyrinthine  darkness,  came 
On  three  gray  heads  beneath  a  gleaming 

rift. 
'  Where  ? '    and  I  heard  one  voice  from 

all  the  three, 
'  We  know  not,  for  we  spin  the  lives  of 

men, 
And  not  of  Gods,  and  know  not  why  we 

spin! 
There  is  a  Fate  beyond   us.'     Nothing 

knew. 

Last,  as  the  likeness  of  a  dying  man, 
Without  his  knowledge,  from  him  flits  to 

warn 
A  far-off  friendship  that  he  comes   no 

more, 
So  he,  the  God  of  dreams,  who  heard 

my  cry, 
Drew  from  thyself  the  likeness  of  thyself 
Without  thy  knowledge,  and  thy  shadow 

past 
Before  me,  crying,  '  The  Bright  one  in 

the  highest 
Is  brother  of  the  Dark  one  in  the  lowest, 
And  Bright  and  Dark  have  sworn  that  I, 

the  child 
Of  thee,  the  great  Earth-Mother,  thee, 

the  Power 
That  lifts  her  buried  life  from  gloom  to 

bloom, 
Should  be  for  ever  and  for  evermore 
The  Bride  of  Darkness.' 

So  the  Shadow  wail'd. 
Then  I,  Earth-Goddess,  cursed  the  Gods 

of  Heaven. 
I  would  not  mingle  with  their  feasts;   to 

me 
Their  nectar  smack'd  of  hemlock  on  the 

lips, 


DE METER  AND  PERSEPHONE  —  0 WD  ROA. 


785 


Their  rich  ambrosia  tasted  aconite. 

The  man,  that  only  lives  and  loves  an 

hour, 
Seem'd  nobler  than  their  hard  Eternities. 
My   quick   tears   kill'd   the    flower,   my 

ravings  hush'd 
The  bird,  and  lost  in  utter  grief  I  fail'd 
To   send    my   life   thro'   olive-yard   and 

vine 
And  golden  grain,  my  gift  to  helpless 

man. 
Rain-rotten  died  the  wheat,  the  barley- 
spears 
Were  hollow-husk'd,  the  leaf  fell,  and 

the  sun, 
Pale  at  my  grief,  drew  down  before  his 

time 
Sickening,  and  ^Etna   kept   her   winter 

snow. 
Then  He,  the  brother  of  this  Darkness, 

He 
Who  still  is  highest,  glancing  from  his 

height 
On   earth   a   fruitless   fallow,    when    he 

miss'd 
The  wonted  steam  of  sacrifice,  the  praise 
And  prayer  of  men,  decreed  that  thou 

should'st  dwell 
For  nine  white  moons  of  each  whole  year 

with  me, 
Three  dark  ones  in  the  shadow  with  thy 

King. 

Once  more  the  reaper  in  the  gleam  of 

dawn 
Will  see  me  by  the  landmark  far  away, 
Blessing  his  field,  or  seated  in  the  dusk 
Of  even,  by  the  lonely  threshing-floor, 
Rejoicing  in  the  harvest  and  the  grange. 
Yet    I,    Earth-Goddess,    am    but    ill- 
content 
With  them,  who  still  are  highest.    Those 

gray  heads, 
What  meant  they  by  their  '  Fate  beyond 

the  Fates ' 
But   younger  kindlier  Gods  to  bear  us 

down, 
As  we  bore  down  the  Gods  before  us? 

Gods, 
To  quench,  not  hurl  the  thunderbolt,  to 

stay, 
Not  spread  the  plague,  the  famine;  Gods 

indeed, 
3E 


To  send  the  noon  into  the   night   and 

break 
The  sunless  halls  of  Hades  into  Heaven? 
Till  thy  dark  lord  accept  and  love  the 

Sun, 
And  all  the  Shadow  die  into  the  Light, 
When  thou  shalt  dwell  the  whole  bright 

year  with  me, 
And   souls   of  men,  who  grew   beyond 

their  race, 
And  made  themselves  as  Gods  against 

the  fear 
Of  Death  and  Hell;   and  thou  that  hast 

from  men, 
As  Queen  of  Death,  that  worship  which 

is  Fear, 
Henceforth,  as  having  risen  from  out  the 

dead, 
Shalt  ever  send  thy  life  along  with  mine 
From  buried  grain  thro'  springing  blade, 

and  bless 
Their  garner'd  Autumn  also,  reap  with 

me, 
Earth-mother,  in  the  harvest  hymns  of 

Earth 
The  worship  which  is  Love,  and  see  no 

more 
The     Stone,    the     Wheel,    the     dimly- 
glimmering  lawns 
Of  that  Elysium,  all  the  hateful  fires 
Of  torment,  and   the   shadowy   warrior 

glide 
Along  the  silent  field  of  Asphodel. 


OWD   ROA.1 

Naay,  noa  mander2  o'  use  to  be  calhV 

'im  Roa,  Roa,  Roa, 
Fur  the  dog's  stoan-deaf,  an'  e's  blind,  'e 

can  naither  stan'  nor  goa. 

But  I  means  fur  to  maake  'is  owd  aage 

as  'appy  as  iver  I  can, 
Fur  I  owas  owd  Roaver  moor  nor  I  iver 

owad  mottal  man. 

Thou's  rode  of  'is  back  when  a  babby, 
afoor  thou  was  gotten  too  owd, 

Fur  'e'd  fetch  an'  carry  like  owt,  'e  was 
alius  as  good  as  gowd. 


1  Old  Rover. 


1  Manner. 


786 


OWD  ROA. 


Eh,  but  'e'd  fight  wi'  a  will  when  'e 
fowt;   'e  could  howd  *  'is  oan, 

An'  Roa  was  the  dog  as  knaw'd  when 
an'  wheere  to  bury  his  boane. 

An'  'e  kep'  his  head  hoop  like  a  king,  an' 
'e'd  niyer  not  down  wi'  'is  taail, 

Fur  'e'd  niver  done  nowt  to  be  shaamed 
on,  when  we  was  i'  Howlaby 
Daale. 

An'  'e  sarved  me  sa  well  when  'e  lived, 
that,  Dick,  when  'e  cooms  to  be 
dead, 

I  thinks  as  I'd  like  fur  to  hev  soom  soort 
of  a  sarvice  read. 

Fur  'e's  moor  good  sense  na  the  Parlia- 
ment man  'at  stans  fur  us  'ere, 

An'  I'd  voat  fur  'im,  my  oan  sen,  if  'e 
could  but  stan'  fur  the  Shere. 

'  Faaithful  an'  True '  —  them  words  be  i' 
Scriptur  —  an'  Faaithful  an'  True 

'Ull  be  fun' 2  upo'  four  short  legs  ten  times 
fur  one  upo'  two. 

An'  maaybe  they'll  walk  upo'  two  but  I 
knaws  they  runs  upo'  four,3  — 

Bedtime,  Dicky !  but  waait  till  tha  'ears 
it  be  strikin'  the  hour. 

Fur  I  wants  to  tell  tha  o'  Roa  when  we 

lived  i'  Howlaby  Daale, 
Ten  year  sin' —    Naay —  naay!  tha  mun 

nobbut  hev'  one  glass  of  aale. 

Straange  an'  owd-farran'd4  the  'ouse,  an' 
belt 5  long  afoor  my  daay 

Wi'  haafe  o'  the  chimleys  a-twizzen'd6 
an'  twined  like  a  band  o'  haay. 

The  fellers  as  maakes  them  picturs,  'ud 
coom  at  the  fall  o  the  year, 

An'  sattle  their  ends  upo'  stools  to  pictur 
the  door-poorch  theere, 

An'  the  Heagle  'as  hed  two  heads  stannin' 
theere  o'  the  brokken  stick;  7 

An'  they  niver  'ed  seed  sich  ivin'8  as 
gravv'd  hall  ower  the  brick; 

1  Hold.       2  Found.       3  '  Ou  '  as  in  '  house.' 

4  '  Owd-farran'd,'  old-fashioned.  6  Built. 

•  ■  Twizzen'd,'  twisted.        7  On  a  staff  raguli. 

8  Ivy. 


An'  theere  i'  the  'ouse  one  night  —  but 
it's  down,  an'  all  on  it  now 

Goan  into  mangles  an'  tonups,1  an' 
raaved  slick  thruf  by  the  plow  — 

Theere,  when  the  'ouse  wur  a  house,  one 
night  I  wur  sittin'  aloan, 

Wi'  Roaver  athurt  my  feeat,  an'  sleeapin 
still  as  a  stoan, 

Of  a  Christmas  Eave,  an'  as  cowd  as 
this,  an'  the  midders  2  as  white, 

An'  the  fences  all  on  'em  bolster'd  oop 
wi'  the  windle3  that  night; 

An'  the  cat  wur  a-sleeapin  alongside 
Roaver,  but  I  wur  awaake, 

An'  smoakin'  an'  thinkin'  o'  things  — 
Doant  maake  thysen  sick  wi'  the 
caake. 

Fur  the  men  ater  supper  'ed  sung  their 
songs  an'  'ed  'ed  their  beer, 

An'  'ed  goan  their  waays;  ther  was  nob- 
but  three,  an'  noan  on  'em  theere. 

They  was  all  on  'em  fear'd  o'  the  Ghoast 
an'  dussn't  not  sleeap  i'  the  'ouse, 

But  Dicky,  the  Ghoast  moastlins4  was 
nobbut  a  rat  or  a  mouse. 

An'  I  loookt  out  wonst5  at  the  night, 
an'  the  daale  was  all  of  a  thaw, 

Fur  I  seed  the  beck  coomin'  down  like  a 
long  black  snaake  i'  the  snaw, 

An'  I  heard  great  heaps  o'  the  snaw 
slushin'  down  fro'  the  bank  to  the 
beck, 

An'  then  as  I  stood  i'  the  doorwaay,  I 
feeald  it  drip  o'  my  neck. 

Saw  I  turn'd  in  agean,  an'  I  thowt  o' 
the  good  owd  times  'at  was  goan, 

An'  the  munney  they  maade  by  the  war, 
an'  the  times  'at  was  coomin'  on; 

Fur  I  thowt  if  the  Staate  was  a-gawin' 
to  let  in  furriners'  wheat, 

Howiver  was  British  farmers  to  stanr 
agean  o'  their  feeat. 

1  Mangolds  and  turnips. 

*  Meadows.  s  Drifted  snow. 

*  '  Moastlins,'  for  the  most  part,  generally. 

B  Once. 


OWD  ROA. 


787 


Howiver  was  I  fur  to  find  my  rent  an' 

to  paay  my  men? 
An'  all  along  o'  the  feller x  as  turn'd  'is 

back  of  hissen. 

Thou  slep'  i'  the  chaumber  above  us,  we 
couldn't  ha'  'eard  tha  call, 

Sa  Moother  'ed  tell'd  ma  to  bring  tha 
down,  an'  thy  craadle  an'  all; 

Fur  the  gell  o'  the  farm  'at  slep'  wi'  tha 
then  'ed  gotten  wer  leave, 

Fur  to  goa  that  night  to  'er  foalk  by  cause 
o'  the  Christmas  Eave; 

But  I  clean  forgot  tha,  my  lad,  when 
Moother  'ed  gotten  to  bed, 

An'  I  slep'  i'  my  chair  hup-on-end,  an' 
the  Freea  Traade  runn'd  i'  my 
'ead, 

Till  I  dream'd  'at  Squire  walkt  in,  an'  I 
says  to  him,  '  Squire,  ya're  laate,' 

Then  I  seed  at  'is  faace  wur  as  red  as  the 
Yule-block  theere  i'  the  graate. 

An'  'e  says,  '  Can  ya  paay  me  the  rent  to- 
night?' an'  I  says  to  'im,  'Noa,' 

An'  'e  cotch'd  howd  hard  o'  my  hairm,2 
1  Then  hout  to-night  tha  shall  goa.' 

'Tha'll  niver,'  says  I,  'be  a-turnin'  ma 
hout  upo'  Christmas  Eave  ? ' 

Then  I  waaked  an'  I  fun  it  was  Roaver 
a-tuggin'  an'  tearin'  my  slieave. 

An'  I  thowt  as  'e'd  goan  clean-wud,3  fur 
I  noawaays  knaw'd  'is  intent; 

An'  I  says,  'Git  awaay,  ya  beast,'  an'  I 
fetcht  'im  a  kick  an'  'e  went. 

Then  'e  tummled  up  stairs,  fur  I  'eard 
'im,  as  if  'e'd  'a  brokken  'is  neck, 

An'  I'd  clear  forgot,  little  Dicky,  thy 
chaumber  door  wouldn't  sneck;4 

An'  I  slep'  i'  my  chair  agean  wi'  my 
hairm  hingin'  down  to  the  floor, 

An'  I  thowt  it  was  Roaver  a-tuggin'  an' 
tearin'  me  wuss  nor  afoor, 


*  Peel. 


2  Arm. 


3  Mad. 


*  Latch. 


An'  I  thowt  'at  I  kick'd  'im  agean,  but  I 
kick'd  thy  Moother  istead. 

'  What  arta  snorin'  theere  fur?  the  house 
is  afire,'  she  said. 

Thy  Moother  'ed  bean  a-naggin'  about 

the  gell  o'  the  farm, 
She  offens  'ud  spy  summut  wrong  when 

there  warn't  not  a  mossel  o'  harm; 

An'  she  didn't  not  solidly  mean  I  wur 
gawin'  that  waay  to  the  bad, 

Fur  the  gell 1  was  as  howry  a  trollope  as 
iver  traapes'd  i'  the  squad. 

But  Moother  was  free  of  'er  tongue,  as  I 
offens  'ev  tell'd  'er  mysen, 

Sa  I  kep'  i'  my  chair,  fur  I  thowt  she 
was  nobbut  a-rilin'  ma  then. 

An'  I  says,  '  I'd  be  good  to  tha,  Bess,  if 
tha'd  onywaays  let  ma  be  good,' 

But  she  skelpt  ma  haafe  ower  i'  the  chair, 
an'  scread  like  a  Howl  gone 
wud2  — 

'  Ya  mun  run  fur  the  lether.3  Git  oop, 
if  ya're  onywaays  good  for  owt.' 

And  I  says,  'If  I  beant  noawaays  —  not 
nowadaays  —  good  fur  nowt  — 

'Yit  I  beant  sich  a  Nowt4  of  all  Nowts 
as  'ull  hallus  do  as  'e's  bid.' 

'But  the  stairs  is  afire,'  she  said;  then  I 
seed  'er  a-cryin',  I  did. 

An'  she  beald, '  Ya  mun  saave  little  Dick, 
an'  be  sharp  about  it  an'  all,' 

Sa  I  runs  to  the  yard  fur  a  lether,  an' 
sets  'im  agean  the  wall, 

An'  I  claums  an'  I  mashes  the  winder 
hin,  when  I  gits  to  the  top, 

But  the  heat  druv  hout  i'  my  heyes  till  I 
feald  mysen  ready  to  drop. 

1  The  girl  was  as  dirty  a  slut  as  ever  trudged 
in  the  mud,  but  there  is  a  sense  of  slatternliness 
in '  traapes'd'  which  is  not  expressed  in  '  trudged.' 

2  She  half  overturned  me  and  shrieked  like  an 
owl  gone  mad.  3  Ladder. 

4  A  thoroughly  insignificant  or  worthless 
person. 


788 


OWD   ROA  —  VASTNESS. 


Thy  Moother  was  howdin'  the  lether,  an' 
tellin'  me  not  to  be  skeard, 

An'  I  wasn't  afeard,  or  I  thinks  leaast- 
waays  as  I  wasn't  afeard; 

But  I  couldn't  see  fur  the  smoake  wheere 
thou  was  a-liggin,  my  lad, 

An'  Roaver  was  theere  i'  the  chaumber 
a-yowlin'  an'  yaupin'  like  mad; 

An'  thou  was  a-bealin'  likewise,  an'  a- 
squealin',  as  if  tha  was  bit, 

An'  it  wasn't  a  bite  but  a  burn,  fur  the 
merk's1  o'  thy  shou'der  yit; 

Then  I  call'd  out  Roa,  Roa,  Roa,  thaw 
I  didn't  haafe  think  as  'e'd  'ear, 

But  *t  coorn'd  thru/ the  fire  wV  my  bairn 
i'  'is  mouth  to  the  winder  theere! 

He  coorn'd  like  a  Hangel  o'  marcy  as 
soon  as  'e  'eard  'is  naame, 

Or  like  tother  Hangel  i'  Scriptur  'at 
summun  seed  i'  the  flaame, 

When  summun  'ed  hax'd  fur  a  son,  an' 
'e  promised  a  son  to  she, 

An'  Roa  was  as  good  as  the  Hangel  i' 
saavin'  a  son  fur  me. 

Sa  I  browt  tha  down,  an'  I  says,  '  I  mun 

gaw  up  agean  fur  Roa.' 
*  Gaw  up  agean  fur  the  varmint?  '  I  tell'd 

'er,  '  Yeas  I  mun  goa.' 

An'  I  claumb'd  up  agean  to  the  winder, 
an'  clemm'd  2  owd  Roa  by  the  'ead, 

An'  'is  'air  coorn'd  off  i'  my  'ands  an'  I 
taaked  'im  at  fust  fur  dead; 

Fur  'e  smell'd  like  a  herse  a-singein',  an' 
seeam'd  as  blind  as  a  poop, 

An'  haafe  on  Mm  bare  as  a  bublin'.8  I 
couldn't  wakken  'im  oop, 

But  I  browt  'im  down,  an'  we  got  to  the 
barn,  fur  the  barn  wouldn't  burn 

Wi'  the  wind  blawin'  hard  tother  waay, 
an'  the  wind  wasn't  like  to  turn. 

i  Mark.  s  Clutched. 

*  '  Bubbling,1  a  young  unfledged  bird. 


An'  /  kep'  a-callin'  o'  Roa  till  'e  waggled 

'is  taail  fur  a  bit, 
But  the  cocks  kep'  a-crawin'  an'  crawin 

all  night,  an'  I  'ears  'em  yit; 

An'  the  dogs  was  a-yowlin'  all  round,  and 
thou  was  a-squealin'  thysen, 

An'  Moother  was  naggin'  an'  groanin'  an' 
moanin'  an'  naggin'  agean; 

An'  I  'eard  the  bricks  an'  the  baulks1 
rummle  down  when  the  roof  gev 
waay, 

Fur  the  fire  was  a-raagin'  an'  raavin'  an' 
roarin'  like  judgment  daay. 

Warm  enew  theere  sewer-ly,  but  the  barn 

was  as  cowd  as  owt, 
An'  we  cuddled  and  huddled  togither,  an' 

happt2  wersens  oop  as  we  mowt. 

An'  I  browt  Roa  round,  but  Moother  'ed' 
bean  sa  soak'd  wi'  the  thaw 

'At  she  cotch'd  'er  death  o'  cowd  that 
night,  poor  soul,  i'  the  straw. 

Haafe  o'  the  parish  runn'd  oop  when  the 
rigtree  3  was  tummlin'  in  — 

Too  laate  —  but  it's  all  ower  now  —  hall 
hower  —  an'  ten  year  sin' ; 

Too  laate,  tha  mun  git  tha  to  bed,  but 
I'll  coom  an'  I'll  squench  the  light, 

Fur  we  moant  'ev  naw  moor  fires  —  and 
soa  little  Dick,  good-night. 


VASTNESS. 
I. 

Many  a  hearth  upon  our  dark  globe  sighs 
after  many  a  vanish'd  face, 

Many  a  planet  by  many  a  sun  may  roll 
with  the  dust  of  a  vanish'd  race. 


Raving  politics,  never  at  rest  —  as  this 
poor  earth's  pale  history  runs, — 

What  is  it  all  but  a  trouble  of  ants  in  the 
gleam  of  a  million  million  of  suns? 

1  Beams.  a  Wrapt  ourselves. 

8  The  beam  that  runs  along  the  roof  of  the 
house  just  beneath  the  ridge. 


FASTNESS. 


789 


Lies  upon  this  side,  lies  upon  that  side, 
truthless  violence  mourn'd  by  the 
Wise, 

Thousands  of  voices  drowning  his  own  in 
a  popular  torrent  of  lies  upon  lies; 


Stately  purposes,  valour  in  battle,  glorious 
annals  of  army  and  fleet, 

Death  for  the  right  cause,  death  for  the 
wrong  cause,  trumpets  of  victory, 
groans  of  defeat; 


Innocence  seethed  in  her  mother's  milk, 

and   Charity   setting    the   martyr 

aflame; 
Thraldom  who  walks  with  the  banner  of 

Freedom,  and  recks  not  to  ruin  a 

realm  in  her  name. 

VI. 

Faith  at  her  zenith,  or  all  but  lost  in  the 

gloom  of  doubts  that  darken  the 

schools;         * 
Craft  with   a   bunch  of  all-heal   in  her 

hand,  follow'd    up  by  her  vassal 

legion  of  fools; 


Trade  flying  over  a  thousand  seas  with 
her  spice  and  her  vintage,  her  silk 
and  her  corn; 

Desolate  offing,  sailorless  harbours, 
famishing  populace,  wharves  for- 
lorn; 


Star  of  the  morning,  Hope  in  the  sunrise; 
gloom  of  the  evening,  Life  at  a 
close ; 

Pleasure  who  flaunts  on  her  wide  down- 
way  with  her  flying  robe  and  her 
poison'd  rose ; 


Pain,  that  has  crawl'd  from  the  corpse  of 
Pleasure,  a  worm  which  writhes 
all  day,  and  at  night 


Stirs  up  again  in  the  heart  of  the  sleeper, 
and  stings  him  back  to  the  curse 
of  the  light; 


Wealth  with  his  wines  and  his  wedded 

harlots;   honest  Poverty,  bare   to 

the  bone; 
Opulent     Avarice,     lean     as     Poverty; 

Flattery    gilding    the    rift     in    a 

throne; 

XI. 

Fame  blowing  out  from  her  golden 
trumpet  a  jubilant  challenge  to 
Time  and  to  Fate; 

Slander,  her  shadow,  sowing  the  nettle  on 
all  the  laurel'd  graves  of  the  Great; 

XII. 

Love  for  the  maiden,  crown'd  with 
marriage,  no  regrets  for  aught 
that  has  been, 

Household  happiness,  gracious  chil- 
dren, debtless  competence,  golden 
mean; 

XIII. 

National  hatreds  of  whole  generations, 
and  pigmy  spites  of  the  village 
spire; 

Vows  that  will  last  to  the, last  death- 
ruckle,  and  vows  that  are  snapt 
in  a  moment  of  fire; 

XIV. 

He  that   has  lived  for  the  lust   of  the 

minute,  and  died  in  the  doing  it, 

flesh  without  mind; 
He  that  has  nail'd  all  flesh  to  the  Cross, 

till  Self  died  out  in  the  love  of 

his  kind; 

XV. 

Spring  and  Summer  and  Autumn  and 
Winter,  and  all  these  old  revolu- 
tions of  earth; 

All  new-old  revolutions  of  Empire  — 
change  of  the  tide  —  what  is  all  of 
it  worth  ? 

XVI. 

What  the  philosophies,  all  the  sciences, 
poesy,  varying  voices  of  prayer  ? 


79Q 


THE  RING. 


All  that  is  noblest,  all  that  is  basest,  all 
that  is  filthy  with  all  that  is  fair? 


What  is  it  all,  if  we  all  of  us  end  but  in 
being  our  own  corpse-coffins  at 
last, 

Swallow'd  in  Vastness,  lost  in  Silence, 
drown'd  in  the  deeps  of  a  mean- 
ingless Past? 


What  but  a  murmur  of  gnats  in  the 
gloom,  or  a  moment's  anger  of 
bees  in  their  hive?  — 


Peace,  let  it  be !  for  I  loved  him,  and 
love  him  for  ever :  the  dead  are 
not  dead  but  alive. 


©rtricateo  to  the  Jfym.  3.  2&ussell 
ILotoell. 

THE  RING. 

Miriam  and  her  Father. 

Miriam  (singing). 

Mellow  moon  of  heaven, 

Bright  in  blue, 
Moon  of  married  hearts, 

Hear  me,  you ! 

Twelve  times  in  the  year 

Bring  me  bliss, 
Globing  Honey  Moons 

Bright  as  this. 

Moon,  you  fade  at  times 

From  the  night. 
Young  again  you  grow 

Out  of  sight. 

Silver  crescent-curve, 

Coming  soon, 
Globe  again,  and  make 

Honey  Moon. 

Shall  not  my  love  last, 
Moon,  with  you, 


For  ten  thousand  years 
Old  and  new? 

Father.     And  who  was  he  with  such 

love-drunken  eyes 
They  made  a  thousand  honey  moons  of 

one? 
'Miriam.     The  prophet  of  his  own,  my 

Hubert  —  his 
The  words,  and  mine  the  setting.     'Air 

and  Words,' 
Said  Hubert,  when  I  sang  the  song,  '  are 

bride 
And  bridegroom.'     Does  it  please  you? 

Father.   '  Mainly,  child, 

Because  I  hear  your  Mother's  voice  in 

yours. 
She Why,  you  shiver  tho'  the  wind 

is  west 
With  all  the  warmth  of  summer. 

Miriam.  Well,  I  felt 

On  a  sudden  I  know  not  what,  a  breath 

that  past 
With  all  the  cold  of  winter. 

Father  (muttering  to  himself ) .     Even 

so. 
The  Ghost  in  Man,  the  Ghost  that  once 

was  Man,       ♦ 
But  cannot  wholly  free  itself  from  Man, 
Are  calling  to  each  other  thro'  a  dawn 
Stranger  than  earth  has  ever  seen;   the 

veil 
Is  rending,  and  the  Voices  of  the  day 
Are  heard  across  the  Voices  of  the  dark. 
No  sudden  heaven,  nor  sudden  hell,  for 

man, 
But    thro'  the  Will   of  One  who  knows 

and  rules  — 
And  utter  knowledge  is  but  utter  love  — 
yEonian  Evolution,  swift  or  slow, 
Thro'  all  the  Spheres  —  an  ever  opening 

height, 
An  ever  lessening  earth — and  she  per- 
haps, 
My  Miriam,  breaks  her  latest  earthly  link 
With  me  to-day. 

Miriam.     You  speak  so  low,  what  is 

it? 
Your  •  Miriam  breaks '  —  is  making  a  new 

link 
Breaking  an  old  one? 

Father.  No,  for  we,  my  child, 

Have  been  till  now  each  other's  all-in-alL 


792 


THE  RING. 


But  you  will  turn  the  pages. 

Father.  Ay,  to-day ! 

I  brought  you  to  that  chamber  on  your 

third 
September  birthday  with  your  nurse,  and 

felt 
An  icy  breath  play  on  me,  while  I  stoopt 
To  take  and  kiss  the  ring. 

Miriam.  This  very  ring 

Io  t'amo? 

Father.     Yes,  for  some  wild  hope  was 

mine 
That,  in  the  misery  of  my  married  life, 
Miriam  your    Mother    might   appear   to 

me. 
She  came  to  you,  not  me.     The  storm, 

you  hear 
Far-off,   is    Muriel  —  your    stepmother's 

voice. 
Miriam.     Vext,  that  you  thought  my 

Mother  came  to  me? 
Or  at  my  crying  '  Mother '?  or  to  find 
My  Mother's  diamonds  hidden  from  her 

there, 
Like  worldly  beauties   in    the  Cell,  not 

shown 
To  dazzle  all  that  see  them? 

Father.  Wait  awhile. 

Your  Mother  and  step-mother  —  Miriam 

Erne 
And  Muriel  Erne  —  the  two  were  cousins 

—  lived 
With  Muriel's  mother  on  the  down,  that 

sees 
A  thousand  squares  of  corn  and  meadow, 

far 
As   the   gray  deep,    a   landscape   which 

your  eyes 
Have  many  a  time  ranged  over  when  a 

babe. 
Miriam.      I    climb'd    the    hill  with 

Hubert  yesterday, 
And    from   the    thousand    squares,   one 

silent  voice 
Came  on  the  wind,  and  seem'd   to  say 

1  Again.' 
We  saw  far  off  an  old  forsaken  house, 
Then  home,  and  past  the  ruin'd  mill. 

Father.  And  there 

I  found  these  cousins  often  by  the  brook, 
For  Miriam  sketch'd  and  Muriel  threw 

the  fly; 
The  girls  of  equal  age,  but  one  was  fair, 


And  one  was  dark,  and  both  were  beauti- 
ful. 
No  voice  for  either  spoke  within  my  heart 
Then,  for  the  surface  eye,  that  only  dotes 
On  outward  beauty,  glancing  from  the  one 
To    the    other,   knew    not    that   which 

pleased  it  most, 
The  raven  ringlet  or  the  gold;   but  both 
Were  dowerless,  and  myself,  I  used   to 

walk 
This      Terrace  —  morbid,     melancholy; 

mine 
And  yet  not  mine  the  hall,  the  farm,  the 

field; 
For  all  that  ample  woodland  whisper'd 

1  debt,' 
The  brook  that  feeds  this  lakelet  mur- 

mur'd  '  debt,' 
And  in  yon  arching  avenue  of  old  elms, 
Tho'  mine,  not  mine,  I  heard  the  sober 

rook 
And  carrion  crow  cry  'mortgage.' 

Miriam.  Father's  fault 

Visited  on  the  children ! 

Father.  Ay,  but  then 

A    kinsman,    dying,   summon'd    me    to 

Rome  — 
He  left  me  wealth  —  and  while  I  jour 

ney'd  hence, 
And   saw   the  world   fly  by  me  like  a 

dream, 
And  while  I  communed  with  my  truest 

self, 
I  woke  to  all  of  truest  in  myself, 
Till,  in  the  gleam  of  those  mid-summer 

dawns, 
The  form  of  Muriel  faded,  and  the  face 
Of  Miriam  grew  upon  me,  till  I  knew; 
And  past  and    future   mix'd  in  Heaven 

and  made 
The  rosy  twilight  of  a  perfect  day. 

Miriam.     So  glad?  no  tear  for  him, 

who  left  you  wealth, 
Your  kinsman? 

Father.    I  had  seen  the  man  but  once; 
He  loved  my  name  not  me;   and  then  I 

pass'd 
Home,  and  thro'  Venice,  where  a  jeweller, 
So  far  gone  down,  or  so  far  up  in  life, 
That  he  was  nearing  his  own  hundred, 

sold 
This  ring  to  me,  then  laugh'd,  '  The  ring 

is  weird.' 


THE  RING. 


793 


And  weird  and  worn  and  wizard-like  was 

A  hollow  laughter ! 

he. 

Miriam.             Vile,  so  near  the  ghost 

4  Why  weird? '  1  ask'd  him;   and  he  said, 

Himself,  to  laugh  at  love  in  death !     But 

1  The  souls 

you? 

Of  two  repentant  Lovers  guard  the  ring;  ' 

Father.     Well,    as    the    bygone   lover 

Then  with  a  ribald  twinkle  in  his  bleak 

thro'  this  ring 

eyes  — 

Had  sent  his  cry  for  her  forgiveness,  I 

'  And  if  you  give  the  ring  to  any  maid, 

Would  call  thro'  this  '  Io  t'amo '  to  the 

They  still  remember  what  it  cost  them 

heart 

here, 

Of  Miriam;    then  I  bade  the  man  en- 

And bind  the  maid  to  love  you  by  the 

grave 

ring; 

1  From  Walter '  on  the  ring,  and  send  it 

And  if  the  ring   were  stolen   from  the 

—  wrote 

maid, 

Name,  surname,  all  as  clear  as  noon,  but 

The  theft  were  death  or  madness  to  the 

he- 

thief, 

Some  younger  hand  must  have  engraven 

So  sacred  those  Ghost  Lovers  hold  the 

the  ring  — 

gift.' 

His  fingers  were  so  stiffen'd  by  the  frost 

And  then  he  told  their  legend : 

Of  seven    and    ninety   winters,   that   he 

•  Long  ago 

scrawl'd 

Two  lovers  parted  by  a  scurrilous  tale 

A  *  Miriam '  that  might  seem  a  '  Muriel ' ; 

Had   quarrell'd,  till  the  man   repenting 

And  Muriel  claim'd  and  open'd  what  I 

sent 

meant 

This  ring  "  Io  t'amo  "  to  his  best  beloved, 

For  Miriam,  took  the  ring,  and  flaunted 

And   sent  it   on  her  birthday.     She   in 

it 

wrath     • 

Before  that  other  whom  I  loved  and  love. 

Return'd  it  on  her  birthday,  and  that  day 

A  mountain  stay'd  me  here,  a  minster 

His  death-day,  when,  half-frenzied  by  the 

there, 

ring, 

A  galleried  palace,  or  a  battlefield, 

He  wildly  fought  a  rival  suitor,  him 

Where  stood  the  sheaf  of  Peace:  but  — 

The  causer  of  that  scandal,  fought  and 

coming  home  — 

fell; 

And  on  your  Mother's  birthday  —  all  but 

And  she  that  came  to  part  them  all  too 

yours  — 

late, 

A  week  betwixt — and  when  the  tower  as 

And  found  a  corpse  and  silence,  drew  the 

now 

ring 

Was  all  ablaze  with  crimson  to  the  roof, 

From  his  dead  finger,  wore  it  till   her 

And  all  ablaze  too  plunging  in  the  lake 

death, 

Head-foremost  —  who    were   those   that 

Shrined  him  within   the  temple  of  her 

stood  between 

heart, 

The  tower  and  that  rich  phantom  of  the 

Made  every  moment  of  her  after  life 

tower  ? 

A  virgin  victim  to  his  memory, 

Muriel  and  Miriam,  each  in  white,  and 

And  dying  rose,  and  rear'd  her  arms,  and 

like 

cried 

May-blossoms   in  mid  autumn  —  was   it 

"I  see  him,  Io  t'amo,  Io  t'amo.'" 

they? 

Miriam.     Legend  or  true?  so  tender 

A  light  shot  upward  on  them  from  the 

should  be  true  ! 

lake. 

Did  he  believe  it?  did  you  ask  him? 

What  sparkled   there?  whose  hand  was 

Father.                                               Ay ! 

that?  they  stood 

But   that   half  skeleton,   like    a   barren 

So  close  together.     I   am   not   keen  of 

ghost 

sight, 

From  out  the  fleshless  world  of  spirits, 

But    coming   nearer  —  Muriel    had    the 

laugh'd  : 

ring  — 

794 


THE  RING. 


*  O  Miriam !  have  you  given  your  ring  to 

her? 
O  Miriam  ! '     Miriam   redden'd,  Muriel 

clench'd 
The  hand  that  wore  it,  till  I  cried  again : 
1 0  Miriam,  if  you  love  me  take  the  ring ! ' 
She  glanced  at  me,  at  Muriel,  and  was 

mute. 
'  Nay,  if  you  cannot  love  me,  let  it  be.' 
Then  —  Muriel  standing  ever  statue-like  — 
She  turn'd,  and  in  her  soft  imperial  way 
And   saying    gently:    'Muriel,   by   your 

leave,' 
Unclosed  the  hand,  and  from  it  drew  the 

ring, 
And  gave  it  me,  who  pass'd  it  down  her 

own, 
'  Io  t'amo,  all  is  well  then.'     Muriel  fled. 
Miriam.     Poor  Muriel ! 
Father.  Ay,  poor  Muriel 

when  you  hear 
What  follows !     Miriam  loved  me  from 

the  first, 
Not  thro'  the  ring;   but  on  her  marriage- 
morn 
This  birthday,  death -day,  and  betrothal 

ring, 
Laid  on  her  table  overnight,  was  gone; 
And  after  hours  of  search  and  doubt  and 

threats, 
And    hubbub,    Muriel    enter'd    with    it, 

'  See !  — 
Found  in  a  chink  of  that  old  moulder'd 

floor ! ' 
My  Miriam  nodded  with  a  pitying  smile, 
As  who  should  say  '  that  those  who  lose 

can  find.' 
Then  I  and  she  were  married  for  a 

year, 
One  year  without  a  storm,  or   even  a 

cloud; 
And  you   my  Miriam   born   within   the 

year; 
And  she  my  Miriam  dead  within  the  year. 
I  sat  beside  her  dying,  and  she  gaspt : 
'The  books,  the  miniature,  the  lace  are 

hers, 
My  ring  too  when  she  comes  of  age,  or 

when 
She  marries;  you  —  you  loved  me,  kept 

your  word. 
You  love  me  still  "Io  t'amo."  —  Muriel 

—  no  — 


She   cannot  love;    she   loves   her   own 

hard  self, 
Her  firm  will,  her  fix'd  purpose.     Prom- 
ise me, 
Miriam  not  Muriel  —  she  shall  have  the 

ring.' 
And  there  the  light  of  other  life,  which 

lives 
Beyond  our  burial  and  our  buried  eyes, 
Gleam'd  for  a  moment  in  her  own  on 

earth. 
I  swore   the   vow,  then  with  my  latest 

kiss 
Upon  them,  closed  her  eyes,  which  would 

not  close, 
But  kept  their  watch  upon  the  ring  and 

you. 
Your  birthday  was  her  death-day. 

Miriam.  O  poor  Mother ! 

And    you,   poor    desolate    Father,    and 

poor  me, 
The  little  senseless,  worthless,  wordless 

babe, 
Saved  when  your  life  was  wr-eck'd ! 

Father.  Desolate?  yes! 

Desolate  as  that  sailor,  whom  the  storm 
Had  parted  from  his  comrade  in  the  boat, 
And  dash'd  half  dead  on  barren  sands, 

was  I. 
Nay,  you  were  my  one  solace;   only — ' 

you 
Were    always   ailing.      Muriel's  mother 

sent, 
And  sure  am  I,  by  Muriel,  one  day  came 
And  saw  you,  shook  her  head,  and  patted 

yours*, 
And  smiled,  and  making  with  a  kindly 

pinch 
Each  poor  pale  cheek  a  momentary  rose  — 
*  That  should  be  fix'd,'  she  said;   'your 

pretty  bud, 
So  blighted  here,  would  flower  into  full 

health 
Among  our  heath  and  bracken.     Let  her 

come! 
And  we  will  feed  her  with  our  mountain 

air, 
And   send  her  home  to  you  rejoicing.* 

No  — 
We  could    not   part.     And  once,  when 

you  my  girl 
Rode  on  my  shoulder  home  —  the  tiny 

fist 


THE  RING. 


795 


Had  graspt  a  daisy  from  your  Mother's 

grave  — 
By  the  lych-gate  was  Muriel.     '  Ay,'  she 

said, 
'Among  the  tombs  in  this  damp  vale  of 

yours ! 
You  scorn  my  Mother's  warning,  but  the 

child 
Is  paler  than  before.     We  often  walk 
In  open  sun,  and  see  beneath  our  feet 
The  mist  of  autumn  gather  from  your 

lake, 
And   shroud   the   tower;    and   once  we 

only  saw 
Your    gilded   vane,   a   light   above    the 

mist '  — 
(Our  old  bright  bird  that  still  is  veering 

there 
Above  his  four   gold  letters)    'and  the 

light,' 
She  said, '  was  like  that  light '  —  and  there 

she  paused, 
And  long;   till  I  believing  that  the  girl's 
Lean   fancy,  groping   for   it,  could   not 

find 
One  likeness,  laugh'd  a  little  and  found 

her  two  — 
'  A   warrior's   crest   above  the  cloud  of 

war '  — 
'  A  fiery  phoenix  rising  from  the  smoke, 
The  pyre  he  burnt  in.'  — '  Nay,'  she  said, 

'  the  light 
That  glimmers  on  the  marsh  and  on  the 

grave.' 
And    spoke   no   more,   but    turn'd   and 

pass'd  away. 
Miriam,  I  am  not  surely  one  of  those 
Caught  by  the  flower  that  closes  on  the 

fly, 

But  after  ten  slow  weeks  her  fix'd  intent, 
In  aiming  at  an  all  but  hopeless  mark 
To  strike  it,  struck;    I  took,  I  left  you 

there ; 
I    came,   I   went,  was   happier   day   by 

day; 
For  Muriel  nursed  you  with  a  mother's 

care; 
Till  on  that  clear  and  heather-scented 

height 
The  rounder  cheek  had  brighten'd  into 

bloom. 
She   always   came  to  meet  me  carrying 

you, 


And  all  her  talk  was  of  the  babe  she 

loved; 
So,   following   her   old   pastime   of    the 

brook, 
She   threw  the  fly  for   me;   but  oftener 

left 
That  angling  to  the  mother.     '  Muriel's 

health 
Had   weaken'd,   nursing    little    Miriam. 

Strange ! 
She  used  to  shun  the  wailing  babe,  and 

dotes 
On  this  of  yours.'     But  when  the  mation 

saw 
That  hinted  love  was  only  wasted  bait, 
Not   risen    to,   she    was   bolder.     'Ever 

since 
You  sent   the  fatal   ring ;  —  I  told   her 

'sent 
To  Miriam,'  'Doubtless  —  ay,  but   ever, 

since 
In  all  the  world  my  dear  one  sees  but 

you  — 
In  your  sweet  babe  she  finds  but  you  — 

she  makes 
Her  heart  a  mirror  that  reflects  but  you.' 
And  then  the  tear  fell,  the  voice  broke. 

Her  heart ! 
I  gazed  into  the  mirror,  as  a  man 
Who  sees  his  face  in  water,  and  a  stone, 
That   glances   from   the   bottom  of  the 

pool, 
Strike  upward  thro'  the  shadow;   yet  at 

last, 
Gratitude  —  loneliness  —  desire  to  keep 
So  skilled  a  nurse  about  you  always  — 

nay! 
Some  half  remorseful  kind  of  pity  too  — 
Well !  well,  you  know  I  married  Muriel 

Erne. 
'I  take   thee   Muriel  for   my  wedded 

wife '  — 
I  had   forgotten  it   was   your   birthday, 

child  — 
When   all   at   once   with   some   electric 

thrill 
A  cold  air   pass'd   between  us,  and  the 

hands 
Fell'  from  each   other,  and  were  join'd 

again. 
No  second  cloudless  honeymoon  wag 

mine. 
For  by  and  by  she  sicken'd  of  the  farce, 


796 


THE  RING. 


She  dropt  the  gracious  mask  of  mother- 
hood, 
She  came  no  more  to  meet  me,  carrying 

you, 
Nor  ever  cared  to  set  you  on  her  knee, 
Nor  ever  let  you  gambol  in  her  sight, 
Nor    ever   cheer'd    you   with    a    kindly 

smile, 
Nor  ever  ceased  to  clamour  for  the  ring; 
Why  had  I  sent  the  ring  at  first  to  her? 
Why  had  I  made  her  love  me  thro'  the 

ring, 
And   then    had  changed?  so   fickle  are 

men  —  the  best ! 
Not  she  —  but   now  my  love  was   hers 

again, 
The  ring  by  right,   she    said,  was   hers 

again. 
At   times   too    shrilling   in   her   angrier 

moods, 
*  That  weak  and  watery  nature  love  you? 

No! 
"  Io  t'amo,  Io  t'amo  "  ! '  flung  herself 
Against   my  heart,  but  often  while  her 

lips 
Were    warm     upon   my   cheek,    an   icy 

breath, 
As  from  the  grating  of  a  sepulchre, 
Past  over  both.     I  told  her  of  my  vow, 
No  pliable  idiot  I  to  break  my  vow; 
But  still  she    made   her   outcry  for   the 

ring; 
For  one  monotonous  fancy  madden'd  her, 
Till   I   myself  was  madden'd   with   her 

cry, 
And  even  that  '  Io  t'amo,'   those  three 

sweet 
Italian  words,  became  a  weariness. 
My  people  too  were  scared  with  eerie 

sounds, 
A  footstep,  a  low  throbbing  in  the  walls, 
A  noise  of    falling  weights   that    never 

fell, 
Weird  whispers,  bells  that  rang  without 

a  hand, 
Door-handles  turn'd  when  none  was  at 

the  door, 
And  bolted  doors  that  open'd  of  them- 
selves : 
And  one  betwixt  the  dark  and  light  had 

seen 
Her,    bending    by  the    cradle    of    her 

babe. 


Miriam.     And  I  remember  once  that 

being  waked 
By   noises   in   the  house  —  and  no   one 

near  — 
I  cried  for  nurse,  and  felt  a  gentle  hand 
Fall  on  my  forehead,  and  a  sudden  face 
Look'd   in  upon   me    like  a  gleam  and 

pass'd 
And  I  was  quieted,  and  slept  again. 
Or  is  it  some  half  memory  of  a  dream? 
Father.     Your  fifth    September  birth- 
day. 
Miriam.     And  the  face, 
The  hand,  —  my  Mother. 

Father.  Miriam,  on  that  day 

Two  lovers  parted  by  no  scurrilous  tale  — 
Mere  want  of  gold  —  and  still  for  twenty 

years 
Bound  by  the  golden  cord  of  their  first 

love  — 
Had  ask'd  us  to  their  marriage,  and  to 

share 
Their  marriage-banquet.      Muriel,  paler 

then 
Than    ever    you    were    in  your   cradle, 

moan'd, 
•  I  am  fitter  for  my  bed,  or  for  my  grave, 
I    cannot  go,   go  you.'     And    then   she 

rose, 
She  clung  to  me  with  such  a  hard  em- 
brace, 
So  lingeringly  long,  that  half-amazed 
I  parted  from  her,  and  I  went  alone. 
And   when    the  bridegroom   murmur'd, 

1  With  this  ring,' 
I  felt  for  what  I  could  not  find,  the  key, 
The  guardian  of  her  relics,  of  her  ring. 
I  kept  it  as  a  sacred  amulet 
About   me,  —  gone!    and   gone   in  that 

embrace ! 
Then,  hurrying  home,  I  found  her  not 

in  house 
Or  garden  —  up  the  tower  —  an  icy  air 
Fled  by  me. — There,  the  chest  was  open 

—  all 
The  sacred  relics  tost  about  the  floor  — 
Among  them  Muriel  lying  on  her  face  — 
I  raised  her,  call'd  her,  *  Muriel,  Muriel, 

wake ! ' 
The  fatal  ring  lay  near  her;  the  glazed 

eye 
Glared   at  me  as  in  horror.     Dead!     I 

took 


THE  RING  — FORLORN. 


797 


And  chafed  the  freezing  hand.     A  red 

mark  ran 
All  round  one  finger   pointed   straight, 

the  rest 
Were  crumpled  inwards.     Dead !  —  and 

maybe  stung 
With  some  remorse,  had  stolen,  worn  the 

ring  — 
Then  torn  it  from  her  finger,  or  as  if — 
For  never  had  I  seen  her  show  remorse  — 
Asif— 

Miriam.  — those  two  Ghost  Lovers  — 
Father.  —  lovers  yet  — 

Miriam.     Yes,  yes ! 
Father.     —  but  dead  so  long,  gone  up 
so  far, 
That     now    their    ever-rising    life    has 

dwarf'd 
Or   lost   the    moment  of  their   past  on 

earth, 
As  we  forget  our  wail  at  being  born. 
Asif— 

Miriam.      —  a  dearer  ghost  had  — 
Father.  —  wrench'd  it  away. 

Miriam.      Had   floated   in   with   sad 
reproachful  eyes, 
Till  from  her  own  hand  she  had  torn  the 

ring 
In  fright,  and  fallen  dead.     And  I  my- 
self 
Am  half  afraid  to  wear  it. 


Father. 


Well, 


No  bridal  music  this  !  but  fear  not  you  ! 
You   have   the   ring   she   guarded;   that 

poor  link 
With  earth  is  broken,  and  has  left  her 

free, 
Except  that,  still   drawn   downward  for 

an  hour, 
Her  spirit  hovering  by  the  church,  where 

she 
Was   married   too,  may   linger,  till   she 

sees 
Her  maiden  coming  like  a  Queen,  who 

leaves 
Some  colder  province  in  the  North  to 

gain 
Her  capital  city,  where  the  loyal  bells 
Clash  welcome  —  linger,  till  her  own,  the 

babe 
She  lean'd  to  from  her  Spiritual  sphere, 
Her  lonely  maiden-Princess,  crown'd  with 

flowers, 


Has  enter'd  on  the  larger  woman-world 
Of  wives  and  mothers. 

But  the  bridal  veil  — 
Your  nurse  is  waiting.     Kiss  me,  child, 
and  go. 


FORLORN. 


He  is  fled  —  I  wish  him  dead  — 
He  that  wrought  my  ruin  — 

O  the  flattery  and  the  craft 
Which  were  my  undoing  .  .  . 
In  the  night,  in  the  night, 
When  the  storms  are  blowing. 


Who  was  witness  of  the  crime  ? 

Who  shall  now  reveal  it? 
He  is  fled,  or  he  is  dead, 

Marriage  will  conceal  it  .  .  . 

In  the  night,  in  the  night, 

While  the  gloom  is  growing.' 


Catherine,  Catherine,  in  the  night, 
What  is  this  you're  dreaming? 

There  is  laughter  down  in  Hell 
At  your  simple  scheming  .  .  . 
In  the  night,  in  the  night, 
When  the  ghosts  are  fleeting. 


You  to  place  a  hand  in  his 
Like  an  honest  woman's, 

You  that  lie  with  wasted  lungs 
Waiting  for  your  summons  . 
In  the  night,  O  the  night, 
O  the  deathwatch  beating ! 


v. 


There  will  come  a  witness  soon 

Hard  to  be  confuted, 
All  the  world  will  hear  a  voice 

Scream  you  are  polluted  .  .  . 

In  the  night,  O  the  night, 

When  the  owls  are  wailing ! 


798 


FORLORN—  HAPPY. 


VI. 

XII. 

Shame  and   marriage,  Shame  and   mar- 

Death   and   marriage,  Death   and  mar- 

riage, 

riage  ! 

Fright  and  foul  dissembling, 

Funeral  hearses  rolling ! 

Bantering  bridesman,  reddening  priest, 

Black  with  bridal  favours  mixt ! 

Tower  and  altar  trembling  .  .  . 

Bridal  bells  with  tolling !  .  .  . 

In  the  night,  0  the  night, 

In  the  night,  0  the  night, 

When  the  mind  is  failing ! 

When  the  wolves  are  howling. 

VII. 

XIII. 

Mother,  dare  you  kill  your  child? 

Up,  get  up,  the  time  is  short, 

How  your  hand  is  shaking ! 

Tell  him  now  or  never ! 

Daughter  of  the  seed  of  Cain, 

Tell  him  all  before  you  die, 

What  is  this  you're  taking?  .  .  . 

Lest  you  die  for  ever  .  .  . 

In  the  night,  0  the  night, 

In  the  night,  0  the  night, 

While  the  house  is  sleeping. 

Where  there's  no  forgetting. 

VIII. 

XIV. 

Dreadful !  has  it  come  to  this, 

Up  she  got,  and  wrote  him  all, 

0  unhappy  creature? 

All  her  tale  of  sadness, 

You  that  would  not  tre.'.d  on  a  worm 

Blister'd  every  word  with  tears, 

For  your  gentle  nature  .  .  . 

And  eased  her  heart  of  madness  .  .  . 

In  the  night,  0  the  night, 

In  the  night,  and  nigh  the  dawn, 

O  the  night  of  weeping ! 

And  while  the  moon  was  setting. 

IX. 

Murder  would  not  veil  your  sin, 

HAPPY. 

Marriage  will  not  hide  it, 
Earth  and  Hell  will  brand  your  name 

THE  LEPER'S  BRIDE. 

Wretch  you  must  abide  it  .  .  . 

I. 

In  the  night,  0  the  night, 

Long  before  the  dawning. 

Why  wail  you,  pretty  plover?  and  what 

is  it  that  you  fear? 

X. 

Is  he  sick  your  mate  like  mine?  have 

you  lost  him,  is  he  fled? 

Up,  get  up,  and  tell  him  all, 

And   there  —  the    heron  rises   from   his 

Tell  him  you  were  lying ! 

watch  beside  the  mere, 

Do  not  die  with  a  lie  in  your  mouth, 

And  flies  above  the  leper's  hut,  where 

You  that  know  you're  dying  .  .  . 

lives  the  living-dead. 

In  the  night,  0  the  night, 

While  the  grave  is  yawning. 

II. 

XI. 

Come  back,  nor  let  me  know  it !  would 

he  live  and  die  alone? 

No  —  you  will  not  die  before, 

And  has  he  not  forgiven  me  yet,  his 

Tho'  you'll  ne'er  be  stronger; 

over-jealous  bride, 

You  will  live  till  that  is  born, 

Who  am,  and  was,  and  will  be  his,  his 

Then  a  little  longer  .  .  . 

own  and  only  own, 

In  the  night,  0  the  night, 

To  share  his  living   death  with   him, 

While  the  Fiend  is  prowling. 

die  with  him  side  by  side? 

HAPPY. 


799 


in. 

Is   that   the   leper's  hut  on  the  solitary 
moor, 
Where  noble  Ulric  dwells  forlorn,  and 
wears  the  leper's  weed? 
The  door  is  open.     He !  is  he  standing 
at  the  door, 
My  soldier  of  the  Cross?  it  is  he  and 
he  indeed ! 

IV. 

My   roses  —  will   he  take   them   now  — 
mine,  his  —  from  off  the  tree 
We  planted  both  together,  happy  in 
our  marriage  morn? 
O  God,  I  could  blaspheme,  for  he  fought 
Thy  fight  for  Thee, 
And  Thou  hast  made  him  leper  to  com- 
pass him  with  scorn  — 


Hast  spared  the  flesh  of  thousands,  the 
coward  and  the  base, 
And  set  a  crueller  mark  than  Cain's  on 
him,  the  good  and  brave  ! 
He  sees  me,  waves  me  from  him.     I  will 
front  him  face  to  face. 
You  need  not  wave  me  from  you.     I 
would  leap  into  your  grave. 


VI. 

My  warrior  of  the  Holy  Cross  and  of  the 
conquering  sword, 
The  roses  that  you  cast  aside  —  once 
more  I  bring  you  these. 
No  nearer?  do  you  scorn  me  when  you 
tell  me,  O  my  lord, 
You  would  not  mar  the  beauty  of  your 
bride  with  your  disease. 

VII. 

You  say  your  body  is  so  foul  —  then  here 
I  stand  apart, 
Who  yearn  to  lay  my  loving  head  upon 
your  leprous  breast. 
The  leper  plague  may  scale  my  skin  but 
never  taint  my  heart; 
Your  body  is  not  foul  to  me,  and  body 
is  foul  at  best. 


I  loved  you  first  when  young  and  fair, 
but  now  I  love  you  most; 
The  fairest  flesh  at  last  is  filth  on  which 
the  worm  will  feast; 
This  poor  rib-grated  dungeon  of  the  holy 
human  ghost, 
This  house  with  all  its  hateful  needs  no 
cleaner  than  the  beast, 


IX. 


This  coarse  disease  M  creature  which  in 
Eden  was  divine, 
This    Satan-haunted    ruin,    this    little 
city  of  sewers, 
This  wall  of  solid  flesh  that  comes  between 
your  soul  and  mine, 
Will   vanish   and   give   place    to    the 
beauty  that  endures, 


The  beauty  that  endures  on  the  Spiritual 
height, 
When  we  shall  stand  transfigured,  like 
Christ  on  Hermon  hill, 
And  moving  each  to  music,  soul  in  soul 
and  light  in  light, 
Shall   flash   thro'   one    another    in    a 
moment  as  we  will. 


XI. 


Foul !    foul !    the   word   was   yours   not 
mine,  I  worship  that  right  hand 
Which  fell'd  the  foes  before  you  as  the 
woodman  fells  the. wood, 
And  sway'd  the  sword  that  lighten'd  back 
the  sun  of  Holy  land, 
And  clove  the  Moslem  crescent  moon, 
and  changed  it  into  blood. 

XII. 

And   once   I   worshipt  all  too  well  this 
creature  of  decay, 
For  Age  will  chink  the  face,  and  Death 
will  freeze  the  supplest  limbs  — 
Yet  you  in  your  mid  manhood  —  O  the 
grief  when  yesterday 
They  bore  the  Cross  before  you  to  the 
chant  of  funeral  hymns. 


8oo 


HAPPY. 


XIII. 

XVIII. 

'  Libera    me,   Domine ! '    you  sang  the 

You  never  once  accused  me,  but  I  wept 

Psalm,  and  when 

alone,  and  sigh'd 

The  Priest  pronounced  you  dead,  and 

In  the  winter  of  the  Present  for  the 

flung  the  mould  upon  your  feet, 

summer  of  the  Past; 

A  beauty  came  upon  your  face,  not  that 

That   icy  winter   silence  —  how  it  froze 

of  living  men, 

you  from  your  bride, 

But  seen  upon  the  silent  brow  when 

Tho'  I  made  one  barren  effort  to  break 

life  has  ceased  to  beat. 

it  at  the  last. 

XIV. 

XIX. 

S.  Libera  nos,  Domine '  —  you   knew  not 

I  brought  you,  you  remember,  these  roses, 

one  was  there 

when  I  knew 

Who  saw  you  kneel  beside  your  bier, 

You  were  parting  for  the  war,  and  you 

and  weeping  scarce  could  see; 

took  them  tho'  you  frown'd; 

May  I  come  a  little  nearer,  I  that  heard, 

You  frown'd  and  yet  you  kiss'd  them. 

and  changed  the  prayer 

All  at  once  the  trumpet  blew, 

And  sang  the  married  '  nos '  for   the 

And  you  spurr'd  your  fiery  horse,  and 

solitary  '  me.' 

you  hurl'd  them  to  the  ground. 

XV. 

My  beauty  marred  by  you?   by  you!  so 

XX. 

You  parted  for  the  Holy  War  without  a 

be  it.     All  is  well 

word  to  me, 

If  I  lose  it  and  myself  in  the  higher 

And  clear  myself  unask'd — not  I.    My 

beauty,  yours. 

nature  was  too  proud. 

My  beauty  lured   that   falcon   from  his 

And  him  I  saw  but  once  again,  and  far 

eyry  on  the  fell, 

away  was  he, 

Who  never  caught  one  gleam  of  the 

When  I  was  praying  in  a  storm  —  the 

beauty  which  endures  — 

crash  was  long  and  loud  — 

XVI. 

XXI. 

The  Count  who  sought  to  snap  the  bond 

That  God  would  ever  slant  His  bolt  from 

that  link'd  us  life  to  life, 

falling  on  your  head  — 

Who  whisper'd  me,  '  Your  Ulric  loves ' 

Then  I  lifted  up  my  eyes,  he  was  coming 

—  a  little  nearer  still  — 

down  the  fell  — 

He   hiss'd,  '  Let   us   revenge    ourselves, 

I  clapt  my  hands.     The  sudden  fire  from 

your  Ulric  woos  my  wife '  — 

Heaven  had  dash'd  him  dead, 

A  lie  by  which  he  thought  he  could 

And  sent  him  charr'd  and  blasted  to 

subdue  me  to  his  will. 

the  deathless  fire  of  Hell. 

XVII. 

XXII. 

I  knew  that  you  were  near  me  when  I 

See,  I  sinn'd  but  for  a  moment.     I  re- 

let him  kiss  my  brow; 

pented  and  repent, 

Did  he  touch  me  on  the  lips?  I  was 

And  trust  myself  forgiven  by  the  God 

jealous,  anger'd,  vain, 

to  whom  I  kneel. 

And  I  meant  to  make  you  jealous.     Are 

A  little  nearer?     Yes.     I  shall  hardly  be 

you  jealous  of  me  now? 

content 

Your  pardon,  0  my  love,  if  I  ever  gave 

Till  I  be  leper  like  yourself,  my  love, 

you  pain. 

from  head  to  heel. 

HAPPY. 


801 


XXIII. 

O  foolish  dreams,  that  you,  that  I,  would 
slight  our  marriage  oath  : 
I  held  you  at  that  moment  even  dearer 
than  before; 
Now  God  has  made  you  leper  in  His 
loving  care  for  both, 
That  we  might  cling  together,  never 
doubt  each  other  more. 

XXIV. 

The  Priest,  who  join'd  you  to  the  dead, 
has  join'd  our  hands  of  old; 
If  man  and  wife  be  but  one  flesh,  let 
mine  be  leprous  too, 
As  dead  from  all  the  human  race  as  if 
beneath  the  mould; 
If  you  be  dead,  then  I  am  dead,  who 
only  live  for  you. 


Would  Earth  tho'  hid  in  cloud  not  be 
follow'd  by  the  Moon? 
The  leech  forsake  the  dying  bed  for 
terror  of  his  life  ? 
The  shadow  leave  the  Substance  in  the 
brooding  light  of  noon? 
Or  if  /  had  been  the  leper  would  you 
have  left  the  wife  ? 


Not  take  them !     Still  you  wave  me  off 
—  poor  roses  —  must  I  go  — 
I  have  worn  them  year  by  year  —  from 
the  bush  we  both  had  set  — 
What  ?  fling  them  to  you  ?  —  well  —  that 
were  hardly  gracious.     No  ! 
Your  plague  but  passes  by  the  touch. 
A  little  nearer  yet ! 

XXVII. 

There,  there  !    he  buried  you,  the  Priest; 
the  Priest  is  not  to  blame, 
He  joins  us  once  again,  to  his  either 
office  true : 
I    thank    him.     I    am    happy,    happy. 
Kiss  me.     In  the  name 
Of  the  everlasting  God,  I  will  live  and 
die  with  you. 
3F 


[Dean  Milman  has  remarked  that  the  protection 
and  care  afforded  by  the  Church  to  this  blighted 
race  of  lepers  was  among  the  most  beautiful  ol 
its  offices  during  the  Middle  Ages.  The  leprosy 
of  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries  was 
supposed  to  be  a  legacy  of  the  crusades,  but  was 
in  all  probability  the  offspring  of  meagre  and 
unwholesome  diet,  miserable  lodging  and  cloth- 
ing, physical  and  moral  degradation.  The  ser- 
vices of  the  Church  in  the  seclusion  of  these 
unhappy  sufferers  were  most  affecting.  The  stern 
duty  of  looking  to  the  public  welfare  is  tempered 
with  exquisite  compassion  for  the  victims  of  this 
loathsome  disease.  The  ritual  for  the  sequestra- 
tion of  the  leprous  differed  little  from  the  burial 
service.  After  the  leper  had  been  sprinkled  with 
holy  water,  the  priest  conducted  him  into  the 
church,  the  leper  singing  the  psalm  '  Libera  me 
domine,'  and  the  crucifix  and  bearer  going  before. 
In  the  church  a  black  cloth  was  stretched  over 
two  trestles  in  front  of  the  altar,  and  the  leper 
leaning  at  its  side  devoutly  heard  mass.  The 
priest,  taking  up  a  little  earth  in  his  cloak,  threw 
it  on  one  of  the  leper's  feet,  and  put  him  out  of 
the  church,  if  it  did  not  rain  too  heavily;  took 
him  to  his  hut  in  the  midst  of  the  fields,  and  then 
uttered  the  prohibitions:  'I  forbid  you  entering 
the  church  ....  or  entering  the  company  of 
others.  I  forbid  you  quitting  your  home  without 
your  leper's  dress.'  He  concluded:  '  Take  this 
dress,  and  wear  it  in  token  of  humility;  take 
these  gloves,  take  this  clapper,  as  a  sign  that  you 
are  forbidden  to  speak  to  any  one.  You  are  not 
to  be  indignant  at  being  thus  separated  from 
others,  and  as  to  your  little  wants,  good  people 
will  provide  for  you,  and  God  will  not  desert 
you.'  Then  in  this  old  ritual  follow  these  sad 
words :  '  When  it  shall  come  to  pass  that  the 
leper  shall  pass  out  of  this  world,  he  shall  be 
buried  in  his  hut,  and  not  in  the  churchyard.' 
At  first  there  was  a  doubt  whether  wives  should 
follow  their  husbands  who  had  been  leprous,  or 
remain  in  the  world  and  marry  again.  The 
Church  decided  that  the  marriage-tie  was  indis- 
soluble, and  so  bestowed  on  these  unhappy  beings 
this  immense  source  of  consolation.  With  a  love 
stronger  than  this  living  death,  lepers  were  fol- 
lowed into  banishment  from  the  haunts  of  men 
by  their  faithful  wives.  Readers  of  Sir  J. 
Stephen's  Essays  on  Ecclesiastical  Biography 
will  recollect  the  description  of  the  founder  of  the 
Franciscan  order,  how,  controlling  his  involun- 
tary disgust,  St.  Francis  of  Assisi  washed  the 
feet  and  dressed  the  sores  of  the  lepers,  once  at 
least  reverently  applying  his  lips  to  their  wounds. 
—  Boucher-James.] 

This  ceremony  of  quasi-buriaX  varied  consider, 
ably  at  different  times  and  in  different  places. 


802 


TO    ULYSSES. 


In  some  cases  a  grave  was  dug,  and  the  leper's 
face  was  often  covered  during  the  service. 


TO  ULYSSES.1 
i. 

Ulysses,  much- experienced  man, 

Whose  eyes  have  known  this  globe  of 

ours, 
Her  tribes  of   men,   and  trees,   and 
flowers, 
From  Corrientes  to  Japan, 


To  you  that  bask  below  the  Line, 
I  soaking  here  in  winter  wet  — 
The  century's  three  strong  eights  have 
met 

To  drag  me  down  to  seventy-nine 


In  summer  if  I  reach  my  day  — 

To  you,  yet  young,  who  breathe  the 

balm 
Of  summer- winters  by  the  palm 

And  orange  grove  of  Paraguay, 

IV. 

I  tolerant  of  the  colder  time, 

Who  love  the  winter  woods,  to  trace 
On  paler  heavens  the  branching  grace 

Of  leafless  elm,  or  naked  lime, 


And  see  my  cedar  green,  and  there 

My  giant  ilex  keeping  leaf 

When    frost    is    keen    and    days    are 
brief — 
Or  marvel  how  in  English  air 


My  yucca,  which  no  winter  quells, 

Altho'  the  months  have  scarce  begun, 
Has  push'd  toward  our  faintest  sun 

A  spike  of  half-accomplish'd  bells  — 
• 

VII. 

Or  watch  the  waving  pine  which  here 
The  warrior  of  Caprera  set,2 


A  name  that  earth  will  not  forget 
Till  earth  has  roll'd  her  latest  year  — 


VIII. 


I,  once  half-crazed  for  larger  light 
On  broader  zones  beyond  the  foam, 
But  chaining  fancy  now  at  home 

Among  the  quarried  downs  of  Wight, 


IX. 

Not  less  would  yield  full  thanks  to  you 
For  your  rich  gift,  your  tale  of  lands 

1  know  not,3  your  Arabian  sands; 
Your  cane,  your  palm,  tree-fern,  bamboq 

X. 

The  wealth  of  tropic  bower  and  brake; 

Your  Oriental  Eden-isles,4 

Where  man,  nor  only  Nature  smiles; 
Your  wonder  of  the  boiling  lake;  6 

XI. 

Phra-Chai,  the  Shadow  of  the  Best,6 
Phra-bat7  the  step;  your  Pontic  coast; 
Crag- cloister;  8  Anatolian  Ghost;9 

Hong-Kong,10  Karnac,11  and  all  the  rest 

XII. 

Thro'  which  I  follow'd  line  by  line 
Your  leading   hand,    and    came,  my 

friend, 
To  prize  your  various  book,  and  send 

A  gift  of  slenderer  value,  mine. 

1 '  Ulysses,'  the  title  of  a  number  of  essays  by 
W.  G.  Palgrave.  He  died  at  Monte  Video  before 
seeing  my  poem. 

2  Garibaldi  said  to  me,  alluding  to  his  barren 
island,  '  I  wish  I  had  your  trees.' 

»  The  tale  of  Nejd. 
*  The  Philippines. 
8  In  Dominica. 

6  The  Shadow  of  the  Lord.  Certain  obscure 
markings  on  a  rock  in  Siam,  which  express  the 
image  of  Buddha  to  the  Buddhist  more  or  less 
distinctly  according  to  his  faith  and  his  moral 
worth. 

7  The  footstep  of  the  Lord  on  another  rock. 

8  The  monastery  of  Sumelas. 

9  Anatolian  Spectre  stories. 
io  The  Three  Cities. 

11  Travels  in  Egypt. 


TO  MARY  BOYLE. 


803 


VII. 

TO  MARY  BOYLE. 

A  rhyme  that  fiower'd  betwixt  the  whiten- 

With the  following  Poem. 

ing  sloe 

And  kingcup  blaze, 

1. 

And  more  than  half  a  hundred  years  ago, 

'Spring- flowers'!    While    you    still 

In  rick-fire  days, 

delay  to  take 

Your  leave  of  Town, 

VIII. 

Our    elmtree's    ruddy-hearted    blossom- 

When  Dives  loathed  the  times,  and  paced 

flake 

his  land 

Is  fluttering  down. 

In  fear  of  worse, 

And  sanguine  Lazarus  felt  a  vacant  hand 

11. 

Fill  with  his  purse. 

Be  truer  to  your  promise.    There !     I 

IX. 

heard 

Our  cuckoo  call. 

For  lowly  minds  were  madden'd  to  the 

Be  needle  to  the  magnet  of  your  word, 

height 

Nor  wait,  till  all 

By  tonguester  tricks, 

And  once  —  I  well  remember  that  red 

in. 

night 

Our  vernal  bloom  from  every  vale  and 

When  thirty  ricks, 

plain 

X. 

And  garden  pass, 

And  all  the  gold  from  each  laburnum 

All  flaming,  made  an  English  homestead 

chain 

Hell  — 

Drop  to  the  grass. 

These  hands  of  mine 

Have  helpt  to  pass  a  bucket  from  the  well 

IV. 

Along  the  line, 

Is  memory  with  your  Marian  gone  to 

XI. 

rest, 

Dead  with  the  dead? 

When  this  bare  dome  had  not  begun  to 

For  ere  she  left  us,  when  we  met,  you 

gleam 

prest 

Thro'  youthful  curls, 

My  hand,  and  said 

And  you  were  then  a  lover's  fairy  dream, 

v. 

His  girl  of  girls; 

*I  come  with  your  spring-flowers.*    You 

XII. 

came  not,  friend; 

And  you,  that  now  are  lonely,  and  with 

My  birds  would  sing, 

Grief 

You  heard  not.    Take  then  this  spring- 

Sit  face  to  face, 

flower  I  send, 

Might  find  a  flickering  glimmer  of  relief 

This  song  of  spring, 

In  change  of  place. 

VI. 

XIII. 

#ound  yesterday  —  forgotten  mine  own 

What  use  to  brood?  this,  life  of  mingled 

rhyme 

pains 

By  mine  old  self, 

And  joys  to  me, 

As  I  shall  be  forgotten  by  old  Tim  5 

Despite  of  every  Faith  and  Creed,  remains 

Laid  on  the  shelf — 

The  Mystery. 

804 


THE  PROGRESS   OF  SPRING. 


Let  golden  youth  bewail  the  friend,  the 
wife, 

For  ever  gone. 
He  dreams  of  that  long  walk  thro'  desert 
life 

Without  the  one. 

XV. 

The  silver  year  should  cease  to  mourn 
and  sigh  — 

Not  long  to  wait  — 
So  close  are  we,  dear  Mary,  you  and  I 

To  that  dim  gate. 


Take,  read  !  and  be  the  faults  your  Poet 
makes 

Or  many  or  few, 
He   rests   content,   if  his  young  music 
wakes 

A  wish  in  you 

XVII. 

To  change  our  dark  Queen-city,  all  her 
realm 

Of  sound  and  smoke, 
For  his  clear  heaven,  and  these  few  lanes 
of  elm 

And  whispering  oak. 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  SPRING. 
I. 

The  groundflame  of  the  crocus  breaks 
the  mould, 
Fair     Spring    slides    hither    o'er   the 
Southern  sea, 
Wavers  on  her  thin  stem  the  snowdrop 
cold 
That   trembles  not   to   kisses   of  the 
bee  : 
Come,    Spring,    for    now   from    all   the 
dripping  eaves 
The  spear  of  ice  has  wept  itself  away, 
And  hour  by  hour  unfolding  woodbine 
leaves 
O'er  his  uncertain  shadow  droops  the 
day. 


She  comes i    The  loosen'd  rivulets  run; 
The  frost-bead  melts  upon  her  golden 
hair; 
Her  mantle,  slowly  greening  in  the  Sun, 
Now  wraps    her   close,    now  arching 

leaves  her  bare 
To  breaths  of  balmier  air; 


Up  leaps  the  lark,  gone  wild  to  welcome 
her, 
About  her  glance  the  tits,  and  shriek 
the  jays, 
Before  her  skims  the  jubilant  woodpecker, 
The  linnet's  bosom  blushes  at  her  gaze, 
While  round  her  brows  a  woodland  culver 
flits. 
Watching  her    large   light   eyes   and 
gracious  looks, 
And  in  her  open  palm  a  halcyon  sits 
Patient  —  the  secret  splendour  of  the 
brooks. 
Come,  Spring !     She  comes  on  waste  and 
wood, 
On  farm  and  field  :  but  enter  also  here, 
Diffuse  thyself  at  will  thro'  all  my  blood, 
And,  tho'  thy  violet  sicken  into  sere, 
Lodge  with  me  all  the  year  ! 


Once  more   a  downy   drift   against  the 
brakes, 
Self-darken'd  in  the  sky,  descending 
slow ! 
But  gladly  see  I  thro'  the  wavering  flakes 
Yon   blanching   apricot   like  snow  in 
snow. 
These  will  thine  eyes  not  brook  in  forest- 
paths, 
On   their  perpetual  pine,   nor   round 
the  beech; 
They  fuse  themselves  to  little  spicy  baths, 
Solved  in  the  tender   blushes  of  the 
peach; 
They  lose  themselves  and  die 

On  that  new  life  that  gems  the  haw- 
thorn line; 
Thy  gay  lent-lilies  wave  and  put  them  by, 
And  out  once  more  in  varnish'd  glory 

shine 
Thy  stars  of  celandine. 


THE  PROGRESS   OF  SPRING. 


805 


She  floats  across  the  hamlet.      Heaven 
lours, 
But   in  the  tearful  splendour   of  her 
smiles 
I    see    the    slowly-thickening    chestnut 
towers 
Fill  out  the  spaces  by  the  barren  tiles. 
Now  past  her  feet  the  swallow  circling  flies, 
A  clamorous  cuckoo   stoops  to  meet 
her  hand; 
Her  light  makes  rainbows  in  my  closing 
eyes, 
I  hear  a  charm  of  song  thro'  all  the 
land. 
Come,  Spring !      She  comes,  and  Earth 
is  glad 
To  roll  her  North  below  thy  deepening 
dome, 
But  ere  thy  maiden  birk  be  wholly  clad, 
And  these  low  bushes  dip  their  twigs 

in  foam, 
Make  all  true  hearths  thy  home. 

v. 

Across  my  garden !  and  the  thicket  stirs, 

The  fountain  pulses  high  in  sunnier  jets, 

The  blackcap  warbles,  and  the  turtle  purrs, 

The  starling  claps  his  tiny  castanets. 
Still   round    her    forehead    wheels    the 
woodland  dove, 
And  scatters  on  her  throat  the  sparks 
of  dew, 
The  kingcup  fills  her  footprint,  and  above 
Broaden   the  glowing  isles  of  vernal 
blue. 
Hail  ample  presence  of  a  Queen, 

Bountiful,  beautiful,  apparell'd  gay, 
Whose  mantle,  every  shade  of  glancing 
green, 
Flies  back  in  fragrant  breezes  to  display 
A  tunic  white  as  May  ! 


She  whispers,  '  From  the  South  I  bring 
you  balm, 
For  on  a  tropic  mountain  was  I  born, 
While  some  dark  dweller  by  the  coco- 
palm 
Watch'd  my  far  meadow  zoned  with 
airy  morn; 


From   under    rose   a  muffled    moan  of 
floods; 
I  sat  beneath  a  solitude  of  snow; 
There  no  one  came,  the  turf  was  fresh, 
the  woods 
Plunged    gulf  on  gulf  thro'  all   their 
vales  below. 
I  saw  beyond  their  silent  tops 

The  steaming  marshes  of  the  scarlet 
cranes, 
The  slant  seas  leaning  on  the  mangrove 
copse, 
And   summer    basking   in    the   sultry 

plains 
About  a  land  of  canes ; 

VII. 

'Then   from   my   vapour-girdle    soaring 
forth 
I  scaled  the  buoyant  highway  of  the 
birds, 
And  drank  the  dews  and  drizzle  of  the 
North, 
That  I  might  mix  with  men,  and  hear 
their  words 
On   pathway'd   plains;    for  —  while   my 
hand  exults 
Within   the   bloodless  heart  of  lowly 
flowers 
To   work   old    laws   of    Love    to   fresh 
results, 
Thro'  manifold  effect  of  simple  powers — 
I  too  would  teach  the  man 

Beyond   the  darker  hour   to   see  the 
bright, 
That  his  fresh  life  may  close  as  it  began, 
The  still-fulfilling  promise  of  a  light 
Narrowing  the  bounds  of  night.' 


So  wed  thee  with  my  soul,  that  I  may 
mark 
The   coming    year's  great  good  and 
varied  ills, 
And  new  developments,  whatever  spark 
Be  struck  from  out  the  clash  of  warring 
wills; 
Or  whether,  since  our  nature  cannot  rest, 
The    smoke   of  war's  volcano    burst 
again 
From  hoary  deeps  that  belt  the  changeful 
West, 


8o6 


MERLIN  AND    THE    GLEAM. 


Old    Empires,  dwellings  of  the  kings 

Great  the  Master, 

of  men; 

And  sweet  the  Magic, 

Or  should  those  fail,  that  hold  the  helm, 

When  over  the  valley, 

While    the    long   day   of    knowledge 

In. early  summers, 

grows  and  warms, 

Over  the  mountain, 

And  in  the   heart  of  this   most  ancient 

On  human  faces, 

realm 

And  all  around  me, 

A  hateful  voice  be  utter'd  and  alarms 

Moving  to  melody, 

Sounding  '  To  arms !  to  arms ! ' 

Floated  The  Gleam. 

IX. 
A  simpler,  saner  lesson  might  he  learn 

in. 
Once  at  the  croak  of  a  Raven 

Who  reads  thy  gradual  process,  Holy 

who  crost  it, 

Spring. 

A  barbarous  people, 

Thy  leaves  possess  the  season  in  their 

Blind  to  the  magic, 

turn, 

And  deaf  to  the  melody, 

And  in  their  time  thy  warblers  rise  on 

Snarl'd  at  and  cursed  me. 

wing. 

A  demon  vext  me, 

How  surely  glidest  thou  from  March  to 

The  light  retreated, 

May, 

The  landskip  darken'd, 

And  changest,  breathing  it,  the  sullen 

The  melody  deaden'd, 

wind, 

The  Master  whisper'd, 

Thy  scope  of  operation,  day  by  day, 

*  Follow  The  Gleam.' 

Larger  and  fuller,  like  the  human  mind ! 

Thy  warmths  from  bud  to  bud 

IV. 

Accomplish   that   blind  model  in  the 

Then  to  the  melody, 

seed, 
And  men  have   hopes,  which   race   the 
restless  blood, 

Over  a  wilderness 
Gliding,  and  glancing  at 
Elf  of  the  woodland, 

That  after  many  changes  may  succeed 

Gnome  of  the  cavern, 

Life,  which  is  Life  indeed. 

Griffin  and  Giant, 

And  dancing  of  Fairies 

In  desolate  hollows, 

MERLIN  AND  THE  GLEAM. 

And  wraiths  of  the  mountain, 

And  rolling  of  dragons 

I# 

By  warble  of  water, 

O  young  Mariner, 

Or  cataract  music 

You  from  the  haven 

Of  falling  torrents, 

Under  the  sea-cliff, 

Flitted  The  Gleam. 

You  that  are  watching 

The  gray  Magician 

v. 

With  eyes  of  wonder, 

Down  from  the  mountain 

/am  Merlin, 

And  over  the  level, 

And  /  am  dying, 

And  streaming  and  shining  on 

/am  Merlin 

Silent  river, 

Who  follow  The  Gleam. 

Silvery  willow, 

II. 

Pasture  and  plowland, 

Innocent  maidens, 

Mighty  the  Wizard 

Garrulous  children, 

Who  found  me  at  sunrise 

Homestead  and  harvest, 

Sleeping,  and  woke  me 

Reaper  and  gleaner, 

And  learn'd  me  Magic  ! 

And  rough-ruddy  faces 

MERLIN  AND    THE    GLEAM  —  ROMNEY' S  REMORSE. 


807 


Of  lowly  labour, 

Hamlet  or  city, 

Slided  The  Gleam  — 

That  under  the  Crosses 

The  dead  man's  garden, 

VI. 

The  mortal  hillock, 

Then,  with  a  melody 

Would  break  into  blossom 

Stronger  and  statelier, 

And  so  to  the  land's 

Led  me  at  length 

Last  limit  I  came 

To  the  city  and  palace 

And  can  no  longer, 

Of  Arthur  the  king; 

But  die  rejoicing, 

Touch'd  at  the  golden 

For  thro'  the  Magic 

Cross  of  the  churches, 

Of  Him  the  Mighty, 

Flash'd  on  the  Tournament, 

Who  taught  me  in  childhood, 

Flicker'd  and  bicker'd 

There  on  the  border 

From  helmet  to  helmet, 

Of  boundless  Ocean, 

And  last  on  the  forehead 

And  all  but  in  Heaven 

Of  Arthur  the  blameless 

Hovers  The  Gleam. 

Rested  The  Gleam. 

IX. 

VII. 

Not  of  the  sunlight, 

Clouds  and  darkness 

Not  of  the  moonlight, 

Closed  upon  Camelot; 
Arthur  had  vanish'd 

Not  of  the  starlight ! 

O  young  Mariner, 

I  knew  not  whither, 

Down  to  the  haven, 

The  king  who  loved  me, 

Call  your  companions, 

And  cannot  die; 

Launch  your  vessel, 

For  out  of  the  darkness 

And  crowd  your  canvas. 

Silent  and  slowly 

And,  ere  it  vanishes 
Over  the  margin, 

The  Gleam,  that  had  waned  to  a 

wintry  glimmer 
On  icy  fallow 

After  it,  follow  it, 
Follow  The  Gleam. 

And  faded  forest, 

Drew  to  the  valley 

Named  of  the  shadow, 

ROMNEY'S   REMORSE. 

And  slowly  brightening 
Out  of  the  glimmer, 
And   slowly   moving   again   to   a 
melody 

'  I  read  Hayley's  Life  of  Romney  the  other 
day  —  Romney  wanted  but  education  and  reading 
to  make  him  a  very  fine  painter;  but  his  ideal 

was  not  high  nor  fixed.      How  touching  is  the 

Yearningly  tender, 

close  of  his  life !     He  married  at  nineteen,  and 

Fell  on  the  shadow, 

because   Sir   Joshua  and  others  had  said  that 

No  longer  a  shadow, 

"  marriage  spoilt  an  artist "  almost  immediately 

But  clothed  with  The  Gleam. 

left  his  wife  in  the  North  and  scarce  saw  her  till 

the  end  of  his  life;  when  old,  nearly  mad,  and 

VIII. 

quite  desolate,  he  went  back   to  her  and  she 

received  him  and  nursed  him  till  he  died.     This 

And  broader  and  brighter 

quiet  act  of  hers  is  worth  all  Romney's  pictures ! 

The  Gleam  flying  onward, 

even  as  a  matter  of  Art,  I  am  sure.'     (Letters 

Wed  to  the  melody, 

and  Literary  Remains  of  Edward  Fitzgerald, 

Sang  thro'  the  world; 

vol.  i.) 

And  slower  and  fainter, 

Old  and  weary, 

*  Beat,  little  heart  —  I  give  you  this  and 

But  eager  to  follow, 

this,' 

I  saw,  whenever 

Who    are    you?      What!    the    Lady 

In  passing  it  glanced  upon 

Hamilton? 

8o8 


ROMNEY'S  REMORSE. 


Good,  I  am  never  weary  painting  you. 
To   sit  once   more?     Cassandra,    Hebe, 

Joan, 
Or   spinning   at   your  wheel  beside  the 

vine  — 
Bacchante,  what  you  will;   and  if  I  fail 
To  conjure  and  concentrate  into  form 
And  colour  all  you  are,  the  fault  is  less 
In  me  than  Art.     What  Artist  ever  yet 
Could  make  pure  light  live  on  the  canvas? 

Art! 
Why   should   I   so    disrelish   that    short 

word? 
Where  am  I  ?  snow  on  all  the  hills ! 

so  hot, 
So  fever'd !  never  colt  would  more  de- 
light 
To  roll*  himself  in  meadow  grass  than  I 
To  wallow  in  that  winter  of  the  hills. 
Nurse,  were   you  hired?   or  came  of 

your  own  will 
To  wait  on  one  so  broken,  so  forlorn? 
Have  I  not  met  you  somewhere  long  ago  ? 
I  am  all  but  sure   I  have  —  in   Kendal 

church  —    . 

0  yes !  I  hired  you  for  a  season  there, 
And  then  we  parted;    but  you  look  so 

kind 
That  you  will  not  deny  my  sultry  throat 
One  draught  of  icy  water.     There  —  you 

spill 
The    drops   upon   my    forehead.      Your 

hand  snakes. 

1  am  ashamed.     I  am  a  trouble  to  you, 
Could  kneel  for  your  forgiveness.     Are 

they  tears? 
For  me  —  they  do  me  too  much  grace  — 

for  me? 
O  Mary,  Mary ! 

Vexing  you  with  words  ! 
Words  only,  born  of  fever,  or  the  fumes 
Of  that  dark  opiate  dose  you  gave  me, 

—  words, 
Wild  babble.  I  have  stumbled  back  again 
Into  the  common  day,  the  sounder  self. 
God  stay  me  there,  if  only  for  your  sake, 
The  truest,  kindliest,  noblest-hearted  wife 
That  ever  wore  a  Christian  marriage-ring. 
My  curse  upon  the  Master's  apothegm, 
That  wife  and  children   drag  an  Artist 

down  ! 
This  seem'd  my  lodestar  in  the  Heaven 

of  Art, 


And  lured  me  from  the  household  fire  on 

earth. 
To  you  my  days  have  been  a  life-long  lie, 
Grafted  on.  half  a  truth;   and  tho'  you  say 
'  Take  comfort,  you  have  won  the  Painter's 

fame,' 
The  best  in  me  that  sees  the  worst  in  me, 
And  groans  to  see  it,  finds  no  comfort 

there. 
What    fame?       I    am    not    Raphael, 

Titian  —  no 
Nor  even  a  Sir  Joshua,  some  will  cry. 
Wrong  there  !     The  painter's  fame?  but 

mine,  that  grew 
Blown   into    glittering    by   the   popular 

breath, 
May  float  awhile  beneath  the  sun,  may 

roll 
The  rainbow  hues  of  heaven  about  it  — 

There ! 
The    colour'd   bubble   bursts   above  the 

abyss 
Of  Darkness,  utter  Lethe. 

Is  it  so? 
Her  sad   eyes   plead  for  my  own  fame 

with  me 
To  make  it  dearer. 

Look,  the  sun  has  risen 
To  flame  along  another  dreary  day. 
Your  hand.     How  bright  you  keep  your 

marriage-ring ! 
Raise  me.     I  thank  you. 

Has  your  opiate  then 
Bred  this  black  mood  ?  or  am  I  conscious, 

more 
Than     other     Masters,    of    the    chasm 

between 
Work   and  Ideal?     Or  does  the  gloom 

of  Age 
And  suffering  cloud  the  height  I  stand 

upon 
Even    from   myself?    stand?    stood  .  .  . 

no  more. 

And  yet 
The  world  would  lose,  if  such  a  wife  as 

you 
Should  vanish  unrecorded.    Might  I  crave 
One  favour?    I  am  bankrupt  of  all  claim 
On   your   obedience,  and   my   stronges1 

wish 


ROMNEY'S  REMORSE. 


809 


Falls  flat  before  your  least  unwillingness. 
Still  would  you  —  if  it  please  you  —  sit 

to  me? 
I   dream'd   last    night   of    that    clear 

summer  noon, 
When  seated  on  a  rock,  and  foot  to  foot 
With  your  own  shadow  in  the  placid  lake, 
You  claspt  our  infant  daughter,  heart  to 

heart. 
I  had  been  among  the  hills,  and  brought 

you  down 
A  length  of  staghorn-moss,  and  this  you 

twined 
About  her  cap.     I  see  the  picture  yet, 
Mother  and  child.    A  sound  from  far  away, 
No  louder  than  a  bee  among  the  flowers, 
A  fall  of  water  lull'd  the  noon  asleep. 
You  still'd  it  for  the  moment  with  a  song 
Which  often  echo'd  in  me,  while  I  stood 
Before  the  great  Madonna-masterpieces 
Of  ancient  Art  in  Paris,  or  in  Rome. 
Mary,  my  crayons !  if  I  can,  I  will. 
You  should  have  been  —  I  might  have 

made  you  once, 
Had  I  but  known  you  as  I  know  you 

now  — 
The   true   Alcestis   of  the   time.     Your 

song  — 
Sit,  listen  !     I  remember  it,  a  proof 
That  I  —  even  I  —  at  times  remember'd 

you. 

'  Beat   upon   mine,   little    heart !    beat, 
beat! 
Beat  upon  mine !    you  are  mine,  my 

sweet ! 
All  mine  from  your  pretty  blue  eyes 
to  your  feet, 

My  sweet.' 

Less  profile  !  turn  to  me  —  three-quarter 
face. 

'  Sleep,   little   blossom,  my  honey,  my 
bliss ! 
For  I  give  you  this,  and  I  give  you  this ! 
And  I  blind  your  pretty  blue  eyes  with 
a  kiss ! 

Sleep ! ' 

Too  early  blinded  by  the  kiss  of  death  — 

'Father   and    Mother   will    watch   you 
grow '  — 


You  watch'd  not  I,  she  did  not  grow, 
she  died. 

•  Father    and    Mother   will   watch   you 
grow, 
And  gather  the  roses  whenever  they 

blow, 
And  find  the  white  heather  wherever 
you  go, 

My  sweet.' 

Ah,  my  white  heather  only  blooms  in 
heaven 

With  Milton's  amaranth.  There,  there, 
there !  a  child 

Had  shamed  me  at  it  —  Down,  you  idle 
tools, 

Stampt  into  dust  —  tremulous,  all  awry, 

Blurr'd  like  a  landskip  in  a  ruffled  pool,  — 

Not  one  stroke  firm.  This  Art,  that 
harlot-like 

Seduced  me  from  you,  leaves  me  harlot- 
like, 

Who  love  her  still,  and  whimper,  im- 
potent 

To  win  her  back  before  I  die — and 
then  — 

Then,  in  the  loud  world's  bastard  judg- 
ment-day, 

One  truth  will  damn  me  with  the  mind- 
less mob, 

Who  feel  no  touch  of  my  temptation,  more 

Than  all  the  myriad  lies,  that  blacken  round 

The  corpse  of  every  man  that  gains  a 
name; 

'  This  model  husband,  this  fine  Artist ' ! 
Fool, 

What  matters?  Six  foot  deep  of  burial 
mould 

Will  dull  their  comments !  Ay,  but  when 
the  shout 

Of  His  descending  peals  from  Heaven, 
and  throbs 

Thro'  earth,  and  all  her  graves,  if  He 
should  ask, 

'Why  left  you  wife  and  children?  for 
my  sake, 

According  to  my  word?'  and  I  replied, 

'Nay,  Lord,  for  Art?  why,  that  would 
sound  so  mean 

That  all  the  dead,  who  wait  the  doom  of 
Hell 

For  bolder  sins  than  mine,  adulteries, 


8io 


PARNASSUS— BY  AN  EVOLUTIONIST. 


Wife-murders,  —  nay,  the  ruthless  Mussul- 
man 
Who  flings  his  bowstrung  Harem  in  the 

sea, 
Would  turn,  and  glare  at  me,  and  point 

and  jeer, 
And   gibber   at   the  worm,  who,  living, 

made 
The  wife  of  wives  a  widow-bride,  and  lost 
Salvation  for  a  sketch. 

I  am  wild  again  ! 
The  coals  of  fire  you  heap  upon  my  head 
Have  crazed  me.      Some  one  knocking 

there  without? 
No  !     Will  my  Indian  brother  come  ?  to 

find 
Me  or  my  coffin?     Should  I  know  the 

man? 
This  worn-out  Reason  dying  in  her  house 
May  leave  the  windows  blinded,  and  if  so, 
Bid  him  farewell  for  me,  and  tell  him  — 

Hope! 
I  hear  a  death-bed  Angel  whisper  '  Hope.' 
'The  miserable  have  no  medicine 
But   only   Hope !  '     He   said   it  ...  in 

the  play. 
His  crime  was  of  the  senses;   of  the  mind 
Mine;   worse,  cold,  calculated. 

Tell  my  son  — 

0  let  me  lean  my  head  upon  your  breast. 
'  Beat  little  heart '  on  this  fool  brain  of 

mine. 

1  once  had  friends  —  and  many  —  none 

like  you. 
I  love  you  more  than  when  we  married. 

Hope! 
O  yes,  I  hope,  or  fancy  that,  perhaps, 
Human  forgiveness  touches  heaven,  and 

thence  — 
For  you  forgive  me,  you  are  sure  of  that  — 
Reflected,  sends  a  light  on  the  forgiven. 


PARNASSUS. 

Exegi  monumentum  .  .  . 
Quod  non  .  .  . 
Possit  diruere  .  .  : 

.  .  .  innumerabilis 
Annorum  series  et  fuga  temporum.  —  Horace. 

I. 

What  be  those  crown'd  forms  high  over 
the  sacred  fountain? 


Bards,  that  the  mighty  Muses  have  raised 

to  the  heights  of  the  mountain, 
And  over   the   flight   of  the   Ages !     O 

Goddesses,  help  me  up  thither ! 
Lightning    may    shrivel    the    laurel    of 

Caesar,  but  mine  would  not  wither. 
Steep  is  the  mountain,  but  you,  you  will 

help  me  to  overcome  it, 
And  stand  with  my  head  in  the  zenith, 

and  roll  my  voice  from  the  summit, 
Sounding  for  ever  and  ever  thro'  Earth 

and  her  listening  nations, 
And  mixt  with  the  great  Sphere-music  of 

stars  and  of  constellations. 


What  be  those  two  shapes  high  over  the 

sacred  fountain, 
Taller   than   all   the    Muses,  and   huger 

than  all  the  mountain? 
On  those  two  known  peaks  they  stand 

ever  spreading  and  heightening; 
Poet,  that  evergreen  laurel  is  blasted  by 

more  than  lightning ! 
Look,  in  their  deep  double  shadow  the 

crown'd  ones  all  disappearing ! 
Sing  like  a  bird  and  be  happy,  nor  hope 

for  a  deathless  hearing ! 
'  Sounding  for  ever  and  ever?  '  pass  on ! 

the  sight  confuses  — 
These  are  Astronomy  and  Geology,  ter- 
rible Muses! 

in. 

If  the  lips  were  touch'd  with  fire  from  off 

a  pure  Pierian  altar, 
Tho'  their  music  here  be  mortal  need  the 

singer  greatly  care? 
Other  songs  for  other  worlds !   the  fire 

within  him  would  not  falter; 
Let  the  golden  Iliad  vanish,  Homer  here 

is  Homer  there. 


BY  AN   EVOLUTIONIST. 

The  Lord  let  the  house  of  a  brute  to  the 
soul  of  a  man, 
And  the  man  said, '  Am  I  your  debtor? ' 
And  the  Lord  — '  Not  yet :  but  make  it 
as  clean  as  you  can, 
And  then  I  will  let  you  a  better.' 


FAR-FAR- A  WA  Y—  BE  A  UTIFUL    CIT  Y. 


811 


If  my  body  come  from  brutes,  my  soul 
uncertain,  or  a  fable, 
Why  not  bask  amid  the  senses  while 
the  sun  of  morning  shines, 
I,  the  finer  brute  rejoicing  in  my  hounds, 
and  in  my  stable, 
Youth    and    Health,    and    birth    and 
wealth,  and  choice  of  women  and 
of  wines? 

II. 

What  hast  thou  done  for  me,  grim  Old 
Age,  save  breaking  my  bones  on 
the  rack? 
Would  I  had  past  in  the  morning  that 
looks  so  bright  from  afar  ! 

Old  Age. 

Done  for  thee?   starved  the  wild   beast 
that  was   linkt  with   thee    eighty 
years  back. 
Less   weight   now   for   the   ladder-of- 
heaven  that  hangs  on  a  star. 


tf    my    body    come    from    brutes,   tho' 
somewhat  finer  than  their  own, 
I    am    heir,    and    this    my   kingdom. 
Shall  the  royal  voice  be  mute  ? 
No,  but  if  the  rebel  subject  seek  to  drag 
me  from  the  throne, 
Hold  the  sceptre,  Human   Soul,  and 
rule  thy  Province  of  the  brute. 


I  have  climb'd  to  the  snows  of  Age,  and 
I  gaze  at  a  field  in  the  Past, 
Where  I  sank  with  the  body  at  times 
in  the  sloughs  of  a  low  desire, 
But  I  hear  no  yelp  of  the  beast,  and  the 
Man  is  quiet  at  last 
As  he  stands  on  the  heights  of  his  life 
with  a  glimpse  of  a  height  that  is 
higher. 

FAR  —  FAR  —  AWAY. 

(for  music.) 

What  sight  so  lured  him  thro'  the  fields 
he  knew 


As  where  earth's  green  stole  into  heaven's 
own  hue, 

Far  —  far  —  away  ? 

What   sound  was   dearest  in  his  native 

dells? 
The  mellow  lin-lan-lone  of  evening  bells 
Far  —  far  —  away. 

What  vague  world-whisper,  mystic  pain 

or  joy, 
Thro'  those  three  words  would  haunt  him 

when  a  boy, 

Far  —  far  —  away  ? 

A  whisper   from   his   dawn    of  life?    a 

breath 
From  some  fair  dawn  beyond  the  doors 

of  death 

Far  —  far  —  away  ? 

Far,  far,  how  far?  from  o'er  the  gates  of 

Birth, 
The   faint   horizons,  all   the   bounds   of 

earth, 

Far  —  far  —  away  ? 

What  charm  in  words,  a  charm  no  words 

could  give? 
O  dying  words,  can  Music  make  you  live 
Far  —  far  —  away  ? 

POLITICS. 

We  move,  the  wheel  must  always  move, 

Nor  always  on  the  plain, 
And  if  we  move  to  such  a  goal 

As  Wisdom  hopes  to  gain, 
Then  you  that  drive,  and  know  your  Craft, 

Will  firmly  hold  the  rein, 
Nor  lend  an  ear  to  random  cries, 

Or  you  may  drive  in  vain, 
For   some   cry   'Quick'   and    some   cry 
1  Slow,' 

But,  while  the  hills  remain, 
Up  hill  •  Too-slow '  will  need  the  whip, 

Down  hill  'Too-quick,'  the  chain. 

BEAUTIFUL  CITY. 

Beautiful  city,  the  centre  and  crater  of 

European  confusion, 
O  you  with   your  passionate  shriek   for 

the  rights  of  an  equal  humanity, 


812 


THE  ROSES   ON   THE    TERRACE— THE    OAK. 


How  often  your  Re-volution  has  proven 

At  times  the  small   black   fly  upon  the 

but  E-volution 

pane 

RolFd  again  back  on  itself  in  the  tides  of 

May  seem  the  black   ox  of  the   distant 

a  civic  insanity ! 

plain. 

THE   ROSES   ON  THE  TERRACE. 

THE  SNOWDROP. 

Rose,  on  this  terrace  fifty  years  ago, 

Many,  many  welcomes 

When  I  was  in  my  June,  you  in  your 

February  fair-maid, 

-    May, 

Ever  as  of  old  time, 

Two  words,  'My  Rose'  set  all  your  face 

Solitary  firstling, 

aglow, 

Coming  in  the  cold  time, 

And  now  that  I  am  white,  and  you  are 

Prophet  of  the  gay  time, 

gray, 

Prophet  of  the  May  time, 

That  blush  of  fifty  years  ago,  my  dear, 

Prophet  of  the  roses, 

Blooms  in  the  Past,  but  close  to  me 

Many,  many  welcomes 

to-day 

February  fair-maid ! 

As  this  red  rose,  which  on  our  terrace  here 

Glows  in  the  blue  of  fifty  miles  away. 

THE  THROSTLE. 

THE  PLAY. 

'  Summer  is  coming,  summer  is  coming. 

I  know  it,  I  know  it,  I  know  it. 

Act  first,  this  Earth,  a  stage  so  gloom'd 

Light  again,  leaf  again,  life  again,  love 

with  woe 

again,' 

You   all    but   sicken   at    the   shifting 

Yes,  my  wild  little  Poet. 

scenes. 

And   yet   be   patient.      Our   Playwright 

Sing  the  new  year  in  under  the  blue. 

may  show 

Last  year  you  sang  it  as  gladly. 

In  some  fifth  Act  what  this  wild  Drama 

'  New,  new,  new,  new ! '     Is  it  then  so 

means. 

new 

That  you  should  carol  so  madly? 

ON   ONE   WHO   AFFECTED   AN 

'  Love  again,  song  again,  nest  again,  young 

EFFEMINATE   MANNER. 

again,' 

Never  a  prophet  so  crazy  ! 

While  man  and  woman  still  are  incom- 

And hardly  a  daisy  as  yet,  little  friend, 

plete, 

See,  there  is  hardly  a  daisy. 

I  prize  that  soul  where  man  and  woman 

meet, 

1  Here   again,   here,   here,   here,   happy 

Which  types  all  Nature's  male  and  female 

year ! ' 

plan, 

0  warble  unchidden,  unbidden  ! 

But,  friend,  man-woman  is  not  woman- 

Summer  is  coming,  is  coming,  my  dear, 

man. 

And  all  the  winters  are  hidden. 

TO  ONE  WHO   RAN   DOWN   THE 

THE  OAK. 

ENGLISH. 

Live  thy  Life, 

You  make  our  faults  too  gross,  and  thence 

Young  and  old, 

maintain 

Like  yon  oak, 

Our  darker  future.     May  your  fears  be 

Bright  in  spring, 

vain ! 

Living  gold ; 

IN  MEMORIAM. 


813 


Summer-rich 

Then;   and  then 
Autumn-changed, 
Soberer-hued 

Gold  again. 

All  his  leaves 

Fall'n  at  length, 
Look,  he  stands, 
Trunk  and  bough, 

Naked  strength. 


IN   MEMORIAM. 

W.  G.  Ward. 

Farewell,  whose  like  on  earth  I  shall 
not  find, 
Whose  Faith  and  Work  were  bells  of 
full  accord, 
My  friend,  the  most  unworldly  of  man- 
kind, 
Most  generous  of  all  Ultramontanes, 
Ward, 
How  subtle  at  tierce  and  quart  of  mind 
with  mind, 
How  loyal  in  the   following  of   thy 
Lord! 


THE     FORESTERS.* 


ACT  I. — Scene  I.,  The  Bond;  Scenes 
II.,  III.,  The  Outlawry. 

ACT  I. 

SCENE  I.— The  Garden  before  Sir 
Richard  Lea's  Castle. 

Kate  {gathering  flowers).  These  roses 
for  my  Lady  Marian;  these  lilies  to  lighten 
Sir  Richard's  black  room,  where  he  sits 
and  eats  his  heart  for  want  of  money  to 
pay  the  Abbot. 

[Sings. 
The  warrior  Earl  of  Allendale, 

He  loved  the  Lady  Anne; 
The  lady  loved  the  master  well, 
The  maid  she  loved  the  man. 

All  in  the  castle  garden, 

Or  ever  the  day  began, 
The  lady  gave  a  rose  to  the  Earl, 

The  maid  a  rose  to  the  man. 

'  I  go  to  fight  in  Scotland 

With  many  a  savage  clan;  ' 
The  lady  gave  her  hand  to  the  Earl, 

The  maid  her  hand  to  the  man. 

'  Farewell,  farewell,  my  warrior  Earl ! ' 

And  ever  a  tear  down  ran. 
She  gave  a  weeping  kiss  to  the  Earl, 

And  the  maid  a  kiss  to  the  man. 

Enter  four  ragged  Retainers. 

First  Retainer.  You  do  well,  Mistress 
Kate,  to  sing  and  to  gather  roses.  You  be 
fed  with  tit-bits,  you,  and  we  be  dogs  that 
have  only  the  bones,  till  we  be  only  bones 
our  own  selves. 

Second  Retainer.  I  am  fed  with  tit- 
bits no  more  than  you  are,  but  I  keep  a 
good  heart  and  make  the  most  of  it,  and, 
truth  to  say,  Sir  Richard  and  my  Lady 
Marian  fare  wellnigh  as  sparely  as  their 
people. 

Third  Retainer.  And  look  at  our 
suits,  out  at  knee,  out  at  elbow.  We  be 
more  like  scarecrows  in  a  field  than 
decent  serving  men  ;  and  then,  I  pray 
you,  look  at  Robin  Earl  of  Huntingdon's 
men. 

First  Retainer.  She  hath  looked  well 
at  one  of  'em,  Little  John. 

Third  Retainer.      Ay,  how  fine  they 


be  in  their  liveries,  and  each  of  'em  as 
full  of  meat  as  an  egg,  and  as  sleek  and 
as  round-about  as  a  mellow  codlin. 

Fourth  Retainer.  But  I  be  worse  off 
than  any  of  you,  for  I  be  lean  by  nature, 
and  if  you  cram  me  crop -full  I  be  little 
better  than  Famine  in  the  picture,  but  if 
you  starve  me  I  be  Gaffer  Death  himself. 
I  would  like  to  show  you,  Mistress  Kate, 
how  bare  and  spare  I  be  on  the  rib :  I  be 
lanker  than  an  old  horse  turned  out  to 
die  on  the  common. 

Kate.  Spare  me  thy  spare  ribs,  I  pray 
thee;  but  now  I  ask  you  all,  did  none  of 
you  love  young  Walter  Lea? 

First  Retainer.  Ay,  if  he  had  not 
gone  to  fight  the  king's  battles,  we  should 
have  better  battels  at  home. 

Kate.  Right  as  an  Oxford  scholar,  but 
the  boy  was  taken  prisoner  by  the  Moors. 

First  Retainer.     Ay. 

Kate.  And  Sir  Richard  was  told  he 
might  be  ransomed  for  two  thousand 
marks  in  gold. 

First  Retainer.     Ay. 

Kate.  Then  he  borrowed  the  monies 
from  the  Abbot  of  York,  the  Sheriff's 
brother.  And  if  they  be  not  paid  back 
at  the  end  of  the  year,  the  land  goes  to 
the  Abbot. 

First  Retainer.  No  news  of  young 
Walter? 

Kate.  None,  nor  of  the  gold,  nor  the 
man  who  took  out  the  gold :  but  now  ye 
know  why  we  live  so  stintedly,  and  why 
ye  have  so  few  grains  to  peck  at.  Sir 
Richard  must  scrape  and  scrape  till  he 
get  to  the  land  again.  Come,  come,  why 
do  you  loiter  here?  Carry  fresh  rushes 
into  the  dining-hall,  for  those  that  are 
there  they  be  so  greasy  and  smell  so  vilely 
that  my  Lady  Marian  holds  her  nose  when 
she  steps  across  it. 

Fourth  Retainer.  Why  there,  now! 
that  very  word  ■  greasy '  hath  a  kind  of 
unction  in  it,  a  smack  of  relish  about  it. 
The  rats  have  gnawed  'em  already.  I 
pray  Heaven  we  may  not  have  to  take  to 
the  rushes.  [Exeunt. 


814 


♦Copyright,  1892,  by  Macmillan  &  Co. 


THE  FORESTERS. 


815 


Kate.     Poor  fellows ! 

The  lady  gave  her  hand  to  the  Earl, 
The  maid  her  hand  to  the  man. 

Enter  Little  John. 

Little  John.  My  master,  Robin  the 
Earl,  is  always  a-telling  us  that  every  man, 
for  the  sake  of  the  great  blessed  Mother 
in  heaven,  and  for  the  love  of  his  own 
little  mother  on  earth,  should  handle  all 
womankind  gently,  and  hold  them  in  all 
honour,  and  speak  small  to  'em,  and  not 
scare  'em,  but  go  about  to  come  at  their 
love  with  all  manner  of  homages,  and 
observances,  and  circumbendibuses. 

Kate.     ■ 

The  lady  gave  a  rose  to  the  Earl, 
The  maid  a  rose  to  the  man. 

Little  John  {seeing  her) .  O  the  sacred 
little  thing !  What  a  shape  !  what  lovely 
arms  !  A  rose  to  the  man  !  Ay,  the  man 
had  given  her  a  rose  and  she  gave  him 
another. 

Kate.  Shall  I  keep  one  little  rose  for 
Little  John?     No. 

Little  John.  There,  there  !  You  see 
I  was  right.  She  hath  a  tenderness 
toward  me,  but  is  too  shy  to  show  it. 
It  is  in  her,  in  the  woman,  and  the  man 
must  bring  it  out  of  her. 

Kate. 

She  gave  a  weeping  kiss  to  the  Earl, 
The  maid  a  kiss  to  the  man. 

Little  John.  Did  she?  But  there  I 
am  sure  the  ballad  is  at  fault.  It  should 
have  told  us  how  the  man  first  kissed 
the  maid.  She  doesn't  see  me.  Shall  I 
be  bold?  shall  I  touch  her?  shall  I  give 
her  the  first  kiss?  O  sweet  Kate,  my 
first  love,  the  first  kiss,  the  first  kiss ! 

Kate  {turns  and  kisses  him).  Why 
lookest  thou  so  amazed? 

Little  John.  I  cannot  tell;  but  I  came 
to  give  thee  the  first  kiss,  and  thou  hast 
given  it  me. 

Kate.  But  if  a  man  and  a  maid  care 
for  one  another,  does  it  matter  so  much 
if  the  maid  give  the  first  kiss? 

Little  John.  I  cannot  tell,  but  I  had 
tooner  have  given  thee  the  first  kiss.  I 
tvas  dreaming  of  it  all  the  way  hither. 


Kate.  Dream  of  it,  then,  all  the  way 
back,  for  now  I  will  have  none  of  it. 

Little  John.  Nay,  now  thou  hast  given 
me  the  man's  kiss,  let  me  give  thee  the 
maid's. 

Kate.  If  thou  draw  one  inch  nearer, 
I  will  give  thee  a  buffet  on  the  face. 

Little  John.  Wilt  thou  not  give  me 
rather  the  little  rose  for  Little  John? 

Kate  {throzvs  it  down  and  tramples  on 
it).     There! 

[Kate  seeing  Marian  exit  hurriedly. 

Enter  Marian  {singing). 

Love  flew  in  at  the  window, 

As  Wealth  walk'd  in  at  the  door. 
'  You  have  come  for  you  saw  Wealth  coming,' 

said  I. 
But  he  flutter'd  his  wings  with  a  sweet  little  cry, 

I'll  cleave  to  you  rich  or  poor. 

Wealth  dropt  out  of  the  window, 

Poverty  crept  thro'  the  door. 
1  Well  now  you  would  fain  follow  Wealth,'  said  I, 
But  he  flutter'd  his  wings  as  he  gave  me  the  lie, 

I  cling  to  you  all  the  more. 

Little  John.  Thanks,  my  lady — inas- 
much as  I  am  a  true  believer  in  true  love 
myself,  and  your  Ladyship  hath  sung  the 
old  proverb  out  of  fashion. 

Marian.  Ay  but  thou  hast  ruffled  my 
woman,  Little  John.  She  hath  the  fire 
in  her  face  and  the  dew  in  her  eyes.  I 
believed  thee  to  be  too  solemn  and  formal 
to  be  a  ruffler.     Out  upon  thee ! 

Little  John.  I  am  no  ruffler,  my  lady; 
but  I  pray  you,  my  lady,  if  a  man  and  a 
maid  love  one  another,  may  the  maid 
give  the  first  kiss? 

Marian.  It  will  be  all  the  more 
gracious  of  her  if  she  do. 

Little  John.  I  cannot  tell.  Manners 
be  so  corrupt,  and  these  are  the  days  of 
Prince  John.  [Exit. 

Enter  Sir  Richard  Lea  {reading  a 
bond) . 

Sir  Richard.     Marian ! 

Marian.     Father ! 

Sir  Richard.  Who  parted  from  thee 
even  now? 

Marian.  That  strange  starched  stiff 
creature,  Little  John,  the  Earl's  man. 
He  would  grapple  with  a  lion  like  the 
King,  and  is  flustered  by  a  girl's  kiss. 


8i6 


THE  FORESTERS. 


ACT   I. 


Sir  Richard.  There  never  was  an 
Earl  so  true  a  friend  of  the  people  as 
Lord  Robin  of  Huntingdon. 

Marian.  A  gallant  Earl.  I  love  him 
as  I  hate  John. 

Sir  Richard.  I  fear  me  he  hath  wasted 
his  revenues  in  the  service  of  our  good 
King  Richard  against  the  party  of  John, 
as  I  have  done,  as  I  have  done  :  and  where 
is  Richard? 

Marian.  Cleave  to  him,  father !  he 
will  come  home  at  last. 

Sir  Richard.  I  trust  he  will,  but  if  he 
do  not  I  and  thou  are  but  beggars. 

Marian.  We  will  be  beggar'd  then 
and  be  true  to  the  King. 

Sir  Richard.  Thou  speakest  like  a 
fool  or  a  woman.  Canst  thou  endure  to 
be  a  beggar  whose  whole  life  hath  been 
folded  like  a  blossom  in  the  sheath,  like 
a  careless  sleeper  in  the  down;  who  never 
hast  felt  a  want,  to  whom  all  things,  up 
to  this  present,  have  come  as  freely  as 
heaven's  air  and  mother's  milk? 

Marian.  Tut,  father  !  I  am  none  of 
your  delicate  Norman  maidens  who  can 
only  broider  and  mayhap  ride  a-hawking 
with  the  help  of  the  men.  I  can  bake 
and  I  can  brew,  and  by  all  the  saints  I  can 
shoot  almost  as  closely  with  the  bow  as 
the  great  Earl  himself.  I  have  played  at 
the  foils  too  with  Kate :  but  is  not  to-day 
his  birthday? 

Sir  Richard.  Dost  thou  love  him 
indeed,  that  thou  keepest  a  record  of 
his  birthdays?  Thou  knowest  that  the 
Sheriff  of  Nottingham  loves  thee. 

Marian.  The  Sheriff  dare  to  love  me  ? 
me  who  worship  Robin  the  great  Earl  of 
Huntingdon?  I  love  him  as  a  damsel  of 
his  day  might  have  loved  Harold  the 
Saxon,  or  Here  ward  the  Wake.  They 
both  fought  against  the  tyranny  of  the 
kings,  the  Normans.  But  then  your 
Sheriff,  your  little  man,  if  he  dare  to  fight 
at  all,  would  fight  for  his  rents,  his  leases, 
his  houses,  his  monies,  his  oxen,  his  din- 
ners, himself.  Now  your  great  man,  your 
Robin,  all  England's  Robin,  fights  not 
for  himself  but  for  the  people  of  England. 
This  John — this  Norman  tyranny — the 
stream  is  bearing  us  all  down,  and  our 
little   Sheriff  will   ever   swim   with    the 


stream !  but  our  great  man,  our  Robin, 
against  it.  And  how  often  in  old  histories 
have  the  great  men  striven  against  the 
stream,  and  how  often  in  the  long  sweep 
of  years  to  come  must  the  great  man 
strive  against  it  again  to  save  his  country, 
and  the  liberties  of  his  people !  God 
bless  our  well-beloved  Robin,  Earl  of 
Huntingdon. 

Sir  Richard.  Ay,  ay.  He  wore  thy 
colours  once  at  a  tourney.  I  am  old  and 
forget.     Was  Prince  John  there? 

Marian.  The  Sheriff  of  Nottingham 
was  there — not  John. 

Sir  Richard.  Beware  of  John  and  the 
Sheriff  of  Nottingham.  They  hunt  in 
couples,  and  when  they  look  at  a  maid 
they  blast  her. 

Marian.  Then  the  maid  is  not  high- 
hearted enough. 

Sir  Richard.  There — there — be  not 
a  fool  again.  Their  aim  is  ever  at  that 
which  flies  highest — but  O  girl,  girl,  I  am 
almost  in  despair.  Those  two  thousand 
marks  lent  me  by  the  Abbot  for  the  ran- 
som of  my  son  Walter — I  believed  this 
Abbot  of  the  party  of  King  Richard,  and 
he  hath  sold  himself  to  that  beast  John 
— they  must  be  paid  in  a  year  and  a 
month,  or  I  lose  the  land.  There  is  one 
that  should  be  grateful  to  me  overseas, 
a  Count  in  Brittany — he  lives  near 
Quimper.  I  saved  his  life  once  in  battle. 
He  has  monies.  I  will  go  to  him.  I 
saved  him.  I  will  try  him.  I  am  all 
but  sure  of  him.     I  will  go  to  him. 

Marian.  And  I  will  follow  thee,  and 
God  help  us  both. 

Sir  Richard.  Child,  thou  shouldst 
marry  one  who  will  pay  the  mortgage. 
This  Robin,  this  Earl  of  Huntingdon — he 
is  a  friend  of  Richard — I  know  not,  but  he 
may  save  the  land,  he  may  save  the  land. 

Marian  {showing  a  cross  hung  round 
her  neck).     Father,  you  see  this  cross? 

Sir  Richard.  Ay  the  King,  thy  god- 
father, gave  it  thee  when  a  baby. 

Marian.  And  he  said  that  whenever 
I  married  he  would  give  me  away,  and 
on  this  cross  I  have  sworn  [hisses  it']  that 
till  I  myself  pass  away,  there  is  no  other 
man  that  shall  give  me  away. 

Sir  Richard.     Lo  there— thou  art  fool 


THE  FORESTERS. 


817 


again — I  am  all  as  loyal  as  thyself,  but 
what  a  vow !  what  a  vow ! 

Re-enter  Little  John. 

Little  John.  My  Lady  Marian,  your 
woman  so  flustered  me  that  I  forgot  my 
message  from  the  Earl.  To-day  he  hath 
accomplished  his  thirtieth  birthday,  and 
he  prays  your  ladyship  and  your  ladyship's 
father  to  be  present  at  his  banquet  to-night. 

Marian.     Say,  we  will  come. 

Little  John.  And  I  pray  you,  my  lady, 
to  stand  between  me  and  your  woman, 
Kate. 

Marian.     I  will  speak  with  her. 

Little  John.  I  thank  you,  my  lady, 
and  I  wish  you  and  your  ladyship's  father  a 
most  exceedingly  good  morning.     [Exit. 

Sir  Richard.  Thou  hast  answered  for 
me,  but  I  know  not  if  I  will  let  thee  go. 

Marian.     I  mean  to  go. 

Sir  Richard.  Not  if  I  barred  thee  up 
in  thy  chamber,  like  a  bird  in  a  cage. 

Marian.  Then  I  would  drop  from  the 
casement,  like  a  spider. 

Sir  Richard.  But  I  would  hoist  the 
drawbridge,  like  thy  master. 

Marian.  And  I  would  swim  the  moat, 
like  an  otter. 

Sir  Richard.  But  I  would  set  my 
men-at-arms  to  oppose  thee,  like  the 
Lord  of  the  Castle. 

Marian.  And  I  would  break  through 
them  all,  like  the  King  of  England. 

Sir  Richard.  Well,  thou  shalt  go,  but 
O  the  land !  the  land !  my  great  great 
great  grandfather,  my  great  great  grand- 
father, my  great  grandfather,  my  grand- 
father and  my  own  father — they  were 
born  and  bred  on  it — it  was  their  mother 
— they  have  trodden  it  for  half  a  thou- 
sand years,  and  whenever  I  set  my  own 
foot  on  it  I  say  to  it,  Thou  art  mine,  and 
it  answers,  I  am  thine  to  the  very  heart 
of  the  earth — but  now  I  have  lost  my 
gold,  I  have  lost  my  son,  and  I  shall  lose 
my  land  also.  Down  to  the  devil  with 
this  bond  that  beggars  me  ! 

[Flings  down  the  bond. 

Marian.  Take  it  again,  dear  father, 
be  not  wroth  at  the  dumb  parchment. 
Sufficient  for  the  day,  dear  father !  let  us 
be  merry  to-night  at  the  banquet. 

3" 


SCENE  II. — A  Banqueting- hall  in 
the  House  of  Robin  Hood  the  Earl 
of  Huntingdon. 

Doors  open  into  a  banqueting-hall  where 
he  is  at  feast  with  his  friends. 

Drinking  Song. 

Long  live  Richard, 

Robin  and  Richard ! 
Long  live  Richard! 

Down  with  John ! 
Drink  to  the  Lion-heart 

Every  one ! 
Pledge  the  Plantagenet, 

Him  that  is  gone. 
Who  knows  whither  ? 

God's  good  Angel 
Help  him  back  hither, 

And  down  with  John! 
Long  live  Robin, 

Robin  and  Richard! 
Long  live  Robin, 

And  down  with  John ! 

Enter  Prince  John  disguised  as  a  monk 
and  the  Sheriff  of  Nottingham. 
Cries  of  'Down  with  John,'  'Long  live 
King  Richard?  'Down  with  John? 

Prince  John.  Down  with  John  !  ha. 
Shall  I  be  known?  is  my  disguise  per- 
fect? 

Sheriff.  Perfect — who  should  know 
you  for  Prince  John,  so  that  you  keep  the 
cowl  down  and  speak  not? 

[Shouts  from  the  banquet-room. 

Prince  John.  Thou  and  I  will  still 
these  revelries  presently. 

[Shouts,  '  Long  live  King  Richard  ! ' 
I  come  here  to  see  this  daughter  of  Sir 
Richard  of  the  Lea  and  if  her  beauties 
answer  their  report.     If  so — 

Sheriff.     If  so — 

[Shouts,  '  Down  with  John  ! ' 

Prince  John.     You  hear ! 

Sheriff.  Yes,  my  lord,  fear  not.  I  will 
answer  for  you. 

Enter  Little  John,  Scarlet,  Much, 
&c,  from  the  banquet  singing  a  snatch 
of  the  Drinking  Song. 

Little  John.  I  am  a  silent  man  myself, 
and  all  the  more  wonder  at  our  Earl. 
What  a  wealth  of  words — O  Lord,  I  will 
live  and  die  for  King  Richard — not  so 
much  for  the  cause  as  for  the  Earl.  O 
Lord,  I  am  easily  led  by  words,  but  I 


8i8 


THE  FORESTERS. 


ACT 


think  the  Earl  hath  right.  Scarlet,  hath 
not  the  Earl  right?  What  makes  thee  so 
down  in  the  mouth? 

Scarlet.  I  doubt  not,  I  doubt  not,  and 
though  I  be  down  in  the  mouth,  I  will 
swear  by  the  head  of  the  Earl. 

Little  yohn.  Thou  Much,  miller's  son, 
hath  not  the  Earl  right? 

Much.  More  water  goes  by  the  mill 
than  the  miller  wots  of,  and  more  goes  to 
make  right  than  I  know  of,  but  for  all 
that  I  will  swear  the  Earl  hath  right. 
But  they  are  •  coming  hither  for  the 
dance — 

{Enter  Friar  Tuck.) 

be  they  not,  Friar  Tuck?  Thou  art  the 
Earl?s  confessor  and  shouldst  know. 

Tuck.  Ay,  ay,  and  but  that  I  am  a 
man  of  weight,  and  the  weight  of  the 
church  to  boot  on  my  shoulders,  I  would 
dance  too.     Fa,  la,  la,  fa,  la,  la. 

[  Capering. 

Much.  But  doth  not  the  weight  of  the 
flesh  at  odd  times  overbalance  the  weight 
of  the  church,  ha  friar? 

Tuck.  Homo  sum.  I  love  my  dinner 
— but  I  can  fast,  I  can  fast;  and  as  to 
other  frailties  of  the  flesh — out  upon  thee  ! 
Homo  sum,  sed  virgo  sum,  I  am  a  virgin, 
my  masters,  I  am  a  virgin. 

Much.  And  a  virgin,  my  masters, 
three  yards  about  the  waist  is  like  to 
remain  a  virgin,  for  who  could  embrace 
such  an  armful  of  joy? 

Tuck.  Knave,  there  is  a  lot  of  wild 
fellows  in  Sherwood  Forest  who  hold  by 
King  Richard.  If  ever  I  meet  thee  there, 
I  will  break  thy  sconce  with  my  quarter- 
staff. 

Enter  from   the   banqueting-hall  Sir 
Richard  Lea,  Robin  Hood,  &c. 

Robin.    My    guests    and    friends,    Sir 

Richard,  all  of  you 
Who  deign  to  honour  this  my  thirtieth 

year, 
And  some  of  you  were  prophets  that  I 

might  be, 
Now  that  the  sun  our  King  is  gone,  the 

light 
Of  these  dark  hours;  but  this  new  moon, 

I  fear, 


Is  darkness.     Nay,  this  may  be  the  last 

time 
When  I  shall  hold  my  birthday  in.  this 

hall: 
I  may  be  outlaw'd,  I  have  heard  a  rumour. 
All.     God  forbid ! 
Robin.     Nay,  but  we  have  no  news  of 

Richard  yet, 
And  ye  did  wrong  in  crying  '  Down  with 

John;' 
For  be  he  dead,  then  John  may  be  our 

King. 
All.     God  forbid ! 
Robin.     Ay  God  forbid, 
But  if  it  be  so  we  must  bear  with  John. 
The  man  is  able  enough — no  lack  of  wit, 
And  apt  at  arms  and  shrewd  in  policy. 
Courteous  enough  too  when  he  wills;  and 

yet 
I  hate  him  for  his  want  of  chivalry. 
He  that  can  pluck  the  flower  of  maiden- 
hood 
From  off  the  stalk  and  trample  it  in  the 

mire, 
And  boast  that  he  hath  trampled  it.     I 

hate  him, 
I  hate  the   man.      I  may  not   hate  the 

King 
For  aught  1  know, 
So   that  our  Barons  bring  his  baseness 

under. 
I  think  they  will  be  mightier  than  the 

king. 

[Dance  music. 

(MARIAN  enters  with  other  damsels?) 

Robin.     The  high  Heaven  guard  thee 
from  his  wantonness 
Who  art  the  fairest  flower  of  maidenhood 
That  ever  blossom'd  on  this  English  isle. 
Marian.     Cloud  not  thy  birthday  with 
one  fear  for  me. 
My  lord,  myself  and  my  good  father  pray 
Thy  thirtieth  summer  may  be  thirty-fold 
As  happy  as  any  of  those  that  went  before. 
Robin.      My  Lady    Marian  you   can 
make  it  so 
If  you  will  deign  to  tread  a  measure  with 
me. 
Marian.     Full  willingly,  my  lord. 

[  They  dance. 
Robin  {after  dame).     My  Lady,  will 
you  answer  me  a  question? 


SCENE   II. 


THE  FORESTERS. 


819 


Marian.     Any  that  you  may  ask. 
Robin.      A  question  that   every  true 
man  asks  of  a  woman  once  in  his  life. 

Marian.     I  will  not  answer  it,  my  lord, 
till  King  Richard  come  home  again. 
Prince  John  (to  Sheriff).     How  she 
looks  up  at  him,  how  she  holds 
her  face ! 
Now  if  she  kiss  him,  I   will   have  his 
head. 
Sheriff.     Peace,  my  lord;  the  Earl  and 
Sir  Richard  come  this  way. 

Robin.  Must  you  have  these  monies 
before  the  year  and  the  month  end? 

Sir  Richard.  Or  I  forfeit  my  land  to 
the  Abbot.  I  must  pass  overseas  to  one 
that  I  trust  will  help  me. 

Robin.  Leaving  your  fair  Marian  alone 
here. 

Sir  Richard.  Ay,  for  she  hath  some- 
what of  the  lioness  in  her,  and  there  be 
men-at-arms  to  guard  her. 

[Robin,  Sir  Richard,  and  Marian 

pass  on. 

Prince  John  (to  Sheriff).      Why  that 

will  be  our  opportunity 

When  I  and  thou  will  rob  the  nest  of  her. 

Sheriff.    Good  Prince,  art  thou  in  need 

of  any  gold? 
Prince  John.     Gold?  why?  not  now. 
Sheriff.     I  would  give  thee  any  gold 
So  that  myself  alone  might  rob  the  nest. 
Prince  John.     Well,  well  then,   thou 

shalt  rob  the  nest  alone. 
Sheriff.     Swear  to  me  by  that  relic  on 

thy  neck. 
Prince  John.     I  swear  then  by  this 
relic  on  my  neck — 
No,  no,  I  will  not  swear  by  this;  I  keep  it 
For  holy  vows  made  to  the  blessed  Saints 
Not  pleasures,  women's  matters. 
Dost  thou  mistrust  me?     Am  I  not  thy 

friend  ? 
Beware,  man,  lest  thou  lose  thy  faith  in 

me. 
I  love  thee  much;  and  as  I  am  thy  friend, 
I  promise  thee  to  make  this  Marian  thine. 
Go  now  and  ask  the  maid  to  dance  with 

thee, 
And  learn  from  her  if  she  do  love  this 
Earl. 
Sheriff '(advancing  toward  Marian  and 
Robin) .     Pretty  mistress ! 


Robin.  What  art  thou,  man?  Sheriff 
of  Nottingham  ? 

Sheriff.  Ay,  my  lord.  I  and  my 
friend,  this  monk,  were  here  belated,  and 
seeing  the  hospitable  lights  in  your  castle, 
and  knowing  the  fame  of  your  hospitality, 
we  ventured  in  uninvited. 

Robin.  You  are  welcome,  though  I 
fear  you  be  of  those  who  hold  more  by 
John  than  Richard. 

Sheriff.  True,  for  through  John  I  had 
my  sheriffship.  I  am  John's  till  Richard 
come  back  again,  and  then  I  am  Richard's. 
Pretty  mistress,  will  you  dance? 

[  They  dance. 
Robin  (talking  to  Prince  John) .    What 
monk  of  what  convent  art  thou?     Why 
wearest  thou  thy  cowl  to  hide  thy  face  ? 

[Prince  John  shakes  his  head. 
Is  he  deaf,  or  dumb,  or  daft,  or  drunk 
belike  ? 

[Prince  John  shakes  his  head. 
Why  comest  thou  like  a  death's  head  at 
my  feast? 

[Prince  John  points  to  the  Sheriff, 
who  is  dancing  with  Marian. 
Is  he  thy  mouthpiece,  thine  interpreter? 
[Prince  John  nods. 
Sheriff  (to  Marian  as  they  pass).     Be- 
ware of  John ! 
Marian.  I  hate  him. 

Sheriff.  Would  you  cast 

An  eye  of  favour  on  me,  I  would  pay 
My  brother  all  his  debt  and  save  the  land. 
Marian.     I   cannot   answer   thee  till 

Richard  come. 
Sheriff.     And  when  he  comes? 
Marian.  Well,  you  must  wait 

till  then. 
Little  John  (dancing  with  Kate).     Is 
it  made  up?     Will  you  kiss  me ? 

Kate.     You  shall  give  me  the  first  kiss. 
Little  John.     There  (kisses  her) .    Now 
thine. 

Kate.  You  shall  wait  for  mine  till  Sir 
Richard  has  paid  the  Abbot. 

[  They  pass  on. 

[  The  Sheriff  leaves  Marian  with  her 

father  and  comes  toward  Robin. 

Robin  (to  Sheriff,  Prince  John  standing 

by) .     Sheriff,  thy  friend,  this  monk,  is  but 

a  statue. 

Sheriff.     Pardon  him,  my  lord :  he  is 


820 


THE  FORESTERS. 


ACT 


a  holy  Palmer,  bounden  by  a  vow  not  to 
show  his  face,  nor  to  speak  word  to  any- 
one, till  he  join  King  Richard  in  the 
Holy  Land. 

Robin.  Going  to  the  Holy  Land  to 
Richard  !      Give  me  thy  hand  and  tell 

him Why,   what   a   cold   grasp   is 

thine — as  if  thou  didst  repent  thy  cour- 
tesy even  in  the  doing  it.  That  is  no 
true  man's  hand.     I  hate  hidden  faces. 

Sheriff.  Pardon  him  again,  I  pray 
you;  but  the  twilight  of  the  coming  day 
already  glimmers  in  the  east.  We  thank 
you,  and  farewell. 

Robin.  Farewell,  farewell.  I  hate  hid- 
den faces. 

[Exeunt  Prince  John  and  Sheriff. 
Sir   Richard   {coming  forward  with 
Maid  Marian).      How  close   the 
Sheriff  peer'd  into  thine  eyes ! 
What  did  he  say  to  thee? 

Marian.  Bade  me  beware 

Of  John :  what  maid  but  would  beware 
of  John? 
Sir  Richard.     What  else? 
Marian.       I  care  not  what  he  said. 
Sir  Richard.  What  else? 

Marian.     That   if  I    cast   an   eye  of 
favour  on  him, 
Himself  would  pay  this  mortgage  to  his 

brother, 
And  save  the  land. 

Sir  Richard.  Did  he  say  so,  the 

Sheriff? 
Robin.     I  fear  this  Abbot  is  a  heart  of 
flint, 
Hard  as  the  stones  of  his  abbey. 

0  good  Sir  Richard, 

1  am  sorry  my  exchequer  runs  so  low 
I  cannot  help  you  in  this  exigency; 

For  though  my  men  and  I  flash  out  at 

times 
Of  festival  like  burnish'd  summer- flies, 
We  make  but  one  hour's  buzz,  are  only 

like 
The  rainbow  of  a  momentary  sun. 
I  am  mortgaged  as  thyself. 

Sir  Richard,  Ay !  I  warrant  thee — 
thou  canst  not  be  sorrier  than  I  am. 
Come  away,  daughter. 

Robin.  Farewell,  Sir  Richard;  fare- 
well, sweet  Marian. 

Marian.    Till  better  times. 


Robin.     But  if  the  better  times  should 
never  come? 

Marian.     Then  I  shall  be  no  worse. 
Robin.     And  if  the  worst  time  come  ? 
Marian.     Why  then  I  will  be  better 
than  the  time. 

Robin.    This  ring  my  mother  gave  me  : 
it  was  her  own 
Betrothal  ring.     She  pray'd  me  when  I 

loved 
A  maid  with  all  my  heart  to  pass  it  down 
A  finger  of  that  hand  which  should  be 

mine 
Thereafter.    Will  you  have  it?    Will  you 
wear  it? 
Marian.     Ay,  noble  Earl,  and  never 

part  with  it. 
Sir  Richard  Lea  {coming  up).     Not 
till  she  clean  forget  thee,  noble 
Earl. 
Marian.    Forget  him — never — by  this 
Holy  Cross 
Which  good  King  Richard  gave  me  when 

a  child — 
Never ! 
Not  while  the  swallow  skims  along  the 

ground, 
And  while  the  lark  flies  up  and  touches 

heaven ! 
Not  while  the  smoke  floats  from  the  cot- 
tage roof, 
And  the  white  cloud  is  roll'd  along  the 

sky! 
Not  while  the  rivulet  babbles  by  the  door, 
And  the  great  breaker  beats  upon  the 

beach ! 
Never — 
Till  Nature,  high  and  low,  and  great  and 

small 
Forgets  herself,  and  all   her  loves  and 

hates 
Sink  again  into  chaos. 

Sir  Richard  Lea.         Away !  away  ! 

[Exeunt  to  music. 

SCENE  III.— Same  as  Scene  II. 
Robin  and  his  men. 

Robin.  All  gone ! — my  ring — I  am 
happy — should  be  happy. 

She  took  my  ring.  I  trust  she  loves  me 
— yet 

I  heard  this  Sheriff  tell  her  he  would  pay 


THE  FORESTERS. 


821 


The  mortgage  if  she  favour'd  him.    I  fear 
Not  her,  the  father's  power  upon  her. 
Friends,  (to  his  men) 
I  am  only  merry  for  an  hour  or  two 
Upon  a  birthday  :  if  this  life  of  ours 
Be   a   good  glad  thing,  why  should  we 

make  us  merry 
Because  a  year  of  it  is  gone?  but  Hope 
Smiles  from  the  threshold  of  the  year  to 

come 
Whispering  '  it  will  be  happier,'  and  old 

faces 
Press  round  us,  and  warm  hands  close 

with  warm  hands, 
And  thro'  the  blood  the  wine  leaps  to 

the  brain 
Like  April  sap  to  the  topmost  tree,  that 

shoots 
New  buds  to  heaven,  whereon  the  throstle 

rock'd 
Sings  a  new  song  to  the  new  year — and  you 
Strike  up  a  song,  my  friends,  and  then  to 

bed. 
Little  John.     What  will  you  have,  my 

lord? 
Robin.  *  To  sleep !  to  sleep  ! ' 

Little  John.     There  is  a  touch  of  sad- 
ness in  it,  my  lord, 
But  ill  befitting  such  a  festal  day. 

Robin.     I  have  a  touch  of  sadness  in 

myself. 
Sing. 

Song. 

To  sleep !  to  sleep !    The  long  bright  day  is  done, 

And  darkness  rises  from  the  fallen  sun. 

To  sleep !  to  sleep ! 

Whate'er  thy  joys,  they  vanish  with  the  day; 

Whate'er  thy  griefs,  in  sleep  they  fade  away. 

To  sleep!  to  sleep! 

Sleep,  mournful  heart,  and  let  the  past  be  past! 

Sleep,  happy  soul !  all  life  will  sleep  at  last. 

To  sleep !  to  sleep ! 

\_A  trumpet  blown  at  the  gates. 

Robin.     Who   breaks   the  stillness  of 

the  morning  thus? 
Little  John  (going  out  and  returning). 
It  is  a  royal  messenger,  my  lord  : 
I  trust  he  brings  us  news  of  the  King's 
coming. 

Enter  a  Pursuivant  who  reads. 

O  yes,  O  yes,  O  yes !  In  the  name  of 
the  Regent.  Thou,  Robin  Hood  Earl  of 
Huntingdon  art  attainted  and  hast  lost 


thine  earldom  of  Huntingdon.  More- 
over thou  art  dispossessed  of  all  thy 
lands,  goods,  and  chattels;  and  by  virtue 
of  this  writ,  whereas  Robin  Hood  Earl 
of  Huntingdon  by  force  and  arms  hath 
trespassed  against  the  king  in  divers 
manners,  therefore  by  the  judgment  of 
the  officers  of  the  said  lord  king,  accord- 
ing to  the  law  and  custom  of  the  king- 
dom of  England  Robin  Hood  Earl  of 
Huntingdon  is  outlawed  and  banished. 
Robin.  I  have  shelter'd  some  that 
broke  the  forest  laws. 
This  is  irregular  and  the  work  of  John. 

['  Irregular,  irregular  !  (tumult)  Down 
with   him,  tear   his   coat  from  his 
back ! ' 
Messenger.     Ho  there !  ho  there,  the 
Sheriff's  men  without ! 

Robin.     Nay,   let   them   be,  man,  let 
them  be.     We  yield. 
How  should  we  cope  with  John?     The 

London  folkmote 
Has  made  him  all  but  king,  and  he  hath 

seized 
On  half  the  royal  castles.    Let  him  alone  ! 

(to  his  men) 
A   worthy  messenger !    how   should   he 

help  it? 
Shall  we  too  work  injustice?  what,  thou 

shakest ! 
Here,  here — a  cup  of  wine — drink  and 
begone !  [Exit  Messenger. 

We  will  away  in  four-and-twenty  hours, 
But  shall  we  leave  our  England? 

Tuck.  Robin,  Earl — 

Robin.     Let  be  the  Earl.     Henceforth 
I  am  no  more 
Then  plain  man  to  plain  man. 

Tuck.  Well,  then,  plain  man, 

There  be  good  fellows  there    in  merry 

Sherwood 
That  hold  by  Richard,  tho'  they  kill  his 
deer. 
Robin.     In  Sherwood  Forest.     I  have 
heard  of  them. 
Have  they  no  leader? 

Tuck.  Each  man  for  his  own. 

Be  thou  their  leader  and  they  will  all  of 

them 
Swarm  to  thy  voice  like  bees  to  the  brass 
pan. 


822 


THE   FORESTERS. 


ACT   II 


Robin.     They  hold   by    Richard — the 

wild  wood  !  to  cast 
All  threadbare  household  habit,  mix  with 

all 
The  lusty  life  of  wood  and  underwood, 
Hawk,  buzzard,  jay,  the  mavis  and  the 

merle, 
The    tawny   squirrel   vaulting   thro'    the 

boughs, 
The  deer,   the  highback'd   polecat,  the 

wild  boar, 
The  burrowing  badger — By  St.  Nicholas 
I  have  a  sudden   passion  for  the  wild 

wood — 
We  should  be  free  as  air  in   the   wild 

wood — 
What    say   you?    shall   we   go?      Your 

hands,  your  hands ! 

[  Gives  his  hand  to  each. 

You,  Scarlet,  you  are  always  moody  here. 

Scarlet.     Tis  for  no  lack  of  love  to 

you,  my  lord, 
But  lack  of  happiness  in  a  blatant  wife. 
She  broke  my  head  on  Tuesday  with  a 

dish. 
I  would  have  thwack'd  the  woman,  but  I 

did  not, 
Because  thou  sayest  such  fine  things  of 

women, 
But  I  shall  have  to  thwack  her  if  I  stay. 
Robin.     Would  it  be  better  for  thee  in 

the  wood? 
Scarlet.     Ay,  so  she  did  not  follow  me 

to  the  wood. 
Robin.     Then,   Scarlet,  thou  at   least 

wilt  go  with  me. 
Thou,  Much,  the  miller's  son,  I  knew  thy 

father : 
He  was  a  manly  man,  as  thou  art,  Much, 
And  gray  before  his  time  as  thou  art, 

Much. 
Much.     It  is  the  trick  of  the  family, 

my  lord. 
There  was  a  song  he  made  to  the  turning 

wheel — 
Robin.     *  Turn !  turn ! »  but  I  forget  it. 
Much.  I  can  sing  it. 

Robin.     Not  now,  good  Much  !     And 

thou,  dear  Little  John, 
Who  hast  that  worship   for   me   which 

Heaven  knows 
I  ill  deserve — you  love  me,  all  of  you, 
But  I  am  outlaw'd,  and  if  caught,  I  die. 


Your  hands  again.      All  thanks  for  all 

your  service; 
But  if  you  follow  me,  you  may  die  with  me. 
All.     We  will  live  and  die  with  thee, 
we  will  live  and  die  with  thee. 


ACT  II.— The  Flight  of  Marian. 

ACT  II. 

SCENE  I.— A  Broad  Forest  Glade. 

Woodman's  hut  at  one  side   with  half' 

door,  Foresters  are  looking  to  their 

bows  and  arrows,  or  polishing  their 
swords. 

Foresters  sing  (as  they  disperse  to  their 
work) . 

There  is  no  land  like  England 

Where'er  the  light  of  day  be ; 
There  are  no  hearts  like  English  hearts 

Such  hearts  of  oak  as  they  be. 
There  is  no  land  like  England 

Where'er  the  light  of  day  be; 
There  are  no  men  like  Englishmen 

So  tall  and  bold  as  they  be. 

{Full  chorus?) 

And  these  will  strike  for  England 

And  man  and  maid  be  free 
To  foil  and  spoil  the  tyrant 

Beneath  the  greenwood  tree. 

There  is  no  land  like  England 

Where'er  the  light  of  day  be; 
There  are  no  wives  like  English  wives 

So  fair  and  chaste  as  they  be. 
There  is  no  land  like  England 

Where'er  the  light  of  day  be; 
There  are  no  maids  like  English  maids 

So  beautiful  as  they  be. 

{Full  chorus.) 

And  these  shall  wed  with  freemen, 

And  all  their  sons  be  free, 
To  sing  the  songs  of  England 

Beneath  the  greenwood  tree. 

Robin  (alone).     My  lonely  hour ! 

The  king  of  day  hath  stept  from  off  his 
throne, 

Flung  by  the  golden  mantle  of  the  cloud, 

And  sets,  a  naked  fire.  The  King  of 
England 

Perchance  this  day  may  sink  as  glori- 
ously, 

Red  with  his  own  and  enemy's  blood — 
but  no ! 

We  hear  he  is  in  prison.  It  is  my  birthday. 


SCENE  I. 


THE  FORESTERS. 


823 


I  have  reign'd  one  year  in  the  wild  wood. 

My  mother, 
For  whose  sake,  and  the  blessed  Queen 

of  Heaven, 
I  reverence  all  women,  bad  me,  dying, 
Whene'er  this  day  should  come  about,  to 

carve 
One  lone  hour  from  it,  so  to  meditate 
Upon  my  greater  nearness  to  the  birth- 
day 
Of  the  after-life,  when  all  the  sheeted 

dead 
Are  shaken  from  their  stillness   in  the 

grave 
By  the  last  trumpet. 

Am  I  worse  or  better? 
I  am  outlaw'd.     I  am  none  the  worse  for 

that. 
I  held  for  Richard,  and  I  hated  John. 
I  am  a  thief,  ay,  and  a  king  of  thieves. 
Ay !  but  we  rob  the  robber,  wrong  the 

wronger, 
And  what  we  wring  from  them  we  give 

the  poor. 
I  am  none  the  worse  for  that,  and  all  the 

better 
For  this  free  forest-life,  for  while  I  sat 
Among  my  thralls  in  my  baronial  hall 
The  groining  hid  the  heavens;   but  since 

I  breathed, 
A  houseless  head  beneath  the  sun  and 

stars, 
The  soul  of  the  woods  hath  stricken  thro' 

my  blood, 
The  love  of  freedom,  the  desire  of  God, 
The  hope  of  larger  life  hereafter,  more 
Tenfold  than  under  roof.      [JLorn  blown. 
True,  were  I  taken 
They  would  prick  out  my  sight.    A  price 

is  set 
On  this  poor  head;  but  I  believe  there 

lives 
No  man  who  truly  loves  and  truly  rules 
His  following,  but  can  keep  his  followers 

true. 
I  am  one  with  mine.     Traitors  are  rarely 

bred 
Save  under  traitor  kings.     Our  vice-king 

John, 
True  king  of  vice — true  play  on  words — 

our  John 
By  his  Norman  arrogance  and  dissolute- 
ness, 


Hath  made  me  king  of  all  the  discontent 
Of  England  up  thro'  all  the  forest  land 
North  to  the  Tyne :  being  outlaw'd  in  a 

land 
Where  law  lies  dead,  we  make  ourselves 

the  law. 
Why  break   you   thus   upon   my   lonely 

hour? 

Enter  Little  John  and  Kate. 

Little  John.     I  found  this  white  doe 

wandering  thro'  the  wood, 
Not  thine,  but  mine.     I  have  shot  her 

thro'  the  heart. 
Kate.     He  lies,  my  lord.     I  have  shot 

him  thro'  the  heart. 
Robin.     My  God,    thou   art   the  very 

woman  who  waits 
On  my  dear  Marian.     Tell  me,  tell  me  of 

her. 
Thou  comest  a  very  angel  out  of  heaven. 
Where  is  she  ?  and  how  fares  she  ? 

Kate.  O  my  good  lord, 

I  am  but  an  angel  by  reflected  light. 
Your  heaven   is  vacant   of  your   angel. 

John — 
Shame  on  him ! — 
Stole    on  her,  she  was  walking   in   the 

garden, 
And  after  some  slight  speech  about  the 

Sheriff 
He  caught  her  round  the  waist,  whereon 

she  struck  him, 
And  fled  into  the  castle.     She  and  Sir 

Richard 
Have  past  away,  I  know  not  where;  and  I 
Was  left  alone,  and  knowing  as  I  did 
That  I  had  shot  him  thro'  the  heart,  I 

came 
To  eat  him  up  and  make  an  end  of  him. 
Little  John.     In  kisses? 
Kate.  You,  how  dare  you 

mention  kisses? 
But  I  am  weary  pacing  thro'  the  wood. 
Show  me  some  cave  or  cabin  where  I 

may  rest. 
Robin.     Go  with  him.    I  will  talk  with 

thee  anon. 

\_Exeunt  Little  John  and  Kate. 
She  struck  him,  my  brave  Marian,  struck 

the  Prince, 
The  serpent  that  had  crept  into  the  gar- 
den 


824 


THE  FORESTERS. 


ACT   II. 


And    coil'd    himself    about    her    sacred 

waist. 
I  think   I  should  have  stricken  him  to 

the  death. 
He  never  will  forgive  her. 

O  the  Sheriff 
Would  pay  this  cursed  mortgage  to  his 

brother 
If  Marian  would  marry  him;   and  the  son 
Is  most  like  dead — if"  so  the  land  may 

come 
To  Marian,  and  they  rate  the  land  five- 
fold 
The  worth   of  the   mortgage,   and  who 

marries  her 
Marries    the    land.       Most    honourable 

Sheriff! 
{Passionately)  Gone,  and  it  may  be  gone 

for  evermore ! 

0  would  that  I  could  see  her  for  a  mo- 

ment 
Glide  like  a  light  across  these  woodland 

ways ! 
Tho'  in  one  moment  she  should  glance 

away, 

1  should  be  happier  for  it  all  the  year. 

O  would  she  moved  beside  me  like  my 

shadow ! 
O  would  she   stood  before   me   as  my 

queen, 
To  make  this  Sherwood  Eden  o'er  again, 
And  these  rough  oaks  the  palms  of  Para- 
dise ! 
Ah !    but  who  be  those  three  yonder 
with  bows? — not  of  my  band — the  Sher- 
iff, and  by  heaven,  Prince  John  himself 
and  one  of  those  mercenaries  that  suck 
the  blood  of  England.     My  people  are 
all  scattered  I  know  not  where.     Have 
they  come  for  me?     Here  is  the  witch's 
hut.     The  fool-people  call  her  a  witch — 
a  good  witch  to  me  !     I  will  shelter  here. 
[Knocks  at  the  door  of  the  hut. 

Old  Woman  comes  out. 

Old  Woman  {kisses  his  hand).  Ah 
dear  Robin!  ah  noble  captain,  friend  of 
the  poor ! 

Robin.  I  am  chased  by  my  foes.  I 
have  forgotten  my  horn  that  calls  my 
men  together.  Disguise  me — thy  gown 
and  thy  coif. 

Old  Woman.      Come  in,  come  in;   I 


would  give  my  life  for  thee,  for  when  the 
Sheriff  had  taken  all  our  goods  for  the 
King  without  paying,  our  horse  and  our 
little  cart 

Robin.     Quick,  good  mother,  quick  ! 

Old  Woman.  Ay,  ay,  gown,  coif,  and 
petticoat,  and  the  old  woman's  blessing 
with  them  to  the  last  fringe. 

[  They  go  in. 

Enter  Prince  John,  Sheriff  of  Not- 
tingham, and  Mercenary. 

Prince  John.     Did  we  not  hear  the 
two  would  pass  this  way? 
They  must  have  past.     Here  is  a  wood- 
man's hut. 

Mercenary.    Take  heed,  take  heed  !  in 
Nottingham  they  say 
There  bides  a  foul  witch  somewhere  here- 
about. 

Sheriff.     Not  in  this  hut  I  take  it. 

Prince  John.  Why  not  here? 

Sheriff.     I  saw  a  man  go  in,  my  lord. 

Prince  John.  Not  two? 

Sheriff.     No,  my  lord,  one. 

Prince  John.  Make  for  the 

cottage  then ! 

Interior  of  the  hut.     Robin  disguised  as 
old  woman. 

Prince  John  {without) .  Knock  again ! 
knock  again ! 

Robin  {to  Old  Woman).  Get  thee  into 
the  closet  there,  and  make  a  ghostly  wail 
ever  and  anon  to  scare  'em. 

Old  Woman.  I  will,  I  will,  good 
Robin.  [Goes  into  closet. 

Prince  John  {without) .  Open,  open, 
or  I  will  drive  the  door  from  the  doorpost. 

Robin  {opens  door) .    Come  in,  come  in. 

Prince  John.  Why  did  ye  keep  us 
at  the  door  so  long? 

Robin  {curtseying).  I  was  afear'd  it 
was  the  ghost,  your  worship. 

Prince  John.  Ghost !  did  one  in  white 
pass? 

Robin  {curtseying) .    No,  your  worship. 

Prince  John.     Did  two  knights  pass? 

Robin  {curtseying).    No,  your  worship. 

Sheriff.  I  fear  me  we  have  lost  our 
labour,  then. 

Prince  John.  Except  this  old  hag 
have  been  bribed  to  lie. 


SCENE   I. 


THE  FORESTERS. 


825 


Robin.  We  old  hags  should  be  bribed 
to  speak  truth,  for,  God  help  us,  we  lie 
by  nature. 

Prince  John.  .  There  was  a  man  just 
now  that  enter'd  here? 

Robin.  There  is  but  one  old  woman 
in  the  hut.  [Old  Woman  yells. 

Robin.  I  crave  your  worship's  pardon. 
There  is  yet  another  old  woman.  She 
was  murdered  here  a  hundred  year  ago, 
and  whenever  a  murder  is  to  be  done 
again  she  yells  out  i'  this  way — so  they 
say,  your  worship. 

Mercenary.  Now,  if  I  hadn't  a  sprig 
o'  wickentree  sewn  into  my  dress,  I  should 
run. 

Prince  John.      Tut !  tut !  the  scream 
of  some  wild  woodland  thing.  . 
How  came  we  to  be  parted  from  our  men? 
We    shouted,    and    they  shouted,    as    I 

thought, 
But   shout   and    echo   play'd   into   each 

other 
So   hollowly   we   knew   not  which   was 
which. 

Robin.  The  wood  is  full  of  echoes, 
owls,  elfs,  ouphes,  oafs,  ghosts  o'  the 
mist,  wills-o'-the-wisp;  only  they  that  be 
bred  in  it  can  find  their  way  a-nights 
in  it. 

Prince   yohn.      I    am    footsore    and 
famish'd  therewithal. 
Is  there  aught  there? 

[Pointing  to  cupboard. 

Robin.        Naught  for  the  likes  o'  you. 

Prince   John.      Speak    straight    out, 
crookback. 

Robin.         Sour  milk  and  black  bread. 

Prince  John.      Well,  set  them  forth. 
I  could  eat  anything. 

\_He  sets  out  a  table  with  black 
bread. 

This  is  mere  marble.  Old  hag,  how 
should  thy  one  tooth  drill  thro'  this? 

Robin.  Nay,  by  St.  Gemini,  I  ha' 
two;  and  since  the  Sheriff  left  me  naught 
but  an  empty  belly,  they  can  meet  upon 
anything  thro'  a  millstone.  You  gentles 
that  live  upo'  manchet-bread  and  march- 
pane, what  should  you  know  o'  the  food 
o'  the  poor?  Look  you  here,  before  you 
can  eat  it  you  must  hack  it  with  a  hatchet, 
break  it  all  to  pieces,  as  you  break  the 


poor,  as  you  would  hack  at  Robin  Hood 
if  you  could  light  upon  him  {hacks  it  and 
flings  two  pieces').  There's  for  you,  and 
there's  for  you — and  the  old  woman's 
welcome. 

Prince  yohn.  The  old  wretch  is  mad, 
and  her  bread  is  beyond  me:  and  the 
milk — faugh  !  Hasf  thou  anything  to 
sweeten  this? 

Robin.  Here's  a  pot  o'  wild  honey 
from  an  old  oak,  saving  your  sweet 
reverences. 

Sheriff.  Thou  hast  a  cow  then,  hast 
thou? 

Robin.  Ay,  for  when  the  Sheriff  took 
my  little  horse  for  the  King  without  pay- 
ing for  it 

Sheriff.  How  hadst  thou  then  the 
means  to  buy  a  cow? 

Robin.  Eh,  I  would  ha'  given  my 
whole  body  to  the  King  had  he  asked  for 
it,  like  the  woman  at  Acre  when  the  Turk 
shot  her  as  she  was  helping  to  build  the 
mound  against  the  city.  I  ha'  served 
the  King  living,  says  she,  and  let  me 
serve  him  dead,  says  she;  let  me  go  to 
make  the  mound  :  bury  me  in  the  mound, 
says  the  woman. 

Sheriff.     Ay,  but  the  cow? 

Robin.     She  was  given  me. 

Sheriff.     By  whom? 

Robin.     By  a  thief. 

Sheriff.     Who,  woman,  who? 

Robin  (sings'). 

He  was  a  forester  good ; 

He  was  the  cock  o'  the  walk; 

He  was  the  king  o'  the  wood. 

Your  worship  may  find  another  rhyme 
if  you  care  to  drag  your  brains  for  such 
a  minnow. 

Sheriff.  That  cow  was  mine.  I  have 
lost  a  cow  from  my  meadow.  Robin 
Hood  was  it?  I  thought  as  much.  He 
will  come  to  the  gibbet  at  last. 

[Old  Woman  yells. 

Mercenary.  O  sweet  sir,  talk  not  of 
cows.     You  anger  the  spirit. 

Prince  John.     Anger  the  scritch-owl. 

Mercenary.  But,  my  lord,  the  scritch- 
owl  bodes  death,  my  lord. 

Robin.  I  beseech  you  all  to  speak 
lower.     Robin  may  be  hard  by  wi'  three- 


826 


THE  FORESTERS. 


ACT  II. 


score  of  his  men.     He  often  looks  in  here 
by  the  moonshine.     Beware  of  Robin. 

[Old  Woman  yells. 

Mercenary.  Ah,  do  you  hear?  There 
may  be  murder  done. 

Sheriff.  Have  you  not  finished,  my  lord  ? 

Robin.  Thou  hast  crost  him  in  love, 
and  I  have  heard  him  swear  he  will  be 
even  wi'  thee.  [Old  Woman  yells. 

Mercenary.  Now  is  my  heart  so  down 
in  my  heels  that  if  I  stay,  I  can't  run. 

Sheriff.     Shall  we  not  go? 

Robin.  And,  old  hag  tho'  I  be,  I  can 
spell  the  hand.  Give  me  thine.  Ay,  ay, 
the  line  o'  life  is  marked  enow;  but  look, 
there  is  a  cross  line  o'  sudden  death.  I 
pray  thee,  go,  go,  for  tho'  thou  wouldst 
bar  me  fro'  the  milk  o'  my  cow,  I  wouldn't 
have  thy  blood  on  my  hearth. 

Prince  John.  Why  do  you  listen,  man, 
to  the  old  fool? 

Sheriff.  I  will  give  thee  a  silver  penny 
if  thou  wilt  show  us  the  way  back  to 
Nottingham. 

Robin  {with  a  very  low  curtsey}.  All 
the  sweet  saints  bless  your  worship  for 
your  alms  to  the  old  woman !  but  make 
haste  then,  and  be  silent  in  the  wood. 
Follow  me.  [  Takes  his  bow. 

(  They  come  out  of  the  hut  and  close  the 
door  carefully.} 

[  Outside  hut. 

Robin.  Softly !  softly  !  there  may  be  a 
thief  in  every  bush. 

Prince  John.  How  should  this  old 
lamester  guide  us?  Where  is  thy  good- 
man? 

Robin.  The  saints  were  so  kind  to 
both  on  us  that  he  was  dead  before  he 
was  born. 

Prince  John.  Half-witted  and  a  witch 
to  boot !  Mislead  us,  and  I  will  have  thy 
life  !  and  what  doest  thou  with  that  who 
art  more  bow-bent  than  the  very  bow  thou 
earnest? 

Robin.     I  keep  it  to  kill  nightingales. 

Prince  John.     Nightingales ! 

Robin.  You  see,  they  are  so  fond  o' 
their  own  voices  that  I  cannot  sleep  o' 
nights  by  cause  on  'em. 

Prince  John.  True  soul  of  the  Saxon 
churl  for  whom  song  has  no  charm. 


Robin.  Then  I  roast  'em,  for  I  have 
nought  else  to  live  on  {whines).  O  your 
honour,  I  pray  you  too  to  give  me  an 
alms.     {To  Prince  John.) 

Sheriff.  This  is  no  bow  to  hit  night- 
ingales; this  is  a  true  woodman's  bow 
of  the  best  yew-wood  to  slay  the  deer. 
Look,  my  lord,  there  goes  one  in  the 
moonlight.     Shoot ! 

Prince  John  {shoots) .  Missed!  There 
goes  another.     Shoot,  Sheriff! 

Sheriff  {shoots).     Missed! 

Robin.  And  here  comes  another. 
Why,  an  old  woman  can  shoot  closer 
than  you  two. 

Prince  John.  Shoot  then,  and  if  thou 
miss  I  will  fasten  thee  to  thine  own  door- 
post and  make  thine  old  carcase  a  target 
for  us  three. 

Robin  {raises  hifnself  upright,  shoots, 
and  hits).  Hit!  Did  I  not  tell  you  an 
old  woman  could  shoot  better? 

Prince  John.  Thou  standest  straight. 
Thou  speakest  manlike.  Thou  art  no  old 
woman — thou  art  disguised — thou  art  one 
of  the  thieves. 

[Makes  a  clutch  at  the  gown,  which 
comes  in  pieces  and  falls,  show- 
ing Robin  in  his  forester's  dress. 

Sheriff.  It  is  the  very  captain  of  the 
thieves ! 

Prince  John.  We  have  him  at  last; 
we  have  him  at  advantage.  Strike, 
Sheriff!      Strike,  mercenary ! 

[  They  drazv  swords  and  attack  him  ; 
he  defends  himself  with  his. 

Enter  Little  John. 

Little  John.     I  have  lodged  my  pretty 

Katekin  in  her  bower. 
How    now?      Clashing    of    swords — ■ 
three  upon  one,  and  that  one  our  Robin ! 
Rogues,  have  you  no  manhood? 

[Draws  and  defends  Robin. 

Enter  Sir  Richard  Lea   {draws   his 
sword). 
Sir  Richard  Lea.     Old  as  I  am,  I  will 
not  brook  to  see 
Three  upon  two. 

(Maid  Marian  in  the  armour  of  a 
Red-cross  Knight  follows  half  un- 
sheathing her  sword  and  half  seen.) 


SCENE  I. 


THE  FORESTERS. 


827 


Back  !  back  !  I  charge  thee,  back  ! 
Is  this  a  game  for  thee  to  play  at  ?    Away. 

{She  retires  to  the  fringe  of  the  copse.} 

\_He fights  on  Robin's  side.    The  other 
three  are  beaten  off  and  exeunt. 

Enter  Friar  Tuck. 

Friar  Tuck.      I  am  too  late  then  with 

my  quarterstaff! 
Robin.     Quick,  friar,  follow  them : 
See  whether  there  be  more  of  'em  in  the 
wood. 
Friar  Tuck.     On  the  gallop,  on  the 
gallop,  Robin,  like  a  deer  from  a  dog,  or 
a  colt  from  a  gad-fly,  or  a  stump-tailed  ox 
in  May-time,  or  the  cow  that  jumped  over 
the  moon.  [Exit. 

Robin.     Nay,  nay,  but  softly,  lest  they 
spy  thee,  friar ! 

[  To  Sir  Richard  Lea  who  reels. 
Take  thou  mine  arm.      Who  art  thou, 
gallant  knight? 
Sir  Richard.    Robin,  I  am  Sir  Richard 
of  the  Lea. 
Who  be  those  three  that  I  have  fought 
withal  ? 
Robin.     Prince  John,  the  Sheriff,  and 

a  mercenary. 
Sir  Richard.    Prince  John  again.    We 
are  flying  from  this  John. 
The  Sheriff — I   am   grieved   it  was   the 

Sheriff; 
For,  Robin,  he  must  be  my  son-in-law. 
Thou  art  an  outlaw,  and  couldst  never 

pay 
The  mortgage  on  my  land.     Thou  wilt 

not  see 
My  Marian  more.     So — so — I  have  pre- 
sumed 
Beyond  my  strength.     Give  me  a  draught 
of  wine.     [Marian  comes  forward. 
This  is  my  son  but  late   escaped   from 

prison, 
For  whom  I  ran   into   my  debt  to  the 

Abbot, 
Two  thousand  marks  in  gold.     I  have 

paid  him  half. 
That   other  thousand — shall  I  ever  pay 

it? 
A  draught  of  wine. 

Robin.  Our  cellar  is  hard  by. 


Take  him,  good  Little  John,  and  give  him 

wine. 
[Exit  Sir  Richard  leaning  on  Little  John. 
A  brave  old  fellow  but  he  angers  me. 

[  To  Maid  Marian  who  is  fol- 
lowing her  father. 
Young  Walter,  nay,  I  pray  thee,  stay  a 
moment. 
Marian.     A  moment  for  some  matter 
of  no  moment ! 
Well — !  take  and  use  your  moment,  while 
you  may. 
Robin.     Thou  art  her  brother,  and  her 
voice  is  thine, 
Her  face  is  thine,  and  if  thou  be  as  gentle 
Give  me  some  news  of  my  sweet  Marian. 
Where  is  she? 

Marian.  Thy  sweet   Marian?     I 

believe 
She  came  with  me  into  the  forest  here. 
Robin.      She    follow'd   thee   into  the 

forest  here? 
Marian.     Nay — that,  my  friend,  I  am 

sure  I  did  not  say. 
Robin.     Thou  blowest  hot  and  cold. 

Where  is  she  then? 
Marian.     Is  she  not  here  with  thee? 
Robin.  Would  God  she  were ! 

Marian.     If  not  with  thee  I  know  not 
where  she  is. 
She  may  have  lighted  on  your  fairies  here, 
And  now  be  skipping  in  their  fairy-rings, 
And  capering  hand  in  hand  with  Oberon. 
Robin.  Peace ! 

Marian.     Or   learning    witchcraft    of 
your  woodland  witch 
And  how  to  charm  and  waste  the  hearts 
of  men. 
Robin.     That  is  not  brother-like. 
Marian    {pointing  to   the  sky).      Or 
there  perchance 
Up  yonder  with  the  man  i'  the  moon. 
Robin.  No  more ! 

Marian.      Or  haply  fallen  a  victim  to 

the  wolf. 
Robin.     Tut !  be  there  wolves  in  Sher- 
wood? 
Marian.  The  wolf,  John  ! 

Robin.    Curse  him  !  but  thou  art  mock- 
ing me.     Thou  art 
Her  brother — I  forgive  thee.     Come  be 

thou 
My  brother  too.     She  loves  me. 


828 


THE  FORESTERS. 


ACT  II. 


Marian.  Doth  she  so? 

Robin.     Do  you  doubt  me  when  I  say 

she  loves  me,  man? 
Marian.     No,  but  my  father  will  not 
lose  his  land, 
Rather  than  that  would  wed  her  with  the 
Sheriff. 
Robin.    Thou  hold'st  with  him  ? 
Marian.  Yes,  in  some  sort  I  do. 

He  is  old  and  almost  mad  to  keep  the 
land. 
Robin.     Thou  hold'st  with  him? 
Marian.  I  tell  thee,  in  some  sort. 

Robin  {angrily).      Sort!    sort!    what 
sort?  what  sort  of  man  art  thou 
For  land,  not  love?     Thou  wilt  inherit 

the  land, 
And   so  wouldst  sell   thy  sister  to  the 

Sheriff, 
0  thou   unworthy   brother  of  my  dear 

Marian ! 
And  now,  I  do  bethink  me,  thou  wast  by 
And  never  drewest  sword  to  help  the  old 

man 
When  he  was  fighting. 

Marian.  There  were  three  to 

three. 
Robin.     Thou  shouldst  have  ta'en  his 

place,  and  fought  for  him. 
Marian.     He  did  it  so  well  there  was 

no  call  for  me. 
Robin.     My  God ! 
That    such    a    brother — she   marry   the 

Sheriff! 
Come  now,  I  fain  would  have  a  bout  with 

thee. 
It  is  but  pastime — nay,  I  will  not  harm 

thee. 
Draw! 

Marian.     Earl,  I  would  fight  with  any 

man  but  thee. 
Robin.     Ay,  ay,  because  I  have  a  name 

for  prowess. 
Marian.     It  is  not  that. 
Robin.     That!    I  believe  thou  fell'st 
into  the  hands 
Of  these  same  Moors  thro'  nature's  base- 
ness, criedst 
'I  yield'   almost  before   the   thing  was 

ask'd, 
And  thro'  thy  lack  of  manhood  hast  be- 

tray'd 
Thy  father  to  the  losing  of  his  land. 


Come,  boy !  'tis  but  to  see  if  thou  canst 

fence. 
Draw !  [Draws. 

Marian.    No,  Sir  Earl,  I  will  not  fight 

to-day. 
Robin.     To-morrow  then? 
Marian.  Well,  I  will  fight 

to-morrow. 
Robin.     Give  me  thy  glove  upon  it. 
Marian  {pulls  off  her  glove  and  gives  ii 

to  him).     There! 
Robin.  O  God ! 

What  sparkles  in  the  moonlight  on  thy 
hand?  [  Takes  her  hand. 

In  that  great  heat  to  wed.  her   to  the 

Sheriff 
Thou  hast  robb'd  my  girl  of  her  betrothal 
ring. 
Marian.     No,  no ! 
Robin.  What !  do  I  not  know 

mine  own  ring? 
Marian.     I  keep  it  for  her. 
Robin.  Nay,  she  swore  it  never 

Should  leave  her  finger.     Give  it  me,  by 

heaven, 
Or  I  will  force  it  from  thee. 

Marian.  O  Robin,  Robin  ! 

Robin.     O  my  dear  Marian, 
Is  it  thou?  is  it  thou?  I  fall  before  thee, 

clasp 
Thy  knees.     I  am  ashamed.     Thou  shalt 

not  marry 
The  Sheriff,  but  abide  with  me  who  love 
thee. 

[Ske  moves  from  him,  the  moon- 
light falls  upon  her. 
O  look  !  before  the  shadow  of  these  dark 

oaks 
Thou  seem'st  a  saintly  splendour  out  from 

heaven, 
Clothed  with   the   mystic  silver  of   her 

moon. 
Speak  but  one  word  not  only  of  forgive- 
ness, 
But  to  show  thou  art  mortal. 

Marian.  Mortal  enough, 

If  love  for  thee  be  mortal.    Lovers  hold 
True  love  immortal.      Robin,  tho'  I  love 

thee, 
We  cannot  come  together  in  this  world. 
Not  mortal !  after  death,  if  after  death — 
Robin.     Life,  life.     I  know  not  death. 
Why  do  you  vex  me 


SCENE  II. 


THE  FORESTERS. 


829 


With   raven- croaks  of  death   and   after 

death? 
Marian.     And  I  and  he  are  passing 

overseas : 
He  has  a  friend  there  will  advance  the 

monies, 
So  now  the  forest  lawns  are  all  as  bright 
As  ways  to  heaven,  I  pray  thee  give  us 

guides 
To  lead  us  thro'  the  windings  of  the  wood. 
Robin.     Must  it  be  so?     If  it  were  so, 

myself 
Would  guide  you  thro'  the  forest  to  the 

sea. 
But  go  not  yet,  stay  with  us,  and  when 

thy  brother 

Marian.     Robin,  I  ever  held  that  say- 
ing false 
That  Love  is  blind,  but  thou  hast  proven 

it  true. 
Why — even  your  woodland  squirrel  sees 

the  nut 
Behind    the    shell,    and    thee    however 

mask'd 
I   should    have   known.      But   thou — to 

dream  that  he 
My  brother,  my  dear  Walter — now,  per- 
haps, 
Fetter'd   and  lash'd,  a  galley-slave,   or 

closed 
For  ever  in  a  Moorish  tower,  or  wreckt 
And  dead  beneath  the  midland  ocean,  he 
As  gentle  as  he's  brave — that  such  as  he 
Would  wrest  from  me  the  precious  ring  I 

promised 
Never  to  part  with — No,  not  he,  nor  any. 
I  would  have  battled  for  it  to  the  death. 

\_In  her  excitement  she  draws  her 
sword. 
See,  thou  hast  wrong'd  my  brother  and 

myself. 
Robin  (kneeling).     See  then,  I  kneel 

once  more  to  be  forgiven. 

Enter  Scarlet,   Much,  several  of  the 
Foresters,  rushing  on. 

Scarlet.     Look  !  look  !  he  kneels !  he 
has  anger'd  the  foul  witch, 
Who  melts  a  waxen  image  by  the  fire, 
And  drains  the  heart  and  marrow  from  a 
man. 
Much.      Our  Robin  beaten,  pleading 
for  his  life ! 


Seize  on  the  knight!  wrench  his  sword 

from  him ! 

[  They  all  rush  on  Marian. 
Robin  (springing  up  and  waving  his 

hand).  Back! 

Back  all  of  you !  this  is  Maid  Marian 
Flying  from  John — disguised. 

Men.  Maid  Marian?  she? 

Scarlet.     Captain,  we  saw  thee  cower- 
ing to  a  knight 
And  thought  thou  wert  bewitch'd. 

Marian.  You  dared  to  dream 

That  our  great  Earl,  the  bravest  English 

heart 
Since  Hereward  the  Wake,  would  cower 

to  any 
Of  mortal  build.     Weak  natures  that  im- 
pute 
Themselves  to  their  unlikes,   and   their 

own  want 
Of  manhood  to  their  leader !  he  would 

break, 
Far  as  he  might,  the  power  of  John — but 

you — 
What  rightful  cause  could  grow  to  such  a 

heat 
As  burns  a  wrong  to  ashes,  if  the  followers 
Of  him,  who  heads  the  movement,  held 

him  craven? 
Robin — I  know  not,  can  I  trust  myself 
With  your  brave  band?  in  some  of  these 

may  lodge 
That  baseness  which  for  fear  or  monies, 

might 
Betray  me  to  the  wild  Prince. 

Robin.  No,  love,  no ! 

Not  any  of  these,  I  swear. 

Men.  No,  no,  we  swear. 


SCENE  II. — Another  Glade  in  the 
Forest. 

Robin   and  Marian  passing.       Enter 
Forester. 

Forester.      Knight,  your  good  father 
had  his  draught  of  wine 
And  then  he  swoon'd  away.      He  had 

been  hurt, 
And  bled  beneath  his  armour.     Now  he 

cries 
'  The  land !  the  land  ! '    Come  to  him. 
Marian.  O  my  poor  father'. 


83o 


THE  FORESTERS. 


ACT   II. 


Robin.     Stay  with  us  in  this  wood,  till 
he  recover. 
We  know  all  balms  and  simples  of  the 

field 
To  help  a  wound.     Stay  with  us  here, 

sweet  love, 
Maid  Marian,  till  thou  wed  what  man 

thou  wilt. 
All  here  will  prize  thee,  honour,  worship 

thee, 
Crown  thee  with  flowers;    and   he  will 

soon  be  well : 
All  will  be  well. 

Marian.  O  lead  me  to  my  father ! 

\As  they  are  going  out  enter  Little 
John  and  Kate  who  falls  on  the 
neck  of  Marian. 
Kate.     No,  no,  false  knight,  thou  canst 
not  hide  thyself 
From  her  who  loves  thee. 

Little  John.  What ! 

By  all  the  devils  in  and  out  of  Hell ! 
Wilt  thou  embrace  thy  sweetheart  'fore 

my  face? 
Quick  with  thy  sword !  the  yeoman  braves 

the  knight. 
There  !    {strikes  her  with  the  flat  of  his 
sword) . 
Marian  {laying  about  her).     Are  the 
men   all    mad?    there   then,    and 
there ! 
Kate.     O  hold  thy  hand !  this  is  our 

Marian. 
Little  John.     What !  with  this  skill  of 

fence  !  let  go  mine  arm. 
Robin.    Down  with  thy  sword !    She  is 
my  queen  and  thine. 
The  mistress  of  the  band. 

Marian    {sheathing  her  sword).      A 
maiden  now 
Were  ill-bested   in   these  dark    days   of 

John, 
Except  she  could  defend  her  innocence. 

0  lead  me  to  my  father. 

[Exeunt  Robin  and  Marian. 
Little  John.  Speak  to  me, 

1  am  like  a  boy  now  going  to  be  whipt; 
I  know  I  have  done  amiss,  have  been  a 

fool, 
Speak  to  me,  Kate,  and  say  you  pardon 
me ! 
Kate.     I  never  will  speak  word  to  thee 
again. 


What?  to  mistrust  the  girl  you  say  you 

love 
Is  to  mistrust  your  own  love  for  your  girl ! 
How  should  you  love  if  you  mistrust  your 
love? 
Little  John.     O  Kate,  true  love  and 
jealousy  are  twins, 
And  love  is  joyful,  innocent,  beautiful, 
And  jealousy  is  wither'd,  sour  and  ugly : 
Yet  are  they  twins  and  always  go   to- 
gether. 
Kate.     Well,  well,  until  they  cease  to 
go  together, 
I  am  but  a  stone  and  a  dead  stock  to  thee. 
Little  John.      I  thought  I  saw  thee 
clasp  and  kiss  a  man 
And  it  was  but  a  woman.    Pardon  me. 
Kate.     Ay,  for  I  much  disdain  thee, 
but  if  ever 
Thou  see  me  clasp  and  kiss  a  man  indeed, 
I  will  again  be  thine,  and  not  till  then. 

[Exit. 

Little  John.     I  have  been  a  fool  and  I 

have  lost  my  Kate.  [Exit. 

Re-enter  Robin. 

Robin.     He  dozes.     I   have   left   her 

watching  him. 
She  will  not  marry  till  her  father  yield. 
The  old  man  dotes. 
Nay — and  she  will  not  marry  till  Richard 

come, 
And  that's  at  latter  Lammas — never  per- 
haps. 
Besides,  tho'  Friar  Tuck  might  make  us 

one, 
An  outlaw's  bride  may  not  be  wife  in  law. 
I  am  weary.         [Lying  down  on  a  bank. 
What's  here?    a  dead  bat   in  the  fairy 

ring- 
Yes,  I  remember,  Scarlet  hacking  down 
A  hollow  ash,  a  bat  flew  out  at  him 
In  the  clear  noon,  and  hook'd  him  by  the 

hair, 
And  he  was  scared  and  slew  it.     My  men 

say 
The   fairies   haunt    this   glade; — if    one 

could  catch 
A   glimpse   of  them  and  of  their  fairy 

Queen — 
Have  our  loud  pastimes  driven  them  all 

away? 
I  never  saw  them :  yet  I  could  believe 


SCENE   II. 


THE  FORESTERS. 


83i 


There  came  some  evil  fairy  at  my  birth 
And  cursed  me,  as  the  last  heir  of  my 

race: 
'This  boy  will  never  wed  the  maid  he 

loves, 
Nor  leave  a  child  behind  him '  {yawns). 

Weary — weary 
As  tho'  a  spell  were  on  me  (he  dreams). 
[  The  whole  stage  lights  up,  and  fairies 
are  seen   swinging  on  boughs  and 
nestling  in  hollow  trunks. 

Titania  on  a  hill.     Fairies  on  either 
side  of  her.     The  moon  above  the  hill. 

First  Fairy. 

Evil  fairy!  do  you  hear? 
So  he  said  who  lieth  here. 

Second  Fairy. 

We  be  fairies  of  the  wood, 
We  be  neither  bad  nor  good. 

First  Fairy. 

Back  and  side  and  hip  and  rib, 
Nip,  nip  him  for  his  fib. 

Titania. 

Nip  him  not,  but  let  him  snore. 
We  must  flit  for  evermore. 

First  Fairy. 

Tit,  my  queen,  must  it  be  so? 
Wherefore,  wherefore  should  we  go? 

Titania. 

I  Titania  bid  you  flit, 

And  you  dare  to  call  me  Tit. 

First  Fairy. 

Tit,  for  love  and  brevity, 
Not  for  love  of  levity. 

Titania. 

Pertestofour  flickering  mob, 
Wouldst  thou  call  my  Oberon  Ob? 

First  Fairy. 

Nay,  an  please  your  Elfin  Grace, 
Never  Ob  before  his  face. 

Titania. 

Fairy  realm  is  breaking  down 
When  the  fairy  slights  the  crown. 

First  Fairy. 

No,  by  wisp  and  glowworm,  no. 
Only  wherefore  should  we  go? 

Titania. 

We  must  fly  from  Robin  Hood 
And  this  new  queen  of  the  wood. 


First  Fairy. 

True,  she  is  a  goodly  thing. 
Jealousy,  jealousy  of  the  king. 

Titania. 

Nay,  for  Oberon  fled  away 
Twenty  thousand  leagues  to-day. 

Chorus. 

Look,  there  comes  a  deputation 
From  our  finikin  fairy  nation. 

Enter  several  Fairies. 

Third  Fairy. 

Crush'd  my  bat  whereon  I  flew. 
Found  him  dead  and  drench'd  in  dew, 
Queen. 

Fourth  Fairy. 

Quash'd  my  frog  that  used  to  quack 
When  I  vaulted  on  his  back, 

Queen. 

Fifth  Fairy. 

Kill'd  the  sward  where'er  they  sat, 
Queen, 

Sixth  Fairy. 

Lusty  bracken  beaten  flat, 

Queen. 

Seventh  Fairy. 

Honest  daisy  deadly  bruised, 

Queen. 

Eighth  Fairy. 

Modest  maiden  lily  abused, 

Queen. 

Ninth  Fairy. 

Beetle's  jewel  armour  crack'd, 

Queen. 

Tenth  Fairy. 

Reed  I  rock'd  upon  broken-back'd, 
Queen. 

Fairies  (in  chorus). 
We  be  scared  with  song  and  shout 
Arrows  whistle  all  about. 
All  our  games  be  put  to  rout. 
All  our  rings  be  trampled  out. 
Lead  us  thou  to  some  deep  glen, 
Far  from  solid  foot  of  men, 
Never  to  return  again, 

Queen 

Titania  (to  First  Fairy). 

Elf,  with  spiteful  heart  and  eye, 
Talk  of  jealousy?  You  see  why 
We  must  leave  the  wood  and  fly. 


832 


THE  FORESTERS. 


ACT  III 


(  To  all  the  fairies  who  sing  at  intervals 
with  Titania.) 

Up  with  you,  out  of  the  forest  and  over  the  hills 
and  away, 

And  over  this  Robin  Hood's  bay ! 

Up  thro'  the  light  of  the  seas  by  the  moon's  long- 
silvering  ray! 

To  a  land  where  the  fay, 

Not  an  eye  to  survey, 

In  the  night,  in  the  day, 

Can  have  frolic  and  play. 

Up  with  you,  all  of  you,  out  of  it!  hear  and  obey. 

Man,  lying  here  alone, 

Moody  creature, 

Of  a  nature 

Stronger,  sadder  than  my  own, 

Were  I  human,  were  I  human, 

I  could  love  you  like  a  woman. 

Man,  man, 

You  shall  wed  your  Marian. 

She  is  true,  and  you  are  true, 

And  you  love  her  and  she  loves  you; 

Both  be  happy,  and  adieu  for  ever  and  for  ever- 
more—adieu. 

Robin   (half  waking).      Shall    I    be 
happy?     Happy  vision,  stay. 

Titania. 

Up  with  you,  all  of  you,  off  with  you,  out  of  it, 
over  the  wood  and  away ! 

Note.  —  In  the  stage  copy  of  my  play  I  have 
had  this  Fairy  Scene  transferred  to  the  end  of  the 
Third  Act,  for  the  sake  of  modern  dramatic  effect. 


ACT  III. — The  Crowning  of  Marian. 

SCENE  I. — Heart  of  the  Forest. 

Marian  and  Kate  (in  Foresters'  green) . 

Kate.   .  What  makes  you  seem  so  cold 

to  Robin,  lady? 
Marian.     What  makes  thee  think   I 

seem  so  cold  to  Robin? 
Kate.      You   never   whisper   close    as 
lovers  do, 
Nor  care  to  leap  into  each  other's  arms. 
Marian.     There  is  a  fence  I  cannot 
overleap, 
My  father's  will. 

Kate.     Then  you  will  wed  the  Sheriff? 
Marian.     When  heaven  falls,  I  may 
light  on  such  a  lark  ! 
But  who  art  thou  to  catechize  me — thou 
That  hast  not   made   it  up  with    Little 
John! 
Kate.     I  wait   till  Little  John  makes 
up  to  me. 


Marian.     Why,  my  good  Robin  fan- 
cied me  a  man, 
And  drew  his  sword  upon  me,  and  Little 

John 
Fancied  he  saw  thee  clasp  and  kiss  a  man. 
Kate.     Well,  if  he  fancied  that  /  fancy 

a  man 
Other  than  him,  he  is  not  the  man  for  me. 
Marian.    And  that  would  quite  unman 

him,  heart  and  soul. 
For  both  are  thine. 

(Looking  up.) 

But  listen — overhead — 
Fluting,  and  piping  and  luting  *  Love, 

love,  love  ' — 
Those  sweet  tree-Cupids  half-way  up  in 

heaven, 
The  birds — would  I  were  one  of  'em ! 

O  good  Kate — 
If  my  man-Robin  were  but  a  bird-Robin, 
How  happily  would  we  lilt  among  the 

leaves 
'  Love,   love,    love,    love  ' — what    merry 

madness — listen ! 
And  let  them  warm  thy  heart  to  Little 

John. 
Look  where  he  comes  ! 

Kate.  I  will  not  meef  him  yet, 

I'll  watch  him  from   behind   the  trees, 

but  call 
Kate  when  you  will,  for  I  am  close  at 

hand. 

Kate  stands  aside  and  enter  Robin,  and 
after  him  at  a  little  distance  LiTrLE 
John,  Much  the  Miller's  son,  and 
Scarlet  with  an  oaken  chaplet,  and 
other  Foresters. 

Little  John.  My  lord— Robin— I 
crave  pardon — you  always  seem  to  me 
my  lord — I  Little  John,  he  Much  the 
miller's  son,  and  he  Scarlet,  honouring 
all  womankind,  and  more  especially  my 
lady  Marian,  do  here,  in  the  name  of 
all  our  woodmen,  present  her  with  this 
oaken  chaplet  as  Queen  of  the  wood,  I 
Little  John,  he,  young  Scarlet,  and  he, 
old  Much,  and  all  the  rest  of  us. 

Much.  And  I,  old  Much,  say  as  much, 
for  being  every  inch  a  man  I  honour 
every  inch  of  a  woman. 

Robin.  Friend  Scarlet,  art  thou  less  a 
man  than  Much? 


SCENE   I. 


THE  FORESTERS. 


833 


Why   art   thou   mute?     Dost   thou   not 
honour  woman? 
Scarlet.     Robin,  I   do,  but  I  have  a 
bad  wife. 

Robin.     Then  let  her  pass  as  an  ex- 
ception, Scarlet. 
Scarlet.     So   I   would,  Robin,  if  any 
man  would  accept  her. 

I         Marian  {puts  on  the  chaplei).    Had  I 
a  bulrush  now  in  this  right  hand 
For  sceptre,  I  were  like  a  queen  indeed. 
Comrades,  I  thank  you  for  your  loyalty, 
And  take  and  wear  this  symbol  of  your 

love; 
And  were  my  kindly  father  sound  again, 
Could    live    as   happy   as   the    larks   in 

heaven, 
And  join  your  feasts  and  all  your  forest 

games 
As  far  as  maiden  might.    Farewell,  good 

fellows ! 

\_Exeunt   several  foresters,    the 

others  withdraw  to  the  back. 

Robin.     Sit   here   by   me,  where   the 

most  beaten  track 
Runs  thro'  the  forest,  hundreds  of  huge 

oaks, 
Gnarl'd — older  than  the  thrones  of  Eu- 
rope— look, 
What  breadth,  height,  strength — torrents 

of  eddying  bark  ! 
Some    hollow-hearted    from    exceeding 

age- 
That   never   be  thy  lot   or   mine ! — and 

some 
Pillaring  a  leaf-sky  on  their  monstrous 

boles, 
Sound   at   the   core   as  we    are.      Fifty 

leagues 
Of  woodland  hear  and  know  my  horn, 

that  scares 
The  Baron  at  the  torture  of  his  churls, 
The  pillage  of  his  vassals. 

O  maiden-wife, 
The  oppression  of  our  people  moves  me  so, 
That  when  I  think  of  it  hotly,  Love  him- 
self 
Seems  but  a  ghost,  but  when  thou  feel'st 

with  me 
The   ghost   returns    to    Marian,    clothes 

itself 
In  maiden  flesh  and  blood,  and  looks 

at  once 

3H 


Maid  Marian,  and  that  maiden  freedom 

which 
Would   never   brook   the   tyrant.      Live 

thou  maiden ! 
Thou  art  more  my  wife  so  feeling,  than 

if  my  wife 
And  siding  with  these  proud  priests,  and 

these  Barons, 
Devils,  that  make  this  blessed  England 

hell. 

Marian.     Earl 

Robin.  Nay,    no    Earl 

am  I.     I  am  English  yeoman. 
Marian.     Then  /  am  yeo-woman.     O 

the  clumsy  word ! 
Robin.     Take  thou  this  light  kiss  for 

thy  clumsy  word. 
Kiss  me  again. 

Marian.     Robin,  I  will  not  kiss  thee, 
For  that  belongs  to  marriage;  but  I  hold 

thee 
The   husband  of  my  heart,  the  noblest 

light 
That  ever  flash'd  across  my  life,  and  I 
Embrace  thee  with  the  kisses  of  the  soul. 
Robin.     I  thank  thee. 
Marian.  Scarlet  told  me 

— is  it  true  ? — 
That  John  last  week  return'd  to  Notting- 
ham, 
And   all   the   foolish   world   is   pressing 

thither. 
Robin.     Sit  here,  my  queen,  and  judge 

the  world  with  me. 
Doubtless,  like  judges  of  another  bench, 
However  wise,  we  must  at  times  have 

wrought 
Some  great  injustice,  yet,  far  as  we  knew, 
We  never  robb'd  one  friend  of  the  true 

King. 
We  robb'd  the  traitors  that  are  leagued 

with  John; 
We  robb'd  the  lawyer  who  went  against 

the  law; 
We  spared  the  craftsman,  chapman,  all 

that  live 
By  their  own  hands,  the   labourer,  the 

poor  priest; 
We  spoil'd  the  prior,  friar,  abbot,  monk, 
For  playing  upside  down  with  Holy  Writ. 
'  Sell  all  thou  hast  and  give  it  to  the 

poor;' 
Take  all  they  have  and  give  it  to  thyself! 


834 


THE   FORESTERS. 


ACT   HI. 


Then  after  we  have  eased  them  of  their 

coins 
It  is  our  forest  custom  they  should  revel 
Along  with  Robin. 

Marian.     And  if  a  woman  pass 

Robin.     Dear,  in  these  days  of  Nor- 
man license,  when 
Our  English   maidens  are  their  prey,  if 

ever 
A  Norman  damsel  fell  into  our  hands, 
In  this  dark  wood  when  all  was  in  our 

power 
We  never  wrong'd  a  woman. 

Marian.  Noble  Robin. 

Little  John  {coming forward') .    Here 
come  three  beggars. 

Enter  the  three  Beggars. 

Little  John.     Toll ! 

First  Beggar.  Eh !  we  be  beggars, 
we  come  to  ask  o'  you.    We  ha'  nothing. 

Second  Beggar.  Rags,  nothing  but 
our  rags. 

Third  Beggar.  I  have  but  one  penny 
in  pouch,  and  so  you  would  make  it  two 
I  should  be  grateful. 

Marian.  Beggars,  you  are  sturdy 
rogues  that  should  be  set  to  work.  You 
are  those  that  tramp  the  country,  filch 
the  linen  from  the  hawthorn,  poison  the 
house-dog,  and  scare  lonely  maidens  at 
the  farmstead.    Search  them,  Little  John. 

Little  John.  These  two  have  forty 
gold  marks  between  them,  Robin. 

Rodin.  Cast  them  into  our  treasury, 
the  beggars'  mites.  Part  shall  go  to  the 
almshouses  at  Nottingham,  part  to  the 
shrine  of  our  Lady.     Search  this  other. 

Little  John.  He  hath,  as  he  said,  but 
one  penny. 

Rodin.  Leave  it  with  him  and  add  a 
gold  mark  thereto.  He  hath  spoken 
truth  in  a  world  of  lies. 

Third  Beggar.     I  thank  you,  my  lord. 

Little  John.  A  fine,  a  fine !  he  hath 
called  plain  Robin  a  lord.  How  much 
for  a  beggar? 

Robin.  Take  his  penny  and  leave  him 
his  gold  mark. 

Little  John.  Sit  there,  knaves,  till  the 
captain  call  for  you. 

[  They  pass  behind  the  trunk  of  an 
oak  on  the  right. 


Marian.  Art  thou  not  hard  upon 
them,  my  good  Robin? 

Robin.  They  might  be  harder  upon 
thee,  if  met  in  a  black  lane  at  midnight : 
the  throat  might  gape  before  the  tongue 
could  cry  who  ? 

Little  John.  Here  comes  a  citizen, 
and  I  think  his  wife. 

Enter  Citizen  and  Wife. 

Citizen.    That  business  which  we  have 

in  Nottingham 

Little  John.     Halt ! 
Citizen.  O  dear  wife,  we 

have  fallen  into  the  hands 
Of  Robin  Hood. 

Marian.  And  Robin  Hood  hath 

sworn — 
Shame  on  thee,  Little  John,  thou  hast 

forgotten — 
That  by  the  blessed  Mother  no  man,  so 
His  own  true  wife  came  with  him,  should 

be  stay'd 
From  passing   onward.     Fare  you  well, 
fair  lady  !  \_Bowing  to  her. 

Robin.    And  may  your  business  thrive 

in  Nottingham ! 
Citizen.     I  thank  you,  noble  sir,  the 
very  blossom 
Of  bandits.     Courtesy  to  him,  wife,  and 
thank  him. 
Wife.    I  thank  you,  noble  sir,  and  will 
pray  for  you 
That  you  may  thrive,  but  in  some  kindlier 
trade. 
Citizen.     Away,  away,  wife,  wilt  thou 
anger  him? 

[Exeunt  Citizen  and  his  Wife. 
Little  John.     Here  come  three  friars. 
Robin.     Marian,  thou  and  thy  woman 
{looking  round),  Why,  where  is  Kate? 
Marian  {calling) .     Kate  ! 
Kate.     Here! 

Robin.     Thou  and  thy  woman  are  a 
match  for  three  friars.   Take  thou  my  bow 
and  arrow  and  compel  them  to  pay  toll. 
Marian.     Toll ! 

Enter  three  Friars. 

First  Friar  {advancing).      Behold  a 
pretty  Dian  of  the  wood, 
Prettier  than  that  same  widow  which  you 
wot  of. 


THE  FORESTERS. 


835 


Ha,  brother.     Toll,  my  dear?  the  toll  of 

love. 

Marian  {drawing  bow).    Back!  how 

much    money   hast   thou    in    thy 

purse  ? 

First  Friar.     Thou  art  playing  with 

us.     How  should  poor  friars  have  money  ? 

Marian.     How    much?    how    much? 

Speak,  or  the  arrow  flies. 
First  Friar.     How  much?  well,  now 
I  bethink  me,  I  have  one  mark  in  gold 
which  a  pious  son  of  the  Church  gave  me 
this  morning  on  my  setting  forth. 

Marian  {bending  bow  at  the  second). 
And  thou? 

Second  Friar.  Well,  as  he  said,  one 
mark  in  gold. 

Marian  {bending  bow  at  the  third). 
And  thou? 

Third  Friar.     One  mark  in  gold. 
Marian.     Search  them,  Kate,  and  see 
if  they  have  spoken  truth. 

Kate.  They  are  all  mark'd  men.  They 
have  told  but  a  tenth  of  the  truth :  they 
have  each  ten  marks  in  gold. 

Marian.  Leave  them  each  what  they 
say  is  theirs,  and  take  the  twenty-seven 
marks  to  the  captain's  treasury.  Sit 
there  till  you  be  called  for. 

First  Friar.     We  have  fall'n  into  the 
hands  of  Robin  Hood. 
[Marian  and  Kate  return  to  Robin. 
[  The  Friars  pass  behind  an  oak 
on  the  left. 
Robin.    Honour  to  thee,  brave  Marian, 
and  thy  Kate. 
I  know  them  arrant  knaves  in  Notting- 
ham. 
One  half  of  this  shall  go  to  those  they 

have  wrong'd, 
One  half  shall  pass  into  our  treasury. 
Where  lies  that  cask  of  wine  whereof  we 

plunder'd 
The  Norman  prelate? 

Little  John.    In  that  oak,  where  twelve 

Can  stand  upright,  nor  touch  each  other. 

Robin.  Good ! 

Roll   it  in  here.     These  friars,  thieves, 

and  liars, 
Shall  drink  the  health  of  our  new  wood- 
land Queen. 
And  they  shall  pledge  thee,  Marian,  loud 
enough 


To   fright  the  wild  swan  passing  over- 
head, 

The  mouldwarp  underfoot. 

Marian.  They  pledge  me,  Robin? 

The  silent  blessing  of  one  honest  man 

Is  heard  in  heaven — the  wassail  yells  of 
thief 

And  rogue  and  liar  echo  down  in  Hell, 

And  wake- the  Devil,  and  I  may  sicken 
by  'em. 

Well,  well,  be  it  so,  thou  strongest  thief 
of  all, 

For  thou  hast  stolen  my  will,  and  made  it 
thine. 

Friar  Tuck,  Little  John,  Much, 
and  Scarlet  roll  in  cask. 

Friar  Tuck.     I  marvel  is  it  sack  or 
Malvoisie? 

Robin.     Do  me  the  service  to  tap  it, 
and  thou  wilt  know. 

Friar  Tuck.     I  would  tap  myself  in  thy 
service,  Robin. 

Robin.     And  thou  wouldst  run  more 
wine  than  blood. 

Friar  Tuck.     And  both  at  thy  service, 
Robin. 

Robin.     I  believe  thee,  thou  art  a  good 
fellow,  though  a  friar. 

[  They  pour  the  wine  into  cups. 
Friar  Tuck.     Fill  to  the    brim.     Our 
Robin,  King  o'  the  woods, 
Wherever  the  horn  sound,  and  the  buck 

bound, 

Robin,  the  people's  friend,  the  King  o' 

the  woods.  [  They  drink. 

Robin.     To  the  brim  and  over  till  the 

green  earth  drink 

Her  health  along  with  us  in  this  rich 

draught, 
And  answer  it  in  flowers.     The  Queen  o' 

the  woods, 
Wherever  the  buck  bound,  and  the  horn 

sound, 
Maid  Marian,  Queen  o'  the  woods ! 

[  They  drink. 

Here,  you  three  rogues, 

[  To  the  Beggars.      They  come  out. 

You  caught  a  lonely  woodman    of  our 

band, 
And  bruised  him  almost  to  the  death,  and 

took 
His  monies. 


836 


THE  FORESTERS. 


ACT   III. 


Third  Beggar.     Captain,  nay,  it  wasn't 

me. 
Robin.     You  ought  to  dangle  up  there 
among  the  crows. 
Drink  to  the  health  of  our  new  Queen  o' 

the  woods. 
Or  else  be  bound  and  beaten. 

First  Beggar.  Sir,  sir — well, 

We  drink  the  health  of  thy  new  Queen  o' 
the  woods. 
Robin.    Louder !  louder !  Maid  Marian, 

Queen  o'  the  woods  ! 
Beggars    {shouting).      Maid    Marian, 
Queen  o'   the  woods:    Queen  o' 
the  woods. 
First  and  Second  Beggars  (aside) .   The 
black  fiend  grip  her  ! 

[  They  drink. 

Robin  (to  the  Friars).     And  you  three 

holy  men,  [  They  come  out. 

You  worshippers  of  the  Virgin,  one  of  you 

Shamed  a  too  trustful  widow  whom  you 

heard 
In     her     confession;      and     another — 

worse ! — 
An  innocent  maid.     Drink  to  the  Queen 

o'  the  woods, 
Or  else  be  bound  and  beaten. 

First  Friar.  Robin  Hood, 

These  be  the  lies  the  people  tell  of  us, 
Because  we  seek  to  curb  their  vicious- 

ness. 
However — to  this  maid,  this  Queen  o'  the 
woods. 
Robin.      Louder,   louder,  ye  knaves. 
Maid  Marian ! 
Queen  o'  the  woods ! 

Friars    (shouting).        Maid    Marian, 

Queen  o'  the  woods. 
First  Friar  (aside).     Maid? 
Second  Friar  (aside).         Paramour! 
Third  Friar  (aside).     Hell  take  her! 
[  7  hey  drink. 
Friar  Tuck.     Robin,  will  you  not  hear 
one  of  these  beggars'  catches?    They  can 
do  it.     I  have  heard  'em  in  the  market 
at  Mansfield. 

Little  John.  No,  my  lord,  hear  ours 
— Robin — I  crave  pardon,  I  always  think 
of  you  as  my  lord,  but  I  may  still  say  my 
lady;  and,  my  lady,  Kate  and  I  have 
fallen  out  again,  and  I  pray  you  to  come 
between  us  again,  for,  my  lady,  we  have 


made  a  song  in  your  honour,  so  your  lady- 
ship care  to  listen. 

Robin.  Sing,  and  by  St.  Mary  these 
beggars  and  these  friars  shall  join  you. 
Play  the  air,  Little  John. 

Little  John.  Air  and  word,  my  lady, 
are  maid  and  man.  Join  them  and  they 
are  a  true  marriage;  and  so,  I  pray  you, 
my  lady,  come  between  me  and  my  Kate 
and  make  us  one  again.  Scarlet,  begin. 
[Playing  the  air  on  his  viol. 

Scarlet. 

By  all  the  deer  that  spring 
Thro'  wood  and  lawn  and  ling, 

When  all  the  leaves  are  green; 
By  arrow  and  gray  goosewing, 
When  horn  and  echo  ring, 
We  care  so  much  for  a  King; 

We  care  not  much  for  a  Queen — 

For  a  Queen,  for  a  Queen  o*  the  woods. 

Marian.  Do  you  call  that  in  my 
honour? 

Scarlet.  Bitters  before  dinner,  my  lady, 
to  give  you  a  relish.  The  first  part — 
made  before  you  came  among  us — they 
put  it  upon  me  because  I  have  a  bad  wife. 
I  love  you  all  the  same.     Proceed. 

[All  the  rest  sing. 

By  all  the  leaves  of  spring, 
And  all  the  birds  that  sing 

When  all  the  leaves  are  green; 
By  arrow  and  by  bowstring, 
We  care  so  much  for  a  King 

That  we  would  die  for  a  Queen — 

For  a  Queen,  for  a  Queen  o'  the  woods. 

Enter  Forester. 

Forester.      Black    news,    black    news 

from  Nottingham  !  I  grieve 
I  am  the  Raven  who  croaks  it.     My  lord 

John, 
In  wrath  because  you  drove  him  from  the 

forest, 
Is  coming  with  a  swarm  of  mercenaries 
To  break  our  band  and  scatter  us  to  the 

winds. 
Marian.     O  Robin,  Robin !     See  that 

men  be  set 
Along  the  glades  and  passes  of  the  wood 
To  warn  us  of  his  coming !  then  each  man 
That  owns  a  wife  or  daughter,  let  him 

bury  her 
Even  in  the  bowels  of  the  earth  to  scape 

The  glance  of  John 

Robin.       You  hear  your  Queen,  obey  I 


THE  FORESTERS. 


837 


ACT  IV.— The  Conclusion. 
ACT  IV. 

SCENE. — A  Forest  Bower,  Cavern  in 
Background.     Sunrise. 

Marian  {rising  to  meet  Robin).  Robin, 
the  sweet  light  of  a  mother's  eye, 

That  beam  of  dawn  upon  the  opening 
flower, 

Has  never  glanced  upon  me  when  a  child. 

He  was  my  father,  mother,  both  in  one. 

The  love  that  children  owe  to  both  I  give 

To  him  alone. 

(Robin  offers  to  caress  her.) 

Marian.     Quiet,  good  Robin,  quiet ! 
You  lovers  are  such  clumsy  summer-flies 
For  ever  buzzing  at  your  lady's  face. 

Robin.  Bees  rather,  flying  to  the 
flower  for  honey. 

Marian  {sings). 

The  bee  buzz'd  up  in  the  heat. 
'  I  am  faint  for  your  honey,  my  sweet.' 
The  flower  said  '  Take  it,  my  dear, 
For  now  is  the  spring  of  the  year. 
So  come,  come! ' 
•  Hum ! ' 
And  the  bee  buzz'd  down  from  the  heat. 

And  the  bee  buzz'd  up  in  the  cold 
When  the  flower  was  wither'd  and  old. 
'  Have  you  still  any  honey,  my  dear?  ' 
She  said  '  It's  the  fall  of  the  year, 
But  come,  come !  ' 
'Hum!' 
And  the  bee  buzz'd  off  in  the  cold. 

Robin.     Out  on  thy  song  ! 

Marian.        Did  I  not  sing  it  in  tune  ? 

Robin.     No,  sweetheart !    out  of  tune 

with  Love  and  me. 
Marian.    And  yet  in  tune  with  Nature 

and  the  bees. 
Robin.    Out  on  it,  I  say,  as  out  of  tune 

and  time ! 
Marian.     Till  thou  thyself  shalt  come 

to  sing  it — in  time. 
Robin  {taking  a  tress  of  her  hair  in 

his  hand).     Time!    if  his  back- 
ward-working alchemy 
Should  change  this  gold  to  silver,  why, 

the  silver 
Were  dear  as  gold,  the  wrinkle   as  the 

dimple. 


Thy  bee  should  buzz  about  the  Court  of 

John. 
No   ribald    John    is    Love,    no    wanton 

Prince, 
The  ruler  of  an  hour,  but  lawful  King, 
Whose  writ  will  run  thro'  all  the  range 

of  life. 
Out  upon  all  hard-hearted  maidenhood ! 
Marian.     And    out  upon   all   simple 
batchelors ! 
Ah,  well !  thou  seest  the  land  has  come 

between  us, 
And  my  sick  father  here  has  come  be- 
tween us, 
And  this  rich  Sheriff  too  has  come  be- 
tween us; 
So,  is  it  not  all  over  now  between  us? 
Gone,   like   a   deer   that    hath    escaped 
thine  arrow ! 
Robin.     What    deer    when    I     have 
mark'd  him  ever  yet 
Escaped  mine  arrow?  over  is  it?  wilt  thou 
Give  me  thy  hand  on  that? 

Marian.  Take  it. 

Robin  {kisses  her  hand  ) .    The  Sheriff ! 
This  ring  cries  out  against  thee.     Say  it 

again, 
And   by  this   ring  the   lips    that   never 

breathed 
Love's  falsehood  to  true  maid  will  seal 

Love's  truth 
On  those  sweet  lips  that  dare  to  dally 
with  it. 
Marian.     Quiet,   quiet !  or  I  will  to 

my  father. 
Robin.     So,  then,  thy  father  will  not 
grace  our  feast 
With  his  white  beard  to-day. 

Marian.  Being  so  sick 

How  should  he,  Robin? 

Robin.  Then  that  bond  he  hath 

Of  the  Abbot — wilt  thou  ask  him  for  it? 
Marian.  Why  ? 

Robin.     I  have  sent  to  the  Abbot  and 
justiciary 
To   bring   their   counter-bond    into    the 
forest. 
Marian.     But  will  they  come? 
Robin.       If  not  I  have  let  them  know 
Their  lives  unsafe  in  any  of  these  our 

woods, 
And  in  the  winter  I  will  fire  their  farms. 
But  I  have  sworn  by  our  Lady  if  they  come 


S38 


THE  FORESTERS. 


I  will  not  tear  the  bond,  but  see  fair  play 
Betwixt  them  and  Sir  Richard — promised 

too, 
So  that  they  deal  with  us  like  honest  men, 
They  shall  be  handled  with  all  courteous- 
ness. 
Marian.     What  wilt  thou  do  with  the 

bond  then? 
Robin.  Wait  and  see. 

What  wilt  thou  do  with  the  Sheriff? 

Marian.  Wait  and  see. 

I  bring  the  bond.  \_Exit  Marian. 

Enter  Little  John,  Friar  Tuck,  and 
Much,  and  Foresters  and  Peasants 
laughing  and  talking. 

Robin.     Have  you  glanced  down  thro' 

all  the  forest  ways 
And  mark'd  if  those  two  knaves  from 

York  be  coming? 
Little  John.     Not  yet,  but  here  comes 

one  of  bigger  mould. 

Enter  King  Richard. 

Art  thou  a  knight? 
King  Richard.     I  am. 
Robin.  And  walkest  here 

Unarmour'd?  all  these  walks  are  Robin 

Hood's 
And  sometimes  perilous. 

King  Richard.   Good  •!  but  having  lived. 
For  twenty  days  and  nights  in  mail,  at 

last 
I  crawl'd  like  a  sick  crab  from  my  old 

shell, 
That  I  might  breathe  for  a  moment  free 

of  shield 
And  cuirass  in  this  forest  where  I  dream'd 
That  all  was  peace — not  even  a  Robin 

Hood— 
(Aside)  What    if   these   knaves   should 
know  me  for  their  King? 
Robin.    Art  thou  for  Richard,  or  allied 

to  John? 
King  Richard.     I  am  allied  to  John. 
Robin.     The  worse  for  thee. 
King  Richard.    Art  thou  that  banish'd 
lord  of  Huntingdon, 
The  chief  of  these  outlaws  who  break  the 
law? 
Robin.    I  am  the  yeoman,  plain  Robin 
Hood,  and  being  out  of  the   law   how 
should  we  break  the  law?  if  we  broke 


into  it  again  we  should  break  the  law, 
and  then  we  were  no  longer  outlaws. 
King  Richard.     But,  Earl,  if  thou  be 

he 

Friar  Tuck.    Fine  him  !  fine  him  !  he 
hath  called  plain  Robin  an  earl.     How 
much  is  it,  Robin,  for  a  knight? 
Robin.     A  mark. 
King  Richard  {gives  it) .     There. 
Robin.    Thou  payest  easily,  like  a  good 
fellow, 
But  being  o'  John's  side  we  must  have 
thy  gold. 
King  Richard.     But   I  am  more  for 

Richard  than  for  John. 
Robin.     What,    what,    a    truckler !    a 
word-eating  coward ! 
Nay,  search  him  then.     How  much  hast 
thou  about  thee?  • 
King  Richard.     I  had  one  mark. 
Robin.     What  more? 
King  Richard.  No  more,  I  think. 

But  how  then  if  I  will  not  bide  to  be 
search'd? 
Robin.     We  are  four  to  one. 
King  Richard.  And  I  might 

deal  with  four. 
Robin.     Good,  good,  I  love  thee  for 
that !  but  if  I  wind 
This  forest-horn  of  mine  I  can  bring  down 
Fourscore  tall  fellows  on  thee. 

King  Richard.  Search  me  then. 

I  should  be  hard  beset  with  thy  fourscore. 

Little  John  {searching  Kmg  Richard). 

Robin,  he  hath  no  more.    He  hath 

spoken  truth. 

Robin.     I   am  glad  of  it.     Give  him 

back  his  gold  again. 
King  Richard.     But  I  had  liefer  than 
this  gold  again — 
Not    having    broken    fast    the    livelong 

day — 
Something  to  eat. 

Robin.     And  thou  shalt  have  it,  man. 
Our  feast  is  yonder,  spread  beneath  an 

oak, 
Venison,  and  wild  boar,  wild  goose,  be- 
sides 
Hedge-pigs,  a  savoury  viand,  so  thou  be 
Squeamish  at  eating  the  King's  venison. 
King  Richard.    Nay,  Robin,  I  am  like 
thyself  in  that 
I  look  on  the  King's  venison  as  my  own. 


SCENE  I. 


THE  FORESTERS. 


839 


Friar  Tuck.  Ay,  ay,  Robin,  but  let 
him  know  our  forest  laws :  he  that  pays 
not  for  his  dinner  must  fight  for  it.  In 
the  sweat  of  thy  brow,  says  Holy  Writ, 
shalt  thou  eat  bread,  but  in  the  sweat  of 
thy  brow  and  thy  breast,  and  thine  arms, 
and  thy  legs,  and  thy  heart,  and  thy  liver, 
and  in  the  fear  of  thy  life  shalt  thou  eat 
the  King's  venison — ay,  and  so  thou  fight 
at  quarterstaff  for  thy  dinner  with  our 
Robin,  that  will  give  thee  a  new  zest  for 
it,  though  thou  wert  like  a  bottle  full  up 
to  the  cork,  or  as  hollow  as  a  kex,  or  the 
shambles-oak,  or  a  weasel-sucked  egg,'  or 
the  head  of  a  fool,  or  the  heart  of  Prince 
John,  or  any  other  symbol  of  vacuity. 

[  They  bring  out  the  quarter  staffs,  and 
the  foresters  and  peasants  crowd 
round  to  see  the  games,  and  ap- 
plaud at  intervals. 

King  Richard.    Great  woodland  king, 
I  know  not  quarterstaff. 

Little  John.  A  fine  !  a  fine  !  He  hath 
called  plain  Robin  a  king. 

Robin.  A  shadow,  a  poetical  fiction — 
did  ye  not  call  me  king  in  your  song? — 
a  mere  figure.     Let  it  go  by. 

Friar  Tuck.  No  figure,  no  fiction, 
Robin.  What,  is  not  man  a  hunting 
animal?  And  look  you  now,  if  we  kill 
a  stag,  our  dogs  have  their  paws  cut  off, 
and  the  hunters,  if  caught,  are  blinded, 
or  worse  than  blinded.  Is  that  to  be  a 
king?  If  the  king  and  the  law  work  in- 
justice, is  not  he  that  goes  against  the 
king  and  the  law  the  true  king  in  the 
sight  of  the  King  of  kings?  Thou  art 
the  king  of  the  forest,  and  I  would  thou 
wert  the  king  of  the  land. 

King  Richard.  This  friar  is  of  much 
boldness,  noble  captain. 

Robin.  He  hath  got  it  from  the  bottle, 
noble  knight. 

Friar    Tuck.     Boldness    out    of   the 
bottle  !   I  defy  thee. 
Boldness  is  in  the  blood,  Truth  in  the 

bottle. 
She  lay  so  long  at  the  bottom  of  her  well 
In  the  cold  water  that  she  lost  her  voice, 
And  so  she  glided  up  into  the  heart 
O'  the  bottle,  the  warm  wine,  and  found 
it  again. 


In  vino  Veritas.     Shall  I  undertake 
The  knight  at  quarterstaff,  or  thou? 

Robin.     Peace,  magpie ! 
Give  him  the  quarterstaff.     Nay,  but  thy- 
self 
Shalt  play  a  bout  with  me,  that  he  may  see 
The  fashion  of  it. 

[Plays  with  Little  John  at  quarterstaff. 

King  Richard.     Well,  then,  let  me  try. 

[  They  play. 

I  yield,  I  yield.     I  know  no  quarterstaff. 

Robin.     Then  thou  shalt  play  the  game 

of  buffets  with  us. 
King  Richard.     What's  that? 
Robin.     I  stand  up  here,  thou  there. 
I  give  thee 
A  buffet,  and  thou  me.    The  Holy  Virgin 
Stand    by   the   strongest.      I    am    over- 
breathed, 
Friar,  by  my  two  bouts  at  quarterstaff. 
Take  him  and  try  him,  friar. 

Friar  Tuck.     There !  [Strikes. 

King  Richard  {strikes).     There  ! 

[Friar  falls. 
Friar  Tuck.  There ! 

Thou  hast  roll'd  over  the  Church  militant 
Like  a  tod  of  wool  from  wagon  into  ware- 
house. 
Nay,  I  defy  thee  still.     Try  me  an  hour 

hence. 
I  am  misty  with  my  thimbleful  of  ale. 
Robin.     Thou   seest,  Sir   Knight,  our 
friar  is  so  holy 
That   he's   a   miracle-monger,   and   can 

make 
Five  quarts  pass  into   a   thimble.     Up, 
good  Much. 
Friar  Tuck.     And  show  thyself  more 

of  a  man  than  me. 
Much.     Well,  no   man   yet   has   ever 

bowl'd  me  down. 
Scarlet.     Ay,  for  old  Much   is   every 

inch  a  man. 
Robin.     We  should  be  all  the  more 

beholden  to  him. 
Much.     Much  and  more !    much  and 
more  !     I  am  the  oldest  of  thy  men,  and 
thou  and  thy  youngsters  are  always  much- 
ing  and  moreing  me. 

Robin.  Because  thou  art  always  so 
much  more  of  a  man  than  my  youngsters., 
old  Much. 

Much.     Well,  we  Muches  be  pld, 


84o 


THE  FORESTERS. 


ACT   IV, 


Robin.     Old  as  the  hills. 

Much.     Old  as  the  mill.     We  had  it  i' 

the  Red  King's  time,  and  so  I  may  be 

more  of  a  man  than  to  be  bowled  over 

like  a  ninepin.     There  !  [Strikes. 

King  Richard.     There!     [Much  falls. 

Rodin.      *  Much   would    have    more,' 

says  the  proverb;   but  Much   hath  had 

more  than  enough.     Give  me  thy  hand, 

Much;   I  love  thee  {lifts  him  up).     At 

him,  Scarlet ! 

Scarlet.      I  cannot  cope  with  him :  my 

wrist  is  strain'd. 
King  Richard.     Try,  thyself,  valorous 

Robin ! 
Robin.     I  am  mortally  afear'd  o'  thee, 
thou  big  man, 
But  seeing  valour  is  one  against  all  odds, 
There ! 

King  Richard.    There ! 

[Robin  falls  back,  and  is  caught 
in  the  arms  of  Little  John. 
Robin.    Good,  now  I  love  thee  might- 
ily, thou  tall  fellow. 
Break  thine  alliance  with  this  faithless 

John, 
And  live  with  us  and  the  birds  in  the 
green  wood. 
King  Richard.      I  cannot   break  it, 
Robin,  if  I  wish'd. 
Still  I  am  more  for  Richard  than  for  John. 
Little  John.     Look,  Robin,  at  the  far 
end  of  the  glade 
I  see  two  figures  crawling  up  the  hill. 

[Distant  sound  of  trumpets. 
Robin.     The  Abbot  of  York  and  his 

justiciary. 
King  Richard  (aside).      They  know 
me.     I  must  not  as  yet  be  known. 
Friends,  your  free  sports  have  swallow'd 

my  free  hour. 
Farewell  at  once,  for  I  must  hence  upon 
The  King' s  affair. 

Robin.  Not  taste  his  venison  first? 

Friar  Tuck.      Hast  thou  not  fought 
for  it,  and  earn'd  it?     Stay, 
Dine  with  my  brethren  here,  and  on  thine 
own. 
King  Richard.     And  which  be  they? 
Friar    Tuck.      Wild  geese,  for   how 
canst  thou  be  thus  allied 
With  John,  and  serve  King  Richard  save 
thou  be 


A  traitor  or  a  goose  ?  but  stay  with  Robin; 
For  Robin  is  no  scatterbrains  like  Rich- 
ard, 
Robin's  a  wise  man,  Richard  a  wiseacre, 
Robin's  an  outlaw,  but  he  helps  the  poor. 
While  Richard  hath  outlaw'd  himself,  and 

helps 
Nor  rich,  nor  poor.     Richard's  the  king 

of  courtesy, 
For  if  he  did  me  the  good  grace  to  kick 

me 
I  could  but  sneak  and  smile  and  call  it 

courtesy, 
For  he's  a  king. 

And  that  is  only  courtesy  by  courtesy — 
But  Robin  is  a  thief  of  courtesy 
Whom  they  that  suffer  by  him  call  the 

blossom 
Of  bandits.      There — to   be   a   thief  of 

courtesy — 
There  is  a  trade  of  genius,  there's  glory ! 
Again,  this  Richard  sacks  and  wastes  a 

town 
With  random  pillage,  but  our  Robin  takes 
From  whom  he  knows  are  hypocrites  and 

liars. 
Again   this  Richard  risks  his  life  for  a 

straw, 
So  lies  in  prison — while  our  Robin's  life 
Hangs  by  a  thread,  but  he  is  a  free  man. 
Richard,  again,  is  king  over  a  realm 
He   hardly  knows,  and   Robin   king  of 

Sherwood, 
And   loves   and  doats  on   every   dingle 

of  it. 
Again  this  Richard  is  the  lion  of  Cyprus, 
Robin,  the  lion  of  Sherwood — may  this 

mouth 
Never  suck  grape  again,  if  our  true  Robin 
Be  not  the  nobler  lion  of  the  twain. 
King  Richard.       Gramercy    for    thy 

preachment!  if  the  land 
Were  ruleable  by  tongue,  thou  shouldst 

be  king. 
And  yet  thou  know'st  how  little  of  thy 

king! 
What  was  this  realm  of  England,  all  the 

crowns 
Of  all  this  world,  to  Richard  when  he 

flung 
His  life,  heart,  soul  into  those  holy  wars 
That  sought  to  free  the  tomb-place  of  the 

King 


THE  FORESTERS. 


841 


Of  all  the  world?  thou,  that  art  church- 
man too 
In  a  fashion,  and  shouldst  feel  with  him. 

Farewell ! 
I  left  mine   horse   and   armour  with   a 

Squire, 
And  I  must  see  to  'em. 

Robin.  When  wilt  thou  return? 

King  Richard.      Return,    I  ?  when  ? 

when  Richard  will  return. 
Robin.    No  sooner?  when  will  that  be  ? 
canst  thou  tell? 
But  I  have  ta'en  a  sudden  fancy  to  thee. 
Accept  this  horn  !  if  e'er  thou  be  assail'd 
In  any  of  our  forests,  blow  upon  it 
Three  mots,  this  fashion — listen  !  {blows) 
Canst  thou  do  it? 

[King  Richard  blows. 
Blown  like  a  true   son   of  the  woods. 
Farewell ! 

[Exit  King  Richard. 

Enter  Abbot  and  Justiciary. 

Friar  Tuck.  Church  and  Law,  halt 
and  pay  toll ! 

Justiciary.  Rogue,  we  have  thy  cap- 
tain's safe-conduct;  though  he  be  the 
chief  of  rogues,  he  hath  never  broken  his 
word. 

Abbot.     There  is  our  bond. 

[  Gives  it  to  Robin. 

Robin.  I  thank  thee. 

Justiciary.  Ay,  but  where, 

Where  is  this  old  Sir  Richard  of  the  Lea? 

Thou  told'st  us  we  should  meet  him  in 

the  forest, 
Where  he  would  pay  us  down  his  thou- 
sand marks. 
Robin.     Give  him  another  month,  and 

he  will  pay  it. 
Justiciary.     We  cannot  give  a  month. 
Robin.  Why  then  a  week. 

Justiciary.     No,  not  an  hour :  the  debt 

is  due  to-day. 
Abbot.     Where  is  this  laggard  Richard 

of  the  Lea? 
Robin.     He  hath  been  hurt,  was  grow- 
ing whole  again, 
Only  this  morning  in  his  agony 
Lest  he  should  fail  to  pay  these  thousand 

marks 
He  is  stricken  with  a  slight  paralysis. 
Have  you  no  pity?  must  you  see  the  man? 


Justiciary.    Ay,  ay,  what  else?  how 

else  can  this  be  settled? 
Robin.     Go  men,  and  fetch  him  hither 
on  the  litter. 

[Sir  Richard  Lea  is  brought  in. 
Marian  comes  with  him. 
Marian.     Here  is  my  father's  bond. 

[  Gives  it  to  Robin  Hood. 
Robin.  I  thank  thee,  dear. 

Justiciary.  Sir  Richard,  it  was  agreed 
when  you  borrowed  these  monies  from 
the  Abbot  that  if  they  were  not  repaid 
within  a  limited  time  your  land  should  be 
forfeit. 

Sir  Richard.     The  land  !  the  land ! 
Marian.        You  see  he  is  past  himself. 
What  would  you  more? 

Abbot.  What  more?  one  thousand 

marks, 
Or  else  the  land. 

You  hide  this  damsel  in  your  forest  here, 
[Pointing  to  Marian. 
You  hope  to  hold  and  keep  her  for  your- 
self, 
You  heed  not  how  you  soil  her  maiden 

fame, 
You  scheme  against  her  father's  weal  and 

hers, 
For  so  this  maid  would  wed  our  brother, 

he 
Would  pay  us  all  the  debt  at  once,  and  thus 
This  old  Sir  Richard  might  redeem  his 

land. 
He  is  all  for  love,  he  cares  not  for  the 
land. 
Sir  Richard.     The  land !  the  land ! 
Robin  (giving  two  bags  to  the  Abbot). 
Here  be  one  thousand  marks 
Out  of  our  treasury  to  redeem  the  land. 

[Pointing  to  each  of  the  bags. 
Half  here,  half  there. 

[Plaudits  from  his  band. 
Justiciary.     Ay,  ay,  but  there  is  use, 

four  hundred  marks. 

Robin    (giving  a   bag  to   Justiciary). 

There  then,  four  hundred  marks. 

[Plaudits. 

Justiciary.  What  did  I  say? 

Nay,  my  tongue  tript — five  hundred  marks 

for  use. 

Robin  (giving  another  bag  to  him) .     A 

hundred   more?      There  then,  a 

hundred  more.  [Plaudits. 


842 


THE   FORESTERS. 


ACT   IV. 


Justiciary.  Ay,  ay,  but  you  see  the 
bond  and  the  letter  of  the  law.  It  is 
stated  there  that  these  monies  should  be 
paid  in  to  the  Abbot  at  York,  at  the  end 
of  the  month  at  noon,  and  they  are  de- 
livered here  in  the  wild  wood  an  hour 
after  noon. 

Marian.     The  letter— O    how    often 
justice  drowns  . 
Between  the  law  and  letter  of  the  law ! 

0  God,  I  would  the  letter  of  the  law 
Were  some  strong  fellow  here  in  the  wild 

wood, 
That  thou  might'st   beat  him   down   at 

quarterstaff ! 
Have  you  no  pity  ? 

Justiciary.  You  run  down  your  game, 
We  ours.     What  pity  have  you  for  your 

game? 
Robin.     We   needs   must   live.      Our 

bowmen  are  so  true 
They  strike  the  deer  at  once  to  death — 

he  falls 
And  knows  no  more. 

Marian.      Pity,  pity! — There   was  a 

man  of  ours 
Up  in  the  north,  a  goodly  fellow  too, 
He   met   a   stag   there  on  so  narrow  a 

ledge — 
A  precipice  above,  and  one  below — 
There   was  no   room   to  advance   or  to 

retire. 
The  man  lay  down — the  delicate-footed 

creature 
Came  stepping  o'er  him,  so  as  not  to  harm 

him — 
The  hunter's  passion  flash'd  into  the  man, 
He  drove  his  knife  into  the  heart  of  the 

deer, 
The  deer  fell  dead  to  the  bottom,  and  the 

man 
Fell  with   him,  and  was   crippled   ever 

after. 

1  fear  I  had  small  pity  for  that  man. — 
You  have  the  monies  and  the  use  of  them. 
What  would  you  more  ? 

Justiciary.  What?  must  we  dance 
attendance  all  the  day? 

Robin.  Dance!  ay,  by  all  the  saints 
and  all  the  devils  ye  shall  dance.  When 
the  Church  and  the  law  have  forgotten 
God's  music,  they  shall  dance  to  the 
music  of  the  wild  wood.     Let  the  birds 


sing,  and  do  you  dance  to  their  song. 
What,  you  will  not?  Strike  up  our  music, 
Little  John.  {He  plays.)  They  will 
not !  Prick  'em  in  the  calves  with  the 
arrow-points — prick  'em  in  the  calves. 

Abbot.  Rogue,  I  am  full  of  gout.  I 
cannot  dance. 

Robin.  And  Sir  Richard  cannot  re- 
deem his  land.  Sweat  out  your  gout, 
friend,  for  by  my  life,  you  shall  dance  till 
he  can.     Prick  him  in  the  calves ! 

Justiciary.  Rogue,  I  have  a  swollen 
vein  in  my  right  leg,  and  if  thou  prick  me 
there  I  shall  die. 

Robin.  Prick  him  where  thou  wilt,  so 
that  he  dance. 

Abbot.     Rogue,  we  come  not  alone. 

Justiciary.     Not  the  right. 

Abbot.  We  told  the  Prince  and  the 
Sheriff  of  our  coming. 

Justiciary.  Take  the  left  leg  for  the 
love  of  God. 

Abbot.    They  follow  us. 

Justiciary.  You  will  all  of  you 

hang. 

Robin.  Let  us  hang,  so  thou  dance 
meanwhile;  or  by  that  same  love  of  God 
we  will  hang  thee,  prince  or  no  prince, 
sheriff  or  no  sheriff. 

Justiciary.  Take  care,  take  care  !  I 
dance — I  will  dance — I  dance. 

[Abbot  and  Justiciary  dance  to  music, 
each  holding  a  bag  in  each  hand. 

Enter  Scarlet. 

Scarlet.     The  Sheriff!  the  Sheriff,  fol- 
low'd  by  Prince  John 
And  all  his  mercenaries !      We  sighted 

'em 
Only  this  moment.     By  St.  Nicholas 
They  must  have  sprung  like  Ghosts  from 

underground, 
Or,  like  the  Devils  they  are,  straight  up 
from  Hell. 
Robin.     Crouch  all  into  the  bush  ! 

[  The  foresters  and  peasants  hide 
behind  the  bushes. 
Marian.  Take  up  the  litter  ! 

Sir  Richard.     Move  me  no  more  !     I 
am  sick  and  faint  with  pain ! 

Marian.     But,  Sir,  the  Sheriff 

Sir  Richard.  Let  me  be,  I  say ! 

The  Sheriff  will  be  welcome  !  let  me  be  ! 


SCENE   I. 


THE  FORESTERS. 


843 


Marian.    Give  me  my  bow  and  arrows, 
I  remain 
Beside  my  Father's  litter. 

Robin.  And  fear  not  thou ! 

Each  of  us  has  an  arrow  on  the  cord; 
We  all  keep  watch. 

Enter  Sheriff  of  Nottingham. 

Sheriff.     Marian ! 

Marian.     Speak  not.     I  wait  upon  a 

dying  father. 
Sheriff.    The  debt  hath  not  been  paid. 
She  will  be  mine. 
What  are  you  capering  for?     By  old  St. 

Vitus 
Have  you  gone  mad?    Has  it  been  paid  ? 
Abbot  {dancing) .  O  yes. 

Sheriff.     Have  I  lost  her  then? 
Justiciary  {dancing) .  Lost  her  ? 

O  no,  we  took 
Advantage    of  the    letter — O  Lord,  the 

vein ! 
Not  paid  at  York — the  wood — prick  me 
no  more ! 
Sheriff.     What  pricks  thee  save  it  be 

thy  conscience,  man? 
Justiciary.     By  my   halidome   I   felt 
him   at   my   leg   still.     Where   be   they 
gone  to? 

Sheriff.     Thou  art  alone  in  the  silence 
of  the  forest 
Save  for  this  maiden   and   thy  brother 

Abbot, 
And  this  old  crazeling  in  the  litter  there. 

Enter  on  one  side  Friar  Tuck  from  the 
bush,  and  on  the  other  Prince  John 
and  his  Spearmen,  with  banners  and 
trumpets,  etc. 

Justiciary  {examining  his  leg) .    They 

have  missed  the  vein. 
Abbot.     And  we  shall  keep  the  land. 
Sheriff.     Sweet  Marian,  by  the  letter 
of  the  law 
It  seems  thy  father's  land  is  forfeited. 
Sir  Richard.     No  !  let  me  out  of  the 
litter.     He  shall  wed  thee  : 
The  land  shall  still  be  mine.    Child,  thou 

shalt  wed  him, 
Or   thine    old   father    will   go  mad — he 

will, 
He  will — he  feels  it  in  his  head. 

Marian.  O  peace ! 


Father,    I    cannot    marry    till    Richard 

comes. 

Sir  Richard.     And  then  the  Sheriff! 

Marian.  Ay,  the  Sheriff,  father, 

Would  buy  me  for  a  thousand  marks  in 

gold- 
Sell   me    again   perchance  for  twice  as 

much. 
A  woman's  heart  is  but  a  little  thing, 
Much  lighter  than  a  thousand  marks  in 

,  gold : 
But  pity  for  a  father,  it  may  be, 
Is  weightier  than  a  thousand  marks  in 

gold. 
I  cannot  love  the  Sheriff. 

Sir  Richard.  But   thou  wilt  wed 

him? 
Marian.     Ay,    save    King    Richard, 
when  he  comes,  forbid  me. 
Sweet  heavens,  I  could  wish  that  all  the 

land 
Were  plunged  beneath  the  waters  of  the 

sea, 
Tho'  all  the  world  should  go   about  in 
boats. 
Friar  Tuck.     Why,  so  should  all  the 

love-sick  be  sea-sick. 
Marian.    Better  than  heart-sick,  friar. 
Prince  John  {to  Sheriff).    See  you  not 
They  are  jesting  at  us  yonder,  mocking 

us? 
Carry  her  off,  and  let  the  old  man  die. 

[Advancing  to  Marian. 

Come,  girl,  thou  shalt  along  with  us  on 

the  instant. 

Friar   Tuck  {brandishing  his   staff). 

Then  on  the  instant  I  will  break 

thy  head. 

Sheriff.  Back,   thou   fool-friar! 

Knowest  thou  not  the  Prince? 
Friar  Tuck  {muttering).    He  maybe 

prince;    he  is  not  gentleman. 
Prince  John.     Look  !   I  will  take  the 
rope  from  off  thy  waist 
And  twist  it  round  thy  neck  and  hang 

thee  by  it. 
Seize  him  and  truss  him  up,  and  carry 
her  off. 

[Friar  Tuck  slips  into  the  bush. 
Marian  {drawing the  bow).   No  nearer 
to  me  !  back !     My  hand  is  firm, 
Mine  eye  most  true  to  one  hair's-breadth 
of  aim. 


844 


THE  FORESTERS. 


ACT  IV. 


You,  Prince,  our  king  to  come — you  that 

dishonour 
The  daughters  and  the  wives  of  your  own 

faction — 
Who  hunger  for  the  body,  not  the  soul — 
This  gallant   Prince  would  have  me  of 

his — what? 
Household?  or  shall  I  call  it  by  that  new 

term 
Brought  from  the  sacred  East,  his  harem? 

Never, 
Tho'  you  should  queen  me  over  all  the 

realms 
Held  by  King   Richard,  could  I  stoop 

so  low 
As  mate  with  one  that  holds  no  love  is 

pure, 
No  friendship  sacred,  values  neither  man 
Nor  woman  save  as  tools — God  help  the 

mark — 
To  his  own  unprincely  ends.     And  you, 

you,  Sheriff, 

[  Turning  to  the  Sheriff. 
Who  thought  to  buy  your  marrying  me 

with  gold, 
Marriage  is  of  the  soul,  not  of  the  body. 
Win  me  you  cannot,  murder  me  you  may, 
And  all  I  love,  Robin,  and  all  his  men, 
For  I    am  one  with  him  and  his;   but 

while 
I  breathe  Heaven's  air,  and  Heaven  looks 

down  on  me, 
And  smiles  at  my  best  meanings,  I  remain 
Mistress  of  mine  own  self  and  mine  own 

soul. 
[Retreating,  with  bow  drawn,  to  the  bush. 
Robin ! 

Robin.     I  am  here,  my  arrow  on  the 

cord. 
He  dies  who  dares  to  touch  thee. 

Prince  John.  Advance,  advance  ! 

What,  daunted  by  a  garrulous,  arrogant 

girl! 
Seize  her  and  carry  her  off  into  my  castle. 
Sheriff.     Thy  castle ! 
Prince  John.    Said  I  not,  I  loved  thee, 

man? 
Risk  not  the  love  I  bear  thee  for  a  girl. 
Sheriff.     Thy  castle ! 
Prince  John.  See  thou  thwart 

me  not,  thou  fool ! 
When  Richard  comes  he  is  soft  enough 

to  pardon 


His  brother;  but  all  those  that  held  with 

him, 
Except  I  plead  for  them,  will  hang  as  high 
As  Haman. 

Sheriff.      She   is   mine.      I   have   thy 

promise. 
Prince  John.    O  ay,  she  shall  be  thine 
— first  mine,  then  thine, 
For  she  shall  spend  her  honeymoon  with 
me. 
Sheriff.     Woe  to  that  land  shall  own 

thee  for  her  king ! 
Prince  John.     Advance,  advance ! 

[  They  advance  shouting.  The  King 
in  armour  reappears  from  the 
wood. 

King  Richard.    What  shouts  are  these 

that  ring  along  the  wood? 
Friar  Tuck  {coming  forward).    Hail, 
knight,  and  help  us.    Here  is  one 
would  clutch 
Our  pretty  Marian  for  his  paramour, 
This  other,  willy-nilly,  for  his  bride. 
King  Richard.     Damsel,  is   this   the 

truth? 
Marian.  Ay,  noble  knight. 

Friar   Tuck.     Ay,  and   she   will   not 

marry  till  Richard  come. 
King  Richard  {raising  his  vizor).     I 

am  here,  and  I  am  he. 
Prince  John  {lowering  his,  and  whis- 
pering to  his  men) .     It  is  not  he — 
his  face — tho'  very  like — 
No,  no  1  we  have  certain  news  he  died  in 

prison. 

Make  at  him,  all  of  you,  a  traitor  coming 

In  Richard's  name — it  is  not  he — not  he. 

[  The  men  stand  amazed. 

Friar  Tuck  {going  back  to  the  bush). 

Robin,  shall  we  not  move? 
Robin.  It  is  the  King 

Who   bears   all   down.     Let   him  alone 

awhile. 
He  loves  the  chivalry  of  his  single  arm. 
Wait  till  he  blow  the  horn. 

Friar  Tuck  {coming  back).     If  thou 
be  king, 
Be  not  a  fool !     Why  blowest  thou  not 
the  horn? 
King  Richard.      I    that   have   turn'd 
their  Moslem  crescent  pale — 
I  blow  the  horn  against  this  rascal  rout ! 


SCENE   I. 


THE   FORESTERS. 


845 


[Friar  Tuck  plucks  the  horn  from  him 
and  blows.      Richard    dashes  alone 
against  the  Sheriff  and  John's  men, 
and   is    almost   borne   doivn,    when 
Robin   and  his  men   rush   in  and 
rescue  him. 
King  Richard  (to  Robin  Hood) .  Thou 
hast  saved  my  head  at  the  peril  of 
thine  own. 
Prince  John.     A  horse !   a  horse  !     I 
must  away  at  once; 
I  cannot  meet  his  eyes.    I  go  to  Notting- 
ham. 
Sheriff,  thou  wilt  find  me  at  Nottingham. 

[Exit. 
Sheriff.    If  anywhere,  I  shall  find  thee 
in  hell. 
What !  go  to  slay  his  brother,  and  make 

me 
The  monkey  that  should  roast  his  chest- 
nuts for  him ! 
King  Richard.     I  fear  to  ask  who  left 

us  even  now. 
Robin.     I   grieve   to   say  it  was  thy 
father's  son. 
Shall  I  not  after  him  and  bring  him  back  ? 
King   Richard.      No,    let     him     be. 
Sheriff  of  Nottingham, 

[Sheriff  kneels. 
I  have  been  away  from  England  all  these 

years, 
Heading  the  holy  war  against  the  Moslem, 
While  thou  and  others  in  our  kingless 

realms 
Were  fighting  underhand  unholy  wars 
Against  your  lawful  king. 

Sheriff.  My  liege,  Prince  John — 

King  Richard.      Say   thou   no   word 

against  my  brother  John. 
Sheriff.     Why  then,  my  liege,  I  have 

no  word  to  say. 
King  Richard  (to  Robin).     My  good 
friend  Robin,  Earl  of  Huntingdon, 
For  Earl  thou  art  again,  hast  thou  no 

fetters 
For  those  of  thine  own  band  who  would 
betray  thee? 
Robin.     I  have ;  but  these  were  never 
worn  as  yet. 
I  never  found  one  traitor  in  my  band. 
King  Richard.    Thou  art  happier  than 
thy  king.     Put  him  in  chains. 

[  They  fetter  the  Sheriff. 


Robin.     Look   o'er   these   bonds,  my 
liege. 
[Shows  the  King  the  bonds.      They 
talk  together. 
King  Richard.     You,  my  lord  Abbot, 
you  Justiciary, 
[  The  Abbot  and  Justiciary  kneel. 
I  made  you  Abbot,  you  Justiciary : 
You  both  are  utter  traitors  to  your  king. 
Justiciary.     O  my  good  liege,  we  did 

believe  you  dead. 
Robin.     Was  justice  dead  because  the 
King  was  dead? 
Sir  Richard  paid  his  monies  to  the  Abbot. 
You  crost  him  with  a  quibble  of  your  law. 
King  Richard.     But  on  the  faith  and 
honour  of  a  king 
The  land  is  his  again. 

Sir  Richard.         The  land !  the  land  ! 
I  am  crazed  no  longer,  so  I  have  the  land. 
[Comes  out  of  the  litter  and  kneels. 
God  save  the  King ! 

King  Richard  (raising  Sir  Richard). 
I  thank  thee,  good  Sir  Richard. 
Maid  Marian. 

Marian.         Yes,  King  Richard. 
King  Richard.       Thou  wouldst  marry 
This  Sheriff  when  King  Richard  came 

again 
Except— 

Marian.     The  King  forbad  it.     True, 

my  liege. 
King  Richard.    How  if  the  King  com- 
mand it 
Marian.  Then,  my  liege, 

If  you  would  marry  me  with  a  traitor 

sheriff, 
I   fear   I   might  prove  traitor   with  the 
sheriff. 
King  Richard.     But  if  the  .King  for- 
bid thy  marrying 
With  Robin,  our  good  Earl  of  Hunting- 
don. 
Marian.     Then  will  I  live  for  ever  in 

the  wild  wood. 
Robin  (coming  forward) .     And  I  with 

thee. 
King  Richard.        On  nuts  and  acorns, 
ha! 
Or  the  King's  deer?      Earl,  thou  when 

we  were  hence 
Hast  broken  all  our  Norman  forest -laws, 
And  scruplest  not  to  flaunt  it  to  our  face 


846 


THE  FORESTERS. 


ACT    IV. 


That    thou   wilt   break    our   forest   laws 

again 

When  we  are  here.     Thou  art  overbold. 

Robin.  My  king, 

I  am  but  the  echo  of  the  lips  of  love. 

King  Richard.     Thou  hast  risk'd  thy 

life  for  mine  :  bind  these  two  men. 

[  They  take  the  bags  from  the  Abbot 
and  Justiciary,  and  proceed  to 
fetter  them. 

Justiciary.     But  will  the  King,  then, 

judge  us  all  unheard? 
I  can  defend  my  cause  against  the  traitors 
Who  fain  would  make  me  traitor.     If  the 

King 
Condemn  us  without  trial,  men  will  call 

him 
An  Eastern  tyrant,  not  an  English  king. 
Abbot.     Besides,  my  liege,  these  men 

are  outlaws,  thieves, 
They  break  thy  forest  laws — nay,  by  the 

rood 
They  have  done  far  worse — they  plunder 

— yea,  ev'n  bishops, 
Yea,  ev'n  archbishops — if  thou  side  with 

these, 
Beware,  O  King,  the  vengeance  of  the 

Church. 
Friar  Tuck  {brandishing  his  staff). 
I  pray  you,  my  liege,  let  me  execute  the 
vengeance  of  the  Church  upon  them.  I 
have  a  stout  crabstick  here,  which  longs 
to  break  itself  across  their  backs. 

Robin.     Keep  silence,  bully  friar,  be- 
fore the  King. 
Friar  Tuck.     If  a  cat  may  look  at  a 
king,  may  not  a  friar  speak  to  one  ? 
King  Richard.     I  have  had  a  year  of 

prison-silence,  Robin, 
And  heed  him  not — the  vengeance  of  the 

Church ! 
Thou  shalt  pronounce  the  blessing  of  the 

Church 
On  those  two  here,  Robin  and  Marian. 
Marian.      He  is  but  hedge-priest,  Sir 

King. 
King  Richard.    And  thou  their  Queen. 
Our  rebel   Abbot  then   shall   join   your 

hands, 
Or  lose  all  hopes  of  pardon  from  us — yet 
Not   now,    not    now — with    after-dinnei 

grace. 


Nay,  by  the  dragon  of  St.  George,  we 

shall 
Do  some  injustice,  if  you  hold  us  here 
Longer  from  our  own  venison.     Where 

is  it? 
I  scent  it  in  the  green  leaves  of  the  wood. 
Marian.     First,  king,  a  boon ! 
King  Richard.  Why  surely  ye  are 

pardon'd, 
Even   this    brawler   of    harsh   truths — I 

trust 
Half  truths,  good  friar:  ye  shall  with  us 

to  court. 
Then,  if  ye  cannot  breathe  but  woodland 

air, 
Thou  Robin  shalt  be  ranger  of  this  forest, 
And  have  thy  fees,  and  break  the  law  no 

more. 
Marian.     It  is  not  that,  my  lord. 
King  Richard.      Then  what,  my  lady  ? 
Robin.      This  is  the  gala-day  of  thy 

return. 
I  pray  thee  for  the  moment,  strike  the 

bonds 
From  these  three  men,  and  let  them  dine 

with  us, 
And  lie  with  us  among  the  flowers,  and 

drink — 
Ay,  whether  it  be  gall  or  honey  to  'em — 
The  king's  good  health  in  ale  and  Mal- 

voisie. 
King  Richard.     By  Mahound  I  could 

strive  with  Beelzebub ! 
So  now  which  way  to  the  dinner? 

Marian.  Past  the  bank 

Of  foxglove,  then  to  left  by  that  one  yew. 
You   see  the  darkness  thro'  the  lighter 

leaf. 
But  look  !  who  comes? 

Enter  SAILOR. 

Sailor.     We  heard  Sir  Richard   Lea 

was  here  with  Robin. 
O  good  Sir  Richard,  I  am  like  the  man 
In   Holy  Writ,   who  brought  his  talent 

back; 
For  tho'  we  touch'd  at  many  pirate  ports, 
We  ever  fail'd  to  light  upon  thy  son. 
Here  is  thy  gold  again.     I  am  sorry  for  it. 
Sir  Richard.    The  gold — my  son — my 

gold,  my  son,  the  land — 
Here    Abbot,    Sheriff — no — no,    Robin 

Hood. 


THE  FORESTERS. 


847 


Robin.     Sir  Richard,  let  that  wait  till 
we  have  dined. 
Are  all  our  guests  here  ? 

King  Richard.  No — there's  yet 

one  other : 
I  will  not  dine  without  him.     Come  from 
out 

Enter  Walter  Lea. 

That    oak-tree !       This    young    warrior 

broke  his  prison 
And  join'd  my  banner  in  the  Holy  Land, 
And  cleft    the    Moslem    turban    at    my 

'    side. 
My  masters,  welcome  gallant  Walter  Lea. 
Kiss   him,    Sir   Richard — kiss   him,   my 
sweet  Marian. 
Marian.     O  Walter,  Walter,  is  it  thou 
indeed 
Whose  ransom  was  our  ruin,  whose  return 
Builds  up  our  house  again?      I  fear  I 

dream. 
Here — give  me  one  sharp  pinch  upon  the 

cheek 
That  I  may  feel  thou  art  no  phantom — 

yet 
Thou  art  tann'd  almost  beyond  my  know- 
ing, brother.  [  They  embrace. 
Walter  Lea.     But  thou  art  fair  as  ever, 

my  sweet  sister. 
Sir  Richard.     Art  thou  my  son? 
Walter  Lea.      I   am,  good  father,  I 

am. 
Sir  Richard.     I  had  despair'd  of  thee 
— that  sent  me  crazed. 
Thou  art  worth  thy  weight  in  all  those 

marks  of  gold, 
Yea,   and   the  weight  of  the  very  land 

itself, 
Down  to  the  inmost  centre. 

Robin.  Walter  Lea, 

Give   me   that   hand  which    fought    for 

Richard  there. 

Embrace   me,    Marian,  and  thou,  good 

Kate,  [  To  Kate  entering. 

Kiss  and  congratulate  me,  my  good  Kate. 

\_She  kisses  him. 

Little  John.     Lo  now !  lo  now ! 

I  have  seen  thee  clasp  and  kiss  a  man 

indeed, 
For  our  brave  Robin  is  a  man  indeed. 
Then  by  thine  own  account  thou  shouldst 
be  mine. 


Kate.     Well  then,  who  kisses  first? 
Little  John.  Kiss  both  together. 

[  They  kiss  each  other. 
Robin.     Then  all  is  well.      In  this  full 

tide  of  love, 
Wave  heralds  wave :  thy  match  shall  fol- 
low mine  {to  Little  John) . 
Would    there    were    more — a    hundred 

lovers  more 
To  celebrate  this  advent  of  our  King ! 
Our  forest  games  are  ended,  our  free  life, 
And  we  must  hence  to  the  King's  court. 

I  trust 
We  shall  return  to  the  wood.    Meanwhile, 

farewell 
Old  friends,  old  patriarch  oaks.     A  thou- 
sand winters 
Will  strip  you  bare  as  death,  a  thousand 

summers 
Robe  you  life-green  again.      You  seem,  as 

it  were, 
Immortal,    and   we   mortal.      How   few 

Junes 
Will  heat  our  pulses  quicker !     How  few 

frosts 
Will  chill  the  hearts  that  beat  for  Robin 

Hood! 
Marian.     And  yet  I  think  these  oaks 

at  dawn  and  even, 
Or  in  the  balmy  breathings  of  the  night, 
Will  whisper  evermore  of  Robin  Hood. 
We  leave   but  happy   memories   to  the 

forest. 
We  dealt  in  the  wild  justice  of  the  woods. 
All  those  poor  serfs  whom  we  have  served 

will  bless  us, 
All  those  pale  mouths  which  we  have  fed 

will  praise  us — 
All  widows  we  have  holpen  pray  for  us, 
Our  Lady's  blessed  shrines  throughout  the 

land 
Be   all   the  richer   for  us.      You,  good 

friar, 
You  Much,  you  Scarlet,  you  dear  Little 

John, 
Your  names  will  cling  like  ivy  to   the 

wood. 
And    here    perhaps     a    hundred    years 

away 
Some  hunter  in  day-dreams  or  half  asleep 
Will  hear  our  arrows  whizzing  overhead, 
And   catch  the   winding  of  a  phantom 

horn. 


848 


THE  FORESTERS. 


Robin.      And    surely   these   old   oaks 

will  murmur  thee 
Marian  along  with  Robin.     I  am  most 

happy — 
Art  thou  not  mine? — and  happy  that  our 

King 
Is  here  again,  never  I  trust  to  roam 
So  far  again,  but  dwell  among  his  own. 
Strike  up  a  stave,  my  masters,  all  is  well. 


Song  while  they  dance  a  Country  Dance. 

Now  the  king  is  home  again,  and  nevermore  to 

roam  again, 
Now  the  king  is  home  again,  the  king  will  have 

his  own  again, 
Home  again,  home  again,  and  each  will  have  his 

own  again, 
All  the  birds  in  merry  Sherwood  sing  and  sing 

him  home  again. 


THE 

DEATH   OF  (ENONE, 

AKBAR'S    DREAM, 

AND   OTHER   POEMS 


BY 

ALFRED 
LORD    TENNYSON 

POET  LAUREATE 


THE   MACMILLAN    COMPANY 

LONDON  :  MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  LTD. 

1905 

All  rights  reserved 


Copyright,  1892, 
By  MACMILLAN  AND  CO. 


THE    DEATH    OF   CENONE, 

AKBAR'S   DREAM, 
AND   OTHER   POEMS. 


JUNE    BRACKEN    AND 
HEATHER. 

To  . 

There  on  the  top  of  the  down, 

The  wild  heather  round  me  and  over  me 

June's  high  blue, 
When  I  look'd  at  the  bracken  so  bright 

and  the  heather  so  brown, 
I  thought  to  myself  I  would  offer  this 

book  to  you, 
This,  and  my  love  together^ 
To  you  that  are  seventy-seven, 
With  a  faith  as  clear  as  the  heights  of 

the  June-blue  heaven, 
And  a  fancy  as  summer-new 
As  the  green  of  the  bracken  amid  the 

gloom  of  the  heather. 


TO    THE    MASTER    OF 
BALLIOL. 


Dear  Master  in  our  classic  town, 
You,  loved  by  all  the  younger  gown 

There  at  Balliol, 
Lay  your  Plato  for  one  minute  down, 


ii. 


And  read  a  Grecian  tale  re-told, 
Which,  cast  in  later  Grecian  mould, 

Quintus  Calaber 
Somewhat  lazily  handled  of  old; 

III. 

And  on  this  white  midwinter  day — 
For  have  the  far-off  hymns  of  May, 

All  her  melodies, 
All  her  harmonies  echo'd  away? — 

*  Copyright,  1892, 


IV. 


To-day,  before  you  turn  again 

To  thoughts  that  lift  the  soul  of  men, 

Hear  my  cataract's 
Downward  thunder  in  hollow  and  glen, 


Till,  led  by  dream  and  vague  desire, 
The  woman,  gliding  toward  the  pyre, 

Find  her  warrior 
Stark  and  dark  in  his  funeral  fire. 


THE   DEATH   OF   CENONE.* 

CEnone  sat  within  the  cave  from  out 
Whose  ivy-matted  mouth  she  used  to  gaze 
Down  at  the  Troad;   but  the  goodly  view 
Was  now  one  blank,  and  all  the  serpent 

vines 
Which  on  the  touch  of  heavenly  feet  had 

risen, 
And    gliding   thro'    the    branches    over- 

bower'd 
The  naked  Three,  were  wither'd  long  ago, 
And  thro'   the  sunless  winter   morning- 
mist 
In  silence  wept  upon  the  flowerless  earth. 
And  while  she  stared  at  those  dead 

cords  that  ran 
Dark  thro'  the  mist,  and  linking  tree  to 

tree, 
But  once  were  gayer  than  a  dawning  sky 
With  many  a  pendent  bell  and  fragrant 

star, 
Her  Past  became  her  Present,  and  she 

saw 
Him,  climbing  toward  her  with  the  golden 

fruit, 
Him,  happy  to  be  chosen  Judge  of  Gods, 
Her  husband  in  the  flush  of  youth  and 

dawn, 
Paris,  himself  as  beauteous  as  a  God. 
by  Macmillan  &  Co.  gei 


852 


THE  DEATH  OF  (EN ONE. 


Anon  from  out  the  long  ravine  below, 
She  heard  a  wailing  cry,  that  seem'd  at 

first 
Thin  as  the  batlike  shrilftngs  of  the  Dead 
When  driven  to  Hades,  but,  in  coming 

near, 
Across   the    downward    thunder    of   the 

brook 
Sounded  '  CEnone  ';   and  on  a  sudden  he, 
Paris,  no  longer  beauteous  as  a  God, 
Struck  by  a  poison'd  arrow  in  the  fight, 
Lame,  crooked,  reeling,  livid,  thro'  the 

mist 
Rose,  like  the  wraith  of  his  dead  self, 

and  moan'd 
1  CEnone,  my  CEnone,  while  we  dwelt 
Together  in  this  valley — happy  then — 
Too  happy  had  I  died  within  thine  arms, 
Before  the  feud  of  Gods  had  marr'd  our 

peace, 
And  sunder'd   each  from  each.      I  am 

dying  now 
Pierced  by  a  poison'd  dart.     Save  me. 

Thou  knowest, 
Taught  by  some  God,  whatever  herb  or 

balm 
May  clear  the  blood  from  poison,  and  thy 

fame 
Is  blown  thro'  all  the  Troad,  and  to  thee 
The    shepherd    brings    his    adder-bitten 

lamb, 
The  wounded  warrior  climbs  from  Troy 

to  thee. 
My  life  and  death  are  in  thy  hand.    The 

Gods 
Avenge  on  stony  hearts  a  fruitless  prayer 
For  pity.     Let  me  owe  my  life  to  thee. 
I  wrought  thee  bitter  wrong,  but  thou 

forgive, 
Forget  it.     Man  is  but  the  slave  of  Fate. 
CEnone,   by  thy  love  which    once   was 

mine, 
Help,  heal  me.     I  am  poison'd  to  the 

heart.' 
'  And  I  to  mine '  she  said  '  Adulterer, 
Go  back  to  thine  adulteress  and  die  ! ' 
He  groan'd,  he  turn'd,  and  in  the  mist 

at  once 
Became  a  shadow,  sank  and  disappear'd, 
But,  ere   the   mountain   rolls    into    the 

plain, 
Fell  headlong  dead;    and  of  the  shep- 
herds one 


Their  oldest,  and  the  same  who  first  had 

found 
Paris,  a  naked  babe,  among  the  woods 
Of  Ida,  following  lighted  on  him  there, 
And  shouted,  and  the  shepherds  heard 

and  came. 
One  raised  the  Prince,  one  sleek'd  the 

squalid  hair, 
One  kiss'd  his  hand,  another  closed  his 

eyes, 
And   then,  remembering  the  gay   play- 
mate rear'd 
Among  them,  and  forgetful  of  the  man, 
Whose  crime  had  half  unpeopled  Ilion, 

these 
All  that  day  long  labour'd,  hewing  the 

pines, 
And  built  their  shepherd-prince  a  funeral 

pile; 
And,  while  the  star  of  eve  was  drawing 

light 
From  the   dead  sun,  kindled  the  pyre, 

and  all 
Stood  round  it,  hush'd,  or  calling  on  his 

name. 
But  when  the  white  fog  vanish'd  like  a 

ghost 
Before  the  day,  and  every  topmost  pine 
Spired  into  bluest  heaven,  still   in   her 

cave, 
Amazed,  and  ever  seeming  stared  upon 
By  ghastlier   than  the  Gorgon  head,  a 

face, — 
His  face  deform'd  by  lurid  blotch  and 

blain — 
There,  like  a  creature  frozen  to  the  heart 
Beyond  all  hope  of  warmth,  CEnone  sat 
Not  moving,  till  in  front  of  that  ravine 
Which  drowsed  in  gloom,  self-darken'd 

from  the  west, 
The  sunset  blazed  along  the  wall  of  Troy. 
Then  her  head  sank,  she  slept,  and 

thro'  her  dream 
A  ghostly  murmur  floated,  •  Come  to  me, 
CEnone  !    I  can  wrong  thee  now  no  more, 
CEnone,  my  CEnone,'  and  the  dream 
Wail'd  in  her,  when  she  woke  beneath 

the  stars. 
What  star  could  burn  so  low?  not  Ilion 

yet. 
What   light   was  there?     She  rose  and 

slowly  down, 
By  the  long  torrent's  ever-deepen'd  roar, 


ST.    TELEMACHUS. 


853 


Paced,  following,  as  in  trance,  the  silent 

cry. 
She  waked  a  bird  of  prey  that  scream'd 

and  past; 
She  roused  a  snake  that  hissing  writhed 

away; 
A  panther  sprang  across  her  path,  she 

heard 
The  shriek  of  some  lost  life  among  the 

pines, 
But  when  she  gain'd  the  broader  vale, 

and  saw 
The  ring  of  faces  redden'd  by  the  flames 
Enfolding  that  dark  body  which  had  lain 
Of  old  in  her  embrace,  paused — and  then 

ask'd 
Falteringly,  'Who  lies  on  yonder  pyre?' 
But  every  man  was  mute  for  reverence. 
Then  moving  quickly  forward  till  the  heat 
Smote  on  her  brow,  she  lifted  up  a  voice 
Of  shrill  command,  '  "Who  burns  upon  the 

pyre  ? ' 
Whereon  their  oldest  and  their  boldest 

said, 
'  He,  whom  thou  wouldst  not  heal !  '  and 

all  at  once 
The  morning  light   of  happy   marriage 

broke 
Thro'  all  the  clouded  years  of  widowhood, 
And  muffling  up  her  comely  head,  and 

crying 
'  Husband ! '  she  leapt  upon  the  funeral 

pile, 
And  mixt  herself  with  him  and  past  in  fire. 


ST.   TELEMACHUS.* 

Had  the  fierce  ashes  of  some  fiery  peak 
Been  hurl'd  so  high  they  ranged  about 

the  globe? 
For  day  by  day,  thro'  many  a  blood-red 

eve, 
In    that    four-hundredth    summer    after 

Christ, 
The  wrathful  sunset  glared  against  a  cross 
Rear'd  on  the  tumbled  ruins  of  an  old 

fane 
No  longer  sacred  to  the  Sun,  and  flamed 
On  one  huge  slope  beyond,  where  in  his 

cave 
The  man,  whose  pious  hand  had  built  the 

cross,  ' 

*  Copyright,  1892,  by 


A  man  who  never  changed  a  word  with 

men, 
Fasted  and  pray'd,  Telemachus  the  Saint. 

Eve  after  eve  that  haggard  anchorite 
Would   haunt   the    desolated   fane,  and 

there 
Gaze  at  the  ruin,  often  mutter  low 
'  Vicisti  Galibee  ' ;   louder  again, 
Spurning  a  shatter'd  fragment  of  the  God, 
*  Vicisti  Galilaee  ! '  but — when  now 
Bathed  in  that  lurid  crimson — ask'd  '  Is 

earth 
On  fire  to  the  West?  or  is  the  Demon-god 
Wroth  at  his  fall  ?  '  and  heard  an  answer 

'Wake 
Thou  deedless  dreamer,  lazying  out  a  life 
Of  self-suppression,  not  of  selfless  love.' 
And  once  a  flight  of  shadowy  fighters 

crost 
The  disk,  and  once,  he  thought,  a  shape 

with  wings 
Came  sweeping  by  him,  and  pointed  to 

the  West, 
And    at    his    ear    he    heard   a   whisper 

'  Rome ' 
And  in  his  heart  he  cried  'The  call  of 

God!' 
And  call'd   arose,  and,  slowly  plunging 

down 
Thro'  that  disastrous  glory,  set  his  face 
By   waste    and  field  and  town  of  alien 

tongue, 
Following  a   hundred   sunsets,  and  the 

sphere 
Of  westward-wheeling  stars  ;   and  every 

dawn 
Struck  from  him  his  own  shadow  on  to 

Rome. 
Foot-sore,    way-worn,    at    length    he 

touch'd  his  goal, 
The  Christian   city.      All  her  splendour 

fail'd 
To  lure  those  eyes  that  only  yearn'd  to 

see, 
Fleeting   betwixt    her   column'd  palace- 
walls, 
The  shape  with  wings.     Anon  there  past 

a  crowd 
With    shameless  laughter,   Pagan   oath,' 

and  jest, 
Hard  Romans  brawling  of  their  monstrous 

games; 
He,  all  but  deaf  thro'  age  and  weariness, 

Macmillan  &  Co. 


854 


AKBAR'S  DREAM. 


And  muttering  to  himself  'The  call  of 

God' 
And  borne  along  by  that  full  stream  of 

men, 
Like  some  old  wreck  on  some  indrawing 

sea, 
Gain'd  their  huge  Colosseum.     The  caged 

beast 
Yell'd,  as  he  yell'd  of  yore  for  Christian 

blood. 
Three   slaves  were  trailing  a   dead  lion 

away, 
One,  a  dead  man.     He  stumbled  in,  and 

sat 
Blinded ;  but  when  the  momentary  gloom, 
Made  by  the  noonday  blaze  without,  had 

left 
His  aged  eyes,  he  raised  them,  and  beheld 
A  blood-red  awning  waver  overhead, 
The  dust   send   up   a   steam  of  human 

blood, 
The  gladiators  moving  toward  their  fight, 
And    eighty    thousand    Christian    faces 

watch 
Man  murder  man.      A  sudden   strength 

from  heaven, 
As  some  great  shock  may  wake  a  palsied 

limb, 
Turn'd  him  again  to  boy,  for  up  he  sprang, 
And  glided  lightly  down  the  stairs,  and 

o'er 
The  barrier  that  divided  beast  from  man 
Slipt,  and  ran  on,  and  flung  himself  be- 
tween 
The  gladiatorial  swords,  and  call'd  '  For- 
bear 
In  the  great  name  of  Him  who  died  for 

men, 
Christ  Jesus !  ■      For  one  moment  after- 
ward 
A  silence  follow'd  as  of  death,  and  then 
A  hiss  as  from  a  wilderness  of  snakes, 
Then   one   deep  roar  as  of  a  breaking 

sea, 
And  then  a  shower  of  stones  that  stoned 

him  dead, 
And   then   once   more    a   silence   as   of 

death. 
His  dream  became  a  deed  that  woke 

the  world, 
For  while  the  frantic  rabble  in  half-amaze 
Stared  at  him  dead,  thro'  all  the  nobler 

hearts 


In  that  vast  Oval  ran  a  shudder  of  shame. 
The   Baths,    the  Forum  gabbled  of  his 

death, 
And   preachers   linger'd   o'er  his  dying 

words, 
Which  would  not  die,  but  echo'd  on  to 

reach 
Honorius,  till  he  heard  them,  and  decreed 
That  Rome  no  more  should  wallow  in  this 

old  lust 
Of  Paganism,  and  make  her  festal  hour 
Dark  with  the  blood  of  man  who  mur- 

der'd  man. 

(For  Honorius,  who  succeeded  to  the  sov- 
ereignty over  Europe,  supprest  the  gladiatorial 
combats  practised  of  old  in  Rome,  on  occasion  of 
the  following  event.  There  was  one  Telemachus, 
embracing  the  ascetic  mode  of  life,  who  setting 
out  from  the  East  and  arriving  at  Rome  for  this 
very  purpose,  while  that  accursed  spectacle  was 
being  performed,  entered  himself  the  circus,  and 
descending  into  the  arena,  attempted  to  hold  back 
those  who  wielded  deadly  weapons  against  each 
other.  The  spectators  of  the  murderous  fray, 
possest  with  the  drunken  glee  of  the  demon  who 
delights  in  such  bloodshed,  stoned  to  death  the 
preacher  of  peace.  The  admirable  Emperor 
learning  this  put  a  stop  to  that  evil  exhibition. 
— Theodoret's  Ecclesiastical  History.) 


AKBAR'S   DREAM.* 

An  Inscription  by  Abul  Fazl  for  a  Temple 
in  Kashmir  (Blochmann  xxxii.). 

O  God  in  every  temple  I  see  people  that  see 
thee,  and  in  every  language  I  hear  spoken,  peo- 
ple praise  thee. 

Polytheism  and  Islam  feel  after  thee. 

Each  religion  says,  '  Thou  art  one,  without 
equal.' 

If  it  be  a  mosque  people  murmur  the  holy 
prayer,  and  if  it  be  a  Christian  Church,  people 
ring  the  bell  from  love  to  Thee. 

Sometimes  I  frequent  the  Christian  cloister, 
and  sometimes  the  mosque. 

But  it  is  thou  whom  I  search  from  temple  to 
temple. 

Thy  elect  have  no  dealings  with  either  heresy 
or  orthodoxy ;  for  neither  of  them  stands  behind 
the  screen  of  thy  truth. 

Heresy  to  the  heretic,  and  religion  to  the 
orthodox, 

But  the  dust  of  the  rose-petal  belongs  to  the 
heart  of  the  perfume  seller. 


Copyright,  1892,  by  Macmillan  &  Co. 


AKBAR' S  DREAM. 


855 


Akbar  and  Abul  Fazl  before  the  palace 
at  Futehpur- Sikri  at  night. 

'  Light  of  the  nations '  ask'd  his  Chron- 
icler 
Of  Akbar  'what  has  darken'd  thee  to- 
night?' 
Then,  after  one  quick  glance  upon  the 

stars, 
And  turning  slowly  toward  him,  Akbar 

said 
1  The  shadow  of  a  dream — an  idle  one 
It  may  be.     Still  I  raised  my  heart  to 

heaven, 
I  pray'd  against  the  dream.     To  pray,  to 

do — 
To  pray,  to  do  according  to  the  prayer, 
Are,  both,  to  worship  Alia,  but  the  prayers, 
That  have  no  successor  in  deed,  are  faint 
And  pale  in  Alla's  eyes,  fair  mothers  they 
Dying  in  childbirth  of  dead  sons.  I  vow'd 
Whate'er  my  dreams,  I  still  would  do  the 

right 
Thro'   all    the   vast    dominion   which   a 

sword, 
That  only  conquers  men  to  conquer  peace, 
Has  won  me.     Alia  be  my  guide  ! 

But  come, 
My  noble  friend,  my  faithful  counsellor, 
Sit  by  my  side.     While  thou  art  one  with 

me, 
I  seem  no  longer  like  a  lonely  man 
In  the  king's  garden,  gathering  here  and 

there 
From  each  fair  plant  the  blossom  choic- 
est-grown 
To  wreathe  a  crown  not  only  for  the  king 
But  in  due  time  for  every  Mussulman, 
Brahmin,  and   Buddhist,  Christian,  and 

Parsee, 

Thro'  all  the  warring  world  of  Hindustan. 

Well  spake  thy  brother  in  his  hymn  to 

heaven 

"  Thy  glory  baffles  wisdom.   All  the  tracks 

Of  science  making  toward  Thy  Perfect- 

ness 
Are  blinding  desert  sand;   we  scarce  can 

spell 
The  Alif  of  Thine  Alphabet  of  Love." 
He   knows    Himself,  men   nor  them- 
selves nor  Him, 
For  every  splinter'd  fraction  of  a  sect 
Will  clamour  "  /  am  on  the  Perfect  Way, 


All  else  is  to  perdition." 

Shall  the  rose 
Cry  to  the  lotus  "No  flower  thou"?  the 

palm 
Call  to  the  cypress  "  I  alone  am  fair"? 
The  mango  spurn  the  melon  at  his  foot? 
"  Mine  is  the  one  fruit  Alia  made  for 

man." 
Look  how  the  living  pulse  of  Alia  beats 
Thro'  all  His  world.     If  every  single  star 
Should  shriek  its  claim  "  I  only  am  in 

heaven  " 
Why  that  were  such  sphere-music  as  the 

Greek 
Had  hardly  dream'd  of.    There  is  light 

in  all, 
And  light,  with  more  or  less  of  shade,  in 

all 
Man-modes  of  worship;  but  our  Ulama, 
Who  "  sitting  on  green  sofas  contemplate 
The   torment   of  the  damn'd"  already, 

these 
Are    like   wild    brutes    new-caged — the 

narrower 
The  cage,  the  more  their  fury.     Me  they 

front 
With  sullen  brows.     What  wonder !     I 

decreed 
That  even  the  dog  was  clean,  that  men 

may  taste 
Swine-flesh,  drink  wine;   they  know  too 

that  whene'er 
In  our  free  Hall,  where  each  philosophy 
And  mood  of  faith  may  hold  its  own, 

they  blurt 
Their  furious  formalisms,  I  but  hear 
The  clash  of  tides  that  meet  in  narrow 

seas, — 
Not  the  Great  Voice  not  the  true  Deep. 

To  drive 
A  people  from  their  ancient  fold  of  Faith, 
And  wall  them  up  perforce  in  mine — 

unwise, 
Unkinglike; — and   the   morning   of  my 

reign 
Was  redden'd  by   that  cloud  of  shame 

when  I  .  .  . 
I  hate  the  rancour  of  their  castes  and 

creeds, 
I  let  men  worship  as  they  will,  I  reap 
No  revenue  from  the  field  of  unbelief. 
I  cull  from  every  faith  and  race  the  best 
And  bravest  soul  for  counsellor  and  friend. 


856 


AKBAFS  DREAM. 


I  loathe  the  very  name  of  infidel. 
I  stagger  at  the  Kor&n  and  the  sword. 
I  shudder  at  the  Christian  and  the  stake; 
Yet  "Alia,"  says  their  sacred  book,  "is 

Love," 
And  when  the  Goan  Padre  quoting  Him, 
Issa  Ben  Mariam,  his  own  prophet,  cried 
"  Love    one    another    little    ones "    and 

"  bless  " 
Whom?  even  " your  persecutors  "  !  there 

me  thought 
The  cloud  was  rifted  by  a  purer  gleam 
Than  glances  from  the  sun  of  our  Islam. 
And  thou  rememberest  what   a   fury 

shook 
Those  pillars  of  a  moulder'd  faith,  when 

he, 
That  other,  prophet  of  their  fall,  pro- 
claimed 
His  Master  as  "the  Sun  of  Righteous- 
ness," 
Yea,  Alia  here  on  earth,  who  caught  and 

held 
His  people  by  the  bridle-rein  of  Truth. 
What  art  thou  saying?    "And was  not 

Alia  call'd 
In  old  Iran  the  Sun  of  Love  ?  and  Love 
The  net  of  truth?" 

A  voice  from  old  Irin ! 
Nay,    but   I    know    it — his,    the    hoary 

Sheik, 
On  whom  the  women  shrieking  "Atheist " 

flung 
Filth  from  the  roof,  the  mystic  melodist 
Who  all  but  lost  himself  in  Alia,  him 

Abu  Said 

— a  sun  but  dimly  seen 
Here,  till  the  mortal  morning  mists  of 

earth 
Fade  in  the  noon  of  heaven,  when  creed 

and  race 
Shall  bear  false  witness,  each  of  each,  no 

more, 
But  find  their  limits  by  that  larger  light, 
And  overstep  them,  moving  easily 
Thro'  after-ages  in  the  love  of  Truth, 
The  truth  of  Love. 

The  sun,  the  sun  !  they  rail 
At  me  the  Zoroastrian.     Let  the  Sun, 
Who  heats  our  earth  to  yield  us  grain 

and  fruit, 
And  laughs  upon  thy  field   as  well   as 

mine, 


And   warms    the   blood    of    Shiah   and 

Sunnee, 
Symbol  the  Eternal !     Yea  and  may  not 

kings 
Express    Him   also  by  their  warmth  of 

love 
For  all  they  rule — by  equal  law  for  all? 
By  deeds  a  light  to  men? 

But  no  such  light 
Glanced  from  our  Presence  on  the  face 

of  one, 
Who  breaking  in  upon  us  yestermorn, 
With  all  the  Hells  a-glare  in  either  eye, 
YelPd  "  hast  thou  brought  us  down  a  new 

Kor&n 
From   heaven?    art   thou   the    Prophet? 

canst  thou  work 
Miracles?"    and  the  wild  horse,  anger, 

plunged 
To  fling  me,  and  fail'd.     Miracles!  no, 

not  I 
Nor  he,  nor  any.    I  can  but  lift  the  torch 
Of  Reason  in  the  dusky  cave  of  Life, 
And    gaze   on    this    great    miracle,    the 

World, 
Adoring  That  who   made,  and   makes, 

and  is, 
And  is  not,  what  I  gaze  on — all  else  Form, 
Ritual,  varying  with  the  tribes  of  men. 
Ay  but,  my  friend,  thou  knowest  I  hold 

that  forms 
Are    needful:    only   let    the   hand   that 

rules, 
With  politic  care,  with  utter  gentleness, 
Mould  them  for  all  his  people. 

And  what  are  forms? 
Fair  garments,  plain  or  rich,  and  fitting 

close 
Or  flying  looselier,  warm'd   but   by  the 

heart 
Within  them,  moved  but  by  the  living 

limb, 
And  cast  aside,  when  old,  for  newer, — 

Forms ! 
The  Spiritual  in  Nature's  market-place — ■ 
The  silent  Alphabet-of-heaven-in-man 
Made  vocal — banners  blazoning  a  Power 
That  is  not  seen  and  rules  from  far  away — 
A  silken  cord  let  down  from  Paradise, 
When   fine    Philosophies  would   fail,  to 

draw 
The  crowd  from  wallowing  in  the  mire 

of  earth, 


AKBAFS  DREAM. 


857 


And  all  the   more,  when  these   behold 

their  Lord, 
Who  shaped  the  forms,  obey  them,  and 

himself 
Here  on  this  bank  in  some  way  live  the  life 
Beyond  the  bridge,  and  serve  that  Infinite 
Within  us,  as  without,  that  All-in-all, 
And  over  all,  the  never-changing  One 
And  ever- changing  Many,  in  praise  of 

Whom 
The  Christian  bell,  the  cry  from  off  the 

mosque, 
And  vaguer  voices  of  Polytheism 
Make  but  one  music, harmonising,  "Pray." 
There  westward — under  yon  slow-fall- 
ing star, 
The  Christians  own  a  Spiritual  Head; 
And  following  thy  true  counsel,  by  thine 

aid, 
Myself  am  such  in  our  Islam,  for  no 
Mirage  of  glory,  but  for  power  to  fuse 
My  myriads  into  union  under  one; 
To  hunt  the  tiger  of  oppression  out 
From  office;   and  to  spread  the  Divine 

Faith 
Like   calming   oil   on    all    their   stormy 

creeds, 
And  fill  the  hollows  between  wave  and 

wave; 
To   nurse   my  children  on   the  milk  of 

Truth, 
And  alchemise  old  hates  into  the  gold 
Of  Love,  and  make  it  current;   and  beat 

back 
The  menacing  poison  of  intolerant  priests, 
Those  cobras  ever  setting  up  their  hoods — 
One  Alia !  one  Kalifa ! 

Still — at  times 
A  doubt,  a  fear, — and  yester  afternoon 
I  dream'd, — thou  knowest  how  deep  a 

well  of  love 
My  heart  is  for  my  son,  Saleem,  mine 

heir, — 
And  yet  so  wild  and  wayward  that  my 

dream — 
He  glares  askance  at  thee  as  one  of  those 
Who  mix  the  wines  of  heresy  in  the  cup 

Of  counsel — so — I  pray  thee 

Well,  I  dream'd 
That  stone   by  stone  I  rear'd  a  sacred 

fane, 
A  temple,  neither  Pagod,  Mosque,  nor 

Church, 


But  loftier,  simpler,  always  open-door'd 
To  every  breath  from  heaven,  and  Truth 

and  Peace 
And  Love  and  Justice  came  and  dwelt 

therein; 
But  while  we  stood  rejoicing,  I  and  thou, 
I   heard    a    mocking  laugh    "  the    new 

Kor&n !  " 
And   on   the   sudden,   and   with    a    cry 

"  Saleem  " 
Thou,  thou — I  saw  thee  fall  before  me, 

and  then 
Me  too  the  black-wing'd  Azrael  overcame, 
But  Death  had  ears  and  eyes;   I  watch'd 

my  son, 
And  those   that   follow'd,  loosen,  stone 

from  stone, 
All   my  fair  work;    and  from  the  ruin 

arose 
The  shriek  and  cUrse  of  trampled  mil- 
lions, even 
As   in    the    time   before;     but   while    I 

groan'd, 
From  out   the   sunset    pour'd   an   alien 

race, 
Who    fitted   stone   to   stone   again,  and 

Truth, 
Peace,  Love  and  Justice  came  and  dwelt 

therein, 
Nor  in  the  field  without  were  seen  or 

heard 
Fires  of  Suttee,  nor  wail  of  baby -wife, 
Or  Indian  widow;   and  in  sleep  I  said 
"  All  praise  to  Alia  by  whatever  hands 
My  mission  be  accomplish'd !  "   but  we 

hear 
Music :  our  palace  is  awake,  and  morn 
Has  lifted  the  dark  eyelash  of  the  Night 
From  off  the  rosy  cheek  of  waking  Day. 
Our  hymn  to  the  sun.    They  sing  it.    Let 

us  go.' 

Hymn. 

1. 

Once  again  thou  flamest  heavenward,  once  again 

we  see  thee  rise. 
Every  morning  is  thy  birthday  gladdening  human 
hearts  and  eyes. 
Every  morning  here  we  greet  it,  bowing 
lowly  down  before  thee, 
Thee  the  Godlike,  thee  the  changeless  in  thine 
ever-changing  skies. 


858 


AKBAR'S  DREAM. 


ii. 

Shadow-maker,    shadow-slayer,    arrowing    light 

from  clime  to  clime, 
Hear  thy  myriad  laureates  hail  thee  monarch  in 
their  woodland  rhyme. 
Warble  bird,  and  open  flower,  and,  men, 
below  the  dome  of  azure 
Kneel  adoring  Him  the  Timeless  in  the  flame 
that  measures  Time ! 


NOTES  TO  AKBAR'S  DREAM. 

The  great  Mogul  Emperor  Akbar  was  born 
October  14,  1542,  and  died  1605.  At  13  he  suc- 
ceeded his  father  Humayun;  at  18  he  himself 
assumed  the  sole  charge  of  government.  He 
subdued  and  ruled  over  fifteen  large  provinces; 
his  empire  included  all  India  north  of  the  Vindhya 
Mountains — in  the  south  of  India  he  was  not 
so  successful.  His  tolerance  of  religions  and 
his  abhorrence  of  religious  persecution  put  our 
Tudors  to  shame.  He  invented  a  new  eclectic 
religion  by  which  he  hoped  to  unite  all  creeds, 
castes  and  peoples:  and  his  legislation  was  re- 
markable for  vigour,  justice  and  humanity. 

'  Thy  glory  baffles  wisdom?  The  Emperor 
quofes  from  a  hymn  to  the  Deity  by  Faizi,  brother 
of  Abul  Fazl,  Akbar's  chief  friend  and  minister, 
who  wrote  the  A  in  i  Akbari  (Annals  of  Akbar) . 
His  influence  on  his  age  was  immense.  It  may 
be  that  he  and  his  brother  Faizi  led  Akbar's  mind 
away  from  Islam  and  the  Prophet — this  charge  is 
brought  against  him  by  every  Muhammadan 
writer;  but  Abul  Fazl  also  led  his  sovereign  to  a 
true  appreciation  of  his  duties,  and  from  the 
moment  that  he  entered  Court,  the  problem  of  suc- 
cessfully ruling  over  mixed  races,  which  Islam  in 
few  other  countries  had  to  solve,  was  carefully 
considered,  and  the  policy  of  toleration  was  the 
result  (Blochmann  xxix.). 

Abul  Fazl  thus  gives  an  account  of  himself 
•  The  advice  of  my  Father  with  difficulty  kept  me 
back  from  acts  of  folly ;  my  mind  had  no  rest  and 
my  heart  felt  itself  drawn  to  the  sages  of  Mongolia 
or  to  the  hermits  on  Lebanon.  I  longed  for  in- 
terviews with  the  Llamas  of  Tibet  or  with  the 
padres  of  Portugal,  and  I  would  gladly  sit  with 
the  priests  of  the  Parsis  and  the  learned  of  the 
Zendavesta.  I  was  sick  of  the  learned  of  my  own 
land.' 

He  became  the  intimate  friend  and  adviser  of 
Akbar,  and  helped  him  in  his  tolerant  system  of 
government.  Professor  Blochmann  writes  '  Im- 
pressed with  a  favourable  idea  of  the  value  of  his 
Hindu  subjects,  he  (Akbar)  had  resolved  when 
pensively  sitting  in  the  evenings  on  the  solitary 
stone  at  Futehpur-Sikri  to  rule  with  an  even  hand 


all  men  in  his  dominions;  but  as  the  extreme 
views  of  the  learned  and  the  lawyers  continually 
urged  him  to  persecute  instead  of  to  heal,  he 
instituted  discussions,"  because,  believing  himself 
to  be  in  error,  he  thought  it  his  duty  as  ruler  to 
inquire.'  '  These  discussions  took  place  every 
Thursday  night  in  the  Ibadat-khana  a  building  at 
Futehpur-Sikri,  erected  for  the  purpose'  (Mai- 
leson) . 

In  these  discussions  Abul  Fazl  became  a  great 
power,  and  he  induced  the  chief  of  the  disputants 
to  draw  up  a  document  defining  the  •  divine  Faith ' 
as  it  was  called,  and  assigning  to  Akbar  the  rank 
of  a  Mujahid,  or  supreme  khalifah,  the  vicegerent 
of  the  one  true  God. 

Abul  Fazl  was  finally  murdered  at  the  insti- 
gation of  Akbar's  son  Salim,  who  in  his  Memoirs 
declares  that  it  was  Abul  Fazl  who  had  perverted 
his  father's  mind  so  that  he  denied  the  divine 
mission  of  Mahomet,  and  turned  away  his  love 
from  his  son. 

Faizi.  When  Akbar  conquered  the  North- 
West  Provinces  of  India,  Faizi,  then  20,  began 
his  life  as  a  poet,  and  earned  his  living  as  a 
physician.  He  is  reported  to  have  been  very 
generous  and  to  have  treated  the  poor  for  nothing. 
His  fame  reached  Akbar's  ears  who  commanded 
him  to  come  to  the  camp  at  Chitor.  Akbar  was 
delighted  with  his  varied  knowledge  and  scholar- 
ship and  made  the  poet  teacher  to  his  sons.  Faizi 
at  33  was  appointed  Chief  Poet  (1588).  He  col- 
lected a  fine  library  of  4300  MSS.  and  died  at  the 
age  of  40  (1595)  when  Akbar  incorporated  his 
collection  of  rare  books  in  the  Imperial  Library. 

The  Warring  World  of  Hindostan.  Akbar's 
rapid  conquests  and  the  good  government  of  his 
fifteen  provinces  with  their  complete  military, 
civil  and  political  systems  make  him  conspicuous 
among  the  great  kings  of  history. 

The  Goan  Padre.  Abul  Fazl  relates  that 
•  one  night  the  Ibadat-khana  was  brightened  by 
the  presence  of  Padre  Rodolpho,  who  for  intelli- 
gence and  wisdom  was  unrivalled  among  Chris- 
tian doctors.  Several  carping  and  bigoted  men 
attacked  him  and  this  afforded  an  opportunity 
for  the  display  of  the  calm  judgment  and  justice 
of  the  assembly.  These  men  brought  forward 
the  old  received  assertions,  and  did  not  attempt 
to  arrive  at  truth  by  reasoning.  Their  statements 
were  torn  to  pieces,  and  they  were  nearly  put  to 
shame,  when  they  began  to  attack  the  contradic- 
tions of  the  Gospel,  but  they  could  not  prove 
their  assertions.  With  perfect  calmness,  and 
earnest  conviction  of  the  truth  he  replied  to  their 
arguments.' 

Ab&  Sa'zd.    '  Love  is  the  net  of  Truth,  Love 


THE  BANDIT'S  DEATH. 


859 


is  the  noose  of  God'  is  a  quotation  from  the  great 
Sufee  poet  Abu  Sa'id — born  a.d.  968,  died  at  the 
age  of  83.  He  is  a  mystical  poet,  and  some 
of  his  expressions  have  been  compared  to  our 
George  Herbert.  Of  Shaikh  Abu  Sa'id  it  is  re- 
corded that  he  said,  '  when  my  affairs  had  reacht 
a  certain  pitch  I  buried  under  the  dust  my  books 
and  opened  a  shop  on  my  own  account  {i.e. 
began  to  teach  with  authority) ,  and  verily  men 
represented  me  as  that  which  I  was  not,  until  it 
came  to  this,  that  they  went  to  the  Qadhi  and 
testified  against  me  of  unbelieverhood  ;  and 
women  got  upon  the  roofs  and  cast  unclean 
things  upon  me.'  ( Vide  reprint  from  article  in 
National  Review,  March,  1891,  by  C.  J.  Pick- 
ering.) 

Aziz.  I  am  not  aware  that  there  is  any  rec- 
ord of  such  intrusion  upon  the  king's  privacy, 
but  the  expressions  in  the  text  occur  in  a  letter 
sent  by  Akbar's  foster-brother  Aziz,  who  refused 
to  come  to  court  when  summoned  and  threw  up 
his  government,  and  '  after  writing  an  insolent 
and  reproachful  letter  to  Akbar  in  which  he 
asked  him  if  he  had  received  a  book  from  heaven, 
or  if  he  could  work  miracles  like  Mahomet  that 
he  presumed  to  introduce  a  new  religion,  warned 
him  that  he  was  on  the  way  to  eternal  perdition, 
and  concluded  with  a  prayer  to  God  to  bring  him 
back  into  the  path  of  salvation'  (Elphinstone). 

'The  Koran,  the  Old  and  New  Testament, 
and  the  Psalms  of  David  are  called  books  by  way 
of  excellence,  and  their  followers  "  People  of  the 
Book"'  (Elphinstone). 

Akbar  according  to  Abdel  Kadir  had  his  son 
Murad  instructed  in  the  Gospel,  and  used  to 
make  him  begin  his  lessons  '  In  the  name  of 
Christ '  instead  of  in  the  usual  way  '  In  the  name 
of  God.' 

To  drive 
A  people  from  the  irancient fold  of  Truth,  etc. 
Malleson  says '  This  must  have  happened  because 
Akbar  states  it,  but  of  the  forced  conversions 
I  have  found  no  record.  This  must  have  taken 
place  whilst  he  was  still  a  minor,  and  whilst  the 
chief  authority  was  wielded  by  Bairam.' 

*  I  reap  no  revenue  from  the  field  of  unbelief ' 

The  Hindus  are  fond  of  pilgrimages,  and  Akbar 
removed  a  remunerative  tax  raised  by  his  prede- 
cessors on  pilgrimages.  He  also  abolished  the 
fezza  or  capitation  tax  on  those  who  differed 
from  the  Mahomedan  faith.  He  discouraged 
all  excessive  prayers,  fasts  and  pilgrimages. 

Sati.  Akbar  decreed  that  every  widow  who 
showed  the  least  desire  not  to  be  burnt  on  her 
husband's  funeral  pyre,  should  be  let  go  free  and 
unharmed. 


Baby-wife.  He  forbad  marriage  before  the 
age  of  puberty. 

Indian  widow.  Akbar  ordained  that  remar- 
riage was  lawful. 

Music.  *  About  a  watch  before  daybreak,' 
says  Abul  Fazl,  the  musicians  played  to  the  king 
in  the  palace.  '  His  Majesty  had  such  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  science  of  music  as  trained  musicians 
do  not  possess.' 

'  The  Divine  Faith.'  The  Divine  Faith  slowly 
passed  away  under  the  immediate  successors  of 
Akbar.  An  idea  of  what  the  Divine  Faith  was 
may  be  gathered  from  the  inscription  at  the  head 
of  the  poem.  The  document  referred  to,  Abul 
Fazl  says  'brought  about  excellent  results  (1) 
the  Court  became  a  gathering  place  of  the  sages 
and  learned  of  all  creeds ;  the  good  doctrines  of 
all  religious  systems  were  recognized,  and  their 
defects  were  not  allowed  to  obscure  their  good 
features;  (2)  perfect  toleration  or  peace  with  all 
was  established;  and  (3)  the, perverse  and  evil- 
minded  were  covered  with  shame  on  seeing  the 
disinterested  motives  of  His  Majesty,  and  these 
stood  in  the  pillory  of  disgrace.'  Dated  Septem- 
ber 1579 — Ragab  987  (Blochmann  xiv.). 


THE   BANDIT'S   DEATH.* 

TO  SIR  WALTER  SCOTT.i 

0  great  and  gallant  scott, 

True  gentleman  heart,  blood  and  bone, 

i  would  it  had  been  my  lot 

to  have  seen  thee,  and  heard  thee,  and 

KNOWN. 

Sir,  do  you  see  this  dagger  ?  nay,  why  do 
you  start  aside? 

1  was  not  going  to  stab  you,  tho'  I  am  the 

Bandit's  bride. 

You  have  set  a  price  on  his  head :  I  may 

claim  it  without  a  lie. 
What  have  I  here  in  the  cloth?     I  will 

show  it  you  by-and-by. 

Sir,  I  was  once  a  wife.     I  had  one  brief 

summer  of  bliss 
But  the  Bandit  had  woo'd  me  in  vain,  and 

he  stabb'd  my  Piero  with  this. 

1 1  have  adopted  Sir  Walter  Scott's  version  of 
the  following  story  as  given  in  his  last  journal 
(Death  of  II  Bizarro)— but  I  have  taken  the 
liberty  of  making  some  slight  alterations. 


*  Copyright,  1892,  by  Macmillan  &  Co. 


86o 


THE   CHURCH-WARDEN  AND    THE   CURATE. 


And  he  dragg'd  me  up  there  to  his  cave 
in  the  mountain,  and  there  one 
day 

He  had  left  his  dagger  behind  him.  I 
found  it.     I  hid  it  away. 

For  he  reek'd  with  the  blood  of  Piero; 

his  kisses  were  red  with  his  crime, 
And  I  cried  to  the  Saints  to  avenge  me. 

They  heard,  they  bided  their  time. 

In  a  while  I  bore  him  a  son,  and  he  loved 

to  dandle  the  child, 
And  that  was  a  link  between  us;  but  I — 

to  be  reconciled? — 

No,  by  the  Mother  of  God,  tho'  I  think  I 

hated  him  less, 
And — well,  if  I  sinn'd  last  night,  I  will 

find  the  Priest  and  confess. 

Listen !  we  three  were  alone  in  the  dell 

at  the  close  of  the  day. 
I  was  lilting  a  song  to  the  babe,  and  it 

laugh'd  like  a  dawn  in  May. 

Then  on  a  sudden  we  saw  your  soldiers 

crossing  the  ridge, 
And  he  caught  my  little  one  from  me : 

we  dipt  down  under  the  bridge 

By  the  great  dead  pine — you  know  it — 
and  heard,  as  we  crouch'd  below, 

The  clatter  of  arms,  and  voices,  and  men 
passing  to  and  fro. 

Black  was  the  night  when  we  crept  away 
— not  a  star  in  the  sky — 

Hush'd  as  the  heart  of  the  grave,  till  the 
little  one  utter'd  a  cry. 

I  whisper'd  '  give  it  to  me,'  but  he  would 

not  answer  me — then 
He  gript  it  so  hard  by  the  throat  that  the 

boy  never  cried  again. 

We  return' d  to  his  cave — the  link  was 
broken — he  sobb'd  and  he  wept, 

And  cursed  himself;  then  he  yawn'd,  for 
the  wretch  could  sleep,  and  he  slept 

Ay,  till  dawn  stole  into  the  cave,  and  a 

ray  red  as  blood 
Glanced  on  the  strangled  face — I  could 

make  Sleep  Death,  if  I  would — 


Glared  on  at  the  murder'd  son,  and  the 
murderous  father  at  rest,  .  .  . 

I  drove  the  blade  th?t  had  slain  my  hus- 
band thrice  thro'  his  breast. 

He  was  loved  at  least  by  his  dog :  it  was 
chain'd,  but  its  horrible  yell 

1  She  has  kill'd  him,  has  kill'd  him,  has 
kill'd  him '  rang  out  all  down  thro' 
the  dell, 

Till  I  felt  I  could  end  myself  too  with  the 
dagger — so  deafen'd  and  dazed — 

Take  it,  and  save  me  from  it !  I  fled.  I 
was  all  but  crazed 

With  the  grief  that  gnaw'd  at  my  heart, 
and  the  weight  that  dragg'd  at  my 
hand; 

But  thanks  to  the  Blessed  Saints  that  I 
came  on  none  of  his  band; 

And  the  band  will  be  scatter'd  now  their 

gallant  captain  is  dead, 
For  I  with  this  dagger  of  his — do  you 

doubt  me?     Here  is  his  head ! 


THE  CHURCH-WARDEN  AND 
THE  CURATE. 

This  is  written  in  the  dialect  which  was  current 
in  my  youth  at  Spilsby  and  in  the  country  about  it 

I. 

Eh?  good  daay!  good  daay!  thaw  it 
bean't  not  mooch  of  a  daay, 

Nasty,  casselty  weather !  an'  mea  haafe 
down  wi'  my  haay ! 


How  be  the  farm  gittin  on?   noaways. 

Gittin  on  i'deead ! 
Why,  tonups  was  haafe  on  'em    fingers 

an'  toas,  an'  the  mare  brokken- 

kneead, 
An'  pigs  didn't  sell  at  fall,  an'  wa  lost 

wer  Haldeny  cow, 
An'  it  beats  ma  to  knaw  wot  she  died  on, 

but  wool's  looking  oop  ony  how. 


THE   CHURCH-WARDEN  AND   THE   CURATE. 


861 


An'  soa"  they've  maade  tha  a  parson,  an' 

thou'll  git  along,  niver  fear, 
Fur  I  bean  chuch-warden  mysen  i'  the 

parish  fur  fifteen  year. 
Well — sin  ther  bea  chuch-wardens,  ther 

mun  be  parsons  an'  all, 
An'  if  t'5ne  stick  alongside  t'uther  the 

chuch  weant  happen  a  fall. 


Fur  I  wur  a  Baptis  wonst,  an'  agean  the 

toithe  an'  the  raate, 
Till  I  fun  that  it  warn't  not  the  gaainist 

waay  to  the  narra  Gaate. 
An'  I  can't  abear  'em,  I  can't,  fur  a  lot 

on  'em  coom'd  ta-year — 
I  wur  down  wi'  the  rheumatis  then — to 

my  pond  to  wesh  thessens  theere — 
Sa  I  sticks  like  the  ivin  as  long  as  I  lives 

to  the  owd  chuch  now, 
Fur  they  wesh'd  their  sins  i'  my  pond, 

an'  I  doubts  they  poison'd  the  cow. 


Ay,  an'  ya  seed  the  Bishop.     They  says 

'at  he  coom'd  fra  nowt — 
Burn  i'  traade.     Sa  I  warrants  'e  niver 

said  haafe  wot  'e  thowt, 
But  'e  creeapt  an'  'e  crawl'd  along,  till  'e 

feeald  'e  could  howd  'is  oan, 
Then  'e  married  a  great  Yerl's  darter,  an' 

sits  o'  the  Bishop's  throan. 


Now  I'll  gie  tha  a  bit  o'  my  mind  an'  tha 

weant  be  taakin'  offence, 
Fur  thou  be  a  big  scholard  now  wi'  a 

hoonderd  haacre  o'  sense — 
But  sich  an  obstropulous  lad — naay,  naay 

— fur  I  minds  tha  sa  well, 
Tha'd  niver  not  hopple  thy  tongue,  an' 

the  tongue's  sit  afire  o'  Hell, 
As  I  says  to  my  missis  to-daay,  when  she 

hurl'd  a  plaate  at  the  cat 
An'  anoother  agean  my  noase.     Ya  was 

niver  sa  bad  as  that. 

VII. 

But  I  minds  when  i'  Howlaby  beck  won 
daay  ya  was  ticklin'  o'  trout, 


An'  keeaper  'e  seed  ya  an  roon'd,  an'  'e 

beal'd  to  ya  '  Lad  coom  hout ' 
An'  ya  stood  oop  maakt  i'  the  beck,  an' 

ya  tell'd  'im  to  knavv  his  awn  plaace 
An'  ya  call'd  'im  a  clown,  ya  did,  an'  ya 

thraw'd  the  fish  i'  'is  faace, 
An'  'e  torn'd  as  red  as  a   stag-tuckey's 

wattles,  but  theer  an'  then 
I  coamb'd  'im  down,  fur  I  promised  ya'd 

niver  not  do  it  agean. 


An'  I  cotch'd  tha  wonst  i'  my  garden, 

when  thou  was  a  height-year-howd, 
An'  I  fun  thy  pockets  as  full  o'  my  pippins 

as  iver  they'd  'owd, 
An'  thou  was  as  pearky  as  owt,  an'  tha 

maade  me  as  mad  as  mad, 
But  I  says  to  tha  \  keeap  'em,  an'  welcome ' 

fur  thou  was  the  parson's  lad. 

IX. 

An'  Parson  'e  'ears  on  it  all,  an'  then 

taakes  kindly  to  me, 
An'  then  I  wur  chose  Chuch-warden  an' 

coom'd  to  the  top  o'  the  tree, 
Fur  Quoloty's  hall  my  friends,  an'  they 

maakes  ma  a  help  to  the  poor, 
When  I  gits  the  plaate  fuller  o'  Soondays 

nor  ony  chuch-warden  afoor, 
Fur  if  iver  thy  feyther  'ed  riled  me  I  kep' 

mysen  meeak  as  a  lamb, 
An'  saw  by  the  Graace  o'  the  Lord,  Mr. 

Harry,  I  ham  wot  I  ham. 


But  Parson  'e  will  speak  out,  saw,  now  'e 

be  sixty-seven, 
He'll  niver  swap  Owlby  an'  Scratby  fur 

owt  but  the  Kingdom  o'  Heaven; 
An'  thou'll  be  'is  Curate  'ere,  but,  if  iver 

tha  means  to  git  'igher, 
Tha  mun  tackle  the  sins  o'  the  Wo'ld,  an' 

not  the  faults  o'  the  Squire. 
An'  I  reckons  tha'll  light  of  a  livin'  some- 

wheers  i'  the  Wowd  or  the  Fen, 
If  tha  cottons  down  to  thy  betters,  an' 

keeaps  thysen  to  thysen. 
But  niver  not   speak   plaain  out,  if  tha 

wants  to  git  forrards  a  bit, 
But  creeap  along  the  hedge-bottoms,  an' 

thou'll  be  a  Bishop  yit. 


862 


CHARITY. 


Naay,   but  tha  mun  speak  hout  to  the 

Baptises  here  i'  the  town, 
Fur  moast  on  'em  talks  agean  tithe, 

an'  I'd  like  tha  to  preach  'em  down, 
Fur  thefso.  been  a-preachin'  mea  down, 

they  heve,  an'  I  haates  'em  now, 
Fur  they  leaved  their  nasty  sins  i'  my 

pond,  an'  it  poison'd  the  cow. 

GLOSSARY. 

'  Casselty,'  casualty,  chance  weather. 

*  Haafe  down  wi'  my  haay,'  while  my  grass  is 
only  half-mown. 

*  Fingers  an'  toas,'  a  disease  in  turnips. 
'  Fall,'  autumn. 

'  If  t'Sne  stick  alongside  t'uther,'  if  the  one 
hold  by  the  other.  One  is  pronounced  like 
'  own.' 

1  Fun,'  found. 

'  Gaainist,'  nearest. 

'  Ta-year,'  this  year. 

1  Ivin,'  ivy. 

4  Obstropulous,'  obstreperous — here  the  Curate 
makes  a  sign  of  deprecation. 

1  Hopple '  or  '  hobble,'  to  tie  the  legs  of  a  skit- 
tish cow  when  she  is  being  milked. 

1  Beal'd,'  bellowed. 

In  such  words  as  '  torned,'  '  turned,'  '  hurled,' 
the  r  is  hardly  audible. 

'  Stag-tuckey,'  turkey-cock. 

'  Height-year-howd,'  eight-year-old. 

'  'Owd,'  hold. 

'  Pearky,'  pert. 

'  Wo'ld,'  the  world.     Short  o. 

'  Wowd,'  wold. 


CHARITY.* 

i. 

What  am  I  doing,  you  say  to  me,  '  wast- 
ing the  sweet  summer  hours'? 

Haven't  you  eyes?  I  am  dressing  the 
grave  of  a  woman  with  flowers. 

II. 

For  a  woman  ruin'd  the  world,  as  God's 

own  scriptures  tell, 
And  a  man  ruin'd  mine,  but  a  woman, 

God  bless  her,  kept  me  from  Hell. 

♦Copyright,  1892, 


III. 

Love  me  ?  O  yes,  no  doubt — how  long — 
till  you  threw  me  aside  ! 

Dresses  and  laces  and  jewels  and  never  a 
ring  for  the  bride. 


All  very  well  just  now  to  be  calling  me 

darling  and  sweet, 
And  after  a  while  would    it  matter  so 

much  if  I  came  on  the  street? 


You 


he 


when   I    met    you    first — when 
brought  you ! — I  turn'd  away 
And  the  hard  blue  eyes  have  it  still,  that 
stare  of  a  beast  of  prey. 


You  were  his  friend — you — you — when  he 
promised  to  make  me  his  bride, 

And  you  knew  that  he  meant  to  betray 
me — you  knew — you  knew  that  he 
lied. 

VII. 

He  married  an  heiress,  an  orphan  with 

half  a  shire  of  estate, — 
I  sent  him  a  desolate  wail  and  a  curse, 

when  I  learn'd  my  fate. 

VIII. 

For  I  used  to  play  with  the  knife,  creep 
down  to  the  river-shore, 

Moan  to  myself '  one  plunge — then  quiet 
for  evermore.' 


IX. 


Would  the  man  have  a  touch  of  remorse 
when  he  heard  what  an  end  was 
mine? 

Or  brag  to  his  fellow  rakes  of  his  conquest 
over  their  wine? 


Money — my  hire — his  money — I  sent  him 
back  what  he  gave, — 


by  Macmillan  &  Co. 


KAPIOLANL 


863 


Will  you  move  a  little  that  way?  your 
shadow  falls  on  the  grave. 


Two  trains  clash'd:  then  and  there  he 
was  crush'd  in  a  moment  and  died, 

But  the  new-wedded  wife  was  unharm'd, 
tho'  sitting  close  at  his  side. 

XII. 

She  found  my  letter  upon  him,  my  wail 

of  reproach  and  scorn; 
I  had  cursed  the  woman  he  married,  and 

him,  and  the  day  I  was  born. 


They  put  him  aside  for  ever,  and  after  a 

week — no  more — 
A  stranger  as  welcome  as  Satan — a  widow 

came  to  my  door : 

XIV. 

So  I  turn'd  my  face  to  the  wall,  I  was 

mad,  I  was  raving-wild, 
I  was  close  on  that  hour  of  dishonour,  the 

birth  of  a  baseborn  child. 


XV. 

O  you  that  can  flatter  your  victims,  and 
juggle,  and  lie  and  cajole, 

Man,  .can  you  even  guess  at  the  love  of  a 
soul  for  a  soul? 


I  had  cursed  her  as  woman  and  wife,  and 
in  wife  and  woman  I  found 

The  tenderest  Christ-like  creature  that 
ever  stept  on  the  ground. 

XVII. 

She  watch'd  me,  she  nursed  me,  she  fed 
me,  she  sat  day  and  night  by  my 
bed, 

Till  the  joyless  birthday  came  of  a  boy 
born  happily  dead. 


And  her  name?  what  was  it?  I  ask'd 
her.     She  said  with  a  sudden  glow 

On  her  patient  face  '  My  dear,  I  will  tell 
you  before  I  go.' 

XIX. 

And  I  when  I  learnt  it  at  last,  I  sbriek'd, 

I  sprang  from  my  seat, 
I  wept,  and  I  kiss'd  her  hands,  I  flung 

myself  down  at  her  feet, 

XX. 

And  we  pray'd  together  for  him,  for  him 
who  had  given  her  the  name. 

She  has  left  me  enough  to  live  on.  I 
need  no  wages  of  shame. 


She  died  of  a  fever  caught  when  a  nurse 

in  a  hospital  ward. 
She  is  high  in  the  Heaven  of  Heavens, 

she  is  face  to  face  with  her  Lord, 


And  He  sees  not  her  like  anywhere  in 
this  pitiless  world  of  ours ! 

I  have  told  you  my  tale.  Get  you  gone. 
I  am  dressing  her  grave  with  fiow- 


KAPIOLANI. 

Kapiolani  was  a  great  chieftainess  who  lived 
in  the  Sandwich  Islands  at  the  beginning  of  this 
century.  She  won  the  cause  of  Christianity  by 
openly  defying  the  priests  of  the  terrible  goddess 
Peele.  In  spite  of  their  threats  of  vengeance  she 
ascended  the  volcano  Mauna-Loa,  then  clambered 
down  over  a  bank  of  cinders  400  feet  high  to  the 
great  lake  of  fire  (nine  miles  round) — Kilauea — 
the  home  and  haunt  of  the  goddess,  and  flung  into 
the  boiling  lava  the  consecrated  berries  which  it 
was  sacrilege  for  a  woman  to  handle. 


When  from  the  terrors  of  Nature  a  peo- 
ple have  fashion'd  and  worship  a 
Spirit  of  Evil, 


864 


THE  DAWN. 


Blest  be  the  Voice  of  the  Teacher  who 

calls  to  them 
1  Set  yourselves  free  ! ' 

ii. 

Noble  the  Saxon  who  hurl'd  at  his  Idol 
a  valorous  weapon  in  olden  Eng- 
land ! 

Great  and  greater,  and  greatest  of  women, 
island  heroine,  Kapiolani 

Clomb  the  mountain,  and  flung  the  berries, 
and  dared  the  Goddess,  and  freed 
the  people 

Of  Hawa-i-ee ! 

in. 

A  people  believing  that  Peele  the  Goddess 

would  wallow  in  fiery  riot  and  revel 
On  Kilauea, 
Dance  in  a  fountain  of  flame  with  her 

devils,  or  shake  with  her  thunders 

and  shatter  her  island, 
Rolling  her  anger 
Thro'  blasted  valley  and  flaring  forest  in 

blood-red  cataracts  down  to   the 

sea! 


Long  as  the  lava-light 
Glares  from  the  lava-lake 
Dazing  the  starlight, 
Long  as  the  silvery  vapour  in  daylight 
Over  the  mountain 

Floats,  will  the  glory  of  Kapiolani  be  min- 
gled with  either  on  Hawa-i-ee. 


What  said  her  Priesthood? 

'Woe  to  this  island  if  ever   a   woman 

should  handle  or  gather  the  berries 

of  Peele ! 
Accursed  were  she ! 
And  woe  to  this  island  if  ever  a  woman 

should  climb  to  the   dwelling   of 

Peele  the  Goddess ! 
Accursed  were  she  1 ' 


One  from  the  Sunrise 
Dawn'd  on  His  people,  and  slowly  before 
him 


Vanish' d  shadow-like 

Gods  and  Goddesses, 

None  but  the  terrible  Peele  remaining  as 
Kapiolani  ascended  her  mountain, 

Baffled  her  priesthood, 

Broke  the  Taboo, 

Dipt  to  the  crater, 

Call'd  on  the  Power  adored  by  the  Chris- 
tian, and  crying  'I  dare  her,  let 
Peele  avenge  herself! ' 

Into  the  flame-billow  dash'd  the  berries, 
and  drove  the  demon  from   Ha- 


THE   DAWN. 


You  are  but  children." 

Egyptian  Priest  to  Solon. 


Red  of  the  Dawn ! 
Screams  of  a  babe  in  the  red-hot  palms 
of  a  Moloch  of  Tyre, 
Man   with   his  brotherless   dinner  on 

man  in  the  tropical  wood, 
Priests  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  passing 
souls  thro'  fire  to  the  fire, 
Head-hunters  and  boats  of  Dahomey  that 
float  upon  human  blood ! 


Red  of  the  Dawn ! 
Godless  fury  of  peoples,  and  Christless 
frolic  of  kings, 
And  the  bolt  of  war  dashing  down  upon 

cities  and  blazing  farms, 
For  Babylon  was  a  child  new-born,  and 
Rome  was  a  babe  in  arms, 
And  London  and  Paris  and  all  the  rest 
are  as  yet  but  in  leading-strings. 

ill. 

Dawn  not  Day, 
While  scandal  is  mouthing  a  bloodless 
name  at  her  cannibal  feast, 
And  rake-ruin'd  bodies  and   souls   go 

down  in  a  common  wreck, 
And  the  Press  of  a  thousand  cities  is 
prized  for  it  smells  of  the  beast, 
Or  easily  violates  virgin  Truth  for  a  coin 
or  a  cheque. 


THE  MAKING    OF  MAN—MECHANOPHILUS. 


865 


Dawn  not  Day ! 
Is  it  Shame,  so  few  should  have  climb'd 
from  the  dens  in  the  level  below, 
Men,  with  a  heart  and  a  soul,  no  slaves 

of  a  four-footed  will? 
But  if  twenty  million  of  summers  are 
stored  in  the  sunlight  still, 
We  are  far  from  the  noon  of  man,  there 
is  time  for  the  race  to  grow. 


Red  of  the  Dawn ! 
Is  it  turning  a  fainter  red?  so  be  it,  but 
when  shall  we  lay 
The  Ghost  of  the  Brute  that  is  walking 
and  haunting  us  yet,  and  be  free? 
In  a  hundred,  a  thousand  winters?    Ah, 
what  will  our  children  be, 
The  men  of  a  hundred  thousand,  a  million 
summers  away? 


THE  MAKING  OF  MAN. 

Where  is  one  that,  born  of  woman,  alto- 
gether can  escape 

From  the  lower  world  within  him,  moods 
of  tiger,  or  of  ape? 
Man  as  yet  is  being  made,  and  ere  the 
crowning  Age  of  ages, 

Shall  not  aeon  after  aeon  pass  and  touch 
him  into  shape  ? 

All   about   him  shadow   still,  but,  while 

the  races  flower  and  fade, 
Prophet-eyes  may  catch  a  glory  slowly 

gaining  on  the  shade, 
Till  the  peoples  all  are  one,  and   all 

their  voices  blend  in  choric 
Hallelujah  to  the  Maker  f  It  is  finish'd. 

Man  is  made.' 


THE  DREAMER. 

On  a  midnight  in  midwinter  when  all  but 

the  winds  were  dead, 
'The  meek  shall  inherit  the  earth  '  was  a 

Scripture  that  rang  thro'  his  head, 
Till  he  dream'd  that  a  Voice  of  the  Earth 

went  wailingly  past  him  and  said  1 

3K 


'  I  am  losing  the  light  of  my  Youth 
And  the  Vision  that  led  me  of  old, 
And  I  clash  with  an  iron  Truth, 
When  I  make  for  an  Age  of  gold, 
And  I  would  that  my  race  were  run, 
For  teeming  with  liars,  and  madmen, 

and  knaves, 
And  wearied    of  Autocrats,  Anarchs, 

and  Slaves, 
And  darken'd  with  doubts  of  a  Faith 

that  saves, 
And  crimson  with  battles,  and  hollow 

with  graves, 
To  the  wail  of  my  winds,  and  the  moan 

of  my  waves 
I  whirl,  and  I  follow  the  Sun.' 

Was  it  only  the  wind  of  the  Night  shrill- 
ing out  Desolation  and  wrong 

Thro'  a  dream  of  the  dark?  Yet  he 
thought  that  he  answer'd  her  wail 
with  a  song — 

Moaning  your  losses,  O  Earth, 
Heart-weary  and  overdone ! 

But  all's  well  that  ends  well, 
Whirl,  and  follow  the  Sun ! 

He  is  racing  from  heaven  to  heaven 
And  less  will  be  lost  than  won, 

For  all's  well  that  ends  well, 
Whirl,  and  follow  the  Sun ! 

The  Reign  of  the  Meek  upon  earth, 
O  weary  one,  has  it  begun? 

But  all's  well  that  ends  well, 
Whirl,  and  follow  the  Sun  I 

For  moans  will  have  grown  sphere 
music 

Or  ever  your  race  be  run ! 
And  all's  well  that  ends  well, 

Whirl,  and  follow  the  Sun ! 


MECHANOPHILUS. 

(In  the  time  of  the  first  railways.) 

Now  first  we  stand  and  understand. 
And  sunder  false  from  true, 

And  handle  boldly  with  the  hand, 
And  see  and  shape  and  do. 


866 


RIFLEMEN  FORM— THE    TOURNEY. 


Dash  back  that  ocean  with  a  pier, 

Strow  yonder  mountain  flat, 
A  railway  there,  a  tunnel  here, 

Mix  me  this  Zone  with  that ! 

Bring  me  my  horse — my  horse?  my  wings 

That  I  may  soar  the  sky, 
For  Thought  into  the  outward  springs, 

I  find  her  with  the  eye. 

O  will  she,  moonlike,  sway  the  main, 
And  bring  or  chase  the  storm, 

Who  was  a  shadow  in  the  brain, 
And  is  a  living  form? 

Far  as  the  Future  vaults  her  skies, 
From  this  my  vantage  ground 

To  those  still-working  energies 
I  spy  nor  term  nor  bound. 

As  we  surpass  our  fathers'  skill, 
Our  sons  will  shame  our  own; 

A  thousand  things  are  hidden  still 
And  not  a  hundred  known. 

And  had  some  prophet  spoken  true 

Of  all  we  shall  achieve, 
The  wonders  were  so  wildly  new 

That  no  man  would  believe. 

Meanwhile,  my  brothers,  work,  and  wield 

The  forces  of  to-day, 
And  plow  the  Present  like  a  field, 

And  garner  all  you  may ! 

You,  what  the  cultured  surface  grows, 
Dispense  with  careful  hands : 

Deep  under  deep  for  ever  goes, 
Heaven  over  heaven  expands. 


RIFLEMEN   FORM! 

There  is  a  sound  of  thunder  afar, 
Storm  in  the  South  that  darkens  the  day ! 
Storm  of  battle  and  thunder  of  war ! 
Well  if  it  do  not  roll  our  way. 
Storm,  Storm,  Riflemen  form ! 
Ready,  be  ready  against  the  storm ! 
Riflemen,  Riflemen,  Riflemen  form ! 

Be  not  deaf  to  the  sound  that  warns, 
Be  not  gull'd  by  a  despot's  plea ! 


Are  figs  of  thistles?  or  grapes  of  thorns? 
How  can  a  despot  feel  with  the  Free? 
Form,  Form,  Riflemen  Form  ! 
Ready,  be  ready  to  meet  the  storm ! 
Riflemen,  Riflemen,  Riflemen  form ! 

Let  your  reforms  for  a  moment  go  ! 
Look  to  your  butts,  and  take  good  aims ! 
Better  a  rotten  borough  or  so 
Than  a  rotten  fleet  and  a  city  in  flames ! 
Storm,  Storm,  Riflemen  form ! 
Ready,  be  ready  against  the  storm ! 
Riflemen,  Riflemen,  Riflemen  form  ! 

Form,  be  ready  to  do  or  die ! 
Form  in  Freedom's  name  and  the  Queen's^. 
True  we  have  got — such  a  faithful  ally 
That   only  the   Devil   can   tell  what  he 

means. 
Form,  Form,  Riflemen  Form  ! 
Ready,  be  ready  to  meet  the  storm ! 
Riflemen,  Riflemen,  Riflemen  form ! 1 

1 1  have  been  asked  to  republish  this  old 
poem,  which  was  first  published  in  '  The  Times,' 
May  9,  1859,  before  the  Volunteer  movement 
began. 


THE   TOURNEY. 

Ralph  would  fight  in  Edith's  sight, 
For  Ralph  was  Edith's  lover, 

Ralph  went  down  like  a  fire  to  the  fight, 

Struck  to  the  left  and  struck  to  the  right, 
Roll'd  them  over  and  over. 

1  Gallant  Sir  Ralph,'  said  the  king. 

Casques    were    crack'd    and    hauberks 
hack'd, 
Lances  snapt  in  sunder, 
Rang  the  stroke,  and  sprang  the  blood, 
Knights  were  thwack'd  and  riven,  and 
hew'd 
Like  broad  oaks  with  thunder. 
'  O  what  an  arm,'  said  the  king. 

Edith  bow'd  her  stately  head, 

Saw  them  lie  confounded, 
Edith  Montfort  bow'd  her  head, 
Crown'd  her  knight's,  and  flush'd  as  red 

As  poppies  when  she  crown'd  it. 
'  Take  her  Sir  Ralph,'  said  the  king. 


BEE  AND  FLOWER— DOUBT  AND  PRAYER. 


867 


THE  BEE  AND  THE  FLOWER. 

The  bee  buzz'd  up  in  the  heat. 
f  I  am  faint  for  your  honey,  my  sweet.' 
The  flower  said  '  Take  it  my  dear, 
For  now  is  the  spring  of  the  year. 
So  come,  come  ! ' 
« Hum ! ' 
And  the  bee  buzz'd  down  from  the  heat. 

And  the  bee  buzz'd  up  in  the  cold 
When  the  flower  was  wither'd  and  old. 
'  Have  you  still  any  honey,  my  dear?' 
She  said  '  It's  the  fall  of  the  year, 
But  come,  come  ! ' 
<  Hum ! ' 
And  the  bee  buzz'd  off  in  the  cold. 


THE   WANDERER. 

The  gleam  of  household  sunshine  ends, 
And  here  no  longer  can  I  rest; 
Farewell ! — You  will  not  speak,my  friends, 
Unfriendly  of  your  parted  guest. 

O  well  for  him  that  finds  a  friend, 
Or  makes  a  friend  where'er  he  come, 
And  loves  the  world  from  end  to  end, 
And  wanders  on  from  home  to  home ! 

0  happy  he,  and  fit  to  live, 

On  whom  a  happy  home  has  power 
To  make  him  trust  his  life,  and  give 
His  fealty  to  the  halcyon  hour ! 

1  count  you  kind,  I  hold  you  true; 
But  what  may  follow  who  can  tell? 
Give  me  a  hand — and  you — and  you — 
And  deem  me  grateful,  and  farewell ! 


POETS  AND   CRITICS. 

This  thing,  that  thing  is  the  rage, 
Helter-skelter  runs  the  age; 
Minds  on  this  round  earth  of  ours 
Vary  like  the  leaves  and  flowers, 

Fashion'd  after  certain  laws; 
Sing  thou  low  or  loud  or  sweet, 
All  at  all  points  thou  canst  not  meet, 

Some  will  pass  and  some  will  pause. 


What  is  true  at  last  will  tell  : 
Few  at  first  will  place  thee  well; 
Some  too  low  would  have  thee  shine, 
Some  too  high — no  fault  of  thine — 

Hold  thine  own,  and  work  thy  will ! 
Year  will  graze  the  heel  of  year, 
But  seldom  comes  the  poet  here, 

And  the  Critic's  rarer  still. 


A  VOICE  SPAKE  OUT  OF  THE 
SKIES. 

A  Voice  spake  out  of  the  skies 
To  a  just  man  and  a  wise — 
*  The  world  and  all  within  it 
Will  only  last  a  minute !  ' 
And  a  beggar  began  to  cry 
'  Food,  food  or  I  die  ! ' 
Is  it  worth  his  while  to  eat, 
Or  mine  to  give  him  meat, 
If  the  world  and  all  within  it 
Were  nothing  the  next  minute? 


DOUBT  AND  PRAYER. 

Tho'  Sin  too  oft,  when  smitten  by  Thy 

rod, 
Rail  at  '  Blind  Fate '  with  many  a  vain 

'Alas!' 
From  sin  thro'  sorrow  into  Thee  we  pass 
By  that  same  path  our  true  forefathers 

trod; 
And   let   not    Reason   fail  me,  nor  the 

sod 
Draw  from  my  death  Thy  living  flower 

and  grass, 
Before  I  learn  that  Love,  which  is,  and 

was 
My  Father,    and   my  Brother,   and   my 

God! 
Steel  me  with  patience !  soften  me  with 

grief! 
Let  blow  the  trumpet  strongly  while   I 

pray, 
Till  this  embattled  wall  of  unbelief 
My  prison,  not  my  fortress,  fall  away ! 
Then,  if  thou  wiliest,  let  my  day  be  brief, 
So  Thou  wilt  strike  Thy  glory  thro'  the 

day. 


868 


FAITH— DEATH  OF  THE  DUKE    OF  CLARENCE. 


FAITH. 


Doubt  no  longer  that  the  Highest  is  the 

wisest  and  the  best, 
Let  not  all  that  saddens  Nature  blight  thy 

hope  or  break  thy  rest, 
Quail  not  at  the  fiery  mountain,  at  the 

shipwreck,  or  the  rolling 
Thunder,  or  the  rending  earthquake,  or 

the  famine,  or  the  pest ! 


Neither  mourn  if  human  creeds  be  lower 

than  the  heart's  desire  ! 
Thro'  the    gates  that   bar   the   distance 

comes  a  gleam  of  what  is  higher. 
Wait  till  Death  has  flung  them  open, 

when  the  man  will  make  the  Maker 
Dark  no  more  with  human  hatreds  in  the 

glare  of  deathless  fire  ! 


THE   SILENT  VOICES.* 

When  the  dumb  Hour,  clothed  in  black, 

Brings  the  Dreams  about  my  bed, 

Call  me  not  so  often  back, 

Silent  Voices  of  the  dead, 

Toward  the  lowland  ways  behind  me, 

And  the  sunlight  that  is  gone ! 

Call  me  rather,  silent  voices, 

Forward  to  the  starry  track 

Glimmering  up  the  heights  beyond  me 

On,  and  always  on ! 


GOD   AND  THE   UNIVERSE. 

i. 

Will  my  tiny  spark  of  being  wholly  van- 
ish in  your  deeps  and  heights? 

Must  my  day  be  dark  by  reason,  O  ye 
Heavens,  of  your  boundless  nights, 

Rush  of  Suns,  and  roll  of  systems,  and 
your  fiery  clash  of  meteorites? 


'Spirit,  nearing  yon  dark  portal  at  the 
limit  of  thy  human  state, 

Fear  not  thou  the  hidden  purpose  of  that 
Power  which  alone  is  great, 

Nor  the  myriad  world,  His  shadow,  nor 
the  silent  Opener  of  the  Gate.' 


THE  DEATH  OF  THE  DUKE 
OF  CLARENCE  AND  AVON- 
DALE. 

To  the  Mourners. 

The  bridal  garland  falls  upon  the  bier, 
The  shadow  of  a  crown,  that  o'er  him 

hung, 
Has   vanish'd   in    the    shadow   cast    by 

Death. 
So  princely,  tender,  truthful,"  reverent, 

pure — 
Mourn !      That    a    world-wide    Empire 

mourns  with  you, 
That  all  the  Thrones  are  clouded  by  your 

loss, 
Were  slender  solace.    Yet  be  comforted; 
For  if  this   earth  be   ruled  by  Perfect 

Love, 
Then,  after  his  brief  range  of  blameless 

days, 
The  toll  of  funeral  in  an  Angel  ear 
Sounds  happier  than  the  merriest  mar- 
riage-bell. 
The  face  of  Death  is  toward  the  Sun 

of  Life, 
His  shadow   darkens   earth:    his   truer 

name 
Is  '  Onward,'  no  discordance  in  the  roll 
And  march  of  that  Eternal  Harmony 
Whereto  the  worlds  beat  time,  tho'  faintly 

heard 
Untii  the   great   Hereafter.     Mourn  in 

hope! 


*  Copyright,  1892,  by  Macmillan  &  Co. 


CROSSING    THE  BAR. 


869 


CROSSING  THE  BAR. 

Sunset  and  evening  star, 

And  one  clear  call  for  me  ! 
And  may  there  be  no  moaning  of  the  bar, 

When  I  put  out  to  sea, 

But  such  a  tide  as  moving  seems  asleep, 
Too  full  for  sound  and  foam, 

When   that  which   drew  from   out  the 
boundless  deep 
Turns  again  home. 


Twilight  and  evening  bell, 

And  after  that  the  dark  ! 
And  may  there  be  no  sadness  of  fare- 
well, 

When  I  embark; 

For  tho'  from  out  our  bourne  of  Time 
and  Place 

The  flood  may  bear  me  far, 
I  hope  to  see  my  Pilot  face  to  face 

When  I  have  crost  the  bar. 


ADDITIONAL    POEMS. 


These  Poems  were  not  included  by  the  Poet  Laureate  in  his  col- 
lected Poems,  but  have,  since  his  death,  been  published  by  his  son, 
Hallam,  Lord  Tennyson.  They  were  submitted,  according  to  the 
Poet's  desire,  to  an  expert  committee  of  friends,  before  publication. 


ADDITIONAL    POEMS. 


*  I,  loving  Freedom  for  herself, 

And  much  of  that  which  is  her  form, 
Wed  to  no  faction  in  the  state, 

A  voice  before  the  storm, 
I  mourn  in  spirit  when  I  think 

The  year,  that  comes,  may  come  with 
shame, 
Lured  by  the  cuckoo-voice  that  loves 

To  babble  its  own  name. 

*  Copyright,  1897,  by  The  Macmillan  Com- 
pany. 

*  Life  of  the  Life  within  my  blood, 
Light  of  the  Light  within  mine  eyes, 

The  May  begins  to  breathe  and  bud, 
And  softly  blow  the  balmy  skies; 

Bathe  with  me  in  the  fiery  flood, 
And  mingle  kisses,  tears,  and  sighs, 

Life  of  the  Life  within  my  blood, 
Light  of  the  Light  within  mine  eyes. 

*  Copyright,  1897,  by  The  Macmillan  Com- 
pany. 

TO .* 

Thou  may'st  remember  what  I  said 
When  thine  own  spirit  was  at  strife 
With  thine  own  spirit.    "  From  the  tomb 
And  charnel-place  of  purpose  dead, 
Thro'  spiritual  dark  we  come 
Into  the  light  of  spiritual  life." 
God  walk'd  the  waters  of  thy  soul, 
And  still'd  them.     When  from  change  to 

change, 
Led  silently  by  power  divine, 
Thy  thought  did  scale  a  purer  range 
Of  prospect  up  to  self-control, 
My  joy  was  only  less  than  thine. 

*  Copyright,  1897,  by  The  Macmillan  Com- 
pany. 


THE  HESPERIDES.* 

[Published  and  suppressed  by  my  father,  and 
republished  by  me  here  (with  accents  written 
by  him)  in  consequence  of  a  talk  that  I  had 
with  him,  in  which  he  regretted  that  he  had 
done  away  with  it  from  among  his  "Juve- 
nilia."] 

Hesperus  and  his  daughters  three 

That  sing  about  the  golden  tree.     Comus, 

The  North  wind  fall'n,  in  the  new-starr6d 

night 
Zidonian  Hanno,  wandering  beyond 
The  hoary  promontory  of  Soloe, 
Past  Thymiaterion  in  calmed  bays 
Between  the  southern  and  the  western 

Horn, 
Heard  neitherwarbling  of  the  nightingale, 
Nor  melody  of  the  Libyan  Lotus-flute 
Blown  seaward  from  the  shore;  but  from 

a  slope 
That  ran  bloom-bright  into  the  Atlantic 

blue, 
Beneath    a    highland    leaning    down    a 

weight 
Of  cliffs,  and  zoned  below  with  cedar- 
shade, 
Came  voices  like  the  voices  in  a  dream 
Continuous;    till    he   reach'd   the   outer 

sea:  — 


Song  of  the' Three  Sisters. 

1. 

The  Golden  Apple,  the  Golden  Apple, 

the  hallow'd  fruit, 
Guard  it  well,  guard  it  warily, 
Singing  airily, 

*  Copyright,  1897,  by  Tne  Macmillan  Com* 
pany. 


&73 


874 


THE  HESPERIDES. 


Standing  about  the  charmed  root. 

Round  about  all  is  mute, 

As  the  snowfield  on  the  mountain-peaks, 

As  the  sandfield  at  the  mountain-foot. 

Crocodiles  in  briny  creeks 

Sleep  and  stir  not :  all  is  mute. 

If  ye  sing  not,  if  ye  make  false  measure, 

We  shall  lose  eternal  pleasure, 

Worth  eternal  want  of  rest. 

Laugh  not  loudly :  watch  the  treasure 

Of  the  wisdom  of  the  West. 

In  a  corner  wisdom  whispers.     Five  and 

three  # 

(Let  it  not  be  preach'd  abroad)  make 

an  awful  mystery : 
For  the   blossom    unto  threefold   music 

bloweth ; 
Evermore  it  is  born  anew, 
And  the  sap  to  threefold  music  floweth, 
From  the  root, 
Drawn  in  the  dark, 
Up  to  the  fruit, 

Creeping  under  the  fragrant  bark, 
Liquid  gold,  honeysweet  thro  and  thr6. 
{slow  movement) 
Keen-eyed  Sisters,  singing  airily, 
Looking  warily 
Every  way, 

Guard  the  apple  night  and  day, 
Lest  one  from  the  East  come  and  take  it 

away. 


Father  Hesper,  Father  Hesper,  Watch, 

watch,  ever  and  aye, 
Looking  under  silver  hair  with  a  silver 

eye. 
Father,  twinkle  not  thy  stedfast  sight : 
Kingdoms  lapse,   and   climates   change, 

and  races  die; 
Honour  comes  with  mystery; 
Hoarded  wisdom  brings  delight. 
Number,  tell  them  over,  and  number 
How  many  the  mystic  fruit-tree  holds, 
Lest  the  red-comb  d  dragon  slumber 
Roll'd  together  in  purple  folds. 
Look  to  him,  father,  lest  he  wink,  and  the 

golden  apple  be  stol'n  away, 
For  his  ancient  heart  is  drunk  with  over- 

watchings  night  and  day 
Round    about    the    hallow'd    fruit-tree 

curl'd  — 


Sing  away,  sing  alodd  evermore  in  the 
wind  without  stop,         (Anapcesf) 
Lest  his  sealed  eyelid  drop, 
For  he  is  older  than  the  world. 
If  he  waken,  we  waken, 
Rapidly  levelling  eager  eyes. 
If  he  sleep,  we  sleep, 
Dropping  the  eyelid  over  our  eyes. 
If  the  golden  apple  be  taken 
The  world  will  be  overwise. 
Five  links,  a  golden  chain  are  we, 
Hesper,  the  Dragon,  and  Sisters  three 
Bound  about  the  golden  tree. 

in. 

Father  Hesper,  Father  Hesper,  Watch, 

watch,  night  and  day, 
Lest  the  old   wound   of  the  world  be 

healed, 
The  glory  unsealed, 
The  golden  apple  stol'n  away, 
And  the  ancient  secret  revealed. 
Look  from  West  to  East  along : 
Father,  old  Himala  weakens,  Caucasus  is 

bold  and  strong. 
Wandering  waters  unto  wandering  waters 

call; 
Let  them  clash  together,  foam  and  fall. 
Out  of  watchings,  out  of  wiles, 
Comes  the  bliss  of  secret  smiles. 
All  things  are  not  told  to  all, 
Half-round  the  mantling  night  is  drawn. 
Purplefringed  with  even  and  dawn 
Hesper  hateth  Phosphor,  evening  hateth 


IV. 

Every  flower  and  every  fruit  the  redolent 
"  breath 
Of  the  warm  seawind  ripeneth, 

Arching  the  billow  in  his  sleep : 
But  the  land-wind  wandereth, 
Broken  by  the  highland  steep, 
Two  streams  upon  the  violet  deep. 
For  the  Western  Sun,  and  the  Western 

Star, 
And  the  low  west-wind,  breathing  afar, 
The  end  of  day  and  beginning  of 

night, 
Keep  the  apple  Holy  and  Bright; 
Holy  and  Bright,  round  and  full,  bright 
and  blest, 


THE   STATESMAN '—  THE  LITTLE  MAID. 


875 


Mellow'd  in  a  land  of  rest : 
Watch  it  warily  night  and  day ; 
All  good  things  are  in  the  West. 
Till  mid-noon  the  cool  East  light 
Is  shut  out  by  the  round  of  the  tall  hill 
brow, 
But,  when  the  full-faced  Sunset  yel- 

lowly 
Stays   on   the    flowerful   arch    of    the 

bough, 
The  luscious  fruitage  clustereth  mel- 
lowly, 
Golden-kernell'd,  Golden-cored, 
Sunset-ripen'd  above  on  the  tree. 
The    world    is   wasted   with   fire   and 

sword, 
But  the  Apple  of  gold  hangs  over  the 

Sea! 
Five  links  —  a  Golden  chain  are  we  — 
Hesper,  the  Dragon,  and  Sisters  three, 
Daughters  three, 
Round  about, 
All  round  about 
The  gnarl'd  bole  of  the  charmed  tree. 
The  Golden  Apple,  The  Golden  Apple, 
The  hallow'd  fruit, 
Guard  it  well, 
Guard  it  warily, 
Watch  it  warily, 
Singing  airily, 
Standing  about  the  charmed  root. 

THE   STATESMAN.* 

They  wrought  a  work  which  Time  re- 
veres, 
A  pure  example  to  the  lands, 
Further  and  further  reaching  hands 

For  ever  into  coming  years; 

They  worshipt  Freedom  for  her  sake; 
We  faint  unless  the  wanton  ear 
Be  tickled  with  the  loud  "  hear,  hear," 

To  which  the  slight-built  hustings  shake; 

For  where  is  he,  the  citizen, 

Deep-hearted,  moderate,  firm,  who 
sees 

His  path  before  him?  not  with  these, 
Shadows  of  statesmen,  clever  men  ! 

Uncertain  of  ourselves  we  chase 
The  clap  of  hands;  we  jar  like  boys: 


And  in  the  hurry  and  the  noise 
Great  spirits  grow  akin  to  base. 

A  sound  of  words  that  change  to  blows ! 

A  sound  of  blows  on  armed  breasts ! 

And  individual  interests 
Becoming  bands  of  armed  foes ! 

A  noise  of  hands  that  disarrange 
The  social  engine  !  fears  that  waste 
The  strength  of  men,  lest  overhaste 

Should  fire  the  many  wheels  of  change ! 

Ill  fares  a  people  passion-wrought, 
A  land  of  many  days  that  cleaves 
In  two  great  halves,  when  each  one 
leaves 

The  middle  road  of  sober  thought ! 

Not  he  that  breaks  the  dams,  but  he 
That  thro'  the  channels  of  the  state 
Convoys  the  people's  wish,  is  great; 

His  name  is  pure,  his  fame  is  free : 

He  cares,  if  ancient  usage  fade, 
To  shape,  to  settle,  to  repair, 
With  seasonable  changes  fair, 

And  innovation  grade  by  grade: 

Or,  if  the  sense  of  most  require 
A  precedent  of  larger  scope, 
Not  deals  in  threats,  but  works  with 
hope, 

And  lights  at  length  on  his  desire : 

Knowing  those  laws  are  just  alone 
That  contemplate  a  mighty  plan, 
The    frame,    the    mind,    the   soul   of 
man, 

Like  one  that  cultivates  his  own. 

He,  seeing  far  an  end  sublime, 
Contends,  despising  party-rage, 
To  hold  the  Spirit  of  the  Age 

Against  the  Spirit  of  the  Time. 

*  Copyright,  1897,  by  The  Macmillan  Com 
pany. 

THE  LITTLE  MAID.* 

Along  this  glimmering  gallery 

A  child  she  loved  to  play; 
This  chamber  she  was  born  in !     See, 

The  cradle  where  she  lay  I 


876 


THE  ANTE-CHAMBER— THE   GRAVE. 


That  little  garden  was  her  pride, 
With  yellow  groundsel  grown  ! 

Those  holly-thickets  only  hide 
Her  grave  —  a  simple  stone  ! 

*  Copyright,  1897,  by  The  Macmillan  Com 
pany. 

THE  ANTE-CHAMBER* 

That  is  his  portrait  painted  by  himself. 
Look  on  those  manly  curls  so  glossy  dark, 
Those  thoughtful  furrows  in  the  swarthy 

cheek; 
Admire  that  stalwart  shape,  those  ample 

brows, 
And  that  large  table  of  the  breast  dis- 

pread, 
Between  low  shoulders;   how  demure  a 

smile, 
How  full  of  wisest  humour  and  of  love, 
With  some  half-consciousness  of  inward 

power, 
Sleeps  round  those  quiet  lips;   not  quite 

a  smile ; 
And  look  you  what  an  arch  the  brain 

has  built 
Above  the  ear  !  and  what  a  settled  mind, 
Mature,  harbour'd  from  change,  contem- 
plative, 
Tempers  the  peaceful  light  of  hazel  eyes, 
Observing  all  things.  This  is  he  I  loved, 
This  is  the  man  of  whom  you  heard  me 

speak. 
My  fancy  was  the  more  luxurious, 
But  his  was  minted  in  a  deeper  mould, 
And  took  in  more  of  Nature  than  mine 

own : 
Nor  proved  I  such  delight  as  he,  to  mark 
The   humours   of  the   polling   and   the 

wake, 
The    hubbub   of    the   market   and   the 

booths : 
How  this  one  smiled,  that  other  waved 

his  arms, 
These  careful  and  those  candid  brows, 

how  each  — 
Down  to   his   slightest  turns  and  atti- 
tudes— 
Was  something  that  another  could  not  be, 
How  every  brake  and  flower  spread  and 

rose, 
A  various  world !    which  he  compell'd 

once  more 


Thro'  his  own  nature,  with  well  mingled 

hues, 
Into  another  shape,  born  of  the  first, 
As  beautiful,  but  yet  another  world. 

All  this  so  stirr'd  him  in  his  hour  of  joy, 
Mix'd  with  the  phantom  of  his  coming 

fame, 
That  once  he  spake  :  "  I  lift  the  eyes  o!: 

thought, 
I  look  thro'  all  my  glimmering  life,  I  see 
At  the  end,  as  'twere  athwart  a  colour'c 

cloud, 
O'er  the  bow'd  shoulder  of  a  bland  old 

Age, 
The  face  of  placid  Death."     Long,  Eus- 
tace, long 
May  my  strong  wish,  transgressing  the 

low  bound 
Of  mortal  hope,  act  on  Eternity 
To  keep  thee  here  amongst  us !  Yet  he 

lives; 
His  and  my  friendship  have  not  suffer'd 

loss, 
His   fame   is    equal   to    his   years:    his 

praise 
Is  neither  overdealt,  nor  idly  won. 

Step  thro'  these  doors,  and  I  will  show 

to  you 
Another  countenance,  one  yet  more  dear, 
More  dear,  for  what  is  lost  is  made  more 

dear; 
"  More  dear  "  I  will  not  say,  but  rather 

bless 
The  All-perfect  Framer,  Him,  who  made 

the  heart, 
Forethinking  its  twinfold  necessity, 
Thro'  one  whole  life  an  overflowing  turn, 
Capacious  both   of  Friendship   and   ci" 

Love. 

*  Copyright,  1897,  by  The  Macmillan  Com- 
pany. 

THREE    POEMS    OMITTED    FROM 
"IN  MEMORIAM." 

The  Grave  (Originally  No.  lvii.).* 
1. 

I  keep  no  more  a  lone  distress, 

The  crowd  have  come  to  see  thy  grave, 
Small  thanks  or  credit  shall  I  have, 

But  these  shall  see  it  none  the  less. 


TO  A.  H.  H  —  THE  VICTOR  HOURS— HA  VELOCK—JACK  TAR.    877 


The  happy  maiden's  tears  are  free 

And  she  will  weep  and  give  them  way; 
Yet  one  unschool'd  in  want  will  say 

"  The  dead  are  dead  and  let  them  be." 

Another  whispers  sick  with  loss : 
"  O  let  the  simple  slab  remain ! 
The  '  Mercy  Jesu '  in  the  rain ! 

The  '  Miserere  '  in  the  moss !  " 

"  I  love  the  daisy  weeping  dew, 
I  hate  the  trim-set  plots  of  art !  " 
My  friend,  thou  speakest  from  the  heart, 

But  look,  for  these  are  nature  too. 

*  Copyright,  1897,  by  The  Macmillan  Com- 


To  A.  H.  H.  (Originally  No.  cviii.).* 
11. 

Young  is  the  grief  I  entertain, 
And  ever  new  the  tale  she  tells, 
And  ever  young  the  face  that  dwells 

With  reason  cloister'd  in  the  brain : 

Yet  grief  deserves  a  nobler  name : 

She  spurs  an  imitative  will; 

'Tis  shame  to  fail  so  far,  and  still 
My  failing  shall  be  less  my  shame : 

Considering  what  mine  eyes  have  seen, 


Nor  Sorrow  beauteous  in  her  youth, 
Nor  Love  that  holds  a  constant  mood. 

Ye  must  be  wiser  than  your  looks, 
Or  wise  yourselves,  or  wisdom-led, 
Else  this  wild  whisper  round  my  head 

Were  idler  than  a  flight  of  rooks. 

Go  forward  !  crumble  down  a  throne, 
Dissolve  a  world,  condense  a  star, 
Unsocket  all  the  joints  of  war, 

And  fuse  the  peoples  into  one. 

*  Copyright,  1897,  by  The  Macmillan  Com- 
pany. 

HAVELOCK.    Nov.  25TH,  1857.* 

Bold  Havelock  march'd, 
Many  a  mile  went  he, 
Every  mile  a  battle, 
Every  battle  a  victory. 

Bold  Havelock  march'd, 
Charged  with  his  gallant  few, 
Ten  men  fought  a  thousand, 
Slew  them  and  overthrew. 

Bold  Havelock  march'd, 
Wrought  with  his  hand  and  his  head, 
March'd  and  thought  and  fought, 
March'd  and  fought  himself  dead. 


Dlood!" 
cmillan  Com- 


:s  have  laid 

Britain,  and 

s, 

us,  of  some 

of  the  Mis- 
us ! 

pt  brave  us ! 
of  the  Mis- 


icmillan  Com- 


&7* 


JACK  TAR. 


We  quarrel  here  at  home,  and  they  plot 
against  us  yonder, 
They  will  not  let  an  honest  Briton  sit 
at  home  at  ease : 
Up,   Jack   Tars,   my  hearties!    and   the 
d — 1  take  the  parties ! 
Up  and  save  the  pride  of  the  Mistress 
of  the  Seas ! 
Up,  Jack  Tars,  and  save  us ! 
The  whole  world  shall  not  brave  us  ! 
Up  and  save  the  pride  of  the  Mis- 
tress of  the  Seas ! 


The  lasses  and  the  little  ones,  Jack  Tars, 
they  look  to  you ! 
The  despots  over  yonder,  let  'em  do 
whate'er  they  please ! 
God  bless  the'  little  isle  where  a  man  may 
still  be  true ! 
God  bless  the  noble  isle  that  is  Mis- 
tress of  the  Seas ! 
Up,  Tack  Tars,  and  save  us ! 
The  whole  world  shall  not  brave  us ! 
If  you  will  save  the  pride  of  the  Mis- 
tress of  the  Seas. 


NOTES 


AUTHOR'S  PREFATORY 
NOTES 

POETRY  is  like  shot  silk  with  many  glowing 
colours,  and  every  reader  must  find  his  own 
interpretation  according  to  his  ability,  and 
according  to  his  sympathy  with  the  poet. 


I  am  told  that  my  young  countrymen 
would  like  notes  to  my  poems.  Shall  I  write 
what  dictionaries  tell  to  save  some  of  the 
idle  folk  trouble?  or  am  I  to  try  to  fix  a 
moral  to  each  poem  ?  or  to  add  an  analysis 
of  passages?  or  to  give  a  history  of  my 
similes  ?     I  do  not  like  the  task. 


Knowledge,  shone,  knoll  —  let  him  who 
reads  me  always  read  the  vowel  in  these 
words  long. 

My  paraphrases  of  certain  Latin  and 
Greek  lines  seem  too  obvious  to  be  men- 
tioned. Many  of  the  parallelisms  here 
given  are  accidental.  The  same  idea  must 
often  occur  independently  to  two  men 
looking  on  the  same  aspects  of  Nature. 
There  is  a  wholesome  page  in  Eckermann's 
"Conversations  with  Goethe,"  where  one 
or  the  other  (I  have  not  the  book  by  me) 
remarks  that  the  prosaic  mind  finds  plagiar- 
ism in  passages  that  only  prove  "the 
common  brotherhood  of  man."  — T. 


P.    i.    To    the    Queen.    [First    pub- 
lished in  1851.  —  Ed.] 

P.  1,  lines  7,  8. 

This  laurel  greener  from  the  brows 
Of  him  that  utter'd  nothing  base. 


[Wordsworth.  On  Nov.  19,  1850,  my 
father  was  appointed  Poet  Laureate  in 
succession  to  Wordsworth.  See  Memoir, 
vol.  i,  p.  334  foil.,  and  "Reminiscences  of 
Tennyson  in  Early  Days,"  Memoir,  vol.  i. 
pp.  208-210.  —  Ed.] 

The  third  verse  in  proof  stood  — 

Nor  should  I  dare  to  flatter  state, 
Nor  such  a  lay  would  you  receive, 
Were  I  to  shape  it,  who  believe 

Your  nature  true  as  you  are  great. 

P.  2.  (Juvenilia)  Claribel.  [First 
published  in  1830.  —  Ed.]  All  these  ladies 
were  evolved,  like  the  camel,  from  my 
own  consciousness.  [Isabel  was  more  or 
less  a  portrait.  See  p.  880,  note  to  p.  6, 
Isabel.  —  Ed.] 

"Juvenilia"  were  published  in  1830. 
John  Stuart  Mill  reviewed  the  volume  in 
the  London  Review  (July  1835) ;  Leigh 
Hunt  in  the  Tatler;  and  Professor  Wilson 
(Christopher  North)  in  Blackwood. 

P.  2,  line  15.    lintwhite,  i.e.  linnet. 

P.  2.  Nothing  will  Die.  [First 
published  in  1830.  —  Ed.]  All  things  are 
evolved.     [Cf .  the  early  poem : 

01  ptovres 

All  thoughts,  all  creeds,  all  dreams  are  true, 

All  visions  wild  and  strange ; 
Man  is  the  measure  of  all  truth 

Unto  himself!     All  truth  is  change ; 
All  men  do  walk  in  sleep,  and  all 

Have  faith  in  that  they  dream : 
For  all  things  are  as  they  seem  to  all, 

And  all  things  flow  like  a  stream. 

There  is  no  rest,  no  calm,  no  pause, 
Nor  good  nor  ill,  nor  light  nor  shade, 


879 


88o 


NOTES 


Nor  essence  nor  eternal  laws : 

For  nothing  is,  but  all  is  made. 
But  if  I  dream  that  all  these  are, 

They  are  to  me  for  that  I  dream : 
For  all  things  are  as  they  seem  to  all, 

And  all  things  flow  like  a  stream. 

Ed.] 

P.  3.  All  Things  will  Die.  [First 
published  in  1830.  —  Ed.] 

P.  3,  line  35. 

Nine  times  goes  (he  passing  bell. 
Nine  times  for  a  man. 

P.  3.  Leonine  Elegiacs.  [First  pub- 
lished in  1830.  —  Ed.]  Line  10.  "hyaline.'" 
[Cf.  ws  ddXacraa  vaklvr),  "a  sea  of  glass 
like  unto  crystal1'  (Rev.  iv.  6),  and  Par. 
Lost,  vii.  619.  —  Ed.] 

P.  3,  line  13.  The  ancient  poetess  singeth. 

Fiawepe,      irdvra     (ptpeis,     8cra    <palvo\is 

icK^dacr'  aijcos, 
(ptpets    &Xv,    <p£peis     alya,    (ptpeis    fiartpi 

ira?da"  Sappho. 

P.  3.  Supposed  Confessions  of  a 
Second-rate  Sensitive  Mind.  [First 
published  in  1830.  —  Ed.]  If  some  kind 
friend  had  taken  him  by  the  hand  and 
said,  "Come,  work"  —  "Look  not  every 
man  on  his  own  things,  but  every  man 
also  on  the  things  of  others"  (Philippians 
ii.  4)  —  he  might  have  been  a  happy  man, 
though  sensitive. 

P.  5.  The  Kraken.  [First  published 
in  1830.  —  Ed.]  See  the  account  which 
Erik  Pontoppidan,  the  Norwegian  bishop, 
born  1698,  gives  of  the  fabulous  sea- 
monster  —  the  kraken  (Biographie  Uni- 
verselle) : 

"Ce  prodigieux  polype  dont  le  dos  a 
une  demilieue  de  circonfdrence  ou  plus  .  .  . 
quelquefois  ses  bras  s' eleven  t  a  la  hauteur 
des  mats  d'un  navire  de  moyenne  grandeur 
...  on  croit  que  s'ils  accrochaient  le 
plus  gros  vaisseau  de  guerre,  ils  le  feraient 
couler  a  fond  .  .  .  les  lies  flottantes  ne 
sont  que  des  krakens." 

P.  6.  Lilian.  [First  published  in  1830. 
—  Ed.] 

P.  6.  Isabel.  [First  published  in  1830. 
In  the  poem  of  Isabel  the  poet's  mother 
was  more  or  less  described.    "A  remark- 


able and  saintly  woman,"  "One  of  the 
most  innocent  and  tender-hearted  ladies  I 
ever  saw,"  wrote  Edward  FitzGerald.  She 
devoted  herself  entirely  to  her  husband  and 
her  children.  —  Ed.] 

P.  7.  Mariana.  [First  published  in 
1830.  —  Ed.]  The  moated  grange  was  no 
particular  grange,  but  one  which  rose  to 
the  music  of  Shakespeare's  words:  "There, 
at  the  moated  grange,  resides  this  dejected 
Mariana"  {Measure  for  Measure,  Act  III, 
Sc.  i.). 

P.  7,  line  4.  pear.  Altered  from 
"peach,"  because  "peach"  spoils  the 
desolation  of  the  picture.  It  is  not  a 
characteristic  of  the  scenery  I  had  in  mind. 

P.  7,  col.  2,  lines  6-9. 

Waking  she  heard  the  night-fowl  crow: 
The  cock  sung  out  an  hour  ere  light: 

From  the  dark  Jen  the  oxen's  low 
Came  to  her. 

Compare  Ballad  of  Clerk  Saunders : 
"O  Cocks  are  crowing  of  merry  midnight, 
I  wot  the  wild  fowls  are  boding  day, 
The    psalms    of    heaven    will     sure    be 
sung,"  etc. 

[Cf. 
At  midnight  the  cock  was  crowing. 
The  Ballad  of  Oriana,  p.  17.  —  Ed.] 

P.  7,  col.  2,  line  2.  marish-mosscs,  the 
little  marsh-moss  lumps  tnat  float  on  the 
surface  of  water.     ■ 

P.    8.    To    .     [First    published    in 

1830.  —  Ed.]  The  first  lines  were  ad- 
dressed to  Blakesley  (afterwards  Dean  of 
Lincoln),  but  the  poem  wandered  off  to 
describe  an  imaginary  man. 

[Of  Blakesley  my  father  said:  "He 
ought  to  be  Lord  Chancellor,  for  he  is  a 
subtle  and  powerful  reasoner,  and  an 
honest  man."  —  Ed.] 

P.   8,   line   6.     Ray-fringed   eyelids.     Cf. 
"Under  the  opening  eyelids  of  the  morn." 
Lycidas. 

P.  8,  col.  2,  line  2.  Yabbok.  Jabbok  not 
so  sweet  as  Yabbok.  Cf.  Gen.  xxxii,  22- 
32.     The  Hebrew  J  is  Y. 

P.  8,  col.  2,  line  3. 
And  heaven's  mazed  signs  stood  still. 

The  stars  stood  still  in  their  courses  to 
watch. 


NOTES 


881 


P.  8.  [Madeline.  First  published  in 
1830.  —  Ed.] 

P.  9.  First  Song  to  the  Owl.  [The 
songs  were  first  published  in  1830.  —  Ed.] 
Verse  ii.  line  6,  his  five,  wits,  the  five 
senses.  Cf.  "Bless  thy  five  wits!  Tom's 
a-cold,  —  O,  do  de,  do  de,  do  de"  {King 
Lear,  ILL  iv.  59). 

P.  9.  Recollections  of  the  Arabian 
Nights.  [First  published  in  1830.  — 
Ed.]  Haroun  Alraschid  lived  at  the  time 
of  Charlemagne,  and  was  renowned  for 
his  splendour  and  his  patronage  of  literary 
men.  I  had  only  the  translation  —  from 
the  French  of  Galland  —  of  the  Arabian 
Nights  when  this  was  written,  so  I  talked 
of  sofas,  etc.     Lane  was  yet  unborn. 

P.  9,  fines  13,  14. 

The  low  and  bloomed  foliage,  drove 
The  fragrant,  glistening  deeps. 

Not  "drove  over,"  as  one  commentator 
takes  it,  but  the  passage  means  that  the 
deeps  were  driven  before  the  prow. 

P.  9,  line  23.  platans,  plane  trees. 
Cf. 

The  thick-leaved  platans  of  the  vale. 
The  Princess,  iii.  159. 

P.  10,  col.  1,  line  6.     rivage,  bank. 
P.    10,    col.    1,    line    27.     coverture.     Cf. 
"the    woodbine    coverture  "     (Much    Ado 
about  Nothing,"  m.  i.  30). 

P.  10,  col.  1,  line  29.  bulbul,  the 
Persian  name  for  Nightingale.     Cf. 

"Not  for  thee,"  she  said, 
"O  Bulbul,  any  rose  of  Gulistan 
Shall  burst  her  veil." 

The  Princess,  iv.  104. 

P.  10,  col.  1,  line  43;  counter  changed, 
chequered.     Cf. 

Witch-elms  that  counterchange  the  floor 
Of  this  flat  lawn  with  dusk  and  bright. 
In  Memoriam,  lxxxix. 
P.    10,    col.    2,.   line    37.     silvers,    silver 
candelabra. 

P.  10,  col.  2,  line  39.     mooned,  crowned 

with    the    Mohammedan    crescent    moon. 

The  crescent  is  Ottoman,  not  Arabian,  an 

anachronism  pardonable  in  a  boy's  vision. 

P.    10,    col.    2,    line   46.      Persian   girl. 

3  L 


The  Persian  girl  "Noureddin,  the  fair 
Persian,"  in  The  Arabian  Nights'  Enter- 
tainments. 

P.  11,  Ode  to  Memory.  [First  pub- 
lished in  1830.  My  father  considered  this 
one  of  the  best  of  his  early  and  peculiarly 
concentrated  Nature-poems.  —  Ed.] 

The  Ode  to  Memory  is  a  very  early 
poem;  all  except  the  lines  beginning 
"My  friend,  with  you  to  live  alone," 
which  were  addressed  to  Arthur  Hallam 
and  added. 

P.  11,  line  9.     yesternight,  the  past. 

P.  11,  col.  2,  line  34  to  p.  12,  col.  1,  line  5. 
Of  purple  cliffs,  aloof  descried; 
Come  from    the   woods    that    belt    the    gray 

hill-side, 
The  seven  elms,  the  poplars  four 
That  stand  beside  my  father's  door, 
And  chiefly  from  the  brook  that  loves 
To  purl  o'er  matted  cress  and  ribbed  sand, 
Or  dimple  in  the  dark  of  rushy  coves. 

The  rectory  at  Somersby.  The  poplars 
have  gone. 

[The  lawn  at  Somersby  was  over- 
shadowed on  one  side  by  the  wych-elms, 
and  on  the  other  by  larch  and  sycamore 
trees.  Here  the  poet  made  his  early  song, 
"A  spirit  haunts  the  year's  last  hours." 
Beyond  the  path,  bounding  the  greensward 
to  the  south,  ran  in  the  old  days  a  deep 
border  of  lilies  and  roses,  backed  by  holly- 
hocks and    sunflowers.     Beyond   that  was 

a  garden  bower'd  close 
With  plaited  alleys  of  the  trailing  rose, 
Long  alleys  falling  down  to  twilight  grots, 
Or  opening  upon  level  plots 
Of  crowned  lilies,  standing  near 
Purple-spiked  lavender  — 

sloping  in  a  gradual  descent  to  the  parson's 
field,  at  the  foot  of  which  flows,  by  "lawn 
and  lea,"  the  swift  steep-banked  brook, 
where  are  "brambly  wildernesses,"  and 
"sweet  forget-me-nots,"  and  under  the 
water  the  "long  mosses  sway."  The 
charm  and  beauty  of  this  brook  haunted 
him  through  life.  —  Ed.] 

P.  12,  col.  1,  line  12.  wolds.  Somersby 
is  on  the  wolds  or  hills,  about  seven  miles 
from  the  fens. 

[Edward     FitzGerald     writes:      "Long 


882 


NOTES 


after  A.  T.  had  settled  in  the  Isle  of 
Wight,  I  used  to  say  he  never  should 
have  left  old  Lincolnshire,  where  there 
were  not  only  such  grand  seas,  but  also 
such  fine  Hill  and  Dale  among  The  Wolds, 
which  he  was  brought  up  on,  as  people  in 
general  scarce  thought  of."  —  Ed.] 

P.  12,  col.  I,  line  41.  Pike.  Cumber- 
land word  for  Peak. 

P.  12,  col.  1,  fines  42-44  refer  to  Mable- 
thorpe. 

I  used  to  stand  [when  a  boy]  on  the 
sand-built  ridge  at  Mablethorpe  and 
think  that  it  was  the  spine-bone  of  the 
world.  The  seas  there  are  interminable 
waves  rolling  along  interminable  shores  of 
sand. 

P.  12.  Song.  [Written  at  Somersby; 
first  published  in  1830.  —  Ed.] 

P.  12,  line  12. 

Heavily  hangs  the  tiger -lily. 

On  a  sloping  bed  the  tiger-lilies  drooped 
on  a  dank,  damp  day. 

[In  1828  my  father  had  written  the 
following  (hitherto  unpublished)  poem 
about  his  home: 

HOME 

What  shall  sever  me 

From  the  love  of  home  ? 

Shall  the  weary  sea, 

Leagues  of  sounding  foam  ? 

Shall  extreme  distress, 

Shall  unknown  disgrace, 

Make  my  love  the  less 

For  my  sweet  birth-place  ? 

Tho'  my  brains  grow  dry, 

Fancy  mew  her  wings, 

And  my  memory 

Forget  all  other  things,  — 

Tho'  I  could  not  tell 

My  left  hand  from  my  right,  — 

I  should  know  thee  well, 

Home  of  my  delight !  Ed.] 

P.  13.  A  Character.  [First  published 
in  1830.  This  man  was  "a  very  plaus- 
ible, parliament-like,  and  self-satisfied 
speaker  at  the  Union  Debating  Society." 
—  Edward  FitzGerald. 

The  following  character-poem  was  also 
written  at  Cambridge : 


TO  

Thou  may'st  remember  what  I  said 
When  thine  own  spirit  was  at  strife 
With  thine  own  spirit.     "From  the  tomb 
And  charnel-place  of  purpose  dead, 
Thro'  spiritual  dark  we  come 
Into  the  light  of  spiritual  life." 

God  walk'd  the  waters  of  thy  soul, 

And  still'd  them.     When  from  change  to 

change, 
Led  silently  by  power  divine, 
Thy  thought  did  scale  a  purer  range 
Of  prospect  up  to  self-control, 
My  joy  was  only  less  than  thine.       Ed.] 

P.  13.  The  Poet.  [First  published  in 
1830.  —  Ed] 

P.  13,  line  3. 

Dower'd  with  the  hate  of  hate,  the  scorn  oj 
scorn. 

The  poet  hates  hate ;  and  scorns  scorn. 

[My  father  denounced  hate  and  scorn  as 
if  they  were  "the  sins  against  the  Holy 
Ghost."  —  Ed.1 

P.  13,  col.  2,  line  5.  Calpe.  Gibraltar 
(one  of  the  pillars  of  Hercules)  was  the 
western  limit  of  the  old  world,  as  Caucasus 
was  the  eastern. 

P.  13,  col.  2,  line  19.  the  arrow-seeds  of 
the  field-flower,  the  dandelion. 

P.  14.  The  Poet's  Mind.  [First  pub- 
lished in  1830.  —  Ed.] 

P.  14.  The  Sea-Fairies.  [First  pub- 
lished in  1830.  —  Ed.] 

P.  15.  The  Deserted  House  =  the 
body  which  Life  and  Thought  have  left. 
[First  published  in  1830.  —  Ed.] 

P.  15.  The  Dying  Swan.  [First  pub- 
lished in  1830.  —  Ed.] 

P.  16,  col.  1,  line  5. 

Chasing  itself  at  its  own  wild  will. 

The  circling  of  the  swallow. 

P.  1 6,  col.  1,  line  14.  the  coronach,  the 
Gaelic  funeral  song. 

P.  16,  col.  1,  line  26,  soughing.  Anglo- 
Saxon  sweg,  a  sound.  Modified  into  an 
onomatopoeic  word  for  the  soft  sound  or 
the  deep  sighing  of  the  wind. 


NOTES 


883 


P.  16.  A  Dirge.  [First  published  in 
1830.  —  Ed.] 

P.  16,  col.  2,  line  1.  carketh,  vexeth. 
[From  late  Latin  carcare,  to  load,  whence 
to  charge.  —  Ed.] 

P.  16,  col.  2,  line  16,  eglalere,  for 
eglantine.     Cf. 

"With  sicamour  was  set  and  eglatere." 

The  Floure  and  the  Leafe. 

P.  16,  col.  2,  line  22.  pleached,  plaited 
(plico).  [Cf.  Much  Ado  about  Nothing, 
in,  i.  7 : 

"the  pleached  bower, 
Where  honeysuckles,  ripen'd  by  the  sun, 
Forbid  the  sun  to  enter."  Ed.] 

P.  16,  col.  2,  line  24.  long  purples  (Vicia 
Cracca),  the  purple  vetch.  Nothing  to 
do  with  "  long  purples"  (Hamlet,  iv.  vii. 
170). 

P.  17,  col.  1,  line  1.  balm-cricket,  cicala. 
There  is  an  old  school-book  used  by  me 
when  a  boy  (Analecta  Grceca  Major  a  el 
Minora).  In  the  notes  there  to  a  poem 
of  Theocritus  I  found  Teiririt;  translated 
"balm-cricket."  "Balm"  was  evidently 
a  corruption  of  Baum,  tree  (B  aum- grille) . 

[A  confusion  was  evidently  made  be- 
tween the  German  Baum  and  the  French 
baume.  —  Ed.] 

P.  17.  Love  and  Death.  [First  pub- 
lished in  1830.  —  Ed.] 

P.  17,  line  4.  cassia  (Gk.  Kavla,  a  spice 
like  cinnamon),  a  kind  of  laurel. 

P.  17,  line  8,  sheeny  vans,  shining  wings. 
Cf.  Milton,  Paradise  Lost,  ii.  927  : 

"At  last  his  sail-broad  vans 

He  spreads  for  flight." 

P.  17,  line  13.  eminent,  standing  out 
like  a  tree. 

P.  17.  The  Ballad  of  Oriana. 
[First  published  in  1830.  —  Ed.] 

P.  17,  col.  2,  line  1. 

In  the  yew-wood  black  as  night. 

Lear  made  a  fine  sketch  of  this  at 
Kingley  Bottom,  near  Chichester,  which  is 
a  striking  vale  with  a  yew  grove  in  it. 
When  we  saw  the  yews  their  blackness 
was  crowned  with  the  wild  white  clematis. 


P.  18.  Circumstance.  [First  published 
in  1830.  —  Ed.] 

P.  18.  The  Merman.  [First  published 
in  1830.  —  Ed.] 

P.  19,  col.  1,  line  4.  Turkis.  Milton 
calls  it  "turkis,"  for  turquoise  is  the 
French  word  with  an  ugly  nasal  sound  in 
the  oi  diphthong. 

P.  19,  col.  1,  line  4.  almondine,  a  small 
violet  garnet,  first  brought  from  Alabanda, 
a  city  of  Asia  Minor.  Hence  "almondine" 
is  a  corruption  of  the  Latin  adjective  Ala- 
bandina. 

P.  19.  The  Mermadd.  [First  published 
in  1830.  —  Ed.] 

"No  more  misshapen  from  the  waist, 

But  like  a  maid  of  mortal  frame." 

W.  Scott. 

P.  19,  col.  2,  line  30.  hotlow  sphere  of 
the  sea,  an  underworld  of  which  the  sea  is 
the  heaven. 

P.  20.  Adeline.  [First  published  in 
1830.  —  Ed.] 

P.  20,  col.  2,  line  12.  Sabcean. 
Arabian. 

P.  20,  col.  2,  line  21.  Letters  cowslips. 
Referring  to  the  red  spots  on  the  cowslip 
bell,  as  if  they  were  letters  of  a  fairy 
alphabet.     Cf.  Cymbeline,  11.  ii.  39: 

"like  the  crimson  drops 
I'  the  bottom  of  a  cowslip." 

P.  20.  Margaret.  [First  published 
in  1832.  All  the  poems  dated  1833  were 
published  at  the  end  of  1832.  —  Ed.] 

P.  21,  col.  1,  line  40.     leavy.     Cf. 
"Since  summer  first  was  leavy." 
Much  Ado,  n.  iii.  75. 
[Macbeth,   v.   vi.    1;    Pericles,  v.   i.   51. 
Later  editions  read  "leafy."  —  Ed.] 

P.  21.  Rosalind.  [First  published  in 
1832.  — Ed.] 

P.  22.    Eleanore.     [First  published  in 
1832.  —  Ed.] 
P.  23.    Verse  viii.     Cf.  Sappho: 
(palverai  /jloi  ktjvos  laos  deoiaiv 
ijx/xep  &P7)p,  Saris  ivavrlos  tol 
Ifdvec,  Kal  wXaalou  d5i>  <pwveu- 

0~a$  VTTCLKOljei 


NOTES 


Kal  yeXaicras  ip-epdep,  t6  p.01  jxav 
Kapdiav  iv  GTqQeGiv  iirrdaaev  ' 
us  yap  els  cr   tdio  ftpaxfus  p.e  (pwpas 
ovdep  It  eticei ' 

dWa  Kap.  pkv  yXuxr&a  eaye  \£tttov  5' 
avTLKa  XP&  ^P  virode5p6p.a,K€P, 
6irirdT€(T(ri  5'  otidep  dpyp!,  iirippbp.- 
j8et(Ti  5'  &Kovai. 

a  St  pi  Idpws  KaKX&Tcu,  rp6p.os  5e 
iraaav  &ypei'   xXojpor^pa  8e  irolas 
ep,p,i  '   TedvdKrju  8   6\lyu>  'iriSev-qs 
<palvop.ai  &\\a. 

d\Xa  ttoLp  r6\p:aTOP,  \_iirel  Kal  iriv7)Ta"\. 

P.  23.  My  life  is  full  of  weary 
days,  and  the  next  poem  beginning 
"When  in  the  darkness  over  me,"  were 
originally  two  poems,  tho'  one  in  the 
edition,  dated  1833,  published  in  1832. 

P.  24.  When  in  the  darkness  over 
me. 

P.  24,  line  10.  scritches.  Originally 
"laughters."  I  was  one  day  walking  with 
a  friend  in  a  copse,  and  I  heard  bird- 
laughter.  I  have  no  eyes,  so  to  speak. 
He  said,  "That's  a  jay."  It  may  have 
been  a  woodpecker  as  far  as  my  ears  could 
tell.  However,  whether  he  was  right  in 
his  eyesight  or  I  in  my  hearing,  I  did  once 
catch  a  jay  in  the  act  of  laughing.  I  once 
crept  with  the  greatest  caution  thro'  a 
wood  and  came  right  underneath  a  jay. 
I  heard  him  chuckling  to  himself ;  and  the 
afternoon  sun  was  full  upon  him;  I  broke 
by  chance  a  little  rotten  twig  of  the  tree  he 
was  perched  on,  and  away  he  went. 

P.  24.  Sonnet  I.  To .  [First  pub- 
lished in  1832.  —  Ed.] 

P.  24.  Sonnet  II.  To  J.  M.  K.  To 
my  old  college  friend,  J.  M.  Kemble. 
[First  published  in  1830.  He  gave  up 
his  thought  of  taking  Orders,  and  devoted 
himself  to  Anglo-Saxon  history  and  litera- 
ture. —  Ed.] 

P.  24.  Sonnet  IV.  Alexander.  [First 
published  in  1872,  although  written  much 
earlier.  —  Ed.] 

P.  25,  line  4.  Ammonian  Oasis.  This 
refers  to  Alexander's  visit  to  the  famous 
temple  of  Zeus  Ammon  in  the  Libyan 
desert. 


P.  25.  Sonnet  V.  Buonaparte.  [First 
published  in  1832.  —  Ed.] 

P.  25.  Sonnet  VI.  Poland.  [First  pub- 
lished in  1832.  —  Ed.] 

Pp.  25,  26.  Sonnets  VII,  VIII,  IX. 
[First  published  in  1865,  although  written 
in  early  life.  —  Ed.] 

P.  26.  Sonnet  X.  [First  published  in 
1832. —  Ed.] 

P.  26.  Sonnet  XL  The  Bridesmaid. 
[First  published  in  1872.  On  May  24, 
1836,  my  father's  best-loved  brother, 
Charles  Tennyson  Turner,  married  Louisa 
Sellwood,  my  mother's  youngest  sister. 
My  mother  as  a  bridesmaid  was  taken  into 
church  by  my  father.  They  had  rarely 
been  in  each  other's  company  since  their 
first  meeting  in  1830,  when  the  Sellwoods 
had  driven  over  one  spring  day  from  Horn- 
castle  to  call  at  Somersby  Rectory. 

Two  other  early  sonnets  are  worthy  of 
insertion  here : 

LOVE 

1 
Thou,  from  the  first,  unborn,  undying  Love, 
Albeit  we  gaze  not  on  thy  glories  near, 
Before  the  face  of  God  didst  breathe  and 

move, 
Though  night  and  pain  and  ruin  and  death 

reign  here. 
Thou  foldest  like  a  golden  atmosphere, 
The  very  throne  of  the  eternal  God  ; 
Passing  thro'  thee,  the  edicts  of  His  fear 
Are  mellow' d  into  music,  borne  abroad 
By  the  loud  winds,   though  they  uprend 

the  sea, 
Even  from  his  centred  deeps ;  thine  empery 
Is  over  all ;  thou  wilt  not  brook  eclipse ; 
Thou  goest  and  returnest  to  His  Lips 
Like    lightening;    thou   dost    ever    brood 

above 
The  silence  of  all  hearts,  unutterable  Love. 

h 

To  know  thee  is  all  wisdom,  and  old  age 
Is  but  to  know  thee ;  dimly  we  behold  thee 
Athwart  the  veils  of  evil  which  enfold  thee. 
We  beat  upon  our  aching  hearts  with  rage  ; 
We  cry  for  thee;    we  deem  the  world  thy 

tomb. 
As  dwellers  in  lone  planets  look  upon 


NOTES 


885 


The  mighty  disk  of  their  majestic  sun, 
Hallow'd  in  awful  chasms  of  wheeling  gloom, 
Making  their  day  dim,  so  we  gaze  on  thee. 
Come,  thou  of  many  crowns,  white-robed 

Love, 
O  rend  the  veil  in  twain  !  all  men  adore  thee ; 
Heaven  crieth  after   thee;    earth  waileth 

for  thee ; 
Breathe  on  thy  winged  throne,  and  it  shall 

move 
In  music  and  in  light  o'er  land  and  sea. 

Ed.] 
P.  27.  The  Lady  of  Shalott.  [First 
published  in  1832,  and  much  altered  in 
1842.  —  Ep.]  Taken  from  an  Italian 
novelette,  Donna  di  Scalotta.  Shalott  and 
Astolat  are  the  same  words.  The  Lady  of 
Shalott  is  evidently  the  Elaine  of  the  Morte 
a" Arthur,  but  I  do  not  think  that  I  had 
ever  heard  of  the  latter  when  I  wrote  the 
former.  Shalott  was  a  softer  sound  than 
"Scalott."  Stalott  would  have  been 
nearer  Astolat. 

P.  27,  col.  1,  line  5.  Camelot  (unlike 
the  Camelot  of  the  Celtic  legends)  is  on  the 
sea  in  the  Italian  story. 

[The  key  to  this  tale  of  magic  symbolism 
is  of  deep  human  significance  and  is  to  be 
found  in  the  lines : 

Or  when  the  moon  was  overhead, 
Came  two  young  lovers  lately  wed ; 
"I  am  half  sick  of  shadows,"  said 
The  Lady  of  Shalott. 

Ep.] 
P.    27,    col.    i,    line    30.     cheerly.     Cf. 
"cheerly    drawing    breath"    {Rich.    II,    I. 
iii.  66). 

P.  28,  col.  2,  line  30. 

Till  her  blood  was  frozen  slowly. 
George  Eliot  liked  my  first  the  best : 

Till  her  smooth  face  sharpen'd  slowly. 

P.  20.  Mariana  in  the  South.  [First 
published  in  1832.  —  Ed.]  The  idea  of 
this  came  into  my  head  between  Narbonne 
and  Perpignan. 

["It  is  intended,  you  will  perceive,  as  a 
kind  of  pendant  to  his  former  poem  of 
Mariana,  the  idea  of  both  being  the 
expression  of  desolate  loneliness,  but 
with  this  distinctive  variety  in  the  second, 
that   it   paints   the   forlorn   feeling   as   it 


would  exist  under  the  influence  of  different 
impressions  of  sense.  When  we  were 
journeying  together  this  summer  through 
the  South  of  France  we  came  upon  a  range 
of  country  just  corresponding  to  his  pre- 
conceived thought  of  a  barrenness,  .  .  . 
and  the  portraiture  of  the  scenery  in  this 
poem  is  most  faithful.  You  will,  I  think, 
agree  with  me  that  the  essential  and  dis- 
tinguishing character  of  the  conception 
requires  in  the  Southern  Mariana  a  greater 
lingering  on  the  outward  circumstances, 
and  a  less  palpable  transition  of  the  poet 
into  Mariana's  feelings,  than  was  the  case 
in  the  former  poem."  (A.  H.  Hallam  to 
W.  B.  Donne.)  —  Ed.] 

P.  30,  col.  1,  line  4. 

At  eve  a  dry  cicala  sung. 

Originally  in  MS. 

At  fall  of  eve  a  cricket  sung. 

P.  30.    The  Two  Voices. 

[The  Two  Voices,  or  Thoughts  of  a 
Suicide  (first  published  in  1844,  but  dated 
1833),  describing  the  conflict  in  a  soul 
between  Faith  and  Scepticism,  was  begun 
after  the  death  of  Arthur  Hallam,  which, 
as  my  father  told  me,  for  a  while  blotted 
out  all  joy  from  his  life,  and  made  him 
long  for  death. 

In  the  earliest  manuscript  of  The  Two 
Voices  a  fine  verse  which  was  omitted  in 
the  published  edition  is  found  after  "under 
earth"  (p.  34,  col.  1,  line  30) : 

From  when  his  baby  pulses  beat 
To  when  his  hands  in  their  last  heat 
Pick  at  the  death-mote  on  the  sheet. 

Ed.] 
P.  30,  col.  2,  line  15.    for  thy  deficiency, 
for  the  want  of  thee. 

P.  32,  col.  2,  line  15. 

Look  up,  the  fold  is  on  her  brow. 
The  fold  =  the  cloud. 

P.  32,  col.  2,  line  16.  oblique.  Our 
grandfathers  said  "obleege,"  which  is  now 
oblige;  in  the  same  way  I  pronounce 
"oblique"  oblique. 

P.  32,  col.  2,  line  18.  Embracing  cloud. 
Ixion  embraced  a  cloud,  hoping  to  embrace 
a  goddess. 


886 


NOTES 


P.  33,  col.  i,  line  12. 

The  elements  were  kindlier  mix'd. 
Some  have  happier  dispositions. 
P.  33,  col.  2,  line  22. 

The  simple  senses  crown'd  his  head. 
The  simple  senses  made  death  a  king. 
P.  34,  col.  1,  lines  31,  32. 

Before  the  little  ducts  began 
To  feed  thy  bones  with  lime. 

[Cf.  Animal  Physiology,  by  W.  B.  Car- 
penter: "In  the  first  development  of  the 
embryo,  a  sort  of  mould  of  cartilage  is  laid 
down  for  the  greater  part  of  the  bones. 
.  .  .  The  process  of  ossification,  or  bone- 
formation,  commences  with  the  deposit  of 
calcareous  matter  in  the  intercellular  sub- 
stance of  the  cartilage,  so  as  to  form  a  sort 
of  network,  in  the  interspaces  of  which  are 
seen  the  remains  of  the  cartilage-cells. 
The  tissue  thus  formed  can  scarcely  be 
considered  as  true  bone,  for  it  contains 
neither  lacunce  nor  canaliculi.  Before 
long,  however,  it  undergoes  very  important 
changes;  for  many  of  the  partitions  are 
removed,  so  that  the  minute  chambers 
which  they  separated  coalesce  into  larger 
ones;  and  thus  are  formed  the  cancelli  of 
the  spongy  substance,  and  the  Haversian 
canals  of  the  more  compact."  —  Ed.] 

P.  36,  col.  1,  line  3. 
You  scarce  could  see  the  grass  for  flowers. 

[Edward  FitzGerald  says:  "Composed 
as  he  walked  about  the  Dulwich  meadows." 
—  Ed.] 

P.  36.  The  Miller's  Daughter. 
[First  published  in  1832;  much  altered  in 
1842.  —  Ed.]  No  particular  mill,  but  if 
I  thought  at  all  of  any  mill  it  was  that  of 
Trumpington,  near  Cambridge. 

[FitzGerald  notes:  "This  Poem,  as 
may  be  seen,  is  much  altered  and  enlarged 
from  the  1st  Ed.  (dated)  1833 ;  in  some 
respects,  I  think,  not  for  the  better ;  losing 
somewhat  of  the  easy  character  of  'Talk 
over  the  Walnuts  and  the  Wine.'  Any- 
how, would  one  not  preserve  the  first 
stanza  of  the  original,  slightly  altered,  as 
A.  T.  suggested  to  me  ? 
I  met  in  all  the  close  green  ways, 

While  walking  with  my  rod  and  line, 


The  Miller  with  his  mealy  face, 

And  long'd  to  take  his  hand  in  mine. 
He  look'd  so  jolly  and  so  good, 

When  fishing  in  the  milldam-water, 
I  laugh 'd  to  see  him  as  he  stood, 

And  dreamt  not  of  the  miller's  daughter." 

Ed.] 

P.  36,  col.  2,  lines  32,  33. 

Below  the  chestnuts,  when  their  buds 
Were  glistening  to  the  breezy  blue. 

First  reading : 

Beneath  those  gummy  chestnut  buds 
That  glistened  in  the  April  blue. 

P.  37.  Verse  omitted  after  col.  1,  line  38. 
That  slope  beneath  the  chestnut  tall 

Is  woo'd  with  choicest  breaths  of  air ; 
Methinks  that  I  could  tell  you  all 

The  cowslips  and  the  kingcups  there, 
Each  coltsfoot  down  the  grassy  bent 

Whose  round  leaves  hold  the  gather'd 
shower, 
Each  quaintly-folded  cuckoo-pint 

And  silver-paly  cuckoo  flower. 

[Cuckoo-pint,  or  Lords  and  Ladies, 
Arum  maculatum.  Cuckoo-flower,  Car- 
damine  pratensis.  —  Ed.] 

P.  37,  col.  2,  lines  17-40.  [Spedding 
writes  in  the  Edinburgh  for  April  1843: 
"'The  Miller's  Daughter'  is  much  en- 
riched by  the  introduction  of  the  mother 
of  the  lover ;  and  the  following  beautiful 
stanzas  (which  many  people  however,  will 
be  ill  satisfied  to  miss)  are  displaced  to 
make  room  for  beauty  of  a  much  higher 
order : 

Remember  you  the  clear  moonlight 
That  whiten'd  all  the  eastern  ridge, 

When  o'er  the  water  dancing  white 
I  stepp'd  upon  the  old  mill  bridge  ? 

I  heard  you  whisper  from  above, 
A  lute-toned  whisper,  '  I  am  here  ! ' 

I  murmur'd  '  Speak  again,  my  love, 
The  stream  is  loud :  I  cannot  hear  ! ' 

I  heard,  as  I  have  seem'd  to  hear, 

When  all  the  under-air  was  still, 
The  low  voice  of  the  glad  New  Year 

Call  to  the  freshly-flower'd  hill. 
I  heard,  as  I  have  often  heard, 

The  nightingale  in  leavy  woods 
Call  to  its  mate  when  nothing  stirr'd 

To  left  or  right  but  falling  floods. 


NOTES 


887 


"These,  we  observe,  are  away;  and  the 
following  graceful  and  tender  picture,  full 
of  the  spirit  of  English  rural  life,  appears 
in  their  place.  (The  late  squire's  son,  we 
should  presume,  is  bent  on  marrying  the 
daughter  of  the  wealthy  miller) : 

And  slowly  was  my  mother  brought 

Approaching,  press'd  you  heart  to  heart." 

Ed.] 

P.  38.  Fatima.  [Published  in  1832,  to 
which  this  quotation  from  Sappho  was  pre- 
fixed: 

(paiveral  p.01  ktjpos  tcros  deoicriv 
€fxfj.ev  &vr\p.  Ed.1 

P.  39.  (Enone.  Married  to  Paris,  and 
afterwards  deserted  by  him  for  Helen. 
The  sequel  of  the  tale  is  poorly  given  in 
Quintus  Calaber. 

[See  The  Death  of  (Enone,  p.  85. 
My  father  visited  the  Pyrenees  with 
Arthur  Hallam  in  1830.  From  this  time 
forward  the  lonely  Pyrenean  peaks,  the 
mountains  with  "their  streaks  of  virgin 
snow,"  like  the  Maladetta,  mountain 
"lawns  and  meadow-ledges  midway 
down,"  and  the  "long  brook  falling  thro' 
the  clov'n  ravine,"  were  a  continual  source 
of  inspiration.  He  wrote  part  of  (Enone 
in  the  valley  of  Cauteretz.  His  sojourn 
there  was  also  commemorated  one-and- 
thirty  years  afterward  in  "All  along  the 
valley."  (Enone  was  first  published  in 
1832,  but  was  republished  in  1842  with 
considerable  alterations.  —  Ed.] 

I  had  an  idiotic  hatred  of  hyphens  in 
those  days,  but  though  I  printed  such 
words  as  "glenriver,"  "  tendriltwine "  I 
always  gave  them  in  reading  their  full  two 
accents.  Coleridge  thought  because  of 
these  hyphened  words  that  I  could  not 
scan.  He  said  that  I  ought  to  write  in  a 
regular  metre  in  order  that  I  might  learn 
what  metre  was  —  not  knowing  that  in 
earUest  youth  I  had  written  hundreds  of 
lines  in  the  regular  Popian  measure.  I 
remember  my  father  (who  was  himself 
something  of  a  poet  and  wrote  very  regular 
metre)  saying  to  me  when  in  my  early 
teens,  "Don't  write  always  such  exact 
metre  —  break  it  now  and  then  to  avoid 
monotony."     I  now  think  that  we  want 

two  forms  of  hyphen,  e.g.     "Paper  hang- 


ing Manufacturer"  is  a  "Manufacturer 
made  of  paper  and  hung  in  effigy."  Paper- 
hanging=Manufacturer.  "Invalid  Chair- 
maker"  is  a  sick  maker  of  chairs.  Invalid- 
chair*maker. 

P.  39,  col.  1,  line  1.  Ida.  On  the 
south  of  Troas. 

P.  39,  col.  2,  line  4.  Gargara  or  Gargaron. 
The  highest  part  of  Mt.  Ida. 

Ipsa  suas  mirantur  Gargara  messes. 
Georg.  i.  103. 

P.  39,  col.  2,  line  10.  Paris,  once  her 
playmate  on  the  hills.  [See  Apollodorus, 
iii.  12,  etc.  —  Ed.] 

P.  39,  col.  2,  lines  16,  17.  This  sort  of 
refrain : 

O  mother  Ida,  many-fountain' d  Ida, 

Dear  mother  Ida,  harken  ere  I  die 

is  found  in  Theocritus.  For  "many-foun- 
tain'd"  cf.  //.  viii.  47 : 

"Idrjv  8'  inave  iroXwrrLdaica,  fnjripa  dijpwv 
and  elsewhere  in  the  Iliad. 
P.  39,  col.  2,  line  18. 
For  now  the  noonday  quiet  holds  the  hill. 
/xeaafxj3pi.vrj  5*  e?x   &pos  rjavx^- 
Callimachus,  Lavacrum  Palladis,  72. 
P.    39,  col.  2,  line  21.      and  the  winds 
are  dead.     Altered  from  the  original  read- 
ing of  1842,  "and  the  cicala  sleeps."     In 
these  lines  describing  a  perfect  stillness,  I 
did  not  like  the  jump,  "Rests  like  a  shadow 
—  and   the  cicala   sleeps."     Moreover,   in 
the  heat  of  noon  the  cicala  is  generally  at 
its  loudest,   though  I  have  read  that,  in 
extreme  heat,   it  is  silent.     Some  one   (I 
forget  who)  found  them  silent  at  noon  on 
the  slopes  of  Etna. 

In  the  Pyrenees,  where  part  of  this  poem 
was  written,  I  saw  a  very  beautiful  species 
of  cicala,  which  had  scarlet  wings  spotted 
with  black.  Probably  nothing  of  the  kind 
exists  in  Mount  Ida. 

P.  39,  col.  2,  line  22.  flower  droops. 
"Flowers  droop"  in  the  original  edition 
of  1842  was  a  misprint  for  "flower  droops. " 

P.  39,  col.  2,  line  24. 
My  eyes  are  full  of  tears,  my  heart  of  love. 

This   line,   that   any   child   might   have 


888 


NOTES 


written,  is  not,  as  some  writers  say,  taken 
from  Shakespeare: 

"Mine  eyes  are  full  of  tears,  my  heart  of 
grief." 

2  Henry  VI,  n.  hi.  17. 

P.  39,  col.  2,  line  34. 

Rose  slowly  to  a  music  slowly  breathed.  ■ 
[Cf.  Tithonus,  p.  95,  col.  2,  lines  1,  2 : 
Like  that  strange  song  I  heard  Apollo  sing, 
While  Ilion  like  a  mist  rose  into  towers ; 

and  Ovid,  Heroides,  xvi.  179: 
Ilion  adspicies,  firmataque  turribus  altis 
Moenia,  Phoebeae  structa  canore  lyrae. 

Ed.] 

P.  40,  col.  1,  line  17.  foam-bow.  The 
rainbow  in  the  cataract,  formed  by  the 
sunshine  on  the  foam. 

P.  40,  col.  1,  line  22.  Hesperian  gold, 
from  the  gardens  of  the  Hesperides. 

P.  40,  col.  1,  line  31.  married  brows, 
meeting  eye-brows,  vijpocppvs  icdpa,  Theoc. 
viii.  72.  [Cf.  Ovid,  Artis  Amatoriae,  iii. 
201,  "confinia  supercilii."  —  Ed.] 

P.  40,  col.  2,  line  16. 

And  at  their  feet  the  crocus  brake  like  fire. 
[Cf.  x/ovo-airy-fys  icpdicos,  Oed.  Coloneus,  685. 
—  Ed.] 

It  is  the  flame-like  petal  of  the  crocus 
which  is  alluded  to,  not  only  the  colour. 
I  will  answer  for  it  that  no  modern  poet 
can  write  a  single  line  but  among  the  in- 
numerable authors  of  the  world  you  will 
somewhere  find  a  striking  parallelism.  It 
is  the  unimaginative  man  who  thinks  every- 
thing borrowed, 

P.  40,  col.  2,  line  17.  amaracus,  mar- 
joram. 

P.  40,  col.  2,  line  17.  asphodel,  a  sort 
of  lily.  The  word  "daffodil"  is  said  to 
be  derived  from  "asphodel."  [Fleur 
d'asphodile.  —  Ed.] 

P.  40,  col.  2,  line  24.  peacock,  sacred  to 
Here. 

P.  41,  col.  1,  line  17. 

Rest  in  a  happy  place  and  quiet  seats. 

Scilicet  is  Superis  labor  est,  ea  cura  quietos 
Sollicitat. 

Aeneid,  iv.  379-380. 


and  .  .  .  sedesque  quietae 

Quas  neque  concutiunt  venti. 

Lucretius,  De  Rerum  Nat.  iii.  18. 

P.  41,  col.  1,  line  25.  O'erthwarted. 
Founded  on  the  Chaucerian  word  "over- 
thwart,"  across.  Cf.  Troilus  and  Criseyde, 
Bk.  iii.  685. 

P.  41,  col.  2,  line  7.  Sequel  of  guerdon, 
addition  of  reward. 

P.  41,  col.  2,  line  18.  [The  Goddess 
pictures  the  full-grown,  full-orbed  Will  like 
a  young  planet  pursuing  its  mighty  path  in 
a  series  of  revolutions,  each  revolution 
more  and  more  symmetrical,  and  devoid  of 
halting  epicycles;  until  its  course  jis  fric- 
tionless,  —  pure  unhesitating  Will,  —  fulfil- 
ling without  let  or  hindrance  the  law  of  its 
being  in  absolute  freedom.  My  father 
often  repeated  his  lines  on  Free  Will : 

This  main-miracle,  that  thou  art  thou, 
With  power  on  thine  own  act  and  on  the 
world ; 

and  would  enlarge  upon  man's  consequent 
moral  obligations,  upon  the  law  which 
claims  a  free  obedience,  and  upon  the 
pursuit  of  moral  perfection  (in  imitation  of 
the  Divine)  to  which  man  is  called.  —  Ed.] 

P.  41,  col.  2,  line  27.  Paphian.  Idalium 
and  Paphos  in  Cyprus  are  sacred  to 
Aphrodite. 

P,  42,  col.  2,  line  7.  The  Abominable, 
Eris  the  goddess  of  strife,  discord. 

P.  43,  col.  1,  line  11, 
A  fire  dances  before  her,  and  a  sound. 

Cf. 

irairaT,  oqov  rb  irvp  '  iiripx^ai  8£  /xot. 
Aesch.  Ag,  1256. 

P.  43.  The  Sisters.  [First  published 
in  1832.  —  Ed.]  Mrs.  Tom  Taylor  has 
made  a  fine  setting  for  this. 

P.  43.  The  Palace  of  Art.  [First 
published  in  edition  dated  1833';  but 
really  1832.  —  Ed.]  Trench  (afterwards 
Archbishop  of  Dublin)  said,  when  we  were 
at  Trinity  (Cambridge)  together,  "Tenny- 
son, we  cannot  live  in  Art." 

Beauty,   Good  and   Knowledge  are  three 

sisters  .   .   . 
That  never  can  be  sunder'd  without  tears. 


NOTES 


And  he  that  shuts  out  Love,  in  turn  shall  be 
Shut  out  from  Love,  and  on  her  threshold 

lie, 
Howling  in  outer  darkness. 

[Spedding  writes  that  the  poem  "repre- 
sents allegorically  the  condition  of  a  mind 
which,  in  the  love  of  beauty,  and  the 
triumphant  consciousness  of  knowledge, 
and  intellectual  supremacy,  in  the  intense 
enjoyment  of  its  own  power  and  glory,  has 
lost  sight  of  its  relation  to  man  and  God." 
—  Ed.] 

When  I  first  conceived  the  plan  of  T he- 
Palace  of  Art,   I  intended  to  have  intro- 
duced both  sculptures  and  paintings  into 
it,  but  I  only  finished  two  sculptures. 
One  was  the  Tishbite  whom  the  raven  fed, 

As  when  he  stood  on  Carmel-steeps, 
With    one    arm    stretch'd    out    bare,    and 
mock'd  and  said, 
"Come,  cry  aloud  —  he  sleeps." 
Tall,    eager,    lean    and    strong,    his    cloak 
wind-borne 
Behind,  his  forehead  heavenly  bright 
From   the   clear   marble   pouring   glorious 
scorn, 
Lit  as  with  inner  light. 
Olympias  was  the  mother  of  Alexander 
the  Great,  and  devoted  to  the  Orphic  rites. 
She   was   wont   in   the   dances   proper   to 
these    ceremonies    to    have    great    tame 
serpents  about  her. 
One  was  Olympias :  the  floating  snake 

Roll'd  round  her  ankles,  round  her  waist 
Knotted,  and  folded  once  about  her  neck, 

Her  perfect  lips  to  taste, 
1  Down    from    the    shoulder    moved ;     she 
seeming  blithe 
Declined  her  head :  on  every  side 
The  dragon's  curves  melted,  and  mingled 
with 
The  woman's  youthful  pride 
Of  rounded  limbs. 

P.  44,  col.  i,  line  2.  [Sleeps.  The 
shadow  of  Saturn  thrown  on  the  luminous 
ring,  though  the  planet  revolves  in  ten  and 
a  half  hours,  appears  to  be  motionless.  — 
Ed.] 

P.  44,  col.  i,  line  26.  That  lent  broad 
verge,  a  broad  horizon. 

1  MS.  reading. 


P.  45,  col.  1,  line  8.  hoary.  The 
underside  of  the  olive  leaf  is  white. 

P.  45,  col.  1,  line  23,  branch-work  of 
costly  sardonyx.  The  Parisian  jewellers 
apply  graduated  degrees  of  heat  to  the 
sardonyx,  by  which  the  original  colour  is 
changed  to  various  colours.  They  imitate 
thus,  among  other  things,  bunches  of 
grapes  with  green  tendrils. 

P.  45,  col.  1,  line  24. 

Sat  smiling,  babe  in  arm. 

[Edward  FitzGerald  wrote  a  note  for  me 
on  this:  "After  visiting  Italy  some  twenty 
years  after  this  poem  was  written,  he  told 
me  that  he  had  been  prepared  for  Raffaelle, 
but  not  for  Michael  Angelo  ;  whose  picture 
at  Florence  of  a  Madonna  dragging  a 
'ton  of  a  child'  over  one  shoulder  almost 
revolted  him  at  first,  but  drew  him  toward 
itself  afterward,  and  'would  not  out  of 
memory.'  I  forget  if  he  saw  the  Dresden 
Raffaelle,  but  he  would  speak  of  the  Child 
in  it  as  'perhaps  finer  than  the  whole 
composition,  in  so  far  as  one's  eyes  are 
more  concentrated  on  the  subject.  The 
child  seems  to  be  the  furthest  reach  of 
human  art.  His  attitude  is  a  man's;  his 
countenance  a  Jupiter's,  perhaps  too  much 
so.'  But  when  A.  T.  had  a  babe  of  his 
own,  he  saw  it  was  not  '  too  much  so.'  'I 
am  afraid  of  him :  babies  have  a  grandeur 
which  children  lose,  their  look  of  awe  and 
wonder.  I  used  to  think  the  old  painters 
overdid  the  expression  and  dignity  of  their 
infant  Christs,  but  I  see  they  didn't.'  "  — 
Ed.] 

P.  45,  col.  1,  line  33. 

Or  mythic  Uthcrs  deeply-wounded  son. 

Arthur  when  he  was  "smitten  thro'  the 
helm"  by  Modred. 

Here  this  verse  was  omitted : 
Or  blue-eyed  Kriemhilt  from  a  craggy  hold 

Athwart  the  light-green  rows  of  vine, 
Pour'd  blazing  hoards  of  Nibelungen  gold 
Down  to  the  gulfy  Rhine. 

P.  45,  col.  2,  line  3. 
The  wood-nymph,  stay'd  the  Ausonian  king 
to  hear. 

Egeria,  who  gave  the  laws  to  Numa 
Pompilius. 


890 


NOTES 


P.  45,  col.  2,  line  5.  engrail'd 
[heraldic  term  for  serrated.  —  Ed.]. 

P.  45,  col.  2,  line  7.  Indian  Cama, 
the  Hindu  God  of  young  love,  son  of 
Brahma. 

P.  45,  col.  2,  line  9.  blew.  "Blue," 
as  it  appears  in  some  editions,  was  a 
printer's  error.  [Cf.  Moschus,  Id.  ii. 
121-5.  —  Ed.] 

P.  45,  col.  2,  line  18,  the  supreme 
Caucasian  mind.  [The  Caucasian  range 
was  thought  to  form  the  N.W.  border  of 
Western  Asia,  from  which  the  races  who 
peopled  Europe  originally  came.  —  Ed.] 

P.  45,  col.  2,  line  29.  Ionian  father, 
Homer. 

P.  46,  col.  1,  line  17.  large-brow 'd 
Verulam.  The  bust  of  Bacon  in  Trinity 
College  Library.  "Livy"  is  in  one  of 
the  original  verses  here,  and  looks  queer. 
Our  classical  tutor  at  Trinity  College  used 
to  call  him  such  a  great  poet  that  I 
suppose  he  got  into  my  palace  thro'  his 
recommendation. 

[Fitz Gerald  wrote:  "In  this  advance- 
ment of  Livy  I  recognize  the  fashion  of 
A.  T.'s  college  days,  when  the  German 
school,  with  Coleridge,  Julius  Hare,  etc., 
to  expound,  came  to  reform  all  our 
Notions.  I  remember  that  Livy  and 
Jeremy  Taylor  were  'the  greatest  poets 
next  to  Shakespeare.'  " 

The   "original   verses"   referred   to   ran 
thus: 
Cervantes ;   the  bright  face  of  Calderon ; 

Robed  David,  touching  holy  strings ; 
The  Halicarnassean ;  and  alone? 
Alfred,  the  flower  of  kings. 

Isaiah  with  fierce  Ezekiel, 

Swarth  Moses  by  the  Coptic  sea, 
Plato,  Petrarca,  Livy,  and  Raphael, 

And  eastern  Confutzee. 
And  many  more  that  in  their  life-time  were 
Full-welling    fountain-heads    of    change, 
etc.  Ed.]  • 

P.  46.  col.  1,  line  18. 

The  first  of  those  who  know 
is  Bacon. 

"II  maestro  di  color  chi  sanno," 
as  Dante  says  of  Aristotle  in  Inferno,  iii. 


In  the  first  edition,  in  the  centre  of  the 
four  quadrangles  was  a  huge  tower. 

Hither,  when  all  the  deep  unsounded  skies 
Shudder'd  with  silent  stars,  she  clomb, 

And  as  with  optic  glasses  her  keen  eyes 
Pierced  thro'  the  mystic  dome, 

Regions  of  lucid  matter  taking  forms, 

Brushes  of  fire,  hazy  gleams, 
Clusters  and  beds  of  worlds,  and  bee-like 
swarms 
Of  suns,  and  starry  streams. 

She  saw  the  snowy  poles  and  moons  of  Mars, 
That  mystic  field  of  drifted  light 

In  mid  Orion  and  the  married  stars.1 

"Moons  of  Mars"  is  the  only  modern 

reading  here.     All  the  rest  are  more  than 

half  a  century  old. 

P.  46,  col.  1,  line  25,  as  morn  from 
Memnon.  [The  statue  of  Memnon  near 
Thebes  was  said  to  give  forth  music  when 
the  rays  of  the  rising  sun  struck  it.  —  Ed.] 

P.  46,  col.  2,  line  6,  anadems,  crowns. 
[Cf.  Shelley's  Adonais,  xi. : 

"and  threw 
The  wreath  upon  him,  like  an  anadem, 
Which    frozen     tears    instead     of     pearls 
begem."  Ed.] 

P.  46,  col.  2,  line  8.  hollow'd  moons 
of  gems  [gems  hollowed  out  for  lamps.  — 
Ed.]. 

P.  46.  After  line  16  in  col.  2  used  to 
come  these  verses : 

"From  shape  to  shape  at  first  within  the 
womb 

The  brain  is  moulded,"  she  began, 
"  And  thro'  all  phases  of  all  thought  I  come 
Unto  the  perfect  man. 

All  nature  widens  upward.     Evermore 

The  simpler  essence  lower  lies, 
More  complex  is  more  perfect,  owning  more 
Discourse,  more  widely  wise." 
P.  47,  col.  1,  line  7. 

The  abysmal  deeps  of  Personality. 
Arthur  Hallam  once  pointed  out  to  me, 
or  I  to  him,  a  quotation  in  some  review 
from  J.  P.  Richter  where  he  talks  of  an 

1  These  last  three  lines  were  altered  by  my 
father  from  the  1832  edition,  and  written  down 
by  him  for  this  Note. 


NOTES 


801 


"abysmal  Ich."  "I  believe  that  re- 
demption is  universal  in  so  far  as  it  left  no 
obstacle  between  man  and  God  but  man's 
own  will;  that  indeed  is  in  the  power  of 
God's  election,  with  whom  alone  rest  the 
abysmal  secrets  of  personality"  (A.  H. 
Hallam's  Remains,  p.  132). 

P.  47,  col.  1,  line  26. 

And,  with  dim  fretted  foreheads  all. 

Cf.  "moth-fretted  garments."  Not 
wrinkled,  but  worm-fretted  (Old  English 
fretan,  to  eat). 

P.  47,  col.  2,  line  5. 

The  hollow  orb  of  moving  Circumstance. 

Some  old  writer  calls  the  Heavens  "the 
Circumstance."  When  an  undergraduate, 
a  friend  said  to  me,  "How  fine  the  word 
'circumstance'  is,  used  in  that  sense." 
Here  it  is  more  or  less  a  play  on  the  word. 
The  Ptolemaic  astronomy  describes  the 
universe  as  scooped  out  of  chaos. 

"P.  48.  Lady  Clara  Vere  de  Vere. 
[First  published  in  1842,  although  written 
early.  —  Ed.]  A  dramatic  poem  drawn 
from  no  particular  character. 

P.  48,  col.  2,  line  21. 

The  gardener  Adam  and  his  wife. 

"The  grand  old  gardener"  in  my 
original  MS.  was  altered  to  "the  gardener 
Adam"  because  of  the  frequent  letters 
from  friends  asking  me  for  explanation. 

P.  49.  The  May  Queen.  [An  early 
poem  first  written  in  Lincolnshire,  and 
published  in  the  edition  dated  1833,  except 
the  "Conclusion,"  added  and  published 
in  1842.  FitzGerald  says:  "The  May 
Queen  is  all  Lincolnshire  inland,  as  Locksley 
Hall  its  sea-board."  —  Ed.) 

P.   49,   fine  30.     cuckoo-flowers.     Lady's 
smock  (Cardamine  pratensis).     [Cf. 
"When  daisies  pied  and  violets  blue 

And  lady-smocks  all  silver-white,"  etc. 

Love's  Labour's  Lost,  v.  ii.  905.  —  Ed.] 

P.  50.  The  May  Queen  :  New  Year's 
Eve. 

P.  50,  line  8.  The  blossom  on  the 
blackthorn.  "The  May  upon  the  black- 
thorn" —  how  did  this  reading  get  into  the 
original  text?  The  May  was  so  late  that 
there  was  only  blackthorn  in  May. 


P.  50,  line  12.  Charles's  Wain,  "The 
Great  Bear,"  or  "The  Plough,"  or,  accord- 
ing to  the  old  Egyptians,  "The  Thigh." 

P.  51.  The  May  Queen:  Conclu- 
sion. 

P.  51,  line  21.  death-watch,  a  beetle 
(Anobium  tessellatum)  whose  ticking  is 
supposed  to  forebode  death. 

P.  52,  line  15.  window-bars.  Looks  as 
if  brought  in  for  the  rhyme.  I  was  think- 
ing of  our  old  house,  where  all  the  upper 
windows  had  iron  bars,  for  there  were 
eleven  of  us  children  living  in  the  upper 
story. 

P.  53.  The  Lotos-Eaters.  [First 
published  in  the  edition  dated  1833,  much 
altered  and  published  in  1842.  —  Ed.]  The 
treatment  of  (Enone  and  The  Lotos-Eaters 
is,  as  far  as  I  know,  original.  Of  course 
the  subject  of  The  Lotos-Eaters  is  taken 
from  the  Odyssey,  ix.  82  foil. 

P.  53,  line  3. 

In  the  afternoon  they  came  unto  a  land. 

"The  strand"  was,  I  think,  my  first 
reading,  but  the  no  rhyme  of  "land"  and 
"land"  was  lazier. 

P.  53,  line  8. 

And   like   a   downward  smoke,    the   slender 
stream. 

Taken  from  the  waterfall  at  Gavarnie, 
in  the  Pyrenees,  when  I  was  20  or  21. 

P.  S3,  line  11.  Slow-dropping  veils  of 
thinnest  lawn.  Lying  among  these 
mountains  before  this  waterfalf,  that  comes 
down  one  thousand  or  twerve  hundred  feet, 
I  sketched  it  (according  to  my  custom 
then)  in  these  words. 

P.  53,  line  23.  slender  galingale.  I 
meant  the  Cyperus  papyrus  of  Linnaeus. 

P.  S3,  col.  2,  line  13.  wandering  fields. 
Made  by  me  on  a  voyage  from  Bordeaux 
to  Dublin  (1830).  I  saw  a  great  creamy 
slope  of  sea  on  the  horizon,  rolling  toward 
us. 

I  often,  as  I  say,  chronicle  on  the  spot, 
in  four  or  five  words  or  more,  whatever 
strikes  me  as  picturesque  in  nature. 

P.  53.    Lotos-Eaters:    Choric  Song. 


892 


NOTES 


P.  53, 1.  6. 

Than  lir'd  eyelids  upon  tir'd  eyes. 
I  printed,  contrary  to  my  custom,  "tir'd," 
not  "tired,"  for  fear  that  the  readers  might 
pronounce  the  word  "tired,"  whereas  I 
wished  them  to  read  it  "tierd,"  prolonging 
as  much  as  might  be  the  diphthongic  i.1 

[When  at  Somersby  (1830-37)  my  father 
now  and  then  listened  to  the  singing  and 
playing  of  his  sisters.  He  had  a  love  for 
the  simple  style  of  Mozart,  and  for  our  own 
national  airs  and  ballads,  but  only  cared  for 
complicated  music  as  suggesting  echoes  of 
winds  and  waves.  FitzGerald,  in  a  note  on 
The  Dream  of  Fair  Women,  St.  xliv., 
says:  "A.  T.  was  not  thought  to  have  an 
ear  for  music,  and  I  remember  little  of  his 
execution  in  that  line  except  humming  over 
'The  weary  pund  o'  tow,'  which  was  more 
because  of  the  weary  moral,  I  think,  than  for 
any  music's  sake.  Carlyle,  however,  once 
said,  'The  man  must  have  music  dormant 
in  him,  revealing  itself  in  verse.'  I  re- 
member A.  T.  speaking  of  Haydn's  'Chaos,' 
which  he  had  heard  at  some  Oratorio.  He 
said, '  The  violins  spoke  of  light.' "'  Venables 
wrote  in  1835  :  "I  almost  wonder  that  you 
with  your  love  of  music  and  tobacco  do  not 
go  and  live  in  some  such  place"  (as  Prague). 
—  Ed.] 

P.  54,  col.  2,  line  13. 
To  the  influence  of  mild-minded  melancholy. 
An  early  sonnet  on  "first  love"  {English- 
man's Magazine,  1831)  ran  thus: 
Check  every  outflash,  every  ruder  sally 
Of  thought  and  speech;    speak  low,  and 

give  up  wholly 
Thy  spirit  to  mild-minded  Melancholy  — 
This  is  the  place:    Thro'   yonder  poplar 

valley 
Below  the  blue-green  river  windeth  slowly : 
But  in  the  middle  of  the  sombre  valley 
The  inspir'd  waters  whisper  musically, 
And  all  the  haunted  place  is  dark  and  holy. 
The  nightingale,  with  long  and  low  pre- 
amble 
Warbled    from    yonder    knoll    of    solemn 

larches, 
And  in   and  out   the  woodbine's  flowery 
arches. 

1  Making  the  word  neither  monosyllabic  nor 
dissyllabic,  but  a  dreamy  child  of  the  two. 


The   summer   midges  wove   their   wanton 

gambol, 
And  all  the  white-stemm'd  pinewood  slept 

above  — 
When  in  that  valley  first  I  told  my  love. 

P.  ss,  col.  1,  line  3.  amaranth,  the 
immortal  flower  of  legend. 

P.  55,  col.  1,  line  3,  moly,  the  sacred 
herb  of  mystical  power,  used  as  a  charm  by 
Odysseus  against  Circe. 

P.  55,  col.  1,  line  12.  acanthus,  the 
plant  seen  in  the  capitals  of  Corinthian 
pillars. 

P.  55,  col.  1,  line  25.  On  the  hills  like 
Gods  together.  [Cf.  note  above  on  p.  904 
(CEnone,  p.  41,  col.  1,  line  17),  and 
Lucretius,  v;  83,  vi.  58 : 

Nam  bene  qui  didicere  deos  securum  agere 
aevum. 

Hor.  Sat,  i.  5.  101 : 

Namque  deos  didici  securum  agere  aevum. 

Ed.] 

P.  55.  A  Dream  of  Fair  Women. 
Published  in  1832  [in  the  edition  dated 
1833,  and  much  altered  in  1842. — Ed.] 

[FitzGerald  notes:  "The  Dream  of 
Fair  Women  in  the  1st  Ed.  of  (dated) 
1833  begins  with  the  following  stanzas,  of 
which  the  three  first  may  stand  as  a 
separate  Poem :  — 

As  when  a  man  that  sails  in  a  balloon, 
Down-looking,    sees    the    solid    shining 
ground 
Stream   from   beneath   him  in   the  broad 
blue  noon, 
Tilth,  hamlet,  mead  and  mound: 

And  takes  his  flags  and  waves  them  to  the 
mob, 
That   shout   below,   all   faces   turn'd   to 
where 
Glows  ruby-like  the  far-up  crimson  globe, 
Fill'd  with  a  finer  air ; 

So,  lifted  high,  the  poet  at  his  will 
Lets  the  great  world  flit  from  him,  seeing 
all, 
Higher    thro'   secret  splendours   mounting 
still, 
Self-poised,  nor  fears  to  fall, 


NOTES 


893 


Hearing  apart  the  echoes  of  his  fame. 
While    I    spoke    thus,    the    seedsman, 
memory, 
Sow'd    my    deep-furrow'd    thought    with 
many  a  name, 
Whose  glory  will  not  die."  Ed.] 

P.  55,  line  3.  the  morning  star  of  song. 
Chaucer,  the  first  great  English  poet, 
wrote  the  Legend  of  Good  Women.  From 
among  these  Cleopatra  alone  appears  in 
my  poem. 

P.  55,  line  5.  Dan,  from  dominus. 
[CI.  Spenser's 

"Dan  Chaucer,  well  of  English  undefiled." 
Faerie  Queene,  iv.  ii.  xxxii.  —  Ed.] 

P.  56,  col.  1,  line  15.  tortoise,  the 
"testudo"  of  ancient  war.  Warriors 
with  shields  upheld  on  their  heads  ad- 
vanced, as  under  a  strong  shed,  against 
the  wall  of  a  beleaguered  city. 

P.  56,  col.  2,  line  12.  In  an  old  wood. 
The  wood  is  the  Past.  Cf.  p.  57,  col.  1, 
lines  9,  10 : 

the  wood  is  all  thine  own 
Until  the  end  of  time, 

i.e.  time  backward. 

P.  56,  col.  2,  lines  19-22. 

The  dim  red  morn  had  died,   her  journey 
done, 
And  with  dead  lips  smiled  at  the  twilight 
plain, 
Half-fall'n  across  the  threshold  of  the  sun, 
Never  to  rise  again. 

This  stanza  refers  to  the  early  past. 
How  magnificently  old  Turner  would  have 
painted  it. 

P.  57,  col.  1,  line  11. 

At  length  I  saw  a  lady  within  call. 

Helen  of  Troy. 

P.  57,  col.  1,  line  13.  A  daughter  of 
the  gods,  daughter  of  Zeus  and  Leda. 
Some  call  her  daughter  of  Zeus  and 
Nemesis. 

P.  57,  col.  1,  line  26. 

To  one  that  stood  beside. 

Iphigenia,    who    was    sacrificed    by    Aga- 
memnon to  Artemis. 


P.  57,  col.  1,  line  33. 
Which  men  call'd  Aulis  in  those  iron  years. 

This  line  (as  far  as  I  recollect)  is  almost 
synchronous  with  the  old  reading;  but 
the  inversion  there,  "Which  yet  to  name 
my  spirit  loathes  and  fears,"  displeased 
me. 

P.  57,  col.  1,  line  33. 
My  father  held  his  hand  upon  his  face. 

[No  doubt  my  father  had  in  his  mind 
the  famous  picture  by  Timanthes,  The 
Sacrifice  of  Iphigencia  (described  by 
Valerius  Maximus,  viii.  11,  6),  of  which 
there  is  a  Pompeiian  wall-painting.  Also 
the  passage  in  Lucretius,  i.  84  foil.  —  Ed.] 

P.  57,  col.  2,  lines  5-8. 
The  high  masts  flicker' d  as  they  lay  afloat; 
The    crowds,    the    temples,    waver'd,    and 
the  shore; 
The    bright   death   quiver'd   at   the   victim's 
throat; 
Touch' d;  and  I  knew  no  more. 

Originally  the  verse,  which  I  thought  too 
ghastly  realistic,  ran  thus : 
The  tall  masts  quiver'd  as  they  lay  afloat ; 
The   temples   and   the   people   and   the 
shore, 
One  drew  a  sharp  knife  thro'  my  tender 
throat 
Slowly,  —  and  nothing  more. 
P.  57,  col.  2,  line  19. 
A    queen,    with    swarthy    cheeks    and    bold 
black  eyes. 
I  was  thinking  of   Shakespeare's  Cleo- 
patra : 

"Think  of  me 
That  am  with  Phoebus'  amorous  pinches 
black." 

Antony  and  Cleopatra,  1.  v.  28. 

Millais  has  made  a  mulatto  of  her  in  his 
illustration.  I  know  perfectly  well  that 
she  was  a  Greek.  "Swarthy"  merely 
means  sunburnt.  I  should  not  have 
spoken  of  her  breast  as  "polished  silver" 
if  I  had  not  known  her  as  a  white  woman. 
Read  "sunburnt"  if  you  like  it  better. 

P.  58,  col.  1,  line  1.  That  dull  cold- 
blooded Ccesar.  [After  the  battle  of  Actium 
Cleopatra  strove  to  fascinate  Augustus,  as 


894 


NOTES 


she  had  fascinated  Caesar,  but,  not  suc- 
ceeding, "with  a  worm"  she  "balk'd" 
his  determination  to  carry  her  captive  to 
Rome.  —  Ed.] 

P.  58,  col.  1,  line  8.  Canopus,  in  the 
constellation  of  Argo. 

P.  58,  col.  1,  line  23.  /  died  a  Queen. 
Cf.  "Non  humilis  mulier"  (Hor.  Od.  i. 
37-  32). 

P.  58,  col.  2,  line  12. 
A  noise  of  some  one  coming  thro'  the  lawn. 
Jephthah's  daughter.     Cf.  Judges,  chap.  xi. 

P.  59,  col.  1,  line  26.  battled,  em- 
battled, battlemented. 

P.  59,  col.  2,  line  3. 
Saw  God  divide  the  night  with  flying  flame. 
[Cf. 

Diespiter 
Igni  corusco  nubila  dividens. 

Horace,  Od.  i.  34.  5.  —  Ed.] 
P.  59,  col.  2,  lines  15-17. 

my  race 
Hew'd  Ammon,  hip  and  thigh,  from  Aroer 
On  Arnon  unto  Minneth. 
See  Judges  xi. 
P.  59,  col.  2,  line  21. 
Thridding  the  sombre  boskage  of  the  wood. 

Threading  the  dark  thickets.  Cf.  "every 
bosky  bourn"  (Comus,  313). 

P.  60,  col.  1,  line  7.  Fulvia,  wife  of 
Antony,  named  by  Cleopatra  as  a  parallel 
to  Eleanor. 

P.  60,  col.  1,  lines  11,  12. 

The  captain  of  my  dreams 
Ruled  in  the  eastern  sky. 

Venus,  the  star  of  morning. 
P.  60,  col.  1,  lines  14,  15. 

her,  who  clasp 'd  in  her  last  trance 
Her  murder' d  father's  head. 

Margaret  Roper,  daughter  of  Sir  Thomas 
More,  who  is  said  to  have  transferred  his 
headless  corpse  from  the  Tower  to  Chelsea 
Church.  Sir  Thomas  More's  head  had 
remained  for  fourteen  days  on  London 
Bridge  after  his  execution,  and  was  about 
to  be  thrown  into  the  Thames  to  make 
room  for  others,  when  she  claimed  and 
bought   it.    For   this   she   was   cast   into 


prison.  She  died  nine  years  after  her 
father,  and  was  buried  at  St.  Dunstan's, 
Canterbury,  but  in  the  year  17 15  the  vault 
was  opened,  and  it  is  stated  that  she  was 
found  in  her  coffin,  clasping  the  small 
leaden  box  which  inclosed  her  father's 
head. 

P.  60,  col.  1,  lines  17-20. 
Or  her  who   knew  that  Love  can   vanquish 
Death, 

Who   kneeling,   with   one   arm   about   her 
king, 
Drew    forth    the    poison    with    her    balmy 
breath, 

Sweet  as  new  buds  in  Spring. 

Eleanor,  ^  wife  of  Edward  I.,  went  with 
him  to  the  Holy  Land  (1269),  where  he 
was  stabbed  at  Acre  with  a  poisoned 
dagger.  She  sucked  the  poison  from  the 
wound. 

P.  60.  The  Blackbird.  [Written 
about  1833  and  published  in  1842.  —  Ed.] 

P.  60,  line  12.  jenneting,  an  early  apple, 
ripe  in  June.     Juneting,   i.e.   June-eating. 

P.  60,  line  17. 

And  in  the  sultry  garden-squares 
was  in  the  original  MS. 

I  better  brook  the  drawling  stares, 
i.e.  starlings. 

P.  60,  lines  19,  20. 

/  hear  thee  not  at  all,  or  hoarse 
As  when  a  hawker  hawks  his  wares. 
Charles  Kingsley  confirmed  this. 

P.  60.  The  Death  of  the  Old  Year. 
[First  published  in  1832.  —  Ed.] 

P.  61,  col.  1,  line  41.     rue  for  you,  mourn 
for  you.     Cf.  intransitive  use  of  "rue" : 
"Nought  shall  make  us  rue." 

King  John,  v.  vii.  117. 

P.  61.  To  J.  S.  [First  published  in 
1832.  —  Ed.]  Addressed  to  James  Sped- 
ding,  the  biographer  of  Bacon.  His  brother 
was  Edward  Spedding,  a  friend  of  mine, 
who  died  in  his  youth. 

P.  61,  line  19.  Once  thro'  mine  own 
doors.  The  death  of  my  father.  [Charles 
Tennyson  Turner  writes  (March  183 1) : 
"He   suffered  little,   and   after   death   his 


XOTK.S 


895 


countenance,  which  was  strikingly  lofty 
and  peaceful,  was,  I  trust,  an  image  of 
the  condition  of  his  soul,  which  on  earth 
was  daily  racked  by  bitter  fancies,  and 
tossed  about  by  stormy  troubles."  —  Ed.] 

P.  62.  On  a  Mourner.  [Written 
early,  but  first  published  in  Selections, 
1865.     See  Memoir,  vol.  ii.  p.   19.  —  Ed.] 

P.  62,  line  9.  humm'd  the  dropping 
snipe.  The  snipe  makes  a  humming  noise 
as  it  drops  toward  earth. 

P.  62,  line  10.  marish-pipe,  marestail. 
(Originally  the  paddock-pipe.) 

P.  63,  col.  1,  lines  7,  8. 

while  all  the  fleet 
Had  rest  by  stony  hills  of  Crete. 

[Cf.  Aeneid,  iii.  135,  147-177.  —  Ed. 

P.     63-      YOU     ASK     ME     WHY,     THO'     ILL 

at  ease.  [Written  about  1833,  and  first 
published  in  1842.  —  Ed.] 

This  and  the  two  following  poems,  Of 
old  sat  Freedom  and  Love  thou  thy  land, 
are  said  to  have  been  versified  from  a 
speech  by  my  friend  Spedding  at  the 
Cambridge  Union.  I  am  reported  as 
having  gone  home  and  written  these  three 
poems  during  the  night  and  shown  them 
to  him  in  the  morning.  The  speech  is 
purely  mythical ;  at  least  I  never  heard  it, 
and  no  poem  of  mine  was  ever  founded 
upon  it. 

In  the  first,  You  ask  me  why,  etc.,  there 
is  a  similarity  to  a  note  by  Spedding  [which 
Sir  Henry  Taylor  has  introduced  at  the 
close  of  one  of  his  plays],  and  why  not, 
for  I  thoroughly  agreed  with  him  about 
politics.  Aubrey  de  Vere  showed  these 
poems  to  Wordsworth;  they  were  the 
first  poems  of  mine  which  he  read.  [Cf. 
Memoir,  vol.  i.  p.  126.  —  Ed.] 

P.  63,  line  n. 

[Where  Freedom  slowly  broadens  down. 

has  been  repeatedly  misprinted  "broadens 
slowly."  My  father  never,  if  he  could 
help  it,  put  two  s's  together,  and  the 
original  MS.  stood  as  it  stands  now.  — 
Ed.] 

P.  63.  Of  old  sat  Freedom  on  the 
heights.  [First  published  in  1842, 
written  about  1833.  —  Ed.] 


P.  63,  line  15. 
Who,  God-like,  grasps  the  triple  forks. 

Like  Zeus  with  his  "trisulca  fulmina," 
the  thunderbolts.  [Ovid,  Met.  ii.  848, 
"trisulcis  ignibus";  Ovid,  lb.  471,  "telo 
trisculco."  —  Ed.] 

P.  63.  Love  thou  thy  land,  with 
love  far-brought.  [First  published  in 
1842,  written  about  1833.  —  Ed.] 

P.  64,  col.  2,  line  12.  [the  rising  wind 
of  revolutionary  change.  —  Ed.] 

P.  65.  England  and  America  in 
1782.  First  published  in  a  New  York 
paper  in  1874. 

P.  65,  line  8. 

Retaught  the  lesson  thou  hadst  taught. 
Copy  of  part  of  a  letter  of  mine  to  Walt 
Whitman : 

Nov.  15,   87. 

"The  coming  year  should  give  new  life 
to  every  American,  who  has  breathed  the 
breath  of  that  soil  which  inspired  the  great 
founders  of  the  American  constitution, 
whose  work  you  are  to  celebrate.  Truly 
the  mother-country,  pondering  on  this, 
may  feel  that  howmuchsoever  the  daughter 
owes  to  her,  she  the  mother  has  something 
to  learn  from  the  daughter.  Especially  I 
would  note  the  care  taken  to  guard  a 
noble  constitution  from  rash  and  unwise 
innovators." 

P.  65.  The  Goose.  [First  published 
in  1842.  —  Ed.] 

P.  66.  The  Epic.  Mrs.  Browning 
wanted  me  to  continue  this:  she  has  put 
my  answer  in  A  urora  Leigh. 

P.  66,  col.  2,  line  24.  mouthing  out  his 
hollow  oes  and  aes. 

[Edward  FitzGerald  writes:  "Morte 
d' Arthur  when  read  to  us  from  manuscript 
in  1835  had  no  introduction  or  epilogue; 
which  were  added  to  anticipate  or  excuse 
the  'faint  Homeric  echoes,'  etc.1  Mouth- 
ing out  his  hollow  oes  and  aes,  deep-chested 
music,  this  is  something  as  A.  T.  read, 
with  a  broad  north  country  vowel.  .  .  . 
His  voice,  very  deep  and  deep-chested, 
but  rather  murmuring  than  mouthing,  like 

1  As  in  The  Day-Dream,  to  give  a  reason  for 
telling  an  old-world  tale. 


8g6 


NOTES 


the  sound  of  a  far  sea  or  of  a  pine-wood, 
This  voice,  I  remember,  greatly  struck 
Carlyle  when  he  first  came  to  know  him." 
—  Ed.] 

P.  67.  Morte  d'  Arthur.  [First 
written  in  1835,  and  published  in  1842. 
My  father  was  fond  of  reading  this  poem 
aloud.  At  the  end  of  May  1835  he  re- 
peated some  of  it  to  FitzGerald  while  in  a 
boat  on  Windermere.  FitzGerald  notes 
the  two  lines : 
Nine  years  she  wrought  it,  sitting  in  the 

deeps 
Upon  the  hidden  bases  of  the  hills. 

'"That  is  not  bad,  I  think,'  (A.  T.) 
said  to  me  while  rowing  on  Windermere 
with  him,  in  May  1835,  when  this  Poem 
was  in  MS." 

In  Skene's  Four  Ancient  Books  of  Wales 
there  are  four  primitive  poems  naming 
Arthur  which  my  father  often  quoted : 

1.  Vol.  i.  p.  259.     Welsh  in  vol  ii.  p.  155. 

2.  "         261.         "  "  50. 

3.  "         264.         "  "  181. 

4.  "         266.         **  "    274  and  37. 

(1)  is  by  Taliessin,  named  Kadeir 
Teyrnon  (Sovereign's  Chair),  where  Arthur 
is  called  "the  blessed  Arthur." 

(2)  only  names  Arthur. 

(3)  is  also  by  Taliessin,  named  Preidden 
Annwf  n  (the  Spoils  of  Hades) ,  and  appears 
to  relate  to  one  of  Arthur's  expeditions. 

(4)  on  Geraint  and  Llongborth,  where 
Arthur  is  called  "Amheraudyr  llauur"  — 
"Imperator  laboris." 

Arthur's  unknown  grave  is  mentioned  in 
No.  xliv.  of  the  Verses  on  the  Graves  of 
Warriors  (Englynnionn  y  Bedef)  (Skene, 
vol.  i.  315  and  ii.  28) : 

"A  mystery   to  the  world,   the  grave  of 
Arthur." 

In  the  Triads  of  Arthur  and  his  Warriors 
(Skene,  vol.  ii,  pp.  456-7),  Arthur's  name 
is  mentioned  in  No.  1.  as  chief  lord  of 
three  tribe  thrones,  and  occurs  again  in 
Nos.  xviii.,  xxiii. 

The  seventh  stanza  of  the  Apple  song 
about  Arthur,  as  printed  in  Stephens' 
Literature  of  the  Kymry,  1876  (which  my 
father  considered  an  excellent  book), 
prophesies  the  return  of  Arthur  and  Med- 


rawd,  and  renewal  of  the  battle  of  Camlan. 
—  Ed.] 

P.  67,  line  4.  Lyonnesse.  The  country 
of  legend  that  lay  between  Cornwall  and 
the  Scilly  Islands  and  included  part  of 
Cornwall. 

P.  67,  col.  1,  line  31.  samite,  a  rich  silk 
stuff  inwrought  with  gold  and  silver  threads. 
(e^d/xLTOP,  woven  with  six  kinds  of  thread.) 

P.  67,  col.  2,  line  21.  topaz-lights.  The 
topaz  is  a  precious  stone  of  varying  colours 
(perhaps  from  root  "tap,"  to  shine. — 
Skeat). 

P.  67,  col.  2,  line  21.  jacinth  is  the 
hyacinth  stone,  blue  and  purple.  Cf. 
Rev.  xxi.  20. 

P.  67,  col.  2,  line  24. 
This  way  and  that  dividing  the  swift  mind. 
A  translation  of  Virgil,  Aeneid,  iv.  285 : 
Atque   animum   nunc   hue   celerem,   nunc 

dividit  illuc. 
iv  84  01  fjrop  .    .   .   didi>5ixa  p.epp."fjpi^ev. 
II.  i.  188. 

P.  68,  col.  1,  line  12.  lief,  beloved. 
Alder-liefest  (2  Hen.  VI.  1.  i.  28),  most 
beloved  of  all. 

P.  69,  col.  1,  line  1,  a  streamer  of  the 
northern  morn,  Aurora  Borealis. 

P.  69,  col.  1,  line  2.  the  moving  isles 
'of  winter,  icebergs. 

P.    69,    col.    1,    line    17.     three    lives   of 
mortal  men.     Nestor  was  called  rpiyipuv. 
Anthol.  P.  vii.  144.     Cf.  Od.  iii.  245 : 
rpis  y&p   8i]   p.Lv    (pacriu   dvd^acrdai    yive' 
dv8pG)v. 

P.  69,  col.  2,  line  26.  Three  Queens. 
In  the  original  Morte  D' Arthur  one  was 
King  Arthur's  sister,  Queen  Morgan  le 
Fay;  the  other  was  the  Queen  of  North- 
galis;  the  third  was  the  Queen  of  the 
Waste  Lands.  Some  say  that  the  three 
Queens  are  Faith,  Hope,  and  Charity. 

[The  Bishop  of  Ripon  once  asked  my 
father  whether  they  were  right  who  inter- 
preted the  three  Queens  as  Faith,  Hope, 
and  Charity.  He  answered:  'They  are 
right,  and  they  are  not  right.  They  mean 
that,  and  they  do  not.  They  are  three 
of  the  noblest  of    women.    They  are  also 


NOTES 


807 


those  three  Graces,  but  they  are  much 
more.  I  hate  to  be  tied  down  to  say, 
'This  means  that,'  because  the  thought 
within  the  image  is  much  more  than  any 
one  interpretation."  —  Ed.] 

P.  70,  col.  1,  line  11.  greaves  and 
cuisses,  leg  and  thigh  armour  (coxa,  thigh). 

P.  70,  col.  2,  line  5. 
Lest   one    good    custom   should    corrupt    the 

world. 
E.g.  chivalry,  by  formalism  of  habit  or  by 
any  other  means. 

P.  70,  col.  2,  line  18.  Bound  by  gold 
chains.  [My  father  said  that  this  passage 
was  not,  as  has  been  said,  suggested  by 
//.  viii.  19: 

ceiprjv  xpvo~elT]v  £i-  ovpavbdev  upep-daavr  est 
-rravres  8'  i^dirTeade  Oeol  iracraL  re  dtaivai' 
d\\'  oi)K  hv  iptiaaiT  &■  ovpavbdev  ireSlovSe 
Zrjv  xnrarov  p.'h.o-Tup' ,  0118'  el  p.d\a  iroXkd 

tcdp-oire. 
or  by  Plato,  Theaetetus,  153.  —  Ed.] 

P.  70,  col.  2,  line  22. 

To  the  island-valley  of  Avilion, 
or  Avalon.  There  is  an  island  of  this 
name  off  Brittany,  and  Avilion  also  stands 
for  the  ancient  "isle  of  Glastonbury." 
The  Welsh  Afallon  literally  means  the 
"Apple-trees."  It  is  here  the  island  to 
which  Arthur  is  borne  in  the  barge,  and 
from  which  he  will  some  day  return  —  the 
Isle  of  the  Blest. 

P.  70,  col.  2,  line  23. 

Where  falls  not  hail,  or  rain,  or  any  snow. 

Cf .  Od.  iv.  566 : 

ov  VKperbs,  oir   Sip  x€LfJL<*)V  iro\vs  o6re  wot 

6/x^pos. 

and  Lucretius,   De  Rerum  Nalura,  iii.   18 

foil.: 

.  .  .  sedesque  quietae 

Quas  neque  concutiunt  venti,  nee  nubila 

nimbis 
Aspergunt  neque  nix  acri  concreta  pruina 
Cana   cadens   violat   semperque   innubilus 

aether 
Integit,  et  large  diffuso  lumine  rident. 

P.  70,  col.  2,  line  25.  Deep-meadow 'd. 
drjuev  8e  Kal  Ba6v\eip.ov  ut6  Klppas  dyuv 
ire'Tpav  KpaTTjo-iiroda  <&piKiav. 

Pind.  Pylh.  x.  23. 
3M 


Also* Avdeiav  (iadvXeifxov,  Horn.  //.  ix.  151. 

P.  70,  col.  2,  line  26.  crown'd  with 
summer  sea.     Cf. 

vrjaov,  ri]v  tr^pi  TcbvTos  dTrelpiros  io~Te<pdvoj- 
rai.  Od.  x.  195. 

P.  71.  Th-e  Gardener's  Daughter; 
or,  the  Pictures.  Written  at  Cambridge- 
land  corrected  in  Spedding's  chambers  at 
60  Lincoln's  Inn  Fields,  and  published  in 
1842.  — Ed.]. 

The  centre  of  the  poem,  that  passage 
describing  the  girl,  must  be  full  and  rich. 
The  poem  is  so,  to  a  fault,  especially  the 
descriptions  of  nature,  for  the  lover  is  an 
artist,  but,  this  being  so,  the  central  picture 
must  hold  its  place. 

P.  72,  col.  1,  lines,  12,  13. 

Barge-laden,  to  three  arches  of  a  bridge 

Crown'd  with  the  minster-towers. 

Sir  Henry  Taylor  used  to  quote  this  as  a 
picture  for  a  painter. 

P.  72,  col.  2,  line  23. 
The  mellow  ouzel  (pronounced  oozel)  fluted 
in  the  elm. 

"The  wooselcock  so  black  of  hue, 
With  orange-tawny  bill." 

Mid.  Night's  Dream,  hi.  i.  128. 
The  merry  blackbird  sang  among  the  trees 
would  seem  quite  as  good  a  line  to  nine- 
tenths  of  all  English  men  and  women. 
Who  knows  but  that  the  Cockney  may 
come  to  read  it : 

The  meller  housel  fluted  i'  the  helm. 
Who  knows  what  English  may  come  to  ? 

P.  72,  col.  2,  line  24,  redcap.  Provin- 
cial for  goldfinch. 

[I  remember  my  father's  telling  me  that' 
FitzGerald  had  guessed  rightly  that  the 
autumn  landscape,  which  in  the  first  edition 
was  described  in  the  lines  beginning  "Her 
beauty  grew,"  was  taken  from  the  back- 
ground of  a  Titian  (Lord  Ellesmere's  Ages 
of  Man).  My  father  said  that  perhaps  in 
consequence  they  had  been  omitted.  They 
ran  thus: 
Her  beauty  grew :    ////  drawn  in  narrowing 

arcs 
The  southing  Autumn  touched  with  sallower 

gleams 
The  granges  on  the  fallows.     At  that  time 


8o8 


NOTES 


Tired  of  the  noisy  town  I  wander'd  there ; 
The  bell  toll'd  four;    and  by  the  time  I 

reach'd 
The  Wicket-gate  I  found  her  by  herself. 

Ed.] 

P.  75.  Dora.  [Written  about  1835, 
and  first  published  in  1842.  —  Ed.]  Partly 
suggested  by  Miss  Mitford's  story,  Dora 
Creswell,  which  is  cheerful  in  tone,  whereas 
this  is  sad ;  it  is  the  same  landscape  —  one 
in  sunshine,  the  other  in  shadow. 

Spedding  used  humorously  to  say  that 
this  was-  the  poem  which  Wordsworth 
always  intended  to  have  written. 

P.  75,  lines  15,  16. 

he  and  I 
Had  once  hard  words. 

This  quarrel  is  not  in  Miss  Mitford. 
P.  76;  col.  2,  line  15. 
Far  ojj  the  farmer  came  into  the  field. 

From  this  line  to  the  end  of  the  poem  I 
have  not  followed  Miss  Mitford. 

P.  76,  col.  2,  line  20. 
And   the   sun  fell,    and    all   the   land   was 

dark, 
dvaerd  r  i)£\ios,  <tki6u)vt6  re  7ra<rcu  ayviai. 
Homer,  Od.  passim. 

P.  78.  Audley  Court.  [First  pub- 
lished in  1842.  —  Ed.]  Partially  suggested 
by  Abbey  Park  at  Torquay  in  the  old  time. 

P.  78,  col.  2,  line  14.  four-field  system 
[the  planting  in  rotation  of  turnips,  barley, 
clover,  and  wheat.  —  Ed.]. 

P.  79,  col.  1,  line  34. 

Sole  star  of  phosphorescence  in  the  calm. 

This  line  was  added  afterwards.  No 
reader  seemed  to  have  understood  this 
allusion.  A  French  translator  has  trans- 
lated it  une  verte  ttincelle.  Torquay  was 
in  the  old  days  the  loveliest  sea-village  in 
England,  and  is  now  a  town.  In  those 
old  days  I,  coming  down  from  the  hill 
over  Torquay,  saw  a  "star  of  phosphor- 
escence" made  by  the  little  buoy  appearing 
and  disappearing  in  the  dark  sea,  and  was 
at  first  puzzled  by  it. 

P.  79.  Walking  to  the  Mail.  [First 
published  in  1842.  —  Ed.] 


P.  80,  col.  2,  line  17.  flay  flint,  a  skin- 
flint. 

P.  80,  col.  2,  line  19.  [We  paid  in 
person.  He  had  a  sow,  sir.  This  is  an 
Eton  story.  The  "leads"  were  above 
Long  Chamber.  —  Ed.] 

P.  81,  col.  1,  line  14.  best  foot.  "Best 
boot"  was  a  misprint  in  several  editions. 

P.  81.  Edwin  Morris;  or,  the  Lake. 
[First  published  in  1851.  —  Ed.] 

P.  82,  col.  1,  line  30.  [The  Latin  song 
I  learnt  at  school  refers  to  Catullus,  Acme 
and  Septimius,  xlv.  lines  8,  9 : 

Hoc  ut  dixit,  Amor,  sinistra  ut  ante, 
Dextram  sternuit  approbationem. 

Ed.] 

P.  82,  col.  2,  line  30.  Sweet-Gale,  bog- 
myrtle. 

P.  83,  col.  1,  line  21.  a  mystic  token 
from  the  king.  Writ  from  the  old  Court  of 
Common  Pleas. 

P.  83.  St.  Simeon  Stylites.  [First 
published  in  1842.  To  be  read  of  in 
Gibbon's  Decline  and  Fall,  iv.  320 
(Milman-Smith's),  and  Hone's  Every-Day 
Book,  vol.  i.  pp.  3S-36.  FitzGerald  notes: 
"This  is  one  of  the  Poems  A.  T.  would 
read  with  grotesque  Grimness,  especially 
at  such  passages  as  'Coughs,  Aches, 
Stitches,  etc.,'  laughing  aloud  at  times." 
See  the  pendant  to  this  poem,  St.  Tele- 
machus,  p.  878.  —  Ed.] 

P.  86.  The  Talking  Oak.  [First 
published  in  1842.  My  father  told  Aubrey 
de  Vere  that  "the  poem  was  an  experi- 
ment meant  to  test  the  degree  in  which  it 
was  in  his  power  as  a  poet  to  humanise 
external  nature."  —  Ed.] 

P.  87,  col.  1,  line  31.  Bluff  Harry. 
Henry  VIII.:  "the  man-minded  offset" 
of  the  next  stanza  being  Elizabeth.  Spence, 
the  monks'  buttery. 

P.  87,  col.  1,  lines  39,  40. 
In  which  the  gloomy  brewer's  soul 
Went  by  me,  like  a  stork. 

It  is  said  that  history  "does  not  justify 
the  poet  in  calling  him  a  brewer."  No, 
but  that  old  Tory  the  oak  calls  him  a 
brewer,  as  the  old  Cavaliers  did. 

Like  a  stork.    The  stork,   a  republican 


NOTES 


800 


bird,  is  said  to  have  gone  out  of  England 
with  the  Commonwealth.  And  tho'  the 
Commonwealth  did  not  expire  till  some 
months  after  the  death  of  Oliver,  it  prac- 
tically went  out  with  him.  The  night 
when  he  died  was  a  night  of  storm. 

P.  87,  col.  2,  line  5. 

In  teacup-times  of  hood  and  hoop. 
Queen  Anne's  times. 

P.  87,  col.  2,  line  9. 

The  modish  Cupid  of  the  day. 
In  many  editions  misprinted  "modest." 

P.  88,  col.  1,  line  23.     holt,  copse. 

P.  88,  col.  2,  line  33.  those  blind 
motions  of  the  Spring.     Rising  of  the  sap. 

P.  90,  col.  1,  line  24. 

Or  that  Thessalian  growth. 

[The  oaks  of  Dodona  in  Epirus.  The 
Thessalians  came  out  of.Thesprotia.  Cf. 
Herod,  vii.  176.  —  Ed.] 

The  oaks  are  those  on  which  the  swarthy 
dove,  flying  from  Thebes  in  Egypt,  sat 
and  pronounced  that  in  this  place  should 
be  set  up  an  oracle  of  Zeus.  [Cf.  Soph. 
Track.  171 ;  Herod,  ii.  55.  —  Ed.] 

P.  90.  Love  and  Duty.  [First  pub- 
lished in  1842.  —  Ed.] 

P.  91,  col.  1,  line  17.  The  slow  sweet 
hours.  Cf.  Theocritus,  Idyl  xv.  104-105: 
j3ap5io-Tcu.     fj.aKa.pwv   *£lpat    <pi\at     d\Xd 

■jrodeival 
ZpX0VTaLir6.vTe<x<Ti  jSporots  alel  ri  <p£poi<rai. 

P.  91,  col.  2,  line  n.  pathos.  This 
word  is  used  in  opposition  to  apathetic  in 
line  12,  page  90. 

The  set  gray  life,  and  apathetic  end. 

P.  91.  The  Golden  Year.  [First 
published  in  1846.  —  Ed.] 

P.  92,  col.  1,  line  9.  daughters  of  the 
horseleech.  "The  horseleach  hath  two 
daughters,  crying,  Give,  give"  (Proverbs 
xxx.  15). 

P.  93,  col.  1,  line  7.  high  above:  "high 
o'erhead"  original  reading. 

P.  93,  col.  1,  line  9. 
And  buffet  round  the  hills,  from  bluff  to  bluff. 

Onomatopoeic.  "Bluff  to  bluff"  gives 
the  echo  of  the  blasting  as  I  heard  it  from 


the  mountain  on  the  counter  side,  opposite 
to  Snowdon. 

P.  93.  Ulysses.  [First  published  in 
1842.  Edward  FitzGerald  notes:  "This 
was  the  Poem  which,  as  might  perhaps  be 
expected,  Carlyle  liked  best  in  the  Book. 
I  do  not  think  he  became  acquainted  with 
A.  T.  till  after  these  Volumes  (1842) 
appeared;  being  naturally  prejudiced 
against  one  whom  every  one  was  praising, 
and  praising  for  a  Sort  of  Poetry  which  he 
despised.  But  directly  he  saw,  and  heard, 
the  Man,  he  knew  there  was  A  Man  to 
deal  with :  and  took  pains  to  cultivate 
him;  assiduous  in  exhorting  him  to  leave 
Verse  and  Rhyme,  and  to  apply  his  Genius 
to  Prose  and  Work."  —  Ed.] 

Carlyle    wrote    to    me    when    he    read 

Ulysses:    "These  lines  do  not  make  me 

weep,  but  there  is  in  me  what  would  fill 

whole  Lachrymatories   as  I   read."       Cf. 

Odyssey,  xi,  100-137,  and   Dante,  Inferno, 

Canto  xxvi.  90  foil. :  ~        , 

Quando 

Mi  diparti'  da  Circe,  che  sottrasse 
Me  piu  d'  un  anno  la  presso  a  Gaeta, 
Prima  che  si  Enea  la  nominasse, 

Ne  dolcezza  di  figlio,  ne  la  pieta 

Del  vecchio  padre,  ne  il  debito  amore, 
Lo  qual  dovea  Penelope  far  lieta, 

Vincer  poter  dentro  da  me- 1'  ardore 
Ch'  i'  ebbi  a  divenir  del  mondo  esperto, 
E  degli  vizii  umani  e  del  valore ; 

Ma  misi  me  per  1'  alto  mare  aperto 

Sol  con  un  legno  e  con  quella  compagna 
Picciola,  dalla  qual  non  fui  deserto. 

L'  un  lito  e  1'  altro  vidi  infin  la  Spagna, 
Fin  nel  Marrocco,  e  1'  isola  de'  Sardi, 
E  1'  altre  che  quel  mare  intorno  bagna. 

Io  e  i  compagni  eravam  vecchi  e  tardi,  , 
Quando  venimmo  a  quella  foce  stretta, 
Ov'  Ercole  segn6  li  suoi  riguardi, 

Acciocche  1'  uom  piu  oltre  non  si  met  t a ; 
Dalla  man  destra  mi  lasciai  Sibilia, 
DalT  altra  gia  m'  avea  lasciata  Setta. 

"O  frati,"  dissi,  "che  per  cento  milia 
Perigli  siete  giunti  all'  occidente, 
A  questa  tanto  picciola  vigilia 

Dei  vostri  sensi,  ch'  e  del  rimanente, 
Non  vogliate  negar  1'  esperienza, 
Diretro  al  sol,  del  mondo  senza  gente. 

Considerate  la  vostra  semenza : 
Fatti  non  foste  a  viver  come  bruti, 
Ma  per  seguir  virtute  e  conoscenza." 


9<x> 


NOTES 


[In  the  Odyssey,  xi.  100-137,  the  ghost 
of  Tiresias  foretells  his  future  to  Ulysses. 
He  is  to  return  home  to  Ithaca  and  to  slay 
the  suitors.  After  which  he  is  to  set  off 
again  on  a  mysterious  voyage.  This  is 
elaborated  by  the  author  of  the  Telegoneia. 
My  father,  like  Eugammon,  takes  up  the 
story  of  further  wanderings  at  the  end  of 
the  Odyssey.  Ulysses  has  lived  in  Ithaca 
for  a  long  while  before  the  craving  for 
fresh  travel  seizes  him.  The  comrades  he 
addresses  are  of  the  same  heroic  mould  as 
his  old  comrades.1  —  Ed.] 

The  poem  was  written  soon  after  Arthur 
Hallam's  death,  and  it  gives  the  feeling 
about  the  need  of  going  forward  and 
braving  the  struggle  of  life  perhaps  more 
simply  than  anything  in  In  Memoriam. 

P.  93,  line  10.     the  rainy  Hyades. 
Arcturum  pluviasque  Hyadas  geminosque 
Triones.  Virgil,  Aen.  i.  744. 

P.  93,  line  18. 

/  am  a  part  of  all  that  I  have  met. 
Cf.   "quorum  pars  magna  fui"   (Virgil, 
Aen.  ii.  6). 

P.    93,    col.    2,    line   8,    spirit  yearning. 
■     [Accusative  absolute.  —  Ed.] 
P.  94,  col.  1,  lines  2,  3. 

well  in  order  smite 
The  sounding  furrows. 
€%t}$  8'e£6/xepoi  ito\it)v  tiCkaTvirrov  iper/JLOis 

who  gave  him  eternal  life  but  not  eternal 
youth.  He  grew  old  and  infirm,  and  as 
he  could  not  die,  according  to  the  legend, 
was  turned  into  a  grasshopper. 

[This  poem  was  first  published  in  the 
Cornhill  Magazine,  February  i860,  and 
was  praised  by  Matthew  Arnold,  who  greatly 
admired  the  blank  verse.  My  father  writes 
in  this  year:  "My  friend  Thackeray  and 
his  publishers  had  been  so  urgent  with  me 
to  send  them  something,  that  I  ferreted 
among  my  old  books  and  found  this 
Tilhonus,  written  upwards  of  a  quarter  of 
a  century  ago,  and  now  queerly  enough  at 
the  tail  of  a  flashy  novel."  —  Ed.] 

1  Perhaps  the  Odyssey  has  not  been  strictly 
adhered  to,  and  some  of  the  old  comrades  may 
be  still  left. 


(A  line  frequent  in  Homer's  Odyssey.) 

94.  Tithonus.     Beloved  by  Aurora, 


P.  94,  col.  2,  line  8.  the  silver  star, 
Venus. 

P.  94,  col.  2,  line  13.  the  goal  of  ordi- 
nance, appointed  limit. 

P.  95,  col.  2,  line  14.  /  earth  in  earth. 
"Terra  in  terra"  (Dante).  Forget.  Will 
forget. 

P.  95.  Locksley  Hall.  [First  pub- 
lished in  1842.  —  Ed.]  An  imaginary  place 
and  imaginary  hero. 

Mr.  Hallam  said  to  me  that  the  English 
people  liked  verse  in  trochaics,  so  I  wrote 
the  poem  in  this  metre. 

[Sir  William  Jones'  prose  translation  of 
the  Modllakdt,  the  seven  Arabic  poems 
(which  are  a  selection  from  the  work  of 
pre-Mohammedan  poets)  hanging  up  in  the 
temple  of  Mecca,  gave  the  idea  of  the 
poem. 

My  father  spoke  and  wrote  of  this  and 
Maud  and  other  monodramatic  poems 
thus:  "In  a  certain  way,  no  doubt,  poets 
and  novelists,  however  dramatic  they  are, 
give  themselves  in  their  works.  The  mis- 
take that  people  make  is  that  they  think 
the  poet's  poems  are  a  kind  of  'catalogue 
raisonne'  of  his  very  own  self,  and  of  all 
the  facts  of  his  life,  not  seeing  that  they 
often  only  express  a  poetic  instinct,  or 
judgment  on  character  real  or  imagined, 
and  on  the  facts  of  lives  real  or  imagined. 
Of  course  some  poems,  like  my  Ode  to 
Memory,  are  evidently  based  on  the  poet's 
own  nature,  and  on  hints  from  his  own 
life."  —  Ed.] 

P.  95,  line  4. 
Dreary   gleams    about   the   moorland  flying 

over  Locksley  Hall. 
I.e.  while  dreary  gleams  of  light  are  flying 
across  a  dreary  moorland,  —  put  absolutely 
radiis    volantibus     (not    referring    to    the 
curlews,  as  some  commentators  insist). 

Edward  FitzGerald  notes  about  verses  ii. 
and  iii. :  "This  is  all  Lincolnshire  coast: 
about  Mablethorpe,  where  A.  T.  stayed 
much,  and  where  he  said  were  the  finest 
Seas  except  in  Cornwall." 

P.  97,  lines  n,  12. 
Well  —  'tis   well   that   I   should   bluster!  — 

Hadsi  thou  less  unworthy  proved  — 
Would  to  God — for  I  had  loved  thee  more 
than  ever  wife  was  loved. 


NOTES 


ooi 


He  is  a  passionate  young  man,  and  the 
same  emotional  nature  is  reproduced  in 
old  age  in  the  second  Locksley  Hall.  The 
whole  poem  represents  young  life,  its  good 
side,  its  deficiencies,  and  its  yearnings. 

!P.  97,  line  16.  crow.       Rooks  are  called 
crows  in  the  Northern  Counties. 
P.  97,  line  24. 
That  a  sorrow's  crown  of  sorrow  is  remem- 
bering happier  things. 
Ed  ella  a  me:    "Nessun  maggior  dolore, 

Che  ricordarsi  del  tempo  felice 
Nella  miseria."  Dante,  Inf.  v.  121. 

P.  98,  lines  25,  26. 
And  at  night  along  the  dusky  highway  near 

and  nearer  drawn, 
Sees  in  heaven  the  light  of  London  flaring 
like  a  dreary  dawn. 
A  simile  drawn  from  old  times  and  the 
top  of  the  mail-coach.     They  that  go  by 
trains  seldom  see  this. 
P.  99,  lines  11,  12. 
Slowly  comes  a  hungry  people,   as  a  lion 

creeping  nighcr, 
Glares  at  one  that  nods  and  winks  behind 

a  slowly-dying  fire. 
and  supra,  p.  96,  lines  17,  18. 
Love  took  up  the  harp  of  Life,  and  smote  on 


P.  100,  line  22, 
Let  the  great  world  spin  for  ever  down  the 
ringing  grooves  of  change. 

When  I  went  by  the  first  train  from 
Liverpool  to  Manchester  (1830)  I  thought 
that  the  wheels  ran  in  a  groove.  It  was  a 
black  night,  and  there  was  such  a  vast 
crowd  round  the  train  at  the  station  that 
we  could  not  see  the  wheels.  Then  I 
made  this  line. 

P.  100,  line  24.  Cathay,  the  old  name 
for  China. 

P.  101.  Godiva.  [Written  after  his 
visit  to  Stratford-on-Avon,  Kenilworth, 
and  Coventry  in  1840,  and  first  published 
in  1842.  Lady  Godiva  lived  in  the  middle 
of  the  eleventh  century.  She  was  sister  of 
Thoroldus  de  Bukendale  in  Lincolnshire, 
of  which  county  she  was  vice-comes  or 
sheriff.  She  married  Leofric,  Count  of 
Leicester  or  Mercia,  as  the  charter  of 
Thoroldus  published  in  the  Codex  Diplo- 
matic. Anglo-Sax.  vol.  iv.  p.  126  shows. 
This  charter,  dated  1057,  commences  thus: 
"Ego  Thoroldus  de  Bukendale  coram 
nobilissimo  domino  meo  Leofrico  Comite 
Leycesterie  et  nobilissima  Comitessa  sua 
Domina  Godiva  sorore  mea,"  etc.  —  Ed.] 

See  Sir  William  Dugdale's  Antiquities 
of     Warwickshire     (1656),     who     writes: 


go  2 


NOTES 


inhabitants  a  charter  of  freedom.  ...  In 
memory  whereof  the  picture  of  him  and  his 
lady  was  set  up  in  a  south  window  of 
Trinity  Church  in  this  city  about  Richard 
II. 's  time,  his  right  hand  holding  a  charter 
with  these  words  written  thereon :  — 
I,  Luriche,  for  love  of  thee, 
doe  make  Coventry  Tol-free.'" 

P.  101,  line  ii.  a  thousand  summers. 
Earl  Leofric  died  in  1057.  [He  and  Lady 
Godiva  were  buried  in  the  porch  of  the 
Monastery,  of  which  there  are  still  some 
ruins.  —  Ed.] 

P.  1 01,  col.  2,  line  23.  wide-mouth 'd 
heads,  gargoyles. 

P.  102.  The  Day-Dream.  [Part  of 
this  poem,  The  Sleeping  Beauty,  was  pub- 
lished in  1830,  the  other  part  was  published 
in  1842. 

Edward  FitzGerald  writes:  "The  Pro- 
logue and  Epilogue  were  added  after  1835 
(when  the  poem  was  written),  for  the  same 
reason  that  caused  the  Prologue  of  the 
Morte  d' Arthur,  giving  an  excuse  for  tell- 
ing an  old-world  tale.  ...  Of  this  second 
volume  the  Morte  dy  Arthur,  Day-Dream, 
Lord  of  Burleigh  were  in  MS.  in  a  little 
red  Book,  from  which  they  were  read  to 
me  and  Spedding  of  a  Night,  'when  all 
the  House  was  mute,'  at  Spedding' s  House, 
Mirehouse,  by  Bassenthwaite  Lake,  in 
Cumberland."  —  Ed.] 

P.  104.  The  Revival.  Line  25.  Pardy, 
par  dieu. 

"Why  then,  belike,  he  likes  it  not,  perdy." 
Hamlet,  hi.  ii.  305. 
P.  104.    The  Departure.     Col.  2,  line  2. 
In  that  new  world  which  is  the  old. 
The  world  of  Love. 

P.  104,  line  20.  crescent-bark,  crescent- 
moon. 

P.  105.    L'Envoi.     Col.  2,  lines  g,  10. 
Where  on  the  double  rosebud  droops 
The  fulness  of  the  pensive  mind. 
A  recollection  of  the  bust  of  Clytie. 

P.  105.    Epilogue.    Lines  7,  8. 
Like  long-taiVd  birds  of  Paradise 

That  float  thro'  Heaven,  and  cannot  light. 

["The  great  bird  of  Paradise,  Paradisea 


apoda,  which  was  the  first  known  repre- 
sentative of  the  entire  family,  derives  its 
specific  name  from  having  been  described 
by  Linnaeus  from  a  skin  prepared  in  the 
Papuan  fashion  with  the  wings  and  feet 
cut  off"  (Lydekker,  Royal  Nat.  Hist.).— 
Ed.] 

P.  105.  Amphion.  [First  published  in 
1842.  My  mother  writes  of  this  poem: 
"Genius  must  not  deem  itself  exempt 
from  work."  —  Ed.] 

P.  107.  St.  Agnes'  Eve.  First  pub- 
lished in  The  Keepsake,  1837.  The  poem 
is  a  pendant  to  "Sir  Galahad." 

P.  107,  col.  1,  line  34.  One  sabbath. 
"Are"  was  misprinted  for  "One"  in  The 
Keepsake.     No  revises  were  sent  me. 

P.  107.  Sir  Galahad.  [First  pub- 
lished in  1842.  Edward  FitzGerald  notes: 
"Of  the  Chivalry  Romances  he  said  to  me, 
'  I  could  not  read  Palmerin  of  England,  nor 
Amadis,  nor  any  other  of  those  Romances 
through.  The  Morte  d' 'Arthur  is  much 
the  best :  there  are  very  fine  things  in  [it] ; 
but  all  strung  together  without  Art.'"  — 
Ed.] 

P.  107,  col.  2,  line  34. 

Three  angels  bear  the  holy  Grail. 

"The  Holy  Grail"  was  originally  the 
Holy  Dish  at  the  Last  Supper,  and  is 
probably  derived  from  cratella,  a  little 
bowl.  Then  it  was  said  by  some  to  be  the 
dish  in  which  Joseph  of  Arimathaea  caught 
the  blood  of  Christ  as  He  hung  on  the 
cross;  afterwards  by  others  to  be  the  cup 
of  sacramental  wine  used  at  the  Last 
Supper,  and  to  have  been  brought  by 
Joseph  to  England.  [Cf.  Malory's  Morte 
d' Arthur,  Bk.  xvn.  chaps,  xviii.-xxii.  In 
chap.  xxii.  Joseph  of  Arimathaea  says  to. 
Sir  Galahad:  "Thou  hast  resembled  me 
in  two  things,  in  that  thou  hast  seen  the 
marvels  of  the  Sangreal,  and  in  that  thou 
hast  been  a  clean  maiden,  as  I  have  been 
and  am."  —  Ed.] 

P.  108.  Edward  Gray.  [First  written 
in  a  letter  to  my  mother  in  1840,  and 
published  in  1842.  —  Ed.]  Sir  Arthur 
Sullivan  has  set  this  well. 

P.  108.  Will  Waterproof's  Lyrical 
Monologue.       [First   published   in    1842. 


NOTES 


903 


Edward  FitzGerald  writes:  "The  'plump 
Head-waiter  of  The  Cock,'  by  Temple 
Bar,  famous  for  chop  and  porter,  was 
rather  offended  when  told  of  this  poem. 
'Had  Mr.  Tennyson  dined  oftener  there, 
he  would  not  have  minded  it  so  much,'  he 
said.  L  think  A.  T.'s  chief  Dinner-resort 
in  these  Ante-laureate  Days  was  Bertolini's 
at  the  Newton's  Head,  close  to  Leicester 
Square.  We  sometimes  called  it  Dirto- 
lini's;  but  not  seriously:  for  the  Place 
was  clean  as  well  as  very  cheap,  and  the 
Cookery  good  for  the  Price.  Bertolini 
himself,  who  came  to  take  the  money  at 
the  end  of  the  Feast,  was  a  grave  and 
polite  man.  He  retired  with  a  Fortune,  I 
think."  —  Ed.] 

P.  109,  col.  1,  line  45.     raffs,  scraps. 
["A  fansie  fed  me  ones  to  wryte  in  verse 

and  rime, 
To  wing  my  griefe,   to  crave  reward,   to 

aver  still  my  crime ; 
To  frame  a  long  discourse  on  stirring  of  a 

strawe, 
To  rumble  rime  in  raffe  and  ruffe,  yet  all 

not  worth  an  hawe." 

Gascoigne,  The  Green  Knight's 
Farewell  to  Fansie. 

Ed.] 
P.  no,  col.  1,  line  17. 

Sipt  wine  from  silver,  praising  God. 

As  the  bird  drinks  he  holds  up  his  neck. 
There  is  accordingly  an  old  English  say- 
ing about  the  cock  "praising  God"  when 
he  drinks. 

P.  no,  col.  1,  line  22. 

That  knuckled  at  the  taw. 
A  phrase  that  every  boy  knows  from  the 
game  of  marbles. 

P.  no,  col.  2,  line  45.  ana,  Shak- 
speariana,  Scaligerana,  etc.  [Swarm'd, 
caused  to  swarm.  —  Ed.] 

P.  in,  col.  1,  line  40.  Old  boxes.  The 
pews  where  the  diners  sit  [which  have 
been  transferred  to  the  new  "Cock 
Tavern."  —  Ed.]. 

P.  in,  col.  2,  line  21.  [One  of  the 
ancient  "pint-pots  neatly  graven"  was 
presented  to  my  father  by  the  proprietors 
when  the  old  tavern  was  pulled  down. — 
Ed.] 


P.  in.  Lady  Clare.  [First  pub- 
lished in  1842.  —  Ed.]  Founded  on  Miss 
Ferrier's  novel  of  The  Inheritance. 

The  following  stanza  was  originally  in 
place  of  the  existing  first  two  stanzas,  and 
the  poem  began : 

Lord  Ronald  courted  Lady  Clare, 
I  trow  they  did  not  part  in  scorn, 

Lord  Ronald  her  cousin  courted  her, 
And  they  will  wed  the  morrow  morn. 

P.  in,  col.  2,  line  26.  as  I  live  by 
bread  was  a  common  phrase.  Cf.  "As 
true  as  I  am  alive." 

P.  112,  col.  1,  line  3. 

[Peter  Bayne  wrote  to  my  father  in 
1890:  "A  serious  flaw  has  been  allowed 
by  you  to  remain  in  one  of  your  master- 
pieces, in  quality  if  not  in  size.  When 
Lady  Clare's  nurse  tells  her  that  she  is  her 
own  child,  she,  Lady  Clare,  uses  in  reply 
the  words,  'If  I'm  a  beggar  born.'  The 
criticism  of  my  heart  tells  me  that  Lady 
Clare  could  never  have  said  that."  To 
which  my  father  replies:  "You  make.no 
allowance  for  the  shock  of  the  fall  from 
being  Lady  Clare  to  finding  herself  the 
child  of  a  nurse.  She  speaks  besides  not 
without  a  certain  anger.  'Peasant-born' 
would  be  tame  and  passionless."  —  Ed.] 

P.  112.  The  Captain.  A  Legend  of 
the  Navy.  [First  published  in  1865.  — 
Ed.]  Possibly  suggested  by  the  story  told 
of  the  ship  Hermione  (1797).  Published 
first  in  my  Selections,  1865. 

P.    113.    The     Lord     of     Burleigh. 
fFirst  published  in  1842.  —  Ed.]    Line  8. 
And  a  village  maiden  she. 

Sarah  Hoggins,  a  Shropshire  maiden, 
became  wife  of  the  ninth  Earl  of  Exeter  in 
1791. 

[She  is  said,  locally,  to  have  often  talked 
to  her  dairy-maids,  and  told  them  how 
much  happier  she  was  in  old  times. 
Edward  FitzGerald  writes:  "When  this 
Poem  was  read  from  MS.  in  1835  I 
remember  the  Author  doubting  if  it  were 
not  too  familiar  with  its  'Let  us  see  the 
handsome  houses,  etc.,'  for  public  Taste. 
But  a  Sister,  he  said,  had  liked  it:  we 
never  got  it  out  of  our  heads  from  the 
first  hearing;  and  now,  is  there  a  greater 
favourite  where  English  is  spoken  ?  "  —  Ed.] 


Q04 


NOTES 


P.  114,  col.  1,  lines  7,  8. 
As  it  were  with  shame  she  blushes, 
And  her  spirit  changed  within. 

The  mood  changes  from  happiness  to 
unhappiness,  and  the  present  tense  changes 
to  the  past. 

P.  114.  The  Voyage.  [First  published 
in  1864.  —  Ed.]  Life  is  the  search  after 
the  ideal.  See  Henry  Sidgwick:  A  Memoir, 
p.  120: 

"What  growth  there  is  in  the  man 
mentally  !  How  he  has  caught  the  spirit 
of  the  age  in  The  Voyage  !  I  thought  he 
had  fallen  off  into  the  didactic-dramatic 
mood  that  grows  on  poetic  souls  with 
advancing  years ;  but  how  wonderful  —  to 
me  —  is  the  lyricised  thought  of  verse  9.  I 
cannot  get  it  out  of  my  head : 
Now  high  on  waves  that  idly  burst 

Like  Heavenly   Hope  she  crown'd   the 
sea, 
And  now,  the  bloodless  point  reversed, 

She  bore  the  blade  of  Liberty. 
How  sad  —  but  a  chastened  sadness,  our 
sadness  —  that  of  the  second  half  of  the 
19th  century  —  no  '  Verzweiflung.'  The 
dream  in  City  Clerks  [Sea  Dreams]  is  as 
good;  but,  you  know,  I  am  always  most 
moved  by  lyrics." 

P.  us,  col.  1,  line  7.  the  whole  sea 
burn'd,  i.e.  with  phosphorescence. 

P.  115,  col.  2,  line  21.  laws  of  nature 
were  our  scorn.  [We.  felt  that  the  Free 
Will  is  not  bound  by  the  Laws  that  govern 
the  Material  Universe.  —  Ed.]  • 

P.  115,  col.  2,  line  5.  the  whirlwind's 
heart  of  peace,  the  calm  centre  of  the 
whirlwind. 

P.    115.    Sir   Launcelot   and   Queen 
Guinevere.     [First    published    in     1842. 
See  The  Coming  of  Arthur : 
And  Lancelot  past  away  among  the  flowers, 
(For  then  was  latter  April)  and  return'd 
Among  the  flowers,  in  May. 

Edward  Fitz Gerald  notes:  "Some  verses 
of  Sir  Launcelot's  Courtship  were  handed 
about  among  us  in  1832  (I  think)  at 
Cambridge : 

Life  of  the  Life  within  my  Blood, 

Light  of   the  Light  within  mine  Eyes, 


The  May  begins  to  breathe  and  bud, 

And  softly  blow  the  balmy  skies : 
Bathe  with  me  in  the  fiery  Flood, 

And  mingle  Kisses,  Tears,  and  Sighs  — 
Life  of  the  Life  within  my  Blood, 

Light  of  the  Light  within  mine  Eyes  !" 

Ed.] 

P.  115,  line  12.  spar  hawk,  sparrow- 
hawk. 

P.  116.  A  Farewell.  [To  the  brook 
at  Somersby.  First  published  in  1842.  — 
Ed.] 

P.     116.    The    Beggar    Maid.     [First 
published  in  1842.  —  Ed.] 
"Young   Adam    Cupid,    he    that    shot    so 

trim, 
When  King   Cophetua  loved  the  beggar- 
maid."  Rom.  and  Jul.  11.  i.  14. 

P.  116.  The  Eagle.  [First  published 
in  1851.  —  Ed.] 

P.  116.  Move  eastward,  happy 
earth,  and  leave.  [First  published,  in 
1842.  —  Ed.]  Line  6.  Thy  silver  sister- 
world,  the  moon. 

P.  116.  Come  not,  when  I  am  dead. 
[First  published  in  The  Keepsake,  1851. — 
Ed.]  The  first  printed  "But  go  thou  by" 
was  an  error  of  the  printers  for  "But  thou, 
go  by." 

P.  117.  The  Letters.  [First  published 
in  1855.  — Ed.] 

P.  117.  The  Vision  of  Sin.  [First 
published  in  1842.  Edward  FitzGerald 
writes:  "Oddly  enough,  Johnson's  'Long- 
expected  One-and-Twenty'  has  the  swing, 
and  something  of  the  Spirit  of  the  old 
Sinner's  Lyric."  —  Ed.]  This  describes  the 
soul  of  a  youth  who  has  given  himself  up 
to  pleasure  and  Epicureanism.  He  at 
length  is  worn  out  and  wrapt  in  the  mists 
of  satiety.  Afterwards  he  grows  into  a 
cynical  old  man  afflicted  with  the  "curse- 
of  nature,"  and  joining  in  the  Feast  of 
Death.  Then  we  see  the  landscape  which 
symbolizes  God,  Law  and  the  future  life. 

P.  120,  col.  1,  line  32. 
Of  sense   avenged  by  sense   that  wore  with 

lime. 
The  sensualist  becomes  worn  out  by  his 
senses. 


NOTES 


90s 


[Two  lines  are  omitted  here  which  were 
published  in  1865,  and  were  intended  by 
my  father  to  make  the  thought  clearer: 
Another  answer'd :   "But  a  crime  of  sense? 
Give  him  new  nerves  with  old  experience." 

Ed.] 

P.  120,  col.  2,  line  6.  an  awful  rose 
of  dawn.  [I  have  heard  my  father  say 
that  he  "would  rather  know  that  he  was 
to  be  lost  eternally  than  not  know  that  the 
whole  human  race  was  to  live  eternally"; 
and  when  he  speaks  of  "faintly  trusting 
the  larger  hope,"  he  means  by  "the  larger 
hope"  that  the  whole  human  race  would 
through,  perhaps,  ages  of  suffering  be  at 
length  purified  and  saved,  even  those  who 
"better  not  with  time";  so  that  at  the 
end  of  this  Vision  we  read : 
God  made  Himself  an  awful  rose  of  dawn. 

Ed.] 

P.   120.    To .     [First  published    in 

The  Examiner,  March  24,  1849.  My 
father  was  indignant  that  Keats'  wild  love- 
letters  should  have  been  published ;  but  he 
said  that  he  did  not  wish  the  public  to  think 
that  this  poem  had  been  written  with  any 
particular  reference  to  Letters  and  Literary 
Remains  of  Keats  (published  in  1848),  by 
Lord  Houghton.  —  Ed.] 

P.  121.  To  E.  L.,  on  his  Travels  in 
Greece.  [First  published  in  1853.  —  Ed.] 
Edward  Lear,  the  well-known  landscape 
painter  and  author  of  Journals  of  a  Land- 
scape Painter  in  Albania  and  Illyria,  in 
Calabria  and  in  Corsica,  and  of  the  Book  of 
Nonsense. 

P.  121.  Break,  break,  break.  [First 
published  in  1842.  —  Ed.]  This  poem  first 
saw  the  light  along  with  the  dawn  in  a 
Lincolnshire  lane  at  5  o'clock  in  the 
morning. 

P.  i2i.  The  Poet's  Song.  [First 
published  in  1842.  —  Ed.] 

P.  122.  Enoch  Arden.  [Written  in  a 
little  summer-house  in  the  meadow  called 
Maiden's  Croft  looking  over  Freshwater 
Bay  and  toward  the  downs.  First  pub- 
lished in  1864.  —  Ed.] 

Enoch  Arden  (like  Aylmer's  Field)  is 
founded  on  a  theme  given  me  by  the 
sculptor     Woolner.     I     believe     that     his 


particular  story  came  out  of  Suffolk,  but 
something  like  the  same  story  is  told  in 
Brittany  and  elsewhere. 

I  have  had  several  similar  true  stories 
sent  me  since  I  wrote  Enoch  Arden. 

[Of  this  poem  there  are  nine  German 
translations,  eight  French,  as  well  as 
Italian,  Dutch,  Spanish,  Danish,  Hungarian 
and  Bavarian  versions.  —  Ed.] 

P.    122,    line   7.     Danish   barrows.     [Cf. 
Tithonus : 
And  grassy  barrows  of  the  happier  dead. 

There  are  several  on  the  Freshwater 
downs.  —  Ed.] 

P.  123,  col.  2,  line  9.  peacock-yewtree. 
Cut  in  the  form  of  a  peacock. 

P.  124,  col.  1,  line  4.  And  isles  a  light 
in  the  offing.  This  line  was  made  at 
Brighton,  from  the  islands  of  light  on  the 
sea  on  a  day  of  sunshine  and  clouds. 

P.  127,  col.  2,  line  18.  whitening. 
When  the  breeze  blows,  it  turns  upward 
the  silvery  under-part  of  the  leaf. 

P.  130,  col.  1,  line  10. 

She  slipl  across  the  summer  of  the  world. 
The  Equator. 

P.  131,  col.  1,  line  26.  dewy-glooming, 
dewy  and  dark. 

P.  131,  col.  1,  line  29.  in  the  ringing  of 
his  ears.     (Cf.  Eothen,  chap,  xvii.) 

Mr.  Kinglake  told  me  that  he  had 
heard  his  own  parish  bells  in  the  midst  of 
an  Eastern  desert,  not  knowing  at  the 
time  that  it  was  Sunday,  when  they  would 
have  been  ringing  the  bells  at  home;  and 
added,  "I  might  have  had  a  ringing  in  my 
ears,  and  the  imaginative  memory  did  the 
rest." 

[My  father  would  say  that  there  is 
nothing  really  supernatural,  mechanically 
or  otherwise,  in  Enoch  Arden's  hearing 
bells ;  tho'  he  most  probably  did  intend  the 
passage  to  tell  upon  the  reader  mystically. 
—  Ed.] 

P.    131,    col.    2,    line    25-     sweet   water. 
Cf. 
Intus  aquae  dulces  vivoque  sedilia  saxo. 
Virgil,  Aen.  i.  167. 


go6 


NOTES 


P.  132,  col.  2,  line  1. 
Last,    as    it    seem'd,    a    great    mist-blotted 

light. 
From  Philip's  house,   the  latest  house  to 
landward. 

P.  135,  col.  2,  line  33- 
There  came  so  loud  a  calling  of  the  sea. 

"The  calling  of  the  sea,"  a  term  used, 
I  believe,  chiefly  in  the  western  parts  of 
England,  to  signify  a  ground  swell.  When 
this  occurs  on  a  windless  night,  the  echo  of 
it  rings  thro'  the  timbers  of  old  houses  in 
a  haven,  and  is  often  heard  many  miles 
inland. 

P.  136,  col.  1,  line  3. 

Had  seldom  seen  a  costlier  funeral. 

The  costly  funeral  is  all  that  poor  Annie 
could  do  for  him  after  he  was  gone.  This 
is  entirely  introduced  for  her  sake,  and,  in 
my  opinion,  quite  necessary  to  the  per- 
fection of  the  Poem  and  the  simplicity  of 
the  narrative. 

P.  136.  The  Brook.  [First  published 
in  1855.  —  Ed.]  Not  the  brook  near 
Somersby  mentioned  in  The  Ode  to 
Memory. 

P.  136,  line  14. 
When   all   the  wood   stands  in    a  mist  of 
green. 

This  I  remember  as  particularly  beautiful 
one  spring  at  Park  House,  Kent. 

P.  136,  col.  2,  line  28.    grigs,  crickets. 

P.  137,  col.  1,  line  14. 
Still  makes  a  hoary  eyebrow  for  the  gleam. 
The  arch  of  the  bridge  over  the  stream, 
through  which  you  can  look. 

P.  137,  col.  2,  line  5.  a  wizard  penta- 
gram. [A  star-like  five-pointed  figure  which 
was  used  by  astrologers  in  the  Middle  Ages. 
—  Ed.] 

P.  138,  col.  1,  line  3. 
Twinkled  the  innumerable  ear  and  tail. 
This  line  made  in  the  New  Forest. 

P.  138,  col.  2,  line  12. 

/  make  the  netted  sunbeam  dance. 

Long  after  this  line  was  written  we '  saw 
1  [My  father  and  I.  —  Ed.] 


the  "netted  sunbeam"  dance  in  a 
marvellous  way  in  the  Silent  Pool  near 
Guildford  as  the  stream  poured  from  the 
chalk  over  the  green-sand. 

P.  138,  col.  2,  lines  25,  26. 

the  dome 
Of  Brunelleschi. 

The  Duomo  or  cathedral  at  Florence, 
the  dome  the  work  of  Brunelleschi  (1407). 

P.  138,  col.  2,  line  32.  converse-seasons 
was  too  sibilant  in  sound,  so  I  wrote 
April-autumns. 

[My  father  said:  "I  hate  sibilation  in 
verse.  Always  kick  the  hissing  geese  if 
you  can  out  of  the  boat."  —  Ed.] 

The  summers  in  Australia  are  of  course 
the  winter-tides  of  Europe. 

P.  139,  col.  1,  lines  28,  29. 
My  brother  James  is  in  the  harvest-field: 
But  she  —  you  will  be  welcome  —  0,  come  in! 
The  Father  is  dead. 

P.  139.  Aylmer's  Field.  [Written  at 
Farringford,  and  first  published  in  1864.  — 
Ed.]    Line  3. 

Like  that  long-buried  body  of  the  king. 

This  happened  on  opening  an  Etruscan 
tomb  at  the  city  of  Tarquinii  in  Italy. 
[The  warrior  was  seen  for  a  moment 
stretched  on  the  couch  of  stone,  and  then 
vanished  as  soon  as  the  air  touched  him. 
—  Ed.] 

P.  139,  line  17.  wyvern  [winged  two- 
legged  dragon  of  heraldry.  —  Ed.]. 

P.  140,  col.  2,  line  2.  that  islet  in  the 
chestnut-bloom.  [The  rosy  spot  in  the 
flower.  —  Ed.] 

P.  140,  col.  2,  line  9. 

Shone  like  a  mystic  star  between  the  less. 
The  variable   star  of   astronomy  with   its 
maximums  and   minimums  of   brightness, 
e.g.  (5  Persei  or  Algol  and  many  others. 

P.  140,  col.  2,  line  27.  fairy  footings, 
fairy  rings. 

P.  140,  col.  2,  line  31-  What  look'd 
a  flight  of  fairy  arrows.  The  seeds  from 
the  dandelion  globe.  Cf.  Gareth  and 
Lynette : 

the  flower 

That  blows  a  globe  of  after  arrowlets. 


NOTES 


907 


P.  141,  col.  1,  line  6.  Temple-eaten 
terms.  [Terms  spent  as  a  student  in  the 
Temple,  when  he  has  to  eat  so  many 
dinners  to  keep  his  terms.  —  Ed.] 

P.  141,  col.  1,  line  11.  The  tented 
winter-field.  Referring  to  the  way  in 
which  the  hop  poles  are  stacked  in  winter. 

P.  141,  col.  1,  line  14.  burr  and  bine 
refer  to  the  hop-plant.  "Burr,"  the  rough 
cone;  "bine,"  the  climbing  stem. 

P.  141,  col.  2,  line  20.  parcel-bearded, 
partly  bearded.  Cf.  "parcel-gilt"  (Shake- 
speare, 2  Henry  IV.  11.  i.  94). 

P.  142,  col.  1,  line  26.  close  ecliptic,  sun 
of  tropics. 

P.  143,  col.  1,  line  28.  blacksmith 
border-marriage.  At  Gretna  Green  for 
many  years  a  blacksmith  married  the 
runaway  couples  by  Scotch  law.  In  1856 
these  marriages  were  made  illegal. 

P.  146,  col.  1,  line  26.  the  gardens  of 
that  rival  rose.  The  Temple  garden 
where  Somerset  picked  the  red,  Plantagenet 
the  white  roses.     Cf.  1  Henry  VI.  11.  iv. 

P.  146,  col.  1,  line  29.  Far  purelier, 
when  the  city  was  smaller  and  less  smoky. 

P.  146,  col.  2,  line  1. 

Ran  a  Malayan  amuck  against  the  times. 

"Amuck."  Made  an  attack  like  those 
Malays  who  rush  about  in  a  frenzy  and 
attack  their  fellow-men,  yelling,  "Amook." 

P.  147,  col.  1,  lines  10-12. 
What   amulet   drew   her   down   to   that   old 

oak, 
So  old,  that  twenty  years  before,  a  part 
Falling  had  let  appear  the  brand  of  John. 

In  cutting  down  trees  in  Sherwood 
Forest,  letters  have  been  found  in  the 
heart  of  the  trees,  showing  the  brands  of 
particular  reigns  —  those  of  James  I., 
William  and  Mary,  and  one  of  King 
John.  King  John's  was  eighteen  inches 
within  the  bark. 

P.  147,  col.  i,  line  14.  The  broken  base. 
[The  trunk  of  the  tree  was  hollow  and 
decayed,  with  only  one  branch  in  leaf.  — 
Ed.] 

P.    147,    col.    1,    line   33.    frothfly  from 


the  fescue.  The  fly  that  lives  in  the  cuckoo 
spit  on  the  meadow  fescue,  a  kind  of  grass, 
Festuca  pratensis. 

P.  148,  col.  2,  line  4. 

And  being  used  to  find  her  pastor  texts. 

It  is  implied  that  she  had  given  Averill 
the  text  upon  which  he  preached. 

P.  148,  col.  2,  line  8.  mock  sunshine. 
A  day  without  sun,  the  only  faint  resem- 
blance to  sunshine  being  the  bright  yellow 
of  the  faded  autumn  leaves. 

P.  148,  col.  2,  line  20.  greenish  glim- 
merings, greenish  glass  of  the  lancet 
windows. 

P.  149,  col.  1,  line  17. 

No  coarse  and  blockish  God  of  acreage. 

The  Roman  god  Terminus,  who  presided 
over  the  boundaries  of  private  properties. 

P.  149,  col.  1,  line  27.  deathless  ruler, 
the  soul. 

P.  149,  col.  2,  line  21.  wasting  his 
forgotten  heart,  lavishing  his  neglected 
feelings  of  love. 

P.  151,  col.  1,  line  2.  the  twelve- 
divided  concubine.     Judges  xix.  29. 

P.  151,  col.  1,  line  7.  They  cling 
together.  He  alludes  to  the  report,  hor- 
rible and  hardly  credible,  that  when  the 
heads  were  taken  out  of  the  sack,  two 
were  sometimes  found  clinging  together, 
one  having  bitten  into  the  other  in  the 
momentary  convulsion  that  followed  de- 
capitation. 

P.  152,  col.  1,  line  20.  retinue.  Accent 
on  the  penultimate.  Shakespeare  and 
Milton  accented  this  word  in  the  same 
way.     [Cf.  The  Princess,  in. : 

Went  forth  in  long  retinue  following  up, 
and  Guinevere : 

Of  his  and  her  retinue  moving,  they. 

Ed.] 
P.  152,  col.  1,  line  23. 
Pity,  the  violet  on  the  tyrant's  grave. 

A  chance  parallel  (like  many  others  quoted 
in  these  notes).     Cf.  Persius,  Sat.  i.  39: 

Nunc  non  e  tumulo  fortunataque  favilla 

Nascentur  violae  ? 


908 


NOTES 


P.  152,  col.  i,  lines  30,  31. 
The  slow-worm  creeps,  and  the  thin  weasel 

there 
Follows  the  mouse. 

Original  reading  — 
There  the  thin  weasel,  with  faint  bunting 

cry 
Follows  his  game. 

The  Duke  of  Argyll  says  of  them  that 
in  hunting  rabbits,  in  packs,  they  give  a 
''faint  hunting  cry." 

P.  152.  Sea  Dreams.  [First  pub- 
lished in  Macmillan's  Magazine,  January, 
i860.  —  Ed.]  The  glorification  of  honest 
labour,  whether  of  head  or  hand,  no 
hasting  to  be  rich,  no  bowing  down  to 
any  idol. 

P.  152,  line  4.  germander  eye.  Blue 
like  the  Germander  Speedwell. 

P.  153,  col.  1,  line  3.     large  air. 
Largior  hie  campos  aether  et  lumine  vestit 
Purpureo.  Virg.  A  en.  vi.  640,  641. 

P.  153,  col.  1,  line  21.  upjetted.  On 
Bray  Head,  at  the  end  of  the  Island  of 
Valentia,  where  I  lay  in  1848,  with  all  the 
revolutions  of  Europe  behind  me,  the 
waves  appeared  like  ghosts  playing  at 
hide  and  seek  as  they  leapt  above  the 
cliffs.  This  passage  was  not,  however, 
made  at  that  time,  but  later. 

P.  155,  col.  2,  line  19. 
That  all  those  lines  of  cliffs  were  cliffs  no 

more. 
The  ages  that  go  on  with  their  illumina- 
tion breaking  down  everything. 

P.  156,  col.  1,  line  2.  With  that  sweet 
note.    The  great  music  of  the  World. 

P.  156,  col.  1,  line  7.  men  of  stone. 
"The  statues,  king  or  saint  or  founder" 
on  the  cathedrals  which  the  worshippers 
worshipt. 

P.  156,  col.  2,  line  3. 
The  dimpled  flounce  of  the  sea-furbelow  flap. 

The  reference  is  to  a  long  dark-green 
seaweed,  one  of  the  Laminaria,  called  the 
"sea-furbelow,"  with  dimpled  flounce-like 
edges.  Boys  sometimes  running  along  the 
sand  against  the  wind  with  this  seaweed  in 


their  hands  make  it  flap  for  sport.  The 
name  "sea-furbelow"  is  not  generally 
known. 

P.  157,  col.  1,  line  1. 

What  does  little  birdie  say. 
This  song  ends  joyfully.     Sullivan  in  his 
setting  makes  it  end  dolefully. 

P.  157.  Lucretius.  [First  published 
in  Macmillan's  Magazine,  August  1868. 
See  Jerome's  addition  to  the  Eusebian 
Chronicle  under  date  94  B.C.:  "Titus 
Lucretius  poeta  nascitur  qui  postea 
amatorio  poculo  in  furorem  versus,  cum 
aliquot  libros  per  intervalla  insaniae  con- 
scripsisset,  quos  postea  Cicero  emendavit, 
propria  se  manu  interfecit  anno  aetatis 
xliv."  —  Ed.] 

Munro  said  that  everything  was 
Lucretian  thro'  this  poem,  and  that  there 
was  no  suggestion  which  he  could  make. 
He,  however,  did  suggest  the  alteration  of 
"shepherds"  to  "neat-herds." 

Lucretius  is  portrayed  in  this  poem  as 
having  taken  the  love-philtre  of  Lucilia  his 
wife,  who  imagines  him  cold  to  her  from 
brooding  over  his  philosophies.  Thus  a 
loving  and  beautiful  nature  —  that  delights 
in  friends,  the  universe,  the  birds  and  the 
flowers  —  is  distraught  by  the  poison.  He 
is  haunted  by  the  doubt,  which  from  his 
affection  for  Epicurus,  "whom  he  held 
divine,"  had  long  been  kept  in  check: 

The  Gods,  the  Gods  ! 
If  all  be  atoms,  how  then  should  the  Gods 
Being  atomic  not  be  dissoluble, 
Not  follow  the  great  law  ? 

He  himself  had  always  aimed  at  "divine 
tranquillity,"  and  now  is  tortured  by  un- 
rest. The  unrest  drives  him  to  frenzy  and 
he  kills  himself. 

["As  a  masterly  study  of  the  great 
Roman  sceptic,"  writes  Andrew  Lang, 
"it  (the  poem)  is  beyond  praise."  "No 
prose  commentary  on  the  'De  Rerum 
Natura,'  however  long  and  learned,  con- 
veys so  clearly  as  this  concise  study  in 
verse  the  sense  of  magnificent  mingled 
ruin  in  the  mind  and  power  of  the 
Roman."  —  Ed.] 

P.  157,  col.  2,  line  27.  /  saw  the  flaring 
atom-streams,  etc.  [De  Rer.  Nat.  i.  999  ff. 
—  Ed.] 


NOTES 


909 


P.  157,  col.  2,  lines  33,  34- 

as  the  dog 
With  inward  yelp. 

[De  Rer.  Nat.  iv.  991  ff. : 

Venantumque  canes  in  raolli  saepe  quiete 

Jactant  crura,  etc.  Ed.] 

P.  158,  col.  1,  line  7.  Hetairai, 
courtezans. 

P.    158,    col.    1,    line   9.     mulberry-faced 
Dictator.       [Sylla   in   his  later   life.       Cf. 
Plutarch,  Sulla,  ii.  451 : 
o-vK&ixivbv  tad'  6  StfMcts  akcplrip  ircwaa- 

fJL^VOV 

Clough's      Plutarch's    Lives,     vol.  iii.     p. 
142,   "Sylla":    "The  scurrilous  jesters  at 
Athens  made  the  verse  upon  him : 
Sulla  is   a   mulberry   sprinkled  over  with 

meal."  Ed.] 

P.  158,  col.  1,  line  23. 
Because    I    would    not    one    of    thine  own 

doves,  etc. 
[De  Rer.  Nat.  v.  1198  ff.  —  Ed.] 

P.  158,  col.  1,  line  25.  my  rich  proozmion. 
[De  Rer.  Nat.  i.  1  ff .  —  Ed.] 

P.  158,  col.  2,  line  5.  Mavors,  Mars. 
Ci.DeRer.  Nat.  i.  31  ff- 

P.  158,  col.  2,  line  16.  great  Sicilian. 
[Empedocles.  —  Ed.]  De  Rer.  Nat.  i. 
729-733.  See  for  reference  to  Kypris, 
Kvirpidos  opfxtadetcra  reXeiois  iu  \ip.4veacri 
and  elsewhere. 

P.  158,  col.  2,  line  19.  That  popular 
name  of  thine.  [Cf.  De  Rer.  Nat.  i.  2  ff. 
—  Ed.] 

P.  158,  col.  2,  line  27.  The  Gods,  who 
haunt.     Cf.  Homer,  Od.  iv.  566. 

P.  159,  col.  1,  line  9.  That  Gods  there 
are.  [Cf.  De  Rer.  Nat.  v.  146-194,  1161- 
1291.  —  Ed.] 

P.  159,  col.  i,  line  10.  /  prest  my  foot- 
steps into  his.  [De  Rer.  Nat.  iii.  iff.  — 
Ed.] 

P.  159,  col.  1,  line  n.  my  Memmius. 
[Caius  Memmius  Gemellus,  to  whom  the 
De  Rer  urn  Natura  was  dedicated.  —  Ed.] 

P.  159,  col.  2,  line  5.  Or  lend  an  ear 
to  Plato,  etc.  Cf.  Phaedo,  vi.  ["We  men 
are  as  it  were  in  ward,  and  a  man  ought 


not  to  free  himself  from  it,  or  to  run  away." 
—  Ed.] 

P.  160,  col.  1,  line  17.  him  I  proved 
impossible.  [De  Rer.  Nat.  ii.  700;  v. 
837  ff-,  878  ff.  —  Ed.] 

P.   160,   col.   2,   line  5.     Laid  along  the 
grass.     [Cf .  De  Rer.  Nat.  ii.  29  ff. : 
Cum  tamen  inter  se  prostrati  in  gramine 
molli,  etc.  Ed.] 

P.  160,  col.  2,  line  9. 

Of  settled,  sweet,  Epicurean  life. 
[Cf.   De  Rer.   Nat.   iii.   66:     "Dulci   vita 
stabilique."  —  Ed.] 

P.  160,  col.  2,  line  15.  Or  Heliconian 
honey.  [Cf.  De  Rer.  Nat.  i.  936  ff.;  iv. 
n  ff.  — Ed.] 

P.  160,  col.  2,  line  26.  not  he,  who  bears 
one  name  with  her.     "Her"  is  Lucretia. 

P.   160,  col.   2,  line  34.     the  womb  and 
tomb  of  all.     [Cf.  De  Rer.  Nat.  v.  258 : 
Omniparens  eadem  rerum  commune  sepul- 
chrum.  Ed.] 

P.  161,  col.  1,  lines  5,  6. 
But  till  this  cosmic  order  everywhere 
Shattered  into  one  earthquake  in  one  day, 

etc. 
[De  Rer.  Nat.  v.  94  ff-  —  Ed.] 

P.  161,  col.  1,  line  15.  My  golden 
work,  etc.  [De  Rer.  Nat.  iv.  8,  9  ff.;  iii. 
978-1023.  —  Ed.] 


THE   PRINCESS;    A  MEDLEY 

AUTHOR'S  INTRODUCTORY 
NOTES 

In  the  Prologue  the  "Tale  from  mouth 
to  mouth"  was  a  game  which  I  have  more 
than  once  played  when  I  was  at  Trinity 
College,  Cambridge,  with  my  brother- 
undergraduates.  Of  course,  if  he  "that 
inherited  the  tale"  had  not  attended  very 
carefully  to  his  predecessors,  there  were 
contradictions;  arid  if  the  story  were  his- 
torical, occasional  anachronisms. 

In  defence  of  what  some  have  called  the 
too  poetical  passages,  it  should  be  recol- 
lected that  the  poet  of  the  party  was 
requested  to  "dress  the  tale  up  poetically," 


gio 


NOTES 


and  he  was  full  of  the  "gallant  and  heroic 
chronicle."  A  parable  is  perhaps  the 
teacher  that  can  most  surely  enter  in  at 
all  doors. 

In  1851  the  "weird  seizures"  of  the 
Prince  were  inserted.  Moreover,  the  words 
"dream-shadow,"  "were  and  were  not" 
doubtless  refer,  to  the  anachronisms  and 
improbabilities  of  the  story.  Compare 
the  Prologue : 

Seven  and  yet  one,  like  shadows  in  a  dream, 
and  p.  198,  col.  1,  line  22 : 
And  like  a  flash  the  weird  affection  came : 

I  seem'd  to  move  in  old  memorial  tilts, 
And  doing  battle  with  forgotten  ghosts, 
To  dream  myself  the  shadow  of  a  dream. 

It  may  be  remarked  that  there  is  scarcely 
anything  in  the  story  which  is  not  prophetic- 
ally glanced  at  in  the  Prologue. 

The  child  is  the  link  thro'  the  parts,  as 
shown  in  the  Songs  (inserted  1850),  which 
are  the  best  interpreters  of  the  poem. 

Some  of  my  remarks  on  passages  in  The 
Princess  have  been  published  by  Dawson 
of  Canada  (1885),  who  copied  them  from 
the  following  letter  which  I  wrote  to  him 
criticising  his  edition  of  The  Princess. 

I  thank  you  for  your  able  and  thoughtful  essay 
on  The  Princess.  You  have  seen  amongst 
other  things  that  if  women  ever  were  to  play  such 
freaks,  the  burlesque  and  the  tragic  might  go 
hand  in  hand.  .  .  .  Your  explanatory  notes  are 
very  much  to  the  purpose,  and  I  do  not  object  to 
your  finding  parallelisms.  They  must  always 
occur.  A  man  (a  Chinese  scholar)  some  time  ago 
wrote  to  me  saying  that  in  an  unknown,  untrans- 
lated Chinese  poem  there  were  two  whole  lines  l 
of  mine  almost  word  for  word.  Why  not?  Are 
not  human  eyes  all  over  the  world  looking  at  the 
same  objects,  and  must  there  not  consequently  be 
coincidences  of  thought  and  impressions  and  ex- 
pressions ?  It  is  scarcely  possible  for  any  one  to 
say  or  write  anything  in  this  late  time  of  the 
world  to  which,  in  the  rest  of  the  literature  of  the 
world,  a  parallel  could  not  somewhere  be  found. 
But  when  you  say  that  this  passage  or  that  was 
suggested  by  Wordsworth  or  Shelley  or  another, 
I  demur;  and  more,  I  wholly  disagree.  There 
was  a  period  in  my  life  when,  as  an  artist,  Turner 
for  instance,  takes  rough  sketches  of  landskip, 
etc.,  in  order  to  work  them  eventually  into  some 
great  picture,  so  I  was  in  the  habit  of  chronicling, 
in  four  or  five  words  or  more,  whatever  might 
strike  me  as  picturesque  in  Nature.     I  never  put 

1  The  Peak  is  high,  and  the  stars  are  high, 
And  the  thought  of  a  man  is  higher. 

The  Voice  and  the  Peak. 


these  down,  and  many  and  many  a  line  has  gone 
away  on  the  north  wind,  but  some  remain :   e.g. 

A  full  sea  glazed  with  muffled  moonlight. 

Suggestion. 
The  sea  one  night  at  Torquay,  when  Torquay 
was  the  most  lovely  sea-village  in  England,  tho' 
now  a  smoky  town.     The  sky  was  covered  with 
thin  vapour,  and  the  moon  behind  it. 

A  great  black  cloud 
Drags  inward  from  the  deep. 

Suggestion. 
A  coming  storm  seen  from  the  top  of  Snowdon. 

In  the  Idylls  of  the  King. 

With  all 
Its  stormy  crests  that  smoke  against  the  skies. 

Suggestion. 
A  storm  which  came  upon  us  in  the  middle  of 
the  North  Sea. 

■  .4s  the  water-lily  starts  and  slides* 
Suggestion. 
Water-lilies  in  my  own  pond,  seen  on  a  gusty 
day  with  my  own  eyes.  They  did  start  and 
slide  in  the  sudden  puffs  of  wind  till  caught  and 
stayed  by  the  tether  of  their  own  stalks,  quite  as 
true  as  Wordsworth's  simile  and  more  in  detail. 

A  wild  wind  shook,  — 
Follow,  follow,  thou  shalt  win. 

Suggestion. 

I  was  walking  in  the  New  Forest.  A  wind  did 
arise  and 

Shake  the  songs,  the  whispers,  and  the  shrieks 

Of  the  wild  woods  together. 

The  wind  I  believe  was  a  west  wind,  but 
because  I  wished  the  Prince  to  go  south,  I  turned 
the  wind  to  the  south,  and  naturally  the  wind  said 
"follow."  I  believe  the  resemblance  which  you 
note  is  just  a  chance  one.  Shelley's  lines  are  not 
familiar  to  me,  tho'  of  course,  if  they  occur  in  the 
Prometheus,1  I  must  have  read  them.  I  could 
multiply  instances,  but  I  will  not  bore  you,  and 
far  indeed  am  I  from  asserting  that  books  as  well 
as  Nature  are  not,  and  ought  not  to  be,  suggestive 
to  the  poet.  I  am  sure  that  I  myself,  and  many 
others,  find  a  peculiar  charm  in  those  passages  of 
such  great  masters  as  Virgil  or  Milton  where  they 
adopt  the  creation  of  a  bygone  poet,  and  reclothe 
it,  more  or  less,  according  to  their  own  fancy. 
But  there  is,  I  fear,  a  prosaic  set  growing  up 
among  us,  editors  of  booklets.book -worms,  index- 
hunters,  or  men  of  great  memories  and  no 
imagination,  who  impute  themselves  to  the  poet, 
and  so  believe  that  he,  too,  has  no  imagination, 
but  is  for  ever  poking  his  nose  between  the  pages 
of  some  old  volume  in  order  to  see  what  he  can 
appropriate.  They  will  not  allow  one  to  say 
"Ring  the  bell"  without  finding  that  we  have 
taken  it  from  Sir  P.  Sidney,  or  even  to  use  such 
a  simple  expression  as* the  ocean  "roars,"  without 
finding  out  the  precise  verse  in  Homer  or 
Horace  from  which  we  have  plagiarised  it  (fact). 

1  A  wind  arose  among  the  pines,  etc. 


NOTES 


Qi 


I  have  known  an  old  fish-wife,  who  had  lost 
two  sons  at  sea,  clench  her  fist  at  the  advancing 
tide  on  a  stormy  day,  and  cry  out,  "Ay !  roar, 
do !  how  I  hates  to  see  thee  show  thy  white 
teeth."  Now  if  I  had  adopted  her  exclamation 
and  put  it  into  the  mouth  of  some  old  woman  in 
one  of  my  poems,  I  daresay  the  critics  would  have 
thought  it  original  enough,  but  would  most  likely 
have  advised  me  to  go  to  Nature  for  my  old 
women  and  not  to  my  own  imagination ; »  and 
indeed  it  is  a  strong  figure. 

Here  is  another  anecdote  about  suggestion. 
When  I  was  about  twenty  or  twenty-one  I  went 
on  a  tour  to  the  Pyrenees.  Lying  among  these 
mountains  before  a  waterfall  2  that  comes  down 
one  thousand  or  twelve  hundred  feet  I  sketched 
it  (according  to  my  custom  then)  in  these  words: 
Slow-dropping  veils  of  thinnest  lawn. 

When  I  printed  this,  a  critic  informed  me  that 
"lawn"  was  the  material  used  in  theatres  to 
imitate  a  waterfall,  and  graciously  added,  "  Mr. 
T.  should  not  go  to  the  boards  of  a  theatre  but  to 
Nature  herself  for  his  suggestions."  And  I  had 
gone  to  Nature  herself. 

I  think  it  is  a  moot  point  whether,  if  I  had 
known  how  that  effect  was  produced  on  the  stage, 
I  should  have  ventured  to  publish  the  line. 

I  find  that  I  have  written,  quite  contrary  to  my 
custom,  a  letter,  when  I  had  merely  intended  to 
thank  you  for  your  interesting  commentary. 

Thanking  you  again  for  it,  I  beg  you  to  believe 
me 

Very  faithfully  yours, 

A.  Tennyson. 

Before  the  first  edition  came  out,  I 
deliberated  with  myself  whether  I  should 
put  songs  between  the  separate  divisions  of 
the  poem;  again  I  thought  that  the  poem 
would  explain  itself,  but  the  public  did  not 
see  the  drift. 

The  first  song  I  wrote  was  named  "The 
Losing  of  the  Child." 

The  child  was  sitting  on  the  bank 

Upon  a  stormy  day. 
He  loved  the  river's  roaring  sound  ; 
The  river  rose  and  burst  his  bound, 
Flooded  fifty  leagues  around, 
Took  the  child  from  off  the  ground, 

And  bore  the  child  away. 

O  the  child  so  meek  and  wise, 
Who  made  us  wise  and  mild  ! 

All  was  strife  at  home  about  him, 

Nothing  could  be  done  without  him ; 

Father,  mother,  sister,  brother, 

All  accusing  one  another ; 
O  to  lose  the  child  ! 

1  He  used  to  compare  with  this  the  Norfolk 
saying  which  he  heard  when  we  were  staying 
with  the  Rev.  C.  T.  Digby  at  Warham:  "The 
sea's  a-moanin';   she's  lost  the  wind." 

2  In  the  Cirque  de  Gavarnie. 


The  river  left  the  child  unhurt, 

But  far  within  the  wild. 
Then  we  brought  him  home  again, 
Peace  and  order  come  again, 
The  river  sought  his  bound  again 
The  child  was  lost  and  found  again. 
And  we  will  keep  the  child. 

Another  old  song  of  mine  I  intended 
to  insert  was  that  of  "The  Doctor's 
Daughter" : 

Sweet  Kitty  Sandilands, 

The  daughter  of  the  doctor, 
We  drest  her  in  the  Proctor's  bands, 

And  past  her  for  the  Proctor. 

All  the  men  ran  from  her 

That  would  have  hasten'd  to  her, 

All  the  men  ran  from  her 

That  would  have  come  to  woo  her. 

Up  the  street  we  took  her 

As  far  as  to  the  Castle, 
Jauntily  sat  the  Proctor's  cap 

And  from  it  hung  the  tassel. 

"Sir  Ralph"  is  another  song  which  I 
omitted : 

Ralph  would  fight  in  Edith's  sight, 

For  Ralph  was  Edith's  lover, 
Ralph  went  down  like  a  fire  to  the  fight, 
Struck  to  the  left  and  struck  to  the  right, 

Roll'd  them  over  and  over. 
"Gallant  Sir  Ralph,"  said  the  king. 

Casques  were  crack'd  and  hauberks  hack'd 

Lances  snapt  in  sunder, 
Rang  the  stroke  and  sprang  the  blood, 
Knights    were    thwack'd    and    riven,    and 
hew'd 

Like  broad  oaks  with  thunder. 
"O  what  an  arm,"  said  the  king. 

Edith  bow'd  her  stately  head, 

Saw  them  lie  confounded, 
Edith  Montfort  bow'd  her  head, 
Crown'd  her  knight's,  and  flush'd  as  red 

As  poppies  when  she  crown'd  it. 
"Take  her,  Sir  Ralph,"  said  the  king. 

So  Lilia  sang.     I  thought  she  was  possess'd 
She  struck  such  warbling  fire  into  the  notes. 

[Charles  Kingsley  writes  in  Fraser's 
Magazine,  September  1850:  — 

"At  the  end  of  the  first  canto,  fresh  from 
the  description  of  the  female  college,  with 


912 


NOTES 


its  professoresses  and  hostleresses,  and 
other  Utopian  monsters,  we  turn  the  page, 
and  — 

As  through  the  land  at  eve  we  went. 

0  there  above  the  little  grave 
We  kiss'd  again  with  tears. 

Between  the  next  two  cantos  intervenes 
the  well-known  cradle-song,  perhaps  the 
best  of  all ;  and  at  the  next  interval  is  the 
equally  well-known  bugle-song,  the  idea 
of  which  is  that  of  twin-labour  and  twin- 
fame  in  a  pair  of  lovers.  In  the  next  the 
memory  of  wife  and  child  inspirits  the 
soldier  on  the  field;  in  the  next  the  sight 
of  the  fallen  hero's  child  opens  the  sluices 
of  his  widow's  tears;  and  in  the  last 
('Ask  me  no  more')  the  poet  has  succeeded 
in  superadding  a  new  form  of  emotion  to 
a  canto  in  which  he  seemed  to  have  ex- 
hausted every  resource  of  pathos  which  his 
subject  allowed."  —  Ed.] 


P.  161.  The  Pkincess;  a  Medley. 
Published  in  1847.  Dedicated  to  Henry 
Lushington  in  1848. 

[Dawson  of  Canada,  who  edited  The 
Princess,  and  to  whom  my  father  wrote  as 
stated  above,  says:  "At  the  time  of  the 
publication  of  The  Princess  the  surface- 
thought  of  England  was  intent  solely  upon 
Irish  famines,  corn-laws  and  free-trade. 
It  was  only  after  many  years  that  it  became 
conscious  of  anything  being  wrong  in  the 
position  of  women.  .  .  .  No  doubt  such 
ideas  were  at  the  time  'in  the  air'  in 
England,  but  the  dominant,  practical 
Philistinism  scoffed  at  them  as  'ideas' 
banished  to  America,  that  refuge  for 
exploded  European  absurdities.  1  believe 
the  Vindication  of  the  Rights  of  Woman, 
by  Mary  Wollstonecraft  (1792),  first  turned 
the  attention  of  the  people  of  England  to 
the  'wrongs  of  women.'" 

The  plan  of  The  Princess  may  have 
suggested  itself  when  the  project  of  a 
Women's  College  was  in  my  father's  mind 
(1839),  or  it  may  have  arisen  in  its  mock- 
heroic  form  from  a  Cambridge  joke,  such 
as  he  commemorated  in  the  lines,  "The 
Doctor's  Daughter."  See  above,  p.  927. 
—  Ed.] 


The  Prologue 

The  Prologue  was  written  about  a  feast 
of  the  Mechanics'  Institute  held  in  the 
Lushington's  grounds  at  Park  House,  near 
Maidstone,  6th  July  1842. 

P.  161,  col.  2,  line  8.  calumets.  Long- 
fellow sent  me  one  of  these  pipes  of  peace, 
which  belonged  to  a  Red  Indian  chief. 

P.  163,  col.  1,  line  28.  And  he  had 
breathed  the  Proctor's  dogs.  Made  the 
proctor's  attendants  out  of  breath. 

P.  163,  col.  2,  line  25.  Emperor-moths, 
Satumia  Carpini. 

Canto  I 

P.  165,  col.  2,  line  10.  Galen,  the  great 
doctor  of  Pergamus,  a.d.  131  to  200. 

P.  165,  col.  2,  line  24. 
Was  proxy-wedded  with  a  bootless  calf. 

The  proxy  of  the  king  used  to  place  his 
bare  leg  under  the  coverlet  of  the  king's 
betrothed. 

[Bacon  in  his  Henry  VII.  writes  of  the 
proxy  marriage  of  Maximilian,  the  king  of 
the  Romans,  with  Anne  of  Brittany,  1489 : 

"For  she  was  not  only  publicly  con- 
tracted, but  stated  as  a  bride,  and  solemnly 
bedded ;  and  after  she  was  laid,  there  came 
in  Maximilian's  ambassador,  with  letters  of 
procuration,  and  in  the  presence  of  sundry 
noble  personages,  men  and  women,  put 
his  leg,  stript  naked  to  the  knee,  between 
the  espousal  sheets;  to  the  end  that  the 
ceremony  might  be  thought  to  amount  to 
a  consummation  and  actual  knowledge." 
—  Ed.] 

P.  166,  col.  2,  lines  24-25. 
A  wind  arose  and  rush'd  upon  the  South, 
And  shook  the  songs,  the  whispers,  and  the 

shrieks 
Of  the  wild  woods  together. 

See  letter  to  Dawson,  p.  926. 

P.  167,  col.  1,  line  6.  blowing  bosks, 
blossoming  thickets. 

P.  167,  col.  2,  line  19.  Her  brethren,  — 
accusative  after  "see." 

P.  168,  col.  1,  line  2.  the  liberties. 
[Blackstone  in  his  Commentaries,  ii.  37. 
defines  a  "liberty"  as  a  "Royal  privilege 


NOTES 


9i3 


or  branch  of  the  King's  prerogative,  sub- 
sisting in  the  hands  of  a  subject."  The 
term  "liberties"  is  here  applied  to  the 
estate  over  which  the  privilege  can  be 
exercised.  —  Ed.] 

P.  169,  col.  2,  line  11.  A  full  sea  glazed 
with  muffled  moonlight.  See  letter  to 
Dawson,  p.  926. 

Canto  II 

P.  170,  col.  1,  line  20.  Sleek  Odalisques, 
female  slaves  of  the  harem. 

P.  170,  col.  1,  lines  21,  22. 

but  she 
That  taught  the  Sabine  how  to  rule. 

The  wood-nymph  Egeria,  who  was  said 
to  have  given  the  laws  to  Numa  Pompilius. 

["And  in  all  that  he  did,  he  knew  that 
he  should  please  the  gods;  for  he  did 
everything  by  the  direction  of  the  nymph 
Egeria,  who  honoured  him  so  much  that 
she  took  him  to  be  her  husband,  and 
taught  him  in  her  sacred  grove,  by  the 
spring  that  welled  out  from  the  rock,  all 
that  he  was  to  do  towards  the  gods  and 
towards  men."  Arnold's  History  of  Rome, 
vol.  i.  ch.  i.;  Livy,  i.  19;  Ovid.  Fasti, 
hi.  276.  —  Ed.] 

P.  170,  col.  1,  line  23. 
The  foundress  of  the  Babylonian  wall. 
Semiramis.     [Diodorus,  11.  viii.  —  Ed.] 

P.  170,  col.  1,  line  24. 
The  Carian  Artemisia  strong  in  war. 

She  who  fought  so  bravely  for  Xerxes  at 
Salamis  that  he  said  that  his  women  had 
become  men  and  his  men  women.  [Herod, 
viii.  88 :  A^p^vv  St  eltrai  \tyerai  wpbs  tA 
tppa£6p.eva'  01  ixkv  hvbpes  yeydvavL  p.01 
yvvacices,  ai  5£  yvvaiKfs  &v8pes.  —  Ed.] 

P.  170,  col.  1,  line  30. 

The  Rhodope,  that  built  the  pyramid. 
A  celebrated- Greek  courtesan  of  Thracian 
origin,  who  was  said  to  have  built  a 
pyramid  near  Memphis.  /Elian  relates 
that  she  married  Psammetichus,  King  of 
Egypt. 

"A  statelier  pyramis  to  her  I'll  rear 
Than  Rhodope's  or  Memphis'  ever  was." 
1  Henry  VI.  1.  vi.  22. 
3N 


Doricha  was  probably  her  real  name  (she 
is  so  called  by  Sappho),  and  she  perhaps 
received  that  of  Rhodopis,  "rosy-cheeked," 
on  account  of  her  beauty. 

P.  170,  col.  1,  line  26.  Clelia,  who 
swam  the  Tiber  in  escaping  from  Porsenna's 
camp  (Livy,  ii.  13). 

P.  170,  col.  1,  line  26.  Cornelia, 
mother  of  the  Gracchi. 

P.  170,  col.  1,  line  26.  Palmyrene. 
Zenobia,  Queen  of  Palmyra.  [See  Gibbon, 
ch.  xi.  sub  anno  a.d.  272.  —  Ed.] 

P.  170,  col.  1,  line  28.  Agrippina, 
grand-daughter  of  Augustus,  married  to 
Germanicus. 

P.  170,  col.  2,  line  19.  headed  like  a 
star,  with  bright  golden  hair.  [Cf.  //.  vi. 
401 :  AXLyKiov  Aa-ripi  Kayu.  —  Ed.] 

P.  170,  col.  2,  lines  22,  23. 

but  no  livelier  than  the  dame 
That  whisper' d  'Asses'  ears.' 

Midas  in  The  Wyf  of  Bathe's  Tale  con- 
fides the  secret  of  his  hairy  asses'  ears  only 
to  his  wife. 

[The  good  dame  could  not  resist  telling 
it  to  a  neighbouring  "mareys"  in  a 
whisper. 

And  as  a  bitore  bombleth  in  the  myre 
She  leyde  hir  mouth  unto  the  water  doun : 
'Biwreye  me  nat,   thou  water,   with   thy 

soun,' 
Quod  she,  '  to  thee  I  telle  it  and  namo,  — 
Myn  housbonde  hath  longe  asses  erys  two.' 

Ed.] 

P.  170,  col.  2,  line  26. 
This  world  was  once  a  fluid  haze  of  light, 

etc. 
The    nebular    theory    as    formulated    by 
Laplace.     [Cf.  In  Memoriam,  cxvm.  iii.; 
lxxxix.  xii.  —  Ed.] 

P.  171,  col.  1,  line  1.  Appraised  the 
Lycian  custom.  Herodotus  (i.  173)  says 
that  the  Lycians  took  their  names  from 
their  mothers  instead  of  their  fathers. 

P.  171,  col.  1,  line  2.  [Lar  or  Lars, 
as  in  Lars  Porsena,  signifies  noble.  —  Ed.] 

P.  171,  col.  1,  line  2.  Lucumo  is  an 
Etruscan  prince  or  priest. 


914 


NOTES 


P.  171,  col.  1,  line  6.  Salique.  The 
laws  of  the  Salian  Franks  forbad  inherit- 
ance by  women. 

P.  171,  col.  1,  lines  7,  8.  touch' d  .  .  . 
contempt.  Had  she  heard  that,  according 
to  the  Mohammedan  doctrine,  hell  was 
chiefly  occupied  by  women  ? 

P.  171,  col.  1,  line  24.  if  more  was 
more.  Greater  in  size  meant  greater  in 
power. 

P.  172,  col.  2,  line  13.  As  he  bestrode  my 
Grandsire.  In  defence.  [Cf.  Shakespeare, 
1  Henry  IV.  v.  i.  122,  and  Comedy  of 
Errors,  v.  i.  192:  "When  I  bestrid  thee 
in  the  wars."  —  Ed.] 

P.  173,  col.  1,  line  20. 

The  Lucius  Junius  Brutus  of  my  kind  ? 
Who    condemned    his    sons    to    death    for 
conspiracy  against  the  city  (Livy,  ii.  5). 

P.  173,  col.  2,  line  26. 
That  clad  her  like  an  April  daffodilly. 

The  Quarterly  Review  objected  to 
"April  daffodilly."  Daffodils  in  the 
North  of  England  belong  as  much  to 
April  as  to  March.1  On  the  15th  of  April 
in  the  streets  of  Dublin  I  remember  a  man 
presenting  me  with  a  handful  of  daffodils; 
and  in  1887  at  Farringford  I  saw  daffodils 
still  in  bloom  in  May. 

P.  173,  col.  2,  line  29.  As  bottom 
agates,  etc.  It  has  been  said  that  I  took 
this  simile  partly  from  Beaumont  and 
Fletcher,  partly  from  Shakespeare,  whereas 
I  made  it  while  I  was  bathing  in  Wales. 

P.  175,  col.  2,  line  7. 
The  long  hall  glitter' d  like  a  bed  of  flowers. 

Lady  Psyche's  "side"  (pupils)  wore 
lilac  robes,  and  Lady  Blanche's  robes  of 
daffodil  colour. 

P.  175,  col.  2,  line  29.  Astreean. 
Astraea,  daughter  of  Zeus  and  Themis,  is 
to  come  back  first  of  the  celestials  on  the 
return  of  the  Golden  Age  [even  as  she  was 
the  last  to  leave  earth  in  the  Age  of  Iron : 
Victa  jacet  pietas,  et  virgo  caede  madentes 
Ultima  caelestum  terras  Astraea  reliquit. 

Ov.  Met.  i.  150.  —  Ed.] 

1  March  the  poet  calls  "  the  roaring  moon  of 
daffodil  and  crocus  "  in  his  Prefatory  Sonnet  to 
the  "Nineteenth  Century." 


Canto  III 

P.  177,  col.  1,  line  30.  Consonant  .  .  . 
note.  If  two  stringed  instruments  are 
together,  and  a  note  is  struck  on  one,  the 
other  will  vibrate  with  the  same  harmony. 

P.  177,  col.  2,  line  21.  The  Samian 
Here.  The  Greek  Here,  whose  favourite 
abode  was  Samos. 

P.  177,  col.  2,  line  22. 
A  Memnon  smitten  with  the  morning  Sun. 
The  statue  in  Egypt  which  gave  forth  a 
musical    note    when    "smitten    with    the 
morning  sun." 

[Cf.  Pausanias  i.  42  and  The  Palace  of 
Art: 
And  from  her  lips,  as  morn  from  Memnon, 

drew 
Rivers  of  melodies.  Ed.] 

P.  178,  col.  2,  line  13.  ran  up  his 
furrowy  forks.  The  early  editions  have 
"dark-blue  forks"  or  peaks. 

P.  179,  col.  2,  line  6. 
'Alas    your    Highness    breathes  full    East,' 

I  said. 
A  playful  reference  to  the  cold  manner  of 
an  Eastern  queen  and  the  east  wind. 

P.  180,  col.  1,  line  8.  pou  slo.  dbs  irov 
crrcD  Kai  KdafXov  Kivfjcru)  ("Give  me  where 
I  may  stand  and  I  will  move  the  world"), 
an  often-quoted  saying  of  Archimedes. 

P.  180,  col.  1,  line  24.  gynceceum, 
women's  quarters  in  a  Greek  house. 

P.  180,  col.  2,  line  4.  shook  the  woods. 
They  shook  in  the  wind  made  by  the 
cataract. 

P.  180,  col.  2,  line  19.  Diotima.  Said 
to  have  been  an  instructress  of  Socrates. 
She  was  a  priestess  of  Mantinea.  (Cf. 
Plato's  Symposium.) 

P.  180,  col.  2,  line  23. 
And  cram   him  with  the  fragments   of  the 

grave. 
See  Hogarth's  picture  in  the   "Stages  of 
Cruelty."     It  was  asserted  that  they  used 
to  give  dogs  the  remnants  of  the  dissecting- 
room. 

P.  181,  col.  2,  line  23.  Elysian  lawns 
are  the  lawns  of  Elysium  and  have  nothing 
to  do  with  Troy,  as  some  critics  explain, 


NOTES 


915 


or  perhaps  they  refer  to  the  Islands  of  the 
Blest.     Cf.  Pindar,  Olympia,  ii.  128. 

P.  181,  col.  1,  line  30.  Corinna.  She  is 
the  Bceotian  poetess  who  is  said  to  have 
triumphed  over  Pindar  in  poetical  com- 
petition (Pausanias,  ix.  22).  The  Princess 
probably  exaggerates. 

Canto  IV 

The  opening  song  was  written  after 
hearing  the  echoes  at  Killarney  in  1848. 
When  I  was  there  I  heard  a  bugle  blown 
beneath  the  "Eagle's  Nest,"  and  eight 
distinct  echoes. 

P.  181,  col.  1,  line  19. 
There  sinks  the  nebulous  star  we  call  the 

Sun. 
Norman  Lockyer  says  that  this  is  a  true 
description  of  the  sun. 

P.  182,  col.  1,  line  21. 
Tears,    idle   tears,    I   know   not   what   they 
mean. 

This  song  came  to  me  on  the  yellowing 
autumn -tide  at  Tin  tern  Abbey,  full  for  me 
of  its  bygone  memories.  It  is  the  sense  of 
the  abiding  in  the  transient. 

[My  father  thought  that  his  brother 
Charles  Tennyson  Turner's  sonnet  "Time 
and  Twilight  "  had  the  same  sort  of  mystic 
ddmonisch  feeling,  "the  Passion  of  the 
Past." 

TIME  AND  TWILIGHT 

In  the  dark  twilight  of  an  autumn  morn 
I  stood  within  a  little  country-town, 
Wherefrom  a  long  acquainted  path  went 

down 
To  the  dear  village  haunts  where  I  was  born ; 
The  low  of  oxen  on  the  rainy  wind, 
Death  and  the  Past,   came  up  the  well- 
known  road, 
And  bathed  my  heart  with  tears,  but  stirred 

my  mind 
To   tread   once   more   the   track   so   long 

untrod ; 
But  I  was  warned,  "Regrets  which  are  not 

thrust 
Upon   thee,    seek   not;     for    this   sobbing 

breeze 
Will  but  unman  thee:    thou  art  bold  to 

trust 


Thy  woe-worn  thoughts  among  these  roar- 
ing trees, 
And  gleams  of  by-gone  playgrounds.     Is't 

no  crime 
To  rush  by  night  into  the  arms  of  Time?" 

Ed.] 
P.    182,    col.  2,    line    ig.      rough    kcr, 
hemlock.      [Cf.    "kecksies,"    Henry  V.    v. 
ii.  52.  —  Ed.] 

P.  182,  col.  2,  lines  20,  21. 

beard-blown  goat 
Hang  on  the  shaft. 
The  wind  blew  his  beard  on  the  height  of 
the  ruined  pillar. 

[Wild  figtree  split,  etc.  Cf.  Juvenal, 
x.  145.  — Ed.] 

P.  183,  col.  1,  lines  31,  32. 

Like  the  Ithacensian  suitors  in  old  time, 
.  \  .  laugKd  with  alien  lips. 
[Cf.  Odyssey,  xx.  347  : 

ol  8'  tfdr)  yvadfwifft  yeXdxvv  dWorploio-iv. 

Ed.] 
P.    183,   col.    2,   line   1.      meadow-crake, 
corn-crake  or  landrail. 

P.  183,  col.  2,  line  16.  Valkyrian  hymns. 
[Like  those  sung  by  the  Valkyrian  maidens, 
"the  choosers  of  the  slain,"  in  the  Northern 
mythology.  —  Ed.] 

P.    184,    col.    2,    line    12.       Caryatids. 
"female   figures   used   as   bearing   shafts" 
(Vitruv.   i.),   e.g.   the  maidens  supporting 
the  light  entablature  of  the  portico  of  the 
Erechtheum  at  Athens. 
P.  184,  col.  2,  lines  14,  15. 
Of  open-work  in  which  the  hunter  rued 
His  rash  intrusion. 
Actaeon  turned  into  a  stag  for  looking  on 
Diana  bathing. 

P.  185,  col.  2,  lines  5,  6. 

But  as  the  waterlily  starts  and  slides 
Upon  the  level  in  little  puffs  of  wind. 
Waterlilies  in  my  own  pond,  and  seen  by 
me  on  a  gusty  day.  They  started  and  slid 
in  the  sudden  puffs  of  wind  till  caught  and 
stayed  by  the  tether  of  their  own  stalks. 
(See  supra,  letter  to  Dawson.) 

P.  185,  col.  2,  line  16. 
Bubbled  the  nightingale  and  heeded  not. 


qi6 


NOTES 


When  I  was  in  a  friend's  garden  in 
Yorkshire,  I  heard  a  nightingale  singing 
with  such  a  frenzy  of  passion  that  it  was 
unconscious  of  everything  else,  and  not 
frightened  though  I  came  and  stood  quite 
close  beside  it.  I  saw  its  eye  flashing  and 
felt  the  air  bubble  in  my  ear  through  the 
vibration. 

P.  1 85,  col.  2,  line  19.  Mnemosyne, 
goddess  of  memory,  mother  of  the  Muses. 

P.  185,  col.  2,  line  24.  mystic  fire,  St. 
Elmo's  fire. 

[St.  Elmo's  phosphorescent  light  flickers 
on  the  tops  of  masts  when  a  storm  is 
brewing.  Cf.  Tempest,  1.  ii.  197,  and 
Longfellow's  Golden  Legend : 
"Last  night  I  saw  St.  Elmo's  stars, 
With  their  glimmering  lanterns  all  at 
play, 

On  the  tops  of  the  masts,  and  the  tips  of 
the  spars, 

And  I  knew  we  should  have  foul  weather 
to-day."  Ed.] 

P.  185,  col.  2,  line  29.     blowzed,  blown-red. 

P.  186,  col.  2,  line  10. 

A  lidless  watcher  of  the  public  weal. 
Lidless  =  wakeful,  wide-eyed. 

P.  187,  col.  1,  line  24.  A  Niobean 
daughter.  Niobe  was  proud  of  her  twelve 
children,  and  in  consequence  boasted  her- 
self as  superior  to  Leto,  mother  of  Apollo 
and  Artemis,  who  in  revenge  shot  them  all 
dead. 

P.  187,  col.  2,  lines  7,  8. 
When  the  wild  peasant  rights  himself,   the 

rick 
Flames,    and    his    anger    reddens    in    the 
heavens. 

I  remember  seeing  thirty  ricks  burning 
near  Cambridge,  and  I  helped  to  pass  the 
bucket  from  the  well  to  help  to  quench  the 
fire.  [Cf.  To  Mary  Boyle,  verse  vii.  and 
verse  x.  —  Ed.] 

P.  188,  col.  2,  line  2.  dwarfs  of  presage. 
[Afterwards  seen  to  be  far  short  of  ex- 
pectation. —  Ed.] 

P.  189,  col.  1,  lines  13-15- 
Fixt  like  a  beacon-tower  above  the  waves 
Of  tempest,  when  the  crimson-rolling  eye 
Clares  ruin,  etc. 


[Cf.  Enoch  Arden: 
Allured  him,  as  the  beacon-blaze  allures 
The  bird  of  passage,  till  he  madly  strikes 
Against  it,  and  beats  out  his  weary  life. 

Ed.] 

P.  190.     Song  beginning 
Thy  voice  is  heard  thro'  rolling  drums. 

Cf.  Sedgwick's  Life,  ii.  103.  —  Extract  of 
a  letter  from  J.  Eaton,  a  private  serving  in 
the  Battle  of  Aliwal,  1846,  and  a  son  of 
two  of  Sedgwick's  servants : 

"Also,  my  dear  mother,  tell  Rhoda 
Harding  I  thought  of  her  in  the  battle's 
heat,  and  that  as  I  cut  at  the  enemy  and 
parried  their  thrusts  my  arm  was  strong  on 
her  account ;  for  I  felt  at  that  moment  that 
I  loved  her  more  than  ever,  and  may  God 
Almighty  bless  her." 

Sedgwick's  comment:  "This  is,  I  think, 
exquisitely  beautiful,  for  it  is  the  strong 
language  of  pure  feeling  in  the  hour  of 
severest  trial." 

My  first  version  of  this  song  was  pub- 
lished in  Selections,  1865  : 

Lady,  let  the  rolling  drums 
Beat  to  battle  where  thy  warrior  stands ; 
Now  thy  face  across  his  fancy  comes 
And  gives  the  battle  to  his  hands. 

Lady,  let  the  trumpets  blow, 
Clasp  thy  little  babes  about  thy  knee : 
Now  their  warrior  father  meets  the  foe 
And  strikes  him  dead  for  thine  and  thee. 

Canto  V 
P.  191,  col.  1,  line  4.     glimmering  lanes 
refers  to  the  lines  of  tents  just  visible  in  the 
darkness. 

P.  191,  col.  1,  line  23.  mawkin,  kitchen- 
wench.  [Cf.  "malkin,"  Coriolanus,  11.  i. 
224.  —  Ed.] 

P.  193,  col.  1,  line  16.  mammoth  bulk'd 
in  ice,  bulky  mammoth  buried  in  ice. 

P.  194,  col.  2,  line  25.  the  airy  Giant's 
zone,  the  stars  in  the  belt  of  Orion. 

P.  194,  col.  2,  line  29.  morions  [steel 
helmets  (Spanish,  morrion).  —  Ed.]. 

P.  195,  col.  1,  line  28. 

Her  that  lalk'd  down  the  fifty  wisest  men. 
St.    Catherine    of    Alexandria,    niece    oi 


NOTES 


017 


Constantine  the  Great.  [The  Emperor 
Maxentius  during  his  persecution  is  related 
to  have  sent  fifty  of  his  wisest  men  to  con- 
vert her  from  Christianity,  but  she  com- 
bated and  confuted  them  all.  —  Ed.] 

P.  196,  col.  1,  lines  21,  22. 

and  standing  like  a  stately  Pine 

Set  in  a  cataract  on  an  island-crag. 
Taken  from  a  torrent  above  Cauteretz. 
[Cf.  Remains  of  Arthur  Hugh  Clough, 
Sept.  7,  1861,  p.  269:  "Cauterets, 
September  7.  —  I  have  been  out  for  a  walk 
with  A.  T.  to  a  sort  of  island  between 
two  waterfalls,  with  pines  on  it,  of  which 
he  retained  a  recollection  from  his  visit 
thirty -one  years  ago,  and  which,  moreover, 
furnished  a  simile  to  The  Princess.  He 
is  very  fond  of  the  place  evidently,  as  it  is 
more  in  the  mountains  than  any  other, 
and  so  far  superior."  In  1875  he  took  me 
to  this  same  island  and  talked  of  Arthur 
Hallam  and  Clough.  —  Ed.] 

P.  196,  col.  2,  line  8.  Tomyris,  queen 
of  the  Massagetae,  who  cut  off  the  head  of 
Cyrus  the  Great  after  defeating  him,  and 
dipped  it  in  a  skin  which  she  had  filled 
with  blood  and  bade  him,  as  he  was  in- 
satiate of  blood,  to  drink  his  fill,  gorge 
himself  with  blood.  [Cf.  Herod,  i.  212: 
^  pjkv  ae  £yu>  koX  &ir\rjaTov  ibvra  a'ipxiTos 
Koptau).  And  of  this  threat  she  reminds 
the  dead  body  of  Cyrus  after  his  victory : 
2u  pkv  ipe  foovadv  re  Kal  pactovadv  ae 
fidxv  dirdXeaas  ircuoa  rbv  ipbv  e\a>v  o6\(#, 
ere  8'  4\ib,  Kardirep  iiTrelXrjaa,  atuaros 
Kopfooj.  —  Ed.] 

P.  196,  col.  2,  line  21. 
Gives    her    harsh    groom   for    bridal-gift    a 

scourge. 
An  old   Russian   custom.     [See  Hakluyt's 
Navigations,  1 599-1 600.  —  Ed.] 

P.  196,  col.  2,  lines  22,  23. 

Of  living  hearts  that  crack  within  the  fire 
Where  smoulder  their  dead  despots. 

Suttee  in  India. 
P.  196,  col.  2,  lines  24,  25. 

Mothers,  —  that,  all  prophetic  pity,  fling 

Their  pretty  maids  in  the  running  flood. 

The  "flood"  is  the  Ganges. 


P.  199,  col.  1,  lines  4-8. 
As  comes  a  pillar  of  electric  cloud, 

.  .  .  till  it  strikes 
On   a   wood,    and   takes,    and   breaks,    and 

cracks,  and  splits, 
And  twists  the  grain. 

Taken  from  the  havoc  worked  by  a  storm 
in  Tunby  wood  near  Horncastle.  One  oak 
was  wrapped  round  with  bands  of  what 
looked  like  list,  the  strips  of  its  bark  turned 
inside  out.  Two  concentric  circles  of  trees 
were  thrown  down  with  their  heads  in- 
ward. 

Canto  VI 

P.  199.     Home  they  brought  her  warrior 
dead.     I  published  this  version  of  the  song 
in  the  Selections,  1865  : 
Home  they  brought  him  slain  with  spears, 

They  brought  him  home  at  even-fall ; 
All  alone  she  sits  and  hears 

Echoes  in  his  empty  Hall, 

Sounding  on  the  morrow. 

The  sun  peep'd  in  from  open  field, 

The  boy  began  to  leap  and  prance, 

Rode  upon  his  father's  lance, 
Beat  upon  his  father's  shield, 

Oh  hush  my  joy,  my  sorrow. 

P.  199,  col.  2,  line  20. 

Like  that  great  dame  of  Lapidoth  she  sang. 
Cf.  Judges  iv.  4  and  following. 

P.  200,  col.  1,  lines  32,  33. 
And  over  them  the  tremulous  isles  of  light 
Slided. 

Spots  of  sunshine  coming  through  the 
leaves,  and  seeming  to  slide  from  one  to 
the  other,  as  the  procession  of  girls 
"moves  under  shade." 

P.  201,  col.  1,  line  20.  brede,  em- 
broidery. 

P.  202,  col.  1,  line  4.  port,  for  haven. 
Misprinted  "part"  in  earlier  editions. 

P.  202,  col.  1,  line  24.  dead  prime, 
earliest  dawn. 

P.  203,  col.  1,  line  19.  [The  azimuth 
of  any  point  on  a  horizontal  plane  is  the 
angle  between  a  line  drawn  to  that  point, 
and  a  fixed  line  in  the  horizontal  plane, 
usually   chosen   to   be   a   line   drawn   due 


9i8 


NOTES 


North.     (Arab,    al,    the,    and   samt,    way, 
quarter.)  —  Ed.] 

P.  203,  col.  1,  line  26.  like  the  vermin 
in  a  nut.  The  worm  eats  a  nut  and  leaves 
behind  but  dry  and  bitter  dust. 

P.  204,  col.  2,  line  2.  answered  full  of 
grief  and  scorn.  After  this  line,  these 
among  other  lines  have  been  omitted : 

Go  help  the  half-brain'd  dwarf,  Society, 
To  find  low  motives  unto  noble  deeds,  • 
To  fix  all  doubt  upon  the  darker  side ; 
Go  fitter  thou  for  narrower  neighbourhoods, 
Old  talker,  haunt  where  gossip  breeds  and 

seethes 
And  festers  in  provincial  sloth  !  and  you 
That  think  we  sought  to  practise  on  a  life 
Risked  for  our  own,   and  trusted  to  our 

hands, 
What  say  you,  Sir?    you  hear  us;    deem 

ye  not 
'Tis  all  too  like  that  even  now  we  scheme, 
tn   one   broad    death    confounding   friend 

and  foe, 
To  drug  them  all  ?  revolve  it ;  you  are  man, 
And  therefore  no  doubt  wise ;  but  after  this 
We  brook  no  further  insult  but  are  gone. 

Canto  VII 
P.  205,  col.  2,  lines  23-29. 

And  she  as  one  that  climbs  a  peak  to  gaze 
O'er  land  and  main,  and  sees  a  great  black 

cloud 
Drag    inward  from    the    deeps,    a    wall    of 

night, 
Blot  out  the  slope  of  sea  from  verge  to  shore, 
And  suck  the  blinding  splendour  from  the 

sand, 
And  quenching  lake   by  lake   and  tarn   by 

tarn 
Expunge  the  world. 

An    approaching    storm    seen    from    the 
summit  of  Snowdon. 

P.  206,  col.  1,  line  27.     obtained,  prevailed. 

P.  207,  col.  1,  line  17.  Oppian  law. 
When  Hannibal  was  nearing  Rome  a  law 
was  carried  by  C.  Oppius,  Trib.  Pleb., 
215  B.C.,  forbidding  women  to  wear  more 
than  half  an  ounce  of  gold,  or  brilliant 
dresses,  and  no  woman  was  to  come  within 
a  mile  of  Rome  or  of  any  town  save  on 


account  of  public  sacrifices  in  a  conveyance 
drawn  by  horses.  [In  195  B.C.  the  Oppian 
Law  was,  in  spite  of  Cato's  protests,  re- 
pealed.    Livy,  xxxiv.  8.  —  Ed.] 

P.  207,  col.  i,  line  20.  Hortensia. 
[She  pleaded  against  the  proposed  tax  on 
Roman  matrons  after  the  assassination  of 
Julius  Caesar  which  was  to  be  raised  in 
order  to  pay  for  the  expenses  of  the  war 
against  Brutus  and  Cassius.  Val.  Max. 
viii.  iii.  §  3;  Quint.  1.  i.  §  6;  Appian, 
B.C.  iv.  32.  — Ed.] 

P.  207,  col.  2,  lines  17-19. 
Leapt   fiery    Passion   from    the    brinks    of 

death; 
And  I  believed  that  in  the  living  world 
My  spirit  closed  with  Ida's  at  the  lips. 

This  used  to  run : 
Crown'd  passion  from  the  brinks  of  death, 

and  up 
Along   the   shuddering    senses   struck    the 

soul 
And  closed  on  fire  with  Ida's  at  the  lips. 

P.  207,  col.  2,  lines  23,  24. 
And  left  her  woman,  lovelier  in  her  mood 
Than  in  her  mould  that  other. 

Aphrodite  passed  before  his  brain 
drowsy  with  weakness.  (Cf.  Hesiod, 
Theog.  1 90-1 9 1.) 

P.  208,  col.  1,  lines  10,  n. 

Now  lies  the  earth  all  Dana'e  to  the  stars, 
And  all  thy  heart  lies  open  unto  me. 

Zeus  came  down  to  Danae  when  shut  up 
in  the  tower  in  a  shower  of  golden  stars. 

P.  208,  col.  1,  line  20.  Come  down,  O 
maid,  is  said  to  be  taken  from  Theocritus, 
but  there  is  no  real  likeness  except  perhaps 
in  the  Greek  Idyllic  feeling. 

[For  simple  rhythm  and  vowel  music 
my  father  considered  this  Idyllic  song, 
written  in  Switzerland  —  chiefly  at  Lauter- 
brunnen  and  Grindelwald  —  and  descriptive 
of  the  waste  Alpine  heights  and  gorges 
and  of  the  sweet  rich  valleys  below,  as 
among  his  most  successful  work.  —  Ed.] 

P.  208,  col.  1,  line  31.  nor  cares  to  walk. 
[Cf.  Hamlet,  1.  i.  167.  —  Ed.] 

P.  208,  col.  1,  line  32.  Death  and 
Morning.  Death  is  the  lifelessness  on  the 
high  snow  peaks. 


NOTES 


919 


P.  208,  col.  I,  line  36.  dusky  doors. 
The  opening  of  the  gorge  is  called  dusky 
as  a  contrast  with  the  snows  all  about. 

P.  208,  col.  2,  line  4.     moan  of  doves. 

Nee  gemere  aeria  cessabit  turtur  ab  ulmo. 
Virgil,  Eel.  i.  59. 
P.  209,  col.  i,  line  12.     . 
Stays    all    the   fair    young    planet    in    her 

hands. 
[Cf .  Ross  Wallace's  lines : 

"The  hand  that  rocks  the  cradle 

Is  the  hand  that  rules  the  world."   Ed.] 

P.  210,  col.  1,  line  20. 

From  yearlong  poring  on  thy  pictured  eyes. 
Next  line : 

Or  some  mysterious  or  magnetic  touch, 
was  omitted. 

P.  210,  col.  1,  lines  28,  29. 

my  doubts  are  dead, 

My  haunting  sense  of  hollow  shows. 

You  have  become  a  real  woman  to  me. 
[The  realization  of  her  womanhood  was 
the  magic  touch  which  gave  her  reality 
and  dispelled  his  haunting  sense  of  the 
unreality  of  things.  —  Ed.] 

P.    210,    col.    2,   line   2.     Approach   and 

fear  not.     [Spoken  in  answer  to  Ida's 

'  I  have  heard    . 

Of  your  strange  doubts:    they  well  might 
be :  I  seem 

A  mockery  to  my  own  self.     Never,  Prince  ; 

You  cannot  love  me.' 

The  Prince  had  replied  directly  to  these 

words : 

'lift  thine  eyes;   my  doubts  are  dead, 

My  haunting  sense  of  hollow  shows' : 

and   following  out   the   train  of   thought, 

appeals  to  her  to  let  her  nature  strike  on 

his 

'Like  yonder  morning  on  the  blind  half- 
world.' 

It  must  be  remembered  that  the  Prince  had 
overheard  Ida's  self-accusings  and  excus- 
ings  (p.  208) : 

but  she  still  were  loth, 
She  still  were  loth  to  yield  herself  to  one 
That  wholly  scorn'd,  etc.  Ed.] 


Conclusion 

This  has  been  a  good  deal  altered  from 
the  first  version. 

P.  in,  col.  1,  line  21.  'You  —  tell  us 
what  we  are.'     After  this  it  ran : 

who  there  began 
A  treatise  growing  with  it,  and  might  have 

flow'd 
In  axiom  worthier  to  be  graven  on  rock 
Than  all  that  lasts  of  old  world  hieroglyph, 
Or  lichen-fretted  Rune  and  arrowhead  ! 
But  that  there  rose  a  shout ;  the  gates  were 

closed 
At  sundown,  and  the  crowd  were  swarming 

now, 
To  take  their  leave,  about  the  garden  rails, 
And  I  and  some  went  out,  and  mingled 

with  them. 
These  lines  were  omitted,  and  the  forty- 
six  lines  (pp.  211,  212),  who  might  have 
told  to  garden  rails,  were  inserted,  written 
just  after  the  disturbances  in  France, 
February  1848,  when  Louis  Philippe  was 
compelled  to  abdicate. 

P.  212,  col.  1,  line  9. 

No  little  lily-handed  Baronet  he. 
An  imaginary  character. 

P.  212,  col.  1,  line  12,  pine,  pine-apple. 

P.  212.  Ode  on  the  Death  of  the 
Duke  of  Wellington.  [Written  at 
Twickenham,  and  first  published  on  the 
day  of  the  funeral,  November  18,  1852. 
Many  of  the  alterations  which  appeared  in 
the  second  ^  edition  of  this  poem  were  in 
the  original  MS.  —  Ed.] 

I  saw  the  funeral  procession  from 
Somerset  House,  and  afterwards  read  an 
account  of  the  burial  in  St.  Paul's  and 
added  a  few  lines  to  the  original. 

P.  212,  line  9. 

Here,  in  streaming  London's  central  roar. 

[One  day  in  1842  Edward  FitzGerald 
records  a  visit  to  St.  Paul's  with  my 
father,  when  he  said,  "Merely  as  an 
enclosed  space  in  a  huge  city  this  is  very 
fine;"  and  when  they  went  out  into  the 
"central  roar,"  "This  is  the  mind;  that 
a  mood  of  it."  —  Ed.] 

P.  213,  col.  1,  line  2. 
Remembering  all  his  greatness  in  the  Past. 


920 


NOTES 


The  first  version  was : 
Our  sorrow  draws  but  on  the  golden  Past. 

P.  213,  col.  i,  line  ai.  four-square.  Cf. 
Terpdywvos  (Simonides),  though  I  did  not 
think  of  this  parallel  when  I  wrote  it. 

[The  word  foursquare  is  found  in 
Malory,  i.  hi.:  "There  was  sene  in  the 
chirchyard,  against  the  hyghe  aulter  a  grete 
stone  four-square."  —  Ed.] 

P.  213,  col.  1,  line  38. 
Bright  let  it  be  with  its  blazon 'd  deeds. 

Wellington's    victories    were    inscribed    in 
gold  letters  on  the  car. 

P.  213,  col.  2,  lines  21-23.  Who  .  .  . 
rest?  These  three  lines  are  spoken  by  the 
"mighty  seaman,"  Nelson,  who  lies  in 
St.  Paul's. 

P.  213,  col.  2,  line  40. 

Against  the  myriads  of  Assaye. 

His  first  victory  was  in  Hindostan,  near 
this  small  town,  where  he  defeated  the 
Mahratta  army  with  a  force  a  tenth  of 
their  number  (1803). 

P.  214,  col.  1,  line  3. 

Of  his  laboured  rampart-lines. 
The  lines  of  Torres  Vedras;   the  outermost 
ran  29  miles. 

P.  214,  col.  1,  line  21. 
On  that  loud  sabbath  shook  the  spoiler  down. 
The  day  of  Waterloo,   Sunday,   June   18, 
1815. 

P.  214,  col.  1,  line  27. 
Heaven  flash'd  a  sudden  jubilant  ray. 

The  setting  sun  glanced  on  this  last 
charge  of  the  English  and  Prussians. 

P.  214,  col.  1,  line  37. 

Touch  a  spirit  among  things  divine. 

Dwell  upon  the  word  "touch"  and 
make  it  as  long  as  "can  touch." 

P.  214,  col.  2,  line  22. 
But  wink  no  more  in  slothful  overtrust. 
After  this  line  were  five  other  lines  in 
first  edition : 

Perchance  our  greatness  will  increase ; 
Perchance  a  darkening  future  yields 
Some  reverse  from  worse  to  worse, 
The  blood  of  men  in  quiet  fields, 
And  sprinkled  on  the  sheaves  of  peace. 


P.  215,  col.  1,  lines  17-19. 

He,  on  whom  from  both  her  open  hands 
Lavish  Honour  shower 'd  all  her  stars, 
And  affluent  Fortune  emptied  all  her  horn. 

These  are  full-vowelled  lines  to  describe 
Fortune  emptying  her  Cornucopia. 

P.  216.  [The  Third  of  February 
1852  was  written  when  the  House  of  Lords 
seemed  to  condone  Louis  Napoleon's  coup 
d'etat  in  December  1851,  and  rejected  the 
Bill  for  the  organization  of  the  Militia 
when  he  was  expected  to  attack  England. 
It  was  first  published  in  The  Examiner, 
Feb.  7,  1852.  Hands  all  round  was  pub- 
lished in  the  same  number,  and  Britons, 
guard  your  own  in  the  number  dated  Jan. 
31,  1852.  Edward  FitzGerald  writes: 
"The  Authorship  was  kept  secret,  because 
of  the  Poet  being  Laureate  to  the  Queen, 
then  being,  and  wishing  to  be,  on  good 
Terms  with  Napoleon."  —  Ed.] 

HANDS   ALL   ROUND  !  1 

[When  "Britons,  guard  your  own,  "  and  "Hands 
all  round"  were  written,  my  father  along 
with  many  others  regarded  France  under 
Napoleon  as  a  serious  menace  to  the  peace 
of  Europe.  In  later  years  after  the  Franco- 
German  war,  he  was  filled  with  admiration 
at  the  dignified  way  in  which  France  was 
gradually  gathering  herself  together.  He 
rejoiced  whenever  England  and  France  were 
in  agreement,  and  co-operated  harmoniously 
for  the  good  of  the  world.] 

First  drink  a  health,  this  solemn  night, 

A  health  to  England,  every  guest ; 
That  man's  the  best  cosmopolite, 

Who  loves  his  native  country  best. 
May  Freedom's  oak  for  ever  live 

With  stronger  life  from  day  to  day; 
That  man's  the  true  Conservative 
Who  lops  the  moulder'd  branch  away. 
Hands  all  round  ! 
God  the  tyrant's  hope  confound  ! 
To  this  great  cause  of  Freedom  drink,  my 

friends, 
And  the  great  name  of  England  round  and 
round. 

1  Feb.  oth,  1852.  I  must  send  you  what 
Landor  says  in  a  note  this  morning :  " '  Hands 
all  round  ! '  is  incomparably  the  best  (convivial) 
lyric  in  the  language,  though  Dryden's  'Drink- 
ing Song'  is  fine."  —  John  Forster  to  Mrs. 
Tennyson. 


NOTES 


021 


A  health  to  Europe's  honest  men  ! 
Heaven  guard   them  from  her  tyrants' 
jails ! 
From  wrong'd  Poerio's  noisome  den, 

From  iron'd  limbs  and  tortured  nails  ! 
We  curse  the  crimes  of  southern  kings, 

The  Russian  whips  and  Austrian  rods, 
We,  likewise,  have  our  evil  things ; 
Too  much  we  make  our  Ledgers  Gods, 
Yet  hands  all  round  ! 
God  the  tyrant's  cause  confound  ! 
To  Europe's  better  health  we  drink,  my 

friends, 
And  the  great  name  of  England  round  and 

round. 
What  health  to  France,  if  France  be  she, 

Whom  martial  prowess  only  charms  ? 
Yet  tell  her  —  Better  to  be  free 

Than  vanquish  all  the  world  in  arms. 
Her  frantic  city's  flashing  heats 

But  fire  to  blast  the  hopes  of  men. 
Why  change  the  titles  of  your  streets  ? 
You  fools,  you'll  want  them  all  again. 
Yet  hands  all  round  ! 
God  the  tyrant's  cause  confound  ! 
To  France,   the  wiser   France,   we  drink, 

my  friends, 
And  the  great  name  of  England  round  and 

round. 
Gigantic  daughter  of  the  West, 

We  drink  to  thee  across  the  flood, 
We  know  thee  most,  we  love  thee  best 

For  art  thou  not  of  British  blood  ? 
Should  war's  mad  blast  again  be  blown, 

Permit  not  thou  the  tyrant  powers 
To  fight  thy  mother  here  alone, 

But  let  thy  broadsides  roar  with  ours. 
Hands  all  round ! 
God  the  tyrant's  cause  confound  ! 
To  our  great   kinsmen  of  the  West,   my 

friends. 
And  the  great  name  of  England  round  and 

round. 
O  rise,  our  strong  Atlantic  sons, 

When  war  against  our  freedom  springs ! 
O  speak  to  Europe  thro'  your  guns ! 
They  can  be  understood  by  kings. 
You  must  not  mix  our  Queen  with  those 

That  wish  to  keep  their  people  fools ; 
Our  freedom's  foemen  are  her  foes, 
She  comprehends  the  race  she  rules. 
Hands  all  round  ! 
God  the  tyrant's  cause  confound  ! 


To  our  great  kinsmen  of  the  West,   my 

friends, 
And  the  great  cause  of  Freedom  round  and 

round. 

P.  217.  The  Charge  of  the  Light 
Brigade. 

This  poem  (written  at  Farringford,  and 
published  in  The  Examiner,  Dec.  9,  1854) 
was  written  after  reading  the  first  report  of 
The  Times  correspondent,  where  only  607 
sabres  are  mentioned  as  having  taken  part 
in  the  charge  (Oct.  25,  1854).  Drayton's 
Agincourt  was  not  in  my  mind;  my  poem 
is  dactylic,  and  founded  on  the  phrase, 
"Some  one  had  blundered." 

At  the  request  of  Lady  Franklin  I  dis- 
tributed copies  among  our  soldiers  in  the 
Crimea  and  the  hospital  at  Scutari.  The 
charge  lasted  only  twenty-five  minutes.  I 
have  heard  that  one  of  the  men,  with  the 
blood  streaming  from  his  leg,  as  he  was 
riding  by  his  officer,  said,  "Those  d — d 
heavies  will  never  chaff  us  again,"  and  fell 
down  dead. 

P.  217,  line  1.  Half  a  league.  Captain 
Nolan  delivered  the  order.  He  rode  in 
his  saddle  upright  some  moments  after  he 
was  shot,  his  sword-hand  uplifted,  and  was 
the  first  man  killed.  See  Kinglake,  vol. 
v.  p.  220.  Lord  Cardigan  and  the  Light 
Brigade  covered  a  mile  and  a  half,  with 
Russian  batteries  on  either  hand  and  in 
front  of  them,  before  they  encountered  the 
enemy. 

P.  217,  col.  2,  line  15.  Not  the  six  hun- 
dred.    Only  1 QS  returned. 

P.  217.  Ode  sung  at  the  Opening 
of  the  International  Exhibition. 
[First  published  in  The  Times,  April  24, 
1862,  incorrectly;  published  afterwards 
correctly  in  Fraser's  Magazine,  June  1862. 

—  Ed.] 

The  Prince  Consort  originated  Inter- 
national Exhibitions. 

P.  218.  Welcome  to  Alexandra. 
[Written  at  Farringford  and  published  on 
March  10,  1863,  the  date  of  the  marriage. 

—  Ed.] 

P.  2ig.  Welcome  to  Mards  Alex- 
androvna.  [Written  at  Farringford  and 
published  in  The  Times,  June  23,  1874, 
after  the  marriage.  —  Ed.] 


922 


NOTES 


P.  220.  The  Grandmother.  [Written 
at  Farringford  and  first  published  in  Once 
a  Week,  July  16,  1859.  —  Ed.] 

P.  225.  Northern  Farmer,  Old 
Style  and  New  Style.  [First  published 
in  1864  and  1869  respectively.  —  Ed.] 

Roden  Noel  calls  these  two  poems 
photographs,  but  they  are  imaginative. 

The  first  is  founded  on  the  dying  words 
of  a  farm-bailiff,  as  reported  to  me  by  my 
old  great-uncle  when  he  was  verging  upon 
80:  "God  A' mighty  little  knows  what 
He's  about  a-taking  me.  An'  Squire  will 
be  so  mad  an'  all."  I  conjectured  the 
man  from  that  one  saying. 

The  Farmer,  New  Style  is  likewise 
founded  on  a  single  sentence:  "When  I 
canters  my  'erse  along  the  ramper  (high- 
way) I  'ears  'proputty,  proputty,  pro- 
putty.'"  I  had  been  told  that  a  rich 
farmer  in  our  neighbourhood  was  in  the 
habit  of  saying  this.  I  never  saw  the  man 
and  know  no  more  of  him.  It  was  also 
reported  of  the  wife  of  this  worthy  that 
when  she  entered  the  satte  a  manger  of  a 
sea-bathing  place  she  slapt  her  pockets  and 
said,  "When  I  married,  I  brought  him 
£5000  on  each  shoulder." 

P.  224.  line  16.  radved  an'  rembled 
'urn  out  [tore  up  and  threw  them  out.  — 
Ed.]. 

P.  227.  The  Daisy.  [First  published 
in  1855.  —  Ed.]  In  a  metre  which  I  in- 
vented, representing  in  some  measure  the 
grandest  of  metres,  the  Horatian  Alcaic. 
This  poem  is  a  record  of  a  tour  taken  in 
1851. 

P.  227,  line  5.  Turbla,  in  the  Western 
Riviera. 

P.  228,  col.  1,  line  n.  The  Palazzo 
Ducale. 

P.  228,  col.  1,  line  17.  Cascine,  the  Park 
of  Florence. 

P.  228,  col.  1,  line  18.  Boboli's  ducal 
bowers  [gardens  behind  the  Pitti  Palace.  — 
Ed.]. 

P.    228,    col.    2,   line   7.    rich    VirgUian 
rustic  measure. 
Anne    lacus    tantos?     Te,    Lari    maxume, 

teque 
Fluctibus   et    fremitu    adsurgens,    Benace, 
marino.        Virg.  Georg.  ii.  159,  160. 


P.  228,  col.  2,  line  n.  fair  port. 
Varenna,  with  its  memories  of  Queen 
Theodolind. 

P.  228,  col.  2,  line  36. 
And  gray  metropolis  of  the  North. 

A  Scotch  professor  objected  to  this. 
So  I  asked  him  to  call  London  if  he  liked 
the  "black  metropolis  of  the  south." 

P.  229.  To  the  Rev.  F.  D.  Maurice. 
[This  invitation  to  Farringford  was  first 
published  in  1855. 

Mr.  Maurice  had  been  ejected  from  his 
professorship  at  King's  College  for  non- 
orthodoxy.  He  had  especially  alarmed 
some  of  the  "weaker  brethren"  by  point- 
ing out  that  the  word  "eternal"  in  "eternal 
punishment"  (aldvios),  strictly  translated, 
referred  to  the  quality  not  the  duration  of 
the  punishment. 

He  wrote  accepting  the  duties  of  god- 
father, August  1852,  with  "thankfulness 
and  fear."  He  writes  again  on  August 
30th:  "I  have  so  much  to  thank  you  for, 
especially  of  late  years  since  I  have  known 
your  poetry  better,  and  I  hope  I  have  been 
somewhat  more  in  a  condition  to  learn 
from  it,  that  I  cannot  say  how  thankful  I 
feel  to  you  for  wishing  that  I  should  stand 
in  any  nearer  and  more  personal  relation 
to  you."  —  Ed.] 

P.  229.  Will.  [First  published  in  1855. 
—  Ed.] 

P.  229.  In  the  Valley  of  Cauteretz. 
[Written  in  1861,  published  in  1864.  —  Ed.] 
A  valley  in  the  Pyrenees,  where  I  had  been 
with  Arthur  Hallam  in  former  years,  and 
in  which  at  this  time  my  family  and  I  met 
Clough. 

P.  230.  In  the  Garden  at  Swains- 
ton.  [Written  in  1870  and  first  pub- 
lished in  1874.  —  Ed.]    Line  3. 

Shadows  of  three  dead  men. 
Sir  John  Simeon,  Henry  Lushington,  and 
Arthur  Hallam. 

P.  230,  line  7.  The  Master.  [Sir  John 
Simeon  died  at  Friburg,  1870.  —  Ed.] 

P.  230.  The  Flower.  [Written  at 
Farringford  and  first  published  in  1864.  — 
Ed.]  This  does  not  refer  to  my  poetry. 
It  was  written  as  a  universal  apologue,  and 


NOTES 


923 


the  people  do  not  as  yet  call  my  flower  a 
weed. 

[Mrs.  Richard  Ward,  daughter  of  Sir 
John  Simeon,  wrote  to  me  of  this  poem: 
"However  absorbed  Tennyson  might  be 
in  earnest  talk,  his  eye  and  ear  were  always 
alive  to  the  natural  objects  around  him. 
I  have  often  known  him  stop  short  in  a 
sentence  to  listen  to  a  blackbird's  song,  to 
watch  the  sunlight  glint  on  a  butterfly's 
wing,  or  to  examine  a  field-flower  at  his 
feet.  The  lines  of  The  Flower  were  the 
result  of  an  investigation  of  the  'love-in- 
idleness'  growing  at  Farringford.  He  made 
them  nearly  all  on  the  spot,  and  said  them 
to  me  (as  they  are)  next  day."  —  Ed.] 

P.  230.  Requiescat.  [First  published 
in  1864.  —  Ed.] 

P.  230.  The  Sailor  Boy.  First  pub- 
lished in  the  Victoria  Regia,  edited  by  Miss 
Emily  Faithfull,  1861. 

P.  230,  line  12.  scrawl,  the  young  of 
the  dog-crab. 

P.  231.  The  Islet.  [First  published 
in  1864.  —  Ed.] 

A  mountain  islet  pointed  and  pcak'd; 
Waves  on  a  diamond  shingle  dash, 
Cataract  brooks  to  the  ocean  run, 
F airily-delicate  palaces  shine 
Mixt  with  myrtle  and  clad  with  vine, 
And  overstream'd  and  silvery^streak'd 
With  many  a  rivulet  high  against  the  Sun 
The  facets  of  the  glorious  mountain  flash 
Above  the  valleys  of  palm  and  pine. 

These  lines,  a  fragment,  were  the 
nucleus  of  the  poem,  and  perhaps  it  would 
have  been  better  not  to  have  expanded 
them  into  the  singer  and  his  wife. 

P.  231.  Child  Songs.  [First  pub- 
lished in  St.  Nicholas,  February  1880;  set 
to  music  by  my  mother.  —  Ed.] 

I.  The  City  Child.  Rejected  from  The 
Princess. 

II.  Minnie  and  Winnie.  Rejected  from 
The  Princess. 

P.  232.  The  Spiteful  Letter.  First 
published  in  Once  a  Week,  January  1868. 
It  is  no  particular  letter  that  I  meant.  I 
have  had  dozens  of  them  from  one  quarter 
and  another. 


P.  232.  Literary  Squabbles.  [First 
published  in  Punch,  March  7,  1846.  —  Ed.] 

P.  232.  The  Victim.  [Printed  in  1867 
at  the  Guest  Printing  Press,  Wimborne, 
and  first  published  in  Good  Words,  January 
1869.  —  Ed.]  I  read  the  story  in  Miss 
Yonge's  Golden  Deeds,  and  made  it  Scandi- 
navian. 

P.  232,  line  3.  thorpe  and  byre,  town 
and  farm. 

P.  233.  Wages.  [First  published  in 
Macmillan's  Magazine,  February  1868.  — 
Ed.] 

P.  234.  The  Higher  Pantheism. 
[Written  for  the  Metaphysical  Society  in 
1869,  and  first  published  in  1869.  —  Ed.] 

P.  234.  The  Voice  and  the  Peak. 
[First  published  in   1874.  —  Ed.]     Line  4. 

Green-rushing  from  the  rosy  thrones  of 
dawn  ! 
This  line  was  made  in  the  Val  d'Anzasca 
after  looking  at  Monte  Rosa  flushed  by  the 
dawn  and  rising  above  the  chestnuts  and 
walnuts  (Sept.  4,  1873).  ' 

P.  235.  Flower  in  the  crannied 
WALL.  [First  published  in  1869.  —  Ed.] 
The  flower  was  plucked  out  of  a  wall  at 
"Waggoners  Wells,"  near  Haslemere. 

P.  235.  A  Dedication.  [First  pub- 
lished in  1864.  Written  at  Farringford, 
and  addressed  to  my  mother.  —  Ed.] 

P.  235.  Boadicea.  [Written  at  Far- 
ringford, and  first  published  in  1864. — 
Ed.]  This  is  a  far-off  echo  of  the  metre 
of  the  Attis  of  Catullus. 

P.  235,  line  6. 
Yeil'd   and  shriek'd   between   her  daughters 

o'er  a  wild  confederacy 
is  accented  as  I  mark  the  accents.    Let  it 
be  read  straight  like  prose  and  it  will  come 
all  right. 

[Fanny  Kemble  writes:  "I  do  not 
think  any  reading  of  Tennyson's  can  ever 
be  as  striking  and  impressive  as  that 
'Curse  of  Boadicea'  that  he  intoned  to  us, 
while  the  oak-trees  were  writhing  in  the 
storm  that  lashed  the  windows  and  swept 
over  Blackdown  the  day  we  were  there."  — 
Ed.J 


924 


NOTES 


P.  236,  line  38.  miserable  in  ignominy 
is  metrically  equivalent  to  Catullus',  for  I 
put  a  tribrach  where  Catullus  has  a  trochee. 

P.  237.  [The  translation  from  Homer 
and  the  experiments  in  quantity  first  pub- 
lished in  the  Cornhill  Magazine,  December 
1863.  — Ed.] 

P.  237.  Hexameters  and  Pentameters 
(in  English)  do  not  run  well.  See  Cole- 
ridge's shockingly  bad  couplet  as  far  as 
quantity  goes  —  with  the  pentameter. 

In  the  pentameter  aye  falling  In  melody 
back. 
Much  better  would  be 
Up  goes  Hexameter  with  might  as  a  foun- 
tain arising, 
Lightly  thg  fountain  falls,  lightly  thg  penta- 
meter. 

It  is  noteworthy  that  in  English  doubling 
the  consonant  generally  makes  the  foot 
preceding  short,  e.g.  valley,  etc. 

[My  father  thought  that  quantitative 
English  Hexameters  were  as  a  rule  only  fit 
for  comic  subjects,  though  he  said:  "Of 
course  you  might  go  on  with  perfect  Hex- 
ameters of  the  following  kind,  but  they 
would  grow  monotonous : 
'High  woods  roaring  above  me,  dark 
leaves  falling  about  me.' " 

Some  of  the  Hexameters  in  two  quanti- 
tative experiments,  "Jack  and  the  Bean- 
stalk" and  "Bluebeard,"  published  by  me 
anonymously  in  Miss  Thackeray's  Blue- 
beard's Keys,  were  made  or  amended  by 
him.  Throughout  the  Hexameters,  by  his 
advice,  quantity,  except  here  and  there  for 
the  sake  of  variety,  coincides  with  accent. 
—  Ed.] 

P.  237.  Alcaics.  My  Alcaics  are  not 
intended  for  Horatian  Alcaics,  nor  are 
Horace's  Alcaics  the  Greek  Alcaics,  nor 
are  his  Sapphics,  which  are  vastly  inferior 
to  Sappho's,  the  Greek  Sapphics.  The 
Horatian  Alcaic  is  perhaps  the  stateliest 
metre  in  the  world  except  the  Virgilian 
hexameter  at  its  best ;  but  the  Greek  Alcaic, 
if  we  may  judge  from  the  two  or  three 
specimens  left,  had  a  much  freer  and  lighter 
movement :  and  I  have  no  doubt  that  an 
old  Greek  if  he  knew  our  language  would 
admit  my  Alcaics  as  legitimate,  only  Milton 
must  not  be  pronounced  Mil/'». 


&vt\t\v  ixei  K€  vaos  ipfiq,   (Alcaeus). 
Is  that  very  Horatian?     I  did  once  begin 
an  Horatian  Alcaic  Ode  to  a  great  painter, 
of  which  I  only  recollect  one  line : 
"Munificently  rewarded  Artist." 
P.  237,  line  3- 

God- gifted  organ-voice  of  England. 
Mr.  Calverley  attacked  the  "an"  in 
"organ"  as  being  too  short,  forgetting 
that  in  the  few  third  lines  of  the  stanzas 
left  by  Alcaeus  this  syllable  is  more  than 
once  short. 

IxiXiXpov,  avrap  apcpi  nbpo-q. 
again : 

&  B^KXl,  (p&ppXLKOV  5'  dpLo-rov. 

Look  at  Sappho's  third  line  in  the  only 
Alcaic  left  of  hers : 

af5ws  k£  a  ov  Kix&vev  6-mrd.T- 

Besides,  I  deny  that  the  "an"  in  "organ- 
voice"  is  short.     Some  would  prefer 

God-gifted  August  Voice  of  England. 
"An"  must  be  long  by  position.     In 
rb  5*  ev9ei>'  &ppes  8'  hv  rb  pAaaov  (Alcaeus) 
is  es  5'  short? 

P.    237,    lines   6,    7.     [from   and   as   are 
long  by  position.  —  Ed.] 

P.    237,    line    15.     Some    would    prefer 
also  in  my  line 

'  And  crimson-hued  the  stately  palm-woods' 
"those  stately  palm-woods."  I  do  not 
agree  with  them,  and  I  think  that  an  old 
Greek  would  bear  me  out.  The  before  st 
is  long,  I  declare. 

[I  attempted  the  following  translation  of 
Horace's  "Persicos  Odi"  into  Sapphics,  in 
which  my  father  made  the  two  lines : 
Dream  not  of  where  some  sunny  rose  may 
linger 
Later  in  autumn. 


PERSICOS   ODI 

Boy,  we  despise  that  revel  of  the  Persian ; 
Loathe    the    lime-wreaths     so    delicately 

woven ; 
Dream  not  of  where  some  sunny  rose  may 
linger 
Later  in  autumn ! 


NOTES 


0*5 


Twine  me  some  chaplet,  be  it  only  myrtle  ! 
Myrtle  will  deck  thee,  filler  of  the  wine-cup  ! 
Myrtle  will  deck  me,  quaffing  wine  beneath 
this 
Vine-trellis  arbour !  Ed.] 

P.  238.  Hcndecasyllabics.  These  must 
be  read  with  the  English  accent. 

P.  238.  Specimen  of  a  Translation 
of  the  Iliad  in  Blank  Verse.  Some, 
and  among  these  one  at  least  of  our  best 
and  greatest  (Sir  John  Herschel),  have 
endeavoured  to  give  us  the  Iliad  in  English 
hexameters,  and  by  what  appears  to  me 
their  failure  have  gone  far  to  prove  the  im- 
possibility of  the  task.  I  have  long  held 
by  our  blank  verse  in  this  matter,  and  now, 
having  spoken  so  disrespectfully  here  of 
these  hexameters,  I  venture  or  rather  feel 
bound  to  subjoin  a  specimen  (however  brief 
and  with  whatever  demerits)  of  a  blank 
verse  translation. 

[My  father  also  translated  into  prose  the 
following  passage  from  the  Sixth  Book  of 
the  Iliad  :  — 

Nor  did  Paris  linger  in  his  lofty  halls, 
but  when  he  had  girt  on  his  gorgeous  armour, 
all  of  varied  bronze,  then  he  rushed  through 
the  city,  glorying  in  his  airy  feet.  And  as 
when  a  stall-kept  horse,  that  is  barley -fed 
at  the  manger,  breaketh  his  tether,  and 
dasheth  thro'  the  plain,  spurning  it,  being 
wont  to  bathe  himself  in  the  fair-running 
river,  rioting,  and  reareth  his  head,  and 
his  mane  flieth  backward  on  either  shoulder, 
and  he  glorieth  in  his  beauty,  and  his  knees 
bear  him  at  the  gallop  to  the  haunts  and 
meadows  of  the  mares ;  —  even  so  ran  the  son 
of  Priam,  Paris,  from  the  height  of  Per- 
gamus,  all  in  arms,  glittering  like  the  sun, 
laughing  for  lightheartedness,  and  his  swift 
feet  bare  him. 

At  the  end  of  1865  my  father  wrote  the 
following  poem,  which  was  published  in 
Good  Words,  March  1868,  and  ruined  by 
the  absurd  illustrations : 

FARRINGFORD    1865-1866 

I  stood  on  a  tower  in  the  wet, 
And  New  Year  and  Old  Year  met, 
And  winds  were  roaring  and  blowing ; 
And  I  said,  "O  years,  that  meet  in  tears, 
Have  ye  aught  that  is  worth  the  knowing  ? 


Science  enough  and  exploring,  — 
Wanderers  coming  and  going,  — 
Matter  enough  for  deploring,  — 
But  aught  that  is  worth  the  knowing?" 
Seas  at  my  feet  were  flowing, 
Waves  on  the  shingle  pouring, 
Old  Year  roaring  and  blowing, 
And  New  Year  blowing  and  roaring ! 

Ed.] 

P.  239.  The  Window.  [Printed  at  the 
Guest  Printing  Press  at  Wimborne,  1867; 
published  with  music  by  Arthur  Sullivan, 
1871,  and  with  the  Poems,  1884.  —  Ed.] 


IN   MEMORIAM 

[Half  a  mile  to  the  south  of  Clevedon  in 
Somersetshire  stands  Clevedon  Church, 
"obscure  and  solitary,"  on  a  lonely  hill 
overlooking  a  wide  expanse  of  water,  where 
the  Severn  flows  into  the  Bristol  Channel. 
It  is  dedicated  to  St.  Andrew,  the  chancel 
being  the  original  fishermen's  chapel. 

From  the  graveyard  you  can  hear  the 
music  of  the  tide  as  it  washes  against  the 
low  cliffs  not  a  hundred  yards  away.  In 
the  manor  aisle  of  the  church,  under  which 
is  the  vault  of  the  Hallams,  may  be  read 
this  epitaph  to  Arthur  Hallam,  written  by 
his  father : 

TO 

THE    MEMORY  OF 

ARTHUR   HENRY   HALLAM 

ELDEST    SON   OF   HENRY    HALLAM 

ESQUIRE 

AND  OF  JULIA  MARIA  HIS  WIFE 

DAUGHTER  OF  SIR  ABRAHAM  ELTON 

BARONET 

OF  CLEVEDON   COURT 

WHO   WAS    SNATCHED    AWAY    BY    SUDDEN     DEATH 

AT  VIENNA  ON  SEPTEMBER    15TH   1 833 

IN  THE   TWENTY-THIRD  YEAR   OF   HIS  AGE 

AND  NOW  IN  THIS  OBSCURE  AND  SOLITARY  CHURCH 

REPOSE  THE   MORTAL   REMAINS   OF 

ONE  TOO  EARLY   LOST   FOR   PUBLIC  FAME 

BUT  ALREADY  CONSPICUOUS   AMONG  HIS 

CONTEMPORARIES 

FOR  THE  BRIGHTNESS   OF   HIS   GENIUS 

THE   DEPTH  OF   HIS   UNDERSTANDING 

THE   NOHLENESS  OF   HIS   DISPOSITION 

THE   FERVOUR   OF   HIS   PIETY 

AND  THE  PURITY   OF  HIS   LIFE 


926 


NOTES 


VALE  DULCISSIME 

VALE  DILECTISSIME  DES1DERATISSIME 

REQUIESCAS  IN  PACE 

PATER  AC  MATER  HIC   POSTHAC  REQUIESCAMUS 

TECUM 

USQUE  AD  TUBAM 

In  this  part  of  the  church  there  is  also 
another  tablet  to  the  memory  of  Henry 
Hallam,  the  epitaph  written  by  my  father : 
who  thought  the  simpler  the  epitaph,  the 
better  it  would  become  the  simple  and 
noble  man,  whose  work  speaks  for  him: 

HERE  WITH  HIS  WIFE   AND 

CHILDREN  RESTS 

HENRY   HALLAM   THE   HISTORIAN 

One  of  the  ablest  reviews  of  In  Memo- 
riam was  by  Gladstone.  From  this  review 
I  quote  the  following  to  show  that  in 
Gladstone's  opinion  my  father  had  not  over- 
estimated Arthur  Hallam : 

In  1850  Mr.  Tennyson  gave  to  the  world  under 
the  title  of  In  Memoriam,  perhaps  the  richest 
oblation  ever  offered  by  the  affection  of  friendship 
at  the  tomb  of  the  departed.  The  memory  of 
Arthur  Henry  Hallam,  who  died  suddenly  in 
1833,  at  the  age  of  twenty -two,  will  doubtless  live 
chiefly  in  connection  with  this  volume.  But  he 
is  well  known  to  have  been  one  who,  if  the  term 
of  his  days  had  been  prolonged,  would  have 
needed  no  aid  from  a  friendly  hand,  would  have 
built  his  own  enduring  monument,  and  would 
have  bequeathed  to  his  country  a  name  in  all 
likelihood  greater  than  that  of  his  very  distin- 
guished father.  The  writer  of  this  paper  was, 
more  than  half  a  century  ago,  in  a  condition  to 
say 

I  marked  him 

As  a  far  Alp ;  and  loved  to  watch  the  sunrise 

Dawn  on  his  ample  brow.1 

There  perhaps  was  no  one  among  those  who 
were  blessed  with  his  friendship,  nay,  as  we  see, 
not  even  Mr.  Tennyson,2  who  did  not  feel  at  once 
bound  closely  to  him  by  commanding  affection, 
and  left  far  behind  by  the  rapid,  full  and  rich 
development  of  his  ever-searching  mind;  by  his 
All-comprehensive  tenderness, 
All-subtilising  intellect. 

It  would  be  easy  to  show  what  in  the  varied 
forms  of  human  excellence,  he  might,  had  life 
been  granted  him,  have  accomplished:  much 
more  difficult  to  point  the  finger  and  to  say, 
"This  he  never  could  have  done."  Enough 
remains  from  among  his  early  efforts,  to  accredit 
whatever  mournful  witness  may  now  be  borne  of 
him.  But  what  can  be  a  nobler  tribute  than  this, 
that  for  seventeen  years  after  his  death  a  poet, 
fast  rising  towards  the  lofty  summits  of  his  art, 

1  De  Vere's  Mary  Tudor,  iv.  1. 
8  See  In  Memoriam,  cix.,    ex.,  cxi.,  cxn., 
cxrn. 


found  that  young  fading  image  the  richest  source 
of  his  inspiration,  and  of  thoughts  that  gave  him 
buoyancy  for  a  flight  such  as  he  had  not  hitherto 
attained.1  —  Ed.] 


The  following  poems  were  omitted  from 
In  Memoriam  when  I  published,  because 
I  thought  them  redundant.2 

THE  GRAVE   (originally  No.  Lvn.) 
{Unpublished) 

I  keep  no  more  a  lone  distress, 

The   crowd    have   come   to    see   thy 
grave, 

Small  thanks  or  credit  shall  I  have, 
But  these  shall  see  it  none  the  less. 

The  happy  maiden's  tears  are  free 

And  she  will  weep  and  give  them  way ; 
Yet  one  unschool'd  in  want  will  say 

"The  dead  are  dead  and  let  them  be." 

Another  whispers  sick  with  loss : 
"O  let  the  simple  slab  remain ! 
The  '  Mercy  Jesu '  3  in  the  rain  ! 

The  '  Miserere '  3  in  the  moss  ! 

"I  love  the  daisy  weeping  dew, 

I  hate  the  trim-set  plots  of  art ! " 
My   friend,    thou   speakest   from   the 
heart, 

But  look,  for  these  are  nature  too. 

TO  A.  H.  H.  (originally  No.  cvm.) 
{Unpublished) 

Young  is  the  grief  I  entertain, 

And  ever  new  the  tale  she  tells, 
And  ever  young  the  face  that  dwells 

With  reason  cloister'd  in  the  brain  : 

Yet  grief  deserves  a  nobler  name, 

She  spurs  an  imitative  will ; 

'Tis  shame  to  fail  so  far,  and  still 
My  failing  shall  be  less  my  shame. 

Considering  what  mine  eyes  have  seen, 

And  all  the  sweetness  which  thou  wast, 
And  thy  beginnings  in  the  past, 

And  all  the  strength  thou  would'  st  have 
been: 

1  Gladstone's  Gleanings  of  Past  Years,  vol.  ii. 
pp.  136,  137. 

2  O  Sorrow,  wilt  thou  live  with  me"    was 
added  in  1851. 

»  As  seen  by  me  in  Tintern  Abbey. 


NOTES 


927 


A  master  mind  with  master  minds, 
An  orb  repulsive  of  all  hate, 
A  will  concentric  with  all  fate, 

A  life  four-square  to  all  the  winds. 

THE  VICTOR  HOURS 

(originally  No.  cxxvu.) 
{Unpublished) 
Are  those  the  far-famed  Victor  Hours 

That  ride  to  death  the  griefs  of  men  ? 
I  fear  not,  if  I  fear'd  them  then ;  — 
Is  this  blind  flight  the  winged  Powers? 
Behold,  ye  cannot  bring  but  good, 

And  see,  ye  dare  not  touch  the  truth, 
Nor  Sorrow  beauteous  in  her  youth, 
Nor  Love  that  holds  a  constant  mood. 
Ye  must  be  wiser  than  your  looks, 
Or  wise  yourselves  or  wisdom-led, 
Else  this  wide  whisper  round  my  head 
Were  idler  than  a  flight  of  rooks. 
Go  forward  !  crumble  down  a  throne, 
Dissolve  a  world,  condense  a  star, 
Unsocket  all  the  joints  of  war, 
And  fuse  the  peoples  into  one. 

P.  247.  In  Memoriam.  [My  father 
wrote  in  1839:  "We  must  bear  or  we 
must  die.  It  is  easier  perhaps  to  die,  but 
infinitely  le?s  noble.  The  immortality  of 
man  disdains  and  rejects  the  thought  —  the 
immortality  of  man  to  which  the  cycles  and 
aeons  are  as  hours  and  days."  —  Ed.] 

P.  241.     Introduction.     Verse  i.  immortal 
Love.     [In  answer  to  a  friend  my  father 
said:   "This  might  be  taken  in  a  St.  John 
sense."     Cf .  1  John  iv.  and  v.  —  Ed.] 
P.  241.    Introduction.    Verse  ii. 
Thine  are  these  orbs  of  light  and  shade. 
Sun  and  moon. 

P.    242.     Introduction.     Verse    iv.     [An 
old  version  of  this  verse  was  left  by  my 
father  in  MS.  in  a  book  of  prayers  written 
by  my  mother : 
Thou  seemest  human  and  divine, 

Thou  madest  man,  without,  within, 
But  who  shall  say  thou  madest  sin  ? 
For  who  shall  say,  Tt  is  not  mine'  ? 

Ed.] 
P.  242.     Introduction.    Verse  vi. 
For  knowledge  is  of  things  we  see. 
rot  (pcuvbfxeva.. 


P.  242.     Introduction.    Verse  vii. 

May  make  one  music  as  before. 

As  in  the  ages  of  faith. 

P.  242.  Section  1.  Verse  i.,  lines  3 
and  4.  I  alluded  to  Goethe's  creed. 
Among  his  last  words  were  these:  "Von 
Aenderungen  zu  hoheren  Aenderungen," 
"from  changes  to  higher  changes." 

P.  242.  Section  1.  Verse  i.  divers  tones. 
[My  father  would  often  say,  "Goethe  is 
consummate  in  so  many  different  styles." 
—  Ed.] 

P.  242.     Section  1.     Verse  ii. 
The  far-off  interest  of  tears. 
The  good  that  grows  for  us  out  of  grief. 

P.  242.  Section  1.  Verses  iii.,  iv.  [Yet 
it  is  better  to  bear  the  wild  misery  of 
extreme  grief  than  that  Time  should  ob- 
literate the  sense  of  loss  and  deaden  the 
power  of  love.  —  Ed.] 

P.  242.     Section  11.    Verse  i. 

Thy  fibres  net  the  dreamless  head. 

NetctiuiP  dfxevrjva  icdprjva. 

Od.  x.  521,  etc. 

P.  242.  Section  11.  Verse  iii.  Cf. 
xxxix. 

To  touch  thy  thousand  years  of  gloom. 
[No  autumn  tints  ever  change  the  green 
gloom  of  the  yew.  —  Ed.] 

P.  242.  Section  111.  First  realization  of 
blind  sorrow. 

P.  242.     Section  in.    Verse  ii. 
A  web  is  wov'n  across  the  sky. 
[Cf .  cxxii.  i.  —  Ed.] 

From  out  waste  places  comes  a  cry, 
And  murmurs  from  the  dying  sun. 
Expresses  the  feeling  that   sad   things  in 
Nature  affect  him  who  mourns. 

P.  243.    Section  iv.    Verse  iii. 

Break,  thou  deep  vase  of  chilling  tears, 

That  grief  hath  shaken  into  frost. 
Water    can    be    brought     below    freezing- 
point  and  not  turn  into  ice  —  if  it  be  kept 
still;   but  if  it  be  moved  suddenly  it  turns 
into  ice  and  may  break  the  vase. 


928 


NOTES 


P.  243.     Section  vi.     Verses  i.,  ii. 

One  writes,  that  '  Other  friends  remain,' 
That  '  Loss  is  common  *o  the  race '  — 
And  common  is  the  commonplace, 

And  vacant  chaff  well  meant  for  grain. 

That  loss  is  common  would  not  make 
My  own  less  bitter,  rather  more: 
Too  common !     Never  morning  wore 
To  evening,  but  some  heart  did  break. 
Cf.  Lucretius  ii.  578: 
Nee  nox  ulla  diem  neque  noctem  Aurora 

secuta  est, 
Quae  non  audierit  mixtos  vagitibus  aegris 
Ploratus. 

My  friend  W.  G.  Ward,  the  well- 
known  metaphysician,  used  to  carry  these 
two  verse?  in  his  pocket  —  for  he  said  that 
he  felt  so  keenly  that  the  vast  sorrow  in 
the  world  made  no  difference  to  his  own 
personal  deep  sorrows  —  but  through  the 
feeling  of  his  own  sorrow  he  felt  the 
universal  sorrow  more  terribly  than  could 
be  conceived.  [Cf .  Memoir,  i.  202 ;  ib. 
436.  —  Ed.] 

P.  243.  Section  vt.  Verse  v.  [My 
father  was  writing  to  Arthur  Hallam  in 
the  hour  that  he  died.  —  Ed.] 

P.  244.     Section  vn.     Verse  i. 

Dark  house,  by  which  once  more  I  stand 
Here  in  the  long  unlovely  street. 
67  Wimpole  Street  [the  house  of  the 
historian  Henry  Hallam.  A.  H.  H.  used 
to  say,  "You  will  always  find  us  at  sixes 
and  sevens."     Cf.  cxix.  —  Ed.]. 

P.  244.  Section  ix.  Verse  iii.  Phosphor, 
star  of  dawn. 

P.  244.  Section  ix.  Verse  iv.  Sphere. 
[Addressed  to  the  starry  heavens.  Cf. 
Enoch  Arden: 

Then   the  great  stars    that  globed  them- 
selves in  heaven.  Ed.] 

P.  244.  Section  ix.  Verse  v.  [See 
below,  lxxix.  —  Ed.] 

P.  244.  Section  x.  Verse  iii.  [home-bred 
fancies  refers  to  the  lines  that  follow  —  the 
wish  to  rest  in  the  churchyard  or  in  the 
chancel.  —  Ed.] 

P.  245.  Section  x.  Verse  v.  tangle,  or 
"oar- weed"  (Laminaria  digitata). 


P.  245.     Section  xi.     Verse  ii. 

Calm  and  deep  peace  on  this  high  wold. 
A  Lincolnshire  wold  or  upland  from  which 
the  whole  range  of  marsh  to  the  sea  is 
visible. 

P.  245.     Section  xn.     Verse  ii. 
/  leave  this  mortal  ark  behind. 
My  spirit  flies  from  out  my  material  self. 

P.  245.  Section  xn.  Verse  iii.  ocean- 
mirrors  rounded  large.  [The  circles  of 
water  which  bound  the  horizon  as  seen 
below  in  the  flight.     Cf. 

Thro'  many  a  fair  sea-circle,  day  by  day. 
Enoch  Arden.  —  Ed.] 

P.  245.  Section  xin.  Verse  iv.  [Time 
will  teach  him  the  full  reality  of  his  loss, 
whereas  now  he  scarce  believes  in  it,  and 
is  like  one  who  between  sleep  and  waking 
can  weep  and  has  dream-fancies.  —  Ed.] 

Mine  eyes  have  leisure  for  their  tears. 
[Contrast  the  tearless  grief  in  iv.  iii.,  and 
xx.  —  Ed.] 

P.  245.  Section  xiv.  [The  unreality  of 
Death.]  * 

P.  246.     Section  xiv.    Verse  iii. 
The  man  I  held  as  half -divine. 
[My   father   said,   "He  was  as  near  per- 
fection as  mortal  man  could  be."  —  Ed.] 

P.  246.  Section  xv.  [The  stormy  night, 
except  it  were  for  my  fear  for  the  "sacred 
bark,"  would  be  in  sympathy  with  me.  — 
Ed.] 

P.  246.     Section  xv.    Verse  i. 
And  roar  from  yonder  dropping  day. 
From  the  West. 
P.  246.     Section  xv.    Verse  iii. 
Athwart  a  plane  of  molten  glass. 
A  calm  sea. 

P.  246.  Section  xvi.  [He  questions 
himself  about  these  alternations  of  "calm 
despair"  and  "wild  unrest."  Do  these 
changes  only  pass  over  the  surface  of  the 
mind  while  in  the  depth  still  abides  his 
unchanging  sorrow?  or  has  his  reason 
been  stunned  by  his  grief  ?  —  Ed.] 
1  Note  by  my  mother. 


NOTES 


929 


Cf. 


P.  246.    Section  xvin.    Verse  i. 
Where  he  in  English  earth  is  laid. 
Clevedon. 

The  violet  of  his  native  land. 

"Lay  her  in  the  earth, 
And  from  her  fair  and  unpolluted  flesh 
May  violets  spring." 

Hamlet,  v.  i.  261. 
P.  247.  Section  xrx.  [Written  at  Tintern 
Abbey.  —  Ed.] 
P.  247.     Section  xix.    Verse  i. 
The  Danube  to  the  Severn  gave. 
He  died  at  Vienna  and  was   brought  to 
Clevedon  to  be  buried. 

P.  247.     Section  xix.     Verse  ii. 
There  twice  a  day  the  Severn  fills ; 
The  salt  sea-water  passes  by, 
And  hushes  half  the  babbling  Wye, 
And  makes  a  silence  in  the  hills. 
Taken    from    my    own    observation  —  the 
rapids  of  the  Wye  are  stilled  by  the  in- 
coming sea. 

P.    248.     Section    xxn.    Verse   i.    four 
sweet  years.     [182 8-3 2 .  —  Ed .] 
P.  248.     Section  xxin.     Verse  ii. 
Who  keeps  the  keys  of  all  the  creeds. 
After  death  we  shall  learn  the  truth  of  all 
beliefs. 
P.  248.    Section  xxm.    Verse  v. 
And  all  the  secret  of  the  Spring. 
Re-awakening  of  life. 

P.    248.  Section   xxiv.  Verse   i.  wander- 
ing isles  of  night,  sun-spots. 

P.  248.     Section  xxiv.    Verse  iv. 

And  orb  into  the  perfect  star,  etc. 

[Cf.  Locksley  Hall  Sixty  Years  After: 

Hesper  —  Venus  —  were  we  native  to  that 

splendour  or  in  Mars, 
We  should   see  the   Globe   we  groan   in, 
fairest  of  their  evening  stars. 

Ed.] 
P.  248.     Section  xxv.     Verse  i.     this  was 
Life  —  chequered,    but    the    burden    was 
shared. 

P.  249.     Section  xxvi.     Verse  ii. 
And  if  that  eye  which  watches  guilt,  etc. 
The  Eternal  Now.    I  AM. 
30 


P.  249.     Section  xxvi.    Verse  iii. 
And  Love  the  indifference  to  be. 
[And  that  the  present  Love  will  end  in 
future  indifference.  —  Ed.] 

P.  249.     Section  xxvi.    Verse  iv. 
Then  might  I  find,  ere  yet  the  morn 
Breaks  hither  over  Indian  seas. 
[Cf.  Midsummer-Night's  Dream,  11,  ii.   10, 
and  Comus,  140 : 

"  Ere  the  blabbing  eastern  scout, 
The  nice  morn  on  the  Indian  steep, 
From  her  cabin'd  loophole  peep." 
Then  might  I  was  in   the  original  MS. 
So  might  I.  —  Ed.] 

my  proper  scorn,  scorn  of  myself. 

P.  249.  Section  xxvu.  Verse  iii.  [want- 
begotten  rest  means  rest  —  the  result  of  some 
deficiency  or  narrowness.  —  Ed.] 

P.  249.     Section  xxvu.     Verse  iv. 

'Tis  better  to  have  loved  and  lost,  etc. 
[My  father  regretted  that  Clough  imitated 
these  lines  in  Alteram  Partem: 

'Tis  better  to  have  fought  and  lost 

Than  never  to  have  fought  at  all.     Ed.] 

P.  249.     Section  xxvin.    Verse  v. 
The  merry  merry  bells  of  Yule. 
They  always  used  to  ring  on  Xmas  Eve. 

P.  249.     Section  xxix.     [Original  reading 
of  first  verse  (MS.) : 
With  such  compelling  cause  to  grieve 

As  that  which  drains  our  days  of  peace, 
And  fetters  thought  to  his  decease, 
How  dare  we  keep  our  Christmas-eve. 

Ed.] 

P.  249.     Section  xxix.     [Original  read- 
ing of  third  verse  (MS.) : 
But  this  —  to  keep  it  like  the  last, 
To  keep  it  even  for  his  sake ; 
Lest  one  more  link  should  seem  to 
break, 
And  Death  sweep  all  into  the  Past.    Ed.] 

P.  250.  Section  xxx.  Verse  ii.  the  hall 
was  the  dining-room  at  Somersby  which 
my  father  [the  Rev.  G.  C.  Tennyson]  built. 

P.  250.     Section  xxx.     Verse  vii. 
Rapt  from  the  fickle  and  the  frail. 


93Q 


NOTES 


[Cf.  The  Ring: 

No   sudden   heaven,   nor  sudden  hell,  for 

man, 
But  thro'  the  Will  of  One  who  knows  and 

rules  — 
And  utter  knowledge  is  but  utter  love  — 
Ionian  Evolution,  swift  or  slow, 
Thro'  all  the  Spheres  —  an  ever  opening 

height, 
An  ever  lessening  earth. 
Cf.  Memoir,  ii.  365.  —  Ed.] 
Rapt,  taken. 

P.  250.  Section  xxx.  Verse  viii.  when 
Hope  was  born.  [My  father  often  said: 
"The  cardinal  point  of  Christianity  is  the 
life  after  death."  —  Ed.] 

P.  250.  Section  xxxi.  "She  goeth 
unto  the  grave  to  weep  there"  (St.  John 
xi.  2>l). 

P.  250.     Section  xxxi.    Verse  ii. 
Had  surely  added  praise  to  praise. 
[Would  have  doubled  our  sense  of  thanks- 
giving. —  Ed.] 

P.  250.  Section  xxxi.  Verse  iv.  [He  is 
Lazarus.  —  Ed.] 

P.  250.     Section  xxxiii.     Verse  ii. 
A  life  that  leads  melodious  days. 
Cf.  Statius,  Silv.  i.  3 : 

ceu  veritus  turbare  Vopisci 
Pieriosque     dies      et      habentes      carmina 
somnos. 

P.  251.     Section  xxxm.     Verse  iv. 
In  holding  by  the  law  within. 
[In  holding  an  intellectual  faith  which  does 
not  care  "to  fix  itself  to  form."  —  Ed.] 

P.  251.  Section  xxxiv.  Verse  i.  See 
Introduction,  Eversley  Edition,  pp.  218-19. 

P.  251.  Section  xxxv.  Verse  i.  the 
narrow  house,  the  grave. 

P.  251.  Section  xxxv.  Verse  iii. 
Ionian  hills,  the  everlasting  hills. 

The  vastness  of  the  Ages  to  come  may 
seem  to  militate  against  that  Love.  [Cf. 
cxxin.  ii.  —  Ed.] 

P.  251.     Section  xxxv.    Verse  iv. 
The  sound  of  that  forgetful  shore. 
"The  land  where  all  things  are  forgotten." 


P.  251.  Section  xxxvi.  See  Introduc- 
tion, Eversley  Edition,  p.  222. 

P.  251.     Section  xxxvi.    Verse  ii. 
For  Wisdom  dealt  with  mortal  powers, 

Where  truth  in  closest  words  shall  fail, 
When  truth  embodied  in  a  tale. 
Shall  enter  in  at  lowly  doors. 

For  divine  Wisdom  had  to  deal  with  the 
limited  powers  of  humanity,  to  which  truth 
logically  argued  out  would  be  ineffectual, 
whereas  truth  coming  in  the  story  of  the 
Gospel  can  influence  the  poorest. 

P.  251.  Section  xxxvi.  Verse  iii.  the 
Word.  [As  in  the  first  chapter  of  St. 
John's  Gospel  —  the  Revelation  of  the 
Eternal  Thought  of  the  Universe.  —  Ed.] 

P.  251.  Section  xxxvi.  Verse  i v.  those 
wild  eyes.  By  this  is  intended  the  Pacific 
Islanders,  "wild"  having  a  sense  of  "bar- 
barian" in  it. 

P.  251.  Section  xxxvu.  The  Heavenly 
muse  bids  the  poet's  muse  sing  on  a  less 
lofty  theme. 

[Melpomene,  the  earthly  muse  of 
tragedy,  answers  for  the  poet:  "I  am 
compelled  to  speak  —  as  I  think  of  the 
dead  and  of  his  words  —  of  the  comfort  in 
the  creed  of  creeds,  although  I  feel  myself 
unworthy  to  speak  of  such  mysteries."] x 

P.  252.  Section  xxxvu.  Verse  v.  [The 
original  reading  in  first  edition : 

And  dear  as  sacramental  wine. 

Ed.] 

P.  252.  Section  xxxvu.  Verse  vi. 
master's  field,  the  province  of  Christianity 
(see  xxxvi.). 

P.  252.  Section  xxxvm.  Verse  ii.  the 
blowing   season,    the   blossoming   season. 

P.  252.     Section  xxxvm.    Verse  iii. 
[//  any  care  for  what  is  here 

Survive  in  spirits  render 'd  free. 
Cf.  Aen.  iv.  34: 

Id  cinerem  aut  Manes  credis  curare  sepultos  ? 

Ed.] 

P.  252.     Section  xxxix.    Verse i.    smoke. 
This    section    was    added    in    1869.    The 
yew,  when  flowering,  in  a  wind  or  if  struck 
1  Note  by  my  mother. 


NOTES 


93* 


sends  up  its  pollen  like  smoke.     [Cf.  The 

Holy  Grail: 

Beneath  a  world-old  yew-tree,   darkening 

half 
The  cloisters,  on  a  gustful  April  morn 
That    puff'd    the    swaying    branches    into 

smoke. 
Cf.  Memoir,  ii.  53.  —  Ed.] 

P.  252.     Section  xxxix.     Verse  ii. 
When  flower  is  feeling  after  flower. 
[The  yew  is  dioecious.  —  Ed.] 

P.  252.  Section  xxxix.  Verse  iii.  In 
Section  11.,  as  in  the  two  last  lines  of  this 
section,  Sorrow  only  saw  the  winter  gloom 
of  the  foliage. 

P.  252.  Section  XL.  Verse  vii.  [would 
have  told  means  —  would  desire  to  be  told. 

—  Ed.] 

P.  252.  Section  xl.  Verse  viii.  I  have 
parted  with  thee  until  I  die,  and  my 
paths  are  in  the  fields  I  know,  whilst  thine 
are  in  lands  which  I  do  not  know.  [Cf. 
"the  undiscovered  country,"  Hamlet,  in.  i. 

—  Ed.] 

P.  252.  Section  xli.  [This  section 
alludes  to  the  doctrine  which  from  first  to 
last,  and  in  so  many  ways  and  images,  my 
father  proclaimed  —  "the  upward  and  on- 
ward progress  of  life."  —  Ed.] 

P.  253.     Section  xli.    Verse  iv. 
The  howlings  from  forgotten  fields. 
The  eternal  miseries  of  the  Inferno. 

[More  especially,  I  feel  sure,  a  reminis- 
cence of  Dante's  Inferno,  Canto  iii.  lines 
25-51,  which  he  often  quoted  as  giving 
terribly  the  horror  of  it  all.  They  describe 
those  wretched  beings,  who  for  ever  shriek 
and  wail  and  beat  their  breasts  because 
they  are  despised,  and  forgotten,  and  con- 
signed to  everlasting  nothingness  on  ac- 
count of  their  colourlessness  and  indiffer- 
ence during  life : 

Fama  di  loro  il  mondo  esser  non  lassa ; 

Misericordia  e  giustizia  gli  sdegna ; 

Non  ragionam  di  lor,  ma  guarda  e  passa. 

Ed.] 

P.  253.     Section  xli.    Verse  vi.    secular 
to-be,  aeons  of  the  future.     [Cf.  lxxvi.  ii. : 
The  secular  abyss  to  come. 

Ed.] 


P.  253.  Section  xliii.  If  the  immediate 
life  after  death  be  only  sleep,  and  the  spirit 
between  this  life  and  the  next  should  be 
folded  like  a  flower  in  a  night  slumber, 
then  the  remembrance  of  the  past  might 
remain,  as  the  smell  and  colour  do  in  the 
sleeping  flower;  and  in  that  case  the 
memory  of  our  love  would  last  as  true, 
and  would  live  pure  and  whole  within  the 
spirit  of  my  friend  until  it  was  unfolded  at 
the  breaking  of  the  morn,  when  the  sleep 
was  over. 

P.  253.     Section  xliii.    Verse  i. 
Thro'  all  its  intervital  gloom. 
In  the  passage  between  this  life  and  the 
next. 

P.  253.    Section  xliii.    Verse  iv. 
And  at  the  spiritual  prime. 
Dawn  of  the  spiritual  life  hereafter. 

P.  253.     Section  xliv.    Verse  i. 
God  shut  the  doorways  of  his  head. 
Closing  of  the  skull  after  babyhood. 

The  dead  after  this  life  may  have  no 
remembrance  of  life,  like  the  living  babe 
who  forgets  the  time  before  the  sutures  of 
the  skull  are  closed,  yet  the  living  babe 
grows  in  knowledge,  and  though  the 
remembrance  of  his  earliest  days  has 
vanished,  yet  with  his  increasing  knowledge 
there  comes  a  dreamy  vision  of  what  has 
been;  it  may  be  so  with  the  dead;  if  90, 
resolve  my  doubts,  etc. 

P.  254.     Section  xlv.    Verse  iv. 
This  use  may  lie  in  blood  and  breath. 
[The  purpose  of  the  life  here  may  be  to 
realise  personal  consciousness.  —  Ed.] 

P.    254.     Section    xlvt.     [The    original 
reading  of  first  verse  (MS.) :  — 
In  travelling  thro'  this  lower  clime, 
With  reason  our  memorial  power 
Is  shadow'd  by  the  growing  hour, 
Lest  this  should  be  too  much  for  time. 
It  is  better  for  us  who  go  forward  on 
the  path  of  life  that  the  past  should  in  the 
main  grow  dim.  —  Ed.] 

P.      254.     Section      xlvt.    Verse      iv. 
Original  reading  of  first  line  was : 
O  me,  Love's  piovince  were  not  large. 


932 


NOTES 


Love,    a    brooding  star.      As    if    Lord  of 
the  whole  life. 

[Memory  fails  here,  but  memory  in  the 
next  life  must  have  all  our  being  and  exist- 
ence clearly  in  view;  and  will  see  Love 
shine  forth  as  if  Lord  of  the  whole  life 
(not  merely  of  those  five  years  of  friend- 
ship), —  the  wider  landscape  aglow  with 
the  sunrise  of  "that  deep  dawn  behind 
the  tomb." 

For  the  use  of  'Look,'   cf*.  Dedication, 
'Dear,  near  and  true.' 

'Which  in  our  winter   woodland   looks  a 
flower.'  —  Ed.] 

P.  254.  Section  xlvii.  The  individu- 
ality lasts  after  death,  and  we  are  not 
utterly  absorbed  into  the  Godhead.  If  we 
are  to  be  finally  merged  in  the  Universal 
Soul,  Love  asks  to  have  at  least  one  more 
parting  before  we  lose  ourselves. 

P.  254.     Section  xlviii.     Verse  iii. 
shame  to  draw 
The  deepest  measure. 
[For   there   are    "thoughts   that   do  often 
He  too  deep  for  "  mere  poetic  words.  —  Ed.] 

P.  254.  Section  xlix.  Verse  ii.  crisp 
[curl,  ripple.     Cf. 

To  watch  the  crisping  ripples  on  the  beach. 
The  Lotos-Eaters.  —  Ed.]. 

P.  255.  Section  li.  Verse  iv.  [See 
Memoir,  i.  481.  The  Queen  quoted  this 
verse  to  my  father  about  the  Prince 
Consort,  just  after  his  death,  and  told  him 
that  it  had  brought  her  great  comfort. 
—  Ed.] 

P.  255.  Section  lit.  [I  cannot  love  thee 
as  I  ought,  for  human  nature  is  frail,  and 
cannot  be  perfect  like  Christ's.  Yet  it  is 
the  ideal,  and  truth  to  the  ideal,  which 
make  the  wealth  of  life.1  The  more  direct 
line  of  thought  is  that  not  even  the  Gospel 
tale  keeps  man  wholly  true  to  the  ideal  of 
Christ.  But  nothing  —  no  shortcoming  of 
frail  humanity  —  can  move  that  Spirit  of 
the  highest  love  from  our  side  which  bids 
us  endure  and  abide  the  issue.  —  Ed.] 

P.  255.  Section  lii.  Verse  iv.  Abide, 
wait  without  wearying. 

P.  255.     Section  liii.    Verses  ii.,  iii.,  iv. 
And  dare  we  to  this  fancy  give. 
1  Note  by  my  mother. 


There  is  a  passionate  heat  of  nature  in  a 
rake  sometimes.  The  nature  that  yields 
emotionally  may  turn  out  straighter  than  a 
prig's.  Yet  we  must  not  be  making 
excuses,  but  we  must  set  before  us  a  rule 
of  good  for  young  as  for  old. 

P.  255.  Section  liii.  Verse  iv.  divine 
Philosophy.     [Cf.  xxnt.  vi.  —  Ed.] 

P.  256.     Section  lv.    Verse  i. 

The  likest  God  within  the  soul. 
The  inner  consciousness  —  the  divine  in  man. 

P.  256.     Section  lv.    Verse  iii. 

And  finding  that  of  fifty  seeds 
She  often  brings  but  one  to  bear. 
"Fifty"  should  be  "myriad." 

P.  256.  Section  lv.  Verse  v.  the  larger 
hope.  [My  father  means  by  "the  larger 
hope"  that  the  whole  human  race  would, 
through,  perhaps,  ages  of  suffering,  be  at 
length  purified  and  saved,  even  those  who 
now  "better  not  with  time,"  so  that  at 
the  end  of  The  Vision  of  Sin  we  read : 

God  made  Himself  an  awful  rose  of  dawn. 

Ed.] 

P.  256.  Section  lvi.  Verse  vi.  Dragons 
of  the  prime.  The  geologic  monsters  of 
the  early  ages. 

P.  256.  Section  lvii.  [Cf.  The  Grave. 
See  supra,  p.  926.  —  Ed.] 

P.  256.  Section  lvii.  Verse  ii.  /  shall 
pass;  my  work  will  fail.  The  poet  speaks 
of  these  poems.  Methinks  I  have  built  a 
rich  shrine  to  my  friend,  but  it  will  not  last. 

P.  256.     Section  lvii.     Verse    iv.     Ave, 
Ave.     Cf.    Catullus,    Carm.    ci.    10,    these 
terribly  pathetic  lines : 
Accipe  fraterno  multum  manantia  fletu 

Atque  in  perpetuum  frater  Ave  atque 
Vale. 

[My  father  wrote:  "Nor  can  any 
modern  elegy,  so  long  as  men  retain  the 
least  hope  in  the  after-life  of  those  whom 
they  loved,  equal  in  pathos  the  desolation 
of  that  everlasting  farewell."  —  Ed.] 

P.  257.  Section  lviii.  Ulysses  was 
written  soon  after  Arthur  Hallam's  death, 
and  gave  my  feelings  about  the  need  of 
going  forward  and  braving  the  struggle  of 
life  perhaps  more  simply  than  anything  in 
In  Memoriam. 


NOTES 


933 


P.  257.  Section  lix.  [Inserted  in  1851 
as  a  pendant  to  Section  in.  —  Ed.] 

P.  257.  Section  lxi.  In  power  of  love 
not  even  the  greatest  deed  can  surpass  the 
poet. 

P.  257,  Section  lxi.  Verse  i.  [Cf. 
xxxvin.  iii.  —  Ed.] 

P.  257.  Section  lxi.  Verse  iii.  doubt- 
ful shore.     [Cf. 

and  that  which  should  be  man, 
From  that  one  light  no  man  can  look  upon, 
Drew  to  this  shore  lit  by  the  suns  and 

moons 
And  all  the  shadows.  De  Profundis. 

And: 
And  we,  the  poor  earth's  dying  race,  and 

yet 
No  phantoms,  watching  from  a  phantom 

shore, 
Await  the  last  and  largest  sense  to  make 
The  phantom  walls  of  this  illusion  fade, 
And  show  us  that  the  world  is  wholly  fair. 
The  Ancient  Sage.  —  Ed.] 

P.  258.  Section  lxtv.  [This  section 
was  composed  by  my  father  when  he  was 
walking  up  and  down  the  Strand  and  Fleet 
Street.  —  Ed.] 

P.  258.  Section  lxiv.  Verse  iii.  golden 
keys  [keys  of  office  of  State.  —  Ed.]. 

P.  258.     Section  lxvii.    Verse  i. 
By  that  broad  water  of  the  west. 
The  Severn. 

P.  258.  Section  Lxvn.  Verse  iv.  I  my- 
self did  not  see  Clevedon  till  years  after 
the  burial  of  A.  H.  H.  (Jan.  3,  1834). 
and  then  in  later  editions  of  In  Memoriam 
I  altered  the  word  "chancel"  (which  was 
the  word  used  by  Mr.  Hallam  in  his 
Memoir)  to  "dark  church." 

P.  259.  Section  lxviii.  Verse  i. 
Death's  twin-brother.  "  Consanguineus 
Leti  Sopor"  (Aen.  vi.  278). 

[Cf.  //.  xiv.  231;  //.  xvi.  672  and  682. 
—  Ed.] 

P.  259.  Section  lxix.  To  write  poems 
about  death  and  grief  is  "to  wear  a  crown 
of  thorns,"  which  the  people  say  ought  to 
be  laid  aside. 

P.  259.     Section  lxix.     Verse  iv. 
/  found  an  angel  of  the  night. 


But  the  Divine  Thing  in  the  gloom  brought 
comfort. 

P.    259.     Section    lxxi.     [The    original 
reading  of  first  verse  (MS.) : 
Old  things  are  clear  in  waking  trance, 

And  thou,  O  Sleep,  hast  made  at  last 
A  night-long  Present  of  the  Past 
In  which  we  went  thro'  sunny  France. 

Ed.] 
we   went    [in    1832    (see   Memoir,    i.    51 
foil.,    and    the    poem    In    the    Valley    of 
Cauterelz.  —  Ed.]. 

P.    259.    Section    lxxi.     [The    original 
reading  of  last  verse  (MS.) : 
Beside  the  river's  wooded  reach, 

The  meadow  set  with  summer  flags, 
The  cataract  clashing  from  the  crags, 
The  breaker  breaking  on  the  beach. 

Ed.] 
P.  259.     Section  lxxi.    Verse  iv. 
The  cataract  flashing  from  the  bridge. 
[That  is,  from  under  the  bridge.  —  Ed.] 

P.  260.  Section  lxxii.  Hallam's  death- 
day,  September  the  15th.  [Cf.  xcix. 
—  Ed.] 

P.  260.  Section  lxxii.  Verse  iv.  yet 
look'd.    lYet  wouldst  have  looked.  —  Ed.] 

P.  260.  Section  lxxii.  Verse  vii.  thy 
dull  goal  of  joyless  gray  [the  dull  sunset.  — 
Ed.]. 

P.  260.    Section  lxxiii.    Verse  ii. 
For  nothing  is  that  errs  from  law. 
Cf.  Zoroaster's  saying,  "Nought  errs  from 
law." 
P.  260.     Section  lxxiii.     Verse  iv. 
And  self -infolds  the  large  results 
Of  force  that  would  have,  forged  a  name. 
[And  conserves  the  strength  which   would 
have  gone  to  the  making  of  a  name.     Cf. 
Ode  on  the  Death  of  the  Duke  of  Welling- 
ton: 

Gone ;  but  nothing  can  bereave  him 
Of  the  force  he  made  his  own 
Being  here, 
and  foil.  —  Ed.] 

P.  260.  Section  lxxv.  Verse  iii.  the 
breeze  of  sang.     Cf.  Pindar,    Pylh.  iv.    3: 

OVpOV   VjAVUV. 


934 


NOTES 


P.  261.     Section  lxxv.     Verse  iv. 
Thy  leaf  has  perish' 'd  in  the  green. 
At  twenty-three. 

P.  261.     Section  lxxvi.    Verse  i. 
Take  wings  of  fancy,  and  ascend, 
And  in  a  moment  set  thy  face 
Where  all  the  starry  heavens  of  space 
Are  sharpen' d  to  a  needle's  end. 
So  distant  in  void  space  that  all  our  firma- 
ment would  appear  to  be  a  needle-point 
thence. 

P.  261.     Section  lxxvi.     Verse  ii. 
The  secular  abyss  to  come 
=  the  ages  upon  ages  to  be  (cf.  Sect.  xli. 
vi.). 

P.  261.  Section  lxxvi.  Verse  iii.  the 
matin  songs.     The  great  early  poets. 

P.  261.  Section  lxxvi.  Verse  iv.  these 
remain.     [The  yew  and  oak.  —  Ed.] 

P.  261.  Section  lxxvii,  Verse  iii.  then 
changed  to  something  else.  [The  grief  that 
is  no  longer  a  grief.  —  Ed.] 

P.  261.     Section  lxxviii.     Verse  iii. 
The  mimic  picture's  breathing  grace. 
Tableaux  vivants. 

P.     261.     Section     lxxviii.    Verse    iii. 
hoodman-blind,  blind    man's   buff.     [Cf. 
"What  devil  was't 
That  thus  hath  cozen'd  you  at  hoodman- 
blind?"      Hamlet,  ill.  iv.  77.  —  Ed.] 

P.  261.  Section  lxxix.  The  section  is 
addressed  to  my  brother  Charles  (Tenny- 
son Turner) . 

[My  father  wrote  to  Mr.  Gladstone: 
"He  was  almost  the  most  lovable  human 
being  I  have  ever  met."  —  Ed.] 

P.  261.  Section  lxxix.  Verse  i.  in  fee 
[in  possession.  Cf.  Wordsworth's  sonnet 
on  Venice : 

"Once  did  she  hold  the  gorgeous  East  in 
fee."  Ed.]. 

P.  262.  Section  lxxix.  Verse  iv.  kin- 
dred brows  was  originally  "brother  brows." 

P.  262.     Section  lxxxi.    Verse  i. 
Could  I  have  said  while  he  was  here 
=  Would  that  I  could  have  said,  etc. 

[I  printed  this  explanatory  note,  which 
my  father  read  and  did  not  alter;   and  he 


told  me,  as  far  as  I  remember,  that  a  note 
of  exclamation  had  been  omitted  by  acci- 
dent after  "ear"  (thus,  "ear!").  James 
Spedding,  in  a  pencil  note  on  the  MS.  of 
In  Memoriam,  writes,  "Could  I  have  said" 
—  meaning,  "I  wish  I  could."  —  Ed.] 

P.  262.     Section  lxxxi.     Verse  ii.     Love, 
then.     [Love  at  that  time.  —  Ed.] 
P.  262.     Section  lxxxii.     Verse  ii. 
From  state  to  state  the  spirit  walks. 
[Cf.  Sect.  xxx.  vi.  and  vii.,  and 

Some  draught  of  Lethe  might  await 
The  slipping  thro'  from  state  to  state. 
The  Two  Voices.  —  Ed.] 
P.  263.     Section  lxxxi  v.    Verse  iii. 
When  thou  should' st  link  thy  life  with 
one 
Of  mine  own  house. 

The  projected  marriage  of  A.  H.  H.  with 
Emily  Tennyson. 
P.  263.     Section  lxxxiv.    Verse  xi. 
Arrive  at  last  the  blessed  goal. 
Cf.  Milton,  Paradise  Lost,  Bk.  ii. : 
"ere  he  arrive 
The  happy  isle." 
P.  263.    Section  lxxxiv.    Verse  xii.  back- 
ward.    [Looking  back  on  what  might  have 
been.  —  Ed.] 

P.  263.     Section  lxxxv.    Verse  vi. 
The  great  Intelligences  fair. 
Cf.  Lycidas  : 

"There  entertain  him  all  the  Saints  above 
In  solemn  troops,  and  sweet  societies, 
That    sing,    and    singing    in    their   glory 

move, 
And  wipe  the  tears  for  ever  from  his  eyes. " 
[Cf.    Milton,    Par.    Lost,    v.    407,    and 
Dante,  II  Convito,  ii.  5  : 
Intelligenze,  le  quali  la  volgare  gente  chiama 
Angeli.  Ed.] 

P.     263.     Section     lxxxv.    Verse     vii. 
cycled  times  [earthly  periods.  —  Ed.]. 
P.  264.     Section  lxxxv.    Verse  x. 
Yet  none  could  better  know  than  I, 
How  much  of  act  at  human  hands 
The  sense  of  human  will  demands. 
Yet  I  know  that  the  knowledge  that  we 
have  free  will  demands  from  us  action. 


NOTES 


935 


P.     264.     Section    lxxxv.    Verse    xiv. 

imaginative  woe.  [The  imaginative  and 
speculative  sorrow  of  the  poet.  Cf.  infra, 
verse  xxiv. : 

And  pining  life  be  fancy -fed. 

Ed.] 
P.    264.     Section    lxxxv.     Verse    xxiii. 
[Think  of  me  as  having  reached  the  final 
goal  of  bliss,   and   as   triumphing  in   the 
one  far-off  divine  event 
To  which  the  whole  creation  moves. ' 

Ed.] 
P.    264.     Section    lxxxv.    Verse   xxvi., 
line  1. 

[With  love  as  true,  if  not  so  fresh. 

Ed.] 
P.    264.     Section    lxxxv.     Verse    xxvii. 
hold  apart.     [Set  by  itself,  above  rivalry.  — 
Ed.] 

P.  264.  Section  lxxxv.  Verse  xxix., 
refers  to  his  'bride  to  be,'  Emily  Sell  wood. 

P.  265.  Section  lxxxvi.  Written  at 
Barmouth. 

P.  265.  Section  lxxxvi.  Verse  i.  am- 
brosial air.     It  was  a  west  wind. 

P.  265.  Section  lxxxvi.  Verse  ii.  the 
homed  flood.     B etween  two  promontories . 

P.  265.  Section  lxxxvi.  Verse  iv.  orient 
star.    Any  rising  star  is  here  intended. 

P.  265.  Section  lxxxvii.  Trinity  Col- 
lege, Cambridge. 

P.  265.  Section  lxxxvii.  Verse  iv.  the 
rooms.  Which  were  in  New  Court,  Trinity. 
[Now  3  G.  —  Ed.] 

P.  265.     Section  lxxxvii.     Verse  x. 
The  bar  of  Michael  Angelo. 
The  broad  bar  of  frontal  bone  over  the 
eyes  of  Michael  Angelo. 

P.  265.  Section  lxxxviii.  To  the 
Nightingale. 

P.  265.  Section  lxxxviii.  Verse  i. 
quicks  [quickset  thorn.  —  Ed.]. 

P.  266.    Section  lxxxix.     Somersby. 

P.  266.  Section  lxxxix.  Verse  i. 
counterchange  [chequer.  —  Ed.]. 

The  "towering  sycamore"  is  cut  down, 
and  the  four  poplars  are  gone,  and  the 
lawn  is  no  longer  flat. 


P.  266.     Section  lxxxix.    Verse  xii. 
Before  the  crimson-circled  star 
Had  falVn  into  her  father's  grave. 
Before  Venus,  the  evening  star,  had  dipt 
into  the  sunset.    The   planets,   according 
to  Laplace,  were  evolved  from  the  sun. 

P.    266.     Section    xc.     [He    who    first 
suggested    that    the    dead    would    not   be 
welcome  if  they  came  to  life  again  knew 
not  the  highest  love.     Cf. 
For  surely  now  our  household  hearths  are 

cold: 
Our  sons  inherit  us :    our  looks  are  strange : 
And  we  should  come  like  ghosts  to  trouble 
joy.  The  Lotos-Eaters.  —  Ed.] 

P.  267.    Section  xci.    Verse  i. 

Flits  by  the  sea-blue  bird  of  March. 

Darts  the  sea-shining  bird  of  March 
would  best  suit  the  Kingfisher.  I  used  to 
see  him  in  our  brook  first  in  March.  He 
came  up  from  the  sea.  a\ur6p<pvpos  etapos 
6pvis  (Alcman).  Cf.  Memoir,  ii.  4. — 
Ed.] 

P.  267.    Section  xcn.    Verse  iv. 
And  such  refraction  of  events 
As  often  rises  ere  they  rise. 
The  heavenly  bodies  are  seen  above  the 
horizon,  by  refraction,  before  they  actually 
rise. 
P.  267.    Section  xcm.    Verse  ii. 
Where  all  the  nerve  of  sense  is  numb. 
[This  spiritual  state  is  described  in  Sect, 
xcrv.  —  Ed.] 

P.  267.     Section  xcm.    Verse  iii. 
With  gods  in  unconjectured  bliss. 
[Cf.  Comus,  11 : 

"Among   the   enthroned   gods  on   sainted 
seats."  Ed.] 

tenfold-complicated.  [Refers  to  the  ten 
heavens  of  Dante.  Cf.  Paradiso,  xxvra. 
15  foil.  —  Ed.] 

P.  267.     Section  xcrv.     Verse  iii. 
They  haunt  the  silence  of  the  breast. 
This  was  what  I  felt. 
P.  267.    Section  xcv.    Verse  ii. 
The  brook  alone  far-ofi  was  heard. 
It  was  a  marvellously  still  night,  and  I 


936 


NOTES 


asked  my  brother  Charles  to  listen  to  the 
brook,  which  we  had  never  heard  so  far  off 
before. 
P.     268.     Section    xcv.    Verse    hi.    lit 

the  fil^y  shapes 
That  haunt  the  dusk,  with  ermine  capes 
And  woolly  breasts  and  beaded  eyes. 
Moths;    perhaps  the  ermine  or  the  puss- 
moth. 

P.  268.  Section  xcv.  Verse  ix.  The 
living  soul.  The  Deity,  maybe.  The 
first  reading,  "his  living  soul,"  troubled 
me,  as  perhaps  giving  a  wrong  impression. 

[The  old  passage  that  troubled  him  was : 
His  living  soul  was  flash'd  on  mine, 

And  mine  in  his  was  wound,  and  whirl' d 
About  empyreal  heights  of  thought, 
And  came  on  that  which  is. 

With  reference  to  the  later  reading,  my 
father  would  say :  "Of  course  the  greater 
Soul  may  include  the  less."  He  preferred, 
however,  for  fear  of  giving  a  wrong  im- 
pression, the  vaguer  and  more  abstract 
later  reading;  and  his  further  comment 
was:  "I  have  often  had  that  feeling  of 
being  whirled  up  and  rapt  into  the  Great 
Soul."  —  Ed.] 

P.  268.  Section  xcv.  Verse  x.  that 
which  is.  [T6  6v,  the  Absolute  Reality.  — 
Ed.] 

P.  268.  Section  xcv.  Verse  xi.  The 
trance  came  to  an  end  in  a  moment  of 
critical  doubt,  but  the  doubt  was  dispelled 
by  the  glory  of  the  dawn  of  the  "boundless 
day." 

P.  268.     Section  xcvi.     Verse  ii. 

/  know  not:  one  indeed  I  knew 

In  many  a  subtle  question  versed, 
Who  touch 'd  a  jarring  lyre  at  first, 

But  ever  strove  to  make  it  true. 
A.  H.  H. 

P.  269.  Section  xcvi.  Verse  vi.  Cf. 
Exod.  xix.  16,  "And  it  came  to  pass  on  the 
third  day,  in  the  morning,  that  there  were 
thunders  and  lightnings,  and  a  thick  cloud 
upon  the  mount,  and  the  voice  of  the 
trumpet  exceeding  loud." 

[The  thought  suggested  in  this  verse  is 
that  the  stronger  faith  of  Moses  —  found  in 
the  darkness  of  the  cloud  through  commune 
with  the  Power  therein  dwelling  —  is  of  a 


higher  order  than  the  creeds  of  those  who 
walk  by  sight  rather  than  by  insight.  —  Ed.] 
P.  269.  Section  xcvn.  The  relation 
of  one  on  earth  to  one  in  the  other  and 
higher  world.  Not  my  relation  to  him 
here.  He  looked  up  to  me  as  I  looked  up 
to  him. 

The  spirit  yet  in  the  flesh  but  united  in 
love  with  the  spirit  out  of  the  flesh  re- 
sembles the  wife  of  a  great  man  of  science. 
She  looks  up  to  him  —  but  what  he  knows 
is  a  mystery  to  her. 

[Love  finds  his  image  everywhere.     The 
relation  of  one  on  earth  to  one  in  the  other 
world  is  as  a  wife's  love  for  her  husband 
after  a  love  which  has  been  at  first  de- 
monstrative.    Now  he  is  compelled  to  be 
wrapt  in  matters  dark  and  deep.     Although 
he  seems  distant,  she  knows  that  he  loves 
her  as  well  as  before,  for  she  loves  him  in 
all  true  faith.] 1 
P.  269.     Section  xcvn.    Verse  i. 
His  own  vast  shadow  glory-crown 'd. 
Like  the  spectre  of  the  Brocken. 

P.  269.  Section  xcviii.  Verse  i.  You 
leave  us.     "You"  is  imaginary. 

P.  269.  Section  xcviii.  Verse  ii.  wisp, 
ignis-fatuus. 

P.  269.  Section  xcviii.  Verse  v.  Gnarr, 
snarl. 

P.      269.     Section     xcviii.    Verse     vi. 
mother  town,  metropolis. 
P.  270.    Section  xcix.    Verse  i. 
Day,  when  I  lost  the  flower  of  men. 
September  the  15th.     Cf.  lxxii.  ii. 

P.  270.     Section  xcix.     Verse  iii.  coming 
care  [the  hardship  of  winter.  —  Ed.]. 
P.  270.     Section  xcix.    Verse  v. 
Betwixt  the  slumber  of  the  poles. 
The  ends  of  the  axis  of  the  earth,  which 
move  so  slowly  that  they  seem  not  to  move, 
but  slumber. 

P.  270.     Section  c.     (1837.)     Verse  i.    / 
climb  the  hill.     Hill  above  Somersby. 
P.  270.     Section  c.    Verse  iv. 
Nor  runlet  tinkling  from  the  rock. 
The  rock  in  Holywell,  which  is  a  wooded 
ravine,  commonly  called  there  "the  Glen," 
1  Note  by  my  mother. 


NOTES 


937 


P.  270.  Section  ci.  Verse  iii.  The 
brook.  [The  brook  at  Somersby,  the  charm 
and  beauty  of  which  was  a  joy  to  my  father 
all  his  life.  —  Ed.] 

or    when    the    lesser    wain.     [My    father 
would   often   spend   his   nights   wandering 
about    the    wolds,    gazing    at    the    stars. 
Edward  FitzGerald  writes:    "Like  Words- 
worth on  the  mountains,  Alfred  too,  when 
a  lad  abroad  on  the  wold,  sometimes  of  a 
night  with  the  shepherd,  watched  not  only 
the  flock  on  the  greensward,  but  also 
the  fleecy  star  that  bears 
Andromeda  far  off  Atlantic  seas." 
Cf.  Memoir,  i.  19.  —  Ed.] 

P.  271.     Section  en.    Verse  ii. 

Two  spirits  of  a  diverse  love. 
First,  the  love  of  the  native  place ;   second, 
this  enhanced  by  the  memory  of  A.  H.  H. 

P.  271.  Section  era.  [I  have  a  dream 
which  comforts  me  on  leaving  the  old  home 
and  brings  me  content.  The  departure 
suggests  the  departure  of  death,  and  my 
reunion  with  him.  I  have  grown  in  spiritual 
grace  as  he  has.  The  gorgeous  sky  at  the 
end  of  the  section  typifies  the  glory  of  the 
hope  in  that  which  is  to  be.] l 

P.  271.     Section  cm.    Verse  ii. 
Methought  I  dwelt  within  a  hall, 
And  maidens  with  me. 
They  are  the  Muses,  poetry,  arts  —  all 
that  made  life  beautiful  here,  which  we  hope 
will  pass  with  us  beyond  the  grave. 
hidden  summits,  the  divine. 
river,  life. 

P.  271.  Section  cm.  Verse  iv.  sea, 
eternity. 

P.  271.  Section  cm.  Verse  vii.  The 
Progress  of  the  Age. 

P.  271.  Section  cm.  Verse  ix.  The 
great  hopes  of  humanity  and  science. 

P.  272.     Section  civ.    Verse  i. 

A  single  church  below  the  hill. 
Waltham  Abbey  church. 

P.  272.     Section  civ.    Verse  iii. 
But  all  is  new  unhallowed  ground. 
1  Note  by  my  mother. 


High  Beech,  Epping  Forest  (where  we 
were  living).     [Cf.  xcix.  ii.  —  Ed.] 

P.  272.  Section  cv.  Verse  iii.  abuse. 
[Cf .  xxx.  ii.  In  the  old  sense  —  wrong.  — 
Ed.] 

P.  272.     Section  cv.    Verses  vi.-vii. 
No  dance,  no  motion,  save  alone 
What  lightens  in  the  lucid  east 
Of  rising  worlds  by  yonder  wood. 
The  scintillating  motion  of  the  stars  that 
rise. 

P.  272.     Section  cv.    Verse  vii. 

[Run  out  your  measured  arcs,  and  lead 
The  closing  cycle. 

Fulfil  your  appointed  revolutions,  and 
bring  the  closing  period  "rich  in  good." 
Cf .  Virgil,  Eel.  iv.  4 : 

Ultima  Cymaei  venit  jam  carminis  aetas. 

Ed.] 
P.  272.     Section  cvi.     Verse  viii. 
Ring  in  the  Christ  that  is  to  be. 
The  broader  Christianity  of  the  future. 
P.  272.     Section  cvn.    Verse  i. 
77  is  the  day  when  he  was  born. 
February  1,  181 1. 

P.  273.  Section  cvn.  Verse  iii.  grides, 
grates. 

P.  273.  Section  cvn.  Verse  iv.  drifts. 
[Fine  snow  which  passes  in  squalls  to  fall 
into  the  breaker,  and  darkens  before 
melting  in  the  sea.  Cf.  The  Progress  of 
Spring,  in.  —  Ed.] 

P.  273.    Section  cvm.    Verse  i. 
/  will  not  shut  me  from  my  kind. 

Grief  shall  not  make  me  a  hermit,  and  I 
will  not  indulge  in  vacant  yearnings  and 
barren  aspirations;  it  is  useless  trying  to 
find  him  in  the  other  worlds  —  I  find  nothing 
but  the  reflections  of  myself ;  I  had  better 
learn  the  lesson  that  sorrow  teaches. 

P.  273.  Section  cvm.  Verse  iv.  [The 
original  reading  of  last  line  (MS.) : 

Yet  how  much  wisdom  sleeps  with  thee. 
Cf.  cxiii.  i. 

A  pencil  note  by  James  Spedding  on 
the  MS.  of  In  Memoriam  says:  "You 
might  give  the  thought  a  turn  of  this  kind : 
'The  wisdom  that  died  with  you  is  lost  for 


938 


NOTES 


ever,  but  out  of  the  loss  itself  some  other 
wisdom  may  be  gained.'"  —  Ed.] 

P.  273.  Section  cix.  [My  father  wrote 
to  Henry  Hallam  on  February  14,  1834: 
"That  you  intend  to  print  some  of  my 
friend's  remains  (tho'  only  for  private 
circulation)  has  given  me  greater  pleasure 
than  anything  I  have  experienced  for  a 
length  of  time.  I  attempted  to  draw  up  a 
memoir  of  his  life  and  character,  but  I 
failed  to  do  him  justice.  I  failed  even  to 
please  myself.  I  could  scarcely  have 
pleased  you.  I  hope  to  be  able  at  a 
future  period  to  concentrate  whatever 
powers  I  may  possess  on  the  construction 
of  some  tribute  to  those  high  speculative 
endowments  and  comprehensive  sympathies 
which  I  ever  loved  to  contemplate ;  but  at 
present,  tho'  somewhat  ashamed  at  my 
own  weakness,  I  find  the  object  yet  is  too 
near  me  to  permit  of  any  very  accurate 
delineation.  You,  with  your  clear  insight 
into  human  nature,  may  perhaps  not 
wonder  that  in  the  dearest  service  I  could 
have  been  employed  in,  I  should  be  found 
most  deficient.  ...  I  know  not  whether 
among  the  prose  pieces  you  would  include 
the  one  which  he  was  accustomed  to  call 
his  Theodicean  Essay.  I  am  inclined  to 
think  it  does  great  honour  to  his  originality 
of  thought.  Among  the  poems  —  if  you 
print  the  one  entitled  Timbuctoo  —  I  would 
request  you,  for  my  sake,  to  omit  the 
initiatory  note.  The  poem  is  everyway  so 
much  better  than  that  wild  and  unmethod- 
ized  performance  of  my  own,  that  even 
his  praise  on  such  a  subject  would  be 
painful."  >  The  judgment  on  Hallam  of 
his  contemporaries  coincided  with  that  of 
my  father.  See  Memoir,  i.  105-08.  — 
Ed.] 

P.  273.     Section  cix.     Verse  i. 
Heart-affluence  in  discursive  talk 

From  household  fountains  never  dry. 
[Cf.  The  Princess,  p.   173,  col.  2,  line  15: 

and  betwixt  them  blossom'd  up 
From  out  a  common  vein  of  memory 
Sweet  household  talk,  and  phrases  of  the 

hearth, 
And  far  allusion. 

1  From  an  unpublished  letter  in  possession  of 
Mr.  Arthur  Lee,  M.P. 


See  also  Coleridge,  Dejection,  an  Ode: 

"I  may  not  hope  from  outward  forms  to 

win 
The  passion  and  the  life,  whose  fountains 

are  within."  Ed.] 

P.  273.     Section  cix.     Verse  vi. 
Nor  let  thy  wisdom  make  me  wise. 
If  I  do  not  let  thy  wisdom  make  me  wise. 
P.  273.     Section  ex.    Verse  i. 

The  men  of  rathe  and  riper  years. 
["Rathe,"     Anglo-Saxon     hrceth,     "early." 
Cf.  Lancelot  and  Elaine:   "Till  rathe  she 
rose."    Ed.] 

P.  274.  Section  cxi.  Verse  v.  Drew  in 
[contracted,  narrowed.  —  Ed.]. 

Where  God  and  Nature  met  in  light. 
Cf.  Lxxxvii.    Verse  ix. : 

The  God  within  him  light  his  face. 

P.  274.  Section  cxi.  Verse  vi.  charlatan. 
From  Ital.  ciarlatano,  a  mountebank; 
hence  the  accent  on  the  last  syllable. 

P.  274.  Section  cxn.  Verse  i.  [High 
wisdom  is  ironical.  "High  wisdom"  has 
been  twitting  the  poet  that  although  he 
gazes  with  calm  and  indulgent  eyes  on 
unaccomplished  greatness,  yet  he  makes 
light  of  narrower  natures  more  perfect  in 
their  own  small  way.  —  Ed.] 

glorious  insufficiencies.  Unaccomplished 
greatness  such  as  Arthur  Hallam's. 

Set  light  by,  make  light  of. 

[In  answer  to  "high  wisdom"  the  poet 
says:  "The  power  and  grasp  and  origin- 
ality of  A.  H.  H.'s  intellect,  and  the  great- 
ness of  his  nature  [which  are  not  mere 
"glorious  insufficiencies"],  make  me  seem 
careless  about  those  that  have  a  narrower 
perfectness."] l 

P.  274.  Section  cxii.  Verse  ii.  the  lesser 
lords  of  doom.  Those  that  have  free-will, 
but  less  intellect. 

P.  274.  Section  cxm.  Verse  i.  [Cf. 
cvin.  iv.  —  Ed.] 

P.  274.     Section  cxiv.    Verse  i. 

Who  shall  fix 
Her  pillars  ? 
"Wisdom    hath    builded    her    house,    she 
1  Note  by  my  mother. 


NOTES 


939 


hath  hewn  out  her  seven  pillars"   (Prov. 
ix.  i). 

P.  275.     Section  cxv.     Verse  i.    burgeons, 
buds. 
maze  of  quick,  quickset  tangle. 
squares.     [Cf.  The  Ring: 

the  down,  that  sees 
A  thousand  squares  of  corn  and  meadow, 

far 
As  the  gray  deep.  Ed.] 

P.  275.  Section  cxvi.  Verse  i.  crescent 
Prime,  growing  spring. 

P.  275.     Section  cxvn.     Verse  iii. 
And  every  span  of  shade  that  steals. 
The  sun-dial. 

And  every  kiss  of  toothed  wheels. 
The  clock. 

P.  276.  Section  cxviii.  Verse  iv.  \type, 
represent.  Cf.  The  Princess,  p.  209,  col.  2, 
lines  12,  13: 

Dear,  but  let  us  type  them  now 

In  our  own  lives.  Ed.] 

P.  276.  Section  cxviii.  Verse  v.  [By 
gradual  self-development,  or  by  sorrows 
and  fierce  strivings  and  calamities.  —  Ed.] 

P.  276.     Section  cxrx.     [Cf.  vn.  —  Ed.] 

P.  276.  Section  cxx.  Verse  i.  Like 
Paul  with  beasts.  "If  after  the  manner 
of  men  I  have  fought  with  beasts  at  Ephesus, 
what  advantageth  it  me  ?  "  (1  Cor.  xv.  32). 

P.  276.     Section  cxx.    Verse  iii. 
Let  him,  the  wiser  man  who  springs 
Hereafter,  up  from  childhood  shape 
His  action  like  the  greater  ape. 
Spoken  ironically  against  mere  materialism, 
not  against  evolution. 

born  to  other  things.  [Cf.  By  an  Evolu- 
tionist : 

The  Lord  let  the  house  of  a  brute  to  the 
soul  of  a  man, 
And  the  man  said  "Am  I  your  debtor?" 
And  the  Lord  —  "Not  yet :  but  make  it  as 
clean  as  you  can, 
And  then  I  will  let  you  a  better." 

Ed.] 

P.  276.     Section  cxxi.     [Written  at  Ship- 


lake,  where  my  father  and  mother  were 
married.  —  Ed.] 

P.  276.     Section  cxxi.     Verse  v. 
Sweet  Hesper-Phosphor,  double  name. 
The  evening  star  is  also  the  morning  star, 
death  and  sorrow  brighten  into  death  and 
hope. 

P.  276.  Section  cxxii.  Verse  i.  doom 
—  that  of  grief. 

P.  277.     Section  cxxii.    Verse  v. 
And  every  dew-drop  paints  a  bow. 
Every   dew-drop   turns   into   a  '  miniature 
rainbow. 

P.  277.  Section  cxxni.  Geologic  changes. 
[All  material  things  are  unsubstantial,  yet 
there  is  that  in  myself  which  assures  me 
that  the  spiritual  part  of  man  abides,  and 
that  we  shall  meet  again.] l 

P.  277.     Section  cxxiii.    Verse  i. 
The  stillness  of  the  central  sea. 
Balloonists  say  that  even  in  a  storm  the 
middle  sea  is  noiseless. 

[Professor  George  Darwin  writes:  "Peo- 
ple always  talk  at  sea  of  the  howling  of 
the  wind  and  lashing  of  the  sea,  but  it  is 
the  ship  that  makes  it  all.  A  man  clinging 
to  a  spar  in  a  heavy  sea  would  only  hear 
a  little  gentle  swishing  from  the  'white 
horses.' "  —  Ed.] 

P.  277.    Section  cxxni.    Verse  iii. 
For  tho'  my  lips  may  breathe  adieu, 

I  cannot  think  the  thing  farewell. 
[Cf.  note  to  lvii.  iv.,  and  the  poem  Frater 
Ave  atque  Vale.  —  Ed.] 

P.  277.  Section  cxxrv.  Verse  v.  [blind 
clamour  refers  to 

I  heard  a  voice  'believe  no  more' 
And  beard  an  ever-breaking  shore 
That  tumbled  in  the  Godless  deep. 

Ed.] 

P.  277.     Section  cxxvi.     [The  following 
was  originally  the  second  verse  (MS.) : 
Love  is  my  king,  nor  here  alone, 

But  where  I  see  the  distance  loom, 
For  in  the  field  behind  the  tomb 
There  rests  the  shadow  of  his  throne. 

Ed.] 
1  Note  by  my  mother. 


94Q 


NOTES 


P.  278.     Section  cxxvi.     [The  following 
was  originally  the  third  verse  (MS.) : 
And  here  at  times  a  sentinel 

That  moves  about  from  place  to  place 
And  whispers  to  the  vast  of  space 
Among  the  worlds,  that  all  is  well. 

Ed.] 

P.  278.  Section  cxxvu.  Verse  iv.  brute 
earth.  [Cf.  "bruta  tellus,"  the  heavy, 
inert  earth  (Hor.  Carm.  1.  xxxiv.).  —  Ed.] 

P.  278.  Section  cxxvm.  [In  comrade- 
ship with  Love  that  is  all  the  stronger  for 
facing  Death,  the  Faith  which  believes  in 
the  progress  of  the  world  sees  that  all  in 
the  individual  as  in  the  race  is  working  to 
one  great  result,  however  retrograde  the 
eddies  of  the  world-currents  may  at  times 
appear  to  be.] I  (This  section  must  be 
read  in  close  connection  with  cxxvi.  and 
cxxvu.) 

P.  278.  Section  cxxix.  [These  two 
faiths  are  in  reality  the  same.  The  thought 
of  thee  as  human  and  divine  mingles  with  all 
great  thoughts  as  to  the  destiny  of  the  world 
(cf.  cxxx.).]2 

He  "shall  live  though  he  die." 

P.  278.  Section  cxxxi.  [The  following 
words  were  uttered  by  my  father  in  January 
1869,  and  bear  upon  this  section  :  —  "Yes, 
it  is  true  that  there  are  moments  when  the 
flesh  is  nothing  to  me,  when  I  feel  and 
know  the  flesh  to  be  the  vision,  God  and 
the  Spiritual  the  only  real  and  true.  Depend 
upon  it,  the  Spiritual  is  the  real :  it  belongs 
to  one  more  than  the  hand  and  the  foot. 
You  may  tell  me  that  my  •hand  and  my 
foot  are  only  imaginary  symbols  of  my 
existence,  I  could  believe  you;  but  you 
never,  never  can  convince  me  that  the  /  is 
not  an  eternal  Reality,  and  that  the  Spiritual 
is  not  the  true  and  real  part  of  me."  These 
words  he  spoke  with  such  passionate  earnest- 
ness that  a  solemn  silence  fell  on  us  as  he 
left  the  room.  —  Ed.] 

P.  278.  Section  cxxxi.  Verse  i.  0  living 

will.     That  which  we  know  as  Free-will  in 

man. 

spiritual  rock.     [Cf.  1  Cor.  x.  4.  —  Ed.] 

P.  279.     Section  cxxxi.     Verse  ii.     con- 

1  Note  by  my  mother.       2  Note  by  my  mother. 


quer'd  years.  [Cf.  "Victor  Hours,"  1.  iv. 
—  Ed.] 

P.  279.  Conclusion.  The  marriage  of 
Edmund  Lushington  and  Cecilia  Tennyson, 
Oct.  10,  1842. 

[These  two  verses  were  probably  written 
at  this  time : 

SPEAK  TO  ME 

Speak  to  me  from  the  stormy  sky  ! 

The  wind  is  loud  in  holt  and  hill, 

It  is  not  kind  to  be  so  still : 
Speak  to  me,  dearest,  lest  I  die. 

Speak  to  me,  let  me  hear  or  see  ! 
Alas,  my  life  is  frail  and  weak : 
Seest  thou  my  faults  and  wilt  not  speak  ? 

They  are  not  want  of  love  for  thee. 

Ed.] 

P.  281.  Maud;  a  Monodrama. 
[First  published  in  1855.  My  father  liked 
reading  aloud  this  poem,  a  "Drama  of  the 
Soul,"  set  in  a  landscape  glorified  by  Love, 
and,  according  to  Lowell,  "The  anti- 
phonal  voice  to  In  Memoriam,"  which  is 
the  "Way  of  the  Soul."  The  whole  of  it, 
except  "O  that  'twere  possible"  (see  Note 
on  Part  II.  iv.  and  Introduction),  was 
written  at  Farringford.  —  Ed.]  The  stanzas 
where  he  is  mad  in  Bedlam,  from  'Dead, 
long  dead'  to  'Deeper,  ever  so-little  deeper,' 
were  written  in  twenty  minutes,  and  some 
mad  doctor  wrote  to  me  that  nothing  since 
Shakespeare  has  been  so  good  for  madness 
as  this. 

"At  the  opening  of  the  drama,  the  chief 
person  or  hero  of  the  action  is  introduced 
with  scenery  and  incidents  artistically  dis- 
posed around  his  figure,  so  as  to  make  the 
reader  at  once  acquainted  with  certain  facts 
in  his  history.  Although  still  a  young  man, 
he  has  lost  his  father  some  years  before  by 
a  sudden  and  violent  death,  following  im- 
mediately upon  unforeseen  ruin  brought 
about  by  an  unfortunate  speculation  in 
which  the  deceased  had  engaged.  Whether 
the  death  was  the  result  of  accident,  or 
self-inflicted  in  a  moment  of  despair,  no 
one  knows,  but  the  son's  mind  has  been 
painfully  possessed  by  a  suspicion  of  villainy 
and  foul  play  somewhere,  because  an  old 
friend  of  his  family  became  suddenly  and 
unaccountably  rich  by  the  same  transaction 
that  had  brought  ruin  to  the  dead.     Shortly 


NOTES 


94i 


after  the  decease  of  his  ftther,  the  bereaved 
young  man,  by  the  death  of  his  mother,  is 
left  quite  alone  in  the  world.  He  continues 
thenceforth  to  reside  in  the  retired  village 
in  which  his  early  days  have  been  spent, 
but  the  sad  experiences  of  his  youth  have 
confirmed  the  bent  of  a  mind  constitu- 
tionally prone  to  depression  and  melancholy. 
Brooding  in  loneliness  upon  miserable 
memories  and  bitter  fancies,  his  tempera- 
ment as  a  matter  of  course  becomes  more 
and  more  morbid  and  irritable.  He  can 
see  nothing  in  human  affairs  that  does  not 
awaken  in  him  disgust  and  contempt.  Evil 
glares  out  from  all  social  arrangements,  and 
unqualified  meanness  and  selfishness  appear 
in  every  human  form,  and  he  keeps  to 
himself  and  chews  the  cud  of  cynicism 
and  discontent  apart  from  his  kind.  Such 
in  rough  outline  is  the  figure  the  poet  has 
sketched  as  the  foundation  and  centre  of 
his  plan.  .  .  .  Since  the  days  of  his  early 
youth  up  to  the  period  when  the  immediate 
action  of  the  poem  is  supposed  to  com- 
mence, the  dreamy  recluse  has  seen 
nothing  of  the  family  of  the  man  to  whom 
circumstances  have  inclined  him  to  attri- 
bute his  misfortunes.  This  individual, 
although  since  his  accession  to  prosperity 
the  possessor  of  the  neighbouring  hall  and 
of  the  manorial  lands  of  the  village,  has 
been  residing  abroad.  Just  at  this  time, 
however,  there  are  workmen  up  at  the 
dark  old  place,  and  a  rumour  spreads  that 
the  absentees  are  about  to  return.  This 
rumour,  as  a  matter  of  course,  stirs  up 
afresh  rankling  memories  in  the  breast  of 
the  recluse,  and  reawakens  there  old  griefs. 
But  with  the  group  of  associated  recollec- 
tions that  come  crowding  forth,  there  is 
one  of  the  child  Maud,  who  was  in  happier 
days  his  merry  playfellow.  She  will  now, 
however,  be  a  child  no  longer."  —  Robert 
James  Mann,  M.D.,  F.R.A.S.,  etc. 

Part  I 

[The  division  into  Parts  does  not  exist 
in  the  original  1855  edition,  which  contains 
xxvi.  Sections.  —  Ed.] 

P.  281.     1.     Before  the  arrival  of  Maud. 

P.  281.  1.  Verse  i.  blood-red  heath. 
[My  father  would  say  that  in  calling  heath 
"blood "-red   the  hero   showed  his  extra- 


vagant fancy,  which  is  already  on  the 
road  to  madness.  —  Ed.] 

P.  283.  Verse  xix.  [My  father  allowed 
me  to  print  in  these  notes  some  few  of  the 
variorum  readings  for  which  his  friends 
had  asked,  but  he  said  to  me,  "Very  often 
what  is  published  in  my  poems  as  the 
latest  edition  has  been  the  original  version 
in  the  first  manuscript,  so  that  there  is  no 
possibility  of  really  tracing  the  history  of 
what  may  seem  to  be  a  new  word  or 
passage.  For  instance,  in  the  first  edition 
of  Maud  I  wrote  'I  will  bury  myself  in 
my  books  and  the  Devil  may  pipe  to  his 
own,'  which  was  afterwards  altered  to  'I 
will  bury  myself  in  myself,'  etc.  This  was 
highly  commended  by  the  critics  as  an, 
improvement  on  the  original  reading, 
whereas  it  was  actually  in  the  first  MS. 
draft  of  the  poem.  Great  works  have 
been  entirely  spoilt  for  me  by  the  modern 
habit  of  giving  every  various  reading  along 
with  the  text."  —  Ed.] 

P.  283.     11.     First  sight  of  Maud. 

P.  283.  in.  Visions  of  the  night.  Broad- 
flung  shipwrecking  roar.  In  the  Isle  of 
Wight  the  roar  can  be  heard  nine  miles 
away  from  the  beach. 

[Many  of  the  descriptions  of  Nature 
are  taken  from  observations  of  natural 
phenomena  at  Farringford,  although  the 
localities  in  the  poem  are  all  imaginary.  — 
Ed.] 

P.  284.  rv.  Mood  of  bitterness  after 
fancied  disdain. 

P.  284.  rv.  Verse  vi.  A  monstrous  eft, 
the  great  old  lizards  of  geology. 

P.  285.  iv.  Verse  viii.  an  I  sis  hid  by  the 
veil.  The  great  Goddess  of  the  Egyptians. 
'E7(i  elfj.1  irav  t6  yeyovds,  ical  6v,  /ecu 
tabjxevov,  Kal  rbv  i/xbv  irtirXov  ovdels  ir<a 
dvrjrbs  &TT€Ki\v\p€. 

P.  285.  v.  He  fights  against  his 
growing  passion. 

P.  286.    vi.     First  interview  with  Maud. 

P.  286.  vi.  Verse  vi.  Assyrian  Bull. 
With  hair  curled  like  that  of  the  bulls  on 
Assyrian  sculpture. 

P.  287.  vii.  He  remembers  his  father 
and  her  father  talking  just  before  the  birth 
of  Maud. 


942 


NOTES 


P.  287.  viii.  It  cannot  be  pride  that 
she  did  not  return  his  bow.  (Sec.  iv. 
verse  Hi.) 

P.  287.  rx.  First  sight  of  the  young 
lord. 

P.  288.    X.    Verse  iii. 

Last  week  came  one  to  the  county  town. 

The  Westminster  Review  said  this  was 
an  attack  on  John  Bright.  I  did  not  even 
know  at  the  time  that  he  was  a  Quaker. 
[It  was  not  against  Quakers  but  against 
peace-at-all-price  men  that  the  hero  ful- 
minates.] 

This  was  originally  verse  iii.,  but  I 
omitted  it : 

Will  she  smile  if  he  presses  her  hand, 
This  lord-captain  up  at  the  Hall  ? 
Captain  !  he  to  hold  a  command  ! 
He  can  hold  a  cue,  he  can  pocket  a  ball ; 
And  sure  not  a  bantam  cockerel  lives 
With  a  weaker  crow  upon  English  land, 
Whether  he  boast  of  a  horse  that  gains, 
Or  cackle  his  own  applause.  .  .  . 
What  use  for  a  single  mouth  to  rage 
At  the  rotten  creak  of  the  State-machine ; 
Tho'  it  makes  friends  weep  and  enemies 

smile, 
That  here  in  the  face  of  a  watchful  age, 
The  sons  of  a  gray-beard-ridden  isle 
Should  dance  in  a  round  of  an  old  routine. 

P.  289.    xii.     Interview  with  Maud. 

P.  289.    xii.    Verse  i. 

Maud,  Maud,  Maud,  Maud. 
Like  the  rook's  caw. 

P.  289.     xii.    Verse  iii. 

Maud  is  here,  here,  here. 
Like  the  call  of  the  little  birds. 

P.  289.    xii.    Verse  vi. 

And  left  the  daisies  rosy. 
Because    if   you    tread    on    the    daisy,    it 
turns  up  a  rosy  underside. 

P.  289.  xiii.  Morbidly  prophetic.  He 
sees  Maud's  brother,  who  will  not  recognize 
him. 

P.  290.    xvi.     He  will  declare  his  love. 

P.  291.    xvii.    Accepted. 

P.  291.  xviii.  Happy.  The  sigh  in 
the  cedar  branches  seems  to  chime  in  with 
his  own  yearning. 


P.  292.  xviii.  Verse  iv.  The  sad 
astrology  is  modern  astronomy,  for  of  old 
astrology  was  thought  to  sympathise  with 
and  rule  man's  fate.  The  stars  are  "cold 
fires,"  for  tho'  they  emit  light  of  the  highest 
intensity,  no  perceptible  warmth  reaches 
us.  His  newer  astrology  describes  them 
(verse  viii.)  as  "soft  splendours." 

P.  292.     xviii.     Verse  vii. 
Not  die;  but  live  a  life  of  truest  breath. 
This  is  the  central  idea  —  the  holy  power 
of  Love. 

P.  292.     xviii.     Verse  vii. 

The  dusky  strand  of  Death  inwoven  here. 

Image  taken  from  the  coloured  strands 
inwoven  in  coloured  ropes,  e.g.  in  the 
Admiralty  rope. 

P.  294.    xxi.     Before  the  Ball. 

P.  295.    xxii.    In  the  Hall-Garden. 

Part  II 

P.  296.  1.  The  Phantom  (after  the  duel 
with  Maud's  brother). 

P.  296.  11.  In  Brittany.  The  shell 
undestroyed  amid  the  storm  perhaps  sym- 
bolises to  him  his  own  first  and  highest 
nature  preserved  amid  the  storms  of 
passion. 

P.  297.     11.     Verse  vi. 

But  that  of  Lamech  is  mine. 

"I  have  slain  a  man  to  my  wounding, 
and  a  young  man  to  my  hurt"  (Gen.  iv. 
23). 

P.  297.     in.     He  felt  himself  going  mad. 

P.  297.  iv.  Haunted  (after  Maud's 
death). 

"O  that  'twere  possible"  appeared  first 
in  the  Tribute,  1837.  Sir  John  Simeon 
years  after  begged  me  to  weave  a  story 
round  this  poem,  and  so  Maud  came  into 
being. 

P.  299.     v.     In  the  madhouse. 

P.  299.    v.    Verse  iv. 

Who  told  him  we  were  there? 
i.e.  the  brother. 

P.  299.  v.  Verse  v.  gray  old  wolf. 
[Cf.  Part  I.  xiii.  iii.  —  Ed.] 


NOTES 


943 


P.  299.  v.  Verse  v.  Crack  them  now 
for  yourself.  For  his  son  is,  he  thinks, 
dead. 

P.  299.    v.    Verse  vi. 

A  nd  curse  me  the  British  vermin,  the  rat. 

The  Norwegian  rat  has  driven  out  the 
old  English  rat.  [The  Jacobites  asserted 
that  the  brown  Norwegian  rat  came  to 
England  with  the  House  of  Hanover,  1714, 
and  hence  called  it  "the  Hanover  rat."  — 
Ed.] 

P.  300.  v.  Verse  viii.  the  keeper  =  the 
brother. 

P.  300.  v.  Verse  viii.  a  dead  man,  that 
is,  himself  in  his  fancy. 

P.  300.  v.  Verse  ix.  what  will  the  old 
man  say?     Maud's  father. 

The  second  corpse  is  Maud's  brother, 
the  lover's  father  being  the  first  corpse, 
whom  the  lover  thinks  that  Maud's  father 
murdered. 

Part  III 

P.  300.  vi.  Sane,  but  shattered.  Written 
when  the  cannon  was  heard  booming  from 
the  battleships  in  the  Solent  before  the 
Crimean  War. 

[Some  of  the  reviews  accused  my  father 
of  loving  war,  and  urging  the  country  to 
war,  charges  which  he  sufficiently  answered 
in  the  "Epilogue  to  the  Heavy  Brigade": 

And  who  loves  War  for  War's  own  sake 
Is  fool,  or  crazed,  or  worse ; 

But  let  the  patriot-soldier  take 
His  meed  of  fame  in  verse. 
Indeed,  he  looked  passionately  forward  to 
the 

Parliament  of  man,  the  Federation  of  the 
world. 

What  the  hero  in  Maud  says  is  that  the 
sins  of  the  nation,  "civil  war"  as  he  calls 
them,  are  deadlier  in  their  effect  than  what 
is  commonly  called  war,  and  that  they  may 
be  in  a  measure  subdued  by  the  war 
between  nations,  which  is  an  evil  more 
easily  recognised.  Cf.  Gladstone's  Glean- 
ings, vol.  ii.,  on  Maud.  —  Ed.] 

P.  300.  vi.  [On  the  16th  of  March 
1854  my  father  was  looking  through  his 
(Farringford)  study  window  at  the  planet 
Mars,  "as  he  glow'd  like  a  ruddy  shield 


on  the  Lion's  breast,"  and  so  determined 
to  name  his  second  son,  who  was  born  on 
that  day,  Lionel.  —  Ed.] 


THE  IDYLLS  OF  THE  KING 

INTRODUCTORY     NOTE     BY     THE 
EDITOR 

The  earliest  prose  fragment  about  King 
Arthur  that  I  can  find  among  my  father's 
MSS.  was  probably  written  about  1833. 
I  give  it  as  jt  stands. 

King  Arthur 

On  the  latest  limit  of  the  West  in  the 
land  of  Lyonnesse,  where,  save  the  rocky 
Isles  of  Scilly,  all  is  now  wild  sea,  rose  the 
sacred  Mount  of  Camelot.  It  rose  from 
the  deeps  with  gardens  and  bowers  and 
palaces,  and  at  the  top  of  the  Mount  was 
King  Arthur's  hall,  and  the  holy  Minster 
with  the  Cross  of  gold.  Here  dwelt  the 
King,  in  glory  apart,  while  the  Saxons 
whom  he  had  overthrown  in  twelve  battles 
ravaged  the  land,  and  ever  came  nearer 
and  nearer. 

The  Mount  was  the  most  beautiful  in 
the  world,  sometimes  green  and  fresh  in 
the  beam  of  morning,  sometimes  all  one 
splendour,  folded  in  the  golden  mists  of 
the  West.  But  all  underneath  it  was 
hollow,  and  the  mountain  trembled,  when 
the  seas  rushed  bellowing  through  the 
porphyry  caves ;  and  there  ran  a  prophecy 
that  the  mountain  and  the  city  on  some 
wild  morning  would  topple  into  the  abyss 
and  be  no  more. 

It  was  night.  The  King  sat  in  his  Hall. 
Beside  him  sat  the  sumptuous  Guinevere 
and  about  him  were  all  his  lords  and 
knights  of  the  Table  Round.  There  they 
feasted,  and  when  the  feast  was  over  the 
Bards  sang  to  the  King's  glory. 


The  following  memorandum  was  given 
by  my  father  to  Sir  James  Knowles  at 
Aid  worth  on  October  1,  1869,  who  told 
him  that  it  was  between  thirty  and  forty 
years  old.  It  was  probably  written  at  the 
same  time  as  the  fragment  which  I  have 
just  quoted.  However,  the  allegorical 
drift  here  marked  out  was  fundamentally 
changed  in  the  later  scheme  of  the  Idylls. 


944  NOTES 


From  An  Original  MS.,  about  1833. 


fay  MtivJ    &~+    fu*»***4 

fcv      ^44J»*HA*<<.     f/li^  />U>>*.   %*.l*   /^lu 


NOTES 


945 


Before  1840  it  is  evident  that  my  father 
wavered  between  casting  the  Arthurian 
legends  into  the  form  of  an  epic  or  into 
that  of  a  musical  masque;  for  in  one  of 
his  1833-1840  MS.  books  there  is  the 
following  first  rough  draft  of  a  scenario, 
into  which  the  Lancelot  and  Elaine  scenes 
were  afterwards  introduced. 

First  Act 
Sir  Mordred  and  his  party.  Mordred 
inveighs  against  the  King  and  the  Round 
Table.  The  knights,  and  the  quest. 
Mordred  scoffs  at  the  Ladies  of  the  Lake, 
doubts  whether  they  are  supernatural 
beings,  etc.  Mordred's  cringing  interview 
with  Guinevere.  Mordred  and  the  Lady 
of  the  Lake.    Arthur  lands  in  Albyn. 

Second  Act 
Lancelot's  embassy  and  Guinevere.  The 
Lady  of  the  Lake  meets  Arthur  and  en- 
deavours to  persuade  him  not  to  fight  with 
Sir  Mordred.  Arthur  will  not  be  moved 
from  his  purpose.  Lamentation  of  the 
Lady  of  the  Lake.    Elaine.    Marriage  of 

ArthUI-  Third  Ac, 

Oak  tomb  of  Merlin.  The  song  of 
Nimue.  Sir  Mordred  comes  to  consult 
Merlin.  Coming  away  meets  Arthur. 
Their  fierce  dialogue.  Arthur  consults 
Sir  L.  and  Sir  Bedivere.  Arthur  weeps 
over  Merlin  and  is  reproved  by  Nimue, 
who  inveighs  against  Merlin.  Arthur  asks 
Merlin  the  issue  of  the  battle.  Merlin  will 
not  enlighten  him.  Nimue  requests  Arthur 
to  question  Merlin  again.  Merlin  tells  him 
he  shall  bear  rule  again,  but  that  the  Ladies 
of  the  Lake  can  return  no  more.  Guine- 
vere throws  away  the  diamonds  into  the 
river.    The  Court  and  the  dead  Elaine. 

Fourth  Act 
Discovery  by   Mordred   and   Nimue  of 
Lancelot     and     Guinevere.     Arthur     and 
Guinevere's  meeting  and  parting. 

Fifth  Act 
The  battle.     Chorus  of   the  Ladies  of 
the  Lake.     The  throwing  away  of  Excali- 
bur  and  departure  of  Arthur. 


After  this  my  father  began  to  study  the 
epical  King  Arthur  in  earnest.    He  had 

3P 


travelled  in  "Wales,  and  meditated  a  tour 
in  Cornwall.  He  thought,  read,  talked 
about  King  Arthur.  He  made  a  poem  on 
Lancelot's  quest  of  the  San  Graal;  "in  as 
good  verse,"  he  said,  "as  I  ever  wrote  —  no, 
I  did  not  write,  I  made  it  in  my  head,  and 
it  has  altogether  slipt  out  of  memory." x 
What  he  called  "the  greatest  of  all  poetical 
subjects"  perpetually  haunted  him.  But  it 
was  not  till  1855  that  he  determined  upon 
something  like  the  final  shape  of  the  poem, 
and  not  until  1859  that  he  published  the 
first  instalment,  Enid*  Vivien,  Elaine, 
Guinevere.  In  spite  of  the  public  applause 
he  did  not  rush  headlong  into  the  other 
Idylls  of  the  King,  although  he  had  carried 
a  more  or  less  perfected  scheme  of  them  in 
his  head  over  thirty  years.  For  one  thing, 
he  did  not  consider  that  the  time  was  ripe. 
In  addition  to  this,  he  did  not  find  himself 
in  the  proper  mood  to  write  them,  and  he 
never  could  work  except  at  what  his  heart 
impelled  him  to  do.  —  Then,  however,  he 
devoted  himself  with  all  his  energies  and 
with  infinite  enthusiasm  to  that  work  alone. 
Gladstone  says : 3 

We  know  not  where  to  look  in  history  or  in 
letters  for  a  nobler  or  more  overpowering  concep- 
tion of  man  as  he  might  be,  than  in  the  Arthur 
of  this  volume.  Wherever  he  appears,  it  is  as 
the  great  pillar  of  the  moral  order,  and  the 
resplendent  top  of  human  excellence.  But  even 
he  only  reaches  to  his  climax  in  these  two  really 
wonderful  speeches  [at  the  end  of  Guinevere). 
They  will  not  bear  mutilation :  they  must  be 
read,  and  pondered,  to  be  known. 

Most  explanations  and  analyses,  although 
eagerly  asked  for  by  some  readers, 
appeared  to  my  father  somewhat  to  dwarf 
and  limit  the  life  and  scope  of  the  great 
Arthurian  tragedy;  and  therefore  I  will 
add  no  more,  except  what  Jowett  wrote  in 
1893:  "Tennyson  has  made  the  Arthur 
legend  a  great  revelation  of  human  experi- 
ence, and  of  the  thoughts  of  many  hearts." 


P.  302.  Dedication.  To  the  Prince 
Consort.  [First  published  in  the  edition 
of  1862.  —  Ed.] 

1  Letter  from  my  father  to  the  Duke  of  Argyll, 
1859. 

2  He  found  out  that  the  "E"  in  "Enid  was 
pronounced  short  (as  if  it  were  spelt  "Ennid"), 
and  so  altered  the  phrase  in  the  proofs  "wedded 
Enid"  to  "married  Enid." 

Had  married  Enid,  Yniol's  only  child. 
* Gleanings  of  Past  Years,  vol.  ii.  p.  166. 


946 


NOTES 


P.  302,  col.  1,  line  5.  Idylls.  Regard- 
ing the  Greek  derivation,  I  spelt  my  Idylls 
with  two  l'a  mainly  to  divide  them  from 
the  ordinary  pastoral  idyls  usually  spelt 
with  one  I.  These  idylls  group  themselves 
round  one  central  figure. 

P.  302,  col.  1,  line  6. 

Scarce  other  than  my  king's  ideal  knight. 

[The.  first  reading,  "my  own  ideal 
knight,"  was  altered  because  Leslie  Stephen 
and  others  called  King  Arthur  a  portrait 
of  the  Prince  Consort.  —  Ed.] 

P.  302,  col.  1,  line  12.  the  gloom  of 
imminent  war.  Owing  to  the  Trent 
affair,  when  two  Southern  Commissioners 
accredited  to  Great  Britain  and  France 
by  the  Confederate  States  were  taken  off 
a  British  steamship,  the  Trent,  by  the 
captain  of  the  Federal  man-of-war  San 
Jacinto.  The  Queen  and  the  Prince 
Consort  were  said  to  have  averted  war  by 
their  modification  of  a  dispatch. 

P.  302,  col.  2,  lines  14,  15. 
[Far-sighted  summoner  of  War  and  Waste 
To  fruitful  strifes  and  rivalries  of  peace 
refers  to  the  Prince  Consort's  work  in  the 
planning  of  the  International  Exhibitions 
of  1851  and  1862.  —  Ed.] 
You  brought  a  vast  design  to  pass 

When  Europe  and  the  scatter'd  ends 
Of    our    fierce    world    were    mixt    as 
friends 
And  brethren  in  her  walls  of  glass 
were  lines  that  I  wrote  about  the   1851 
Exhibition. 

P.  302,  col.  2,  line  18.  thy  land  is 
Saxe-Coburg  Gotha,  whence  Prince  Albert 
came. 

P.  303.  The  Coming  of  Arthur. 
[First  published  in  the  Holy  Grail  volume, 
1869.  In  this  Idyll  the  poet  lays  bare 
the  main  lines  of  his  story  and  of  his 
parable.  —  Ed.] 

How  much  of  history  we  have  in  the 
story  of  Arthur  is  doubtful.  Let  not  my 
readers  press  too  hardly  on  details  whether 
for  history  or  for  allegory.  Some  think 
that  King  Arthur  may  be  taken  to  typify 
conscience.  He  is  anyhow  meant  to  be  a 
man  who   spent  himself  in  the  cause  of 


honour,  duty  and  self-sacrifice,  who  felt 
and  aspired  with  his  nobler  knights, 
though  with  a  stronger  and  a  clearer 
conscience  than  any  of  them,  "reveren- 
cing his  conscience  as  his  king."  "In 
short,  God  has  not  made  since  Adam  was, 
the  man  more  perfect  than  Arthur,"  as 
an  old  writer  says.  "Major  praeteritis 
majorque  futuris  Regibus."  The  vision  of 
Arthur  as  I  have  drawn  him  came  upon 
me  when,  little  more  than  a  boy,  I  first 
lighted  upon  Malory. 

he  time  co  he  wes  icoren : 

ha  wes  Af$ur  iboren. 

Sone  swa  he  com  an  eofSe: 

aluen  hine  iuengen. 

heo  bigolen  hat  child : 

mid  galdere  swi^e  stronge 

heo  5eue  him  mihte : 

to  beon  bezst  aire  cnihten. 

heo  geuen  him  an  o$er  hing : 

hat  he  scolde  beon  riche  king. 

heo  giuen  hi  hat  hridde : 

hat  he  scolde  longe  libben. 

heo  gisen  him  hat  kine-bern : 

custen  swi^e  gode. 

hat  he  wes  mete-custi : 

of  alle  quikemonnen. 

his  he  alue  him  5ef : 

And  al  swa  hat  child  ihaeh. 
Layamon's  Brut,  Madden,  vol.  ii.  384. 
(The  time  came  that  was  chosen,  then 
was  Arthur  born.  So  soon  as  he  came  on 
earth,  elves  took  him;  they  enchanted  the 
child  with  magic  most  strong,  they  gave 
him  might  to  be  the  best  of  all  knights; 
they  gave  him  another  thing,  that  he 
should  be  a  rich  king;  they  gave  him  the 
third,  that  he  should  live  long ;  they  gave  to 
him,  the  child,  virtues  most  good,  so  that 
he  was  most  generous  of  all  men  alive: 
This  the  elves  gave  him,  and  thus  the  child 
thrived.) 

The    blank    verse    throughout    each    of 
the  twelve  Idylls  varies  according  to  the 
subject. 
[Examples  of  blank  verse : 

With  three  beats  — 
And  Balin  by  the  banneret  of  his  helm. 

With  four  beats  — 
For  hate  and  16athing  would  have  pass'd 

him  by. 


NOTES 


947 


i  With  five  beats  — 

In  which  he  scarce  could  spy    the  Christ 
for  saints. 

With  six  beats  — 
What,    wear    ye    still    the    same    cr6wn- 
scandalous  ? 

With  seven  beats  — 
The  tw6-cell'd  heart  beating  with  6ne  full 
str6ke.  Ed.] 

P.  303,  col.  1,  line  5.  For  many  a  petty 
king.  This  explains  the  existence  of 
Leodogran,  one  of  the  petty  princes. 
"Cameliard  is  apparently,"  according  to 
Wright,  "the  district  called  Carmelide  in 
the  English  metrical  romance  of  Merlin, 
on  the  border  of  which  was  a  town  called 
'Breckenho'  (Brecknock)." — T.  Wright's 
edition  of  the  Mort  oV Arthur e  (London: 
J.  R.  Smith),  vol.  i.  p.  40. 

P.  303,  col.  1,  line  13.  For  first  Aurelius. 
Aurelius  (Emrys)  Ambrosius  was  brother 
of  King  Uther.  [For  the  histories  of 
Aurelius  and  Uther  see  Geoffrey  of  Mon- 
mouth's Chronicle,  Bks.  v.  and  vi.  —  Ed.] 

P-  303,  col.  1,  line  17.  Table  Round. 
A  table  called  King  Arthur's  is  kept  at 
Winchester.  It  was  supposed  to  symbolize 
the  world,  being  fiat  and  round. 

P.  303,  col.  1,  line  18. 

Drew  all  their  petty  princedoms  under  him. 
The  several  petty  princedoms  were  under 
one  head,  the  "pendragon." 

P.  303,  col.  2,  line  8.  mock  their  foster- 
mother.  Imitate  the  wolf  by  going  on 
four  feet. 

P-  30s,  col.  2,  line  9. 
Till,  straighten' d,  they  grew  up  to  wolf-like 

men. 
Compare  what  is  told  of  in  some  parts  of 
India    {Journal   of  Anthropological  Society 
of  Bombay,  vol.  i.),  and  of  the  loup-garous 
and  were- wolves  of  France  and  Germany. 

P-  303,  col.  2,  line  n.  Groan 'd  for  the 
Roman  legions.  Cf.  Groans  of  the  Britons, 
by  Gildas. 

P.  303,  col.  2,  line  13.  Urien.  King  of 
North  Wales. 

P.  304,  col.  1,  line  5. 

The  golden  symbol  of  his  kinglihood. 
The  golden  dragon. 


P.  304,  col.  1,  line  14.  The  heathen. 
Angles,  Jutes,  and  Saxons. 

P.  305,  col.  1,  line  17.  his  warrior  whom 
he  loved.  [Cf.  p.  310,  col.  1,  lines  8,  9. 
—  Ed.] 

P.  306,  col.  1,  line  15. 

Tintagil  castle  by  the  Cornish  sea. 

[I  have  a  note  of  my  father's  touching  a 
visit  to  Tintagil  in  1887:  "The  woman 
who  inhabits  the  house  below  the  castle 
knew  me  again  in  1887,  after  forty  years, 
and  began  quoting  passages  from  the 
Idylls.  We  were  nearly  swamped  landing 
in  Arthur's  cave.  After  landing  I  was 
pulled  up  the  cliff  by  the  barefooted  sailors." 
He  pictured  to  himself  Iseult  there  when 
the  cliff  was  "  crown 'd  with  towers." 
He  examined  what  he  called  "the  secret 
postern"  arch,  through  which  the  babe 
Arthur  had  been  handed  to  Merlin.  All 
the  old  memories  and  visions  of  the  Idylls 
came  upon  him,  and  he  regarded  the  whole 
place  with  a  kind  of  first-love  feeling. — Ed.] 

P.  306,  col.  1,  line  18.  the  Queen  of 
Orkney.  The  kingdom  of  Orkney  and 
Lothian  composed  the  North  and  East  of 
Scotland. 

P.  306,  col.  2,  line  29.  the  People 
clamouid  for  a  king.  Wherefore  all  the 
commons  cried  at  once,  "We  will  have 
Arthur  unto  our  king"  (Malory,  Bk.  i.). 

P.  307,  col.  1,  line  13.  body  enow  = 
strength. 

P.  307,  col.  2,  line  25.  three  fair  queens. 
[Cf.  note  to  Morted1 Arthur,  p.  896. —  Ed.] 

P.  307,  col.  2,  line  12.  the  Lady  of  the 
Lake  in  the  old  legends  is  the  Church. 

P.  307,  col.  2,  line  20.  A  voice  as  of  the 
waters.  Cf.  "I  heard  a  voice  from  heaven, 
as  the  voice  of  many  waters"  (Rev.  xiv.  2). 
P.  307,  col.  2.  line  24.  Excalibur. 
Said  to  mean  "  cut-steel."  In  the  Romance 
of  Merlin  the  sword  bore  the  following 
inscription : 

"Ich  am  y-hote  Escalabore 
Vnto  a  king  a  fair  tresore." 
and  it  is  added : 

"On  Inglis  is  this  writing 
Kerve  steel  and  yren  and  al  thing." 


948 


NOTES 


P.  309,  col.  1,  line  6.  [Every  ninth 
wave  is  supposed  by  the  Welsh  bards  to 
be  larger  than  those  that  go  before.  —  Ed.] 

P.  309,  col.  1,  line  32.  Rain,  rain,  and 
sun!  [The  truth  appears  in  different  guise  to 
different  persons  —  either  (1)  with  spiritual 
significance  as  a  rainbow  in  the  sky,  or  as 
(2)  with  earthly  significance  as  a  rainbow 
on  the  lea  in  the  dewy  grass.]  The  one  fact 
is  that  man  comes  from  the  great  deep  and 
returns  to  it.  This  is  an  echo  of  the  triads 
of  the  Welsh  bards.  [Cf.  Gareth  and 
Lynetk,  p.  316,  col.  1,  line  22 : 
Know  ye  not  then  the  Riddling  of  the  Bards  ? 
'  Confusion,  and  illusion,  and  relation, 
Elusion,  and  occasion,  and  evasion'? 

Ed.] 

P.  310,  col.  1,  line  14.  Dubric,  Arch- 
bishop of  Caerleon.  His  crozier  is  said  to 
be  at  St.  David's. 

P.  310,  col.  1,  line  16.  The  stateliest  of 
her  altar-shrines.  According  to  Malory, 
the  Church  of  St.  Stephen  at  Camelot. 

P.  310,  col.  2,  lines  7,  8. 

Great  Lords  from  Rome  before  the  portal 
stood, 

In  scornful  stillness  gazing  as  they  past. 
Because  Rome  had  been  the  Lord  of  Britain. 

P.  310,  col.  2,  line  13.  Blow  trumpet,  etc. 
[My  father  wrote  to  my  mother  that  this 
Viking  song,  a  pendant  to  Merlin's  song, 
"rings  like  a  grand  music."  This  and 
Leodogran's  dream  give  the  drift  and  grip 
of  the  poem,  which  describes  the  aspirations 
and  ambitions  of  Arthur  and  his  knights, 
doomed  to  downfall  —  the  hints  of  coming 
doom  being  heard  throughout.  —  Ed.] 

P.  311,  col.  1,  line  3.  for  our  Sun  is 
mightier  day  by  day.  [Contrast  p.  459,  col. 
2,  line  23,  "Burn'd  at  his  lowest."  —  Ed.] 

P.  311,  col.  2,  line  5.  your  Roman 
wall.  A  line  of  forts  built  by  Agricola 
betwixt  the  Firth  of  Forth  and  the  Clyde, 
forty  miles  long. 

P.  311,  col.  2,  line  11.  twelve  great 
battles.  [See  Lancelot  and  Elaine,  pp.  392, 
393-  — Ed.] 

THE  ROUND  TABLE 

P.  311.  Gareth  and  Lynette.  [The 
story   is  founded   on   Malory,   Book   vii. 


First  published  in  1872.  Mostly  written 
at  Aldworth.  My  mother  writes,  Oct.  7th, 
1869:  "He  gave  me  his  beginning  of 
Beaumains  (Sir  Gareth)  (the  golden  time 
of  Arthur's  Court)  to  read  (written,  as  was 
said  jokingly,  'to  describe  a  pattern  youth 
for  his  boys')." 

Edward  FitzGerald's  comment  is:  "I 
have  a  word  to  say  about  'Gareth.'  I 
don't  think  it  is  mere  Perversity  which 
makes  me  like  it  better  than  all  its  Pre- 
decessors, except  of  course  the  old 
'Morte.'  The  subject,  the  young  Knight 
who  can  endure  and  conquer,  interests  me 
more  than  all  the  Heroines  of  the  1st 
Volume.  I  do  not  know  if  I  admire  more 
Separate  Passages  in  this  Idyll  than  in  the 
others:  for  I  have  admired  Many  in  All. 
But  I  do  admire  Several  here  very 
much :  — 

The  Journey  to  Camelot, 

All  Gareth' s  Vassalage, 

Departure  with  Lynette, 

Sitting  at  Table  with  the  Barons, 

Phantom  of  Past  Life, 
and  many  other  Passages  and  Expressions 
quae  nunc  perscribere  longum  est."  —  Ed.] 

P.  311,  col.  1,  line  3.  the  spate,  the 
river  in  flood. 

P.  311,  col.  2,  line  6.  Heaven  yield  her 
for  it.  ["Yield"  =  reward,  cf.  Hamlet, 
iv.  v.  41,  and  Antony  and  Cleopatra,  iv. 
ii-  33-  —  Ed.] 

P.  311,  col.  2,  line  9. 
In  ever-highering  eagle-circles  up. 
He  invents  a  verb  in  his  youthful  exuber- 
ance. 

P.  311,  col.  2,  line  13.  Gawain.  Gawain 
and  Modred,  brothers  of  Gareth. 

P.  312,  col.  1,  line  26.  leash  of  kings, 
three  kings.     Cf.  a  leash  of  dogs. 

P.  314,  col.  2,  line  2.  his  outward  pur- 
pose =  his  purpose  to  go. 

P.  315,  col.  1,  line  13.  The  Lady  of  the 
Lake.  The  Lady  of  the  Lake  in  the  old 
romances  of  Lancelot  instructs  him  in  the 
mysteries  of  the  Christian  faith. 

P.  315,  col.  1,  line  26.  those  three 
Queens.  [Cf.  note  to  Morte  d 'Arthur, 
p.  896.  — Ed.] 


NOTES 


949 


P.  315,  col.  2,  line  1.  dragon-boughis, 
bends  (German  Beugen),  folds  of  the 
dragons'  tails. 

["His    huge    long    tayle,    wownd     up    in 
hundred  foldes, 
Does  overspred  his  long  bras-scaly  back, 
Whose  wreathed  boughtes  whenever  he 

unfoldes, 
And  thick  entangled  knots  adown  does 
slack.  .  .  ." 

Spenser's  Faery  Queen,  Bk.  I. 
Canto  xi.  Ver.  xi. 
"And  ever,  against  eating  cares, 
Lap  me  in  soft  Lydian  airs, 
Married  to  immortal  verse, 
Such  as  the  meeting  soul  may  pierce, 
In  notes  with  many  a  winding  bout 
Of  linked  sweetness  long  drawn  out.  .  .  ." 
Milton's  V Allegro,  139.  —  Ed.] 

P.  315,  col.  2,  line  8. 
From  out  thereunder  came  an  ancient  man. 
Merlin. 

P.  315,  col.  2,  lines  21,  22. 

/  have  seen  the  good  ship  sail 
Keel  upward,   and  mast  downward,  in  the 

heavens. 
Refraction  by  mirage. 

P.  315,  col.  2,  line  25. 
Take  thou  the  truth  as  thou  hast  told  it  me 
is  ironical. 

P.  315,  col.  2,  line  29.  Toward  the 
sunrise.  The  religions  and  the  arts  that 
came  from  the  East. 

P.  316,  col.  1,  lines  11,  12. 

but  abide 
Without,  among  the  cattle  of  the  field. 
Be  a  mere  beast. 

P.  316,  col.  1,  lines  14,  15. 
They  are  building  still,   seeing  the  city  is 

built 
To  music. 
By  the  Muses. 

P.  316,  col.  2,  line  15.  spire  to  heaven. 
Symbolizing  the  divine. 

P.  317,  col.  2,  line  8.  Sir  Kay,  the 
seneschal.     In  the  Roman  de  la   Rose   Sir 


Kay  is  given  as  a  pattern  of  rough  dis- 
courtesy : 

En  Keux  le  sdneschal  te  mire 

Qui  jadis  par  son  mok&s 

Fu  mal  renommes  et  hais. 

Tant  cum  Gauvains  li  bien  apris 

Par  sa  courtoisie  ot  le  pris, 

Autretant  ot  de  blasme  Keus, 

Por  ce  qu'il  fu  fel  et  crueus, 

Ramponieres  et  mal-parliers 

Desus  tous  autres  chevaliers. 

2100-2108. 

P.  317,  col.  2,  lines  9  ff.  A  boon,  Sir 
King,  etc.  ["Now  aske,'  said  King  Ar- 
thur, "and  yee  shall  have  your  petition." 
"Now,  sir,"  said  he,  "this  is  my  petition 
for  this  feast  that  ye  shall  give  me  meate 
and  drinke  sufficiently  for  these  twelve 
monethes,  and  at  that  day  I  will  aske  mine 
other  two  giftes."  "My  faire  sonne,"  said 
King  Arthur,  "aske  better  I  counsaile 
thee,  for  this  is  but  a  simple  asking,  for  my 
heart  giveth  mee  to  thee  greatly  that  thou 
art  come  of  men  of  worship,  and  greatly 
my  conceit  faileth  me  but  thou  shalt  prove 
a  man  of  right  great  worship"  (Malory). 
—  Ed.] 

P.  319,  col.  1,  lines  5,  6. 

Wan-sallow  as  the  plant  that  feels  itself 

Root-bitten  by  white  lichen. 
One  of  my  cypresses  at  Farringford  died  in 
this  way. 

P.  319,  col.  1,  line  8.   brewis,  broth.    . 

P.  319,  col.  1,  line  26.  Sir  Fair-hands. 
[Kay  says  in  the  Morte  d' Arthur,  "And 
sithen  he  hath  no  name,  I  shall  give  him  a 
name,  that  shall  be  Beaumains  —  that  is  to 
say,  Faire  hands."  —  Ed.] 

P.  319,  col.  2,  line  n.   broach,  spit. 

P.  319,  col.  2,  line  25.  Caer-Eryri. 
Snowdon. 

P.  322,  col.  2,  lines  22,  23. 

DuU-coated  things,  that  making  slide  apart 

Their  dusk  wing-cases. 
Certain  insects  which  have  brilliant  bodies 
underneath  dull  wing-cases.     [Cf.  The  Two 
Voices,  p.  30,  lines  8-15  : 

'To-day  I  saw  the  dragon-fly 
Come  from  the  wells  where  he  did  lie. 


95° 


NOTES 


An  inner  impulse  rent  the  veil 
Of  his  old  husk :   from  head  to  tail 
Came  out  clear  plates  of  sapphire  mail. 

He  dried  his  wings :   like  gauze  they  grew ; 
Thro'  crofts  and  pastures  wet  with  dew 
A  living  flash  of  light  he  flew.' 

Ed.] 

P.  323,  col.  1,  lines  7-1 1. 

but  as  the  cur 
Pluckt  from  the  cur  he  fights  with,  ere  his 

cause 
Be  cooVd  by  fighting,  follows,  being  named, 
His  owner,  but  remembers  all,  and  growls 
Remembering. 

When  we  lived  in  Kent  we  had  two 
large  dogs,  one  a  large  white  one,  an  un- 
educated ruffian  always  chained  to  an 
apple-tree,  the  other  a  larger  black  one  and 
much  more  of  a  gentleman.  One  day 
while  I  was  passing  with  this  last  too  near 
the  tree,  the  white  one  seized  hold  of  him 
and  tore  his  ear.  Then  followed  a  duel. 
I  separated  them  with  some  difficulty  and 
then  took  my  dark  friend  on  a  walk  of 
some  six  miles.  All  the  way  out  and  half 
the  way  back  he  growled  and  swore  to 
himself  about  every  five  minutes. 

P.  323,  col.  2,  line  20.  agaric  in  the  holt, 
an  evil-smelling  fungus  of  the  wood  com- 
mon at  Aldworth. 

P.  324,  col.  1,  line  2.  shoulder-slipt, 
shoulder-dislocated. 

P.  324,  col.  2,  lines  13-28.  there  brake  a 
serving-man  to  oilily  bubbled  up  the  mere. 
["So  as  they  thus  rode  in  the  wood,  there 
came  a  man  flying  all  that  he  might. 
'Whither  wilt  thou?'  said  Beaumains. 
'O  lord,'  said  he,  'helpe  mee,  for  hereby 
in  a  shade  are  six  theeves  which  have  taken 
my  lord,  and  bound  him,  and  I  am  afraid 
least  they  will  slay  him.'  'Bring  me 
thither,'  said  Sir  Beaumains.  And  so  they 
came  there  as  the  knight  was  bound,  and 
then  he  rode  into  the  theeves,  and  strake 
one  at  the  first  stroke  to  death,  and  then 
another,  and  the  third  strooke  he  slew  the 
third  theef e ;  and  then  the  other  three  fled, 
and  hee  rod  after  and  overtooke  them,  and 
then  these  three  theeves  turned  again  and 
hard  assailed  Sir  Beaumains:  but  at  the 
last  hee  slew  them;  and  then  returned  and 
unbound  the  knight"  (Malory).  —  Ed.] 


P.  325,  col.  2,  line  n.  frontless,  shame- 
less. 

P.  325,  col.  2,  line  21.  peacock  in  his 
pride,  brought  in  on  the  trencher  with  his 
tail-feathers  left.  [When  it  was  served, 
"all  the  guests,  male  and  female,  took  a 
solemn  vow;  the  knights  vowing  bravery, 
and  the  ladies  engaging  to  be  loving  and 
faithful"  (Stanley's  History  of  Birds). — Ed.] 

P.  326,  col.  1,  lines  22,  23. 
My  fortunes  all  as  fair  as  hers  who  lay 
Among  the  ashes  and  wedded  the  King's  son. 
"Hers"  is  Cinderella's. 

P.  326,  col.  1,  line  24.  one  of  those  long 
loops.  The  three  loops  of  the  river  typify 
the  three  ages  of  life ;  and  the  guardians  at 
the  crossing  the  temptations  of  these  ages. 

P.  326,  col.  2,  line  2.   Lent-lily,  daffodil. 

P.  326,  col.  2,  line  21. 

Like  sparkles  in  the  stone  Avanturine. 
Avanlurine,  sometimes  called  the  Panther- 
stone  —  a   kind    of    gray -green    or    brown 
quartz  with  sparkles  in  it. 

[The  first  reading  was : 

Like  stars  within  the  stone  Avanturine. 
This  simile  was  taken  from  a  fine  piece  of 
the  stone  Avanturine,  set  in  an  etui-case 
belonging  to  my  mother.  "Look  at  it," 
my  father  said,  "see  the  stars  in  it,  worlds 
within  worlds."  —  Ed.] 

P.  328,  col.  1,  lines  26,  27. 

As  if  the  flower, 

That  blows  a  globe  of  after  arr owlets. 
■  The  dandelion. 

P.  329,  col.  1,  line  2.  unhappiness, 
mischance. 

P.  329,  col.  1,  line  20.  twice  my  love 
hath  smiled  on  me.  [Because  of  his  having 
overthrown  two  knights.  A  light  has 
broken  on  her.  Her  morning  dream  has 
twice  proved  true,  that  she  should  find  a 
worthy  'champion.  —  Ed.] 

P.  329,  col.  2,  line-  10.  only  wrapt  in 
harden 'd  skins.     Allegory  of  habit. 

P.  329,  col.  2,  line  14. 

0  brother-star,  why  shine  ye  here  so  low  ? 

[Gareth  has  taken  the  shield  of  the 
Morning-Star  (p.  327).  —  Ed.] 


NOTES 


95i 


P.  331,  col.  1,  lines  28-30. 

Hath    left    crag-carven    o'er    the    streaming 

Gelt  — 
'PHOSPHORUS,'      then        'MERIDIES'  — 

'HESPERUS'  — 
'NOX'  —  'MORS,'    beneath    five    figures, 

armed  men. 

[Symbolical  of  the  temptations  of  youth, 
of  middle-age,  of  later  life,  and  of  death 
overcome  by  the  youthful  and  joyous 
Gareth.  —  Ed.] 

Years  ago,  when  I  was  visiting  the 
Howards  at  Naworth  Castle,  I  drove  over 
to  the  little  river  Gelt  to  sea  the  inscription 
carved  upon  the  crags.  It  seemed  to  me 
very  pathetic,  this  sole  record  of  the 
vexillary  or  standard-bearer  of  the  sacred 
Legion  (Augusta).    This  is  the  inscription: 

VEX  •  LLEG  •  II  AVG  •  ON  •  AP  •  APRO  E 
MAXIMO  CONSULIBUS  SUB  AGRICOLA  OP  • 
OFICINA   MERC  ATI. 

P.  332,  col.  2,  lines  10-21. 

Good  lord,  how  sweetly  smells  the  honeysuckle 
In  the  hush'd  night,   as  if  the  world  were 

one 
Of  utter  peace,  and  love,  and  gentleness  I 

Lines  made  at  Aldworth  on  a  summer 
night  on  the  lawn  about  the  honeysuckle 
that  climbs  up  the  house. 

P-  333,  col.  1,  line  13.  Arthur's  harp, 
Lyra. 

P.  334,  col.  1,  line  4.  glooming  crimson, 
sunrise. 

P.  334,  col.  1,  lines  14-18.  ["'Sir,' 
said  the  damosel  Lynet  unto  Sir  Beaumains, 
'  look  that  yee  be  merry  and  light,  for  yonder 
is  your  deadly  enemy,  and  at  yonder 
window  is  my  lady  my  sister  dame  Lyones.' 
'Where?'  said  Sir  Beaumains.  'Yonder,' 
said  the  damosell,  and  pointed  with  her 
finger.  'That  is  sooth,'  said  Sir  Beaumains, 
'  shee  seemeth  af arre  the  fairest  lady  that  I 
ever  looked  upon,  and  truely,'  said  hee, 
'I  aske  no  better  quarrell  than  now  to  doe 
battaile,  for  truely  shee  shall  bee  my  lady, 
and  for  her  will  I  fight'"  (Malory).  —  Ed.] 

P.  334,  col.  1,  line  22.  And  crown'd 
with  fleshless  laughter.  With  a  grinning 
skull. 


P-  335,  col.  1,  lines  7,  9.  [He  that  told 
the  tale  in  older  times  —  Malory.  He  that 
told  it  later  —  my  father.  —  Ed.] 

P.  335.  The  Marriage  of  Geraint. 
[In  1857  six  copies  of  Enid  and  Nimue: 
the  True  and  the  False  were  printed.  This 
Idyll  is  founded  on  Geraint,  son  of  Erbin, 
in  the  Mabinogion,  translated  by  Lady 
Charlotte  Guest,  and  has  "brought  the 
story  within  compass."  It  was  begun  on 
April  16th,  1856,  and  first  published  in 
1859  in  the  Idylls  of  the  King.  My  father 
had  also  read  Erec  and  Enid,  by  Chrestien 
de  Troyes.  The  greater  part  of  the  Idylls 
contained  in  the  volume  of  1859  was 
written  at  Farringford.  But  the  end  of 
Geraint  and  Enid  was  written  in  July  and 
August  of  1856  in  Wales,  where  he  read, 
in  the  original,  Hanes  Cymru  (Welsh  his- 
tory), the  Mabinogion,  and  Llywarch  Hen. 

The  first  four  Idylls  were,  as  Edward 
FitzGerald  notes  of  the  earlier  poems, 
"written  on  foolscap  folio  Parchment, 
bound  blank  books  such  as  Accounts  are 
kept  on  (only  not  ruled),  which  I  used  to 
call  'The  Butcher's  Book.'  The  Poems 
were  written  in  A.  T.'s  very  fine  Hand  (he 
once  said,  not  thinking  of  himself,  that 
Great  Men  generally  write  'terse'  hands) 
toward  one  Side  of  the  large  Page:  the 
unoccupied  Pages  and  Edges  and  Corners 
being  often  stript  down  for  pipe-lights, 
taking  care  to  save  the  MS.,  as  A.  T.  once 
seriously  observed." 

The  other  Idylls  were  written  on  smaller 
blue  and  red  bound  books,  bound  by  my 
mother.  —  Ed.] 

P-  335,  col.  2,  line  20.  Of  Severn. 
Geraint  was  at  Caerleon,  and  would  have 
to  cross  the  Bristol  Channel  to  go  to  Devon. 

P-  335,  col.  2,  line  20.  past.  I  like  the 
/  —  the  strong  perfect  in  verbs  ending  in  s, 
p,  and  x  —  past,  slipt,  vext. 

P.   336,    col.    1,    line    14.     As   slopes   a 
wild   brook.    I   made   this   simile   from   a 
stream,  and  it  is  different,  tho'  like  Theo- 
critus, Idyll  xxii.  48  ff. : 
iv  8t  fxves  arepeoio-i  fipaxi-oaiv  iLnpov  vir' 

(bpjov 
co-Taaav,  rjvTe  irirpoL    dXolrpoxoi,    ovare 

KvXlvdiov 
XeipAppovs    iroTapAs    p.eyd\ais    irepitj-eae 
divais. 


952 


NOTES 


[When  some  one  objected  that  he  had 
taken  this  simile  from  Theocritus,  he 
answered :  "It  is  quite  different.  Geraint's 
muscles  are  not  compared  to  the  rounded 
stones,  but  to  the  stream  pouring  vehe- 
mently over  them."  —  Ed.] 

P-  337,  col.  i,  line  5.  sprigs  of  summer, 
lavender. 

P«  337,  col.  1,  line  13.  Caerleon. 
Arthur's  capital,  "castra  Legionis,"  is  in 
Monmouthshire  on  the  Usk,  which  flows 
into  the  Bristol  Channel. 

P-  337,  col.  2,  line  17.  of  deepest  mouth. 
Cf.  "match'd  in  mouth  like  bells"  (Mid- 
summer-Night's Dream,  IV.  i.  128). 

P.  339,  col.  1,  line  4.  pips,  a  bird- 
disease. 

P.  339,  col.  2,  line  17. 
And    like    a    crag    was    gay    with    wilding 

flowers. 
These    lines    were    made    at    Middleham 
Castle. 

P.  339,  col.  2,  line  21. 
Claspt    the    gray    walls    with    hairy-fibred 

arms. 
Tintern  Abbey. 

P.  340,  col.  1,  line  8. 
Turn,   Fortune,   turn  thy   wheel   and  lower 
the  proud. 
[This     song     of     noble     and     enduring 
womanhood  has  its  refrain  in 

Pero  giri  Fortuna  la  sua  ruota, 
Come  le  piace. 

Dante,  Inf.  xv.  95.  —  Ed.] 

P.  340,  col.  2,  line  2.  by  God's  rood. 
Rood  (originally  the  same  as  "rod")  is 
the  old  word  for  cross. 

P.  340,  col.  2,  line  20.  costrel,  a  bottle 
with  ear  or  ears,  by  which  it  could  be  hung 
from  the  waist  (costrer,  by  the  side),  hence 
sometimes  called  "pilgrim's  bottle." 

P.  346,  col.  2,  line  23.  manchet  bread, 
little  loaves  or  rolls  made  of  fine  wheat 
flour. 

P.  341,  col.  2,  line  17.  When  I  that 
knew,  etc.     [In  the  Mabinogion  Earl  Yniol 


is  the  wrong-doer,  and  has  earned  his 
reward;  but  the  poet  has  made  the  story 
more  interesting  and  more  poetic  by  mak- 
ing the  tale  of  wrong-doing  a  calumny  on 
the  part  of  the  Earl's  nephew. 

"And  when  they  had  finished  eating, 
Geraint  talked  with  the  hoary-headed  man, 
and  he  asked  him  in  the  first  place,  to 
whom  belonged  the  palace  that  he  was  in. 
'Truly,'  said  he,  'it  was  I  that  built  it, 
and  to  me  also  belonged  the  city  and  the 
castle  which  thou  sawest.'  'Alas!'  said 
Geraint,  '  how  is  it  that  thou  hast  lost  them 
now?'  'I  lost  a  great  earldom  as  well  as 
these,'  said  he,  'and  this  is  how  I  lost 
them.  I  had  a  nephew,  the  son  of  my 
brother,  and  I  took  his  possessions  to  my- 
self; and  when  he  came  to  his  strength, 
he  demanded  of  me  his  property,  but  I 
withheld  it  from  him.  So  he  made  war 
upon  me,  and  wrested  from  me  all  that 
I  possessed'"  (Lady  Charlotte  Guest's 
Mabinogion,  p.  147).  In  the  Idyll,  for 
the  greater  unity  of  the  tale,  the  nephew 
and  the  knight  of  the  Sparrow-hawk  are 
one.  —  Ed.] 

P.  342,  col.  2,  lines  28,  29. 

ever  faiVd  to  draw 
The  quiet  night  into  her  blood. 

[Cf. 

neque  unquam 
Solvitur    in  somnos,   oculisve  aut  pectore 

noctem 
Accipit.  Virgil,  A  en.  iv.  529.  —  Ed.] 

P.  342,  col.  2,  line  34.  jousts.  From 
juxtare,  Low  Latin,  to  approach. 

P.  343,  col.  1,  line  5.  chair  of  Idris. 
Idris  was  one  of  the  three  primitive  Bards. 
Cader  Idris,  the  noblest  mountain  next  to 
Snowdon  in  N.  Wales. 

[My  mother  writes,  Sept.  8th,  1856: 
"A.  climbed  Cader  Idris.  Pouring  rain 
came  on.  .  .  .  I  heard  the  roar  of  waters, 
streams  and  cataracts,  and  I  never  saw 
anything  more  awful  than  that  great  veil  of 
rain  drawn  straight  over  Cader  Idris,  pale 
light  at  the  lower  edge.  It  looked  as  if 
death  were  behind  it."  —  Ed.] 

P.  343,  col.  1,  lines  27,  28. 

from  distant  walls 
There  came  a  clapping. 
This  is  the  echo  of  the  sword-clash. 


NOTES 


953 


P.  344.  col.  i,  line  2.  Made  a  low 
splendour,  etc.  [In  the  dim  yellow  light  of 
dawn  at  Farringford  my  father  used  to 
delight  in  watching  the  dancing  shadows 
of  the  birds  and  of  the  long  swaying  fingers 
of  the  cedar  tree  on  the  door  opposite  his 
bed.  —  Ed.] 

Pp.  344,  34s  ff.  [This  episode  is 
founded  on  the  following  passage  in  Lady 
Charlotte  Guest's  Mabinogion  (p.  85) : 
'"Where  is  the  Earl  Yniol,'  said  Geraint, 
'and  his  wife,  and  his  daughter?'  'They 
are  in  the  chamber  yonder,'  said  the  Earl's 
chamberlain,  'arraying  themselves  in  gar- 
ments which  the  Earl  has  caused  to  be 
brought  for  them.'  'Let  not  the  damsel 
array  herself,'  said  he,  'except  in  her  vest 
and  her  veil,  until  she  come  to  the  court  of 
King  Arthur,  to  be  clad  by  Gwenhwyvar, 
in  such  garments  as  she  may  choose.'  So 
the  maiden  did  not  array  herself."  —  Ed.] 

P.  346,  col.  1,  line  16.  that  maiden  in 
the  tale.  The  tale  of  Math,  son  of  Math- 
onwy.  "So  they  took  the  blossoms  of 
the  oak,  and  the  blossoms  of  the  broom, 
and  the  blossoms  of  the  meadowsweet, 
and  produced  from  them  a  maiden,  the 
fairest  and  most  graceful  that  man  ever 
saw.  And  they  baptized  her  and  gave  her 
the  name  of  Blodenwedd  (flower- vision)." 
—  Mabinogion,  p.  426. 

P.  346,  col.  1,  line  18.  the  bride  of 
Cassivelaun.  [The  love  of  a  British 
maiden  named  Flur,  who  was  betrothed 
to  Cassivelaunus,  according  to  the  Welsh 
legend,  led  Caesar  to  invade  Britain 
{Mabinogion,  p.  392).  —  Ed.] 

P.  346,  col.  2,  line  6.  flaws  in  summer. 
[Cf.  Hamlet,  v.  i.  239,  "the  winter's 
flaw  "  =  gusts  of  wind.  —  Ed.] 

P.  346,  col.  2,  line  16. 

As  careful  robins  eye  the  delver's  toil. 

[This  line  was  made  one  day  while  my 
father  was  digging,  as  was  his  wont  then, 
in  the  kitchen  garden  at  Farringford,  when 
he  was  much  amused  by  the  many  watch- 
ful robins  round  him.  —  Ed.] 

P.  347,  col.  1,  line  27.  gaudy-day. 
[Holiday  —  now  only  used  of  special  feast- 
days  at  the  Universities.  —  Ed.] 


P.  347-  Geraint  and  Enid.  [First 
published  in  1859.  The  Marriage  of 
Geraint  and  Geraint  and  Enid  were 
originally  one  poem,  and  were  divided 
into  two  Idylls  in  1888.  The  sin  of 
Lancelot  and  Guinevere  begins  to  breed, 
even  among  those  who  would  "rather 
die  than  doubt,"  despair  and  want  of 
trust  in  God  and  man.  —  Ed.] 

P.  347.  line  1. 

0  purblind  race  of  miserable  men,  etc. 
[Cf.  Lucretius,  ii.  14 : 
O   miseras   hominum    mentes,    O   pectora 
caeca,  etc.  Ed.] 

P.  350,  col.  2,  lines  11-15. 

as  one,  . 
That  listens  near  a  tdrrent  mountain-brook, 
All  thro'  the  crash  of  the  near  cataract  hears 
The  drumming  thunder  of  the  huger  fall 
At  distance,  were  the  soldiers  wont  to  hear 
His  voice  in  battle. 

A  memory  of  what  I  heard  near  Festiniog, 
but  the  scenery  imagined  is  vaster. 
[My  father  agreed  with  Wordsworth  that 
much  of  poetry  takes  its  origin  from  emotion 
remembered  in  tranquillity.  —  Ed.] 

P.  351,  col.  2,  line  23.    doom,  judgment. 

P-  353.  col.  1,  line  15. 

My  malice  is  no  deeper  than  a  moat. 
[=  I  will  not  kill  him,  but  I  will  put  him 
in  prison.  —  Ed.] 

P-  353.  col.  2,  line  28.  the  red  cock 
shouting  to  the  light.    [Cf. 

Before  the  red  cock  crows  from  the  farm 
upon  the  hill. 

May  Queen,  p.  49.  —  Ed.] 

P.  354,  col.  2,  line  33.  like  a  thunder- 
cloud. The  horse's  mane  is  compared  to 
the  skirts  of  the  rain-cloud. 

P-  355.  col.  1,  line  29.  shall  we  fast,  or 
dine?  Shall  we  go  hungry,  or  shall  we 
take  his  spoils  and  pay  for  our  dinner  with 
them? 

P-  355.  col.  1,  line  30.  No?  —  then  do 
thou.  Enid  shrinks  from  taking  anything 
from  her  old  lover. 

P-  357.  col.  1,  line  31.  as  the  worm  draws 
in  the  wither' 'd  leaf.    I  used  to  watch  worms 


954 


NOTES 


drawing  in  withered  leaves  on  the  lawn  at 
Farringford. 

[My  father  would  quote  this  simile  as 
good,  and  that  in  Merlin  and  Vivien,  p. 
387,  col.  2,  line  25 : 

The  pale  blood  of  the  wizard  at  her  touch 

Took  gayer  colours,  like  an  opal  warm'd. 

Ed.] 

P.  358,  col.  1,  line  15. 
This  silken  rag,  this  beggar-woman's  weed. 
"Weed,"      A.S.      woed,      garment.       [Cf. 
Midsummer-Night's  Dream,  11.  i.  256 : 

"Weed  wide  enough  to  wrap  a  fairy  in," 
and  elsewhere  in  Shakespeare.  —  Ed.] 

P.  358,  col.  1,  lines  24,  25. 
Play'd   into    green,    and    thicker    down    the 

front 
With  jewels  than  the  sward  with  drops  of 

dew. 
I  made  these  lines  on  the  High  Down  one 
morning  at  Freshwater. 

P.  358,  col.  1,  line  30.  their  day  of 
power.  The  worst  tyrants  are  those  who 
have  long  been  tyrannized  over,  if  they 
have  tyrannous  natures. 

P.  362,  col.  1,  line  4.  the  sacred  Dee. 
Cf. 

"Where  Deva  spreads  her  wizard  stream." 
Lycidas,  55. 

P.  362,  col.  1,  line  10.  weed  the  white 
horse.  The  white  horse  near  Wantage 
on  the  Berkshire  hills  which  commemorates 
the  victory  at  Ashdown  of  the  English 
under  Alfred  over  the  Danes  (871).  The 
white  horse  was  the  emblem  of  the  English 
or  Saxons,  as  the  raven  was  of  the  Danes, 
and  as  the  dragon  was  of  the  Britons. 

P.  362,  col.  2,  line  8.  A  happy  life 
with  a  fair  death.  [Llywarch  Hen's 
elegy  on  Geraint's  death  in  the  battle  of 
Llongborth,  believed  by  some  to  have  been 
Portsmouth,  is  well  known.  See  Lady 
Charlotte  Guest's  Mabinogion,  vol.  ii.  pp. 
150-151:  — 

"Before  Geraint,  the  terror  of  the  foe, 
I  saw  steeds  fatigued  with  the  toil  of 

battle, 
And    after    the    shout    was    given,    how 
dreadful  was  the  onset. 


At  Llongborth  I  saw  the  tumult 
And  the  slain  drenched  in  gore, 
And     red-stained     warriors     from     the 
assault  of  the  foe. 

Before  Geraint,  the  scourge  of  the  enemy, 
I  saw  steeds  white  with  foam, 
And  after  the  shout  of  battle,  a  fearful 
torrent. 

At    Llongborth    I    saw    the    raging    of 

slaughter 
And  an  excessive  carnage, 
And    warriors    blood-stained    from    the 

assault  of  Geraint. 

At  Llongborth  was  Geraint  slain, 

A  valiant  warrior  from  the  woodlands  of 

Devon 
Slaughtering  his  foes  as  he  fell."     Ed.] 

P.  362.  Balin  and  Balan.  [Partly 
founded  on  Bk.  ii.  of  Malory,  written  mostly 
at  Aldworth,  soon  after  Gareth  and  Lynette, 
and  first  published  in  1885.  The  story  of 
the  poem  is  largely  original.  "Loyal 
natures  are  wrought  to  anger  and  madness 
against  the  world."  —  Ed.] 

P.  363,  col.  1,  lines  1-3. 
to  right  and  left  the  spring,  that  down, 
From  underneath  a  plume  of  lady-fern, 
Sang,  and  the  sand  danced  at  the  bottom  of  it. 

[Suggested  by  a  spring  which  rises  near 
the  house  at  Aldworth.  —  Ed.] 

P.  364,  col.  2,  lines  2-5. 

his  soul 
Became  a  Fiend,  which,  as  the  man  in  life 
Was  wounded  by  blind  tongues  he  saw  not 

whence, 
Strikes  from  behind. 
[Symbolic  of  Slander.  —  Ed.] 

P.  365,  col.  2,  line  7.  Langued  gules 
[red-tongued — language  of  heraldry. —  Ed.]. 

P.  366,  col.  1,  lines  8  ff.  [This  simile 
beginning 

Thus  as  a  hearth  lit  in  a  mountain  home 
was  suggested  by  what  he  often  saw  from 
his  own  study  at  Aldworth :  the  fire  in  the 
grate  at  night  reflected  in  the  window, 
and  seemingly  a  fire  raging  in  the  wood- 
land below.  —  Ed.] 

P.  368,  col.  1,  lines  21  ff.  [The  goblet 
is  embossed  with  scenes  from  the  story  of 
Joseph  of  Arimathea,  his  voyage,  and  the 


NOTES 


955 


wattle-built  church  he  raised  at  Glaston- 
bury. King  Pellam  represents  the  type  of 
asceticism  and  superstition.  —  Ed.] 

Pp.  368-369.  See  for  a  passage  of  rapid 
blank  verse  (where  the  pauses  are  light, 
and  the  accentuated  syllables  under  the 
average  —  some  being  short  in  quantity, 
and  the  narrative  brief  and  animated), 
He  rose,  descended  to  face  to  ground. 

P.  373.    Merlin  and  Vivien. 

[For  the  name  of  Vivien  my  father  is 
indebted  to  the  old  Romance  of  Merlin. 
Begun  in  February  and  finished  on  March 
31st,  1856,  and  first  published  in  1859. 
"Some  even  among  the  highest  intellects 
become  the  slaves  of  the  evil  which  is  at 
first  half  disdained."  My  father  created 
the  character  of  Vivien  with  much  care  — 
as  the  evil  genius  of  the  Round  Table  x  — 
who  in  her  lustfulness  of  the  flesh  could  not 
believe  in  anything  either  good  or  great. 

The  story  of  the  poem  of  Merlin  and 
Vivien  is  essentially  original,  and  was 
founded  on  the  following  passage  from 
Malory : 

"Merlin  was  assetted  and  doted  on  one 
of  the  ladies  of  the  lake  (Nimue).  But 
Merlin  would  let  her  have  no  rest,  but 
always  he  would  be  with  her.  .  .  .  And 
always  Merlin  lay  about  the  lady  to  have 
her  love.  .  .  .  But  she  was  ever  passing 
weary  of  him,  and  fain  would  have  been 
delivered  of  him,  for  she  was  afeard  of 
him  because  he  was  a  devil's  son,  and  she 
could  not  put  him  away  by  no  means. 
And  so  on  a  time  it  happed  that  Merlin 
shewed  to  her  in  a  rock,  whereas  was  a 
great  wonder  and  wrought  by  enchantment 
that  went  under  a  great  stone.  So  by  her 
subtle  working  she  made  Merlin  to  go 
under  that  stone,  to  let  her  wit  of  the 
marvels  there,  but  she  wrought  so  there 
for  him  that  he  came  never  out  for  all  the 
craft  that  he  could  do.  And  so  she 
departed  and  left  Merlin."  —  Bk.  iv.  ch.  i. 
—  Ed.] 

P.  373,  line  2.  Broceliande.  The  forest 
of  Broceliand  in  Brittany  near  St.  Malo. 

P.  374,  col.  2,  line  28. 

Ride,  ride  and  dream  until  ye  wake  —  to  me  I 

1  Even  to  the  last.  See  Guinevere,  p.  448, 
col.  1,  lines  4,  5. 


The  only  real  bit  of  feeling,  and  the  only 
pathetic  line  which  Vivien  speaks. 

P-  375,  col.  1,  lines  6-8.  [Seeling, 
sewing  up  eyes  of  hawk.  Jesses,  straps 
of  leather  fastened  to  legs.  Check  at  pies, 
fly  at  magpies.  Nor  will  she  rake,  nor  will 
she  fly  at  other  game.  —  Ed.] 

P-  375.  col.  1,  line  12.     tower'd,  soared. 

P-  375,  col.  1,  line  16.  pounced  her 
quarry  [swooped  on  her  game.  —  Ed.]. 

P-  375,  col.  1,  lines  28,  29. 

Thereafter  as  an  enemy  that  has  left 

Death  in  the  living  waters. 
Poisoned  the  wells. 

P.  376,  col.  1,  line  13. 

An  ever-moaning  battle  in  the  mist. 
The  vision  of  the  battle  at  the  end. 

P.  376,  col.  2,  line  17. 

As  on  a  dull  day  in  an  Ocean  cave. 

This  simile  is  taken  from  what  I  saw  in 
the  Caves  of  Ballybunion. 

P.  377,  col.  2,  lines  9-1 1. 
O  did  ye  never  lie  upon  the  shore, 
And  watch  the  curVd  white  of  the  coming 

wave 
Glass1  d  in  the  slippery  sand  before  it  breaks? 

I  thought  of  these  lines  at  Alum  Bay  in 
the  Isle  of  Wight  if  anywhere. 

P.  379,  col.  1,  line  23. 

Like  sunlight  on  the  plain  behind  a  shower. 
As  seen  from  a  hill  in  Yorkshire. 

P.  379,  col.  1,  line  25. 

Far  other  was  the  song  that  once  I  heard. 

The  song  about  the  clang  of  battle- 
axes,  etc.,  in  the  Coming  of  Arthur. 

P.  380,  col.  2,  line  32  to  p.  381,  col.  1,  line  3. 
a  single  misty  star, 
Which  is  the  second  in  a  line  of  stars 
That  seem  a  sword  beneath  a  bell  of  three. 

0  Orionis  —  the  nebula  in  which  is  im- 
bedded the  great  multiple  star.  When 
this  was  written  some  astronomers  fancied 
that  this  nebula  in  Orion  was  the  vastest 
object  in  the  Universe  —  a  firmament  of 
suns  too  far  away  to  be  resolved  into  stars 
by  the  telescope,  and  yet  so  huge  as  to  be 
seen  by  the  naked  eye. 


956 


NOTES 


[My  father  often  pondered  on  the 
nothingness  of  human  fame  by  comparison 
with  the  charm  of  those  immense  spatial 
and  temporal  cosmic  weavings  and  wav- 
ings.  —  Ed.] 

P.  381,  col.  2,  line  9  to  p.  382,  col.  1, 
line  22.  There  lived  a  king  to  the  gateway 
towers.  People  have  tried  to  discover  this 
legend,  but  there  is  no  legend  of  the  kind 
that  I  know  of. 

P.  382,  col.  2,  line  5  to  p.  383,  col.  1,  line  7. 
He  answered  laughing  to  came  down  to  me. 
Nor  is  this  a  legend  to  be  found. 

P.  382,  col.  2,  line  22.  lasKd,  like 
an  eyelash.  A  German  translation  has 
peitschte  (whipt  it),  but  —  "eye  "  and  "eye- 
lid" having  immediately  preceded  —  the 
translator  might  have  guessed  better. 

P.  384,  col.  1,  line  2.  the  reckling  [the 
puny  infant.  —  Ed.]. 

P.  384,  col.  2,  line  30.    holy  king,  David. 

P.  387,  col.  2,  line  15.  white-listed, 
striped  with  white. 

P.  388.  Lancelot  and  Elaine. 
[Begun  at  the  home  of  G.  F.  Watts, 
R.A.,  and  of  the  Prinseps,  Little  Holland 
House,  Kensington,  in  July  1858,  and 
first  published  in  1859.  "The  tenderest 
of  all  natures  sinks  under  the  blight,  that 
which  is  of  the  highest  in  her  working  her 
doom."  See  Malory,  xviii.  ch.  9-20. 
Jowett  wrote  of  this  Idyll  :  "It  moves  me 
like  the  love  of  Juliet  in  Shakespeare.  .  .  . 
There  are  hundreds  and  hundreds  of  all 
ages  (and  men  as  well  as  women)  who, 
although  they  have  not  died  for  love  (have 
no  intention  of  doing  so),  will  find  there 
a  sort  of  ideal  consolation  of  their  own 
troubles  and  remembrances."  —  Ed.]  ' 

P.  388,  line  2.  Astolal,  said  to  be 
Guildford. 

P.  388,  col.  2,  line  21.  Lyonnesse.  A 
land  that  is  said  to  have  stretched  between 
Land's  End  and  Scilly,  and  to  have  con- 
tained some  of  Cornwall  as  well. 

P.  392,  col.  2,  lines  16-18. 
That  some  one  put  this  diamond  in  her  hand, 
And  that  it  was  too  slippery  to  be  held, 
And  slipt  and  jell  into  some  pool  or  stream. 

A  vision  prophetic  of  Guinevere  hurling 
the  diamonds  into  the  Thames. 


Pp.  392-393.  [For  these  battles  see  Nen- 
nius,  Hist.  Brit.  §  50,  in  Bonn's  translation: 
"Thus  it  was  that  the  magnanimous 
Arthur,  with  all  the  kings  and  military 
force  of  Britain,  fought  against  the  Saxons. 
And  though  there  were  many  more  noble 
than  himself,  yet  he  was  twelve  times 
chosen  their  commander,  and  was  as  often 
conqueror.  The  first  battle  in  which  he 
was  engaged  was  at  the  mouth  of  the 
river  Glem.  The  second,  third,  fourth, 
and  fifth  were  on  another  river,  by  the 
Britons  called  Duglas,  in  the  region  Linuis. 
The  sixth  on  the  river  Bassas.  The 
seventh  in  the  wood  Celidon,  which  the 
Birtons  call  Cat  Coit  Celidon.  The  eighth 
was  near  Gurnion  Castle,  where  Arthur 
bore  the  image  of  the  Holy  Virgin,  mother 
of  God,  upon  his  shoulders,  and  through 
the  power  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and 
the  holy  Mary,  put  the  Saxons  to  flight, 
and  pursued  them  the  whole  day  with 
great  slaughter.  The  ninth  was  at  the 
City  of  Legion,  which  is  called  Caerleon. 
The  tenth  was  on  the  banks  of  the  river 
Trat  Treuroit.  The  eleventh  was  on  the 
mountain  Breguoin,  which  we  call  Cat 
Bregion.  The  twelfth  was  a  most  severe 
contest,  when  Arthur  penetrated  to  the 
hill  of  Badon.  In  this  engagement,  nine 
hundred  and  forty  fell  by  his  hand  alone, 
no  one  but  the  Lord  affording  him  assist- 
ance. In  all  these  engagements  the 
Britons  were  successful.  For  no  strength 
can  avail  against  the  will  of  the  Almighty." 
—  Ed.] 

P-  393>  col.  •  i,  line  3.  white  Horse. 
[See  note  on  p.  362,  col.  i,  line  10.  —  Ed.] 

P-  393,  col.  2,  line  10.  rathe,  early 
(thence  "rather"). 

P.  393,  col.  2,  line  13. 

Down  the  \long  low\er-slairs,\  hesit\ating. 

"Stairs"  is  to  be  read  as  a  monosyllable, 
with  a  pause  after  it. 

[Spedding  writes:  "The  art  with  which 
A.  T.  has  represented  Elaine's  action  by 
the  slow  and  lingering  movement,  the 
sudden  arrest,  and  the  hesitating  advance 
of  the  metre,  has  been  altogether  lost  on 
some  critics."  —  Ed.] 

P.  393,  col.  2,  line  30  to  p.  394,  col.  1, 
line  6.     ["So  thus  as  shee  came  too  and  fro, 


NOTES 


957 


shee  was  so  hoot  in  her  love  that  shee 
besought  Sir  Launcelot  to  weare  upon  him 
at  the  justes  a  token  of  hers.  'Faire 
damosell,'  said  Sir  Launcelot,  'and  if  I 
graunt  you  that,  yee  may  say  I  doe  more 
for  your  love  than  ever  I  did  for  lady 
or  damosell.'  ...  And  then  hee  said, 
'Faire  damosell,  I  will  graunt  you  to 
weare  a  token  of  yours  upon  my  helmet, 
and  therefore  what  it  is,  show  me.'  'Sir,' 
said  shee,  'it  is  a  red  sleeve  of  mine 
of  scarlet,  well-embroadered  with  great 
pearles.'  And  so  shee  brought  it  him" 
(Malory).  — Ed.] 

P.  395,  col.  2,  lines  19-22. 
Bare,  as  a  wild  wave  in  the  wide  North-sea, 
Green-glimmering  toward   the  summit,  bears, 

with  all 
Its  stormy  crests  that  smoke  against  the  skies, 
Down  on  a  bark. 
Seen  on  a  voyage  of  mine  to  Norway. 

["Next  day  (July  24th,  1858)  very  fine 
but  in  the  night  toward  morning  storm 
arose  and  our  top-mast  was  broken  off.  I 
stood  next  morning  a  long  time  by  the 
cabin  door  and  watched  the  green  sea 
looking  like  a  mountainous  country,  far- 
off  waves  with  foam  at  the  top  looking 
like  snowy  mountains  bounding  the  scene; 
one  great  wave,  green-shining,  past  with 
all  its  crests  smoking  high  up  beside  the 
vessel.  As  I  stood  there  came  a  sudden 
hurricane  and  roared  drearily  in  the  funnel 
for  twenty  seconds  and  past  away"  {Letter 
from  my  father  to  my  mother).  —  Ed.] 

P.  402,  col.  1,  line  18.  ghostly  grace. 
Vision  of  Guinevere. 

P.  402,  col.  1,  line  27. 
Then  as  a  little  helpless  innocent  bird. 
Chaffinch. 

Pp.  402-403.  ['"My  lord  Sir  Launcelot, 
now  I  see  that  yee  will  depart :  faire  and 
curteous  knight,  have  mercy  upon  mee, 
and  suffer  mee  not  to  die  for  your  love.' 
'What  would  yee  that  I  did?'  said  Sir 
Launcelot.  'I  would  have  you  unto  my 
husband,'  said  the  maide  Elaine.  'Faire 
damosell,  I  thanke  you,'  said  Sir  Launcelot ; 
'but  certainly,'  said  he,  'I  cast  mee  never 
to  be  married.'  .  .  .  'Alas,'  said  she, 
'then  must  I  needes  die  for  your  love'" 
(Malory).  — Ed.] 


P.  405,  col.  2,  lines  3,  4. 

never  yet 

Was  noble  man  but  made  ignoble  talk. 
The  noblest  are  ever  subject  to  calumny. 

P.  401,  col.  1,  line  1. 

/  hear  of  rumours  flying  thro'  your  court. 
Rumours  of  his  love  for  Elaine. 

P.  408,  col.  1,  lines  10-29.  ["Most 
noble  knight,  my  lord  Sir  Launcelot  du 
Lake,  now  hath  death  made  us  two  at 
debate  for  your  love:  I  was  your  lover, 
that  men  called  the  faire  maiden  of  Astolat : 
therefore  unto  all  ladies  I  make  my  moane ; 
yet  for  my  soule  that  yee  pray,  and  bury 
me  at  the  least,  and  offer  yee  my  masse- 
peny.  This  is  my  last  request:  and  a 
cleane  maide  I  died,  I  take  God  to  my 
witnesse.  Pray  for  my  soule,  Sir  Launce- 
lot, as  thou  art  a  knight  pearles"  (Malory). 
—  Ed.] 

P.  409,  col.  1,  lines  0-17. 

So  toward  that  shrine  which  then  in  all 
the  realm 
Was  richest,  Arthur  leading,  slowly  went 
The  marshalVd  Order  of  their  Table  Round, 
And  Launcelot  sad  beyond  his  wont,  to  see 
The  maiden  buried,  not  as  one  unknown, 
Nor  meanly,  but  with  gorgeous  obsequies, 
And  mass,  and  rolling  music,  like  a  queen. 
And  when  the  knights  had  laid  her  comely 

head 
Low  in  the  dust  of  half -for  gotten  kings. 

This  passage  and  the  "tower-stair" 
passage  (p.  393)  are  among  the  best  blank 
verse  in  Lancelot  and  Elaine,  I  think. 

[I  asked  my  father  why  he  did  not  write 
an  Idyll  "How  Sir  Lancelot  came  unto 
the  hermitage,  and  how  he  took  the  habit 
unto  him ;  how  he  went  to  Almesbury  and 
found  Queen  Guinevere  dead,  whom  they 
brought  to  Glastonbury;  and  how  Sir 
Lancelot  died  a  holy  man";  and  he 
answered,  "Because  it  could  not  be  done 
better  than  by  Malory."  My  father  loved 
his  own  great  imaginative  knight,  the 
Lancelot  of  the  Idylls.  —  Ed.] 

P.  410.  The  Holy  Grail.  [First 
published  in  1869.  See  Malory,  i3-i7« 
The  story  of  this  Idyll  is  full  of  my  father's 
invention  and  imagination.  "Faith  de- 
clines, religion  in  many  turns  from  practical 


958 


NOTES 


goodness  to  the  quest  after  the  supernatural 
and  marvellous  and  selfish  religious  excite- 
ment. Few  are  those  for  whom  the  quest 
is  a  source  of  spiritual  strength." 

My  mother  notes  in  her  Journal :  "  1868, 
Sept.  gth.  A.  read  a  bit  of  his  San  Graal, 
which  he  has  just  begun.  Sept.  14th.  He 
has  almost  finished  the  San  Graal.  It 
came  like  a  breath  of  inspiration.  Sept. 
23rd.  We  took  Lionel  to  Eton.  ...  At 
Dr.  Warre's  request  A.  read  the  San  Graal 
MS.  complete  in  the  garden.  1869,  May 
iSth.  A.  read  the  San  Graal.  I  doubt 
whether  the  San  Graal  would  have  been 
written  but  for  my  endeavour,  and  the 
Queen's  wish,  and  that  of  the  Crown 
Princess.  Thank  God  for  it.  He  has 
had  the  subject  in  his  mind  for  years,  ever 
since  he  began  to  write  about  Arthur  and 
his  knights." 

About  this  poem  my  father  said  to  me: 
"At  twenty-four  I  meant  to  write  an  epic 
or  a  drama  of  King  Arthur,  and  I  thought 
that  I  should  take  twenty  years  about  the 
work.  They  will  now  say  that  I  have  been 
forty  years  about  it.  The  Holy  Grail  is 
one  of  the  most  imaginative  of  my  poems. 
I  have  expressed  there  my  strong  feeling 
as  to  the  Reality  of  the  Unseen.  The 
end,  where  the  King  speaks  of  his  work 
and  of  his  visions,  is  intended  to  be  the 
summing  up  of  all  in  the  highest  note  by 
the  highest  of  men." 

These  three  lines  (pp.  424-425)  in  Arthur's 
speech  are  the  (spiritually)  central  lines  of 
the  poem : 

In  moments  when  he  feels  he  cannot  die, 
And  knows  himself  no  vision  to  himself, 
Nor  the  high  God  a  vision. 

Sir  James  Knowles  writes  to  me :  — 

I  was  introduced  to  your  father  by  King  Arthur 
—  for  my  little  book  on  the  Arthur  legends,  dedi- 
cated to  him,  first  brought  me  to  his  acquaintance 
thirty-five  years  ago  —  and  this  probably  explains 
why  he  chose  to  give  me  so  much  of  his  con- 
fidence on  the  subject  of  his  Idylls  of  the  King. 
He  used  to  say  (in  jest),  "I  know  more  about 
Arthur  than  any  other  man  in  England,  and  you 
know  next  most,"  and  when,  in  1867  and  after- 
wards, he  became  our  frequent  guest  at  Clapham 
Common,  he  would  talk  with  me  for  hours  upon 
the  subject,  and  I  always  urged  him  to  resume 
his  forsaken  project  of  making  a  whole  great 
poem  on  it. 

The  recent  and  immense  success  of  his  first 
four   Idylls   helped   my  cause   greatly,  but    he 


would  constantly  protest  that  it  was  next  to  im- 
possible now  to  put  the  thing  properly  together, 
because  he  had  taken  up  with  a  fragmentary 
mode  of  treatment  instead  of  the  continuous  sym- 
bolic epic  he  had  meditated  in  his  youth,  and 
"which  the  Reviews  had  knocked  out  of  him." 
Frequent  importunity,  however,  had  its  effect, 
and  in  the  end  he  came  to  admit  that  the  plan  of 
a  series  of  separate  pictures  connected  by  a  pur- 
pose running  through  them  all,  as  a  thread 
connects  beads,  had  its  merits,  and,  under  the 
circumstances,  had  better  be  tried. 

He  resumed  his  great  scheme  with  The  Holy 
Grail. 

As  the  revised  plan  took  more  and  more  shape 
and  drew  towards  completion,  he  would  some- 
times point  his  finger  at  me  with  a  grim  smile, 
and  say :  "I  had  given  it  all  up  long  ago,  though 
I  was  often  urged  to  go  on  with  it;  and  then 
this  beast  said  'Do  it,'  and  I  did  it." 

He  always  told  me  that  he  had  from  the  begin- 
ning meant  to  make  Arthur  something  more 
and  other  than  a  mystic  or  historic  king,  but 
that  he  had  changed  his  mind  from  his  original 
meaning.  In  1869  he  gave  me  a  memorandum 
written  in  his  own  hand  which  he  told  me  was  then 
thirty  or  forty  years  old.  He  said  that  in  those 
early  days  (about  1830)  the  poem  was  to  be  a  sort 
of  allegory  of  the  Church,  but  that  now  King 
Arthur  was  to  stand  in  a  symbolic  way  for  the 
Soul,  and  his  Knights  for  the  human  passions 
which  the  Soul  was  to  order  and  subdue. 

He  encouraged  me  to  write  a  short  paper,  in 
the  form  of  a  letter  to  the  Spectator,1  on  the  inner 
meaning  of  the  whole  poem,  which  I  did,  simply 
upon  the  lines  he  himself  indicated.  He  often 
said,  however,  that  an  allegory  should  never  be 
pressed  too  far,  and  that  "there  were  many 
glancing  meanings  in  everything  he  wrote." 

Considerable  trouble  and  changing  with  pub- 
lishers went  on  during  the  production  of  the 
Idylls  (of  1869),  and  he  was  so  anxious  about 
misprints  that,  for  the  greater  security  against 
errors,  he  caused  the  proofs  of  them  to  be  sent 
to  me,  as  well  as  to  himself.  He  would  go  over 
them  with  me  in  the  most  minute  manner,  and 
afterwards  would  write  such  letters  as  the 
following : 

Farringford,  Freshwater, 
Isle  of  Wight,  April  5,  1872. 

Gareth  is  not  finished  yet.  I  left  him  off  once 
altogether,  finding  him  more  difficult  to  deal 
with  than  anything  I  had  ever  tried,  excepting 
perhaps  Aylmer's  Field.  If  I  were  at  liberty, 
which  I  think  I  am  not,  to  print  the  names  of 
the  speakers  "Gareth,"  "Linette,"  over  the 
short  snip-snap  of  their  talk,  and  so  avoid  the 
perpetual  "said"  and  its  varieties,  the  work 
would  be  much  easier.  I  have  made  out  the 
plan,  however,  and  perhaps  some  day  it  will  be 
completed;  and  it  will  be  then  to  consider 
whether  or  no  it  should  go  into  the  Contemporary 
or  elsewhere. 

Edward  FitzGerald's  comment  on  The 
Holy  Grail  is:  "The  whole  myth  of 
Arthur's  Round  Table  Dynasty  in  Britain 

1  See  Appendix,  Tennyson  and  his  Friends. 


NOTES 


959 


presents  itself  before  me  with  a  sort  of 
cloudy,  Stonehenge  grandeur.  I  am  not 
sure  if  the  old  knights'  Adventures  do  not 
tell  upon  me  better,  touched  in  some  Lyric 
Way,  like  your  own  Lady  of  Shalott.  I 
never  could  care  for  Spenser,  Tasso, 
Ariosto,  whose  epic  has  a  ballad  ring 
about  it.  But  I  never  could  care  much 
for  the  old  Prose  Romances  either,  except 
Don  Quixote.  .  .  .  They  talk  of  'meta- 
physical Depth  and  Subtlety.'  Pray,  is 
there  none  in  The  Palace  of  Art,  The 
Vision  of  Sin  (which  last  touches  on  the 
Limit  of  Disgust  without  ever  falling  in), 
Locksley  Hall  also,  with  some  little  Passion, 
I  think !  only  that  all  these  being  clear  to 
the  Bottom,  as  well  as  beautiful,  do  not 
seem  to  Cockney  eyes  so  deep  as  Muddy 
Waters?"  — Ed.] 

P.  411,  col.  1,  line  1. 

0  brother,  I  have  seen  this  yew-tree  smoke. 

The  pollen  in  Spring,  which,  blown 
abroad  by  the  wind,  looks  like  smoke. 
Cf.  Memoir,  vol.  ii.  p.  53,  and  In 
Memoriam,  xxxix. 

P.  411,  col.  1,  line  31.  Aromat.  Ari- 
mathea,  the  home  of  Joseph  of  Arimathea, 
who,  according  to  the  legend,  received  in 
the  Grail  the  blood  that  flowed  from  our 
Lord's  side. 

P.  411,  col.  2,  lines  1,  2. 

when  the  dead 
Went  wandering  o'er  Moriah. 
[Cf.  St.  Matthew  xxvii.  50  ff .  —  Ed.] 

P.  411,  col.  2,  lines  4,  5. 

To  Glastonbury,  where  the  winter  thorn 

Blossoms  at  Christmas. 

[It  was  believed  to  have  been  grown 
from  the  staff  of  Joseph  of  Arimathea.  — 
Ed.] 

P.  413,  col.  1,  line  24.  'The  Siege 
perilous.'  The  perilous  seat  which  stands 
for  the  spiritual  imagination. 

["And  anon  he  brought  him  unto  the 
Siege  Perilous,  where  beside  sat  Sir 
Launcelot.  And  the  good  old  man  lift 
up  the  cloth,  and  found  there  letters  that 
said,  'This  is  the  siege  of  Sir  Galahad,  the 
good  knight.'  'Sir,'  said  the  old  man, 
'wit  yee  well  this  place   is  yours.'      And 


then   hee   set   him   down   surely    in   that 
siege"  (Malory).  —  Ed.] 

P.  413,  col,  2,  line  31.  shining  hair. 
[Cf.  irXoKd/Jiovi  <ftaeivo6s  (//.  xiv.  176). — 
Ed.] 

P.  414,  col.  1,  line  22.  [The  four  zones 
represent  human  progress  :  the  savage  state 
of  society;  the  state  where  man  lords  it 
over  the  beast;  the  full  development  of 
man ;  the  progress  toward  spiritual  ideals. 
—  Ed.] 

P.  414,  col.  2,  line  16. 
In  unremorseful  folds  of  rolling  fire. 
This    line    gives    onomatopoeically    the 
' '  unremorseful  flames. " 

P.  415,  col.  1,  lines  18,  19. 
'Ah,    Galahad,    Galahad,'    said    the    King, 

'for  such 
As  thou  art  is  the  vision,  not  for  these.' 

The  king  thought  that  most  men  ought 
to  do  the  duty  that  lies  closest  to  them,  and 
that  to  few  only  is  given  the  spiritual  en- 
thusiasm. Those  who  have  it  not  ought 
not  to  affect  it. 

P.  415,  col.  2,  line  4.  White  Horse. 
[See  note  on  p.  368,  col.  2,  line  30.  —  Ed.] 

P.  416,  col.  1,  line  13.  wyvern,  two- 
legged  dragon.     Old  French  wivre,  viper. 

P.  416,  col.  2,  lines  20-23. 
But  even  while  I  drank  the  brook,  and  ate 
The  goodly  apples,  all  these  things  at  once 
Fell  into  dust,  and  I  was  left  alone, 
And  thirsting,  in  a  land  of  sand  and  thorns. 
The  gratification  of  sensual  appetite  brings 
Percivale  no  content. 

P.  416,  col.  2,  lines  24  to  p.  417,  col.  1,  line 
2.  Nor  does  wifely  love  and  the  love  of  the 
family. 

P.  417,  col.  1,  lines  3-10.  Nor  does 
wealth,  which  is  worshipt  by  labour. 

P.  417,  col.  1,  lines  11-22.  Nor  does 
glory. 

P.  417,  col.  1,  line  23  to  col.  2,  line  n. 
Nor  does  Fame. 

P.  417,  col.  2,  line  25. 
Led  on  the  gray-hair'd  wisdom  of  the  east. 
The  Magi. 


960 


NOTES 


P.  418,  col.  2,  line  34.  sacring,  con- 
secration. 

P.  418,  col.  1,  line  3. 

I  saw  the  fiery  face  as  of  a  child. 

[See  Malory,  xvii,  20:  "And  then  he 
took  an  ubbly  (a  cake  of  the  Sacrament), 
which  was  made  in  the  likenesse  of  bread; 
and  at  the  lifting  up  there  came  a  figure  in 
the  likenesse  of  a  child,  and  the  visage  was 
as  bright  and  red  as  any  fire,  and  smote 
himself  into  that  bread,  so  that  they  all 
saw  that  the  bread  was  formed  of  a  fleshly 
man."  —  Ed.] 

P.  418,  col.  1,  line  28. 
Storm  at  the  top,   and  when  we  gained  it, 

storm. 
It  was  a  time  of  storm  when  men  could 
imagine    miracles,    and    so    storm    is    em- 
phasized. 

P.  418,  col.  1,  line  34.  [My  father  looked 
on  this  description  of  Sir  Galahad's  quest, 
and  on  that  of  Sir  Lancelot's,  as  among  the 
best  blank  verse  he  had  written.  He 
pointed  out  the  difference  between  the  five 
visions  of  the  Grail,  as  seen  by  the  Holy 
Nun,  Sir  Galahad,  Sir  Percivale,  Sir 
Lancelot,  Sir  Bors,  according  to  their 
different,  their  own  peculiar  natures  and 
circumstances,  their  selflessness,  and  the 
perfection  or  imperfection  of  their  Christian- 
ity. He  dwelt  on  the  mystical  treatment 
of  every  part  of  his  subject,  and  said  the 
key  is  to  be  found  in  a  careful  reading  of 
Sir  Percivale's  visions.  He  would  also  call 
attention  to  the  babbling  homely  utterances 
of  the  village  priest  Ambrosius  as  a  contrast 
to  the  sweeping  passages  of  blank  verse 
that  set  forth  the  visions  of  spiritual  en- 
thusiasm. —  Ed.] 

P.  421,  col.  i,  lines  3,  4. 

Paynim  amid  their  circles,  and  the  stones 

They  pitch  up  straight  to  heaven. 
The   temples   and   upright    stones   of   the 
Druidic  religion. 

P.  421,  col.  1,  line  9.  A  mocking  fire. 
The  sun-worshippers  that  were  said  to  dwell 
on  Lyonnesse  scoffed  at  Perceval. 

P.  421,  col.  1,  line  23. 
The    seven    clear   stars    of  Arthur's    Table 

Round. 
The  Great  Bear. 


P.  421,  col.  2,  lines  4,  5. 

the  sweet  Grail 
Glided  and  past. 
It  might  have  been  a  meteor. 

P.  421,  col.  2,  lines  10,  11. 

Sir  Bors  it  was 
Who  spake  so  low. 

[Cf.  p.  411,  col.  1,  lines  23,  24: 
Yet  one  of  your  own  knights,  a  guest  of  ours, 
Told  us  of  this  in  our  refectory.  Ed.] 

P.  421,  col.  2,  line  28.  basilisks,  the 
fabulous  crown'd  serpent  whose  look  killed. 

P.  421,  col.  2,  line  28.  cockatrices.  In 
heraldry,  winged  snakes. 

P.  421,  col.  2,  line  29.  talbots,  heraldic 
dogs. 

Pp.  430,  431.  ["And  there  he  said, 
'My  sinne  and  my  wretchednesse  hath 
brought  me  unto  great  dishonour;  for 
when  I  sought  worldly  adventures,  and 
worldly  desires,  I  ever  achieved  them,  and 
had  the  better  in  every  place,  and  never 
was  I  discomfited  in  no  quarrell,  were  it 
right  or  wrong.  And  now  I  take  upon  me 
the  adventures  of  holy  things:  and  now  I 
see  and  understan  that  mine  old  sinne 
hindreth  mee,  and  also  shameth  mee,  so 
that  I  had  no  power  to  stire  nor  to  speak 
when  the  holy  blood  appeared  before  mee.' 
So  thus  hee  sorrowed  till  it  was  day,  and 
heard  the  foules  of  the  ayre  sing ;  then  was 
hee  somewhat  comforted"  (Malory).  —  Ed.] 

P.  423,  col.  2,  lines  13,  14. 

only  the  rounded  moon 

Thro'  the  tall  oriel  on  the  rolling  sea. 

[My  father  was  fond  of  quoting  these 
lines  for  the  beauty  of  the  sound.  "The 
lark"  in  the  tower  toward  the  rising  sun 
symbolizes  Hope.  —  Ed.] 

P.  424,  col.  1,  line  13.  deafer  than  the 
blue-eyed  cat.  [Cf.  Darwin's  Origin  of 
Species,  ch.  i. :  "Thus  cats  which  are 
entirely  white  and  have  blue  eyes  are 
generally  deaf;  but  it  has  lately  been 
pointed  out  by  Mr.  Tait  that  this  is 
confined  to  the  males."  —  Ed.] 

P.  424,  col.  2,  line  3. 
[And  spake  I  not  too  truly,  O  my  knights, 

etc. 
refers  to  King  Arthur's  speech  (pp.  291- 


NOTES 


061 


299),  given  in  Malory  as  follows:  — 
" '  Alas  ! '  said  King  Arthur '  unto  Sir 
Gawaine,  'yee  have  nigh  slaine  me  with 
the  vowe  and  promise  that  yee  have 
made;  for  through  you  yee  have  bereft 
nice  of  the  fairest  fellowship  and  the  truest 
of  knighthood  that  ever  were  seene  together 
in  any  realme  of  the  world.  For  when 
they  shall  depart  from  hence,  I  am  sure 
that  all  shall  never  meete  more  in  this 
world,  for  there  shall  many  die  in  the 
quest,  and  so  it  forethinketh  me  a  little; 
for  I  have  loved  them  as  well  as  my  life, 
wherefore  it  shall  grieve  me  right  sore  the 
separation  of  this  fellowship,  for  I  have 
had  an  old  custome  to  have  them  in  my 
fellowship.  And  therewith  teares  fell  into 
his  eyes."  —  Ed.] 

P.  424,  col.  2,  line  24  to  p.  425,  col.  1, 
line  2.  Arthur  suggests  that  all  the 
material  universe  may  be  but  vision. 

[As  far  back  as  1839  my  father  had 
written  to  my  mother:  "Annihilate  within 
yourself  these  two  dreams  of  Space  and 
Time."  "I  think,"  he  said,  "matter  is 
merely  the  shadow  of  something  greater 
than  itself,  which  we  poor  short-sighted 
creatures  cannot  see."  —  Ed.] 
*  P.  424,  col.  2,  line  31  to  p.  425,  col.  i, 
line  1. 

In  moments  when  he  feels  he  cannot  die, 

And  knows  himself  no  vision  to  himself, 

Nor  the  high  God  a  vision. 
[Cf.  The  Ancient  Sage: 

for  more  than  once  when  I 
Sat  alt  alone,  revolving  in  myself 
The  word  that  is  the  symbol  of  myself, 
The  mortal  limit  of  the  Self  was  loosed, 
And  past  into  the  Nameless,  as  a  cloud 
Melts  into  Heaven.     I  touch'd  my  limbs, 

the  limbs 
Were  strange  not  mine  —  and  yet  no  shade 

of  doubt, 
But  utter  clearness,  and  thro'  loss  of  Self 
The  gain  of  such  large  life  as  match'd  with 

ours 
Were  Sun  to  spark.  Ed.] 

P.  425,  col.  1,  lines  1,  2. 

nor  that  One 
Who  rose  again. 

[My  father  said  (I  think)  about  this 
passage:    "There  is  something  miraculous 

3Q 


in  man,  and  there  is  more  in  Christianity 
than  some  people  think.  It  is  enough  to 
look  on  Christ  as  Divine  and  Ideal  without 
defining  more.  They  will  not  easily  beat 
the  character  of  Christ,  that  union  of  man 
and  woman,  strength  and  sweetness."  — 
Ed.] 

P.  425.  Pelleas  and  Ettarre.  [First 
published  in  1869.  See  Malory,  iv.  20-23. 
—  Ed.]  Almost  the  saddest  of  the  Idylls. 
The  breaking  of  the  storm. 

P.  425,  col.  2,  lines  4,  5. 

It  seem'd  to  Pelleas  that  the  fern  without 
Burnt  as  a  living  fire  of  emeralds. 
Seen  as  I  lay  in  the  New  Forest.  [This 
whole  passage  is  descriptive  of  the  New 
Forest,  which  he  called  "the  finest  bit  of 
old  England  left,  the  most  peculiar."  — 
Ed.] 

P.  430,  col.  2,  line  9.      prowest,  noblest. 

P.  431,  col.  2,  line  29.  lurdane,  from 
Old  French  lour  din,  heavy.  [Cf.  Scott's 
Abbot,  iv.:  "I  found  the  careless  lurdane 
feeding  him  with  unwashed  flesh."  —  Ed.] 

P.  432,  col.  1,  line  24. 

And   the   sword   of  the   tourney   across   her 

throat. 
The  line  gives  the  quiver  of   the  sword 
across  their  throats. 

["And  when  he  cam  to  the  pavilions  he 
tied  his  horse  to  a  tree,  and  pulled  out  his 
sword  naked  in  his  hand,  and  went  straight 
to  them  where  as  they  lay  together,  and 
yet  he  thought  that  it  were  great  shame  for 
him  to  sley  them  sleeping,  and  laid  the 
naked  sword  overthwart  both  their  throates, 
and  then  he  tooke  his  horse,  and  rod  forth 
his  way,  making  great  and  wofull  lamenta- 
tion" (Malory).  —  Ed.] 

P.  434,  col.  1,  line  28.  Yea,  between  thy 
lips  —  and  sharp.  [Cf .  Cymbeline,  in.  iv. 
35- -Ed.] 

P.  435.  The  Last  Tournament. 
[First  published  in  The  Contemporary 
Review,  December  1871.  The  bare  out- 
line of  the  story  and  of  the  vengeance  of 
Mark  is  taken  from  Malory;  my  father 
often  referred  with  pleasure  to  his  creation 
of  the  half-humorous,  half-pathetic  fool 
Dagonet.  —  Ed.] 


962 


NOTES 


P.  436,  col.  1,  line  8.  strangers  to  the 
tongue,  rough. 

P.  436,  col.  2,  line  8.  blunt  stump, 
where  the  hand  had  been  cut  off  and  the 
stump  had  been  pitched. 


P.  436,  col.  1,  line 
Pelleas. 


the  Red  Knight. 


P.  436,  col.  2.  [Cf.  Isaiah  xiv.  13.  — 
Ed.] 

P.  437,  col.  1,  lines  15,  16.  [See  Mer- 
lin's song  in  The  Coming  of  Arthur,  p.  309. 
—  Ed.] 

P.  437,  col.  2,  line  4.  vail'd,  drooped. 
[Cf .  Hamlet,  1.  ii.  70 : 

"Do  not  for  ever  with  thy  vailed  lids 
Seek  for  thy  noble  father  in  the  dust." 
Ed.] 

P.  437,  col.  2,  line  7.  Of  Autumn 
thunder,  the  autumn  of  the  Round  Table. 

P.  437,  col.  1,  lines  28,  29. 
A  spear,  a  harp,  a  bugle  —  Tristram  — ■  late 
From  overseas  in  Brittany  returned. 
He  was  a  harper  and  a  hunter. 

["And  so  Tristram  learned  to  be  an 
harper  passing  all  other,  that  there  was 
none  such  called  in  no  countrey.  And  so 
in  harping  and  in  instruments  of  musike 
hee  applied  himself  in  his  youth  for  to 
learne,  and  after  as  he  growed  in  his  might 
and  strength,  he  laboured  ever  in  hunting 
and  hawking,  so  that  we  never  read  of  no 
gentleman  more  that  so  used  himself 
therein.  .  .  . 

"And  every  day  Sir  Tristram  would 
ride  in  hunting ;  for  Sir  Tristram  was  that 
time  called  the  best  chacer  of  the  world, 
and  the  noblest  blower  of  an  home  of  all 
manner  of  measures.  For  as  bookes  re- 
port, of  Sir  Tristram  came  all  the  good 
termes  of  venery  and  of  hunting,  and  the 
sises  and  measures  of  blowing  of  an  home. 
And  of  him  we  had  first  all  the  termes  of 
hawking,  and  which  were  beasts  of  chace 
and  beasts  of  venery,  and  what  were 
vermines,  and  all  the  blasts  that  long  to  all 
manner  of  games.  First  to  the  uncoupeling, 
to  the  seeking,  to  the  rechace,  to  the  flight, 
to  the  death,  and  to  strak,  and  many  other 
blasts  and  termes,  that  all  manner  of 
gentlemen  have  cause  to    the  world's  end 


to  praise  Sir  Tristram  and  to  pray  for  his 
soule"  (Malory).  —  Ed.] 

P.  438,  col.  1,  line  14.  Art  thou  the 
purest,  brother?  Because  the  Queen  had 
said: 

"The  purest  of  thy  knights 
May  use  them  for  the  purest  of  my  maids." 

P.  438,  col.  1,  lines  27-28  to  col.  2,  lines 
1-6.  It  was  the  law  to  give  the  prize  to 
some  lady  on  the  field,  but  the  laws  are 
broken,  and  Tristram  the  courteous  has  lost 
his  courtesy,  for  the  great  sin  of  Lancelot 
was  sapping  the  Round  Table. 

P.  438,  col.  2,  line  14. 
The  snowdrop  only,  flowering  thro'  the  year. 
Because  they  were  dressed  in  white. 

P.  438,  col.  2,  lines  21,  22. 
Liken'd  them,  saying,  as  when  an  hour  oj 

cold 
Falls     on     the    mountain    in     midsumme 

snows. 
Seen  by  me  at  Murren  in  Switzerland. 

P.  439,  col.  2,  line  28. 
Her   daintier  namesake   down   in  Brittany 
Isolt  of  the  white  hands. 

P.  439,  col.  2,  line  33.     shell,  husk. 

P.  440,  col.  1,  line  26.  Paynim  bard 
Orpheus. 

P.  440,  col.  2,  line  3.  harp  of  Arthur 
Lyra. 

P.  440,  col.  2,  line  27.  burning  spurge 
the  juice  of  the  common  spurge.  I  re 
member  two  early  lines  of  mine : 

Spurge  with  fairy  crescent  set 
Like  the  flower  of  Mahomet. 

P.  441,  col.  1,  line  8.  outer  eye,  the 
hunter's  eye. 

P.  441,  col.  1,  line  13.     slot,  trail. 

P.  44 1,  col.  1,  line  13.    fewmets,  dropping 

P.  442,     col.     1,     line     27.     the    nai 
Pelleas. 

P.  442,  col.  2,  lines  2-5. 
Fall,  as  the  crest  of  some  slow-arching  wave, 
Heard  in  dead  night  along  that  table-shore, 
Drops  flat,  and  after  the  great  waters  break 
Whitening    for    half    a    league,    and    thit 
themselves, 


NOTES 


963 


Far    over    sands    marbled    with    moon    and 

cloud, 
From  less  and  less  to  nothing. 
As  I  have  heard  and  seen  the  sea  on  the 
shore  of  Mablethorpe. 

P.  442,  col.  2,  line  20.  Alioth  and 
Alcor,  two  stars  in  the  Great  Bear. 

P.  442,  col.  2,  line  22.  as  the  water 
Moab  saw.     [Cf.  2  Kings  iii.  22.  —  Ed.] 

P.  443,  col.  1,  line  8.  What,  if  she  hale 
me  now?     "She"  is  his  wife. 

P.  443,  col.  1,  line  14.  roky  [misty. 
Cf.  Macbeth,  in.  ii.  51.  —  Ed.]. 

P.  443,  col.  1,  line  22. 
The    spiring    stone    that    scaled    about    her 

tower. 
Winding  stone  staircase. 

P.  444,  col.  1,  line  7.  Sailing  from 
Ireland.  Tristram  had  told  his  uncle 
Mark  of  the  beauty  of  Isolt,  when  he  saw 
her  in  Ireland,  so  Mark  demanded  her  hand 
in  marriage,  which  he  obtained.  Then 
Mark  sent  Tristram  to  fetch  her  as  in  my 
Idylls  Arthur  sent  Lancelot  for  Guinevere. 

P.  445,  col.  1,  line  24.  malkin  in  the 
mast,  slut  among  the  beech  nuts. 

P.  446,  col.  1,  line  10. 
Believed  himself  a  greater  than  himself. 
When  the  man  had  an  ideal  before  him. 

P.  446,  col.  1,  line  30. 

The  ptarmigan  that  whitens  ere  his  hour. 
Seen  by  me  in  the  Museum  at  Christiania 
in  Norway. 

P.  446,  col.  1,  line  33.  yaffingale.  Old 
word,  and  still  provincial  for  the  green 
wood-pecker  (so  called  from  its  laughter). 
In  Sussex  "yaffel." 

P.  446,  col.  2,  line  30  to  p.  447,  col.  1, 
line  7.  Like  an  old  Gaelic  song  —  the  two 
stars  symbolic  of  the  two  Isolts. 

P.  447,  col.  1,  lines  22,  23.  I" Also 
that  false  traitour  King  Marke  slew  the 
noble  knight  Sir  Tristram  as  he  sat  harping 
before  his  lady  La  beale  Isoud,  with  a 
trenchant  glaive,  for  whose  death  was 
much  bewailing  of  every  knight  that  ever 
was  in  King  Arthur's  daies.  .  .  .     And  La 


Beale  Isoud  died  swooning  upon  the  cross 
of  Sir  Tristram,  whereof  was  great  pity" 
(Malory).—  Ed.] 

P.  447.  Guinevkrk.  [First  published 
in  1859.  This  Idyll  is  largely  original, 
being  founded  on  the  following  passage 
from  Malory:  "And  so  shee  went  to 
Almesbury,  and  there  shee  let  make  her- 
self a  nunne  and  ware  white  cloathes  and 
blacke.  And  great  pennance  shee  tooke 
as  ever  did  sinfull  lady  in  this  land :  and 
never  creature  could  make  her  merry, 
but  lived  in  fastings,  prayers,  and  almes 
deedes,  that  all  manner  of  people  mervailed 
how  vertuously  shee  was  changed.  Now 
leave  wee  Queene  Guenever  in  Almesbury, 
that  was  a  nunne  in  white  cloathes  and 
blacke;  and  there  she  was  abbesse  and 
ruler,  as  reason  would."  Guinevere  was 
called  Gwenhwyvar  (the  white  ghost)  by 
the  bards,  and  is  said  by  Taliessin  to  have 
been  "of  a  haughty  disposition  even  in 
her  youth."  Malory  calls  her  the  daughter 
of  Leodogran  of  the  land  of  Camelyard. 

According  to  Geoffrey  of  Monmouth, 
"Guanhumara"  was  "descended  from  a 
noble  family  of  Romans,  and  educated 
under  Duke  Cador  of  Cornwall,  and 
surpassed  in  beauty  all  the  women  of  the 
island." 

"Some  one,"  writes  my  father,  "asks 
how  long  it  took  to  write  Guinevere? 
About  a  fortnight."  He  used  to  sa> 
something  of  this  kind:  "Perfection  in 
art  is  perhaps  more  sudden  than  we  think ; 
but  then  the  long  preparation  for  it,  that 
unseen  germination,  that  is  what  we  ignore 
and  forget." 

My  mother  notes  in  her  Journal:   "July 
Qth,  1857.     A.  has  brought  me  as  a  birth- 
day present  the  first  two  lines  that  he  has 
made  of  Guinevere,   which  might    be  the 
nucleus  of  a  great  poem.     Arthur  is  parting 
from  Guinevere,  and  says: 
But  hither  shall  I  never  come  again, 
Never  lie  by  thy  side ;  see  thee  no  more ; 
Farewell!"  Ed.] 

P.  447,  line  2.  Almesbury,  near  Stone- 
henge,  now  Amesbury. 

P.  449,  col.  2,  line  23.  housel.  Anglo- 
Saxon   husel,  the  Eucharist. 

P.  451,  col.  2,  line  21.    spigol,  the  bung. 


964 


NOTES 


P.  452,  col.  1,  line  12.  Bude  and  Bos. 
North  of  Tintagil. 

P.  453,  col.  2,  line  15.  That  seem'd  (he 
heavens.  [This  simile  was  made  from  the 
hyacinths  in  the  Wilderness  at  Farringford. 
—  Ed.] 

P.  456,  col.  2,  line  14.  Pendragon ship. 
The  headship  of  the  tribes  who  had  con- 
federated against  the  Lords  .of  the  White 
Horse.  "Pendragon"  not  a  dactyl  as 
some  make  it,  but  Pen-dragon.  Tho'  in 
the  first  edition  of  the  Palace  of  Art,  I 
ended  one  line  with  Pendragon.  I  never  in 
reading  pronounced  it  dactylically,  but 
Pendragon. 

P.  457,  col.  2,  line  14.  vail.  See  p. 
437,  col.  2,  line  4. 

P.  458.  The  Passing  of  Arthur. 
["The  temporary  triumph  of  evil,  the 
confusion  of  moral  order,  closing  in  the 
Great  Battle  of  the  West."  This  complete 
Idyll  was  published  in  1869.  169  lines  at 
the  beginning  and  30  lines  at  the  end  were 
added  to  the  Morte  d' Arthur,  originally 
published  in  1842.  Cf.  Notes  on  the 
"Morte  d' Arthur,"  Memoir,  vol.  i.  pp. 
384-390-  —  Ed.] 

P.  458.  line  14.  lesser  god.  Cf.  the 
demiurge  of  Plato,  and  the  gnostic  belief 
that  lesser  Powers  created  the  world. 

P.  458,  col.  2,  lines  11,  12. 

blown 
Along  a  wandering  wind. 

aliae  panduntur  inanes 
Suspensae  ad  ventos. 

Virgil,  Aen.  vi.  740-741. 

P.  459,  col.  1,  lines  13,  14. 
0  me,  my  King,  let  pass  whatever  will, 
Elves,    and    the    harmless    glamour    of    the 

field. 
The  legends  which  cluster  round  the  King's 
name. 

P.  459,  col.  1,  line  19.  for  the  ghost  is 
as  the  man.     The  spirit. 

P.  459,  col.  2,  line  16.  fragments  of 
forgotten  peoples.     Perhaps  old  Celts. 

P.  459,  col.  2,  line  23. 

Burn'd  at  his  lowest  in  the  rolling  year. 
The  winter  solstice. 


P.  459,  col.  2,  line  23.  rolling  year. 
[Cf.  irepiirXofxivov  iuiavrov.  —  Ed.] 

P.  459,  col.  2,  lines  25,  26. 
Nor  ever  yet  had  Arthur  fought  a  fight 
Like    this    last,    dim,    weird    battle    of   the 

west. 
A  Vision  of  Death. 

P.  460,  col.  1,  line  13.  monstrous 
blasphemies.  Cf.  Rev.  xvi.,  the  battle  of 
Armageddon. 

P.  460,  col.  2,  lines  2,  3. 

And  rolling  far  along  the  gloomy  shores 

The  voice  of  days  of  old  and  days  to  be. 

This  grim  battle  in  the  mist  contrasts 
with  Arthur's  glorious  battle  in  the  Coming 
of  Arthur,  fought  on  a  bright  day  when 
"he  saw  the  smallest  rock  far  on  the 
faintest  hill." 

P.  463,  col.  1,  line  16.  And  flashing 
.  ...  in  an  arch.  The  extra  syllable  gives 
the  rush  of  the  sword  as  it  is  whirled  in 
parabolic  curve. 

P.  463,  col.  1,  line  17. 
Shot  like  a  streamer  of  the  northern  morn. 
The  Aurora  Borealis. 

P.  463,  col.  1,  line  18.  the  moving 
isles  of  winter,  icebergs. 

P.  463,  col.  1,  line  26:  drawing  thicker 
breath,  breathing  more  heavily. 

P.  463,  col.  2,  line  18.  As  in  a  picture. 
[Cf.  ws  iv  ypa(pa?s  (Aesch.  Ag.  241). 
—  Ed.] 

P.  464,  col.  1,  line  31.  like  the  wither 'd 
moon,  when  smitten  by  the  rising  sun. 
Cf.  Fatima,  "Like  a  dazzled  morning 
moon." 

P.  465,  col.  2,  line  5. 
From  the  great  deep   to   the  great  deep  he 

goes. 
See  Merlin's  song  in  The  Coming  of  Arthur, 
P-  3i5. 

P.  465,  col.  2,  line  17. 
Then  from  the  dawn  it  seem'd  there  came, 
but  faint. 

From  (the  dawn)  the  East,  whence  have 
sprung  all  the  great  religions  of  the  world. 
A  triumph  of  welcome  is  given  to  him  who 
has  proved  himself  "more  than  conqueror." 


NOTES 


965 


P.  465,  col.  2,  line  24.  an  arch  of 
hand.     [Cf.  Soph.  Oed.  Col.  1650: 

AvaicTa  8'  avrbv  6(jL/j.dTU)i>  iwlo-Ktov 
Xet/)'  avT^x0VTa-  icparSs.  Ed.] 

P.  465,  col.  2,  line  28. 

From  less  to  less  and  vanish  into  light. 
The  purpose  of  the  individual  man  may 
fail  for  a  time,  but  his  work  cannot  die. 
[To  this  my  father  would  add:  "There 
are  two  beliefs  I  have  always  hdd  —  that 
there  is  Someone  Who  knows  —  God  watch- 
ing over  all,  —  and  that  Death  is  not  the 
end-all  of  Man's  existence."  —  Ed.] 

Cf.  Malory:  "Yet  somme  say  in  many 
partyes  of  Englond  that  King  Arthur  is 
not  deed,  But  had  by  the  wylle  of  our 
Lord  Jhesu  in  to  another  place,  and  men 
say  that  he  shal  come  ageyn  and  he  shall 
wynne  the  holy  crosse." 

And  cf.  what  Arthur  says  in  Layamon's 
Brut,  28619,  Madden's  edition,  vol.  iii. 
p.  144 : 

"And  seothe  ich  cumen  wulle 
to  mine  kineriche, 
and  wunien  mid  Brutten, 
mid  muchelere  wunne." 
(And  afterwards  I  will  come  (again)  to 
my  kingdom,  and  dwell  with  the  Britons 
with  much  joy.) 

P.  466.  To  the  Queen.  [First  printed 
in  Strahan's  Library  Edition,  my  father's 
favourite  edition  of  his  works,  in  1872-3. 
—  Ed.] 

P.  466,  line  3.  remember  able  day.  When 
the  Queen  and  the  Prince  of  Wales  went 
to  the  thanksgiving  at  St.  Paul's  (after  the 
Prince's  dangerous  illness)  in  February 
1872. 

P.  466,  col.  1,  line  14.  true  North, 
Canada.  A  leading  London  journal  had 
written  advocating  that  Canada  should 
sever  her  connection  with  Great  Britain, 
as  she  was  "too  costly":  hence  these 
lines. 

P.  466,  col.  1,  line  20.  Hougoumont. 
Waterloo. 

P.  466,  col.  2,  line  7. 
For  one  to  whom  I  made  it  o'er  his  grave. 
[Referring  to  the  Dedication  to  the  Prince 
Consort.  —  Ed.] 


P.  466,  col.  2,  line  n.  Rather  than 
that  gray  king.  [The  legendary  Arthur 
from  whom  many  mountains,  hills,  and 
cairns  throughout  Great  Britain  are  named. 
—  Ed.] 

P.  466,  col.  2,  line  14.  Geoffrey's. 
Geoffrey  of  Monmouth's. 

P.  466,  col.  2,  line  14.  Mallcor.  Malory's 
name  is  given  as  Maleorye,  Maleore,  and 
Malleor.  

Some  passages  of  the  Idylls  were  first 
written  in  prose.  See  "The  Dolorous 
Stroke,"  Memoir,  vol.  ii.  p.  134. 


P.  467.  The  Lover's  Tale.  The 
original  Preface  to  The  Lover's  Tale  states 
that  it  was  composed  in  my  nineteenth 
year.  Two  only  of  the  three  parts  then 
written  were  printed,  when,  feeling  the  im- 
perfection of  the  poem,  I  withdrew  it  from 
the  press.  One  of  my  friends  however 
who,  boylike,  admired  the  boy's  work, 
distributed  among  our  common  associates 
of  that  hour  some  copies  of  these  two  parts, 
without  my  knowledge,  without  the  omis- 
sions and  amendments  which  I  had  in 
contemplation,  and  marred  by  the  many 
misprints  of  the  compositor.  Seeing  that 
these  two  parts  have  been  mercilessly 
pirated,  and  that  what  I  had  deemed 
scarce  worthy  to  live  is  not  allowed  to  die, 
may  I  not  be  pardoned  if  I  suffer  the  whole 
poem  at  last  to  come  into  the  light  —  accom- 
panied with  a  reprint  of  the  sequel  —  a  work 
of  my  mature  life  —  The  Golden  Supper? 

[My  father  said :  "  '  The  Lover's  Tale ' 
was  written  before  I  had  ever  seen  Shelley, 
though  it  is  called  Shelley  an"  —  from  the 
character  of  the  verse,  and  the  luxuriance 
and  exuberance  of  the  imagery.  "Allowance 
must  be  made  for  abundance  of  youth.  It 
is  rich  and  full,  hut  there  arc  mistakes  in  it. 
The  poem  is  the  breath  of  young  Love." 

Andrew  Lang  says:    "Perhaps  not  even 

Keats  in  his  earliest  work  displayed  more 

of   promise,   and  gave  more  assurance  of 

genius.     Here  and  there  come  turns  and 

phrases,  'all  the  charm  of  all  the  Muses,' 

which  remind  a  reader  of  things  later  well 

known  in  poems  more  mature.     Such  linei 

are  — 

Strange  to  me  and  sweet, 

Sweet  thro'  strange  years,  — 


g66 


NOTES 


and 

Like  to  a  low-hung  and  a  fiery  sky  — 

Hung  round  with  ragged  rims  and  burning 

folds  — 
and 
Like  sounds  without  the  twilight  realm  of 

dreams, 
Which  wander  round  the  bases  of  the  hills." 

Ed.] 

P.  490.  The  First  Quarrel.  [First 
published  in  Ballads  and  other  Poems, 
1880,  dedicated  to  his  grandson  Alfred 
Browning  Stanley  Tennyson,  born  1878. 
—  Ed.] 

Founded  on  facts  told  me  by  Dr.  Dabbs, 
who  is  the  doctor.  The  poor  woman 
quarrelled  with  her  husband.  He  started 
the  night  of  the  quarrel  for  Jersey ;  the 
boat,  in  which  he  was,  struck  a  reef  and 
went  down. 

[More  than  once  in  his  life  my  father 
lived  much  among  fisher  folk  both  on  the 
east  and  on  the  south  coast.  Carlyle's 
comment  on  the  poem  was:  "Ah,  but 
that's  a  dreary  tragic  tale.  Poor  fellow, 
he  was  just  an  honest  plain  man,  and  she 
was  a  curious  production  of  the  century,  and 
I  am  sorry  for  that  poor  girl  too."  —  Ed.] 

P.  492.  Rizpah.  [First  published  in 
1880.    For  the  title  see  2  Samuel  xxi.  —  Ed.] 

Founded  on  a  paragraph  which  I  read 
in  a  penny  magazine,  Old  Brighton  (lent 
me  by  my  friend  and  neighbour  Mrs. 
Brotherton),  about  a  poor  woman  at 
Brighthelmstone  groping  for  the  body  of 
her  son  at  nights  on  the  Downs.  He  had 
been  hung  in  chains  for  highway  robbery, 
and  his  corpse,  had  been  left  on  the  gallows, 
as  was  customary  in  the  eighteenth  century. 

["When  the  elements  had  caused  the 
clothes  and  flesh  to  decay,  his  aged  mother, 
night  after  night,  in  all  weathers,  and  the 
more  tempestuous  the  weather  the  more 
frequent  the  visits,  made  a  sacred  pilgrim- 
age to  the  lonely  spot  on  the  Downs,  and 
it  was  noticed  that  on  her  return  she 
always  brought  something  away  with  her 
in  her  apron.  Upon  being  watched  it  was 
discovered  that  the  bones  of  the  hanging 
man  were  the  objects  of  her  search,  and 
as  the  wind  and  rain  scattered  them  on 
the    ground    she    conveyed    them    to    her 


home.  There  she  kept  them,  and,  when 
the  gibbet  was  stripped  of  its  horrid 
burden,  in  the  dead  silence  of  the  night 
she  interred  them  in  the  hallowed  enclosure 
of  old  Shoreham  Churchyard.  What  a 
sad  story  of  a  Brighton  Rizpah!"  (Old 
Brighton).  —  Ed.] 

P.  494.  The  Northern  Cobbler. 
[First  published  in  1880.  —  Ed.]  Founded 
on  a  fact  that  I  heard  in  early  youth.  A 
man  set  up  a  bottle  of  gin  in  his  window 
when  he  gave  up  drinking.  A  village 
drunkard,  hearing  this  poem  read  at  a 
Village  Reading,  rose  from  his  seat  and 
left  the  room.  "Sally,"  I  suppose,  got 
on  his  brain,  and  he  was  heard  to  grumble 
out,  "Women  knaws  too  mooch  nowa- 
daays." 

P.  494.  Verse  iii.  fettle  and  clump 
[mend  and  put  new  soles  to.  —  Ed.]. 

P.  494.     Verse  iv.     squad  [dirt.  —  Ed.]. 

P.  494.  Verse  iv.  scrawm'd  an'  scrolled 
[clawed  and  scratched.  —  Ed.]. 

P.  495.     Verse  v.   wear'd  [spent.  —  Ed.]. 

P.  495.    Verse  ix.  tew  [stew.  —  Ed.]. 

P.  495.  Verse  xi.  num-cumpus,  non- 
compos. 

P.  496.  Verse  xiv.  snaggy  [ill-tempered. 
—  Ed.]. 

P.  497.  The  Revenge;  A  Ballad 
or  the  Fleet.  [First  published  in  The 
Nineteenth  Century,  March  1878,  under 
the  title  of  "Sir  Richard  Grenville:  a 
Ballad  of  the  Fleet"  ;  afterwards  published 
in    Ballads    and    Poems,    1880.     The    line 

At  Flores  in  the  Azores  Sir  Richard 
Grenville  lay 
was  on  my  father's  desk  for  two  years, 
but  he  set  to  work  and  finished  the  ballad 
at  last  all  at  once  in  a  day  or  two.  He 
wrote  to  my  mother:  "Sir  Richard 
Grenville,  in  one  ship,  The  Revenge, 
fought  fifty-three  Spanish  ships  of  the  line 
for  fifteen  hours :  a  tremendous  story,  out- 
rivalling  Agincourt."  Carlyle's  comment 
on  the  poem  was:  "Eh!  Alfred,  you 
have  got  the  grip  of  it."  —  Ed.] 

This  tremendous  story  is  told  finely  by 
Walter  Raleigh  in  his  Report  of  the  truth 
of  the  fight  about  the  Isles  of  Aqores  this 
last    summer,    and    by    Froude  —  also    by 


NOTES 


967 


Bacon.  "The  action,"  says  Froude, 
"struck  a  deeper  terror,  though  it  was 
but  the  action  of  a  single  ship,  into  the 
hearts  of  the  Spanish  people;  it  dealt  a 
more  deadly  blow  upon  their  fame  and 
moral  strength  than  the  Armada  itself." 
Sir  Richard  Grenville  commanded  Sir 
Walter  Raleigh's  first  colony  which  went 
out  to  Virginia.  He  was  always  re- 
garded with  superstitious  reverence  by  the 
Spaniards,  who  declared  for  instance  that 
he  would  carouse  three  or  four  glasses  of 
wine,  and  take  the  glasses  between  his 
teeth  and  crush  them  to  pieces  and  swallow 
them  down.  The  Revenge  was  the  same 
ship  of  500  tons  in  which  Drake  had  sailed 
against  the  Armada  three  years  before  this 
sea-fight.1 

Flores  is  a  dissyllable,  Az6res  a  trisyllable. 

P.  .  498.  Verse  vii.  galleons.  Pro- 
nounced like  "allion"  in  "medallion" 
(derived  from  galea). 

P.  499.  Sir  Richard  "commanded  the 
master  gunner,  whom  he  knew  to  be  a 
most  resolute  man,  to  split  and  sink  the 
ship,  that  thereby  nothing  might  remain 
of  glory  or  victory  to  the  Spaniards,  seeing 
in  so  many  hours  they  were  not  able  to 
take  her,  having  had  about  fifteen  hours' 
time,  fifteen  thousand  men,  and  fifty-three 
sail  of  men  of  war  to  perform  it  withal" 
(Raleigh). 

P.  499.     Verse  xiii. 
'/  have  fought  for  Queen  and  Faith  like  a 

valiant  man  and  true; 
I   have  only  done   my  duly    as  a  man   is 

bound  to  do.: 
With     a    joyful     spirit     I     Sir     Richard 
Grenville  die!' 

"His  exact  words  were:  'Here  die  I, 
Richard  Greenfield,  with  a  joyful  and 
quiet  mind,  for  that  I  have  ended  my  life 
as  a  true  soldier  ought  to  do,  that  hath 
fought  for  his  country,  Queen,  religion,  and 
honour.  Whereby  my  soul  most  joyfully 
departeth    out    of    this    body,    and    shall 

1  See  R.  L.  Stevenson,  "The  English  Ad- 
mirals," in  Virginibus  Puerisque,  p.  205:  'T 
must  tell  one  more  story,  which  has  lately  been 
made  familiar  to  us  all,  and  that  in  one  of  the 
noblest  ballads  in  the  English  language.  I  had 
written  my  prose  abstract,  I  shall  beg  the  reader 
to  believe,  when  I  had  no  notion  that  the  sacred 
bard  designed  an  immortality  for  Grenville." 


always  leave  behind  it  an  everlasting  fame 
of  a  valiant  and  true  soldier  that  hath 
done  his  duty  as  he  was  bound  to  do.' 
When  he  had  finished  these  or  such  other 
like  words,  he  gave  up  the  Ghost  with  a 
great  and  stout  courage,  and  no  man 
could  perceive  any  true  sign  of  heaviness 
in  him."  (Jan  Huygen  van  Linschoten, 
translated  into  English  1598.) 

P.  499.     Verse  xiv. 

When  a  wind  from  the  lands  they  had 
ruin'd  awoke  from  sleep. 
West  Indies.  "A  fleet  of  merchantmen 
joined  the  Armada  immediately  after  the 
battle,  forming  in  all  140  sail ;  and  of  these 
140  only  32  ever  saw  Spanish  harbour." 

Gervase  Markham  wrote  a  poem  entitled 
The  Most  Honourable  Tragedie  of  Sir 
Richard  Grenuile,  Knight,  in  1595,  and 
in  his  postscript  to  the  poem  writes: 
"What  became  of  the  Revenge  after  Sir 
Richard's  death,  divers  report  diversly, 
but  the  most  probable  and  sufficient  proof e 
sayeth,  that  within  fewe  dayes  after  the 
knightes  death,  there  arose  a  great  storme 
from  the  West  and  North-West,  that  all 
the  Fleet  was  dispersed,  as  well  the  Indian 
Fleet,  which  were  then  come  unto  them, 
as  all  the  rest  of  the  Armada,  which 
attended  their  arivall;  of  which  fourteen 
sayle,  together  with  the  Revenge,  and  her 
two  hundred  Spanyards  were  cast  away 
uponn  the  He  of  St.  Michaels;  so  it 
pleased  them  to  honour  the  buriall  of  that 
renowned  ship  the  Revenge,  not  suffering 
her  to  perrish  alone,  for  the  great  honour 
shee  atchieved  in  her  life-time." 

P.  499.  The  Sisters.  [First  pub- 
lished in  1880.  Partly  founded  on  a 
story,  known  to  my  father,  of  a  girl  who 
consented  to  be  bridesmaid  to  her  sister, 
although  she  secretly  loved  the  bridegroom. 
The  night  after  the  wedding  the  unhappy 
bridesmaid  ran  away  from  home.  They 
searched  for  her  high  and  low,  and  at  last 
she  was  found,  knocking  at  the  church 
door,  in  the  "pitiless  rush  of  autumn 
rain,"  her  wits  gone  — 
The  great  Tragedian,  that  had  quench 'd 

herself 
In  that  assumption  of  the  bridesmaid. 

The  scene  of  the  picnic  was  a  personal 


968 


NOTES 


experience  in  the  New  Forest.  He  would 
often  quote  as  his  own  belief  these  lines: 

My  God,  I  would  not  live 
Save  that  I  think  this  gross  hard-seeming 

world 
Is  our  misshaping  vision  of  the  Powers 
Behind   the  world,   that  make  our  griefs 

our  gains.  Ed.] 

P.  501,  col.  1,  lines  7-1 1. 
A    moonless   night   with   storm  —  one   light- 
ning-fork 
Flash' d   out  the  lake;    and   tho'   I   loiter' 'd 

there 
The  full  day  after,  yet  in  retrospect 
That  less  than  momentary  thunder -sketch 
Of  lake  and  mountain  conquers  all  the  day. 

What  I  saw  myself  at  Llanberis,  in 
North  Wales. 

P.  504.  The  Village  Wife;  or, 
The    Entail.     [First    published    in    1880. 

—  Ed.]  The  village  wife  herself  is  the 
only  portrait  in  the  Lincolnshire  poems  that 
is  drawn  from  life. 

P.  504.  Verse  iii.  the  fault  o'  that  ere 
madle.     By  default  of  the  heir  male. 

P.  505.  Verse  ix.  'Ouse  [Workhouse.  — 
Ed.]. 

P.  505.  Verse  xi.  Heaps  an'  heaps  o' 
boooks.  This  really  happened  to  some  of 
the  most  valuable  books  in  the  great 
library  formed  by  Johnson's  friend,  Bennet 
Langton. 

P.  506.  Verse  xv.  Siver  the  mou'ds. 
[However,  the  earth  rattled  down  on  poor 
old  Squire's  coffin.  —  Ed.] 

P.  506.     Verse  xix.     roomlin'  [rumbling. 

—  Ed.]. 

P.  507.  In  the  Children's  Hospital. 
[First  published  in  1880.  —  Ed.]  A  true 
story  told  me  by  Mary  Gladstone.  The 
doctors  and  hospital  are  unknown  to  me. 
The  two  children  are  the  only  characters 
taken  from  life  in  this  little  dramatic  poem, 
in  which  the  hospital  nurse  and  not  the 
poet  is  speaking  throughout. 

P.  507.  Verse  i.  oorali  or  curari  (ex- 
tracted from  the  Strychnos  toxifera),  which 
paralyzes  the  nerves  while  still  the  victim 
feels. 


P.  508.  Dedicatory  Poem  to  the 
Princess  Alice.  [First  published  with 
The  Defence  of  Lucknow  in  The  Nineteenth 
Century,  April  1879,  afterwards  in  Ballads 
and  Poems,  1880.  —  Ed.] 

P.  508,  line  2.  fatal  kiss.  Princess 
Alice  (Grand  Duchess  of  Hesse-Darmstadt) 
died  of  kissing  her  child,  who  was  ill  with 
diphtheria  (December  14th,  1878). 

P.  508,  line  11.  Thy  Soldier-brother's. 
[The  Duke  of  Connaught,  married  on 
March  13th,  1879,  to  Louise  Marguerite, 
Princess  of  Prussia.  —  Ed.] 

P.  509.    The  Defence  of  Lucknow. 

The  old  flag,  used  during  the  defence 
of  the  Residency,  was  hoisted  on  the 
Lucknow  flagstaff  by  General  Wilson,  and 
the  soldiers  who  still  survived  from  the 
siege  were  all  mustered  on  parade,  in 
honour  of  this  poem,  when  my  son  Lionel 
(who  died  on  his  journev  from  India)  visited 
Lucknow.  A  tribute  overwhelmingly  touch- 
ing. 

P.  509.  Verse  ii.  Lawrence.  Sir  Henry 
Lawrence  died  of  his  wounds  on  July  4th, 
1857. 

P.  510.     Verse  vi. 
Ever  the  mine  and  assault,  our  sallies,  their 
lying  alarms. 

3292  feet  of  gallery  alone  was  dug  out. 
See  Outram's  account  and  Colonel  Inglis's 
modest  manly  record.  Lucknow  was 
relieved  on  Sept.  25th  by  Havelock  and 
Outram. 

P.  511.  Sir  John  Oldcastle,  Lord 
Cobham.  [First  published  in  1880.  —  Ed.] 
I  took  as  subject  of  this  poem  Sir  John 
Oldcastle,  Lord  Cobham,  because  he  is  a 
fine  historical  figure.  He  was  named  by 
the  people  ''the  good  Lord  Cobham," 
a  friend  of  Henry  V.  As  a  follower  of 
Wycliff,  he  was  cited  before  a  great  council 
of  the  Church,  which  was  presided  over 
by  Thomas  Arundel,  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury, and  was  condemned  to  be  burnt 
alive  for  heresy.  He  escaped  from  the 
Tower  to  Wales,  and  four  years  later  was 
captured  and  burnt  in  chains. 

P.  511,  col.  2,  line  13.  ' Dim  Saesneg.' 
Welsh  for  'No  English.' 


NOTES 


969 


P.  512,  col.  2,  line  13-  John  of  Beverley, 
burnt  Jan.  19th,  1414. 

P.  512,  col.  2,  line  22.  My  boon  com- 
panion. This  passage  has  reference  to 
the  story  that  Sir  John  Falstaff  was  Sir 
John  Oldcastle.  For  Oldcastle,  etc.,  see 
Epilogue  to  2  Henry  IV. 

P.  512,  col.  2,  line  28. 

Or  Amurath  of  the  East? 
[Cf.  2  Henry  IV.  v.  ii.  48: 
"This    is    the    English,    not    the    Turkish 

court ; 
Not  Amurath  an  Amurath  succeeds, 
But  Harry  Harry."  Ed.] 

P.  514,  col.  1,  line  4.  Sylvester  was 
Pope  from  314  to  335  and  received  the 
Donation  from  Constantine. 

P.  514.  Columbus.  [First  published 
in  1880.  —  Ed.] 

Columbus  on  his  return  into  Spain  was 
thrown  into  chains. 

My  poem  of  Columbus  was  founded  on 
the  following  passage  in  Washington 
Irving's  Life  of  Columbus:  —  "The  caravels 
set  sail  early  in  October,  bearing  off 
Columbus  shackled  like  the  vilest  of  culprits, 
amid  the  scoffs  and  shouts  of  a  miscreant 
rabble,  who  took  a  brutal  joy  in  heaping 
insults  on  his  venerable  head,  and  sent 
curses  after  him  from  the  island  he  had  so 
recently  added  to  the  civilized  world.  The 
worthy  Villejo,  as  well  as  Andreas  Martin, 
the  master  of  the  caravel,  felt  deeply 
grieved  at  his  situation.  They  would  have 
taken  off  his  irons,  but  to  this  he  would 
not  consent.  'No,'  said  he  proudly, 
'their  Majesties  commanded  me  by  letter 
to  submit  to  whatever  Bobadillo  should 
order  in  their  name;  by  their  authority  he 
has  put  upon  me  these  chains ;  I  will  wear 
them  until  they  shall  order  them  to  be 
taken  off,  and  I  will  afterwards  preserve 
them  as  relics  and  memorials  of  the  reward 
of  my  services.'  'He  did  so,'  adds  his 
son  Fernando  in  his  history.  'I  saw  them 
always  hanging  in  his  cabinet,  and  he 
requested  that,  when  he  died,  they  might 
be  buried  with  him.'" 

P.  5 15,  col.  1 ,  line  11.  the  Dragon's  mouth. 
[Bocca  del  Drago,  the  channel  so  named  by 
Columbus  between  the  island  of  Trinidad 
and  South  America.  —  Ed.] 


P.  515,  col.  1,  line  12.  the  Mountain  of  the 
World.     [Adam's  Peak  in  Ceylon.  —  Ed.] 

P.  515,  col.  2,  line  2.  King  David, 
etc.     [Cf.  Psalm  civ.  2.  —  Ed.] 

P.  515,  col.  2,  line  4.  Lactantius. 
[A  famous  Christian  apologist  of  the  fourth 
century,  called  by  some  the  Christian 
Cicero.  —  Ed.] 

P.  515,  col.  2,  line  30.  Guanahani. 
[Native  name  of  the  first  island  discovered 
by  Columbus.  —  Ed.] 

P.  516,  col.  i,  line  33.    Cambalu.     [Cf. 
"  Cambalu,  seat  of  Cathayan  Can." 
Paradise  Lost,  xi.  388. 
Ed.] 

P.  516,  col.  2,  line  2.  Prester  John. 
[Cf.  "I  will  fetch  you  a  tooth-picker  now 
from  the  furthest  inch  of  Asia,  bring  you 
the  length  of  Prester  John's  foot"  {Much 
Ado,  11.  i.  274).  Prester  John  was  a 
legendary  Christian  king.  —  Ed.] 

P.  516,  col.  2,  line  10.  Hispaniola. 
[The  name  given  to  Hayti  by  Columbus.  — 
Ed.] 

P.  517,  col.  1,  line  5.  Veragua.  [A 
Spanish  province  of  New  Grenada  in  South 
America.  —  Ed.] 

P.  517,  col.  2,  line  19.  Catalonian 
Minorite.  [Bernard  Buil,  a  Benedictine 
monk  sent  by  the  Pope  to  the  West  Indies 
in  June  1493  as  Apostolic  Vicar.  He  con- 
tinually tried  to  thwart  Columbus.  —  Ed.] 

P.  518.  The  Voyage  of  Maeldune. 
[First  published  in  1880.  By  this  story 
my  father  intended  to  represent,  in  his  own 
original  way,  the  Celtic  genius;  and  en- 
joyed writing  the  poem  as  he  had  a  genuine 
love  for  the  peculiar  exuberance  of  the  Irish 
genius.  —  Ed.] 

The  oldest  form  of  Maeldune  is  in  The 
Book  of  the  Dun  Cow  (a.d.  1160).  I  read 
the  legend  in  Joyce's  Old  Celtic  Romances, 
but  most  of  the  details  are  mine. 

[It  was  in  1878  at  Kilkee  that  Mr. 
Perceval  Graves  recommended  to  my  father 
this  book ;  because  he  said  that  he  desired 
to  write  an  Irish  poem.  "When  telling 
Tennyson  of  Joyce's  book,"  he  writes,  "and 
several  of  the  tales  which  relate  to  Finn 
and  his  heroic  companions,  I  had  hoped 
he  would  have  treated  one  of  them,   by 


97© 


NOTES 


choice  Oisin.  (Ossian)  in  Tirrnanoge  (The 
Land  of  Youth)  rather  than  '  The  voyage  of 
Maeldune.'  For  the  mention  of  Ossian 
has  started  him  off  into  an  expression  of 
admiration  of  some  passages  in  Macpher- 
son's  work  for  which  I  was  not  prepared. 
'Listen  to  this,'  he  said:  'O  thou,  that 
rollest  above,  round  as  the  shield  of  my 
fathers !  Whence  are  thy  beams,  O  Sun  ? 
thy  everlasting  light?  Thou  comest  forth 
in  thy  awful  beauty;  the  stars  hide  them- 
selves in  the  sky ;  the  moon,  cold  and 
pale,  sinks  on  the  western  wave ;  but  thou 
thyself  movest  alone.  Who  can  be  a  com- 
panion of  thy  course?  The  vales  of  the 
mountain  fall;  the  mountains  themselves 
decay  with  years;  the  ocean  shrinks  and 
grows  again;  the  moon  herself  is  lost  in 
heaven ;  but  thou  art  for  ever  the  same, 
rejoicing  in  the  brightness  of  thy  course. 
When  the  world  is  dark  with  tempest, 
when  thunder  rolls  and  lightning  flies, 
thou  lookest  in  thy  beauty  from  the  clouds 
and  laughest  at  the  storm."  —  Ed.] 

P.  519.     Verse  iii.    flitter  mouse.     A  bat. 

P.  520.  Verse  viii.  Finn  was  the  most 
famous  of  old  Irish  leaders.  He  was  com- 
mander of  the  Feni  of  Erin  and  was  father 
of  the  poet  Ossian.  He  was  killed,  a.d. 
284,  at  Athbrea  on  the  Boyne. 

P.  520.  Verse  x.  [Symbolical  of  the 
contest  between  Roman  Catholics  and 
Protestants.  —  Ed.] 

P.  521.  Verse  xi.  St.  Brendan  sailed  on 
his  voyage  some  time  in  the  sixth  century 
from  Kerry,  and  some  say  he  visited. 
America. 

P.  521.  De  Profundis.  [Begun  at 
the  birth  of  his  son  Hallam,  Aug.  nth, 
1852;  first  published  in  The  Nineteenth 
Century,  May  1880.  —  Ed.] 

NOTE  ON  DE  PROFUNDIS1 

By  Mr.  Wilfrid  Ward 

He  (Tennyson)  had  often  said  he  would 
go  through  the  "De  Profundis"  with  me 
line  by  line,  and  he  did  so  late  in  January  or 

1  From  Problems  and  Persons,  by  Wilfrid 
Ward,  published  here  by  his  kind  permission 
and  that  of  Longmans,  Green  &  Co. 


early  in  February  1889,  when  I  was  staying 
at  Farringford.  He  was  still  very  ill,  having 
had  rheumatic  fever  in  tne  previous  year; 
and  neither  he  nor  his  friends  expected 
that  he  would  recover  after  his  many 
relapses.  He  could  scarcely  move  his 
limbs,  and  his  fingers  were  tied  with 
bandages.  We  moved  him  from  bed  to 
sofa,  but  he  could  not  sit  up.  His  mind, 
however,  was  quite  clear.  He  read  through 
the  "De  Profundis,"  and  gave  the  sub- 
stance of  the  explanation  I  have  written 
down.  He  began  languidly,  but  soon  got 
deeply  interested.  When  he  reached  the 
prayer  at  the  end,  he  said:  "A  B" 
(naming  a  well-known  Positivist  thinker) 
"exclaimed,  when  I  read  it  to  him,  'Do 
leave  that  prayer  out;  I  like  all  the  rest 
of  it.'  " 

I  proceed  to  set  down  the  account  of 
the  poem  written  (in  substance)  im- 
mediately after  his  explanation  of  it. 
The  mystery  of  life  as  a  whole  which  so 
constantly  exercised  him  is  here  most  fully 
dealt  with.  He  supposes  a  child  just  born, 
and  considers  the  problems  of  human 
existence  as  presented  by  the  thought  of 
the  child's  birth,  and  the  child's  future  life 
with  all  its  possibilities.  The  poem  takes 
the  form  of  two  greetings  to  the  new-born 
child.  In  the  first  greeting  life  is  viewed 
as  we  see  it  in  the  world,  and  as  we  know 
it  by  physical  science  as  a  phenomenon ; 
as  the  materialist  might  view  it ;  not 
indeed  coarsely,  but  as  an  outcome  of  all 
the  physical  forces  of  the  universe,  which 
have  ever  contained  in  themselves  the 
potentiality  of  all  that  was  to  come  —  "all 
that  was  to  be  in  all  that  was."  These 
vast  and  wondrous  forces  have  now  issued 
in  this  newly  given  life  —  this  child  born 
into  the  world.  There  is  the  sense  of 
mystery  in  our  greeting  to  it ;  but  it  is  of 
the  mysteries  of  the  physical  Universe  and 
nothing  beyond ;  the  sense  of  awe  fitting 
to  finite  man  at  the  thought  of  infinite  Time, 
of  the  countless  years  before  human  life 
was  at  all,  during  which  the  fixed  laws  of 
Nature  were  ruling  and  framing  the  earth 
as  we  know  it,  of  the  countless  years  earlier 
still,  during  which,  on  the  nebular  hypo- 
thesis, Nature's  laws  were  working  before 
our  planet  was  separated  off  from  the  mass 
of  the  sun's  light,  and  before  the  similar 


NOTES 


971 


differentiation  took  place  in  the  rest  of  the 
"vast  waste  dawn  of  multitudinous  eddy- 
ing light."  Again,  there  is  awe  in  con- 
templating the  vastness  of  space;  in  the 
thoughts  which  in  ascending  scale  rise  from 
the  new-born  infant  to  the  great  globe  of 
which  he  is  so  small  a  part,  from  that  to 
the  whole  solar  system,  from  that  again  to 
the  myriad  similar  systems  "glimmering 
up  the  heights  beyond"  us  which  we 
partly  see  in  the  Milky  Way ;  from  that  to 
those  others  which  human  sight  can  never 
descry.  Forces  in  Time  and  Space  as 
nearly  infinite  as  our  imagination  can  con- 
ceive, have  been  leading  up  to  this  one 
birth,  with  the  short  life  of  a  single  man 
before  it.  May  that  life  be  happy  and 
noble !  Viewing  it  still  as  the  course 
determined  by  Nature's  laws  —  a  course 
unknown  to  us  and  yet  unalterably  fixed  — 
we  sigh  forth  the  hope  that  our  child  may 
pass  unscathed  through  youth,  may  have  a 
full  and  prosperous  time  on  earth,  blessed 
by  man  for  good  done  to  man,  and  may 
pass  peacefully  at  last  to  rest.  Such  is  the 
first  greeting  —  full  of  the  poetry  of  life,  of 
its  wondrous  causes,  of  the  overwhelming 
greatness  of  the  Universe  of  which  this 
new-given  baby  is  the  child,  cared  for, 
preserved  hitherto  unscathed  amid  these 
awful  powers,  all  in  all  to  its  parents,  in- 
spiring the  hope  which  new-given  joy 
makes  sanguine,  that  fortune  may  be  kind 
to  it,  that  happiness  may  be  as  great, 
sorrow  and  pain  as  little,  as  the  chances  of 
the  world  allow. 

After  his  explanation,  he  read  the  first 
greeting  to  the  child. 

And  then  comes  the  second  greeting. 
A  deeper  chord  is  struck.  The  listener, 
who  has,  perhaps,  felt  as  if  the  first  greet- 
ing contained  all  —  all  the  mystery  of  birth, 
of  life,  of  death  —  hears  a  sound  unknown, 
unimagined  before.  A  new  range  of  ideas 
is  opened  to  us.  The  starry  firmament 
disappears  for  the  moment.  The  "deep" 
of  infinite  time  and  space  is  forgotten.  A 
fresh  sense  is  awakened,  a  deeper  depth 
disclosed.  We  leave  this  wondrous  world 
of  appearances.  We  gaze  into  that  other 
'deep  —  the  world  of  spirit,  the  world  of 
realities;  we  see  the  new-born  babe 
coming  to  us  from  that  true  world,  with 
all  the  "abysmal  depths  of  personality," 


no  longer  a  mere  link  in  the  chain  of 
causes,  with  a  fated  course  through  the 
events  of  life,  but  a  moral  being,  with  the 
awful  power  of  making  or  marring  its  own 
destiny  and  that  of  others.  The  propor- 
tions are  abruptly  reversed.  The  child  is 
no  longer  the  minute  outcome  of  natural 
forces  so  much  greater  than  itself.  It  is 
the  "spirit,"  the  moral  being,  a  reality 
which  impinges  on  the  world  of  appear- 
ances. Never  can  I  forget  the  change  of 
voice,  the  change  of  manner,  as  Lord 
Tennyson  passed  from  the  first  greeting, 
with  its  purely  human  thoughts,  to  the 
second,  so  full  of  awe  at  the  conception  of 
the  world  behind  the  veil  and  the  moral 
nature  of  man;  an  awe  which  seemed  to 
culminate  when  he  paused  before  the  word 
"Spirit"  in  the  seventh  line  and  then  gave 
it  in  deeper  and  more  piercing  tones: 
"Out  of  the  deep  —  Spirit, —  out  of  the 
deep."  This  second  greeting  is  in  two 
parts. 

Note  that  the  second  greeting  considers 
the  reality  of  the  child's  life  and  its  mean- 
ing, the  first  only  its  appearance.  The 
great  deep  of  the  spiritual  world  is  "that 
true  world  within  the  world  we  see, 
Whereof  our  world  is  but  the  bounding 
shore."  And  this  indication  that  the 
second  greeting  gives  the  deeper  and  truer 
view,  is  preserved  in  some  of  the  side 
touches  of  description.  In  the  first  greet- 
ing, for  example,  the  moon  is  spoken  of  as 
"touch'd  with  earth's  light";  in  the 
second  the  truer  and  less  obvious  fact  is 
suggested.  It  "sends  the  hidden  sun 
down  yon  dark  sea."  The  material  view 
again  looks  at  bright  and  hopeful  appear- 
ances in  life,  and  it  notes  the  new-born 
babe  "breaking  with  laughter  from  the 
dark."  The  spiritual  view  foresees  the 
woes  which,  if  Byron  is  right  in  calling 
melancholy  the  "telescope  of  truth,"  are 
truer  than  the  joys.  It  notes  no  longer 
the  child's  laughter,  but  rather  its  tears, 
"Thou  wailest  being  born  and  banished 
into  mystery."  Life,  in  the  spiritual  view, 
is  in  part  a  veiling  and  obscuring  of  the 
true  self  as  it  is,  in  a  world  of  appearances. 
The  soul  is  "half  lost"  in  the  body  which 
is  part  of  the  phenomenal  world,  "in  thine 
own  shadow  and  in  this  fleshy  sign  that 
thou    art    thou."     The   suns   and    moons, 


972 


NOTES 


too,  are  but  shadows,  as  the  body  of  the 
child  itself  is  but  a  shadow  —  shadows  of 
the  spirit- world  and  of  God  Himself.  The 
physical  life  is  before  the  child ;  but  not  as 
a  fatally  determined  course.  Choice  of 
the  good  is  to  lead  the  spirit  ever  nearer 
God.  The  wonders  of  the  material  Uni- 
verse are  still  recognized:  "Sun,  sun, 
and  sun,  thro'  finite-infinite  space,  in  finite- 
infinite  Time";  but  they  vanish  into 
insignificance  when  compared  to  the  two 
great  facts  of  the  spirit-world  which  con- 
sciousness tells  us  unmistakably  —  the  facts 
of  personality  and  of  a  responsible  will. 
The  great  mystery  is  "Not  Matter,  nor 
the  finite-infinite,"  but  "this  main-miracle, 
that  thou  art  thoti,  with  power  on  thine  own 
act  and  on  the  world.'' 

"Out  of  the  deep"  —  in  this  conception 
of  the  true  "deep"  of  the  world  behind 
the  veil  we  have  the  thought  which  recurs 
so  often,  as  in  the  "Passing  of  Arthur" 
and  in  "Crossing  the  Bar"1, —  of  birth 
and  death  as  the  coming  from  and  return- 
ing to  the  spirit-world  and  God  Himself. 
Birth2  is  the  coming  to  land  from  that 
deep;  "of  which  our  world  is  but  the 
bounding  shore";  death  the  re-embaiking 
on  the  same  infinite  sea,  for  the  home  of 
truth  and  light. 

He  seemed  so  much  better  when  he  had 
finished  his  explanation  that  I  asked  him 
to  read  the  poem  through  again.  This  he 
did,  more  beautifully  than  I  ever  heard 
him  read.  I  felt  as  though  his  long  illness 
and  his  expectation  of  death  gave  more 
intensity  and  force  to  his  rendering  of  this 
wonderful  poem  on  the  mystery  of  life.  He 
began  quietly,  and  read  the  concluding  lines 
of  the  first  "greeting,"  the  brief  descrip- 
tion of  a  peaceful  old  age  and  deatn,  from 
the  human  standpoint,  with  a  very  tender 
pathos.  Then  he  gathered  force.and  his  voice 
deepened  as  the  greeting  to  the  immortal 
soul  of  the  man  was  read.  He  raised  his 
eyes  from  the  book  at  the  seventh  line  and 

1  "From  the  great  deep  to  the  great  deep  he 
goes";  and  "when  that  which  drew  from  out 
the  boundless  deep  turns  again  home." 

2  For  in  the  world  which  is  not  ours,  they  said, 
"Let  us  make  man,"  and  that  which  should 

be  a  man, 
From  that  one  light  no  man  can  look  upon, 
Drew  to  this  shore,  lit  by  the  suns  and  moons 
And  all  the  shadows. 


looked  for  a  moment  at  his  hearer  with  an 
indescribable  expression  of  awe  before  he 
uttered  the  word  "spirit";  "Out  of  the 
deep  —  Spirit,  —  out  of  the  deep."  When 
he  had  finished  the  second  greeting  he  was 
trembling  much.  Then  he  read  the  prayer 
—  a  prayer  he  had  told  me  of  self-pros- 
tration before  the  Infinite.  I  think  he 
intended  it  as  a  contrast  to  the  analytical 
and  reflective  character  of  the  rest.  It  is 
an  outpouring  of  the  simplest  and  most 
intense  self-abandonment  to  the  Creator. 

P.  522.  Part  II.  At  times  I  have 
possessed  the  power  of  making  my  in- 
dividuality as  it  were  dissolve  and  fade 
away  into  boundless  being,  and  this  not  a 
confused  state  but  the  clearest  of  the  clear- 
est, the  surest  of  the  surest,  utterly  beyond 
words,  where  death  was  an  almost  laugh- 
able impossibility,  and  the  loss  of  per- 
sonality, if  so  it  were,  seeming  no  alteration 
but  the  only  true  life.  (See  The  Holy 
Grail,  ad  fin.) 

P.  522.  Prefatory  Sonnet  to  the 
'Nineteenth  Century.'  [First  pub- 
lished in  the  first  number  of  The  Nine- 
teenth Century,  March  1877,  afterwards  in 
Ballads   and   other  Poems,    1880.  —  Ed.] 

P.  522,  line  3.  their  old  craft.  The 
Contemporary  Review. 

P.  522,  line  7. 

Here,  in  this  roaring  moon  of  daffodil. 
Written  in  March. 

P.  522.  To  the  Rev.  W.  H.  Brook- 
field.  [First  published  in  Lord  Lyttelton's 
Preface  to  Brookfield's  Sermons,  afterwards 
in  Ballads  and  other  Poems,  1880.  Dr. 
Thompson,  the  Master  of  Trinity,  wrote: 
"He  was  far  the  most  amusing  man  I  ever 
met,  or  shall  meet.  At  my  age  it  is  not 
likely  that  I  shall  ever  again  see  a  whole 
party  lying  on  the  floor  for  purposes 
of  unrestrained  laughter,  while  one  of 
their  number  is  pouring  forth,  with  a  per- 
fectly grave  face,  a  succession  of  imaginary 
dialogues  between  characters,  real  and 
fictitious,  one  exceeding  another  in  humour 
and  drollery."  —  Ed.] 

P.  523.  Montenegro.  [Written  after 
talking  with  Gladstone  about  the  bravery 
of  the  Montenegrins,  and  first  published 
in   The   Nineteenth   Century,    March    1877, 


NOTES 


973 


afterwards  in  Ballads  and  other  Poems, 
1880.  —  Ed.] 

P.  523,  col.  2,  line  3.  Tsernogora 
(Black  mountain).  The  Slavonic  name 
for  Montenegro. 

P.  523.  To  Victor  Hugo.  [Published 
in  The  Nineteenth  Century,  June  1877, 
afterwards  in  Ballads  and  other  Poems, 
1880.  —  Ed.] 

After  my  son  Lionel's  visit  to  him  in 
Paris. 

[Victor  Hugo  thanked  my  father  in  the 
following  letter :  — 

MON    EMINENT    ET    CHER    CONFRERE,  — 

Je  Us  avec  emotion  vos  vers  superbes,  c'est 
un  reflet  de  gloire  que  vous  m'envoyez. 
Comment  n'aimerais-je  pas  l'Angleterre 
qui  produit  des  hommes  tels  que  vous ! 
l'Angleterre  de  Wilberforce !  l'Angleterre 
de  Milton  et  de  Newton !  l'Angleterre  de 
Shakespeare !  France  et  Angleterre  sont 
pour  moi  un  seul  peuple  comme  Verite  et 
Liberte  sont  une  seule  lumiere.  Je  crois  a 
l'unite  divine.  J'aime  tous  les  peuples  et 
tous  les  hommes  et  j 'admire  vos  nobles 
vers.  Recevez  mon  cordial  serrement  de 
main.  Victor  Hugo. 

J'ai  ete  heureux  de  connaitre  votre 
charmant  fils  —  il  m'a  semble,  que  serrer  sa 
main,  c'etait  presser  la  votre. 

Ed.] 

P.  523.  Battle  of  Brunanburh. 
[First  published  in  1880.  —  Ed.]  I  have 
more  or  less  availed  myself  of  my  son's 
prose  translation  of  this  poem  in  The 
Contemporary  Review,  November  1876. 

["But  tell  your  father  that,  when  I  saw 
his  version  of  your  Battle  of  Brunanburh, 
I  said  to  myself,  and  afterwards  to  others, 
'There's  the  way  to  render  jEschylus' 
Chorus  at  last !  '  unless  indeed  it  might 
overpower  any  blank  verse  dialogue" 
(Edward  FitzGerald  to  Hallam  Tennyson). 
—  Ed.] 

P.  525.  Achilles  over  the  Trench. 
[First  published  in  The  Nineteenth  Century, 
August  1877.  —  Ed.] 

P.  526.  To  Princess  Frederica  on 
her  Marriage.  [Written  on  the  marriage 
of  Princess  Frederica,  daughter  of  George 
V.,    the    blind    King    of    Hanover,    with 


Baron  von  Pawel-Rammingen  at  Windsor, 
April  24th,  1880.  Published  in  1880.  — 
Ed.] 

P.  526.  Sir  John  Franklin.  [Written 
in  1877  for  the  cenotaph  in  Westminster 
Abbey,  and  published  in  Ballads  and  other 
Poems,  1880. —  Ed.] 

P.  526.  To  Dante.  [Written  for  the 
sixth  anniversary  of  Dante's  birth  at  the 
request  of  the  people  of  Florence,  May  14th, 
1865,  and  published  in  Ballads  and  other 
Poems,  1880.  The  few  lines  addressed  to 
Dante  have  a  curious  history.  In  1865 
Monckton  Milnes  (Lord  Houghton)  met 
a  brother  of  my  father's  friend  Canon 
Warburton,  and  said  to  him,  "Tennjson 
is  not  going  to  the  Dante  Centenary,  but 
he  has  given  me  some  lines  which  I  am 
to  recite  to  the  Florentines,"  and  he  then 
repeated  the  lines.  The  same  evening 
Canon  Warburton  met  his  brother,  who 
observed,  "Milnes  has  just  been  saying 
to  me  some  lines  which  Tennyson  has 
given  him  to  recite  at  the  Centenary,  for 
he  is  not  going  himself."  He  then  repeated 
the  lines.  Some  fifteen  years  or  so  later, 
my  father  was  talking  to  the  Canon  about 
the  probably  short-lived  duration  of  all 
modern  poetical  fame.  "Who,"  said  he, 
"will  read  Alfred  Tennyson  one  hundred 
years  hence?     And  look  at  Dante  after  six 


hundred      years ! 


'That, 


Warburton 


answered,  "is  a  renewal  of  the  garland- 
of-a-day  superstition."  "What  do  you 
mean?"  "Your  own  words  1"  "What 
can  you  mean?"  "Don't  you  remember 
those  lines  you  gave  to  Milnes  to  recite  for 
you  at  the  Dante  Centenary  ?  "  My  father 
had  quite  forgotten  the  lines,  whereupon 
Warburton  then  wrote  them  out  as  far  as 
he  could  remember  them.  Shortly  after- 
wards I  was  able  to  send  the  Canon  a 
letter,  telling  him  that  my  father  had 
recalled  the  correct  version  of  the  poem. 
My  father  would  say:  "One  must  dis- 
tinguish from  among  the  poets  the  great 
sage  poets  of  all,  who  are  both  great 
thinkers  and  great  artists,  like  jEschylus, 
Shakespeare,  Dante,  and  Goethe."  —  Ed.] 

P.     526.      [TlRESIAS    AND    OTHER     POEMS 

was  affectionately  dedicated  "To  my  good 
friend,  Robert  Browning,  whose  genius 
and   geniality   will   best   appreciate   what 


974 


NOTES 


may  be  best,  and  make  most  allowance  for 
what  may  be  worst." 

Browning  had  previously  dedicated  a 
Selection  of  his  own  poems  to  my  father : 

To  Alfred  Tennyson 

In  poetry  illustrious  and  consummate, 
In  friendship  noble  and  sincere. 

These  brother-poets  revelled  as  it  were  in 
each  other's  praise,  and  were  always  most 
loyal  to  one  another.  For  example,  on 
one  occasion  Browning  was  very  angry 
because  an  anonymous  critic  had  accused 
my  father  of  plagiarism;  and,  knowing 
the  wealth  of  similes  and  metaphors  in  his 
poems  and  in  his  ordinary  conversation, 
said  to  Lecky:  "Tennyson  suspected  of 
plagiarism  !  why,  you  might  as  well  suspect 
the  Rothschilds  of  picking  pockets."  —  Ed.] 

P.  526.  To  E.  Fitz  Gerald.  [First 
published  in  1885.  Written  after  our 
visit  to  Woodbridge,  1876,  when  we  sailed 
down  the  river  Orwell  with  Edward  Fitz- 
Gerald.  He  died  before  Tiresias  was 
published. 

His  vegetarianism  had  interested  my 
father,  and  he  was  charmed  by  the  picture 
of  the  lonely  philosopher,  a  "man.  of 
humorous-melancholy  mark,"  with  his  gray 
floating  locks,  sitting  among  his  doves, 
which  perched  about  him  on  head  and 
shoulder  and  knee,  and  cooed  to  him  as 
he  sat  in  the  sunshine  beneath  his  roses. 

FitzGerald  wrote  to  Fanny  Kemble  of 
our  visit  Sept.  21st,  1876:  "Who  should 
send  in  his  card  to  me  last  week,  but  the 
old  poet  himself  —  he  and  his  elder  son 
Hallam  passing  through  Woodbridge  from 
a  town  in  Norfolk.  'Dear  old  Fitz,'  ran 
the  card  in  pencil,  'we  are  passing  thro.' 
I  had  not  seen  him  for  twenty  years  —  he 
looked  much  the  same,  except  for  his 
fallen  locks;  and  what  really  surprised  me 
was,  that  we  fell  at  once  into  the  old 
humour,  as  if  we  had  only  been  parted 
twenty  days  instead  of  so  many  years.  I 
suppose  this  is  a  sign  of  age  —  not  al- 
together desirable.  But  so  it  was.  He 
stayed  two  days,  and  we  went  over  the 
same  old  grounds  of  debate,  told  some 
of  the  old  stories,  and  all  was  well.  I 
suppose  I  may  never  see  him  again." 

The  dream,   to  which  allusion  is  made 


in  the  poem,  my  father  related  to  us  in 
these  words : 

"I  never  saw  any  landscape  that  came 
up  to  the  landscapes  I  have  seen  in  my 
dreams.  The  mountains  of  Switzerland 
seem  insignificant  compared  with  the 
mountains  I  have  imagined.  One  of  the 
most  wonderful  experiences  I  ever  had  was 
this.  I  had  gone  without  meat  for  six 
weeks,  living  only  on  vegetables;  and  at 
the  end  of  the  time,  when  I  came  to  eat 
a  mutton-chop,  I  shall  never  forget  the 
sensation.  I  never  felt  such  joy  in  my 
blood.  When  I  went  to  sleep,  I  dreamt 
that  I  saw  the  vines  of  the  South,  with 
huge  Eshcol  branches,  trailing  over  the 
glaciers  of  the  North."  —  Ed.] 

P.  526,  col.  1,  line  15.  'athingenskied.' 
[See  Measure  for  Measure,  1.  iv.  34. 
—  Ed.] 

P.  526,  col.  2,  line  12.  golden.  [Fitz- 
Gerald's  translation  of  the  Rubdiydt  of 
Omar  Khayyam.  —  Ed.] 

P.  527.  Tiresias.  [Partly  written  at 
the  same  time  as  Ulysses;  first  published 
in  1885.  —  Ed.] 

Pp.  520-530.  For  the  close  of  the  poem 
cf.  Pindar,  Frag.  x.  No.  i.  of  the  Qprjvoi : 

Toicri  Xd/jurei  p.kv  /xivos  deXlov  tclv  ivddSe 

vbKTa.  Karoo 
(poivLKopbboLS  t  ivl  Xei/jubveacri  Trpodcmov 

airCov 
/ecu  Xipdvop  aiaapq.    nal  xPv<T^0l$   Kapirots 

ptppidev. 
Kai  rot    ixkv  Uttttols  yv/xvao-Lois  re,   rol  8$ 

7T€<r<roij, 
rol    8£    (popfxiyyeao-i   T^pirovrai,  irapd    84 

a(pt.<Tiv   evavdrjs  aVas  ridaKcv  6\/3os' 
68fxd  8"1  iparbv  /cara  x&pov  k18po.tcu 
alei  66a  p-tyvtivruv  irvpl  TT)\e<pave?  iravTola 

6eQ)v  ipi  ^oj/jloTs. 

P.  530.  The  Wreck.  [First  published 
in  1885.  The  catastrophe  (see  viii.)  which 
happened  to  an  Italian  vessel,  named  the 
Rosina,  bound  from  Catania  for  New 
York,  was  the  nucleus  of  the  poem.  One 
day,  at  the  end  of  October,  she  was  nearly 
capsized  by  a  sudden  squall  in  the  middle 
of  the  Atlantic.  All  hands  were  summoned 
instantly  to  take  in  sail,  and  all,  together 
with  the  captain,   were  actively  engaged, 


NOTES 


975 


when  an  enormous  wave  swept  the  deck 
of  every  living  person,  leaving  only  one 
of  the  crew  who  happened  to  be  below. 
For  eight  days  he  struggled  against  wind 
and  sea,  without  taking  an  instant's  re- 
pose, when  the  Marianna,  a  Portuguese 
brigantine,  bore  down  upon  her,  as  she 
was  sinking,  and  rescued  him.  —  Ed.] 

P.  S3i.     Verse  vi. 
Mother,  one  morning  a  bird  with  a  warble 

plaintively  sweet 
PercKd    on    the    shrouds,     and    then    fell 
fluttering  down  at  my  feet. 

This  happened  in  the  Pembroke  Castle 
on  our  voyage  to  Copenhagen  in  1883 
with  the  Gladstones. 

P-  533-     Verse  xii. 
The  broad  white  brow  of  the  Isle  —  that  bay 

with  the  colour  'd  sand. 
Alum  Bay  in  the  Isle  of  Wight. 

P-  533-  Despair.  [First  published  in 
The  Nineteenth  Century,  November  1881, 
afterwards  in  Tiresias,  1885.  —  Ed.] 

P-  533-     Verse  iv. 
See,    we   were   nursed   in    the   drear   night- 
fold  of  your  fatalist  creed. 

In  my  boyhood  I  came  across  this 
Calvinist  creed  —  and  assuredly,  however 
unfathomable  the  mystery,  if  one  cannot 
believe  in  the  freedom  of  the  human  will 
as  of  the  divine,  life  is  hardly  worth  the 
living. 

P.  536.  The  Ancient  Sage.  [First 
published  in  1885.  My  father  considered 
this  as  one  of  his  best  later  poems.  —  Ed.] 

What  the  Ancient  Sage  says  is  not  the 
philosophy  of  the  Chinese  philosopher 
Laot-ze,  but  it  was  written  after  reading 
his  life  and  maxims.  '["What  I  might 
have  believed,"  my  father  said,  "about 
the  deeper  problems  of  life  'A  thousand 
summers  ere  the  birth  of  Christ.'  In  my 
old  age,  I  think  I  have  a  stronger  faith  in 
God  and  human  good  than  I  had  in 
youth."  Compare  with  this  poem  The 
Mystic,  written  in  his  boyhood,  which 
records  his  early  intimations,  or  indistinct 
visions,  of  the  mind's  power  to  pass  be- 
yond the  shadows  of  the  world  —  to  pierce 
beyond  the  enveloping  clouds  of  ignorance 
and  illusion,  and  to  reach  some  region  of 


pure  light  and  untroubled  calm,  where 
perfect  knowledge  shall  have  extinguished 
doubt.  THE  MYSTIC 

Angels  have  talked  with  him,  and  showed 

him  thrones : 
Ye  knew  him  not :  he  was  not  one  of  ye, 
Ye    scorned    him    with    an    undiscerning 

scorn; 
Ye  could  not  read  the  marvel  in  his  eye, 
The  still  serene  abstraction ;  he  hath  felt 
The  vanities  of  after  and  before; 
Albeit,  his  spirit  and  his  secret  heart 
The  stern  experiences  of  converse  lives, 
The  linked  woes  of  many  a  fiery  change 
Had   purified,    and   chastened,    and   made 

free. 
Always  there  stood  before  him,  night  and 

day, 
Of  wayward  vary  colored  circumstance, 
The  imperishable  presences  serene 
Colossal,  without  form,  or  sense,  or  sound, 
Dim  shadows  but  unwaning  presences 
Fourf  aced  to  four  corners  of  the  sky  ; 
And  yet  again,  three  shadows,  fronting  one, 
One   forward,    one   respectant,    three   but 

one; 
And  yet  again,  again  and  evermore, 
For  the  two  first  were  not,  but  only  seemed, 
One  shadow  in  the  midst  of  a  great  light, 
One  reflex  from  eternity  on  time, 
One  mighty  countenance  of  perfect  calm, 
Awful  with  most  invariable  eyes. 
For  him  the  silent  congregated  hours, 
Daughters  of  time,  divinely  tall,  beneath 
Severe  and  youthful  brows,   with  shining 

eyes 
Smiling  a  godlike  smile  (the  innocent  light 
Of    earliest    youth    pierced    through    and 

through  with  all 
Keen  knowledges  of  low-embowed  eld) 
Upheld,  and  ever  hold  aloft  the  cloud 
Which  droops  low  hung  on  either  gate  of 

life, 
Both  birth  and  death;    he  in  the  centre 

fixt, 
Saw  far  on  each  side  through  the  grated 

gates 
Most  pale  and  clear  and  lovely  distances. 
He  often  lying  broad  awake,  and  yet 
Remaining  from  the  body,  and  apart 
In  intellect  and  power  and  will,  hath  heard 
Time  flowing  in  the  middle  of  the  night, 
And  all  things  creeping  to  a  day  of  doom. 


976 


NOTES 


How  could  ye  know  him?     Ye  were  yet 

within 
The    narrower    circle;     he    had    wellnigh 

reached 
The  last,   with  which   a   region   of  white 

flame, 
Pure  without  heat,  into  a  larger  air 
Upburning,  and  an  ether  of  black  blue, 
Investeth  and  ingirds  all  other  lives. 

Ed.] 
P.  538,  col.  2,  line  15. 

The  phantom  walls  of  this  illusion  fade. 

Or  may  I  make  use  of  a  parable? 
Man's  Free-will  is  but  a  bird  in  a  cage; 
he  can  stop  at  the  lower  perch,  or  he  can 
mount  to  a  higher.  Then  that  which  is 
and  knows  —  for  it  has  always  seemed  to 
me  there  must  be  that  which  knows : —  will 
enlarge  his  cage,  give  him  a  higher  and  a 
higher  perch,  and  at  last  break  off  the  top 
of  his  cage,  and  let  him  out  to  be  one  with 
the  only  Free-will  of  the  Universe. 

P.  539,  col.  1,  line  19.  'The  Passion  of 
the  Past.'  The  whole  poem  is  very 
personal.  This  Passion  of  the  Past  I  used 
to  feel  when  a  boy.  [See  Far — far  —  away, 
p.  873.  —  Ed.] 

P-  539,  col.  2,  line  5. 
But  utter  clearness,  and  thro'  loss  of  Self- 

This  is  also  a  personal  experience  which 
I  have  had  more  than  once. 

[Professor  Tyndall  wrote : 

In  the  year  1885  .  .  .  were  published  Tiresias 
and  other  Poems,  by  Alfred  Lord  Tennyson. 
For  a  copy  of  this  remarkable  volume  I  am 
indebted  to  its  author.  It  contains  a  poem  called 
The  Ancient  Sage. 

My  special  purpose  in  introducing  this  poem, 
however,  is  to  call  your  attention  to  a  passage 
further  on  which  greatly  interested  me.  The 
poem  is,  throughout,  a  discussion  between  a 
believer  in  immortality  and  one  who  is  unable  to 
believe.  The  method  pursued  is  this.  The  Sage 
reads  a  portion  of  the  scroll,  which  he  has  taken 
from  the  hands  of  his  follower,  and  then  brings 
his  own  arguments  to  bear  upon  that  portion, 
with  a  view  to  neutralising  the  scepticism  of  the 
younger  man.  Let  me  here  remark  that  I  read 
the  whole  series  of  poems  published  under  the 
title  Tiresias,  full  of  admiration  for  their  fresh- 
ness and  vigour.  Seven  years  after  I  had  first 
read  them  your  father  died,  and  you,  his  son, 
asked  me  to  contribute  a  chapter  to  the  book 
which  you  contemplate  publishing.  I  knew  that 
I  had  some  small  store  of  references  to  my 
interview  with  your  father  carefully  written  in 
ancient  journals.  On  the  receipt  of  your  request, 
I  looked  up  the  account  of  my  first  visit  to 


Farringford,  and  there,  to  my  profound  astonish- 
ment, I  found  described  that  experience  of  your 
father's  which,  in  the  mouth  of  the  Ancient  Sage, 
was  made  the  ground  of  an  important  argument 
against  materialism  and  in  favour  of  personal 
immortality  eight -and-twenty  years  afterwards. 
I  had  completely  forgotten  it,  but  here  it  was 
recorded  in  black  and  white.  If  you  turn  to 
your  father's  account  of  the  wonderful  state  of 
consciousness  superinduced  by  thinking  of  his 
own  name,  and  compare  it  with  the  argument  of 
the  Ancient  Sage,  you  will  see  that  they  refer  to 
one  and  the  same  phenomenon. 

And  more,  my  son  !  for  more  than  once  when  I 
Sat  all  alone,  revolving  in  myself 
The  word  that  is  the  symbol  of  myself, 
The  mortal  limit  of  the  Self  was  loosed, 
And  past  into  the  Nameless,  as  a  cloud 
Melts  into  Heaven.     I  touch'd  my  limbs,   the 

limbs 
Were  strange  not  mine  —  and  yet  no  shade  of 

doubt, 
But  utter  clearness,  and  thro'  loss  of  Self 
The  gain  of  such  large  life  as  match 'd  with  ours 
Were  Sun  to  spark  —  unshadowable  in  words, 
Themselves  but  shadows  of  a  shadow-world. 

Ed.] 

P.  540.  The  Flight.  [First  published 
in  1885.  —  Ed.]     This  is  a  very  early  poem. 

P.  543.  Tomorrow.  [First  published 
in  1885.  —  Ed.]  This  story  was  told  me 
by  Aubrey  de  Vere.  [The  body  of  a 
young  man  was  laid  out  on  the  grass  by 
the  door  of  a  chapel  in  the  West  of  Ireland, 
and  an  old  woman  came,  and  recognized 
it  as  that  of  her  young  lover,  who  had 
been  lost  in  a  peat-bog  many  years  before : 
the  peat  having  kept  him  fresh  and  fair  as 
when  she  last  saw  him. 

He  corrected  his  Irish  from  Carleton's 
admirable  Truths  of  the  Irish  Peasantry. 
"Tennyson,"  writes  Mr.  Perceval  Graves, 
"certainly  could  not  have  written  that 
intensely  dramatic  poem,  had  he  not  been 
deeply  sensible  of  the  tragic  side  of  Irish 
peasant  life,  as  he,  saw  it  with  his  own  eyes 
so  shortly  after  the  potato  famine.  How 
gracefully  too  he  presses  into  his  service 
the  poetic  imagery  of  the  Western  Gael. 
It  is  moreover  an  interesting  assertion  of 
his  belief  in  the  artistic  value  of  Irish 
dialect  in  verse  —  'Irish  Doric,'  as  he  once 
wrote  of  it  to  me."  —  Ed.] 

P.  545.  The  Spinster's  Sweet-Arts. 
[First  published  in  1885.  —  Ed.] 

P.  547.  Verse  xvi.  Jackman  i1  Purple  a 
rodbin'  the  'ouse  like  a  Queedn.  Clematis 
Jackmanni. 


NOTES 


977 


P.  548.  Locksley  Hall  Sixty  Years 
Aftkr.  [First  published  in  1886,  and 
dedicated  to  my  mother,  partly  because  it 
seemed  to  my  father  that  the  two  Locksley 
Halls  were  likely  to  be  in  the  future  two  of 
the  most  historically  interesting  of  his 
poems,  as  descriptive  of  the  tone  of  the 
age  at  two  distant  periods  of  his  life: 
partly  because  the  following  lines  were 
written  immediately  after  the  death  of  my 
brother,  and  described  his  chief  character- 
istics : 

Truth,  for  Truth    is  Truth,  he   worshipt, 

being  true  as  he  was  brave ; 
Good,  for  Good  is  Good,  he  follow'd,  yet 

he  look'd  beyond  the  grave  ! 
Truth    for   Truth,    and    Good   for    Good! 

The   Good,   the  True,   the  Pure,   the 

Just! 
Take  the  charm  "For  ever"   from  them 

and  they  crumble  into  dust. 

Ed.] 
A  dramatic  poem,  and  the  Dramatis 
Personam  are  imaginary.  Since  it  is  so 
much  the  fashion  in  these  days  to  regard 
each  poem  and  story  as  a  story  of  the 
poet's  life,  or  part  of  it,  may  I  not  be 
allowed  to  remind  my  readers  of  the 
possibility,  that  some  event  which  comes 
to  the  poet's  knowledge,  some  hint  flashed 
from  another  mind,  some  thought  or 
feeling  arising  in  his  own,  or  some  mood 
coming  —  he  knows  not  whence  or  how  — 
may  strike  a  chord  from  which  a  poem 
evolves  its  life,  and  that  this  to  other  eyes 
may  bear  small  relation  to  the  thought  or 
fact  or  feeling  to  which  the  poem  owes  its 
birth,  whether  the  tenor  be  dramatic  or 
given  as  a  parable  ? 

Gladstone  says:  "The  method  in  the 
old  Locksley  Hall  and  the  new  is  the  same. 
In  each  the  maker  is  outside  his  work,  and 
in  each  we  have  to  deal  with  it  as  strictly 
'impersonal'")  Nineteenth  Century,  Jan. 
1887). 

P.  548,  line  13.  In  the  hall  there  hangs 
a  painting.  These  four  lines  were  the 
nucleus  of  the  poem,  and  were  written 
fifty  years  ago. 

P.  S4Q,  line  10. 
Cold  upon  the  dead  volcano  sleeps  the  gleam 
of  dying  day. 

3R 


[My  father  always  quoted  this  line  as 
the  most  imaginative  in  the  poem.  —  Ed.] 

P.  550,  line  27.  peasants  maim.  The 
modern  Irish  cruelties. 

P.  551,  line  17.  Plowmen,  Shepherds, 
etc.  and  the  three  following  verses  show 
that  the  hero  does  not  (as  has  been  said) 
by  any  means  dislike  the  democracy. 

P.  552,  line  17.  Jacquerie.  Originally 
a  revolt  in  1358  against  the  Picardy 
nobles;  and  afterwards  applied  to  insur- 
rections of  the  mob. 

This  and  the  eight  following  verses 
show  that  he  is  not  a  pessimist,  I  think. 

P.  553,  line  9.  Bringer  home.  [See 
note  on  Leonine  Elegiacs,  p.  896.  —  Ed.] 

P.  556.  Prologue  to  General 
Hamley.  [First  published  in  1885.  — 
Ed.]  Written  from  Aldworth,  Black- 
down. 

P.  556,  line  28.  Tel-el-Kebir.  [Where 
Lord  Wolseley  defeated  the  Egyptians 
under  Arabi  Pasha,  September  13th,  1882. 
—  Ed.] 

P.  556.  The  Charge  of  the  Heavy 
Brigade  at  Balaclava.  [First  published 
in  Macmillan's  Magazine,  March  1882 ; 
afterwards,  in  1885,  in  Tiresias.  —  Ed.] 
Written  at  the  request  of  Mr.  Kinglake. 
An  officer,  who  was  in  this  charge,  said 
that  it  was  "the  finest  excitement"  he  had 
ever  known,  and  that  "gambling  and 
horse-racing  were  nothing  to  it." 

[The  following  is  what  Kinglake  wrote 
for  my  father  at  the  time :  — 

ist  Instant. 

Scarlett  seeing  the  enemy  and  preparing  to 
confront  him. 

Scarlett  is  marching  eastward  with  his 
"300"  in  marching  order,  when,  casting 
his  eyes  towards  the  heights  on  his  left,  i.e. 
towards  the  north,  he  sees  a  host  of 
Russians  breaking  over  the  sky-line  and 
presently  advancing  downhill  towards  the 
south.  Thereupon  he  instantly  gives  the 
order,  "Left  wheel  into  line!"  The  effect 
of  this  is  to  make  the  "300"  no  longer 


978 


NOTES 


show  their  flank  to  the  enemy,  but  confront 
him. 


After  the  order. 


Before  the  order. 


D-      O- 


xa 


One  peculiarity  attending  that  ist  In- 
stant was  that  apparently  the  idea  of  not 
accepting  battle  on  terms  of  one  to  ten  did 
not  occur  to  anybody  ! 

2nd  Instant. 
Suspense. 
The  acreage  of  Russian  horsemen  is  de- 
scending the  hill-side  at  a  trot,  and  the 
"300"  confronting  them  are  deliberately 
dressing  their  line,  the  regimental  officers 
directing  the  process  with  their  faces  to 
their  men  as  in  a  barrack-yard.  This  in 
the  presence  of  a  vast  mass  of  cavalry 
coming  down  the  hill-side  to  assail  them 
was  an  interesting  and,  as  I  imagine,  a 
rare  phenomenon. 

3RD  Instant. 

The  Russian  halt  and  Scarlett's  de- 
termination. 

The  Russians  slacken  and  halt.  Scarlett, 
all  things  considered,  determines  that  he 
will  lead  the  charge,  and  for  that  purpose 
takes  the  usual  course,  i.e.  places  himself 
in  front  of  the  line  with  his  aide-de-camp, 
followed  by  his  trumpeter  and  one  orderly. 
Orders  to  charge.  His  passage  over  the 
intervening  space  marked  only,  so  far  as 
observers  could  tell,  by  one  shout  of 
"  Come  on  ! "   and  one  wave  of  his  sword. 

4th  Instant. 
The  combat  maintained  by  the  four. 
This  personal,  and  like  something  medi- 
aeval, and  not  yet  involving  the  tumult  of 


battle.  The  four  penetrate  so  deeply  into 
the  column  as  to  be  secure  from  the  ap- 
proaching crash  that  will  follow  when  their 
own  line  comes  up. 

5th  Instant. 
The   crashing   charge   of  the    Greys    and 
one  squadron  of  the  Inniskillingers. 

6th  Instant. 
The  fight  within  the  column. 
The  2nd  squadron  of  the  Inniskillings, 
hearing  on  the  outside  their  comrades  of 
the  1  st  squadron,  crash  in  on  the  right. 

Ed.] 
P.  558.     Epilogue.     Col.  1,  lines  1,  2. 
'/  will  strike,'  said  he, 
'  The  stars  with  head  sublime.' 
See  Hor.  Od.  1,  i.  35,  36 ; 

Quodsi  me  lyricis  vatibus  inseres, 
Sublimi  feriam  sidera  vertice. 
P.  558.  To  Virgil.  [Was  written  at 
the  request  of  the  Mantuans  for  the  nine- 
teenth centenary  of  Virgil's  death,  and 
first  published  in  The  Nineteenth  Century, 
Sept.  1882,  and  afterwards  in  Tiresias, 
1885.  There  was  a  curious  misprint  in 
the  first  printed  copies  of  the-  poem: 
"Thou  that  singest  .  .  .  tithe  and  vine- 
yard" instead  of  "tilth  and  vineyard."  — 
Ed.] 

P.  559.    Verse  ix. 

sunder  'd  once  from  all  the  human  race. 
[Cf. 

Et  penitus  toto  divisos  orbe  Britannos. 
Virg.  Eel.  i.  67.  —  Ed.] 
P-  559-     Verse  x.    Mantovano,  Mantuan. 
Cf.  Dante,  Purg.  vi.  74.  —  Ed.] 

P.  559.  The  Dead  Prophet.  [First 
published  in  Tiresias,  1885.  —  Ed.]  About 
no  particular  prophet. 

[My  father  said  when  writing  this  poem : 

"While  I  live  the  owls  ! 

When  I  die  the  ghouls  ! ! " 

He   had   a   strong   conviction   that   the 

world  likes  to  know  about  the  roughnesses, 

eccentricities,    and    defects    of    a   man    of 

genius,  rather  than  what  he  really  is.     At 

this  time  he  said  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Carlyle : 

"I  am  sure  that  Froude  is  wrong.     I  saw 

a  great  deal  of  them.    They  were  always 


NOTES 


979 


'chaffing'  one  another,  and  they  could  not 
have  done  that  if  they  had  got  on  so  '  badly 
together'  as  Froude  thinks."  —  Ed.] 

P.  560.     Early     Spring.       [An     early 
poem,   slightly   altered,   first   published   in 
The    Youth's    Companion,   Boston,   U.S.A., 
1884,  afterwards  in  Tiresias,  1885.     Mary 
Brotherton,  in  the  following  lines  on  my 
father,   written   after   his   death,   well   ex- 
pressed his  attitude  toward  Nature :  — 
"He  look'd  on  Nature's  lowest  thing 
For  some  sublime  God's  word ; 
And  lived  for  ever  listening 
Lest  God  should  speak  unheard." 

Ed.] 

P.  561.  Prefatory  Poem  to  my 
Brother's  Sonnets.  [Published  in  1880. 
—  Ed.]  Addressed  to  my  brother,  Charles 
Tennyson  Turner,  who  died  at  Cheltenham 
on  April  25th,  1879,  after  a  life  spent  with 
his  wife  among  his  parishioners  in  Grasby, 
Linconshire. 

[His  sonnets,  Letty's  Globe,  Time  and 
Twilight,  On  seeing  a  child  blush  on  his 
first  view  of  a  corpse,  The  Buoy  Bell,  The 
Schoolboy's  Dream,  On  shooting  a  swallow 
in  early  youth,  had  in  my  father's  judgment 
all  the  tenderness  of  the  Greek  epigram, 
and  he  ranked  sonnets  such  as  Time  and 
Twilight,  and  The  Holy  Emerald,  among 
the  noblest  in  the  language. 

My  uncle  with  his  aquiline  nose,  dark 
eyes  and  black  hair  was  very  like  my 
father,  and  Thackeray  seeing  him  in 
middle  life  called  him  a  "Velasquez  tout 
crache."  No  one  who  reads  his  poems 
can  fail  to  see  the  "alma  beata  e  bella" 
breathing  through  them.  The  poem  was 
written  as  a  preface  to  the  Collected  Sonnets, 
published  in  1880.  —  Ed.] 

P.  561.  'Frater  Ave  atque  Vale.' 
[Written  in  1880  when  my  father  and  I 
visited  Sirmione,  the  peninsula  of  Catullus 
on  the  Lago  di  Garda.  He  rejoiced  in 
the  old  olives,  the  old  ruins,  and  the 
greensward  stretching  down  to  the  blue 
lake  with  the  mountains  beyond.  First 
published  in  The  Nineteenth  Century, 
March  1883,  and  afterwards  in  Tiresias 
and  other  Poems,  1885.  —  Ed.] 

P.  561,  line  4.  where  the  purple  flowers 
grow.     [Refers    to    a    very    beautiful    Iris 


with  deep  purple  flowers  (Iris  benacensis) 
which  grows  beneath  the  ruins  near  the 
Lake  of  Garda.  —  Ed.] 

P.  561.  Helen's  Tower.  [Written 
in  1861  for  Lord  Dufferin  in  answer  to  the 
following  letter :  — 

Clandeboy,  Belfast,  Sept.  24/A,  1861. 

My  dear  Mr.  Tennyson  —  I  wonder  if  you 
will  think  me  very  presumptuous  for  doing  what 
at  last,  after  many  months'  hesitation,  I  have 
determined  to  do. 

You  must  know  that  here  in  my  park  in  Ireland 
there  rises  a  high  hill,  from  the  top  of  which  I 
look  down  not  only  on  an  extensive  tract  of  Irish 
land,  but  also  on  St.  George's  Channel,  a  long 
blue  line  of  Scotch  coast,  and  the  mountains  of 
the  Isle  of  Man. 

On  the  summit  of  this  hill  I  have  built  an  old- 
world  tower  which  I  have  called  after  my  mother 
"Helen's  Tower." 

In  it  I  have  placed  on  a  golden  tablet  the 
birthday  verses  which  my  mother  wrote  to  me 
on  the  day  I  came  of  age,  and  I  have  spared  no 
pains  in  beautifying  it  with  all  imaginable  de- 
vices. In  fact  my  tower  is  a  little  "Palace  of 
Art."  Beneath  is  a  rough  outline  of  its  form  and 
situation. 

Now  there  is  only  one  thing  wanting  to  make 
it  a  perfect  little  gem  of  architecture  and  decora- 
tion and  that  is  "a  voice."  It  is  now  ten  years 
since  it  was  built  and  all  that  time  it  has  stood 
silent.  Yet  if  he  chose  there  is  one  person  in  the 
world  able  to  endow  it  with  this  priceless  gift, 
and  by  sending  me  some  little  short  distich  for  it 
to  crown  it  for  ever  with  a  glory  it  cannot  other- 
wise obtain,  and  render  it  a  memorial  of  the 
personal  friendship  which  its  builder  felt  for  the 
great  poet  of  our  age.  —  Yours  ever, 

Dufferin. 

Afterwards  published  in  Tiresias  and 
other  Poems,  1885.  —  Ed.] 

P.  562,  col.  1,  line  4.  earth's  recurring 
Paradise.  The  fancy  of  some  poets  and 
theologians  that  Paradise  is  to  be  the  reno- 
vated earth. 

P.  562.  Epitaphs  on  Lord  Stratford 
de  Redcliffe,  General  Gordon,  and 
Caxton.  [Published  in  Tiresias  and 
other  Poems,  1885.  The  epitaph  on  General 
Gordon  (first  published  in  the  Times, 
May  7,  1885)  was  written  in  answer  to 
a  request  made  by  the  American  poet 
Whittier.  —  Ed.] 

P.  562.  To  the  Duke  of  Argyll. 
[Written  when  the  Duke  resigned  the  office 
of  Privy  Seal  (1881)  on  account  of  his 
vehement  opposition  to  Gladstone's  Irish 
Bill.  First  published  in  Tiresias  and  other 
Poems,  1885.  —  Ed.] 


980 


NOTES 


P.  562.  Hands  all  Round.  When 
this  poem  was  recast  and  published  in  1882 
it  was  sung  all  over  the  Empire  on  the 
Queen's  birthday.  [Set  to  music  by  my 
mother;  arranged  by  Sir  Charles  Stanford. 
Edward  FitzGerald  writes  of  the  first  edition 
(Eversley  Edition,  vol.  ii.  322-4)  that  my 
father  said  to  him:  "I  know  I  wrote  these 
lines  with  the  Tears  running  down  my 
Cheeks."  —  Ed.] 

P.  563.  Freedom.  [First  published  in 
the  New  York  Independent,  1884,  and  in 
Macmillan's  Magazine,  December  1884, 
afterwards  in  Tiresias  and  other  Poems, 
1885.  —  Ed.] 

"It  were  good  that  men  in  their  innova- 
tions should  follow  the  example  of  Time 
itself,  which  indeed  innovateth  greatly  but 
quietly,  and  by  degrees,  scarce  to  be  per- 
ceived. ...  It  is  good  also  not  to  try  ex- 
periments in  States  except  the  necessity  be 
urgent,  or  the  utility  evident :  and  well  to 
beware  that  it  be  the  reformation  that 
draweth  on  the  change,  and  not  the  desire 
of  change  that  pretendeth  the  change" 
(Bacon). 

P-  563.  Verse  i.  pillar' d  Parthenon. 
Misprinted  "column'd  Parthenon." 

P.  563.  To  H.R.H.  Princess  Bea- 
trice. On  her  marriage  with  Prince  Henry 
of  Battenberg,  July  23rd,  1885  [and  first 
published  in  the  Times,  July  23rd,  1885, 
and  afterwards  in  Tiresias  and  other  Poems. 
My  father  sent  the  poem  to  Queen  Victoria, 
and  she  wrote  to  him  about  the  wedding 
as  follows :  — 

From  the  Queen 

Osborne,  Aug.  yth,  1885. 

Dear  Lord  Tennyson  —  ...  As  I  gazed  on 
the  happy  young  couple,  and  on  my  two  sons 
Alfred  and  Arthur  and  their  bonnie  bairns,  I 
could  not  but  feel  sad  in  thinking  that  their  hour 
of  trial  might  come,  and  earnestly  prayed  God 
would  spare  my  sweet  Beatrice  and  the  husband 
she  so  truly  loves  and  confides  in,  for  long,  long 
to  each  other. 

Till  sixty-one  no  real  inroad  of  any  kind  had 
been  made  in  our  circle,  and  how  heavy  has 
God's  hand  been  since  then  on  me ! 

Mother,  husband,  children,  truest  friends,  all 
have  been  taken  from  me,  and  yet  I  must  "still 
endure,"  and  I  shall  try  to  do  so.  Your  beautiful 
lines  have  been  greatly  admired. 

I  wish  you  could  have  seen  the  wedding,  for 
every  one  says  it  was  the  prettiest  they  ever  saw. 
The  simple,  pretty,  little  village  church,  all 
decorated  with  flowers,  the  sweet  young  bride,    I 


the  handsome  young  husband,  the  ten  brides- 
maids, six  of  them  quite  children  with  flowing 
fair  hair,  the  brilliant  sunshine  and  the  blue  sea, 
all  made  up  pictures  not  to  be  forgotten. — 
Believe  me  always  yours  affectionately, 

V.  R.  I. 
And  he  answered  thus : 

Aldworth,  Aug.  gth,  1885. 

As  to  the  sufferings  of  this  momentary  life,  we 
can  but  trust  that  in  some  after-state  when  we 
see  clearer,  we  shall  thank  the  Supreme  Power 
for  having  made  us,  thro'  these,  higher  and 
greater  beings. 

Still  it  surely  cannot  be  unlawful  to  pray  that 
our  children,  and  our  children's  children,  may 
pass  thro'  smoother  waters  to  the  other  shore. 

The  wedding  must  have  been  beautiful,  the 
Peace  of  Heaven  seemed  on  the  day. 

Your  Majesty's  affectionate  subject, 

Tennyson. 
Ed.] 
P.  563,  line  1.  Two  Suns.  [Sir  George 
Darwin  writes:  "There  are  in  the  heavens 
many  double  Suns  —  twin  Suns  revolving 
about  one  another.  We  may  well  im- 
agine that  such  systems  may  have  planets 
attached  to  them,  of  course  invisible  to 
us.  Each  of  such  planets  would  have  a 
double  day,  one  arising  from  the  illumi- 
nation of  one  Sun,  and  the  other  from 
the  other  Sun.  Your  father  *was  not  con- 
cerned with  computing  the  orbit  of  such  a 
planet,  moving  under  the  attraction  of  two 
centres  instead  of  one  as  in  our  case.  The 
conception  seems  to  me  very  fine,  and  fits 
in  admirably  with  the  rest  of  the  poem." 

—  Ed.] 

P.  564.  The  Fleet.  [First  published 
in  the  Times,  April  23rd,  1885,  afterwards 
in  Locksley  Hall  Sixty  Years    After,  1886. 

—  Ed.] 

P.  564.  Opening  of  the  Indian  and 
Colonial  Exhibition  by  the  Queen, 
May  4th,  1886.  [First  published  in 
Locksley  Hall  Sixty  Years  After,  1886. 
This  ode  was  written  under  the  shadow  of 
a  great  grief,  as  his  son  Lionel  was  very  ill 
in  India,  and  died  on  April  20th.  —  Ed.] 

P.  565.  Poets  and  their  Biblio- 
graphies. [First  published  in  Tiresias 
and  other  Poems,  1885.  —  Ed.] 

P.  565,  linet2.  Virgil.  [Cf.  Prof.  H. 
Nettleship's  Vergil,  pp.  71  and  76:  "Vergil 
was  engaged  upon  the  Aeneid  from  29  to 
19  B.C.      We  have  the  testimony  of  Sue- 


NOTES 


981 


tonius  that  he  first  drafted  it  in  prose,  and 
then  wrote  different  parts  in  no  certain 
order,  but  just  as  the  fancy  took  him.  The 
division  into  twelve  books  was  part  of 
his  original  plan.  .  .  .  When  writing  the 
Georgics  we  are  told  that  he  would  dictate 
a  great  number  of  verses  in  the  morning, 
and  spend  the  rest  of  the  day  in  reducing 
them  to  the  smallest  possible  quantity, 
licking  them,  as  he  himself  said,  into  shape, 
as  a  bear  does  its  cub."  Cf.  also  Tiberii 
Claudii  Donati  Vita  P.  Vergilii  Maronis, 
ix.,  and  Quintilian,  Inst.  Oral.  x.  3.  8: 
"Vergilium  quoque  paucissimos  die  com- 
posuisse  versus,  auctor  est  Varus."  —  Ed.] 

P.  565,  col.  2,  line  3.  Horace.     [See  De 
Arte  Poetica,  line  386  et  seq. : 

si  quid  tamen  olim 
Scripseris,  in  Metii  descendat  iudicis  aures 
Et  patris  et  nostras,  rionumque  prematur 

in  annum, 
Membranis  intus  positis.  Ed.] 

P.  565,  col.  2,  line  6.   Catullus.    [See  "De 
Smyrna  Cinnae  poetae,"  xcv.  lines  1,  2 : 

Smyrna   mei  Cinnae  nonam  post  denique 
messem 
Quam  coepta  est  nonamque  edita  post 
hiemem,  etc.  Ed.] 


NOTES  ON   QUEEN   MARY 

P.  566.  Queen  Mary.  [First  pub- 
lished in  1875.  Played  at  the  Lyceum  in 
1876,  April  18th  to  May  13th,  Henry  Irving 
as  Philip  and  Mrs.  Crowe  as  Mary,  with 
incidental  music  by  Sir  Charles  Stanford. 

"Philip"  was  one  of  Irving's  best 
characters. 

During  1874  and  1875  mY  father 
worked  hard  and  unceasingly  at  his  Queen 
Mary,  "more  of  a  chronicle-play"  he 
called  it.  The  first  list  of  books  which  he 
read  on  the  subject  is  written  down  in 
his  note-book:  "Collier's  Ecclesiastical 
History,  Fuller's  Church  History,  Burnet's 
Reformation,  Foxe's  Book  of  Martyrs, 
Hayward's  Edward,  Cave's  P.  X.  Y., 
Hooker,  Neale's  History  of  the  Puri- 
tans, Strype's  Ecclesiastical  Memorials, 
Strype's  Cranmer,  Strype's  Parker, 
Phillips'      Pole,      Primitive     Fathers     No 


Papists,  Lingard's  History  of  England, 
Church  Historians  of  England,  Zurich 
Letters,  and  Original  Letters  and  Corre- 
spondence of  Archbishop  Parker  (published 
by  the  Parker  Society),"  in  addition  to 
Froude,  Holinshed,  and  Camden. 

The  well-known  critic  Mons.  Augustin 
Filon  writes  in  Le  Thtatre  contemporain 
(1895):  "Vienne  une  main  pieuse  qui 
degage  ces  deux  drames  {Queen  Mary  and 
Harold),  fasse  circuler  l'air  et  la  lumiere 
autour  de  leurs  lignes  essentielles :  vienne 
un  grand  acteur  qui  compresse  et  incarne 
Harold,  une  grande  actrice  qui  se  passionne 
pour  le  caractere  de  Marie,  et,  sans  effort, 
Tennyson  prendra  sa  place  parmi  les 
dramaturges." 

The  plays  also  seem  to  have  appealed 
to  no  less  an  authority  than  Mons.  Jules 
Claretie,  who  has  described  them  as 
"beaux  drames,  et  nobles  inventions 
theatrales." 

See  Sir  Richard  Jebb's  essays  on  Queen 
Mary,  Harold,  and  Becket  in  the  Eversley 
Edition.  —  Ed.] 

P.  572,  col.  1,  line  4.  (Act  1.  Sc.  iv.) 
ELIZABETH.  Why  do  you  go  so  gay  then  ? 
COURTNEY.  Velvet  and  gold. 

[The  Queen  treated  Courtenay  as  a 
child,  and  forbad  him  to  dine  abroad  with- 
out permission,  or  to  wear  his  velvet  and 
gold  dress  which  he  had  had  made  to  take 
his  seat  in.  Renard  feared  him  as  a  rival 
to  Philip.  (Renard  to  Charles  V.,  Sept. 
19.  1553.  Rolls  House  MSS.,  and  Froude's 
History  of  England,  vol.  vi.  p.  97.)  —  Ed.] 

P.  574,  col.  1,  line  17.     (Act  1.  Sc.  iv.) 
To  the  Pleiads,  uncle;  they  have  lost  a  sister. 

[The  Pleiads  were  daughters  of  Atlas, 
and  were  placed  among  the  stars  by  Zeus. 
One  of  them,  Electra,  left  her  place  in  the 
heavens  that  she  might  not  witness  the  fall 
of  Troy,  which  her  son  Dardanus  had 
founded.  —  Ed.] 

P.  579,  col.  1,  line  16.     (Act  I.  Sc.  v.) 

/  am  English  Queen,  not  Roman  Emperor 

was  always  much  cheered  in  the  theatre,  for 

the  play  came  out  when  Queen  Victoria  had 

been  lately  proclaimed  Empress  of  India. 

P.  583,  col.  1,  line  9.  (Act  11.  Sc  i.) 
[Alington    Castle,    on    the   Medway.     My 


982 


NOTES 


father  often  visited  this  castle  (built  by  the 
father  of  the  poet  Sir  Thomas  Wyatt,  Sir 
Henry  Wyatt)  when  he  was  staying  with 
his  brother-in-law,  Edmund  Lushington, 
at  Park  House.  Thomas  Wyatt,  the  poet, 
was  born  here  in  1503,  and  died  in  1542, 
and  left  it  to  his  son,  who  is  the  Wyatt  of 
the  play.  —  Ed.] 

P.  584,  col.  2,  line  12.  (Act  11.  Sc.  ii.) 
For  Queen  Mary's  speech,  In  mine  own 
person,  see  Holinshed.  [She  spoke  in  a 
deep  voice  like  a  man. 

La  voce  grossa  et  quasi  de  huomo. 
Giovanni  Michele,  Ellis,  vol.  ii.  series  2. 

Ed.] 

P.  590.  (Act  in.  Sc.  i.)  [Nine  Worthies, 
Joshua,  David,  Judas  Maccabaeus,  Hector, 
Alexander,  Julius  Caesar,  King  Arthur, 
Charlemagne,  and  Godfrey  of  Bouillon.  — 
Ed.] 

P.  590,  col.  2,  line  9.  (Act  in.  Sc.  i.) 
the  tree  in  Virgil.     See  Aeneid,  vi.  206. 

P.  595,  col.  2,  line  4.  (Act  in.  Sc.  ii.) 
the  heathen  giant  [Antaeus.  —  Ed.] 

P.  599,  col.  2,  line  8.  (Act  in.  Sc.  iii.) 
For  ourselves  we  do  protest.  [For  Pole's 
speech  see  Froude's  History  of  England, 
vol.  vi.  pp.  276-281 : 

"I  confess  to  you  that  I  have  the  keys 
—  not  as  mine  own  keys,  but  as  the  keys 
of  him  that  sent  me:  and  yet  I  cannot 
open,  not  for  want  of  power  in  me  to  give, 
but  for  certain  impediments  in  you  to 
receive,  which  must  be  taken  away  before 
my  commission  can  take  effect.  This  I 
protest  before  you,  my  commission  is  not 
of  prejudice  to  any  person.  I  am  come 
not  to  destroy  but  to  build;  I  come  to  re- 
concile, not  to  condemn;  I  am  not  come 
to  compel  but  to  call  again;  I  am  not 
come  to  call  anything  in  question  already 
done;  but  my  commission  is  of  grace  and 
clemency  to  such  as  will  receive  it  —  for, 
touching  all  matters  that  be  past,  they 
shall  be  as  things  cast  into  the  sea  of  for- 
getfulness.  But  the  mean  whereby  you 
shall  receive  this  benefit  is  to  revoke 
and  repeal  those  laws  and  statutes  which 
be  impediments,  blocks,  and  bars  to  the 
execution  of  my  commission.  For,  like  as 
I   myself  had  neither  place  nor  voice  to 


speak  here  amongst  you,  but  was  in  all 
respects  a  banished  man,  till  such  time  as 
ye  had  repealed  those  laws  that  lay  in  my 
way,  even  so  cannot  you  receive  the  benefit 
and  grace  offered  from  the  Apostolic 
See  until  the  abrogation  of  such  laws 
whereby  you  had  disjoined  and  dissevered 
yourselves  from  the  unity  of  Christ's 
Church."  —  Ed.] 

P.  601,  col.  1,  lines  9, 10.  (Act  in.  Sc.  iv.) 
an  amphisbcena, 
Each  end  a  sting. 
[Cf. 

"Scorpion  and  asp  and  amphisbaena  dire." 
Par.  Lost,  x.  524.  —  Ed.] 

P.  608,  col.  1,  lines  3,  4.  (Act  in,  Sc. 
vi.) 

like  the  wild  hedge-rose 

Of  a  soft  winter,  possible,  not  probable. 

[My  father  made  this  simile  from  a  wild- 
rose  bush  at  Freshwater  which  was  in  full 
blossom  in  January.  —  Ed.] 

P.  609,  col.  1,  line  20.  (Act  in.  Sc. 
vi.)  what  Virgil  sings.  Cf.  Virgil's 
Aeneid,  iv.  569. 

P.  610.  (Act  in.  Sc.  vi.)  [Philip  was 
weary  of  England  and  of  his  childless 
queen.  "He  told  her  that  his  father 
wanted  to  see  him,  but  that  his  absence 
would  not  be  extended  beyond  a  fortnight 
or  three  weeks ;  she  should  go  with  him  to 
Dover;  and  if  she  desired  she  could  wait 
there  for  his  return"  (Noailles,  vol.  v.  pp. 
77-82 ;  Froude's  History  of  England,  vol. 
vi.  p.  362).  —  Ed.] 

P.  616,  col.  2,  line  17.  (Act  iv.  Sc.  iii.) 
What  saith  St.  John?  1  John  ii.  15. 

P.  617,  col.  1,  line  12.  (Act  iv.  Sc.  iii.) 
And  now,  and  forasmuch  as  I  have  come. 
["And  now,  forasmuch  as  I  am  come  to 
the  last  end  of  my  life,  whereupon  hangeth 
all  my  life  past  and  all  my  life  to  come, 
either  to  live  with  my  Saviour  Christ  in  joy, 
or  else  to  be  ever  in  pain  with  wicked  devils 
in  hell;  and  I  see  before  mine  eyes 
presently  either  heaven"  {pointing  up- 
wards) "or  hell"  {pointing  downwards) 
"ready  to  swallow  me.  I  shall  therefore 
declare  unto  you  my  very  faith,  without 
colour  or  dissimulation;    for  now  it  is  no 


NOTES 


983 


time  to  dissemble.  I  believe  in  God  the 
Father  almighty,  Maker  of  heaven  and 
earth ;  in  every  article  of  the  Catholic 
faith;  every  word  and  sentence  taught  by 
our  Saviour  Christ,  his  apostles  and  pro- 
phets, in  the  Old  and  New  Testament. 
And  now  I  come  to  the  great  thing  that 
troubleth  my  conscience  more  than  any 
other  thing  that  ever  I  said  or  did  in  my 
life,  and  that  is  the  setting  abroad  of 
writings  contrary  to  the  truth,  which  here 
I  now  renounce  and  refuse,  as  things  written 
with  my  hand  contrary  to  the  truth  which 
I  thought  in  my  heart,  and  written  for  fear 
of  death  to  save  my  life,  if  it  might  be; 
and  that  is,  all  such  bills  and  papers  as  I 
have  written  and  signed  with  my  hand 
since  my  degradation,  wherein  I  have 
written  many  things  untrue;  and  foras- 
much as  my  hand  offended  in  writing 
contrary  to  my  heart,  my  hand  therefore 
shall  first  be  punished;  for  if  I  may  come 
to  the  fire,  it  shall  be  the  first  burnt."  (See 
Harleian  MSS.  417  and  422,  and  Froude's 
History  of  England,  vol.  vi.  pp.  426-428.) 
—  Ed.] 

P.   618,   col.   2,   lines   19,    20.     (Act  iv. 
Sc.  iii.) 
And   Ignorance  crying   in   the  streets,   and 

all  men. 
Regarding  her. 
[Cf .  Proverbs  i.  20.  —  Ed.] 

Pp.  619-620.  (Act  iv.  Sc.  iii.)  [The 
Berkshire  dialect  of  Joan  and  Tib  was 
corrected  for  my  father  by  Tom  Hughes, 
author  of  Tom  Brown's  Schooldays.  —  Ed.] 

P.  622,  col.  1,  line  3.  (Act  v.  Sc.  i.) 
lower  our  kingly  flag.  See  Prescott's 
History  of  Philip  the  Second,  vol.  i.  p. 
113:  "Lord  Howard  is  said  to  have  fired 
a  gun,  as  he  approached  Philip's  squadron, 
in  order  to  compel  it  to  lower  its  topsails 
in  acknowledgment  of  the  supremacy  of 
the  English  on  the  narrow  seas." 

P.  633,  col.  2,  line  25. 

Thou  light  a  torch  that  never  will  go  out  I 
[She  refers  to  Latimer's  words  to  Ridley 
when  they  were  burnt  at  the  stake:  "We 
shall  this  day  light  such  a  candle,  by  God's 
grace,  as  I  trust  shall  never  be  put  out."  — 
Ed.] 


P.  634,  col.  2,  line  7.  (Act.  v.  Sc.  v.) 
After  Mary's  speech,  ending  "Help  me 
hence,"  the  end  of  the  last  Act  of  the  Act- 
ing Edition  *  ran  thus : 

[Falls  into  the  arms  of  Lady 
Clarence. 
Alice.    The  hand  of  God  hath  help'd 

her  hence. 
Lady  Clarence.  Not  yet. 

[To  Elizabeth  as  she  enters. 
Speak,  speak,  a  word  of  yours  may  wake 
her. 
Elizabeth     (kneeling     at     her     sister's 

knee).  Mary ! 

Mary.    Mary  !  who  calls  ?  'tis  long  since 
any  one 
Has  called  me  Mary  —  she  — 
There  in  the  dark  she  sits  and  calls  for 

me  — 
She  that  should  wear  her  state  before  the 

world. 
My  father's  own  true  wife.     Ay,  madam. 

Hark! 
For  she  will  call  again. 

Elizabeth.  Mary,  my  sister  ! 

Mary.     That's  not  the  voice  ! 

Who  is  it  steps  between  me  and  the  light  ? 

[Puts  her  arm  round  Elizabeth's  neck. 

I  held  her  in  my  arms  a  guileless  babe, 

And  mourn'd  her  orphan  doom  along  with 

mine. 
The  crown  !     she  comes  for  that !    take  it 

and  feel  it ! 
It  stings  the  touch !     It  is  not  gold  but 
thorns  !  [Mary  starts  up. 

The  crown  of  crowns !     Play  not  with  holy 
things ! 

[Clasps  her  hands  and  kneels. 

Keep  you  the  faith  !  .  .  .  yea,  mother,  yea 

I  come !  [Dies. 

Lady  Clarence.    She  is  dead. 

Elizabeth  (kneeling  by  the  body).    Poor 

sister  !     Peace  be  with  the  dead. 

[Curtain. 


1  As  produced  at  the  Lyceum  Theatre  with 
Irving  as  Philip,  and  Miss  Kate  Bateman  as 
Queen  Mary. 

On  the  Australian  stage  Miss  Dargon  won  a 
triumph  in  Queen  Mary.  It  was  very  popular 
when  produced  at  the  Melbourne  Theatre-Royal, 
and  had  a  long  run;  and  when  reproduced  at 
the  Bijou  Theatre  in  the  same  city  had  a  second 
long  run. 


984 


NOTES 


APPENDIX   TO  NOTES   ON 
QUEEN   MARY 

Letters  from  Robert  Browning 

19  Warwick  Crescent,  W., 
June  30th,  1875. 

My  dear  Tennyson  —  Thank  you  very  much 
for  Queen  Mary,  the  gift,  and  even  more  for 
Queen  Mary,  the  poem  :  it  is  astonishingly  fine. 
Conception,  execution,  the  whole  and  the  parts, 
I  see  nowhere  the  shade  of  a  fault,  thank  you 
once  again !  I  am  going  to  begin  it  afresh  now. 
What  a  joy  it  is  that  such  a  poem  should  be,  and 
be  yours  ! 

All  affectionate  regards  to  Mrs.  Tennyson  from 
yours  ever,  Robert  Browning. 

19  Warwick  Crescent,  W., 
April  igth,  1876. 

My  dear  Tennyson  —  I  want  to  be  among  the 
earliest  who  assure  you  of  the  complete  success  of 
your  Queen  Mary  last  night.  I  have  more  than 
once  seen  a  more  satisfactory  performance  of  it, 
to  be  sure,  in  what  Carlyle  calls  "the  Private 
Theatre  under  my  own  hat,"  because  there  and 
then  not  a  line  nor  a  word  was  left  out;  nay, 
there  were  abundant  "encores"  of  half  the 
speeches;  still  whatever  was  left  by  the  stage 
scissors  suggested  what  a  quantity  of  "cuttings" 
would  furnish  one  with  an  after-feast. 

Irving  was  very  good  indeed,  and  the  others 
did  their  best,  nor  so  badly. 

The  love  as  well  as  admiration  for  the  author 
was  conspicuous,  indeed,  I  don't  know  whether 
you  ought  to  have  been  present  to  enjoy  it,  or 
were  not  safer  in  absence  from  a  smothering  of 
flowers  and  deafening  "tumult  of  acclaim,"  but 
Hallam  was  there  to  report,  and  Mrs.  Tennyson 
is  with  you  to  believe.  All  congratulations  to  you 
both  from  yours  affectionately  ever, 

Robert  Browning. 


NOTES  ON  HAROLD 

By  the  Author 

P.  636.  Harold.  [First  published  in 
1876,  dated  1877.  "A  tragedy  of  Doom" 
my  father  called  it.  —  Ed.] 

P.  637,  col.  1,  lines  5,  6.  (Act.  I.  Sc.  i.) 
Look  you,  there's  a  star 
That  dances  in  it  as  mad  with  agony! 

[My  mother  writes,  October  4th,  1858, 
of  my  father:  "He  went  to  meet  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Roebuck  at  dinner  at  Swainston; 
and  the  comet  was  grand,  with  Arcturus 
shining  brightly  over  the  nucleus.  At 
dinner  he  said  he  must  leave  the  table  to 
look  at  it,  and  they  all  followed.  They 
saw  Arcturus  seemingly  dance  as  if  mad 
when  it  passed  out  of  the  comet's  tail. 
He  said  of  the  comet's  tail,  'It  is  like  a 


besom  of  destruction  sweeping  the  sky.'" 
—  Ed.] 

P.  637,  col.  2,  line  g.    (Act  1.  Sc.  i.) 
Did  ye  not  outlaw  your  archbishop  Robert? 

Robert,  a  monk  of  Jumieges  in  Nor- 
mandy, was  appointed  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury  by  Edward  the  Confessor.  He 
was  the  head  of  the  Norman,  as  Earl 
Godwin  was  of  the  national  party  in  Eng- 
land; and  he  so  far  wrought  upon  the 
Norman  predilections  of  the.  king  that  in 
the  end  he  procured  the  banishment  of 
Godwin  and  all  his  sons.  After  a  while, 
however,  these  returned  with  a  formidable 
force,  but  the  English  would  not  fight  for 
King  Edward  against  them.  It  was  then 
settled  that  the  matters  of  quarrel  between 
Edward  and  Godwin  should  be  referred 
to  a  Gemot  or  Great  National  Council. 
The  Normans  throughout  the  kingdom 
knew  well  what  would  be  the  vote  of  this 
Council,  and,  not  daring  to  abide  by  the 
result,  fled,  and  among  the  rest  Robert  of 
Jumieges.  He,  it  is  said,  escaped  by  the 
east  gate  of  London,  and  killing  or  wound- 
ing all  that  stayed  him,  reached  Walton- 
on-the-Naze,  whence  he  took  ship,  and 
past  overseas  never  to  come  back. 

Of  all  the  Norman  bishops,  William, 
the  Bishop  of  London,  alone  retained  his 
bishopric. 

P.  637,  col.  2,  line  25.     (Act.  1.  Sc.  i.) 

Who  had  my  pallium  from  an  Antipope  ! 

On  the  death  of  Stephen  IX.  in  1058, 
the  Imperial  party  at  Rome  sent  a  humble 
message  to  the  Empress  Agnes,  asking  her 
to  nominate  a  new  Pope.  Meanwhile  the 
old  Roman  feudatory  barons  elected  an 
anti-Pope  of  their  own,  the  Cardinal 
Bishop  of  Velletri  (Benedict  X.),  whom 
they  hastily  inaugurated,  and  enthroned  by 
night.  This  was  resented  by  the  Empress 
as  an  act  of  usurpation,  whereupon  she 
empowered  Hildebrand  to  take  measures 
for  a  fresh  election.  Accordingly  Gerard, 
Archbishop  of  Florence,  was  chosen,  who 
is  known  by  the  name  of  Nicholas  II.  I 
quote  from  Milman's  Latin  Christianity 
the  pathetic  history  of  Benedict's  subse- 
quent degradation : 

"Hildebrand  the  archdeacon  seized  him 
(Benedict)  by  force,  and  placed  him  before 


.  NOTES 


985 


Nicholas  and  a  council  in  the  Lateran 
Church.  They  stripped  him  before  the 
altar  of  his  pontifical  robes  (in  which  he 
had  been  again  invested),  set  him  thus  de- 
spoiled before  the  synod,  put  a  writing  in 
his  hand,  containing  a  long  confession  of 
every  kind  of  wickedness.  He  resisted  a 
long  time,  knowing  himself  perfectly  inno- 
cent of  such  crimes:  he  was  compelled  to 
read  it  with  very  many  tears  and  groans. 
His  mother  stood  by,  her  hair  dishevelled, 
and  her  bosom  bare,  with  many  sobs  and 
lamentations.  His  kindred  stood  weeping 
around.  Hildebrand  then  cried  aloud  to 
the  people:  'These  are  the  deeds  of  the 
Pope  whom  ye  have  chosen ! '  They  re- 
arrayed  him  in  the  pontifical  robes,  and 
formally  deposed  him.  He  was  allowed  to 
retire  to  the  monastery  of  St.  Agnes,  where 
he  lived  in  the  utmost  wretchedness.  They 
prohibited  him  from  all  holy  functions, 
would  not  allow  him  to  enter  the  choir. 
By  the  intercession  of  the*Archpresbyter  of 
St.  Anastasia  he  was  permitted  at  length  to 
read  the  Epistle;  a  short  time  after,  the 
Gospel ;  but  never  suffered  to  read  mass. 
He  lived  to  the  Pontificate  of  Hildebrand, 
who,  when  informed  of  his  death,  said,  'In 
an  evil  hour  did  I  behold  him;  I  have 
committed  great  sin.'  Hildebrand  com- 
manded that  he  should  be  buried  with 
Pontifical  honours"  (Milman,  viii.  p.  48). 

It  was  from  this  Benedict  that  Stigand 
received  the  pallium,  or  sacred  badge  of  the 
archiepiscopate.  » 

P.  639,  col.  1,  line  35.    (Act.  1.  Sc.  i.) 

Is  not  my  brother  Wulfnolh  hostage  there? 

One  version  of  the  story  relates  that 
Godwin,  after  his  reconcilation  with 
Edward,  gave  hostages  for  his  good  con- 
duct, and  among  them  his  son  Wulfnoth, 
and  that  these  were  handed  over  by  the 
king  to  Count  William  for  their  better 
custody. 

P.  645,  col.  2,  line  14.     (Act.  11.  Sc.  ii.) 
He    was    thine    host    in    England    when    I 

went. 
Malet  was  half-Norman,  half-English. 

P.  646,  col.  1,  line  17.     (Act  11.  Sc.  ii.) 
Haled    thy    shore-swallow' d,  armour'd    Nor- 
mans up. 

In  that  section  of  the  Bayeux  tapestry 


which  depicts  William's  war  against  Conan 
of  Brittany,  Harold  is  seen  plucking  the 
Norman  soldiers  two  fit  a  time  from  the 
quicksands  below  Mont  St.  Michel  where 
the  river  Coesnon  flows  into  the  sea. 

P.  647,  col.  1,  lines  1,  2.  (Act  DC 
Sc.  i.) 

The  voice  of  any  people  is  the  sword 
That  guards  them,  or  the  sword  thai  beats 

them  down. 
[Two  favourite  lines  of   Mr.   Gladstone's. 
—  Ed.] 

P.  650,  col.  2,  line  19.     (Act  11.  Sc.  ii.) 

Some  said  it  was  thy  father's  deed. 
Alfred,  the  son  of  Emma  (who  was  also 
mother  of  Edward  the  Confessor,  and  great- 
aunt  of  William  the  Conqueror),  coming 
into  England  during  the  reign  of  Harold 
the  Dane,  the  son  of  Cnut,  was  seized  and 
blinded.  This  crime  was  imputed  to 
Godwin;  but  the  Witan  acquitted  him  of 
the  charge. 

P.  651,  col.  1,  line  24.     (Act  11.  Sc.  ii.) 
The  Atheling  is  nearest  to  the  throne. 
Edgar    the  Atheling    was    grandson    of 
Edmund  Ironside,  and  the  last  male  repre- 
sentative of  the  House  of  Cerdic. 

P.  652,  col.  2,  line  13.     (Act  11.  Sc.  ii.) 

Behold  the  jewel  of  St.  Pancratius. 
Concerning  this  jewel  of  Saint  Pancratius, 
"gemma    tam    speciosa    quam    spatiosa," 
see  Freeman's  Norman  Conquest,   vol.  iii. 
p.  686. 

P.  659,  col.  2,  line  12.  (Act  in.  Sc.  ii.) 
The  Pope  and  that  Archdeacon  Hildebrand. 
[Alexander  II.,  and  Hildebrand,  afterwards 
Gregory  VII.  (1073).  —  Ed.] 

P.  665,  col.  1,  line  12.    (Act  iv.  Sc.  iii.) 
Let  him  come !     Let  him  come ! 
Bublie  crient  e  weissel 
E  laticome  e  drincheheil, 
Drinc  Hindrewart  e  Drintome 
Drinc  Helf  e  drinc  tome. 

Roman  de  Ron,  12473. 
P.  667,  col.  1,  lines  19,  20.    (Act  v.  Sc.  i.) 

Waltham,   my  foundation 
For  men  who  serve  the  neighbour,  not  them- 
selves. 
"Of  his  liberality  his  great  foundation  at 


986 


NOTES 


Waltham  is  an  everlasting  monument,  and 
it  is  a  monument  not  more  of  his  liberality 
than  of  his  wisdom.  (  To  the  monastic  orders 
Harold  seems  not  to  have  been  specially 
liberal ;  his  bounty  took  another  and  a  better 
chosen  direction.  The  foundation  of  a  great 
secular  college,  in  days  when  all  the  world 
seemed  mad  after  monks,  when  King 
Eadward  and  Earl  Leofric  vied  with  each 
other  in  lavish  gifts  to  religious  houses  at 
home  and  abroad,  was  in  itself  an  act  dis- 
playing no  small  vigour  and  independence 
of  mind.  The  details,  too,  of  the  founda- 
tion were  such  as  showed  that  the  creation 
of  Waltham  was  not  the  act  of  a  moment  of 
superstitious  dread  or  of  reckless  bounty, 
but  the  deliberate  deed  of  a  man  who  felt 
the  responsibilities  of  lofty  rank  and  bound- 
less wealth,  and  who  earnestly  sought  the 
welfare  of  his  Church  and  nation  in  all 
things"  (Freeman's  ,  Norman  Conquest, 
vol.  ii.  p.  41). 

P.  668,  col.  1,  lines  30,  31.  (Act  v.  Sc.  i.) 
that  old  song  of  Brunanburg 

Where  England  conquer'd. 

Constantinus,  King  of  the  Scots,  after 
having  sworn  allegiance  to  Athelstan,  allied 
himself  with  the  Danes  of  Ireland  under 
Anlaf,  and  invading  England,  was  defeated 
by  Athelstan  and  his  brother  Edmund  with 
great  slaughter  at  Brunanburh  in  the  year 
937- 

See  my  translation  of  the  Song  of 
Brunanburh  (entitled  Battle  of  Brunan- 
burh, p.  534).  In  rendering  this  Old 
English  war-song  into  modern  language 
and  alliterative  rhythm  I  have  made  free 
use  of  the  dactylic  beat.  I  suppose  that 
the  original  was  chanted  to  a  slow,  swing- 
ing recitative. 

P.  671,  col.  1,  line  25.  (Act  v.  Sc.  i.) 
Come  as  Goliath  came  of  yore.  Taillefer 
the  minstrel,  a  man  of  gigantic  stature, 
who  rode  out  alone  in  front  of  the  Norman 
army  chanting : 

Taillefer,  ki  mult  ben  cantout, 
Sor  un  cheval  ki  tost  alout, 
Devant  li  Dus  alout  cantant 
De  Karlemaine  e  de  Rollant 
E  d'  Oliver  e  des  vassals 
Ki  morurent  en  Renchevals. 

Roman  de  Rou,  13149. 


P.  673,  col.  2,  line  18.     (Act  v.  Sc.  ii.) 
Then  all  the  dead  fell  on  him. 
Alluding  to  her  dream  in  Act  1.  Sc.  ii. : 

and  all 
The  dead  men  made  at  thee  to  murder  thee. 

APPENDIX  TO  NOTES  ON  HAROLD 

Letter  from  Robert  Browning 

19  Warwick  Crescent, 
Dec.  2isl,  1876. 

My  dear  Tennyson  —  True  thanks  again,  this 
time  for  the  best  of  Christmas  presents,  another 
great  work,  wise,  good  and  beautiful.  The  scene 
where  Harold  is  overborne  to  take  the  oath  is 
perfect,  for  one  instance.  What  a  fine  new  ray  of 
light  you  are  entwining  with  your  many  coloured 
wreath  ! 

I  know  the  Conqueror's  Country  pretty  well : 
stood  last  year  in  his  Castle  of  Bonneville,  on  the 
spot  where  tradition  is  that  Harold  took  the  oath ; 
and  I  have  passed  through  Dives,  the  place  of 
William's  embarcation,  perhaps  twenty  times: 
and  more  than  once  visited  the  church  there, 
built  by  him,  where  still  are  inscribed  the  names 
of  the  Norman  knights  who  accompanied  him  in 
his  expedition.  You  light  this  up  again  for  me. 
All  happiness  befall  you  and  yours,  this  good 
season  and  ever.  —  Yours  affectionately, 

R.  Browning. 


NOTES   ON   BECKET 

By  the  Editor 

In  1879  my  father  printed  the  first  proofs 
of  his  tragedy  of  Becket,  which  he  had 
begun  in  December  1876.  But  he  con- 
sidered that  the  time  was  not  ripe  for  its 
publication ;  and  this  therefore  was  deferred 
until  December  1884.  We  had  visited 
Canterbury  in  August  1877,  and  gone  over 
each  separate  scene  of  Becket's  martyrdom. 
"Admirers  of  Becket,"  my  father  notes, 
"will  find  that  Becket's  letters,  and  the 
writings  of  Herbert  of  Bosham,  Fitzstephen, 
and  John  of  Salisbury  throw  great  light  on 
those  days.  Bishop  Lightfoot  found  out 
about  Rosamund  for  me." 

The  play  is  so  accurate  a  representation 
of  the  personages  and  of  the  time,  that 
J.  R.  Green  said  that  all  his  researches 
into  the  annals  of  the  twelfth  century  had 
not  given  him  "so  vivid  a  conception  of 
the  character  of  Henry  II.  and  his  court  as 
was  embodied  in  Tennyson's  Becket." 

My  father's  view  of  Becket  was  as  fol- 


NOTES 


987 


lows :  Becket  was  a  really  great  and  impul- 
sive man,  with  a  firm  sense  of  duty,  and, 
when  he  renounced  the  world,  looked  upon 
himself  as  the  head  ol  that  Church  which 
was  the  people's  "tower  of  strength,  their 
bulwark  against  throne  and  baronage." 
This  idea  so  far  wrought  in  his  dominant 
nature  as  to  betray  him  into  many  rash 
acts:  and  later  he  lost  himself  in  the  idea. 
His  enthusiasm  reached  a  spiritual  ecstasy 
which  carries  the  historian  along  with  it ; 
and  his  humanity  and  abiding  tenderness 
for  the  poor,  the  weak  and  the  unprotected, 
heighten  the  impression  so  much  as  to 
make  the  poet  feel  passionately  the  wronged 
Rosamund's  reverential  devotion  for  him 
(most  touchingly  rendered  by  Ellen  Terry), 
when  she  knelt  praying  over  his  body  in 
Canterbury  Cathedral. 

In  1879  Irving  refused  the  play:  but  in 
1891  he  asked  leave  to  produce  it,  holding 
that  the  taste  of  the  theatre-going  public 
had  changed  in  the  interval,  and  that  it 
was  now  likely  to  be  a  success  on  the  stage. 

He  writes  to  me  (1893) : 

We  have  passed  the  fiftieth  performance  of 
Becket  (produced  Feb.  6,  1893),  which  is  in  the 
heyday  of  its  success.  I  think  that  I  may,  with- 
out hereafter  being  credited  with  any  inferior 
motive,  give  again  the  opinion  which  I  previously 
expressed  to  your  loved  and  honoured  father. 
To  me  Becket  is  a  very  noble  play,  with  some- 
thing of  that  lofty  feeling  and  that  far-reaching 
influence,  which  belong  to  a  "passion  play." 
There  are  in  it  moments  of  passion  and  pathos 
which  are  the  aim  and  end  of  dramatic  art,  and 
which,  when  they  exist,  atone  to  an  audience  for 
the  endurance  of  long  acts.  Some  of  the  scenes 
and  passages,  especially  in  the  last  act,  are  full 
of  sublime  feeling,  and  are  with  regard  to  both 
their  dramatic  effectiveness  and  their  poetic 
beauty  as  fine  as  anything  in  our  language.  I 
know  that  such  a  play  has  an  ennobling  influence 
on  both  the  audience  who  see  it  and  the  actors 
who  play  in  it. 

Some  of  the  last  lines  which  my  father 
ever  wrote  are  at  the  end  of  the  North- 
ampton scene,  an  anthem-speech  written 
for  Irving : 

The  voice  of  the  Lord  is  in  the   voice    of 

the  people. 
The  voice  of  the  Lord  is  on  the  warring 

flood, 
And  He  will  lead  His  people  into  peace  ! 
The    voice    of    the    Lord    will    shake    the 

wilderness, 
The  barren  wilderness  of  unbelief ! 


The  voice  of  the  Lord  will  break  the  cedar- 
trees, 
The  Kings  and    Rulers  that  have  closed 

their  ears 
Against  the  Voice,   and  at  their  hour  of 

doom 
The  voice  of  the  Lord  will  hush  the  hounds 

of  Hell 
In  everlasting  silence. 

The  play  had  a  long  run  and  was  after- 
wards frequently  played  in  the  provinces 
and  America.  The  incidental  music  was 
written  by  Sir  Charles  Stanford.  His 
identification  of  Becket  with  the  Gre- 
gorian melody  "Telluris  ingens  conditor" 
is  particularly  impressive. 

UNPUBLISHED   SONNET 

(Written  originally  as  a  Preface  to 

"Becket") 

Old  ghosts  whose  day  was  done  ere  mine 

began, 
If   earth  be   seen   from  your   conjectured 

heaven, 
Ye  know  that  History  is  half-dream  —  ay 

even 
The  man's  life  in  the  letters  of  the  man. 
There  lies  the  letter,  but  it  is  not  he 
As  he  retires  into  himself  and  is : 
Sender  and  sent-to  go  to  make  up  this, 
Their  offspring  of  this  union.     And  on  me 
Frown  not,  old  ghosts,  if  I  be  one  of  those 
Who  make  you  utter  things  you  did  not 

say, 
And  mould  you  all  awry  and  mar  your 

worth; 
For  whatsoever  knows  us  truly,  knows 
That  none  can  truly  write  his  single  day, 
And  none  can  write  it  for  him  upon  earth. 

P.  676.  (Prologue.)  Becket  as  chess- 
player. John  of  Salisbury  and  Fitzstephen 
describe  him  as  an  accomplished  chess- 
player, a  master  in  hunting  and  falconry, 
and  other  manly  exercises. 

P.  677,  col.  2,  lines  5,  6.     (Prologue.) 
nor  my  confessor  yet. 
I  would  to  God  thou  werl. 
Archbishop  Theobald   writes  to  Becket 
(John  of  Salisbury,  Ep.  78) :    "  It  sounds 
in  the  ears  and  mouths  of  people  that  you 
and   the   king   are   one   heart   and   soul." 
He  helped  Henry  to  improve  the  state  of 


988 


NOTES 


the  country,  and  to  lighten  many  of  the 
oppressive  laws  and  enactments  (Lingard, 
vol.  ii.). 

P.  677,  col.  2,  line  14.  (Prologue.)  A 
dish-designer.  When  Becket  went  to  Paris, 
all  the  French  were  astonished  at  his 
sumptuous  living.  One  dish  of  eels  alone 
was  said  to  have  cost  100  shillings 
(Fitzstephen,  197,  8,  9). 

P.  682.  (Act  1.  Sc.  i.)  Chamber  barely 
furnished.  John  of  Salisbury  says,  "Con- 
secratus  autem  statim  veterem  exuit 
hominem,   cilicium  et  monachum    induit." 

P.  682,  col.  1,  line  21.  (Act  1.  Sc.  i.) 
scutage.  The  acceptance  of  a  money  com- 
pensation for  military  service  dates  from 
this  time  (1159).  See  Freeman's  Norman 
Conquest. 

P.  686.  (Act  1.  Sc.  iii.)  In  this  great 
scene  at  Northampton  (J.  R.  Green  writes) 
"his  life  was  said  to  be  in  danger,  and  all 
urged  him  to  submit.  But  in  the  presence 
of  danger  the  courage  of  the  man  rose  to 
its  full  height.  Grasping  his  archiepiscopal 
cross  he  entered  the  royal  court,  forbade 
the  nobles  to  condemn  him,  and  appealed 
to  the  Papal  See.  Shouts  of  'Traitor! 
traitor  ! '  followed  him  as  he  retired.  The 
Primate  turned  fiercely  at  the  word :  '  Were 
I  a  knight,'  he  retorted,  'my  sword  should 
answer  that  foul  taunt.' "  —  Short  History 
of  the  English  People,  p.  108. 

P.  687.  (Act  1.  Sc.  iii.)  "He  (Henry 
II.)  wished  to  put  an  end  to  the  disgrace- 
ful state  of  things  which  had  arisen,  by 
subjecting  clerical  offenders  against  the 
public  peace  to  the  same  jurisdiction  with 
the  criminals,  and,  with  a  view  to  this,  he 
now  required  that  clerks  accused  of  any 
outrage  should  be  tried  in  his  own  courts; 
that,  on  conviction  or  confession,  they 
should  be  degraded  by  the  Church,  and 
that  they  then  should  be  remanded  to  the 
secular  officers  for  the  execution  of  the 
sentence  which  had  been  passed  upon 
them.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Archbishop, 
although  unsupported  by  his  brethren  in 
general,  who  dreaded  a  risk  of  a  breach 
with  the  State  while  the  Church  was 
divided  by  a  schism,  considered  himself 
bound  to  offer  the  most  strenuous  resistance 
to  a  proposal  which  tended  to  lessen  the 


privileges  of  the  hierarchy;  and  on  this 
quarrel  the  whole  of  the  subsequent  history 
turned"  (Becket,  by  Canon  Robertson, 
PP-  76,  77). 

P.  690,  col.  1,  line  9.     (Act  1.  Sc.  iii.) 
False  to  myself  —  it  is  the  will  of  God. 

"It  is  the  Lord's  will  that  I  perjure 
myself"  (Foliot,  v.  271,  2). 

P.  692,  col.  2,  line  1.  (Act  1.  Sc.  iii.) 
A  worldly  follower  of  the  worldly  strong. 
Foliot  fasted  much,  and  was  famous  for 
his  learning,  for  his  subtle  trickery,  and 
flattery  of  persons  in  high  station.  When 
he  was  plotting  against  Becket,  he  is  said 
to  have  heard  "an  exceeding  terrible  voice: 

O  Gilberte  Foliot 
Dum  resolvis  tot  et  tot, 
Deus  tuus  est  Ashtaroth." 

(Roger  Wendover,  ii.  323.) 

P.  693,  col.  1,  line  31.  (Act  1.  Sc.  iii.) 
Hence,  Satan  1  See  Alan  of  Tewkesbury, 
i.  347- 

P.    694,    col.    2,    lines    13,    14.     (Act   1. 
Sc.  iii.) 
But   I    that   threw   the   mightiest   knight   of 

France, 
Sir  Engelram  de  Trie. 

In  1 159  Becket,  in  cuirass  and  helmet, 
marched  at  the  head  of  his  troops  against 
the  County  of  Toulouse,  which  had  passed 
to  Henry  on  his  marriage  with  Eleanor, 
and  there  he  unhorsed  in  single  combat 
Sir  Engelram  de  Trie. 

P.  694,  col.  2,  line  19.     (Act  1.  Sc.  iii.) 
Deal  gently  with  the  young  man  Absalom. 
(Fitzstephen,    i.     236;     Foliot,    iii.     280; 
Roger  of  Hoveden,  284.) 

P.  644.  (Act  1.  Sc.  iv.)  For  Becket's 
entertainment  of  the  poor  and  his  washing 
of  their  feet  see  Fitzstephen,  204;  John  of 
Salisbury,  324;  Herbert  of  Bosham,  24. 
My  father  regretted  the  excision  of  this 
scene  and  of  his  Walter  Map  scenes  from 
the  Acting  Edition. 

P.  696,  col.  1,  line  41.  (Act  1.  Sc.  iv.) 
I  must  fly  to  France  to-night.  Not  long  after 
he  landed  in  France,  under  the  assumed 
name  of  Brother  Christian,  a  boy,  who  was 
standing  by  the  roadside  with  a  hawk  on 


NOTES 


989 


his  wrist,  was  attracted  by  the  evident 
pleasure  with  which  the  stranger  eyed  his 
bird,  and  cried  out,  "Here  goes  the  Arch- 
bishop." At  Gravelines  the  landlord  of 
the  inn  where  he  spent  the  night  had  longer 
time  for  observation,  and  recognised  him, 
as  Herbert  of  Bosham  says,  "by  his  re- 
markably tall  figure,  his  high  forehead,  the 
stern  expression  of  his  beautiful  counten- 
ance, and,  above  all,  by  the  exquisite 
delicacy  of  his  hands"  (Hurrell  Froude's 
Remains,  vol.  iv.  p.  01). 

P.  698,  col.  1,  line  34,  col.  2,  line  1. 
(Act  11.  Sc.  i.) 

/  have  sent  his  folk, 

His  kin,  all  his  belongings,  overseas. 

Edward  Grim  of  Cambridge  writes: 
"Those  of  whom  God  especially  styles  Him- 
self the  Father  and  Judge — orphans,  widows, 
children  altogether  innocent,  and  unknow- 
ing of  any  discord,  aged  men,  women  with 
their  little  ones  hanging  at  their  breasts, 
clerks,  and  lay  folk  of  whatever  age  and  sex, 
of  the  Archbishop's  kindred,  and  some  of  his 
friends,  were  seized  in  the  depth  of  winter, 
and  mercilessly  transported  beyond  sea, 
after  having  been  obliged  to  swear  that  they 
would  seek  him  out"  (Grim,  1-51). 

P.  702,  col.  1,  line  32.  (Act  11.  Sc.  ii.) 
Saving  God's  honour.  Becket  substituted 
this  phrase  in  place  of  "  salvo  ordine  nostro, " 
which  had  been  objected  to  by  Henry.  The 
King  would  not  allow  any  difference,  and 
burst  into  uncontrollable  fury  (John  of 
Salisbury,  ii.).  Becket  wrote  to  the  Pope 
after  Montmirail:  "We  answered  ...  we 
were  prepared  to  yield  him  (the  king) 
every  service,  even  more  than  our  pre- 
decessors had  done  saving  my  order;  but 
that  new  obligations,  unbeknown  to  the 
Church,  and  such  as  my  predecessors  were 
never  bound  by,  ought  not  to  be  under- 
taken by  us :  first,  because  it  was  bad  as  a 
precedent;  secondly,  because,  when  in  the 
city  of  Sens,  your  Holiness'  self  absolved 
me  from  the  observance  of  these  Usages, 
hateful  to  God  and  to  the  Church,  and 
from  the  pledge  which  force  and  fear  had 
extorted  from  me  in  a  special  manner ;  and 
after  a  grave  rebuke,  which,  by  God's  grace, 
shall  never  pass  from  my  mind,  prohibited 
me  from  ever  again  obliging  myself  to  any 
one  on  a  like  cause  except  saving  God's 


honour  and  my  order.  You  added  too,  if 
you  are  pleased  to  recollect,  that  not  even 
to  save  his  life  should  a  Bishop  oblige 
himself,  saving  God's  honour  and  his  order" 
(Hurrell  Froude's  Remains,  vol.  iv.  p.  389). 
P.  703,  col.  2,  line  6.  (Act  11.  Sc.  ii.) 
let  a  stranger  spoil  his  heritage.  Cf. 
Psalm  cix. 

P.  703,  col.  2,  line  26  ff.  (Act  11.  Sc.  ii.) 
My  father's  note  is:  "The  description  of 
Bosham  was  made  as  we  (my  son  Hallam 
and  I)  saw  the  little  fishing  village  on  a 
summer's  day." 

P.  711,  col.  1,  line  2.     (Act  in.  Sc.  iii.) 

The  daughter  of  Zion  lies  beside  the  way. 
Lamentations  i.-ii. 

P.  711,   col.    1,    lines    1,   2.       (Act   in. 
Sc.  iii.) 
The  spouse  of  the   Great  King,  thy   King, 

hath  fallen  — 
The  daughter  of  Zion  lies  beside  the  way. 

See  Becket's  Ep.  i.  63,  in  Hurrell 
Froude's  Remains,  iv,  139.  The  Arch- 
bishop to  the  King  of  England:  "I 
entreat  you,  O  my  Lord,  to  bear  with  me 
for  a  while  that  by  the  grace  of  God  I  may- 
disburden  my  conscience,  to  the  benefit  of 
my  soul.  .  .  .  My  Lord,  the  daughter  of 
Zion  is  held  captive  in  thy  kingdom.  The 
spouse  of  the  Great  King  is  oppressed  by 
her  enemies,  afflicted  by  those  who  ought 
most  to  honour  her,  and  especially  by  you." 

See,  too,  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury 
to  the  Pope  (after  Fr&eval),  Hurrell 
Froude's  Remains,  iv.  503 :  "  God  hath 
looked  with  an  eye  of  pity  on  His  Church, 
and  changed  at  length  her  sorrow  into  joy. 
The  King  of  England,  as  soon  as  he  had 
received  your  last  letters,  and  understood 
that  you  would  no  longer  spare  him,  even 
as  you  had  not  spared  the  Emperor 
Frederic,  but  would  lay  his  territories  under 
an  Interdict,  forthwith  made  peace  with  us, 
to  the  honour  of  God,  as  we  would  hope, 
and  the  great  advantage  of  His  Church. 
The  Usages  which  were  once  so  insisted 
upon,  he  did  not  even  allude  to.  He 
exacted  no  oath  of  us,  or  any  belonging  to 
us.  He  restored  to  us  the  possessions 
which  we  had  been  deprived  of,  according 
to  the  enumeration  of  them  in  our  own 
schedule;     and,    with    them,    peace    and 


990 


NOTES 


security,  and  a  return  from  our  exile  to  all 
our  companions;  and  even  promised  the 
kiss,  if  we  wished  to  press  him  so  far.  In 
short  he  gave  way  in  everything,  insomuch 
that  some  called  him  perjured,  who  had 
heard  him  swear  that  he  would  not  admit 
us  to  the  kiss  that  day." 

P.  711,  col.  1,  line  17.  (Act  111.  Sc.  iii.) 
And  thou  shalt  crown  my  Henry  o'er  again. 
Upon  this  Becket  dismounted  and  pre- 
pared to  throw  himself  at  Henry's  feet, 
but  Henry  also  dismounted,  and  em- 
braced the  Archbishop,  and  held  his 
stirrup  for  him  in  order  that  he  might 
remount. 

P.  713.  (Act  iv.  Sc.  ii.)  "That  Rosa- 
mund was  not  killed  may  be  ascertained 
by  the  charters  ..."  (see  vol.  i.  p.  213, 
Miss     Strickland's    Lives    of     Queens     of 

England) . 

P.  722,  col.  2,  line  15.  (Act  v.  Sc.  ii.) 
uxor  pauperis  Ibyci  (Horace,  Carm.  in. 
xv.  1). 

P.  723,  col.  1,  line  3.  (Act  v.  Sc.  ii.) 
From  "On  a  Tuesday  was  I  born"  to  the 
end  of  the  play  is  founded  on  the  graphic 
accounts  by  Fitzstephen,  and  Grim,  the 
monk  of  Cambridge,  who  was  with  Becket 
in  Scenes  ii.  and  iii. 

P.  725,  col.  1,  line  33.  (Act  v.  Sc.  ii.) 
When  God  makes  up  his  jewels.  Malachi 
iii.  17. 

APPENDIX  TO  NOTES  ON  BECKET 

Letter  from  The  Right  Honourable  J.  Bryce 

As  I  have  been  abroad  for  some  time  it  was  only 
a  little  while  ago  that  I  obtained  and  read  your 
Becket.  Will  you,  since  you  were  so  kind  as  to 
read  me  some  of  it  last  July,  let  me  tell  you  how 
much  enjoyment  and  light  it  has  given  me? 
Impressive  as  were  the  parts  read,  it  impresses 
one  incomparably  more  when  studied  as  a  whole. 
One  cannot  imagine  a  more  vivid,  a  more  per- 
fectly faithful  picture  than  it  gives  both  of  Henry 
and  of  Thomas.  Truth  in  history  is  naturally 
truth  in  poetry;  but  you  have  made  the 
characters  of  the  two  men  shine  out  in  a  way 
which,  while  it  never  deviates  from  the  im- 
pression history  gives  of  them,  goes  beyond  and 
perfects  history.  This  is  eminently  conspicuous 
in  the  way  their  relations  to  one  another  are 
traced;  and  in  the  delineation  of  the  influence 
on  Thomas  of  the  conception  of  the  Church, 
blending  with  his  own  haughty  spirit  and 
sanctifying  it  to  his  own  conscience.     There  is 


not,  it  seems  to  me,  anything  in  modern  poetry 
which  helps  us  to  realize,  as  your  drama  does, 
the  sort  of  power  the  Church  exerted  on  her 
ministers:  and  this  is  the  central  fact  of  the 
earlier  middle  ages.  I  wish  you  were  writing  a 
play  on  Hildebrand  also.  Venturing  to  say  this 
to  you  from  the  point  of  view  of  a  student  of 
history,  I  scarcely  presume  to  speak  of  the  drama 
on  its  more  purely  literary  side,  how  full  of 
strength  and  beauty  and  delicacy  it  is,  because 
you  must  have  heard  this  often  already  from 
more  competent  critics. 


NOTES   ON  THE   CUP 

By  the  Editor 

Founded  on  a  story  in  Plutarch.  The 
story  was  first  read  by  my  father  in  Lecky : 

A  powerful  noble  once  solicited  the  hand  of  a 
Galatian  lady  named  Camma,  who,  faithful  to 
her  husband,  resisted  all  his  entreaties.  Re- 
solved at  any  hazard  to  succeed,  he  caused  her 
husband  to  be  assassinated,  and  when  she  took 
refuge  in  the  temple  of  Diana,  and  enrolled  her- 
self among  the  priestesses,  he  sent  noble  after 
noble  to  induce  her  to  relent.  After  a  time  he 
ventured  himself  into  her  presence.  She  feigned 
a  willingness  to  yield,  but  told  him  it  was  first 
necessary  to  make  a  libation  to  the  goddess. 
She  appeared  as  a  priestess  before  the  altar 
bearing  in  her  hand  a  cup  of  wine,  which  she 
had  poisoned.  She  drank  half  of  it  herself, 
handed  the  remainder  to  her  guilty  lover,  and 
when  he  had  drained  the  cup  to  the  dregs,  burst 
into  a  fierce  thanksgiving  that  she  had  been  per- 
mitted to  avenge,  and  was  soon  to  rejoin,  her 
murdered  husband.     (Plutarch,  De  Mulier.  Virt.) 

The  Cup  was  first  published  with  The 
Falcon  in  1884;  planned  in  March  1879, 
begun  in  November  1879,  and  printed  late 
in  1880.  Produced  at  the  Lyceum,  Jan.  3, 
1 88 1,  and  ran  for  one  hundred  and  twenty- 
eight  nights. 

At  Irving's  request  three  short  speeches 
for  Synorix  were  added,  Act  1.  Sc.  iii. ; 
and  at  the  end  of  Act  1.  Sc.  ii.,  pp.  207- 
208,  the  quarrel  between  Sinnatus  and 
Synorix  was  lengthened  by  two  lines,  and 
Camma  was  made  to  interrogate  Sinnatus 
as  to  what  Synorix  had  said,  and  three  or 
four  entrances  were  made  less  abrupt. 
Irving  inserted  most  of  the  stage-directions, 
and  devised  the  magnificent  scenery,  and 
the  drama  was  produced  by  him  with 
signal  success  at  the  Lyceum,  and  played 
to  crowded  houses.  He  wrote  to  my 
father:  "I  hope  that  the  splendid  success 
of  your  grand  Tragedy  will  be  followed  by 
other  triumphs  equally  great." 


NOTES 


991 


While  Miss  Mary  Anderson  was  acting 
in  The  Winters  Tale  in  London  she 
signed  an  agreement  to  revive  The  Cup. 
My  father  reinserted  from  his  first  MS. 
four  lines  for  her,  to  be  sung  by  the 
priestesses  as  they  enter  the  Temple : 

Artemis,  Artemis,  hear  us,  O  mother,  hear 

us  and  bless  us  ! 
Artemis,  thou  that  art  life  to  the  wind,  to 

the  wave,  to  the  glebe,  to  the  fire, 
Hear    thy    people    who    praise    thee !     O 

help  us  from  all  that  oppress  lis. 
Hear  thy  priestesses  hymn  thy  glory !     O 

yield  them  all  their  desire. 

P.  731,  col.  2,  line  31.     (Act  1.  Sc.  i.) 
I  here  return  like  Tarquin  — for  a  crown. 

This  refers  to  Tarquinius  Superbus,  the 
last  king  of  Rome,  who  was  expelled  510 
B.C.  in  consequence  of  the  outrage  by  his 
son  on  Lucretia,  the  wife  of  his  cousin, 
Tarquinius  Collatinus.  The  last  effort  of 
Tarquin  to  recover  his  crown  was  ex- 
hausted by  the  decisive  victory  gained  by 
the  Romans  over  him  at  Lake  Regillus, 
490  b.c.  It  is  related  that  he  died  miser- 
ably at  Cumae. 

P.  732,  col.  1,  line  15.  (Act  1.  Sc.  i.) 
the  net,  —  the  net.  Cf.  Horace,  Ode  i.  1. 
28  et  passim. 

P.  734,  col.  2,  line  25.  (Act  1.  Sc.  ii.) 
"Some  friends  of  mind"  in  first  edition 
misprint  for  "Some  friends  of  mine." 

P.  74s,  col.  1,  line  13.  (Act  11.)  some 
old  Greek.  See  Plato's  Apology,  Church's 
translation:  "And  if  we  reflect  in  another 
way,  we  shall  see  that  we  may  well  hope 
that  death  is  a  good.  For  the  state  of 
death  is  one  of  two  things:  either  the 
dead  wholly  cease  to  be  and  lose  all  sensa- 
tion, or  death  (as  is  commonly  believed)  a 
change  and  a  migration  of  the  soul  into 
another  place.  Now  if  death  is  the 
absence  of  all  sensation,  and  life  a  dream- 
less sleep,  it  will  be  a  wonderful  gain.  .  .  . 
But  if  it  is  a  passing  to  another  place,  and 
the  common  belief  be  true,  that  all  who  have 
died  are  there,  what  could  be  greater  than 
this?  .  .  .  What  one  would  not  give  to 
converse  with  Orpheus  and  Musaeus  and 
Hesiod  and  Homer !  I  am  willing  to  die 
many  times  if  this  be  true." 


P.  745,  col.  2,  line  14.     (Act  11.) 
'Comma,  Comma V     Sinnatus,  Sinnatus! 
The  blank  verse  ending  the  play,  with 

only    four    beats,    gives    the    passion    of 

Camma's  death-cry. 


NOTES   ON  THE   FALCON 

By  the  Editor 

P.  746.  The  Falcon.  First  published 
in  1884.  Founded  on  a  story  in  Boc- 
caccio (the  ninth  novel  of  the  fifth  day 
of  the  Decameron),  and  produced  by  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Kendal  at  the  St.  James'  Theatre, 
who  played  it  for  sixty-seven  nights. 

Hazlitt  first  suggested  the  story  as  suit- 
able for  stage  treatment.  Fanny  Kemblc 
called  the  play  "an  exquisite  little  idyll  in 
action  like  one  of  A.  de  Musset's."  Mrs. 
Brotherton  writes  to  me:  "Well  do  I 
remember  your  father  reading  The  Falcon 
to  me  (still  in  MS.),  in  a  little  attic  at 
Farringford.  The  ivy  outside  was  blowing 
against  the  casement  like  pattering  rain, 
all  the  time.  When  he  had  finished  he 
softly  closed  the  simple  'copy-book'  it  was 
written  in,  and  said  softly,  'Stately  and 
tender,  isn't  it  ? '  exactly  as  if  he  were  com- 
menting on  another  man's  work  —  and  no 
more  just  comment  could  have  come  from 
the  whole  world  of  critics." 


NOTES   ON  THE   PROMISE 
OF   MAY 

By  the  Editor 

First  prose  version  printed  in  1882,  and 
revised  and  published  in  1886  with  Locksley 
Hall  Sixty  Years  After.  It  was  produced 
by  Mrs.  Bernard  Beere  at  the  Globe 
Theatre  on  Nov.  nth,  1882,  and  ran 
until  Dec.  15th.  The  first  printed  copies 
in  prose,  which  were  used  for  stage  pur- 
poses, were  not  published  in  1882,  as  my 
father  wished  to  write  part  of  the  drama  in 
poetry  for  the  reading  public. 

Edgar  is  "a  surface  man  of  theories  true 
to  none."  I  subjoin  the  analysis  of  the 
hero's  character  by  my  brother,  as  it  best 
gives  my  father's  conception. 


992 


NOTES 


Edgar  is  not,  as  the  critics  will  have  it,  a  free- 
thinker, drawn  into  crime  by  his  Communistic 
theories;  Edgar  is  not  even  an  honest  Radical, 
nor  a  sincere  follower  of  Schopenhauer;  he  is 
nothing  thorough  and  nothing  sincere.  He  has 
no  conscience  until  he  is  brought  face  to  face  with 
the  consequences  of  his  crime,  and  in  the  awaken- 
ing of  that  conscience  the  poet  has  manifested  his 
fullest  and  subtlest  strength.  At  our  first  intro- 
duction to  Edgar,  we  see  him  perplexed  with  the 
haunting  of  a  pleasure  that  has  sated  him.  "Let 
us  eat  and  drink,  for  to-morrow  we  die  "  has  been 
his  motto ;  but  we  can  detect  that  his  appetite 
for  all  pleasure  has  begun  to  pall.  He  repeats 
wearily  the  formula;  of  a  philosophy  which  he  has 
followed  because  it  suits  his  mode  of  life.  He 
plays  with  these  formulae,  but  they  do  not  satisfy 
him.  So  long  as  he  had  on  him  the  zest  of  liber- 
tinism he  did  not,  in  all  probability,  trouble  him- 
self with  philosophy.  But  now  his  selfishness 
compels  him  to  take  a  step  of  which  he  feels  the 
wickedness  and  repugnancy.  He  must  endeavour 
to  justify  himself  to  himself.  The  companionship 
of  the  girl  he  has  betrayed  no  longer  gives  him 
pleasure ;  he  hates  her  tears  because  they  remind 
him  of  himself  —  his  proper  self.  He  abandons 
her  with  a  pretence  of  satisfaction ;  but  the  philo- 
sophical formulae  he  repeats  no  more  satisfy  him 
than  they  satisfy  the  poor  girl  whom  he  deserts. 
Her  innocence  has  not,  however,  been  wantonly 
sacrificed  by  the  dramatist.  She  has  sown  the 
seed  of  repentance  in  her  seducer,  though  the  fruit 
is  slow  in  ripening.  Years  after  he  returns,  like 
the  ghost  of  a  murderer  to  the  scene  of  his  crime. 
He  feels  remorse.  He  is  ashamed  of  it ;  he  battles 
against  it ;  he  hurls  the  old  f  ormulse  at  it ;  he  acts 
the  cynic  more  thoroughly  than  ever.  But  he  is 
changed.  He  feels  a  desire  to  "make  amends." 
Yet  that  desire  is  still  only  a  form  of  selfishness. 
He  has  abandoned  the  "Utopian  Idiocy"  of 
Communism.  Perhaps,  as  he  says,  with  a  self- 
mockery  that  makes  the  character  so  individual 
and  remarkable,  "because  he  has  inherited 
estates."  His  position  of  gentleman  is  forced  on 
his  notice ;  he  would  qualify  himself  for  it,  selfishly 
and  without  doing  excessive  penance.  To  marry 
the  surviving  sister  and  rescue  the  old  father 
from  ruin  would  be  a  meritorious  act.  He  sets 
himself  to  perform  it.  At  first  everything  goes 
well  for  him ;  the  old  weapons  of  fascination,  that 
had  worked  the  younger  sister's  ruin,  now  con- 
quer the  heart  of  the  elder.  He  is  comfortable 
in  his  scheme  of  reparation,  and  lays  that  flatter- 
ing "  unction  to  his  soul." 

Suddenly,  however,  the  girl  whom  he  has  be- 
trayed, and  whom  he  thought  dead,  returns ;  she 
hears  him  repeating  to  another  the  words  of  love 
she  herself  'had  heard  from  him  and  believed. 
"Edgar !"  she  cries,  and  staggers  forth  from  her 
concealment,  as  she  forgives  him  with  her  last 
breath. 

Then,  and  not  till  then,  the  true  soul  of  the 
man  rushes  to  his  lips ;  he  recognizes  his  wicked- 
ness, he  knows  the  blankness  of  his  life.  That  is 
his  punishment. 

He  feels  then,  and  will  always  feel,  aspirations 
after  good  which  he  can  never  or  only  imperfectly 
fulfil.  The  position  of  independence,  on  which 
he  prided  himself,  is  wrested  from  him,  he  is 
humiliated.  The  instrument  of  his  selfish  repent- 
ance turns  on  him  with  a  forgiveness  that  annihil- 


ates him ;  the  bluff  and  honest  farmer  whom  he 
despises  triumphs  over  him,  not  with  the  brute 
force  of  an  avenging  hand,  but  with  the  pre- 
eminence of  superior  morality.  Edgar  quits  the 
scene,  never  again,  we  can  believe,  to  renew  his 
libertine  existence,  but  to  expiate  with  lifelong 
contrition  the  monstrous  wickedness  of  the  past. 

My  father  drew  his  characters  from  the 
Lincolnshire  country  life  of  his  boyhood 
carefully,  and  wrote,  when  the  play  was 
violently  attacked  by  Lord  Queensberry : 
"I  had  a  feeling  that  I  would  at  least  strive 
in  my  plays  to  bring  the  true  drama  of  life 
and  character  back  again.  I  gave  them 
one  leaf  out  of  the  great  book  of  Truth 
and  Nature." 

P.  759,  col.  i,  line  it.     (Act  i.) 

What  are  we,   says   the   blind  old  man  in 
Lear? 

Cf.  King  Lear,  iv.  i.  38: 

As  flies  to  wanton  boys,  are  we  to  the  gods ; 
They  kill  us  for  their  sport. 

P.  767,  col.  2,  line  17.  (Act  11.) 
Scizzars  an'  Pumpy.     Caesar  and  Pompey. 

P.  772,  col.  1,  line  9.     (Act  111.) 
0  man,  forgive  thy  mortal  foe. 

This  is  the  only  hymn  my  father  has 
written,  except  "The  Human  Cry"  at  the 
end  of  De  Profundis  (p.  533),  which  he 
wrote  at  Jowett's  request. 

In  1891  he  said  to  Dr.  Warren,  the 
present  Professor  of  Poetry  at  Oxford:  "A 
good  hymn  is  the  most  difficult  thing  in 
the  world  to  write.  In  a  good  hymn  you 
have  to  be  commonplace  and  poetical. 
The  moment  you  cease  to  be  commonplace 
and  put  in  any  expression  at  all  out  of  the 
common,  it  ceases  to  be  a  hymn.  Of 
hymns  I  like  Heber's  'Holy,  Holy,  Holy' 
better  than  most  —  it  is  a  fine  metre  too." 
He  said  that  Jowett  had  lik>jd  the  simple 
hymn  for  children  in  The  Promise  of  May. 
He  would  often  quote  this  passage  from 
the  version  of  the  Psalms  by  Sternhold  and 
Hopkins : 

"And  on  the  wings  of  all  the  winds 
Came  flying  all  abroad." 

P-  773,  col.  1,  line  24.  (Act  in.)  the 
Queen's  Real  Hard  Tillery.  The  Royal 
Artillery. 


NOTES 


993 


P.  781.  [Demeter  and  other  Poems 
was  dedicated  to  Lord  Dufferin  as  a  tribute 
of  affection  and  of  gratitude  for  the  unre- 
mitting kindness  shown  by  Lady  Dufferin 
and  himself  to  my  brother  Lionel  during 
bis  last  fatal  illness  in  India.  From  earliest 
childhood  Lionel's  had  always  been  an 
affectionate  and  beautiful  nature.  None  of 
his  age  in  the  India  Office,  where  he  was 
for  some  time  a  clerk,  knew  more  about 
India,  and  I  have  not  a  few  letters  from 
his  chiefs,  speaking  in  the  warmest  terms 
of  his  ability,  and  of  the  high  place  that, 
had  he  lived,  he  would  have  made  for  him- 
self. While  shooting  in  Assam  he  caught 
jungle  fever.  On  his  return  to  Calcutta  he 
fell  dangerously  ill,  and  never  recovered. 
He  started  for  home  at  the  beginning  of 
April,  and  passed  away  peacefully  at  three 
in  the  afternoon  of  April  20th.  The  burial 
service  was  at  nine  that  same  evening,  under 
a  great  silver  moon.  The  ship  stopped  off 
Perim,  in  the  Red  Sea,  and  the  coffin  was 
lowered  into  the  phosphorescent  waves.  — ■ 
Ed.] 

P.  781.  To  the  Marquis  of  Dufferin 
and  Ava.  [First  published  in  1889.  See 
Memoir,  vol.  ii.  pp.  322-323.  —  Ed.] 

P.  782.  On  the  Jubilee  of  Queen 
Victoria.  [Published  in  pamphlet  form 
and  in  Macmillan's  Magazine,  April  1887, 
on  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the  Queen's 
coronation.  —  Ed.] 

P.  783.  To  Professor  Jebb.  [First 
published  in  1889.  My  father  met  Jebb 
at  Cambridge  for  the  first  time  in  1872. 
He  gave  him  the  following  Sapphic  in 
English  with  the  Greek  cadence,  because 
Jebb  admired  it : 
Faded  ev'ry  violet,  all  the  roses ; 
Gone  the  glorious  promise ;  and  the  victim, 
Broken  in  this  anger  of  Aphrodite, 

Yields  to  the  victor. 
What  impressed  my  father  most  in  this 
visit  to  Cambridge  was  the  change  in  the 
relations  between  don  and  undergraduate. 
While  he  was  keeping  his  terms  (,1828- 
1831)  there  was  "a  great  gulf  fixed"  be- 
tween the  teacher  and  the  taught.  As  he 
said  to  Dr.  Butler,  the  present  Master  of 
Trinity:  "There  was  a  want  of  love  in 
Cambridge  then;"    and  in  consequence  he 

3S 


had    written   in    1830  these   denunciatory 
lines : 

Therefore  your  Halls,  your  ancient  Colleges, 
Your  portals  statued  with  old  kings  and 

queens, 
Your  gardens,  myriad-volumed  libraries, 
Wax-lighted     chapels,     and    rich     carven 

screens, 
Your  doctors,  and  your  proctors,  and  your 

deans, 
Shall  not  avail  you,  when  the  Day-beam 

sports 
New-risen  o'er  awaken'd  Albion.    No  ! 
Nor  yet  your  solemn  organ-pipes  that  blow 
Melodious  thunders  thro'  your  vacant  courts 
At  noon  and  eve,   because  your  manner 

sorts 
Not   with   this   age  wherefrom   ye   stand 

apart, 
Because  the  lips  of  little  children  preach 
Against  you,  you  that  do  profess  to  teach 
And   teach   us   nothing,    feeding   not   the 

heart. 

Ed.] 
P.  783.  Demeter  and  Persephone. 
[First  published  in  1889.  Cf.  the  Homeric 
Hymn  to  Demeter;  Hesiod,  Tkeog.  912 
ff. ;  and  Ovid,  Met.  v.  341,  and  Fasti,  iv. 
419  ff.  The  poem  was  written  at  my 
request,  because  I  knew  that  my  father  con- 
sidered Demeter  one  of  the  most  beautiful 
types  of  womanhood.  He  said:  "I  will 
write  it,  but  when  I  write  an  antique  like 
this  I  must  put  it  into  a  frame  —  something 
modern  about  it.  It  is  no  use  giving  a 
mere  richauffi  of  old  legends."  He  would 
give  as  an  example  of  the  frame : 
Yet  I,   Earth-Goddess,  am  but  ill-content 

And  all  the  Shadow  die  into  the  Light. 

To  Signor  Francisco  Clementi,  who 
translated  this  poem  into  Italian  and  told 
my  father  that  the  Italian  youth  were  grate- 
ful to  him  and  had  profited  much  by  his 
work,  he  wrote,  Feb.  4th,  1891 :  "I  send 
you  my  best  thanks  for  your  kind  and 
generous  commentary.  If  I  have  done 
any  good  to  your  countrymen  or  others, 
by  what  I  have  written,  that  is  more  grate- 
ful to  me  than  any  modern  fame,  which  to 
a  man  nearing  82  —  for  I  was  born  in  1809 
—  seems  somewhat  pale  and  colourless."  — 
Ed.] 


994 


NOTES 


P.  784,  col.  1,  lines  10,  11.  gave  thy 
breast,  the  breast  which  had  suckled  thee. 

P.  784,  col.  2,  lines  11-14. 

'Where'?    and  I  heard  one  voice  from  all 

the  three 
'We   know  not,  for  we  spin   the  lives   of 

men, 
And  not  of  Gods,   and  know  not  why  we 

spin  I 
There  is  a  Fate  beyond  us.' 

Cf. 

'Talia  saecla,'  suis  dixerunt,  'currite,'  fusis 
Concordes  stabili  fatorum  numine  Parcae. 
Virgil,  Eel.  iv.  46. 

P.  785,  col.  1,  line  27.     bear  us  down.     [Cf. 
Aesch.  Prom.  Vinct.  907,  etc. : 
fl  /j.j]P  en  Zeus,  Kalirep  avdddrjs  (ppevGiv 
ecrrai  T<nreiv6s,  k.t.\.  Ed.] 

P.  785.  Owd  Roa.  [First  published  in 
1889.  —  Ed.]  I  read  in  one  of  the  daily 
papers  of  a  child  saved  by  a  black  retriever 
from  a  burning  house.  The  details  in 
this  story  are,  of  course,  mine.  When  the 
Spectator,  reviewing  The  Northern  Farmer, 
etc.,  remarked  that  I  must  have  found 
these  poems  difficult  to  accomplish,  as 
being  out  of  my  way,  I  wrote  to  a  friend 
that  they  were  easy  enough,  for  I  knew  the 
men  —  by  which  I  meant  the  kind  of  men 
and  their  manner  of  speaking,  not  any  par- 
ticular individual. 

P.  788,  col.  1,  line  10.  Or  like  tother 
Hangel,  etc.     See  Judges  xiii.  20. 

P.  788.  Vastness.  [First  published  in 
The  Nineteenth  Century,  November  1885 ; 
afterwards  in  Demeter  and  other  Poems, 
1889.  —  Ed.]  The  last  line  means  "What 
matters  anything  in  this  world  without  faith 
in  the  immortality  of  the  soul  and  of 
Love?" 

P.  790.  The  Ring.  [First  published  in 
1889.  — Ed.] 

P.  790,  col.  2,  lines  21-28. 

the  Voices  of  the  day 
Are  heard  across  the  Voices  of  the  dark. 
No    sudden    heaven,    nor    sudden    hell,   for 

man, 
But  thro'  the  Will  of  One  who  knows  and 

rules  — 


And  utter  knowledge  is  but  utter  love  — 

JEonian  Evolution,  swift  or  slow, 

Thro'    all    the    Spheres  —  an    ever    opening 

height, 
An  ever  lessening  earth. 

[My  father  would  quote  these  lines  as 
giving  his  own  belief  that. "the  after-life  is 
one  of  progress."  —  Ed.] 

P.  791,  col.  1,  line  12. 

The  lonely  maiden-Princess  of  the  wood. 

See  The  Bay-Dream. 

P.  792,  col.  1,  line  23. 
A    thousand  squares  of  corn   and  meadow, 

far 
As  the  gray  deep,  a  landscape  which  your 

eyes 
Have   many    a   lime   ranged    over   when    a 

babe. 
[The  view  from  Aldworth.  —  Ed.] 

P.  797,  col.  i,  lines  1,  2. 

A  red  mark  ran 
All  round  one  finger. 

Mr.  Lowell  told  me  this  legend,  or  some- 
thing like  it,  of  a  house  near  where  he  had 
once  lived. 

[In  answer  to  a  letter  respecting  the 
legend  Mr.  Lowell  writes:  "I  shall  only 
be  too  glad  to  be  in  any  the  remotest  way 
the  moving  cause  of  a  new  poem  by  one  to 
whom  we  are  all  so  nobly  indebted.  Henry 
James,  by  the  way,  to  whom  I  told  the 
legend  many  years  ago,  made  it  the 
subject  of  a  short  story.  But  this  would 
be  no  objection,  for  the  poet  would 
make  it  his  own  by  right  of  eminent 
domain."  —  Ed.] 

P.  797.  Forlorn.  [An  early  poem,  first 
published  in  1889.  —  Ed.] 

P.  798.  Happy.  [First  published  in  1889. 
On  the  Power  of  Spiritual  Love.  —  Ed.] 

P.  802.  To  Ulysses.  Ulysses  was  the 
title  of  a  volume  of  Palgrave's  essays.  He 
died  at  Monte  Video  before  seeing  my 
poem.  [First  published  in  1889.  My 
father  used  to  say:  "Gifford  Palgrave  is 
the  cleverest  man  I  ever  saw."  —  Ed.] 

P.  802.    Verse  vii. 
Or  watch  the  waving  pine  which  here 
The  warrior  of  Caprera  set. 


NOTES 


995 


A  Wellingtonia  which  Garibaldi  planted 
when  at  Farringford  in  April  1864.  Gari- 
baldi said  to  me,  alluding  to  his  barren 
island  (Caprera),  "I  wish  I  had  your 
trees."     See  Introduction. 

P.  803.  To  Mary  Boyle.  [Written 
at  Farringford  and  first  published  in  1889. 
Mary  Boyle  was  an  aunt  of  my  wife's 
(Audrey  Tennyson,  nee  Boyle).  In  1883 
my  father  wrote  to  her:  "I  verily  believe 
that  the  better  heart  of  me  beats  stronger 
at  74  than  ever  it  did  at  18."  —  Ed.] 

P.  803.  Verse  iv.  your  Marian.  Lady 
Marian  Alford. 

P.  803.  Verse  x.  an  English  home- 
stead Hell.  -Near  Cambridge,  1830.  [See 
Memoir,  vol.  i.  p.  41.  Cf.  The  Princess, 
iv.: 

As  of  some  fire  against  a  stormy  cloud, 
When  the  wild  peasant  rights  himself,  the 

rick 
Flames,    and    his    anger    reddens    in    the 

heavens.  Ed.] 

P.  804.  The  Progress  of  Spring. 
[Written  in  early  youth.  First  published 
in  1889.  —  Ed.] 

P.  805.     Verse  v. 
The  starling  claps  his  tiny  castanets. 

[My  father  said  in  1889:  "This  line 
was  written  fifty-six  years  ago  under  the 
elms  on  the  sloping  field  at  Somersby,  and 
then  four  or  five  years  ago  I  see  the  same 
phrase  (before  the  poem  was  published)  in 
a  modern  novel,  not  taken  from  the  poem, 
I  presume,  but  I  suppose  the  critics  would 
not  believe  that."  —  Ed.] 

P.  806.  Merlin  and  the  Gleam. 
[First  published  in  1889.  —  Ed.]  In  the 
story  of  Merlin  and  Nimu'e  I  have  read 
that  Nimue  means  the  "Gleam,"  which 
signifies  in  my  poem  the  higher  poetic 
imagination.  Verse  iv.  is  the  early 
imagination;  Verse  v.  alludes  to  the 
Pastorals. 

[For  those  who  cared  to  know  about  his 
literary  history  he  wrote  Merlin  and  the 
Gleam.  From  his  boyhood  he  had  felt  the 
magic  of  Merlin  —  that  spirit  of  poetry  — 
which  bade  him  know  his  power  and  follow 
throughout  his  work  a  pure  and  high  ideal, 
with  a  simple  and  single  devotedness  and 


a  desire  to  ennoble  the  life  of  the  world, 
and  which  helped  him  through  doubts  and 
difficulties  to  "endure  as  seeing  Him  who 
is  invisible." 

Great  the  Master, 

And  sweet  the  Magic, 

When  over  the  valley, 

In  early  summers, 

Over  the  mountain, 

On  human  faces, 

And  all  around  me, 

Moving  to  melody, 

Floated  the  Gleam. 
In  his  youth  he  sang  of  the  brook 
flowing  through  his  upland  valley,  of  the 
"ridged  wolds"  that  rose  above  his  home, 
of  the  mountain-glen  and  snowy  summits 
of  his  early  dreams,  and  of  the  beings, 
heroes  and  fairies,  with  which  his  imaginary 
world  was  peopled.  Then  was  heard  the 
"croak  of  the  raven,"  the  harsh  voice  of 
those  who  were  unsympathetic  — 

The  light  retreated, 

The  landskip  darken'd, 

The  melody  deaden'd, 

The  Master  whisper'd 

"Follow  the  Gleam." 
Still  the  inward  voice  told  him  not  to  be 
faint-hearted  but  to  follow  his  ideal.  And 
by  the  delight  in  his  own  romantic  fancy, 
and  by  the  harmonies  of  nature,  "the 
warble  of  water,"  and  "cataract  music  of 
falling  torrents,"  the  inspiration  of  the 
poet  was  renewed.  His  Eclogues  and 
English  Idyls  followed,  when  he  sang  the 
songs  of  country  life  and  the  joys  and 
griefs  of  country  folk,  which  he  knew 
through  and  through. 

Innocent  maidens, 

Garrulous  children,  1 

Homestead  and  harvest, 

Reaper  and  gleaner, 

And  rough-ruddy  faces 

Of  lowly  labour. 
By  degrees,  having  learnt  somewhat  of 
the  real  philosophy  of  life  and  of  humanity 
from  his  own  experience,  he  rose  to  a 
melody  "stronger  and  statelier."  He 
celebrated  the  glory  of  "human  love  and 
of  human  heroism"  and  of  human  thought, 
and  began  what  he  had  already  devised,  his 
Epic  of  King  Arthur,  "typifying  above  all 
things  the  life  of  man,"  wherein  he  had 


996 


%    NOTES 


intended  to  represent  some  of  the  great 
religions  of  the  world.  He  had  purposed 
that  this  was  to  be  the  chief,  work  of  his 
manhood.  Yet  the  death  of  his  friend,' 
Arthur  Hallam,  and  the  consequent  darken- 
ing of  the  whole  world  for  him  made  him 
almost  fail  in  this  purpose ;  nor  any  longer 
for  a  while  did  he  rejoice  in  the  splendour 
of  his  spiritual  visions,  nor  in  the  Gleam 
that  had  "waned  to  a  wintry  glimmer." 

Clouds  and  darkness 

Closed  upon  Camelot ; 

Arthur  had  vanish' d 

I  knew  not  whither, 

The  king  who  loved  me, 

And  cannot  die. 
Here  my  father  united  the  two  Arthurs, 
the  Arthur  of  the  Idylls  and  the  Arthur 
"the  man  he  held  as  half  divine."  He 
himself  had  fought  with  death,  and  had 
come  out  victorious  to  find  "a  stronger 
faith  his  own,"  and  a  hope  for  himself, 
for  all  those  in  sorrow  and  for  universal 
humankind,  that  never  forsook  him  through 
the  future  years. 

And  broader  and  brighter 

The  Gleam  flying  onward, 

Wed  to  the  melody, 

Sang  thro'  the  world. 

I  saw,  whenever 

In  passing  it  glanced  upon 

Hamlet  or  city, 

That  under  the  Crosses 

The  dead  man's  garden, 

The  mortal  hillock, 

Would  break  into  blossom ; 

And  so  to  the  land's 

Last  limit  I  came. 
Up  to  the  end  he  faced  death  with  the 
same  earnest  and  unfailing  courage  that  he 
had  always  shown,  but  with  an  added 
sense  of  the  awe  and  the  mystery  of  the 
Infinite. 

I  can  no  longer, 

But  die  rejoicing, 

For  thro'  the  Magic 

Of  Him  the  Mighty, 

Who  taught  me  in  childhood, 

There  on  the  border 

Of  boundless  Ocean, 

And  all  but  in  Heaven 

Hovers  the  Gleam. 


That  is  the  reading  of  the  poet's  riddle 
as  he  gave  it  to  me.  He  thought  that 
Merlin  and  the  Gleam  would  probably  be 
enough  of  biography  for  those  friends  who 
urged  him  to  write  about  himself.  —  Ed.] 
P.  807.  Romney's  Remorse.  [First 
published  in  1889.  —  Ed.] 

P.  809,  col.  2,  line  7.  With  Milton's 
amaranth. 

""Lowly  reverent 
Towards  either  throne  they  bow,   and  to 

the  ground 
With  solemn  adoration  down  they  cast 
Their   crowns   inwove   with   amarant   and 

gold, 
Immortal  amarant,  a  flower  which  once 
In  Paradise,  fast  by  the  Tree  of  Life, 
Began    to   bloom;     but,    soon   for    Man's 

offence 
To  Heaven  removed  where  first  it  grew, 

there  grows 
And  flowers  aloft,   shading  the  Fount  of 
Life,  etc. 

Par.  Lost,  iii.  349~357- 
P.    810,     col.    1,    line    9.     my     Indian 
brother.     When   his   brother   arrived    from 
India,  Romney  did  not  know  him. 

P.  810,  col.  1,  line  16.     He  said  it  .  .  • 
in    the    play.     Cf.     Measure  for   Measure, 
in.  i.  2 : 
"The  miserable  have  no  other  medicine 

But  only  hope." 
P.  810.  Parnassus.  [First  published 
in  1889.  Norman  Lockyer  visited  him  in 
October  1890,  and  said  of  my  father: 
"His  mind  is  saturated  with  astronomy." 
—  Ed.] 

P.  810.  By  an  Evolutionist. 
[Written  at  Farringford,  and  first  pub- 
lished in  1889.  My  father  brought  "Evolu- 
tion" into  Poetry.  Ever  since  his  Cam- 
bridge days  he  believed  in  it.  Andrew 
Lang  notes:  "It  was  part  of  the  origin- 
ality of  Tennyson,  as  a  philosophic  poet, 
that  he  had  brooded  from  boyhood  on 
these  early  theories  of  evolution,  in  an 
age  when  they  were  practically  unknown 
to  the  literary,  and  were  not  patronised 
by  the  scientific  world."  He  has  given, 
perhaps,  the  best  expression  of  this  belief 
in  a  remarkable  passage  in  Sea  Dreams, 
beginning    "But     round     the    North,    a 


NOTES 


997 


light,"  p.  159.  There  we  have  a  dream 
of  the  restless  spirit  of  progress  throughout 
the  ages,  and  the  "note  never  out  of  tune" 
underlying  it.  —  Ed.] 

P.  811.  Far  —  far  —  away.  (For 
Music.)  Before  I  could  read  I  was  in 
the  habit  on  a  stormy  day  of  spreading 
my  arms  to  the  wind  and  crying  out, 
"I  hear  a  voice  that's  speaking  in 
the  wind,"  and  the  words  "far,  far  away" 
had  always  a  strange  charm  for  me. 
[First  published  in  1889.  My  father  wrote 
this  after  his  severe  illness  in  1888.  As 
he  was  lying  on  his  sofa  in  the  window  at 
Aldworth,  and  looking  out  on  the  great 
landscape  of  the  weald  of  Sussex,  he  said 
that  he  had  wonderful  thoughts  about  God 
and  the  Universe,  and  felt  as  if  looking 
into  the  other  world.  Distant  bells  always 
charmed  him  with  their  "lin-lan-lone," 
and  when  heard  over  a  sea  or  a  lake,  he 
was  never  tired  of  listening  to  them.  —  Ed.] 

P.  811.  Politics.  [Addressed  to  Glad- 
stone, and  first  published  in  1889.  —  Ed.] 

P.  811.  Beautiful  City.  Paris.  [First 
published  in  1889.  —  Ed.] 

P.  812.  The  Roses  on  the  Terrace. 
At  Aldworth.  [First  published  in  1889. 
About  this  time  he  sent  the  following  lines 
to  E.  V.  B.  (Mrs.  Richard  Boyle)  for  her 
Ros  Rosarum: 

THE   ROSEBUD 

The  night  with  sudden  odour  reel'd, 
The  southern  stars  a  music  peal'd, 
Warm  beams  across  the  meadow  stole ; 
For  love  flew  over  grove  and  field, 
Said,  "Open,  Rosebud,  open,  yield 
Thy  fragrant  soul." 
See  also  letter  from  my   father  to  Dean 
Hole    from    Aldworth:     "The     Book    of 
Roses  was  heartily  welcomed  by  me :   I  do 
not  worship  the  yellow  but  the  Rosy  Roses 
—  rosy  means  red,  not  yellow  —  and  the 
homage  of  my  youth  was  given  to  what  I 
must  ever  look   up    to   as  the  Queen   of 
Roses  —  the  Provence  —  but  then  you  as  a 
great  Rose  master  may  not  agree  with  me. 
I  never  see  my  Queen  of  Roses  anywhere 
now.     We  have  just  been  planting  a  garden 
of  Roses,  and  were  glad  to  find  that  out 


of  our  native  wit  we  had  associated  the 
berberis  with  them  as  you  advise."  —  Ed.] 

P.  812.    The  Play,  and  On  One  who 

AFFECTED        AN        EFFEMINATE        MANNER. 

[First  published  in  1889.  —  Ed.] 

P.  812.  To  One  who  ran  down  the 
English.  [Written  at  Aldworth,  and 
first  published  in  1889.  —  Ed.] 

P.  812.  The  Snowdrop.  [Written 
at  Farringford  about  i860,  and  first  pub- 
lished in  1889.  —  Ed.] 

P.  812.  The  Throstle.  [First  pub- 
lished in  the  New  Review,  October  1889, 
and  misprinted;  afterwards  in  Demeter 
and  other  Poems,  1889.  My  father  had 
been  writing  his  poem,  By  an  Evolutionist, 
between  severe  attacks  of  gout  in  the 
winter  of  1889.  He  fed  the  thrushes  and 
other  birds  as  usual  out  of  his  window  at 
Farringford.  Toward  the  end  of  Feb- 
ruary he  sat  in  his  kitchen-garden  summer- 
house,  listening  attentively  to  the  different 
notes  of  the  thrush,  and  finishing  his  song 
of  The  Throstle,  which  had  been  begun  in 
the  same  garden  years  ago : 
Summer  is  coming,  is  coming,  my  dear, 
And  all  the  winters  are  hidden. 
Talking  of  hopefulness,  he  said:  "Hope 
is  the  kiss  of  the  Future."  —  Ed.] 

P.  812.  The  Oak.  [First  published 
in  1889.  My  father  called  this  poem 
"clean-cut  like  a  Greek  epigram."  The 
allusion  is  to  the  gold  of  the  young  oak 
leaves  in  spring,  and  to  the  autumnal 
gold  of  the  fading  leaves  (at  Aldworth). — 
Ed.] 

P.  813.  In  Memoriam.  —  W.  G.  Ward. 
[First  published  in  The  Athenaum.  May 
nth,  1889.  Ward  was  a  neighbour  of 
my  father's  at  Freshwater.  He  had  been 
one  of  the  leaders  of  the  Oxford  Movement, 
and  afterwards  of  the  Catholic  Revival. 
He  died  in  1882.  —  Ed.] 


NOTES   ON   THE    FORESTERS 

By  the  Editor 

Written  eleven  years  before  publication 
in  1 881.  First  published  and  performed 
in  1892. 


998 


NOTES 


On  March  25  th  The  Foresters  was  pro- 
duced at  New  York  by  Daly,  the  incidental 
music  being  by  Sir  Arthur  Sullivan.  It 
gave  my  father  great  pleasure  to  hear  that 
American  people  were  "appreciative  of 
the  fancy  and  of  the  beauty,  and  especially 
of  the  songs  and  of  the  wise  sayings  about 
life  in  which  the  woodland  play  abounds."  1 
The  houses  were  packed  and  the  play  had 
a  long  and  most  successful  run. 

Before  the  production  my  father  wrote 
to  Daly : 

I  wish  you  all  success  with  my  Robin  Hood 
and  Maid  Marian.  From  what  I  know  of  Miss 
Ada  Rehan  I  am  sure  that  she  will  play  her  part 
to  perfection,  and  I  am  certain  that  under  your 
management,  with  the  music  by  one  so  popular  as 
Sir  Arthur  Sullivan,  with  the  costumes  fashioned 
after  the  old  designs  in  the  British  Museum,  with 
the  woodland  scenes  taken  from  Mr.  Whymper's 
beautiful  pictures  of  the  Sherwood  of  to-day,  my 
play  will  be  produced  to  advantage  both  in 
America  and  in  England.  I  am  told  that  your 
company  is  good,  and  that  Mr.  Jefferson  once 
belonged  to  it.  When  he  was  in  England,  I  saw 
him  play  Rip  Van  Winkle,  and  assuredly  nothing 
could  have  been  better. 

With  all  cordial  greetings  to  my  American 
friends,  I  remain  faithfully  yours, 

Tennyson. 

And  after  the  production  he  received  the 
following  from  Miss  Ada  Rehan : 

Let  me  add  my  congratulations  to  the  many 
on  the  success  of  The  Foresters.  I  cannot  tell 
you  how  delighted  I  was  when  I  felt  and  saw, 
from  the  first,  the  joy  it  was  giving  to  our  large 
audience.  Its  charm  is  felt  by  all.  Let  me 
thank  you  for  myself  for  the  honour  of  playing 
your  Maid  Marian,  which  I  have  learned  to 
love,  for  while  I  am  playing  the  part  I  feel  all  its 
beauty  and  simplicity  and  sweetness,  which  make 
me  feel  for  the  time  a  happier  and  a  better  woman. 
I  am  indeed  proud  of  its  great  success  for  your 
sake  as  well  as  my  own. 

P.S.  —  The  play  is  now  one  week  old,  and  each 
audience  has  been  larger  than  the  last,  and  all  as 
sympathetic  as  the  first. 

And  Professor  Jebb  wrote: 

Being  here  on  my  way  to  the  Johns  Hopkins 
University  at  Baltimore,  where  I  have  some  Lec- 
tures to  give,  I  naturally  went  to  see  The  Foresters 
at  Augustin  Daly's  last  night.  The  Theatre, 
which  is  of  moderate  size,  was  densely  packed, 
and  as  I  had  not  engaged  my  seat  by  cablegram 
from  Liverpool,  I  bore  no  resemblance,  in  respect 
of  spacious  comfort,  to  the  ideal  spectator,  the 
masher  or  "dude,"  depicted  on  the  play -bill 
^  which  I  send  you  by  this  post.  I  was  a  highly 
compressed  and  squalid  object  in  a  back  seat, 

1  Jowett. 


amid  a  seething  mass  of  humanity,  but  I  saw  the 
play  very  well.  It  was  very  cordially  received 
and  was  well  acted,  I  thought,  especially  by  Ada 
Rehan  and  Drew.  The  fairy  scene  in  the  third 
Act  was  perfectly  lovely,  and  the  lyrics  were 
everywhere  beautifully  given.  The  mounting  of 
the  play  was  excellent  throughout. 

The  criticism  of  The  Foresters  which 
pleased  my  father  most  was  in  a  letter 
addressed  to  Lady  Martin  [Miss  Helen 
Faucit]  by  the  eminent  Shakespearian 
scholar,  Mr.  Horace  Furness  of  Phil- 
adelphia, when  the  piece  was  being  per- 
formed in  New  York: 

After  dinner  we  went  to  see  The  Foresters. 
Men  and  women  —  of  a  different  time,  to  be  sure, 
but  none  too  good  "for  human  nature's  daily 
food"  —  live  their  idyllic  lives  before  you,  and 
you  feel  that  all  is  good,  very  good.  The  atmo- 
sphere is  so  real,  and  we  fall  into  it  so  completely, 
that,  Americans  though  we  be  through  and 
through,  we  can  listen  with  hearty  assent  to  the 
chorus  that  "There  is  no  land  like  England," 
and  that  "There  are  no  wives  like  English  wives." 
Nay,  come  to  think  of  it,  that  song  was  encored. 
It  was  charming,  charming  from  beginning  to 
end.  And  Miss  Rehan  acted  to  perfection.  I 
had  to  leave  in  the  midnight  train  for  home,  and 
during  two  hours'  driving  through  the  black  night, 
I  smoked  and  reflected  on  the  unalloyed  charm 
of  such  a  drama.  And  to  see  the  popularity,  too  ! 
It  had  been  running  many  weeks  —  six,  I  think  — 
and  the  theatre  was  full,  not  a  seat  unoccupied. 
I  do  revel,  I  confess,  in  such  a  proof  as  this  that 
there  will  always  be  a  full  response  to  what  is  fine 
and  good,  and  that  the  modern  sensational  French 
drama  is  not  our  true  exponent. 

P.  821.  (Act  i.  Sc.  iii.)  To  Sleep. 
First  published  in  New  Review,  1891,  and 
set  to  music  by  my  mother.  (See  Mile. 
Janotha's  edition  of  Lady  Tennyson's 
songs,  published  by  Novello.) 

P.  825,  col.  1,  line  15.  (Act  11.  Sc.  i.) 
wickentree,  mountain-ash. 

P.  831.  Act  11.  Sc.  ii.  ad  finent.  The 
whole  stage  lights  up,  and  fairies  are  seen 
swinging  on  boughs  and  nestling  in  hollow 
trunks,  etc. 

My  father  said  to  Mr.  Daly:  "I  don't 
care  for  The  Foresters  as  I  do  for  Becket 
and  Harold.  Irving  suggested  the  fairies 
in  my  Robin  Hood,  else  I  should  not  have 
dreamed  of  trenching  on  Shakespeare's 
ground  in  that  way.  Then  Irving  wrote 
to  me  that  the  play  was  not  'sensational' 
enough  for  an  English  public.  It  is  a 
woodland  play  —  a  pastoral  without  shep- 


NOTES 


999 


herds.  The  great  stage-drama  is  wholly 
unlike  most  of  the  drama  of  modern  times. 
I  do  not  like  the  idea  of  every  scene  being 
obliged  to  end  with  a  bang."  About 
"There  is  no  land  like  England,"  he  added, 
I  "I  wrote  that  song  when  I  was  nine- 
,  teen.  It  has  a  beastly  chorus  against  the 
1  French,  and  I  must  alter  that  if  you  will 
have  it." 

P.  833,  col.  I,  line  18.  (Act  m.  Sc.  i.) 
torrents  of  eddying  bark.  I  heard  my  father 
first  use  these  words  about  the  great  trunks 
of  the  Spanish  chestnuts  in  Cowdray  Park 
near  Midhurst.  He  and  I  stayed  in  Sher- 
wood Forest  in  1881,  at  the  time  when  he 
was  writing  The  Foresters. 

P.  835,  col.  1,  line  25.  (Act  m.  Sc.  i.) 
Instead  of  the  short  scene  between  Robin 
and  Marian,  beginning  "Honour  to  thee, 
brave  Marian,"  to  "my  will,  and  made  it 
thine,"  my  father  had  written  in  the  first 
proof  of  the  play  the  following  lively  and 
charming  scene,  which  he  cut  out  when 
Miss  Mary  Anderson  was  to  have  acted 
Marian * :  — 

Robin 

Honour  to  thee,  brave  Marian,  and  thy 

Kate. 
I  know  them  arrant  knaves  in  Nottingham. 
One  half  of  this  shall  go  to  those  that  they 

have  wrong'd, 
One  half  shall  pass  into  our  treasury. 

Marian 

My  father  has  none  with  him.     See  to  him, 
Kate. 

[Exit  Kate. 

Robin 

Where  lies  that  cask  of  wine  whereof  we 

plunder' d 
The  Norman  prelate  ? 

Little  John 

In  that  oak,  where  twelve 
Can  stand  upright,  nor  touch  each  other.2 

1  She  fell  ill  and  left  the  stage,  else  she  was  to 
have  played  in  The  Foresters  and  The  Cup. 

2  The  oak  described  here  was  standing  in 
Sherwood  Forest  when  we  visited  it  in  188 1. 


R0BIN  Good! 

Roll  it  in  here.     These  beggars  and  these 

friars 
Shall  drink  the  health  of  our  new  woodland 

Queen. 

[Exeunt  Robin's  men. 
(To   Marian)    And   now   that   thou    hast 

triumph'd  as  our  Queen, 
I   have  a  mind  to  embrace  thee  as  our 

Queen. 

Marian  (frantically) 

Quiet,  Robin,  quiet.  You  lovers  are 
such  summer  flies,  always  buzzing  at  the 
face  of  your  lady. 

Robin 

Say  rather  we  are  bees  that  fly  to  the 
flower  for  honey. 

Marian 

Your  soul  should  worship  her  soul,  your 
heart  her  heart,  and  all  your  thoughts 
should  be  higher-winged  in  the  spiritual 
heaven  of  love. 

Robin 

Ay.  but  we  lovers  are  not  cherubim, 
wings  and  no  more. 

Marian 

True,  Robin,  thou  art  plump  enough  for 
my  robin,  but  thy  face  is  too  gaunt  for  a 
cherub's. 

Robin 

Yet  I  would  I  were  a  winged  cherub, 
that  I  might  fly  and  hide  myself  in  thy 
bosom. 

Marian 

Ay,  but,  cherub,  if  thou  flewest  so  close 
as  that,  I  should  fly  like  the  maid  in  the 
heathen  fable  when  the  would-be  god  lost 
his  nymph  in  the  wood. 


Robin 


What  was  she  ? 

Marian 

I   forget.    The   Maid   Marian   of   these 
times  belike. 

Robin 

And  how  did  he  lose  her  ? 


IOOO 


NOTES 


Marian 

As  many  men  lose  many  women  if  they 
fly  too  near  —  as  thou  mayest  lose  me  in 
this  forest.  She  turned  herself  into  a 
laurel. 

Robin 

I  would  have  gathered  the  leaves,  and 
made  a  crown  of  it. 

Marian 

And  the  laurel  would  have  withered  in  a 
day,  and  the  nymph  would  have  been  dead 
wood  to  thee  for  ever. 

Robin 

No,  no;  I  would  have  clasped  and 
kissed,  and  warmed  the  dead  wood  till  it 
broke  again  into  living  leaf. 

Marian 

Well,  well,  to  tell  love's  truth,  I  sighed 
for  a  touch  of  thy  lips  a  year  ago,  but  the 
Sheriff  has  come  between  us.  Is  it  not  all 
over  now  —  gone  like  a  deer  that  hath 
escaped  from  thine  arrow  ? 

Robin 

What  deer,  when  I  have  marked  him, 
ever  escaped  from  mine  arrow?  The 
Sheriff  —  over  is  it  ?  Wilt  thou  give  me  thy 
hand  upon  that  ? 

Marian 
Take  it. 

Robin 

The  Sheriff  !  [Kisses  her  hand. 

This  ring  cries  out   against  thee.     Say  it 

again, 
And    by    this    ring,    the    lips    that    never 

breathed 
Love's   falsehood   to   true   maid   will   seal 

love's  truth 
On   those   sweet   lips   that   dare   to   dally 

with  it. 

P.  851.  June  Bracken  and  Heather. 
[First  published  in  1892,  written  on  Black- 
down,  and  dedicated  to  my  mother.  Cf. 
the  poem  my  father  addressed  on  his 
wedding-day  to  his  old  friend  Drummond 
Rawnsley,  the  Vicar  of  Shiplake  (June  13, 
1850),  by  whom  they  were  married  : 


TO  THE  VICAR   OF   SHIPLAKE 

Vicar  of  that  pleasant  spot, 

Where  it  was  my  chance  to  marry. 

Happy,  happy  be  your  lot 
In  the  Vicarage  by  the  quarry  : 

You  were  he  that  knit  the  knot. 

Sweetly,  smoothly  flow  your  life. 

Never  parish  feud  perplex  you, 
Tithe  unpaid,  or  party  strife. 

All  things  please  you,  nothing  vex  you 
You  have  given  me  such  a  wife. 

Have  I  seen  in  one  so  near 

Aught  but  sweetness  aye  prevailing  ? 
Or,  thro'  more  than  half  a  year, 

Half  the  fraction  of  a  failing  ? 
Therefore  bless  you,  Drummond  dear. 

Good  she  is,  and  pure  and  just. 

Being  conquer 'd  by  her  sweetness 
I  shall  come  thro'  her,  T  trust, 

Into  fuller-orb'd  completeness  ; 
Tho'  but  made  of  erring  dust. 

You,  meanwhile,  shall  day  by  day 
Watch  your  standard  roses  blowing 

And  your  three  young  things  at  play 
And  your  triple  terrace  growing 

Green  and  greener  every  May. 

Smoothly  flow  your  life  with  Kate's,1 

Glancing  off  from  all  things  evil, 
Smooth  as  Thames  below  your  gates, 

Thames  along  the  silent  level 
Streaming  thro'  his  osier'd  aits. 

Ed.] 
P.  851,  col.  1,  line  1.     the  down.     Black- 
down,  on  which  Aldworth  stands. 

P.  851.  The  Death  of  (Enone, 
[With  Dedication  to  the  Master  of  Balliol 
(Professor  Jowett).  First  published  in 
1892.  Sir  Richard  Jebb  wrote  to  me  for 
my  father's  information :  — 

Aug.  8,  1889. 

I  had  meant  to  write  yesterday,  but  was  in- 
terrupted. 

The  principal  extant  source  for  the  story  of 
Paris  and  (Enone  is  an  epic  poem  called 
Ti  fieO'^O/xripov  ("Posthomenca"),  by  Quintus 
"Smyrnaeus,"  so  called  because  he  seems  to 
have  lived  in  or  near  Smyrna.  (In  old  books 
you  will  find  him  called  Quintus  "Calaber,"  for 
no  other  reason  than  that  the  MS.  by  which  his 
work  first  became  known  in  modern  times  was 
found  at  Otranto  in  Calabria.)     The  idea  of  his 

1  Mrs.  Drummond  Rawnsley. 


NOTES 


IOOI 


epic  is  to  continue  the  Iliad,  from  the  death  of 
Achilles  to  the  fall  of  Troy,  —  just  as  some  of 
the  older  "Cyclic"  poets  had  done.  He  wrote 
perhaps  about  350-400  a.d.,  though  some  have 
assigned  him  to  the  fifth  century. 

His  epic  is  in  fourteen  books.  The  episode 
of  (Enone  occurs  in  Book  X.  Paris  having  been 
wounded  by  a  poisoned  arrow  from  the  bow  of 
Philoctetes,  comes  to  (Enone,  and  makes  a 
speech  to  her,  to  the  effect  that  he  hopes  she 
will  forget  his  odious  behaviour,  and  nurse  him 
(284-305).  She  replies  that  she  will  see  him 
somewhere  first  (308-327).  He  goes  away 
hmenting,  and  dies  in  the  wilds  of  Ida.  She 
hears  of  his  death,  and  comes  to  his  funeral 
pyre.  When  she  sees  the  corpse,  she  utters  no 
cry,  but  hides  her  face  in  her  robe,  and  throws 
herself  on  the  flames  (467).  Thus  the  whole 
story  in  Quintus  occupies  a  little  less  than  200 
lines.  He  is  an  exceedingly  feeble  and  frigid 
writer. 

Ed.] 

P.  853.  St.  Telemachus.  [First  pub- 
lished in  1892.  My  father  thought  of  also 
writing  the  story  of  St.  Perpetua  in  verse 
as  a  companion  poem.  —  Ed.] 

P.  853,  col.  1,  line  22.  some  fiery  peak. 
These  lines  were  suggested  by  the  memory 
of  the  eruption  of  Krakatoa,  between  Java 
and  Sumatra,  when  the  volcanic  dust  was 
swirled  round  the  earth  and  made  the  sun- 
sets extraordinarily  brilliant. 

P.  853,  col.  2,  line  6.  Vicisti  Galilcee. 
[Julian,  who  restored  the  heathen  worship 
and  persecuted  the  Christians,  is  reported 
to  have  said  these  words  when  dying. 
—  Ed.] 

P.  854  col.  1,  line  11.  blood-red  awning. 
[The  velarium,  which  shaded  the  spectators 
from  the  sun.  —  Ed.] 

P.  854.  Akbar's  Dream.  [First  pub- 
lished in  1892.  Sir  Alfred  Lyall  writes: 
"The  general  conception  of  his  (Akbar's) 
character  and  position  is  drawn  in  grand 
outline."  —  Ed.] 

P.  856,  col.  1,  lines  26-31. 

[when  creed  and  race 
Shall  bear  false  witness,   each  of  each,  no 

more, 
But  find  their  limits  by  that  larger  light, 
Attd  overstep  them,  moving  easily 
Thro'  after-ages  in  the  love  of  Truth, 
The  truth  of  Love 

give  my  father's  strong  and  deep  feeling, 
that  in  the  end  Christianity  without  bigotry 
will  triumph,  when  the  controversies  of 
creeds  shall  have  vanished,  and  that  "in 


the  roll  of  the  ages"  the  spirit  of  Christ 
will  still  grow  from  more  to  more.  —  Ed.] 

P.  856,  col.  2,  line  22  to  p.  857,  col.  1, 
line  10. 

And  what  are  forms? 

Make  but  one  music,  harmonising  "Pray." 

[My  father  said:  "I  dread  the  losing 
hold  of  forms.  I  have  expressed  this  in  my 
Akbar.  There  must  be  forms,  yet  I  hate 
the  need  for  so  many  sects  and  separate 
services."  —  Ed.] 

P.  857.  Hymn.  [My  father  began 
this  hymn  to  the  sun  in  a  new  metre  at 
Dulverton,  and  finished  it  on  board  Colonel 
Crozier's  yacht,  the  Assegai,  on  his  return 
voyage  to  the  Isle  of  Wight.  "A  magnifi- 
cent metre,"  he  said;  "I  should  like  to 
write  a  long  poem  in  it."  The  philosophies 
of  the  East  had  a  great  fascination  for  him, 
and  he  felt  that  the  Western  religion  might 
learn  from  them  much  of  spirituality. 

During  one  of  the  Bishop  of  Ripon's  last 
visits  my  father  said  to  him:  "Looked  at 
from  one  point  of  view,  I  can  understand 
the  Persian  dualism;  there  is  much  which 
looks  like  the  conflict  of  the  powers  of  light 
and  darkness." 

About  that  time  he  wrote  the  following 
sketch  of  an  unpublished  poem,  Ormuzd 
and  Ahriman:  — 

"In  the  eternal  day  before  the  days 
were,  the  Almighty  created  Freewill  in  the 
two  great  spirits  Ormuzd  and  Ahriman. 

"And  these  two  came  before  the  throne 
of  the  Almighty,  and  spoke  to  Him,  say- 
ing, 'Thou  hast  shown  thyself  of  Al- 
mightiness  to  make  us  free ;  now  therefore 
to  be  free  is  to  act,  how  should  we  be  idle  ? ' 

"And  the  Lord  said  to  them,  'The  ele- 
ments are  in  your  hands.' 

"And  they  answered  and  said,  'We  will 
make  the  world.' 

"And  the  Lord  said,  'One  of  you  is 
dark,  and  one  is  bright,  and  ye  will  con- 
tend each  against  each,  and  your  work  will 
be  evil.  Ormuzd  will  put  pleasure  into  that 
which  he  does,  and  Ahriman  will  put  pain.' 

"And  Ormuzd  said,  'The  pleasure  will 
overbear  the  pain.'  And  Ahriman  said, 
'The  pain  will  overbear  the  pleasure.'  And 
the  Lord  said  to  Ahriman,  'Why  wilt  thou 
work    against    Ormuzd?'     And    Ahriman 


NOTES 


said,  'I  know  not,  Thou  hast  made  me.' 
And  the  Lord  said,  'I  know  why  I  have 
made  thee,  but  thou  knowest  not.'  And 
the  two  went  forth  from  before  the  Lord, 
and  made  the  world."  —  Ed.] 

P.  859.  The  Bandit's  Death.  [First 
published  in  1892.  This  story  is  taken  from 
Sir  Walter  Scott's  last  Journal.  My  father 
said  of  him :  "  Scott  is  the  most  chivalrous 
literary  figure  of  this  century,  and  the 
author  with  the  widest  range  since  Shake- 
speare." He  would  read  two  or  three  of 
his  novels  every  year.  Old  Mortality  he 
thought  "his  greatest  novel."  In  his 
boyhood  he  wrote  the  following  poem  after 
reading  The  Bride  of  Lammermoor,  which 
he  also  ranked  high :  — 

THE   BRIDAL 

The  lamps  were  bright  and  gay 

On  the  merry  bridal-day, 
When  the  merry  bridegroom 

Bore  the  bride  away  ! 
A  merry,  merry  bridal, 

A  merry  bridal-day  ! 
And  the  chapel's  vaulted  gloom 

Was  misted  with  perfume. 
"Now,  tell  me,  mother,  pray, 

Why  the  bride  is  white  as  clay, 
Although  the  merry  bridegroom 

Bears  the  bride  away, 
On  a  merry,  merry  bridal, 

A  merry  bridal-day  ? 
And  why  her  black  eyes  burn 

With  a  light  so  wild  and  stern  ?  " 
"They  revel  as  they  may," 

That  skinny  witch  did  say, 
"For  —  now  the  merry  bridegroom 

Hath  borne  the  bride  away  — 
Her  thoughts  have  found  their  wings 

In  the  dreaming  of  past  things : 
And  though  girt  in  glad  array, 

Yet  her  own  deep  soul  says  nay : 
For  tho'  the  merry  bridegroom 

Hath  borne  the  bride  away, 
A  dark  form  glances  quick 

Thro'  her  worn  brain,  hot  and  sick." 
And  so  she  said  her  say  — 

This  was  her  roundelay  — 
That  tho'  the  merry  bridegroom 

Might  lead  the  bride  away, 
Dim  grief  did  wait  upon  her, 

In  glory  and  in  honour. 


In  the  hall,  at  close  of  day, 

Did  the  people  dance  and  play, 
For  now  the  merry  bridegroom 

Hath  borne  the  bride  away. 
He  from  the  dance  hath  gone 

But  the  revel  still  goes  on. 
Then  a  scream  of  wild  dismay 

Thro'  the  deep  hall  forced  its  way, 
Altho'  the  merry  bridegroom 

Hath  borne  the  bride  away  ; 
And,  staring  as  in  a  trance, 

They  were  shaken  from  the  dance.  — 
Then  they  found  him  where  he  lay 

Whom  the  wedded  wife  did  slay, 
Tho'  he  a  merry  bridegroom 

Had  borne  the  bride  away, 
And  they  saw  her  standing  by, 

With  a  laughing  crazed  eye, 
On  the  bitter,  bitter  bridal, 

The  bitter  bridal-day.  Ed.] 

P.  860.  The  Church-Warden  and 
the  Curate.  [First  published  in  1892. 
On  June  23rd,  1890,  I  have  an  entry  in 
my  diary:  "Walked  on  the  Common 
(Blackdown).  My  father  is  working  at  his 
Lincolnshire  poem,  The  Church-warden, 
and  laughed  heartily  at  the  humorous 
passages  as  he  made  them."  It  was  founded 
on  two  sayings  which  Canon  Rawnsley 
told  him.  One  of  a  "Lincolnshire  Church- 
warden," who  addressed  him:  "There's 
no  daub  (sham)  about  you,  I  know.  Thou'lt 
be  maain  and  plaain  and  straaight,  I  know, 
but  hooiiver,  tek  my  adivce,  doant  thou  saay 
nowt  to  nobody  for  a  year  or  more,  but  crip 
and  crawl  and  git  along  under  the  hedge- 
bottoms  for  a  bit,  and  they'll  maake  a 
bishop  on  ye  yit."  The  other,  that  of  a 
Lincolnshire  farmer  who  had  lost  a  cow: 
"The  poor  thing  was  bound  to  die,  drat 
it.  I  blaam  them  howry  owd  Baptises  fur 
it  all,  coming  and  pizening  my  pond  by 
leavin'  their  nasty  owd  sins  behint  them. 
It's  nowt  nobbut  their  dippin'  as  did  it,  we 
may  be  very  sartain  sewer."  —  Ed.] 

P.  862.  Charity.  [Founded  on  a  true 
story.    First  published  in   1892.  —  Ed.] 

P.  863.  Kapiolani.  [First  published 
in  1892.  My  father  read  the  story  in 
Miss  Yonge's  Golden  Deeds.  —  Ed.] 


NOTES 


ibo3 


Pp.  864  ff.  The  Dawn,  The  Making 
of  Man,  The  Dreamer,  Faith,  The 
Silent  Voices,  God  and  the  Uni- 
verse. [This  group  of  poems  was 
written  at  the  end  of  his  life,  and  first 
published  in  1892.  —  Ed.] 

P.  865.  Mechanophilus.  [Written 
at  the  time  of  the  first  railways,  and  first 
published  in  1892.  —  Ed.] 

P.  866.  Riflemen  form  !  [First 
published  in  The  Times,  Aug.  9th,  1859, 
when  it  rang  like  a  trumpet-call  through 
the  land.  —  Ed.] 

P.  866.  The  Tourney.  [One  of  the 
poems  rejected  from  the  songs  of  The 
Princess,  and  first  published  in  1892.  —  Ed.] 

P.  867.  Poets  and  Critics.  [First 
published  in  1892.  —  Ed.] 

P.  867.  A  Voice  spake  out  of  the 
Skies.     [First  published  in  1892.  —  Ed.] 

P.  867.  Doubt  and  Prayer.  [An 
"early  sonnet,  altered  and  first  published  in 
1892.  — Ed.] 

P.  867,  col.  2,  line  26. 

My  Father,  and  my  Brother,  and  my  Godl 

[My  father's  view  of  the  Trinity  of  Love. 
—  Ed.] 

P.  868.  Faith.  [My  father  said: 
"It  is  hard  to  believe  in  God;  but  it  is 
harder  not  to  believe  in  God.  My  most 
passionate  desire  is  to  have  a  clearer  and 
fuller  vision  of  God."  —  Ed.] 

P.  868.  The  Silent  Voices.  [A 
melody  in  F  minor,1  written  by  my  mother 
at  my  father's  express  desire,  and  arranged 
for  four  voices  by  Sir  Frederick  Bridge, 
was  sung  at  his  funeral  in  the  Abbey.  —  Ed.] 

P.  868.  God  and  the  Universe. 
[As  he  was  dying  on  Oct.  5th,  1892,  he 
exclaimed:  "I  have  opened  it."  Whether 
this  referred  to  the  Cymbeline,  opened  by 
him  at 

"Hang  there  like  fruit,  my  soul, 
Till  the  tree  die," 

1  See  Appendix  to  Notes. 


which  he  always  called  among  the  tenderest 
lines  in  Shakespeare,  or  to  the  dirge  in 
Cymbeline;  or  whether  these  lines,  which 
he  often  repeated,  were  running  through 
his  head,  I  cannot  tell : 

Thro'    the    gates    that    bar    the   distance 

comes  a  gleam  of  what  is  higher, 
Wait  till  Death  has  flung  them  open ; 

and 

Fear  not  thou  the  hidden  purpose  of  that 

Power  which  alone  is  great, 
Nor  the  myriad  world,   His  shadow,  nor 

the  silent  Opener  of  the  Gate. 

Ed.] 

P.  868.  The  Death  of  the  Duke- 
of  Clarence  and  Avondale.  [First 
published  in  The  Nineteenth  Century, 
February  1892.  This  poem  began  to 
bring  on  my  father's  final  illness,  as  he 
worked  feeling  tired.  He  wrote  it  at  that 
time,  so  as  to  bring  some  comfort  to  the 
poor  mother.  He  wanted  G.  F.  Watts 
to  paint  this  great  picture  — 

The  face  of  Death  is  toward  the  Sun  of 
Life, 
His  shadow  darkens  earth. 

He  sent  the  poem,  with  the  following  letter, 
to  Queen  Victoria :  — 

Madam — I  venture  to  write,  but  I  do  not  know 
how  to  express  the  profound  sympathy  of  myself 
and  my  family  with  the  great  sorrow  which  has 
befallen  your  Majesty  and  your  children.  I 
know  that  your  Majesty  has  a  perfect  trust  in  the 
Love  and  Wisdom  which  order  the  circumstances 
of  our  life,  and  in  this  alone  is  there  comfort.  —  I 
am  always  your  Majesty's  affectionate  servant, 
Tennyson. 

Ed.] 

P.  869.  Crossing  the  Bar.  [Made 
in  my  father's  eighty-first  year,  in  October 
1889,  on  crossing  the  Solent  after  his 
serious  illness  in  1888-9.  When  he  re- 
peated it  to  me  in  the  evening,  I  said, 
"That  is  the  crown  of  your  life's  work." 
He  answered,  "It  came  in  a  moment."  — 
Ed.] 

P.  869.    Verse  iv. 

/  hope  to  see  my  Pilot  face  to  face. 

The  pilot  has  been  on  board  all  the  while, 
but  in  the  dark  I  have  not  seen  him. 

[We  now  know  the  pilot  only  by  faith  — 


ioo4 


NOTES 


we  shall  then  see  him  face  to  face.  My 
father  had  often  watched  the  pilots  from 
Southampton  Water  climb  down  from  the 
great  mail-ships  into  their  cutters  off 
Headon  Hill,  near  the  Needles. 

He  explained  the  Pilot  as  "that  Divine 
and  Unseen  Who  is  always  guiding  us." 
A  few  days  before  his  death  he  said  to  me, 
"Mind  you  put  my  Crossing  the  Bar  at 
the  end  of  all  editions  of  my  poems."  This 
poem,  Merlin  and  the  Gleam,  The  Death 
of  the  Duke  of  Clarence,  The  Dawn,  The 
Making  of  Man,  The  Dreamer  (expressive 


of  Hope  in  the  Light  that  leads  us),  The 
Wanderer,  A  Voice  spake  out  of  the  Skies, 
Doubt  and  Prayer,  Faith,  God  and  the 
Universe,  and  The  Silent  Voices,  breath- 
ing peace  and  courage  and  hope  and  faith, 
were  felt  by  my  father,  when  he  wrote  them, 
to  be  his  last  testament  to  the  world.  —  Ed.] 


"Poetry,"  my  father  wrote,  "should  be 
the  flower  and  fruit  of  a  man's  life,  in 
whatever  stage  of  it,  to  be  a  worthy  offer- 
ing to  the  world." 


APPENDIX   TO   NOTES 

Zhe  Silent  Doices 

BY 

ALFRED,   LORD   TENNYSON 

MUSIC  BY 

EMILY,   LADY   TENNYSON 


ARRANGED   FOR   FOUR  VOICES   FOR 

Gbe  jfuneral  ot  XorD  ^cnn^son 

IN  WESTMINSTER  ABBEY,  OCTOBER   12,  1892 

BY 

J.  FREDERICK  BRIDGE,   Mus.D, 


ioo6 


APPENDIX  TO  NOTES 


XTbe  Silent  Dofces 


Words  by  Lord  Tennyson. 

Slowly  and  with  solemnity. 


Music  by  Lady  Tennyson. 


igWt'T' 


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APPENDIX  TO  NOTES 


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ioo8  APPENDIX   TO  NOTES 


The  following  is  one  of  my  father's  later  poems,  and  was  by  inadvertence  never 
published  by  him. 

RETICENCE 

»  Not  to  Silence  would  I  build 

A  temple  in  her  naked  field ; 
Not  to  her  would  raise  a  shrine : 
She  no  goddess  is  of  mine ; 
But  to  one  of  finer  sense, 
Her  half  sister,  Reticence. 
Latest  of  her  worshippers, 

I  would  shrine  her  in  my  verse! 
Not  like  Silence  shall  she  stand, 
Finger-lipt,  but  with  right  hand 
Moving  toward  her  lip,  and  there 
Hovering,  thoughtful,  poised  in  air. 
Her  garment  slips,  the  left  hand  holds 
Her  up-gather'd  garment  folds, 
And  veils  a  breast  more  fair  to  me 
Than  aught  of  Anadyomene  ! 
Near  the  shrine,  but  half  in  sun, 
I  would  have  a  river  run, 
Such  as  never  overflows 
With  flush  of  rain,  or  molten  snows. 
Often  shallow,  pierced  with  light, 
Often  deep  beyond  the  sight, 
Here  and  there  about  the  lawn 
Wholly  mute,  but  ever  drawn 
Under  either  grassy  brink 
In  many  a  silver  loop  and  link 
Variously  from  its  far  spring, 
With  long  tracts  of  murmuring, 
Partly  river,  partly  brook, 
Which  in  one  delicious  nook, 
Where  the  doubtful  shadows  play, 
Lightly  lisping,  breaks  away ; 
Thence,  across  the  summit  hurl'd, 
Showers  in  a  whisper  o'er  the  world. 


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INDEX   TO   THE    FIRST   LINES. 


A  CITY  clerk,  but  gently  born  and  bred,  152. 
Act  first,   this  Earth,  a  stage  so  gloom'd  with 

woe,  812. 
Ah  God!    the  petty  fools  of  rhyme,  232. 
Airy,  fairy  Lilian,  6.  [229. 

All  along  the  valley,  stream  that  flashest  white, 
Along  this  glimmering  gallery,  875. 
Altho'  I  be  the  basest  of  mankind,  83. 
And  Willy,  my   eldest   born,  is  gone,  you  say, 

little  Anne?  220. 
A  plague  upon  the  people  fell,  232. 
Are  those  the  far-famed  Victor  Hours,  877. 
Are  you  sleeping?    have  you  forgotten?  do  not 

sleep,  my  sister  dear!   540. 
A  spirit  haunts  the  year's  last  hours,  12. 
A  still  small  voice  spake  unto  me,  30 
A  storm  was  coming,  but  the  winds  were  still,  373. 
As  when  with  downcast  eyes  we  muse  and  brood, 

24.  [lay,  497. 

At  Flores  in  the  Azores  Sir   Richard  Grenville 
At  Francis  Allen's  on  the  Christmas  Eve,  66. 
Athelstan  King,  523. 

A  thousand  summers  ere  the  time  of  Christ,  536. 
At  times  our  Britain  cannot  rest,  781.      ' 
A  Voice  spake  out  of  the  skies,  867. 

Banner  of  England,  not  for  a  season,  O  banner 

of  Britain,  hast  thou,  509. 
•  Beat,  little  heart  —  I  give  you  this  and  this,'  807. 
Beautiful  city,  the  centre  and  crater,  ?:i. 
Below  the  thunders  of  the  upper  deep,  5. 
Be  thou  a-gawin'  to  the  long  barn,  756 
Bold  Havelock  marched,  877. 
Break,  break,  break,  121.  [best,  522. 

Brooks,  for  they  call'd  you   so  that   knew  you 
Bury  the  Great  Duke,  212. 

Caress'd  or  chidden  by  the  slender  hand,  25. 
Chains,  my  good  lord :    in  your  raised  brows  I 

read,  514. 
Clear-headed  friend,  whose  joyful  scorn,  8. 
Clearly  the  blue  river  chimes  in  its  flowing,  3. 


Come  not,  when  I  am  dead,  116. 

Come,  when  no  graver  cares  employ,  229. 

Comrades,  leave  me  here  a  little,  while  as  yet  'tis 

early  morn,  95. 
'  Courage !  '    he  said,   and  pointed    toward    the 

land,  53. 

Dagonet,  the  fool,  whom  Gawain  in  his  mood, 

435- 
Dainty  little  maiden,  whither  would  you  wander? 

231. 
Dead,  559. 
Dead  Princess,  living  Power,  if  that,  which  lived, 

508. 
Dear  Master  in  our  classic  town,  851. 
Dear,  near  and  true  —  no  truer  Time  himself,  235. 
Deep  on  the  convent-roof  the  snows,  107. 
Dosn't  thou  'ear  my  'erse's  legs,  as  they  canters 

awaay?  225. 
Doubt  no  longer  that  the  Highest  is  the  wisest 

and  the  best,  868. 
Dust  are  our  frames;  and,  gilded  dust,  our  pride, 

139- 

Eh  ?  good  daay !  good  daay !  thaw  it  bean't  not 

mooch  of  a  daay,  860. 
Elaine  the  fair,  Elaine  the  lovable,  388. 
Eyes  not  down-dropt  nor  over-bright,  but  fed,  6. 

Faint  as  a  climate-changing  bird  that  flies,  783. 
Fair  is  her  cottage  in  its  place,  230. 
Fair  things  are  slow  to  fade  away,  783. 
Farewell,    Macready,   since    to-night    we    part, 

565. 
Farewell,  whose  like  on  earth  I  shall  not  find, 

813. 
Fifty  times  the  rose  has  flower'd  and  faded,  782. 
First  pledge  our  Queen  this  solemn  night,  562. 
Flow  down,  cold  rivulet,  to  the  sea,  116. 
Flower  in  the  crannied  wall,  235. 
From  noiseful  arms,  and  acts  of  prowess  done,  41a 
Full  knee-deep  lies  the  winter  snow,  60. 


INDEX   TO    THE  FIRST  LINES. 


Glory  of  warrior,  glory  of  orator,  glory  of  song, 

233.  [49°- 

Golden  haired  Ally  whose  name  is  one  with  mine, 

Had  the  fierce  ashes  of  some  fiery  peak,  853. 

Haifa  league,  half  a  league,  217. 

Hallowed  be  Thy  name  -  Halleluiah!  522. 

He  clasps  the  crag  with  crooked  hands,  116. 

'  He  is  fled—  I  wish  him  dead  — ,  797. 

Helen's  Tower,  here  I  stand,  561. 

Her  arms  across  her  breast  she  laid,  116. 

Her,  that  yer  Honour  was  spakin'  to  ?     Whin, 

yer  Honour?  last  year,  543. 
Here,  by  this  brook,  we  parted;  I  to  the  East,  136. 
Here  far  away,  seen  from  the  topmost  cliff,  467. 
Here,  it  is  here,  the  close  of  the  year,  232. 
He  rose  at  dawn  and,  fired  with  hope,  230, 
He  that  only  rules  by  terror,  112. 
He  thought  to  quell  the  stubborn  hearts  of  oak,  25. 
Hide  me,  Mother!    my  Fathers  belong'd  to  the 

church  of  old,  530. 
How  long,  O  God,  shall  men  be  ridden  dowi.,  25. 

I  built  my  soul  a  lordly  pleasure-house,  43. 

If  I  were  loved,  as  I  desire  to  be,  26. 

I  had  a  vision  when  the  night  was  late,  117. 

I  hate  the  dreadful  hollow  behind  the  little  wood, 
281. 

I  keep  no  more  a  lone  distress,  876. 

I  knew  an  old  wife  lean  and  poor,  65. 

lllyrian  woodlands,  echoing  falls,  121. 

I,  loving  Freedom  for  herself,  873. 

I'm  glad  I  walk'd.  How  fresh  the  meadows 
look,  79. 

In  her  ear  he  whispers  gaily,  113. 

I  read,  before  my  eyelids  dropt  their  shade,  55. 

I  see  the  wealthy  miller  yet,  36. 

I  send  you  here  a  sort  of  allegory,  43. 

Is  it  you,  that  preach'd  in  the  chapel  there  look- 
ing over  the  sand?  533. 

It  little  profits  that  an  idle  king,  93. 

It  was  the  time  when  lilies  blow,  in. 

I  waited  for  the  train  at  Coventry,  101. 

I  was  the  chief  of  the  race  —  he  had  stricken  my 
father  dead,  518. 

I  wish  I  were  as  in  the  years  of  old,  527. 

King  Arthur  made  new  knights  to  fill  the  gap, 

425- 
King,  that  hast  reign'd  six  hundred  years,  and 
grown,  526. 

Lady  Clara  Vere  de  Vere,  48. 

Late,  my  grandson!    half  the  morning  have  I 

piced  these  sandy  tracts,  548. 
Leodogran,  the  King  of  Cameliard,  303. 
Life  and  thought  have  gone  away,  15. 
Life  of  the  Life  within  my  blood,  8  3. 
'  Light  of  the  nations'  ask  d  his  Chronicler,  855. 


Like  souls  that  balance  joy  and  pain,  115. 

Live  thy  Life,  812. 

Lo !  there  once  more  —  this  is  the  seventh  night, 
637- 

Long  lines  of  cliff  breaking  have  left  a  chasm,  122. 

Love  thou  thy  land,  with  love  far-brought,  63. 

Low  flowing  breezes  are  roaming  the  broad  val- 
ley dimm'd  in  the  gloaming,  3. 

Lucilia,  wedded  to  Lucretius,  found,  157. 

Many  a  hearth  upon  our  dark  globe  sighs  after 

many  a  vanished  face,  788. 
Many,  many  welcomes,  812. 
Mellow  moon  of  heaven,  790. 
Midnight —  in  no  midsummer  tune,  561. 
Milk  for  my  sweet-arts,  Bess!  fur  it  mun  be  the 

time  about  now,  545. 
Mine  be  the  strength  of  spirit,  full  and  free,  24. 
Minnie  and  Winnie,  231. 
Move  eastward,  happy  earth,  and  leave,  116. 
My  father  left  a  park  to  me,  105. 
My  friend  should  meet  me  somewhere  hereabout, 

5"- 
My  good  blade  carves  the  casques  of  men,  107. 
My  heart  is  wasted  with  my  woe,  17. 
My  hope  and  heart  is  with  thee  —  thou  wilt  be,  24. 
My  life  is  full  of  weary  days,  23. 
My  Lords,  we  heard  you  speak:  you  told  us  all, 

216. 
My  Rosalind,  my  Rosalind,  21. 
Mystery  of  mysteries,  20. 

Naay,  noa  mander  o'  use  to  be  callin'  'im  Roa, 

Roa,  Roa,  785. 
Nature,  so  far  as  in  her  lies,  62. 
Nightingales  warbled  without,  230. 
Not  here!  the  white  North  has  thy  bones;  and 

thou,  526. 
Not  this  way  will  you  set  your  name,  557. 
Now  first  we  stand  and  understand,  865. 
Now  is  done  thy  long  day's  work,  16. 

O  blackbird  !  sing  me  something  well,  60. 
O  bridesmaid,  ere  the  happy  knot  was  tied,  «6. 
CEnone  sat  within  the  cave  from  out/  851. 
Of  love  that  never  found  his  earthly  close,  90. 
Of  old  sat  Freedom  on  the  heights,  63. 
O  God !  my  God !  have  mercy  now,  3. 
O  Lady  Flora,  let  me  speak,  102. 
Old  Fitz,  who  from  your  suburb  grange,  526. 
Old  poets  foster'd  under  friendlier  skies,  565. 
O  Love,  Love,  Love!  O  withering  might!  38. 
O  love,  what  hours  were  thine  and  mine,  227. 
O  loyal  to  the  royal  in  thyself,  466. 
O  me,  my  pleasant  rambles  by  the  lake,  81. 
O  mighty-mouth'd  inventor  of  harmonies,  237. 
On  a  midnight  in  midwinter  when  all  but  the 
winds  were  dead,  865. 


INDEX   TO  THE  FIRST  LINES. 


1013 


Once  in  a  golden  hour,  230. 

Once  more  the  gate  behind  me  falls,  86. 

Once  more  the  Heavenly  Power,  560. 

On  either  side  the  river  lie,  27. 

O  Patriot  Statesman,  be  thou  wise  to  know,  562. 

O  plump  head-waiter  at  The  Cock,  108. 

O  purblind  race  of  miserable  men,  347. 

O  sweet  pale  Margaret,  20. 

O  thou  so  fair  in  summers  gone,  563. 

O  thou,  that  sendest  out  the  man,  65. 

Our  birches  yellowing  and  from  each,  556. 

Our  doctor  had  call'd  in  another,  I  never  had 

seen  him  before,  507. 
'Ouse-keeper  sent  tha  my  lass,  fur  New  Squire 

coom'd  last  night,  504. 
Out  of  the  deep,  my  child,  out  of  the  deep,  521. 
O  well  for  him  whose  will  is  strong.   129. 
O  you  chorus  of  indolent  reviewers,  238. 
O  young  Mariner,  806. 
O  you  that  were  eyes  and  light  to  the  King  till 

he  past  away,  526. 

Pei-lam  the  King,  who  held  and  lost  with  Lot, 

362. 
Pine,  beech  and   plane,   oak,   walnut,   apricot, 

73°- 

Queen  Guinevere  had  fled  the  court,  and  sat, 
447- 

Ralph  would  fight  in  Edith's  sight,  866. 
Red  of  the  Dawn !  864. 
Revered,  beloved  — O  you  that  hold,  1. 
Roman  Virgil,  thou  that  singest,  558. 
Rose,  on  this  terrace  fifty  years  ago,  812. 
Row  us  out  from  Desenzano,  to  your  Sirmione 
row!  561. 

Sea-kings'  daughter  from  over  the  sea,  218. 
Sir,  do  you  see  this  dagger?  nay,  why  do  you 

start  aside?  859. 
Sir  Walter  Vivian  all  a  summer's  day,  161. 
Slow  sail'd  the  weary  mariners  and  saw,  14. 
So  all  day  long  the  noise  of  battle  roll'd,  67. 
So  Hector  spake;   the  Trojans  roar'd  applause, 

238. 
So  saying,  light-foot  Iris  pass'd  away,  525. 
So,  my  lord,  the  Lady  Giovanna,  who  hath  been 

away,  746. 
So  then  our  good  Archbishop  Theobald,  676. 
'  Spring-flowers ' !     While  you  still  delay  to  take, 

803. 
Stand  back,  keep  a  clear  lane !  566. 
Still  on  the  tower  stood  the  vane,  117. 
Strong  Son  of  God,  immortal  Love,  241. 
:  Summer  is  coming,  summer  is  coming,  812. 
Sunset  and  evening  star,  869. 
Sweet  Emma  Moreland  of  yonder  town,  108. 


That  is  his  portrait  painted  by  himself,  876. 
That  story  which  the  bold  Sir  Bedivere,  458. 
The  bee  buzz'd  up  in  the  heat,  867. 
The  brave  Geraitit,  a  knight  of  Arthur's  court,  335. 
The  bridal  garland  falls  upon  the  bier,  868. 
'The  Bull,  the  Fleece  arc  cramm'd  and  not  a 

room,  78. 
The  charge  of  the  gallant  three   hundred,  the 

Heavy  Brigade!  556. 
The  form,  the  form  alone  is  eloquent!  25. 
The  gleam  of  household  sunshine  ends,  867. 
The  groundflame  of  the  crocus  breaks  the  mould, 

804. 
The  last  tall  son  of  Lot  and  Bellicent,  311. 
The  lights  and  shadows  fly !  239. 
The  Lord  let  the  house  of  a  brute  to  the  soul  of  a 

man,  810. 
The  North  wind  fall'n  in  the  new-starred  night, 

873. 
The  plain  was  grassy,  wild  and  bare,  15. 
The  poet  in  a  golden  clime  was  born,  13. 
The  rain  had  fallen,  the  Poet  arose,  121. 
There  is  a  soun" of  thunder  afar,  866. 
There  lies  a  vale  in  Ida,  lovelier,  39. 
There  on  the  top  of  the  down,  851. 
These  lame  hexameters  the  strong-wing'd  music 

of  Hornet!  237. 
These  roses  for  my  Lady  Marian,  814. 
These  to  His  Memory  —  since  he  held  them  dear, 

302.  |aio- 

The  Son  of  him  with  whom  we  strove  for  power, 
The  sun,  the  moon,  the  stars,  the  seas,  the  hills 

and  the  plains,  234. 
The  voice  and  the  Peak,  234. 
The  winds,  as  at  their  hour  of  birth,  6. 
The  wind,  that  beats  the  mountain,  blows,  61. 
The  woods  decay,  the  woods  decay  and  fall,  94. 
They  have  left  the  doors  ajar;  and  by  their  clash, 

499-  ,        ., 

They  rose  to  where  their  sovran  eagle  sails,  523. 
They  say  some  foreign  powers  have  laid  their 

heads  together,  877. 
They  wrought  a  work  which  Time  reveres,  875. 
This'morning  is  the  morning  of  the  day,  71. 
This  thing,  that  thing  is  the  rage,  867. 
Those  that  of  late  had  fleeted  far  and  fast,  522. 
Thou  art  not  steep'd  in  golden  languors,  8. 
Thou  may'st  remember  what  I  said,  873. 
Tho'  Sin  too  oft,  when  smitten  by  Thy  rod,  867. 
Thou  third  great  Canning,  stand  among  our  best, 

562. 
Thou  who  stealest  fire,  11. 
Thy  dark  eyes  open'd  not,  22. 
Thy  prayer  was  'Light  — more   Light  — while 

Time  shall  last!'  562. 
Thy  tuwhits  are  lull'd,  I  wot,  9. 
Two  children  in  two  neighbour  villages,  18. 
Two  Suns  of  Love  make  day  of  human  life,  563. 


ioi4 


INDEX   TO   THE  FIRST  LINES. 


Ulysses,  much-experienced  man,  802. 
Uplift  a  thousand  voices  full  and  sweet,  217. 

Vex  not  thou  the  poet's  mind,  14. 

Victor  in  Drama,  Victor  in  Romance,  523. 

Waait  till  our  Sally  cooms  in,  fur  thou  mun  a' 

sights  to  tell,  494. 
Wailing,  wailing,  wailing,  the  wind  over  land 

and  sea,  492. 
'  Wait  a  little,'  you  say,  '  you  are  sure  it'll  all 

come  right,'  490. 
Wan  Sculptor,  weepest  thou  to  take  the  cast,  26. 
Warrior  of  God,  man's  friend  and  tyrant's  foe,  562. 
Warrior  of  God,  whose  strong  right  arm  debased, 

24. 
We  left  behind  the  painted  buoy,  114.  , 

Welcome,  welcome,  with  one  voice !  564. 
Well,  you  shall  have  that  song  which  Leonard 

wrote,  91. 
We  move,  the  wheel  must  always  move,  811. 
We  were  two  daughters  of  one  race,  43. 
What  am  I  doing,  you  say  to  me,  '  wasting  the 

sweet  summer  hours '  ?  862. 
What  be  those  crown'd  forms  high  over  the  sacred 

fountain?  810. 
What  sight  so  lured  him  thro'  the  fields  he  knew, 

811. 
What  time  the  mighty  moon  was  gathering  light, 

17. 
Wheer  asta  bean  saw  long  and  mea  liggin'  'ere 

aloan?  223. 


When  cats  run  home  and  light  is  come,  9. 
When  from  the  terrors  of  Nature  a  people  have 

fashion'd  and  worship  a  Spirit  of  Evil,  863. 
When  the  breeze  of  a  joyful  dawn  blew  free,  9. 
When  the  dumb  Hour,  clothed  in  black,  868. 
When  will  the  stream  be  aweary  of  flowing,  2. 
Where  Claribel  low-lieth,  2. 
Where  is  one  that,  born  of  woman,  altogether  can 

escape,  865. 
While  about  the  shore  of  Mona  those  Neronian 

legionaries,  235. 
While  man  and  woman  still  are  incomplete,  812. 
'  Whither,  O  whither,  love,  shall  we  go,'  231. 
Who  would  be,  18. 
Who  would  be,  19. 
Why  wail  you,  pretty  plover?  and  what  is  it  that 

you  fear?  798. 
Will  my  tiny  spark  of  being  wholly  vanish   in 

your  deeps  and  heights?  868. 
With  a  half-glance  upon  the  sky,  13. 
With  blackest  moss  the  flower-plots,  7. 
With  farmer  Allan  at  the  farm  abode,  75. 
With  one  black  shadow  at  its  feet,  29. 

You  ask  me,  why,  tho'  ill  at  ease,  63. 

You  make  our  faults  too  gross,  and  thence  main- 
tain, 812. 

You  might  have  won  the  Poet's  name,  120. 

You  must  wake  and  call  me  early,  call  me  early, 
mother  dear,  49. 

Young  is  the  grief  I  entertain,  877. 

You,  you,  if  'you  shall  fail  to  understand,  564. 


INDEX   TO   'IN  MEMORIAM'    (P.  241). 


Again  at  Christmas  did  we  weave,  lxxviii. 
A  happy  lover  who  has  come,  viii. 
And  all  is  well,  tho'  faith  and  form,  cxxvii. 
And  was  the  day  of  my  delight,  xxiv. 
As  sometimes  in  a  dead  man's  face,  Ixxiv. 

Be  near  me  when  my  light  is  low,  1. 
By  night  we  linger'd  on  the  lawn,  xcv. 

Calm  is  the  morn  without  a  sound,  xi. 
Contemplate  all  this  work  of  Time,  cxviii. 
Could  I  have  said  while  he  was  here,  Ixxxi. 
Could  we  forget  the  widow 'd  hour,  xl. 

Dark  house,  by  which  once  more  I  stand,  vii. 
Dear  friend,  far  off,  my  lost  desire,  cxxix. 
Dip  down  upon  the  northern  shore,  lxxxiii. 
Doors,  where  my  heart  was  used  to  beat,  cxix. 
Dost  thou  look  back  on  what  hath  been,  Ixiv. 
Do  we  indeed  desire  the  dead,  li. 

Fair  ship,  that  from  the  Italian  shore,  ix. 
From  art,  from  nature,  from  the  schools,  xlix. 

Heart-affluence  in  discursive  talk,  cix. 
He  past ;  a  soul  of  nobler  tone,  lx. 
Her  eyes  are  homes  of  silent  prayer,  xxxii. 
He  tasted  love  with  half  his  mind,  xc. 
High  wisdom  holds  my  wisdom  less,  cxii. 
How  fares  it  with  the  happy  dead  ?  xliv. 
How  many  a  father  have  I  seen,  liii. 
How  pure  at  heart  and  sound  in  head,  xciv. 

I  cannot  love  thee  as  I  ought,  Hi. 

I  cannot  see  the  features  right,  lxx. 

I  climb  the  hill :   from  end  to  end,  c. 

I  dream 'd  there  would  be  Spring  no  more,  lxix. 

I  envy  not  in  any  moods,  xxvii. 

If  any  vague  desire  should  rise,  lxxx. 

If  any  vision  should  reveal,  xcii. 

If,  in  thy  second  state  sublime,  lxi. 

[f  one  should  bring  me  this  report,  xiv. 

I  f  Sleep  and  Death  be  truly  one,  xliii. 


If  these  brief  lays,  of  Sorrow  born,  xlviii. 
I  hear  the  noise  about  thy  keel,  x. 
I  held  it  truth,  with  him  who  sings,  i. 
I  know  that  this  was  Life  —  the  track,  xxv. 
I  leave  thy  praises  unexpress'd,  lxxv. 
In  those  sad  words  I  took  farewell,  lviii. 
I  past  beside  the  reverend  walls,  Ixxxvii. 
I  shall  not  see  thee.     Dare  I  say,  xciii. 
Is  it,  then,  regret  for  buried  time,  cxvi. 
I  sing  to  him  that  rests  below,  xxi. 
I  sometimes  hold  it  half  a  sin,  v. 
It  is  the  day  when  he  was  born,  cvii. 
I  trust  I  have  not  wasted  breath,  cxx. 
I  vex  my  heart  with  fancies  dim,  xlii. 
I  wage  not  any  feud  with  Death,  Ixxxii. 
I  will  not  shut  me  from  my  kind,  cviii. 

Lo,  as  a  dove  when  up  she  springs,  vii. 
Love  is  and  was  my  Lord  and  King,  cxxvi. 

'More  than  my  brothers  are  to  me,'  Ixxix. 
My  love  has  talk'd  with  rocks  and  trees,  xcvii. 
My  own  dim  life  should  teach  me  this,  xxxiv. 

Now  fades  the  last  long  streak  of  snow,  cxv. 
Now,  sometimes  in  my  sorrow  shut,  xxiii. 

O  days  and  hours,  your  work  is  this,  cxvii. 
Oh,  wast  thou  with  me,  dearest,  then,  cxxii. 
Oh  yet  we  trust  that  somehow  good,  liv. 
Old  warder  of  these  buried  bones,  xxxix. 
Old  Yew,  which  graspest  at  the  stones,  ii. 
O  living  will  that  shalt  endure,  cxxxi. 
One  writes,  that  'Other  friends  remain,'  vi. 
On  that  last  night  before  we  went,  ciii. 
O  Sorrow,  cruel  fellowship,  iii. 
O  Sorrow,  wilt  thou  live  with  me,  lix. 
O  thou  that  after  toil  and  storm,  xxxiii. 

Peace  ;  come  away :  the  song  of  woe,  Ivii. 

Ring  out,  wild  bells,  to  the  wild  sky,  cvi. 
Risest  thou  thus,  dim  dawn,  again,  lxxii. 
Risest  thou  thus,  dim  dawn,  again,  xcix. 
IOIS/ 


ioi6 


INDEX   TO  lIN  MEMORIAM: 


Sad  Hesper  o'er  the  buried  sun,  cxxi. 
Sleep,  kinsman  thou  to  death  and  trance,  Jxxi. 
1  So  careful  of  the  type  ? '  but  no,  lvi. 
So  many  worlds,  so  much  to  do,  lxxiii. 
Still  onward  winds  the  dreary  way,  xxvi. 
Sweet  after  showers,  ambrosial  air,  lxxxvi. 
Sweet  soul,  do  with  me  as  thou  wilt,  lxv. 

Take  wings  of  fancy,  and  ascend,  lxxvi. 
Tears  of  the  widower,  when  he  sees,  xiii. 
That  each,  who  seems  a  separate  whole,  xlvii. 
That  which  we  dare  invoke  to  bless,  cxxiv. 
The  baby  new  to  earth  and  sky,  xlv. 
The  churl  in  spirit,  up  or  down,  cxi. 
The  Danube  to  the  Severn  gave,  xix. 
The  lesser  griefs  that  may  be  said,  xx. 
The  love  that  rose  on  stronger  wings,  cxxviii. 
The  path  by  which  we  twain  did  go,  xxii. 
There  rolls  the  deep  where  grew  the  tree,  cxxiii. 
The  time  draws  near  the  birth  of  Christ,  xxviii. 
The  time  draws  near  the  birth  of  Christ,  civ. 
The  wish,  that  of  the  living  whole,  lv. 
This  truth  came  borne  with  bier  and  pall,  lxxxv. 
Thou  comest,  much  wept  for:    such  a  breeze, 

xvii. 
Tho'  if  an  eye  that's  downward  cast,  lxii. 
Tho'  truths  in  manhood  darkly  join,  xxxvi. 
Thy  converse  drew  us  with  delight,  ex. 
Thy  spirit  ere  our  fatal  loss,  xli. 
Thy  voice  is  on  the  rolling  air,  exxx. 
'Tis  held  that  sorrow  makes  us  wise,  cxiii. 


'Tis  well;    'tis  something;    we  may  stand,  xviii. 
To-night  the  winds  begin  to  rise,  xv. 
To-night  ungather'd  let  us  leave,  cv. 
To  Sleep  I  give  my  powers  away,  iv. 

Unwatch'd,  the  garden  bough  shall  sway,  ci. 
Urania  speaks  with  darken'd  brow,  xxxvii. 

We  leave  the  well-beloved  place,  cii. 

We  ranging  down  this  lower  track,  xlvi. 

Whatever  I  have  said  or  sung,  exxv. 

What  hope  is  here  for  modern  rhyme,  lxxvii. 

What  words  are  these  have  fall'n  from  me  ?  xvi. 

When  I  contemplate  all  alone,  lxxxiv. 

When  in  the  down  I  sink  my  head,  lxviii. 

When  Lazarus  left  his  charnel-cave,  xxxi. 

When  on  my  bed  the  moonlight  falls,  lxvii. 

When  rosy  plumelets  tuft  the  larch,  xci. 

Who   loves   not   Knowledge?     Who  shall  rail, 

cxiv. 
Wild  birds,  whose  warble,  liquid  sweet,  lxxxviii. 
Witch-elms  that  counterchange  the  floor,  lxxxix. 
With  such  compelling  cause  to  grieve,  xxix. 
With  trembling  fingers  did  we  weave,  xxx. 
With  weary  steps  I  loiter  on,  xxxviii. 

Yet  if  some  voice  that  man  could  trust,  xxxv. 
Yet  pity  for  a  horse  o'er-driven,  lxiii. 
You  leave  us :  you  will  see  the  Rhine,  xcviii. 
You  say,  but  with  no  touch  of  scorn,  xcvi. 
You  thought  my  heart  too  far  diseased,  lxvi. 


INDEX  TO   SONGS. 


A  rose,  but  one,  none  other  rose  had  I,  431. 

Artemis,  Artemis,  hear  us,  O  Mother,  739. 

Ask  me  no   more :  the  moon  may  draw  the  sea, 

205. 
As  thro'  the  land  at  eve  we  went,  169. 
Ay,  ay,  O  ay  —  the  winds  that  bend  the  brier, 

446. 

Babble  in  bower,  706. 

Beat  upon  mine,  little  heart !  beat,  beat !     809. 

Blow  trumpet,  for  the  world  is  white  with  May, 

310. 
By  all  the  deer  that  spring,  836. 

Come  down,  O  maid,  from  yonder  mountain 
height,  208. 

Dead  mountain  flowers,  751. 

Free  love  —  free  field  —  we  love  but  while  we 
may,  439. 

Gee  oop !   whoa  !     Gee  oop,  whoa !  767. 

Hapless  doom  of  woman  happy  in  betrothing ! 

628. 
His  friends  would  praise  him,  I  believed  'em,  584. 
Home  they  brought  her  warrior  dead,  199. 

I  come  from  haunts  of  coot  and  hern,  136. 
In  Love,  if  Love  be  Love,  if  Love  be  ours,  379. 
Is  it  the  wind  of  the  dawn  that  I  hear  in  the  pine 

overhead?  697. 
It  is  the  miller's  daughter,  38. 

Late,  late,  so  late  !  and  dark  the  night  and  chill ! 

450. 
Long  live  Richard,  817. 
Love  flew  in  at  the  window,  815. 
Love  that  hath  us  in  the  net,  38. 

Mellow  moon  of  heaven,  700. 
Moon  on  the  field  and  the  foam,  732. 


Now  sleeps  the  crimson  petal,  now  the  white, 

208. 
Now  the  King  is  home  again,  848. 

O  diviner  Air,  409. 

O  diviner  light,  499. 

O  happy  lark,  that  warblest  high,  774. 

O  joy  for  the  promise  of  May,  of  May,  763. 

O  man,  forgive  thy  mortal  foe,  772. 

O  mother  Ida,  many-fountain'd  Ida,  40. 

Once  again  thou  flamest  heavenward,  857. 

O  Swallow,  Swallow,  flying,  flying  South,  183. 

Our  enemies  have  fall'n,  have  fall'n,  the  seed,  199. 

Over !  the  sweet  summer  closes,  679. 

Rainbow,  stay,  708. 

Shame  upon  you,  Robin,  605. 
Sleep,  Ellen  Aubrey,  sleep,  and  dream  of  me,  79. 
Sweet  and  low,  176. 

Sweet  is  true  love  tho'  given  in  vain,  in  vain, 
404. 

Tears,  idle  tears,  I  know  not  what  they  mean, 

182. 
The  bee  buzz'd  up  in  the  heat,  837. 
There  is  no  land  like  England,  822. 
The  splendour  falls  on  castle  walls,  181. 
The  town  lay  still  in  the  low  sun-light,  756. 
The  warrior  Earl  of  Allendale,  814. 
Thy  voice  is  heard  thro'  rolling  drums,  190. 
To  sleep !   to  sleep !     The  long  bright  day  is 

done,  821. 
Turn,  Fortune,  turn  thy  wheel  and  lower  the 

proud,  340. 
Two  young  lovers  in  winter  weather,  658. 

Up  with  you,  out  of  the  forest,  832. 

We  sleep  and  wake  and  sleep,  but  all  things 

move,  92. 
What  did  ye  do,  and  what  did  ye  saay,  766. 
What  does  little  birdie  say,  157. 


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